EDLD+5364+TwT

Week 5 Teaching with Technology 3/24/11 This week the readings were dealing finding a way for students to be evaluated using technology. Effort was also a large portion of this as ideas were given for a way to improve effort. Students can enter a class feeling defeated before anything has actually started. Teachers can use a rubric for students to evaluate their own effort into the class and correlate that to the grade that they earned for the class. A student can determine if the effort they put it in is good enough then they can maintain it, but if they are not happy with their grade then they know what they can do to improve it. I also enjoyed the video about trying to fuse video games with education. Man, if something like that were to be invented, I would lie to be in on the planning and implementation of that. That would be super cool to use in the classroom. I just hope that math is the first to actually implement it though.

Week 4 - March 15, 2011 @ 10:08pm - forgot I already did this so consider part 2.

Week 4 dealt with cooperative learning and using Web 2.0 tools to assist teachers with professional development. As far as the professional development side of it, this was part of my topic in my action research project. I was looking for a way to allow teachers to get information geared to their specific grade level and/or subject area. I think that teachers could use a blog or a wiki to share their experiences in what they learn to assist other teachers or look for feedback on dealing with troubling situations. Teachers feel that time is a battle that they cannot win, so sitting through a daylong training is no longer effective with all the technology that is available now. By encouraging teachers across the state to share in a blog specific to grade level or subject, teachers can make quick entries to problems that they are facing. As far as the cooperative learning aspect of it, students are already using this in online gaming with things such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. People work together in an online community to accomplish certain tasks. As educators, if we could harness or manipulate that cooperative energy than maybe we can break some learning barriers in the classroom.

Week 4 - March 14, 2011 @ 9:10 pm

After watching the videos I found myself being a little frustrated. I am a big fan of project learning and I know that my kids would get more out of the material if we were to apply it but the problem is I do not have the authority to do so. As a teacher, I would have to get my district on board with it and then again I would have to ignore what the state of Texas is wanting to do. As a teacher I do not have the authority to not focus on state testing, event though we are told not to focus on it. That statement is also a joke in a way since that is what determines how good our school is. I also noticed that in the videos that the schools were well funded and were magnet schools. I would like to see how project learning would work in an inner city school. If I were to see that and how it worked, then that person just gained an enormous amount of credibility. Would the kids in the video succeed in a traditional classroom? I think the answer to that question is yes, they seem like the tyoe that understands the purpose of having a quality education so as an experiment, I think it is already set up to receive the answer that they are looking for. I may not be a scientist but I think that runs into ethical issues of an experiment. I still think that alteast 80% or more teachers would love to do project learning and I think it will fix a lot of the issues schools are fighting now, I just don’t see the state wanting to admit chage is needed for it to happen.

UDL reflection

Universal Learning Design, UDL, seems to be another tool to provide lesson planning. I found that it is very time consuming to expect a teacher to complete something like this for their classes every day and I would hate to be the administrator that tells his/her staff that they are to follow this model for all lesson planning. I think the idea of what it is trying to covey is a great idea but it is excessively lengthy to work all the time. I understand that a classroom is full of unique learners but when you have over 100 students in a day, trying to create individual learning strategies can be impossible. It is important to try to incorporate different ways to model the concept that you are trying to reach. An interesting note is that ARD committees will incorporate these ideas to require that teacher follows through for the student. 

· On a side note, I tried going into my TK20 account to post this but I have no idea how and there are no explanations that I have seen that explain how we are to use this system. I found myself getting frustrated with this as I wasted 30 minutes trying to figure it out with no progress made.

Week 3 - 3/13 /11 @ 9:49 pm I must say, I think this has been the toughest course so far but only because I have too many ideas running through my head. A quick example, after playing around with the E-Book I have convinced another teacher who teaches the same subject to have our kids create their own E-book explaining TAKS concepts. We created a rubric and a plan in about hour of work and we are looking forward to seeing how the kids respond. The challenge I am facing so far is how to efficiently apply what we are learning to try to reach all students to give them ownership in what they are learning. As far as concepts learned this week, I will start with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL is a great tool, especially for those that like to stay organized. Well, that is not me, I am not a super organized person, and my head moves too quickly to stay organized. However, trying to incorporate multiple ways of presenting a concept is a great idea and with technology, it is capable. E-Book, I like it, as I stated earlier after playing with it for a day I am already trying to get my students to create their own to assist other students. I think that there are some great applications with it but I am hoping that the explanation on how to use it would be improved. I had a tough time trying to figure out what to do and I had to play with things to finally figure out how things worked. Once again, I am liking what I am finding out how to do things so I am looking forward to the next week.

Week 2 - 3/5/11 @ 2:47 pm

This week was a very good week for me. I was able to meet up with my group members and at first I think there was a lot of confusion on what was expected of us. When we met the second time we were able to get everything planned out for the most part and we finally had direction to what our goal was for the project. After the web conference I was finally able to understand what was expected of us for the project and go from there. As far as the readings were concerned, I am very excited about the //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works//. I was able to find a few websites from the first chapter that will be beneficial for our group project and sites I can use in my own classroom getting students prepared for TAKS. I even browsed through ahead to the second chapter which is rare since I am not one who enjoys reading. I am the type that does not want an explanation just let me jump in to it and figure things out for myself. I blame wanting interactive technology, but I know I can't use that excuse. The rest of the readings were ok, a lot of it I thought was common sense. As far as lower socioeconomic groups responding to using technology and parental involvement is a no brainer. The only concern I have is that if every classroom on campus decides to integrate as much technology as possible that it would be impossible to do so since we only have so many labs and mobile carts available. I like the activities with [|www.explorelearning.com], but I know that if I advertise this to all of the math teachers then I will not be able to let my students have constant access to try something new. To me this is a major problem that will not get better as purchasing enough computers will be even more difficult to do due to budget cuts. Our district for instance is losing over $200,000 of grants just for technology. That is a big chunk of change. I do think trying to integrate technology will be a big improvement but trying to make it happen is once again the challenge. I hear a lot of great ideas but trying to make it happen seems to be a topic that nobody wants to address.

Week 1 This first week I am trying to get back into the technology focused setting of the course. I started out by posting the first group search for our group project. As per the directions, I was looking to find a wide and diverse group to work with so I offered to start the first group. I am very happy with the results so far, I am four people strong and awaiting confirmation from the fifth member. In our group we have a Special Education, Elementary education, Desktop publishing, BCIS, Business Ethics, Digital interactive Media, Math, Pre AP experience and looking to see what else our incoming fifth member can provide. The videos were interesting as I think one idea; Constructivism is more of the middle ground compared to the other two theories of Cyborg and Connectivism. I thought the Cyborg idea was interesting but too far out there right now but the way technology is improving and upgrading, who knows on this one. Connectivism was ok but to be honest I did not find it too interesting since nothing really made me stop and think about it. I like the Constructivism theory the best due to all of the possible outcomes that are available based on what you experience and how you experience it as well. As far as the readings, I thought the readings had a lot of good ideas but found that the fifth article //If I Teach This Way, Am I Doing My Job: Constructivism in the Classroom// was too much of a sales pitch that was not a very fair argument. I am all for Constructivism but if you are trying to sell the idea to someone, this particular article makes it seem too black and white without the possibility of grey. I think if the author were to have more consideration into that, the article would have been the best one. I will be looking forward to working with my group and I am preparing to start asking other teachers on my campus to see what suggestions they may be able to offer for more perspectives and insights.