Integrating Technology in the Classroom

Here is a screencast of my online learning module I created with my class wikispace.

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After the completion of this class it is becoming clearer and clearer that technology will help all students be more successful in the classroom.  Over a year ago, just into my Walden studies I began to implement what I was learning.  A year later, I can still recognize my teaching, it is just the students have such a different role in my classroom.  I am still teaching much the same, but now students are displaying their knowledge and interacting with their work.  The students are using all technology available to them and I am working to get more unlocked for them.  The administration is loving the class wikispace that students are able to create and change to display what has been happening in class.

Some immediate changes I will start making to my teaching as a result of this course is the implementation of multiple assessments per unit of learning so students can differentiate themselves and create something that plays to their strengths and interests.  Drs. Tomlinson and Smith were key to helping me realize this.  I had been implementing technology, but not differentiating it.  With the coupling of both of these powerful tools my students will benefit doubly and have the chance to flourish.  Dr. Tomlinson was key in allowing me to understand that students need multiple ways of taking in knowledge and plenty of means to display it to have true differentiation (Laureate, 2009).  Instead of just having one technology integrated assignment per unit, I will strive to give students 3-4 options in order to best meet their needs.  As Dr. Grace Smith stated, technology allows teachers to attune to learning styles.  My immediate change in teaching is very much attributed to understanding this notion of technology alone is not enough to reach all learners.  I have to continually strive to meet the needs of all neomilennial learners with multiple technological avenues for students to demonstrate their knowledge.

As I look back on this 8 week course I see a lot of growth in myself.  The two goals I set for myself, both from a professional standpoint and a technological view, were both met over the course of this master’s class.  I promised myself that I would advocate for the implementation of educational technology among my colleagues.  I completed that when I gave a two hour presentation entitled “How to Wiki!” at a professional development day.  I was also awarded some new technology by the superintendent because of my pro bono work.  It went over with great success and many teachers have now created a wikis at the school and credited me greatly for it.  Another goal was to implement a technology curriculum that follows my U.S. History class.  I am now one unit assessment away from having a full year’s worth of technology material to build from.  Overall, I am very pleased with the success of my goals I set initially.

I learned a good bit from working with my master’s cohort over the duration of this course.  Mostly I learned how to interact on a wiki with others and how to benefit from collaboration that way.  This will impact my instructional practice because I now know how to get students to peer review work to be turned in digitally.  This advantage will create dialogue between students and have them produce better end results and learn how to critique work – which will prepare them for the work world.  A direct result of this class has ended with integrated technology assessments in every unit I currently teach.  Now, I will strive to conceive better assessments and digital interactions, but as of now, I feel I have accomplished a great goal I set out to do earlier.

I will be able to track student proficiency in the technology standards by the amount of questions asked and the quality of the work.  If students are constantly struggling with the implementation of technology and not the content, then a real disconnect is apparent.

I have not learned anything relatively new that I can apply in instructional practices.  Mostly I am refining my skills and hoping to clarify items much better to students.  As far as learning practices, I see my educational plate quite full as of now to teach to my students.  Once I get farther in and they become more adept at completing assignments I will dive deeper.

As I stated last week, I have completed my goal of advocating to my colleagues when I presented to my entire county a presentation on Wikispaces.  I am just fine tuning my other goal of guiding students to learning with technology much better.  I am about 4 technology lessons away from having a full year’s worth of assignments that all integrate technology.  A goal I have set for myself is to become better with Google Docs.  Our county has stated that this site shall remain closed, but I know that the power of professional collaboration will open up soon and that will be great.

I do not expect to change my learning approaches to improve my learning.  I usually read about it, then get my hands on the implementation application and create something so I know how the program works.  To me, there is no better way to learn than by doing and failing a good bit in the shadows, then to look like a professional while teaching.

I have successfully met one of my professional goals!  I was able to speak in front of the entire county staff about technology in the classroom and I even held a small meeting encouraging other teachers to create wikis.  Later I held a session and taught the basics of wikis and had every teacher in attendance to create a wiki.  The project went over very well with the staff and I received praise for leadership from the school superintendent herself.  So, one goal is down and one more remains.  I must develop a full, year-long technology based lesson in my U.S. History class.

Recently I have learned how to better use the ‘print screen’ function in order to take screen shots when giving instructions.  I can simply do the task and take pictures every few steps to help reinforce the directions for the students or teachers.  It is also useful to be able to perform this function when you are also unable to download a file because you can quickly copy the screen, paste the file and then crop it to size.  I have found ‘print screen’ to be very useful in my instructional practices.

The only questions I still have to answer have to do with podcasting and hosting of the podcast.  I have found some great ways to record them, but I still struggle to setup an RSS feed within the school network.  I guess the technology administrator and I need to talk about ways students can upload their podcasts to these hosting websites.

I have quickly progressed in my GAME Plan this week.  I have my students working on a Facebook simulation project for historical figures from the Constitutional period.  To see the assignment for some much needed feedback, check out the assignment page of our class wikispace.  I also have been requested to speak at the county board meeting about my wikispace and podcast implementation.  Both of these help me accomplish my goals of implementing a technological curriculum and advocate for technology in the classroom with my colleagues.  I hope during my one hour to present to all county teachers during professional development I can convey the necessity of technology and the speed in which teachers need to adopt and buy in.

As far as resources go, I am doing just fine with the ones provided by Walden in our previous courses.  The task would become overwhelming to try and learn, implement and assess the vast amount of Web 2.0 applications out there without proper familiarity with them by myself.  As for now, I am quite comfortable with the resources of wikispaces and podcasting.

As of now, I do not foresee any imminent changes that need to occur to my action plan for both my class and myself.  I have learned a great deal so far, though.  I am having to prepare much differently for my presentation to colleagues than I would for students.  It is almost like reverse engineering for me because I have to teach teachers how to think backwards at this upcoming conference.  It is difficult to explain, but teachers must think of the outcomes before taking the first step.  So for me to think of my desired outcomes for teachers and then explain it, backwards, has been a bit overwhelming.  Any input of encouragement would be gratefully appreciated.

In order to successfully carry out the second portion of my GAME Plan, the action part, I will need to consult a few resources and talk to a few colleagues.  I want to integrate a technological plan for half of my classes in order to better compare the affect technology has on students.  I’m hoping that I can see large differences in success with my classes compared side by side in order to better advocate for technology in the classroom.  The kinds of resources I will need to complete this portion of my GAME Plan is to implement more laptops in my class and get all the students involved with my class wikispace.  I also am hoping to advocate for more teachers to begin using technology and developing lesson plans which play to students’ interests.  In order to do this I need to get in front of other teachers at In-Service days and let them know how much technology has transformed many different aspects of my class for the better.  Some steps I have already taken are the completion of my class wikispace and I have scheduled some days to give teachers who want help with where to start that information.  I just need to take both steps farther forward in order to be able to compare the needs of each student and teacher.  Hopefully my work will increase students’ performance and faculty buy in to rescue the educational situation our country is currently in.

Two professional goals from the NETS-T website I hope to soon incorporate into my professional career are to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity (2a) and exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (5b).

I have already started my journey to become a better advocate for technology in the classroom by creating web-based assignments in half of my classes and championing educational technology to my colleagues.  I have developed extensive lesson plans for students to carry out collaboratively online via our class wikispace (http://jacksonhighushistory.wikispaces.com) and now I am refining the process by reviewing the projects for worth, creativity and viable learning.  As Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer state, “…wikis are a great tool when students need to complete a task together – whether doing research, writing a paper, or planning a presentation.” (Cengage, 2009)  The students are becoming enamored with the projects and are becoming proficient at honing their personal computer skills and applying them to the classroom.  The second goal I hope to complete will be consist of holding a few “How to” session for other teachers at my high school.  My principal knows that I advocate online learning and has given the task to me for teaching other instructors how to create a wiki and the basics.  I have already created the backbone for two other teachers and their classroom wikis.

I plan on monitoring my progress a couple of ways.  Student feedback will be huge for me and deciding if a project is a legitimate artifact of learning or whether I need to scrap or amend it.  Test scores will also indicate a great deal about the projects and shared learning.  If test scores dip drastically in classes that utilize the wikis compared to other classes then I will need to respond with project editing.  As for advocacy in instructional technology, I cannot monitor this goal.  I have already instructed two “seminars” on how to incorporate more technology in class and answer questions.  I told the principal I would have no problem instructing a few more for teachers who want to reach out to their students more effectively and increase interest in the class.

Lastly, I plan on evaluating my progress based on student attitudes and performance.  Overwhelmingly, students have loved the projects because they get to express themselves and create “outside-the-box” indicators of learning.  The use of music, interactive graphics, along with collaborative efforts make learning and completing tasks online exciting.  I plan on making a survey for half of my classes and see overall how the instruction was received – web-based versus standards based.  Hopefully, this will serve as an indicator for the level of success in my class along with state-issued exams at the end of the year.  For the advocacy of professional development with technology, I cannot evaluate my success except by the measure of teachers willing to come in a try something new.  I have sent many notifications that I will hold these one hour learning sessions.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

After the completion of this course, one major change has occurred to my personal learning theory for my students.  The most significant of those changes is the implementation of constructionism with concepts that must be retained and ascertained upon the end of my class.  For too many years now, I have been giving students the information in hopes that they would retain and be able to access it.  However, through the literature and research of this class, it has become quite clear that when students have a working knowledge of the topic that they retain the information much better.  Also, to better the learning, when students work together socially and construct their own knowledge they are more apt to retain the information.

Some adjustments I must make quickly in order to effectively impact my studesnts are the use of non-linguistic representations and informational organizers.  The use of summarizing strategies using non-linguistic approaches and organizers for students to collect and understand their mental representations will be beneficial for students. For these two instructional strategies to be implemented correctly with technology, I am going to employ Microsoft Word to complete these instructional strategies. As I read in the Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski (2007) text, students saw great success using both the principle pattern summarizer and cause-effect pattern organizer. Both of these could be seamlessly integrated into my classroom because it is a new type of learning, but the program used to create it is familiar and non-expensive.  The assignment I want to incorporate with the first technological instructional strategy is the passing of a bill into a law. I will teach the process prior to the assignment and then place the students into groups. This will add to the social learning aspect that students need to help them learn via interactions. As the course text described, students are more apt to create principle organizers to effectively describe their understanding because of their familiarity with the topic. (2007) The students will be able to graphically describe the concept using an organizational chart in Microsoft Word. The second idea I want to incorporate in the classroom to implement the instructional strategies is a cause and effect technological assignment. Again, I want to use Microsoft’s Cause-Effect pattern organizers and small groups to complete this instructional strategy. The students will get into groups to create step-by-step organizers of the push for American Independence in the British colonies. This, along with the previous instructional strategy, will allow students to see what they are thinking and can both be completed with non-linguistic symbols.

Two long-term goals I would like to achieve regarding technology integration in my classroom are to let students more consistently build knowledge through the use of technological graphic organizers and to present more student-created materials on subjects.  Students can construct knowledge much more effectively when they are able to get their hands on materials and draw it out on paper or with the aid of a computer.  Secondly, instead of guiding instruction with resources that I have produced, I want to break down units into multiple topics for the students to research.  After that students can introduce and teach in a manner that speaks more clearly to their age group.  This will allow students to build knowledge and present to each other, fostering more social learning that teenagers need.

Resources:

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