New and Emerging Technology: Reflection

Parts of this last class were harder for me than any other class in this course of study, and looking at emerging technologies and the ways that I can influence technology decision-making and change in my school was quite a challenge. Exploring the concepts of emerging technology and some of the new and different tools that may find their way into the classroom was enjoyable.

The first thing that I will do is put together a framework for the spelling program that will allow for the implementation of the plan developed in weeks six and seven. I will also create at least the first lesson from the current spelling program on a Moodle account. Before school starts next year, I will share the framework and the lesson with my grade level counterparts. I think that I can get them on board to at least try it out and see how things go. There are too many teachers on my campus who are not very interested in using technology as a part of their regular classroom practice. If I attempt to introduce too much, or to too many, I will probably not be successful. Starting small seems to be the way to approach things in my position.

New and Emerging Technologies: Why Use Moodle?

Here goes... Still having trouble with the links, but I think I have the sharing part so that it looks right. I would add a narrative that expounded on the slides during a presentation to the staff. I would probably have them on a computer where they would be able to explore the system as well.


Copy and paste the URL into the address bar on your browser.

http://www.screencast.com/t/OTkwZmFlNjkt

Emerging Technology - On-line Course Management Systems

Second Try!

The active link thing is still giving me a headache.

Emerging Technology - On-line Course Management Systems

I still cannot get the formatting correct on the presentation. The link will not activate. It should be better for the time that I spent. Too much time already, and I am getting tired. Four days of school left... grades due... dance and bbq planning... I am done. Maybe things will settle down next week.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students:

As I look at the National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) and think about the students that I work with each day, I am struck by the fact that the “standards” seem to be more than a little lofty. I understand that they are intended to be adjustable to grade level appropriate expectations, but most of my students are a very long way from beginning to understand what they even mean, let alone actually begin to meet them.

It seems the place to start though would be to make the standards known. We cannot work toward meeting a standard that we are not aware of. I can see my students helping me to go through the NETS-S and determining what each standard might look like for a sixth grader. We might go through the standards together and find some that we think are achievable to whatever degree we agreed was reasonable for our grade level. Of course, the GAME Plan would need to be explicitly taught if my students were to be expected to employ its use in working toward meeting the NETS-S.

The last thought that I have is one that I’m not sure that I have my mind completely around. I have been easing into the use of a wiki in my classes. We have done a few little things here and there. Some students have taken to it while some resist and would rather use a more traditional approach with paper and pencil. Having students use the wiki to collaborate to set and monitor the goals somehow… I’m not exactly how.

Anyway, I had my post observation meeting for the formal part of the professional development review this afternoon. I used the text on audio, a cloze activity for the chapter notes, and “clickers” to guide some of the class discussion. The principal and the school in general, come from a technology “poor” perspective. Most teachers on campus use very little technology in their daily classroom instruction. The words “impressive” and “exciting” actually made it into the formal paperwork. Most importantly, the principal now has a first-hand observer point of view regarding the use of things she had never seen before. I am certain that I will be called upon to share with the entire staff at some point a few of the things that I am doing with technology in my classroom. My GAME Plan continues to develop.

Revising My GAME Plan:

Wow, I can’t believe that I didn’t post this by Wednesday. I was “checking back” to see what comments had been made, only to find that I had not made an initial comment. I know that life has been busy, and my friends would give me a hard time saying that I am getting old, but I could have sworn that I did this on time.

I am really struggling with the problem-based learning project. One of the goals that I had was to come up with a lesson or unit that combined a real world problem with the use of technology. I feel that I lack the creativity to develop this type of thing. Most of the projects and units that I now use were created by others and adapted to fit my style. That was one of the reasons that I chose this as an area of weakness, and one that I needed to work on. I am not teaching math or science, and these curricular areas seem to lend themselves to this type of approach. I did finally think of something that I might be able to develop. Many of my students are complaining about the food in the cafeteria. It is not a little problem. The recent push for good nutrition has left the menu seeming bland and tasteless. My thinking is still in the infancy stage, but something that would include research on school menus and nutrition, as well as cost and perhaps local solutions for produce. A presentation that would include a technology component using presentation software and a persuasive essay or speech to satisfy the connection the curriculum that I am required to teach.

I have made excellent progress on the other goal of taking a leadership role on my campus in the area of technology. Not much left to do there really. I will continue to make myself available to those on my staff who wish to make a foray into the world of integrating technology into their instruction.

I might take a look at the promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility standard for teachers next. As I have increased the amount of technology in my classroom, and students have had more opportunities, the issues of etiquette and responsible social interactions have become a greater problem. My attempts to address the issues have been largely reactive and unplanned. A proactive, planned approach would be more effective, but it would also require taking the time to systematically create lessons to address each area of concern.

Evaluating the GAME Plan:

I have gone from the new sixth grade teacher that nobody really knows to the tech guru that everybody runs to with their questions. It only took about two weeks. I am not in a place where I am changing the way that technology is used to instruct or reinforce student learning yet, but I am in a better position to be a leader on the campus in that area.

Two teachers that had missed our meeting the other day approached me and asked if I would be around to help them with their surveys. They came after school yesterday and we got everything finished up and submitted. Lots of “thank-you” and “I couldn’t have done it without you” type of comments. I don’t think that I really helped much, and they could have done it on their own, but it was a little easier and they had the comfort of having someone right there to answer any questions they might have.

I am still working on the activity exploring real-world problems using digital tools and resources. Time is still an issue. Too many things keep coming up. That list of things seems to get longer each day, and it is a chore to prioritize the things that must be done first. Maybe everything will settle down in June.

Monitoring the GAME Plan

We finally had our meeting to fill out the surveys yesterday. Roughly two-thirds of the staff showed up. Two teachers commented that they wondered how we were going to have twenty people filling out surveys on my three classroom computers. (I have 21) There has clearly been some conversation amongst the other staff about the technology that I have. In fact I was approached about the tech mentor position for next year by the current tech mentor. She felt as though I was far more qualified and was uncomfortable continuing in the position. I'm not sure how I feel about taking on that responsibility. Because it is a new school, and she is doing a fine job I don't see a need to step in and take her place. There is a stipend for the tech mentor and the site coordinator for the surveys which I am already doing, but there are also more meetings that go along with it. I was a little afraid of letting people know about the things that I do with technology, because then you are approached more often when people have questions. At my old school, there were five of us that worked together as tech mentors. There was a bigger staff, but the workload was less because there were more of us to help out too. I guess we will see where it goes from here.

Carrying out the GAME Plan

I looked over the GAME Plan post from last week, and it looked a little thin on actionable items. I did volunteer for the leadership spot that was vacant and they said that would be great... they will let me know when the next meeting is scheduled.

My room is scheduled to host the Medical Billing Surveys next Tuesday the 26th. The minimum day collaboration that was scheduled for today was cancelled due to weather. The principal called and asked if I would make my room available so that people could start early, but nobody showed up.

I haven't had any time to start work on an activity for exploring a real-world situation using digital tools and resources.

GAME Plan

After reading through the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T)
and Performance Indicators for Teachers two of the areas jumped out as relative strengths. There were two as areas where I feel I am OK, and one where I feel that I fall a little short of where I probably should be.

The area where I felt as though I was not very strong, confident, or proficient was the area of professional growth and leadership. I generally keep to myself and do my own thing staying out of the “workroom politic” as much as possible. A switch to a new staff and campus this year has exacerbated that shortcoming. It is really quite difficult to demonstrate anything or participate in decision making or community building if this is your mode of operation. The first step that I am going to take is to involve myself more in the staff dynamic at my school site. There is an opening on the leadership team for my grade level that I will volunteer to fill. I have been helping some of the staff to fill out some district mandated surveys as the site coordinator, but I have done that in their classrooms or the computer lab. We have a day coming up when we will be required to fill them out for this quarter. I will arrange for that to take place in my room this time. The teachers who come will see the technology that I am using… perhaps leading to conversation about the things that I am doing with my students. Because time a huge factor, I think that I will probably leave it at that. I don’t do a real good job in any of the other areas listed under professional growth and leadership, but they will have to wait for another time.

I don’t look at the other areas listed and feel as though I can’t do them or don’t do them well, but I’m not sure that there is currently a perception that there is much room in the “standards-based” world of education to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. My perspective is that much of what I do is dictated by administration, and I have little room to be creative myself. That said, I will explore, create, and implement one activity with a focus of engaging students in exploration of real-world issues using digital tools and resources.