Week 8 - My "Aha's"

It's hard to believe that ETEC 524 is almost over!  Learning to use the wikispace and make a podcast had the greatest impact on me.  I really like the idea of groups collaborating on a wiki.  I have brought podcasting up with the math assistant principal and my campus principal.  We will be utilizing this web 2.0 technology after Spring Break in all homeroom courses.  All of this stemmed from me creating my podcast for the week six technology project.  After seeing how effective these presentations can be, my campus principal has placed a work order to have Jing downloaded on all teacher computers.

Another “Aha” moment that I had was when we read the article that differentiated between those who are “digital natives” and those who are not.  Though I have always been aware that a difference in technological skills exists between individuals, most notably those of different generations, I was not aware that the gap was so extensive.  I probably will not continue to use my blog from this year.  However, I do wish to use it as an example when I ask permission for my students to create reflective blogs next year.

Week 7 Blog - Using Google Apps and Improving Student Learning

In the past, I have had my students find pictures in magazines or on the Internet that contained parabolas.  Once they had five pictures, they were to label the vertex and line of symmetry as well as determine whether it was a minimum or a maximum.  These images, once labeled, were then taped or glued to a poster and hung in the hallway.  After experiencing this course, I chose to modernize this lesson, tweaking it to incorporate technology.

Instead of randomly searching for images on Google, I will have my students use Panoramio.  They will also be tasked with a few research questions about the designer of whatever building they choose to label.  In order to accomplish this task, the students can use Google Scholar to ensure that the information is from a more reliable source.  Once the students have chosen their images, they can choose whichever medium to label the characteristics (print and hand label or copy into a program like MS Word or paint).  They will then take a picture or save the picture and post all five, along with their research results, on the class wiki.  All students will browse through the various groups’ sub-pages on the wiki and make comments about at least one picture from another group.

As I watched the two videos, I thought about my friend who is in nursing school right now.  All of her textbooks are electronic, allowing her to download them to her Tablet and simply carry that around rather than a huge backpack or a laptop.  Therefore, one way I think we can improve student learning is to make the switch from textbooks to etextbooks.  Another solution is that we can incorporate more Product/Problem Oriented activities, allowing the students to apply what they have just learned.  This will also tie into the social aspect of learning as the students collaborate within their groups.  As the students seem to have their cell phones permanently attached to their hands, we could have mini-quizzes or surveys to check for understanding that require them to text an answer to some specified number (kind of like American Idol voting).  I think that, by integrating technology and application style learning in the classroom, student learning will improve.

Week 6 - Podcasts

I created my podcast to help my Pre-AP Pre-Cal students.  During this time of year, I have many students who will be missing several periods in a row due to extra-curricular activities (Robotics, softball, soccer, DI, etc.).  This year my students have shared with me that it is hard to learn new material simply by reading the filled-in notes that I give them.  For example, one of my Pre-Cal students was absent the day we discussed the 8 Basic Trig Identities.  When she returned to class, she was completely lost, and we were moving on to some Basic Trig Proofs.  This student had a copy of the notes all worked out, complete with little side notes and helpful hints.  Regardless of how detailed the notes were, this student was still struggling to grasp the main concept of the lesson.  However, all it took for this student to understand the new material was a few minutes one-on-one with me walking her through the notes.  I began to wonder if that would help more of my students than just her.  I asked a few students randomly about their thoughts on me creating a podcast of the notes for each lesson.  The general consensus was that it would be much used and appreciated.  Therefore, when we were tasked to create a podcast, I decided to hit two birds with one stone so to speak. 

As a visual learner, I think that podcasting can help enhance learning for students who were absent or simply need a refresher.  It would certainly be beneficial to me if I were able to both see what the teacher was writing, as well as hear what he/she was saying.  I will have my students visit my podcast to determine how helpful it is.  I will update my blog once I have received feedback from my students.  If all goes well, I will be creating podcasts for all of my class notes in the future.

I created my podcast using Jing – to capture the image on the screen and my sound – and the recording option on my Active Inspire program for my Promethean Board.  This recording application in Active Inspire can simply take a screen shot or record the mouse’s movements until you turn the recording off.  Once recorded, the playback is saved as a Windows Media Video Clip.  After I had written out the notes, which ended up being the longest part of this process, I used Jing to capture the image on my computer – the video playing – while I walked my students through the notes verbally.  I will probably need to create two Jing videos for longer notes since the time limit is 5 minutes, but if it helps my students, then I will readily take these extra steps.  As long as I record myself writing out the notes during one of my classes, then these podcasts will be fairly easy to create.  To that end, I do plan on continuing to use podcasts in the foreseeable future as a tool to enhance my students’ learning.

Week 5

After taking the Information Literacy Quiz, I found that I was not as knowledgeable as I thought.  I did, however, manage to retain some content that I was taught in my undergrad ETEC course.  All in all, I was not surprised too much by the results of the MAPping activity.  I have used the Wayback machine before to locate archives of websites that have crashed or been deconstructed, so it was not a new tool for me.  I liked the concept of finding the author/publisher of a website through www.easywhois.com.  However, I was not impressed by the format of the site or the manner in which your results were displayed.  To me, this website and the program that provided me with the publishing information did not have a reader-friendly appearance. 

I chose to dissect the All About Explorers website.  When I first looked at this site, it reminded me of the Webquest I made during my undergrad ETEC course.  As I used the MAPping steps to learn the Meta-Web information, Author information, and Purpose of the site, I determined that this site was an authentic teacher resource.  All of the sites linked to All About Explorers are noteworthy sites that I would trust for historical significance.  Even when looking solely at the URL, this website shows no signs that it is anything other than a company site.  The purpose of this page was to help teachers educate their students about the Internet.  A group of teachers collaborated to form this site.  I learned during my MAPping activity that this page does support Webquests and even provides instructions for the teacher on using these tools in the classroom.

Given that my mother, a former library research assistant, taught me to use only sources that I could trust early on in my academic career, I am extremely confident of the validity of the information I have used in the past – both in college and as a teacher.  She always told me that I needed to use noteworthy sources, such as academic journals or actual books.  Therefore, when I would use Google instead of the ERIC Database, I would use the Google.Scholar version to ensure that my sources were from a notable site.  However, I believe if we do no teach our students how to properly determine whether or not information is trustworthy, then we are setting them up for failure in the near future.  I mean, we do not want our students to be convinced that the world as we know it is a figment of our imaginations simply because the first website their search on “rabbit holes” produced pertained to the Matrix.  Similarly, we do not want our students to think that all calculus means is “U + Me = Us” because that video popped up first in their YouTube search about calculus.  The students of this technological generation take all information found on the internet as truth; as teachers, we must teach these students to determine the validity of each site, video, or link and justify their findings accordingly.  If students do not learn this vetting process in school, they will be sorely unprepared for college and the work place.

One major advantage to organizing information on sites such as Delicious or Google Reader is that you can access them from anywhere, not just your home/work computer.  This mobility allows for individuals to start a project at home and, then, complete it at work or vice versa.  I use Google bookmarks and Reader for my own personal bookmarks.  I have found that this is extremely helpful as I can sort the links into easy-to-manage groups instead of hunting for sites in the proverbial haystack of bookmarked links.  Should this concept be taught to our students?  I think so, but I believe it would be more applicable to subject areas such as English and History.  Teachers could use this tool to coordinate group projects and research topics.  By group projects, I mean that each member of the group would be a member of one of the aforementioned sites.  They would each research their given topic on their own, tagging each site for later review.  Group members could look at each other’s links/stacks/feeds and, once the information has been collected, work together to achieve the project’s goal.  When students are required to research given topics, students could compare their findings using social bookmarks.

You can follow me on Delicious at http://www.delicious.com/davisa312/.

In addition to playing with Delicious, I also explored Diigo.  This social bookmarking site does so much more than simply organize various links by tags.  When using Diigo, all of your information is stored in the Cloud for easy access regardless your location or electronic device of choice.  While you are reading online, Diigo enables you to highlight and make sticky notes directly on the site.  All of this information is, then, stored on the Cloud for future retrieval.  The feature I liked the best was the snapshot tool.  On Diigo, you can bookmark any website and provide tags for easy sorting.  In addition to bookmarking, you can also take a picture of the site; Diigo stores the page as both an HTML site and a picture.  Should the website ever take the information down or simply stop working, your saved picture will remain unaffected.  As I have lost count of how many websites have just disappeared, I found this tool to be the most beneficial to me.

After reviewing the article, Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning, the assessment for learning principle that I was most able to relate to was the sixth one:  AFL should take account of the importance of (and foster) learner motivation.  In my opinion, motivating our students is of utmost importance for all teachers.  When a student is motivated, either intrinsically or extrinsically, he/she is more likely to focus on the content being presented; ergo, it could be said that motivation begets true learning.  As we learned two weeks ago, our students are part of the “digital natives” generation.  They thrive on all things technological and balk at seemingly “old fashion” techniques.  Using electronic portfolios should, in theory, help to engage and motivate the students.  Once this occurs, the students can learn and understand the presented material.

Rather than continue to adhere to the ideas of the 90s, teachers can move towards more technology based projects.  Instead of students creating a poster depicting an artistic display of piece-wise functions, I could have them construct their graphic electronically and, then, post it on the class website or wiki.  Then, I could have my students comment on each other’s creations, tactfully of course, as opposed to having a formalized presentation during class.  At the end of the year, my students could submit their own electronic portfolio that includes links to all the projects they have created, as well as any resources they found to help them throughout the year.  I believe that by requiring students to maintain an electronic portfolio, they will better retain the content taught throughout the year; there may also be less grumbling about the upkeep of a website versus a physical notebook.

I think that the creation and development of my portfolio will help me to internalize the content we are learning.  Even though I have grown up with technology, it is an ever-changing field.  I am all for integrating technology into the classroom but have been confounded by exactly how to do so.  I believe that this course, along with my electronic portfolio, will help me to better embed technology into my math classes in the future.  Most importantly, by creating and maintaining my e-portfolio, I will have a template to show the Powers That Be when I request permission to use this technology with my students next year.

My original thought when I developed my wiki was to create a central location my students could visit for extra tutoring.  They could ask questions about homework assignments and help each other at the tutoring corner.  My students would also be able to check a calendar for reminders about upcoming tests and projects as well as dates when assignments were due.  Unfortunately, due in part to my district’s technology policy, I have been unable to implement my ideas with my classes; in order to use this form of technology with my students, I must have district approval.  I hope, though, to learn all that I can during this course and, then, apply these technology tools next school year with proper permission. 

I believe wikis can be extremely advantageous to teachers.  Wikis allow all users to edit the space, which would allow students to edit the site and ask questions and/or help each other.  Unfortunately, this practice can also be a disadvantage, leading to false truths and misleading information.  Thus, wikis require a great deal of monitoring to ensure that all information is correct.  With the current work load of most teachers, I believe that this could be hard for some, discouraging the use of wikis in the classroom. 

As for “digital natives,” I think that anything to do with technology helps to engage students in learning.  Last year and this year, I have given my students the option of taking notes on their laptops/iPads.  It was amazing how many started to pay attention more simply because they could use technology.  By being more attentive in class, students are more likely to understand the material presented and experience true learning.  As I read about the eLearning Tools Wiki, I uncovered many technologies with which I am somewhat familiar.  I would like to explore webcasting further in regards to educational uses.  In my opinion, webcasting could be used to supplement lessons, emphasizing key points.  Webcasting could also benefit students who were absent during the lesson or need a review of a given topic. 

A few summers ago, I attended a STEM conference in Dallas at Fair Park.  This conference really opened my eyes to the many benefits of integrating technology into the classroom.  For this reason, the first organization I searched for was a STEM oriented one.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; this meta-discipline revolutionizes the science and mathematics curriculum by incorporating technology and engineering into the courses.  The STEM Education Coalition (www.stemedcoalition.org) is dedicated to “support[ing] STEM programs for teachers and students at the U. S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that offer STEM related programs.”  This organization is dedicated to educating policymakers and other key leaders on the vital role that STEM education has in the United States, both in our nation’s competitiveness and economic prosperity in the future; by forging strong relationships with these policymakers, members of this coalition are able to “serve as a valued source of expertise to their staffs on STEM education issues.”

The STEM Education Coalition serves as an advocate for adopting novel and successful STEM programs from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education.  The mission statement for the STEM Education Coalition is to “foster new and innovative policy initiatives.”  In so doing, this organization is able to encourage and inspire students, recruit highly-skilled STEM teachers, improve STEM resources in classrooms, and encourage cooperation and partnerships between federal agencies as well as local communities and colleges/universities.

As a Star Wars fanatic, I love everything to do with George Lucas.  When I learned about his educational foundation, I nearly had a fit!  This genius of a man stated that “education is the foundation of our democracy.”  However, Lucas also realized that traditional education had some flaws, including a failure to engage every student all the time.  To combat these imperfections, he developed the George Lucas Educational Foundation (www.edutopia.org). 

This organization has set out to improve the “K-12 learning process by documenting, disseminating, and advocating for innovative, replicable, and evidence-based strategies that prepare students to thrive in their future education, careers, and adult lives.”  In order to complete its arduous task, this foundation has vowed to expose the world-wide community to a new world of learning.  According to the website’s statement of vision, schools need to offer more project-based and social-emotional learning as well as access to innovative technology.  In other words, school should be a place where students can grow academically and also develop critical 21st-century skills such as how to locate information, how to determine the quality of said information, and how to use it – effectively and creatively – to achieve a preset goal.

My definition of educational technology is more of an agglomeration of words and phrases that make me think about technology being integrated into the classrooms.  I truly believe that educational technology is a mixture of different media used to improve instruction.  I also believe that the best educational technology is interactive, allowing students and teachers to connect digitally and socially.  By being interactive, educational technology is also hands-on.  Once instruction is integrated with technology it becomes fast paced.  Immediate or near-immediate feedback is nearly always provided when educational technology is used, satisfying this generation of students who expect instant gratification.  An increased use of visuals, graphics, and colors also help to catch a student’s interest and hold it.  By being both hands-on and a way to prepare children for their future endeavors, my definition of educational technology fits well with my philosophy of educational technology.  I have attached my concept mapping of educational technology below.

ETEC 524 Week 1 - My Educational Technology Philosophy

My Educational Technology Philosophy

As a teacher, I have witnessed many moments where a student’s frustration vanishes, his/her eyes light up, and the lesson or concept is finally understood.  To me, this process of true learning is what makes teaching so rewarding.  My idea of a great teacher is one who makes a class fun, is always willing to help, and gets to know his/her students on a more personal level.  The ideal teacher also makes his/her classroom feel safe and inviting.  I try to be an educator, tutor, instructor, coach, facilitator, trainer, lecturer, and professor to my students.  At times, I have been told by former students that I acted like a mother to them.  I’m not quite sure what to think about the “mother” part, but my students do know that they can come to me with any questions/problems and that I will do my best to help them. 

My students, on the other hand, hold the responsibility of scholars, apprentices, and learners.  With this in mind, I try to choose assignments that provide enough repetition of a concept while, at the same time, break the monotony of worksheet after worksheet.  For example, when I was reviewing my students on TAKS Objective 5 (quadratics), I could have papered them to death.  Instead, I had my classes construct catapults, launch play-doh balls and, then, analyze the path of the projectiles.

As a math teacher, my students use graphing calculators every day.  I encourage them to research the Internet if they get stuck on a homework question and are unable to find me for help or ask a friend.  My campus recently purchased Promethean Boards, a brand of interactive white boards, as well.  My students enjoy working problems out on the board now, simply because it is new and fun, yet harder than one might think, to write with the stylus.  I also encourage my students to utilize technology when I assign projects.  I have assigned a project in the past where my students had to write a children’s book explaining a math concept.  I had several groups turn in an actual bound book, but a few accepted my technology challenge and created their books in PowerPoint and other similar programs.  They truly enjoyed working on this project and their test results showed that it helped them master the concepts.  I have also had projects such as creating a music video that encourage students to use technology; one group even used a program to synthesis their voices!  If I can find a way around the texting charge, I might even have pop quizzes where my students “text” the answers to a given site.  With more and more of my students getting Smart phones, the applications for technology in the classroom are endless!

I expect the best from my students and from myself as a teacher.  When comparing unit pretests and posttests, I expect to see growth from each student.  I encourage my students to try their best and attempt to answer each question.  In my opinion, effort is a needed step to reaching academic success.  As a teacher, I hold myself to high standards.  I strive to engage all my students during each lesson; my goal is always to see each child achieve mastery of the concept.  I realize that my teaching methods must change and grow with each class; I allow myself the flexibility to modify lessons and reteach concepts as needed.  In my opinion, teachers learn and grow alongside their students.

I chose teaching because I feel that is where God wants me to be so that I can help young adults prepare for the future.  It is my goal to instill in my future students the joy of learning and a love for math.  I truly believe that, as a teacher, I can make a difference in this world and in the lives of my students.  Technology is the way of the future.  We must either accept it or move out of its way.  I find the challenge of integrating technology into my classroom to be exhilarating.  It provides teachers with a new means with which to hook our students.

While the free writing part of this exercise was hard for me, partly because I was using a word document for it as opposed to pencil and paper, I think that actually taking the time to think about how you feel about technology is a good thing.  Once you know where you stand regarding technology, or what your personal philosophy towards it is, then you can better assess how you can utilize it in your classroom in the future.

I think that blogging in education is an excellent idea.  My campus has recently started reflective journaling.  Right now, it is hard to encourage our students to write freely and that there will be no repercussions for what is written.  I think that having a class blog would make it easier for students to reflect about the class; by sharing on a blog, I believe the students would feel less threatened and be more willing to reflect honestly.  I also agree with some of the comments made in the article.  Having a class blog would allow me to post assignment and test/quiz reminders.  I could also offer tutoring/homework help at a certain time online.  If time is not taken up during class to answer homework questions, then more content could be taught and more progress would be made through each course’s curriculum.  I do not believe that we have reached the potential Stephen Downes’ mentioned in his article.  While I agree that blogging is a way to teach students how to learn outside of the classroom, I think that our current curriculum is too structured to allow teachers the freedom to utilize this technology.  I also believe that a large percentage of teachers are either technophobic or simply not comfortable with technology, which limits their use of technology in the classroom.  When I first started teaching, a colleague called his teacher computer that “TV/typewriter thing;” he could check his email and reply to them but claimed that he did not know how to compose a new message.  Fortunately, the move towards technology integration in the classroom has increased the training offered and led to more teachers conquering their technological fears.  The recent influx in new teachers from a more technological generation has also helped those with little or no knowledge about technology to ask questions and become more proficient. 

The area that stuck out to me the most in the Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning article was the sixth one – Collegiality Is What’s Needed.  I agree completely that teachers who are forced to attend technology training will return to the classroom and continue doing their own thing instead of incorporating the new approach.  What I liked most about this section of the article was that it included the students.  I think this is a wonderful idea – train the students in the new technology and they will hold the teacher accountable.  Our students are also more accepting of technology, as well as savvier, than most teachers.  I can’t remember how many times my students have “fixed” my computer or some other piece of technology when it stops working correctly. 

My expectation for this class is to grow more proficient with technology.  I would also like to be exposed to more ways that I can incorporate technology into my classroom.  I am always open to new ideas and would like to encourage my students to participate more freely, something that I believe technology will help me to do.