EDUC 6713: Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum Reflection

In developing my GAME plan and working towards meeting its goals throughout this course, I have come to realize the significance working with my colleagues can have.  Prior to this plan, I often avoided working with others because of different teaching styles or a lack of other’s interest in utilizing technology in their lessons.  However, after working with the ISTE standards in this course, I’ve realized that a large part of preparing our students for their futures involves collaborating and working with other colleagues to develop meaningful units that enable students to use higher order thinking skills.

Overall, I found my plan to be very effective and realistic.  While I do not feel the need to revise it, I do need to modify the timeline in which to achieve my goals.  A large part of my goal involves working with and training other teachers.  Since it was the end of the school year, there was little impact I could make within a few weeks.  I plan on continuing to work on my goal throughout the summer and into the next school year.  I was asked to start a training program for teachers who would be utilizing iPad carts in their classroom next year during the summer months.  In addition, I will have a new title, in addition to my classroom teaching, as the elementary school’s technology coordinator.  With this role, I would help my colleagues to incorporate technology on a more regular, purposeful basis. 

While I have always enjoyed incorporating technology into my lessons, I learned in this course to utilize it in a more challenging and motivating way.  By creating a lesson/unit that involves my students to solve a problem, I am allowing them a greater sense of independence in their learning.  Furthermore, problem-based learning also allows for learning to take on a multidisciplinary approach that enables the class to work towards multiple standards.  With today’s increasing demands on the content being taught in each grade level, being able to cover many standards at once can be a definite benefit.  By creating a problem-based lesson, I’ve seen how engaged my students became, even when it was the end of the school year.  Previously, I’ve always thought that working with first grade students involved only teaching the basic necessary skills.  However, I now see that the problems don’t necessarily have to be life-changing at this age level, but they can help motivate students by using their natural curiosity to solve problems. 

In addition, having my students collaborate online and create digital stories are two great instructional strategies I plan to continue using in my classroom.  I know another first grade teacher from my previous school that is excited for this opportunity.  Working with ELL students that are from a different background than my students will help expose them to the world outside their small town (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  It will also help push my colleagues ELL students to challenge themselves to work at the level of the students in my class who are not English Language Learners.  Having students reflect on projects they worked on throughout the year by creating digital stories is a great way for them to process what they have learned.  I found that by having my students create a reflective video using iMovie on their iPads was a fairly easy process once we collaborated with the middle school students who modeled to the students how to use the program.  This is a method of instruction that I plan to continue to use in the upcoming years. 

Overall, while I have worked quite a lot on integrating technology in the classroom while working on my master’s program, I have truly learned how to incorporate it in a more motivating, purposeful manner during this course.  By creating some goals for my GAME plan, I can continue to work on improving my use of technology in the classroom and in my district as a whole. 

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Spotlight on technology: social networking and online collaboration. Baltimore, MD: Vicki Davis

My Continued Progress on My GAME Plan

                Throughout this week, I have made some progress towards meeting my GAME plan goals.  However, one of my goals will need an extended period of time to take effect.  While I don’t feel the need to modify my plan, I do feel that the second goal, helping other staff include technology in their classrooms, will require me to continue working throughout the next school year. 

                My first goal which involves collaborating and working with other colleagues in my district has already begun.  Today, one of our middle school teachers came in to work with my first grade students to teach them how to create their own movies in iMovie on their iPads.  They will collaborate together again throughout the week as they work on their reflective movie about the school year.  I was impressed with how quickly and easily the middle school students were able to teach the younger students, and my first grade students were completely enthralled in what their older “friends” had to show them.   In addition, it was suggested by a colleague in this course that I consider using this idea to have the students reflect on their learning throughout the school year.  This is a great idea that I plan to implement next year as it will help provide a deeper understanding of my students’ work as they reflect on their progress every few weeks.  Since this project has started going so well, I’m also looking forward to finding other ways to collaborate with other grades.

                As my second goal involves discussing and helping colleagues become more involved with technology and the school year is coming to an end, I feel this goal will need to be worked on more at the start of the next school year.  At that point, I will be appointed the added position of being the technology coordinator for the elementary building.  This involves helping to train the other teachers on new technologies being implemented within the building such as our new internet phone system, automated substitute program, and the new carts of iPads being implemented in certain grades.  Some of this will require me to take some training this summer of which I am already registered for.  As I keep working on the progress towards this goal, I have noticed that some teachers have been more interested in the new technologies we will be implementing next year and are already coming to me with questions.  However, I’m hoping the trainings I take this summer will enable me to fully answer their questions.

Working on My GAME Plan Goals

                In order for me to work towards meeting the goals in my GAME plan, I first need to look at the resources available to me.  As much of meeting both of my goals involves working with colleagues, I needed to identify some colleagues willing to work with me on this project.  In addition, the technology I have available to me at my school also helps me to meet these goals as I will be utilizing a wide array of technological devices as I work with my colleagues.  A third and often overlooked resource that I will need is time.  Due to the fact that much of my plan requires me to work with colleagues, finding a time that works well for them to collaborate with me can be difficult under everyone’s chaotic schedules.

                At this stage, I feel very confident in how my plan is progressing towards meeting my goals.  My first goal to collaborate more with students and teachers is well underway.  I have had a project that I have been waiting to start with my students for some time now.  One reason for my wait has been because I know the project itself will be difficult for me to teach my students on their own while I am helping one student at a time.  I want my students to start taking video with their iPads of themselves reflecting on activities we have done throughout the year.  This is something they could already do on their own.  However, I want to teach them how to use iMovie and make their reflection into a short movie that I could compile later on.  One colleague of mine, who teaches middle school, has offered to have her middle school students partner up with my students to teach them how to work the program.  Through this collaborative effort, my students would learn the program much more quickly and would each have their own tutor. 

My second goal was to become more of a leader to help other teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms.   I have been working on part of that goal recently when I presented what I’ve been working on with the iPads to the school board and my colleagues.  While the school board was very excited, my colleagues felt overwhelmed.  By seeing this, however, my principal realized how much help some of my fellow teachers will need in this department.  He now sees that half hour sessions in our staff meetings or optional technology trainings will never help these teachers because they will try their best to avoid implementing it.  Instead, he wants to tack on a new role for me in the elementary next year as our technology specialist.  I still want to be teaching in my first grade classroom, so the details of what this entails will still need to be worked out. 

                In conclusion, I have only just begun to work on meeting my two goals for my GAME plan, but it has already brought about so many changes for me in my district this past week.  What my year will look like next year is yet to be determined, but I’m excited for the possibilities!

Matt Larson

Reflecting on the ISTE Standards

In reviewing the ISTE standards and their indicators, I have noted that I need to work on standard four, Promoting and Modeling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, and standard five, Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership (ISTE, 2011).

The indicators that I particularly need to focus on in standard four involves working with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools.  One major reason for my lack of work in this area is the lack of diversity that appears to be in my area.  However, after working on my Walden University Diversity Requirement for my portfolio, I reflected and began to realize that there was more diversity in my town than I had otherwise realized.  My goal for this standard is to exchange and collaborate ideas with a variety of colleagues in my district, community, and in other regions of the country.  A few actions I can take to meet this goal is to network more with my colleagues in the district and online.  I know many teachers online that use Facebook to connect with other teachers to share ideas.  This is one tool I could use more effectively.  In addition, a colleague in our middle school has been asking if our first grade class would like to collaborate with them.  They would like to team together to work on an iPad project and have the middle school students teach my students some functions of the iPad.  Incorporating projects such as these are great ways to collaborate with colleagues.  Upon reflecting on how the project went, I can begin to branch out from there and discuss working with other grades as well.  While I don't see the race or cultural differences in others I work with, the Diversity Proficiencies helped me to point out that they do exist in my school.  By working with a variety of colleagues and different aged students, my students will be exposed to greater diversity and will be able to collaborate with them on a more regular basis.

In the fifth standard, I noticed that I don't often get together with other colleagues to discuss how to implement the latest technologies effectively in our classrooms.  In addition, I am not much of a leader in trying to show others how to implement it or answer their questions.  There are a variety of ways I can go about meeting this goal, but perhaps the best way is to start joining in conversations and committee groups with the other colleagues in my district.  In the past, there has always been a noticeable age gap between much of the staff in my school.  Many fear and stay away from any form of technology at any cost.  Therefore, I tend to stay away from some of them as we don't share the same viewpoints.  I have recently joined some committees in my school, and this week I have presented to our school board about iPads in the classroom.  During this presentation, I was able to show the board members the benefits of using the iPads, and they were able to ask me questions that they had.  I plan to join other committees in the district to begin discussions about the inclusion of technology within the school.  By reflecting on the discussions we'll have, I can note any progress I may be making.  I keep a binder with notes, post-its, etc. that help me keep track of what went on during meetings.  By continuing to keep notes of these new meetings, I will be able to reflect later on my progress.  Furthermore, next year I have been asked to start giving some trainings in how to work our Promethean boards.  This will help ensure that I extend my practices in the future to meet these ISTE standards.

Reference

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2011). National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). Retrieved from:  http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

EDUC 6711 Course Reflection

As this course draws to a near, I cannot help but look back and reflect upon the ideas, strategies, and theories I have learned about in terms of my classroom instruction and the types of technology I include.  I have noticed some changes in my own instruction and the way I present my lessons.  Some tools I have been introduced to through this course or have weighed heavily on implementing will now have a more significant impact on my students’ learning as the future goals of my instructional practices will greatly change.
            First of all, my personal theory of learning at the beginning of this course stated that I viewed learning on large part as social interaction where students worked together to solve or construct their own understanding.  Mostly, I still believe these are two main, central components that need to remain in my teaching practice.  However, I also am more aware of the significance other theories can play in learning.  Just having this awareness of what each theory consists of has helped me realize that I do utilize them more in my classroom than I previously thought.  Dr. Michael Orey (2001) has given great examples of how technology can help impact all theories of learning and instruction.  Previously, I have tried to include as much technology with my instruction as possible, but I never really understood how it would help my instruction or to help my students learn. 

Secondly, there are some adjustments to the way I integrate technology into my classroom that I am starting to make.  For one, before I implement any form of technology, my first question to myself is about how this will enhance my instruction or my students’ learning.  Previously, I would include something merely for the fact that it was new and exciting.  One tool I have now been weighing the pros and cons of is the inclusion of iPads in the classroom.   I wasn’t sure whether I could implement them effectively, but now I know what to look for in quality applications and the types of instruction they have to offer.  Rather than teaching a curriculum that has been traditionally done for the past 30 years, the inclusion of iPads will enable the curriculum to be brought to the digital learner and will better engage my students in what they are learning.  A second tool I will be implementing is the use of VoiceThread in my classroom.  This is a program that is fairly simple for first graders to implement as well as comment on each other’s work or collaborate on a project together.  Using a program that enables younger children to collaborate can be difficult to find, but this program enables this to happen easily and successfully.  These are just two examples of the tools I am now more aware of using in my classroom and the impact they can have on my students’ learning. 

            One long-term goal I am going to work on is to implement at least one collaborative group project that incorporates technology in one form or another each quarter.  By doing so, my students will be learning how to use the technology appropriately for educational purposes as well as meeting some standards we need to cover.  This goal can easily be achieved by taking a look at my curriculum and deciding on a main standard that we focus on during each quarter and designing a lesson or unit that utilizes technology for students to learn the lesson.  To make sure I achieve this goal, I will can align a checkpoint to start working on the project so that it is completed before the quarter ends and report cards are worked on.  I have used these checkpoints in the past to make sure I accomplish certain assessments and have found these to be effective reminders and helps me focus on what needs to be covered.

A second long-term goal does not necessarily focus on my instructional practices as much as the practices in my district.  I am in charge of training all teachers in the use of the Promethean boards in the school.  This is something I have struggled with for a period of time, particularly on changing the way teachers use the boards.  I now feel like I have a better understanding of how to train my fellow staff members.  By showing the teachers the impact technology can have on the lesson and how students process, they will have a better understanding of how to use this technology tool more effectively.  Hopefully they will realize it should be a learning tool and not simply used as an instructional tool like so many use it for.  To achieve this goal, I have started working with my superintendent to set up biweekly training sessions to train the staff on particular aspects of the boards with a different focus each week. 

In conclusion, I have come to realize that, while some of my main teaching practices remain the same, I have a better understanding of why they are educationally effective.  I have developed a broader base of technology tools that will enable my students to be more successful in working with technology that is designed for their age level.  By establishing some goals and strategies to work towards their achievement, I am ensuring that my students are receiving lessons that ensure they are successful and are more meaningful to them.

References
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Creating a Digital Classroom Involves Some Hard Decisions

This Voice Thread discusses the stuggles I am currently having in deciding what type of technology I should incorporate into my classroom. 

http://voicethread.com/share/2499408/

Exploring the Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory emphasizes that students learn best when they are actually able to work collaboratively with others and learn from teaching the material themselves (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  By doing so, the teacher is ensuring that the students have a better understanding of what the topic is because they will have to thoroughly understand it in order to teach it to someone else.  Furthermore, by having students work together, they are balancing each other’s strengths and weaknesses that might otherwise hinder their learning.  For example, one student may struggle with the research portion of a project but can excel at the presentation of it.  Pairing with a student that is a successful researcher may help them.  This student can also reinforce and teach the other how to do the research, so eventually the skills that child still needs to learn in order to be a successful researcher are being practiced. 

This week, one learning strategy I looked into from UsingTechnology with Classroom Instruction that Works that promotes the social learning theory is cooperative learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  In this strategy, students are working together to meet a common goal or objective.  Teaching in the primary grades, it is quite common to teach and have students work in a collaborative environment.  We discuss the strengths and weaknesses we all have as individuals.  However, the people in class are all there to help everyone become successful.  We are all at different levels of knowledge and understanding in a variety of topics, and I teach my students that it is merely a fact of life.  Rather than trying to compete with each other, it is far easier to work together and help teach each other the information we know more of and learn from others what we struggle with.

With the incorporation of technology, this strategy can easily be implemented within the classroom.  Through the implementation of wikis, blogs, and even online programs such as Spiderscribe, students can work together to learn a particular objective.   They can each contribute parts of the project that they have worked on, add their material, and take a look at what others have contributed. 

I have been reflecting a lot lately about how technology will change the way my classroom will look in the near future, particularly with the cooperative learning strategies I incorporate.  In January or February, my entire classroom will be outfitted with iPads if I choose to take on the task of piloting them for my district.  While I’m excited for the opportunity, I have to completely rethink the way I’ve been teaching first grade.  I’m trying to bring about this change while still incorporating strategies like cooperative learning at the first grade level.  I was hoping to utilize Voice Thread in my class quite extensively, however, it is a flash-based program that is not compatible with iPads.  Is anyone familiar with some sites like wikis or Voice Thread that are more simplistic for first graders to use that allow them to collaborate and are non-flash based?

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Social Learning Theory. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.