5364 Course Embedded Reflection

My collaboration with my colleagues has been especially meaningful with this course.  There have been several instances in this course when the instructions have not been clear, and we have been able to work as a team to overcome those challenges.  We have often used email, our google docs and google hangout as a means to accomplish our goal of addressing the given scenario.   

I feel the two texts that were required of this course have been very instrumental in the way we chose to address the scenario.  Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works has been and will continue to be my “go to” asset when considering technologies to enhance my student’s learning experience.   Also, Web 2.0 new tools, new schools, has reminded me of the importance of ongoing assessment rather than waiting until the end of the unit to assess.  I believe that these two texts were instrumental when my group used the CAST Lesson Builder to create our UDL lesson. 

Again, the instructions were not clear on the creation of the electronic book.  Therefore, each individual team member created their own for that particular week.  My personal experience with creating the book was that it would be a fun activity for young students to do.  However, the one flaw I saw with that particular site was that even though you listed yourself as the author of the book in the first initial production steps, that step did not transfer once the book was published. As the author, you needed to add that text as part of your cover page.  

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

"All this means is that we don't wait until the 'unit' is over to determine how well the students and we as educators are doing!"
This was the largest lesson I have had to learn in my career. In the beginning, I remember feeling so confident and elated when I knew I had delivered an awesome lesson.  Especially when I had thoroughly covered all angles of the concept only to discover in the end it had gone completely over my students heads.  That is the beauty of differentiated assessment. And no longer are the days of long lectures with a quiz or test at the end.  We are now at a time when as teachers we know that dropping in on the students, questioning during discussion and allowing for short spurts of "show me how" are so extremely helpful.  This way we know before its to late if further clarification is needed or even a reteach.
Kristi Martin

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 155-164.

" To be prepared for the fast-paced, virtual workplace that they will inherit, today's students need to be able to learn and produce cooperatively."

I whole heartedly agree with this statement.  This is especially true with my students.  My students attend a virtual school in which they receive one live lesson a week.  This is our pilot year for live lessons. In the past, the student worked individually and asked questions of the teacher when needed.  In my particular class, I am collaborating with my students through video and live lesson, and I am allowing them to collaborate with each other.  The quality of product these kids are producing is phenomenal. They are completely engaged  and more confident in what they are doing. It has been a very positive change for them to be able to work collaboratively. 

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Chapter 7.

I originally posted this on Blackboard Sept 16.

UDL lesson builder:
I like this model and understand the concept of it.  However, it is very time consuming.  This may be a good model for new teachers, but I would be very surprised if districts would require this type of lesson planning.  Teachers are already at a loss for time. I would rather concentrate on the quality of the lesson itself not just the plan. When we add too many tedious tasks the actual production is what suffers.

Welcome to the Digital Generation. I absolutely loved this video.  The music in the beginning really pulls you in and grabs your attention. I agree with idea that technology is an "essential component of everyday life".  I think that as adults who have not grown up in this digital age we tend to negate or not realize this fact. As an educator, we see the cell phone in class as the students biggest distraction. However, are we taking into consideration how often we as adults check our cell phone. We use it to communicate both through text messages and emails.  We use it tell time and keep track of our engagements. We use it as a calculator. Image what uses the students could come up with if we allowed them to use them in class.  If we allowed them that empowerment.

Edutopia.org (nd). Welcome to the Digital Generation. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-project-overview-video

Web conference 9/14:
Today's web conference was very help and informative in regards to the tasks that are due this week.  We learned that our group needs to only turn in one ebook.  However, there was only two out of four of our members at this conference. My concern is that the other two participants will do their own ebook.  So Maria and I decided that we would each do our own book as well. Another helpful collaboration piece was the "how to" with loading our ebook to our site. 

I am really enjoying the content that this class has to offer. I am already thinking of how to incorporate the skills that we are learning. I just wish this class did not fall at the same time as the beginning of school starting.  That has been an overwhelming challenge.

"Because of their inherent flexibility, digital technologies can adjust to learner differences, enabling teachers to (1) differentiate problems a student may have using particular kinds of learning media from more general learning problems and (2) draw upon a student's other strengths and interests that may be blocked by the exclusive use of printed text."  It is for this reason that I find online curriculum so fascinating. I have taught in a traditional brick and mortar school with text as the main basis for curriculum, and I am currently facilitating an online curriculum that is mainly web based.  The largest difference that I am seeing is that the online curriculum encompasses so many different types of media as a means of learning.  That is not to say the students do not have text that they are required to access, but the program also offers animated videos, audio books and curriculum specific games to enhance the learning material. One notable observation that I have made, is that the students who are new to this style of learning are struggling with the independence part of this type of curriculum.  They tend to see links and try to get by with only accessing that part of the curriculum.  They are so used to being spooned fed every aspect of the lesson, even the directions, that they are not reading all of the directions and end up missing part of the instruction. My focus this first two weeks has been to train them on using all of the tools that are offered with this type of curriculum, the text portions as well as the media portions in an effort to reach all learning modalities.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 1. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Web Conference: September 7, 2013

This web conference was very helpful in the respect of the ideas that were shared.  Being that I am not an inclusion teacher or have a special education certificate, I have not had a student who was either visually impaired or hearing impaired.  Thankfully our group has a member who is special education certified. However, we are doing a group hangout today, and I will share with my group some of the applications that were shared on the web conference.  I also wonder how applications such as Reading Horizons, Istation and Study Island can benefit my current students.

Lastly, we discussed reflections. I am noticing that my groups website does not yet contain a page for reflections. Today we need to discuss if we are going to do a group page or are we going to link our current pages.

Reading reflection: 5364 week I
I have to say this is the class I am most excited about especially the textbook Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. The biggest reason I decided on this masters program was because I loved how excited my students got when then knew we were going to be working with the COW (computers on wheels). I also loved how much effort they would give me at tutoring time when they knew they were going to be playing games on the smart board.  However, my biggest challenge was how to incorporate that same style of learning (integrating technology) in my everyday lessons.  I can already tell this book is going to one I will access over and over again.  I am feeling less intimidated given that the book maps out for you lesson ideas and the software you or the students can use to be successful. The biggest issue I have encountered being in the public school atmosphere with a low budget for technology is that it is up to the teacher to learn the different software available on top of all of our other responsibilities and work and personally.

Also, from our readings, the theory of Cyborg learning is a bit disturbing.  If information is being placed into your body, where is the learning aspect. What is being learned?

The theory I identify the most with is that of constructivism. I make every effort to try to move away from the spoon fed form of teaching of yester year. However, the students who have limited experiences are sometimes at a loss. I find that I end up having to find some way to make the information connect through a text we have read or through a personal story of mine, but again it sometimes just does not connect if it is not their personal experience.

Warwirk, K. (nd). Cyborg Life [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_l7SY_ngI

Siemens, G. (nd). The Changing Nature of Knowledge  [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcTHndpzYg

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Introduction, 1 – 14.

Web conference: Aug 31!
This was our first web conference for Teaching with Technology: EDLD 5364.  We were able to get some questions answered about the group project for this course such as the learning difficulties of the students in the project scenario.  Dr. Abernathy also talked about the standards for this course in particular.  I am still somewhat confused as to how this project will play out, but I am sure that it will be a progression of activities in the weeks to come.

5366 Course Reflection

Group assignments especially when the group members cannot meet face to face can sometimes be a bothersome situation.  Collaborating with others means that you have to be open to new ideas and give others your faith and trust that they will complete their portion of the assignment.  This assignment, web design, was a rewarding experience.  I found that my group members were very knowledgeable and eager to lend a helping hand. My only other experience with web design is my own personal website that I created for another course.  It is a very basic website because I am not generally a brave enough person to try new things.  However, this particular course has brought me out of my box.  Knowing that you are accountable to other people sometimes makes you want to push the envelope on your portion of the project. 

The district that I worked in the past had good intentions with incorporating technology in the classroom, but did not have the capabilities to offer training to the teachers. There were teachers who took it upon themselves to further their knowledge, and there were teachers who stayed stagnate with their way of teaching.  This year however, I am excited to incorporate the concepts I have learned in my technology courses with my students now.  The school that I teach with uses an on curriculum enriched with higher technology such as eBooks and animations to enhance the students learning experience.  However, I want to take that learning a bit further and place the production process in the student’s hands. The students that I work with are elite athletes who will be looking for both academic and sports scholarships for college.  My goal is to have the students create their own eportfolios to help showcase to sports recruits as well as college recruits.

Web conference-August 10
This web conference was extremely helpful for the week 5 assignment. Dr. Abernathy gave us specific ideas of what we could write about in regards to our reflection of the work we collaborated with in week 4. She also talked to us about a new stand alone certificate that would continue along with our current Masters program path.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm

I like this article. I wanted to be sure to remember to share this with my students when they start their websites.

For our first assignment in Graphic Design, we were to view ancient manuscripts and write a reflection of the use of graphic design even at that time. The following is my reflection on The Book of Kells:

Even in ancient time scholars knew the importance of making text visually appealing. In The Book of Kells the illustration “A Page of the Eusebian Cannons” is a perfect example of all four design elements in CRAP. The author uses contrasting colors in order the make the piece visually appealing. Further, he uses repetition of shape in each of the arches, the hanging columns, and shapes of the people or animals. The piece is balanced through the alignment of the hanging columns both in shape, and also through the use of shape on the inside of the columns as well.  The piece is busy. However, your eye tends to stop in four main areas and the use of white space balances the busy areas.

EDLD 5366
Our first web conference was pretty casual. We discussed the ancient manuscripts we are to be analyzing and where we can go on the web to find others we may want to use.  We also talked about the CRAP method of design in regards to our first assignment. One interesting thing that Dr. Abernathy suggested was that we create a Facebook page for our class so that we could use that as a meeting place to gather ideas as well.

Web Conference 7/6

This conference was extremely helpful with any last minute questions we had before submitting our assignments. It was nice to see that others had questions on how to submit our items this time given that the way that we submitted this time was different from the other times. In the past, we chose our course number under types of artifacts. However, our course number was not listed. TK20 intimidates me given that is the official submission tool for all of our major course assignments. Dr. Abernathy also talked briefly with us about our upcoming courses. I appreciate that she gives us helpful hints for our courses coming up. I am also excited that she posted the APA template for our action research plan. I understand that is a helpful tool to have for course 5397.

Web conference 6/29

This web conference felt very informal since most of us are in the thick of our video project. It was nice to hear Dr. Abernathy talk about the ISTE conference. It makes me feel very motivated to continue my education with technology. She also reminded us that the tech program we are in will definitely prepare us for prinicipalship as well. It will definitely be nice to have the technology background when looking for a principals position. Lastly, she reminded us what is due for week 4. Which is really just continuing on with our projects and keeping track in our google documents how we are contributing to the final product.

Web conference 6/12

This particular web conference focused on the two assignments we had due week two. The assignemtns were to create a podcast on how to use Audacity and a podcast on how to use Movie Maker.  The way the assignments were written seemed to be confusing everyone and there were lots of questions of how many actual assignments were due.  We also talked about tutorials we could access in regards to video editing and different software links that were available. I was relieved to learn that both podcasts could be audio only.  We also focused on trying to secure a collaborative partner to read our scripts. 

This assignment has been the death of me.  I had no idea what I was doing. I found my self up late at night trying to figure out how to get iMovie. I should have just asked my son. He knew it was only for Mac users. I had already had my project planned out, so a 30 second spot on Animoto was not going to cut it.  I deliberated, but for went the idea to just upgrade the service for my movie. Besides it was $30.  A huge thank you to Annette. She kindly offered me some great advice, and I was able to stumble my way through making my video. In the end, it brought tears to my eyes because each and every word means so much to me and my journey!

My reflections on my research class~



Overall, I really enjoyed this course. The textbooks I believe are going to continue to be a resource I will continue to use even beyond receiving my master’s degree.  Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools will be a valuable tool when working on my Action Research project.  It is basically handbook for completing and reporting on the project.  I have also really enjoyed Leading With Passion And Knowledge.  As I am entering my new position of Academic Director I intend to use this text as a guide with analyzing the data I will collect and how I will further implement my project for the good of my students.  I have mentioned it before, but I would like to reiterate that all of the readings we have done for this class have directly correlated with our assignments.  This has made the readings so much more enjoyable and worthwhile to make time for the readings.  Other courses have assigned the readings on top of the assignments and they may not always connect with the assignment.  The readings then become less meaningful and harder to accomplish when working a full time job and trying to complete an internship.

While I have enjoyed the weekly lectures, I believe I would have gotten more out of them if the focus of the lecture was in regards to that week’s assignment. With the last course I took, the instructor started the lecture by focusing us on the upcoming assignment.  I truly believe that is the benefit of having the lecture at the beginning of the week. 

In regards to our discussion boards, from what I can tell there is a basic group of the same people who are will continue from class to class as a group.  I look forward to the time that we all realize that we are here to help each other and are able to utilize the discussion board to ask one another for help not just as posting as a part of our assignments. To date when I have asked my peers for help or to get clarification on a topic and have posted to the discussion board, I have not received a response.  I hope this will evolve for us all as we continue to move forward.

I believe my blog has been my favorite part of this course.  I used a blog with my students last year and really enjoyed receiving their responses.  I have also added blogging as a tool for data collection on my Action Research Plan.  The only problem I have come across to date is getting people to follow me.  As much as I have to say it, I hope that peer responses will not be a part of our assignment in the future.  It is really hard to have rely on other people in order to complete your assignment.

I have not yet had any luck with finding any other research projects that deal with student writing.  I am not going to let that discourage me though. It would be less complicated to use another’s research as a guide for ideas of what has worked or not worked.  However, my biggest focus with my project is what my site supervisor feels would benefit our students the most. 

So I believe my biggest challenge with this weeks assignemt is going to be getting others to follow my blog :(

Also, if anyone has any ideas on resources for teaching writing, especially at the secondary level, I would appreciate your input very much!

Action Planning Template
Goal: Improve students written communication through examination of the writing process
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.Research current trends in improving student’s writing	-myself -site supervisor	June 1, 2012- July 31, 2012	-internet -time -research	-choose strategies we want to implement
2. Create staff development to introduce implementation	-myself -site supervisor -teachers -learning coaches	August 1- start of school	-time -collected research -staff -materials	-meeting agenda -staff feedback -staff implementation
3. Implement writing strategies	-learning coaches -teachers across curriculum	-start of school -on going	-time -student samples	-evaluation student samples -are they improving
4. Analyze the data	-learning coaches -teachers -academic director	-start of school -on going	-time -student samples -rubric	-are the samples continuing to improve -is more intervention needed

Here are my three ideas for my action research project. Help me out and tell me what you think!

1. Would better lines of communication lead to stakeholder satisfaction, parental involvement in student success and parental involvement in school activities?  My plan is to start with a basic survey with parent feedback in regards to communication thus far.  I would then like to implement an electronic newsletter collecting data on the number of times the newsletter is viewed. Additionally data can be collected through the number of parent/teacher conferences that are attended. Surveys could be done periodically to track our progress.

 2. An overall dilemma I have heard from the teachers is the quality of students written responses. My concern is that because the school is an online curriculum the art of written communication may be lacking.  The school currently has a communications component in place with the study of public speaking.  I would like to further their communication efforts through writing. My question would be, Will student examination of the writing process improve the student's efforts of written communication?  Data collection could begin by proposing a question in which students must respond.  The teachers would then begin the review or teaching of the writing process. Student writing samples will continue to be collected to monitor student progress.  At some point the students will be introduced to a writing response rubric in which they will be expected to write to the standard of the rubric.

 3. The high school curriculum at this time does not incorporate any live lessons other than Spanish class.  My question would be, would student success improve with the incorporation of at least a weekly live lesson in the core subjects?  The data that could be taken into consideration is students’ grades from the 2012-2013 school year where no live lessons were included, verses student grades for the 2013-2014 school year in which live lessons would be done weekly.

How can educational leaders use blogs?


Blogs are another tool for collaboration.  Administrators can use them to post their own findings from their action research or simply get ideas from others regarding implementations. 
 

Administrators use action research as a means to solve a problem or better a situation.  The implementations they choose to tackle the problem are based on collaboration from their colleagues, peer groups or stakeholders. With action research, administrators continuously collect data to determine the effectiveness of their implementations.  The data that is collected is environment specific which differs from traditional research.  With traditional research, the outcomes are generally based on a controlled environment and do not always have the same effectiveness for every environment.  Action research is environment specific. With that being said, the administrator becomes more in tune with the needs of their students, their staff and they continue to grow as a leader.

 The school that I am currently working with is less than two years old.  As a stakeholder, it is my opinion that they biggest issue with the school is the lack of communication.  My intent for my action research project is to question how I can help the school become better communicators.  Through my research, I want to question others parents as to their opinions on this topic, and how they feel the school can improve.  I further want to collaborate with the current administrators as well as the teachers to see what implementations we can set in place to resolve or at least make progress with this problems.