A Successful Change Agent - Reflection

As my final class at Walden University (New and Emerging Technologies) comes to an end I feel confident that my quest to implement technology in the classroom will not. I feel that it is not only my duty to continue my efforts to use technology in my classroom, but that I need to advocate for other teachers to change as well. During week 6 and 7 of this course, I was able to create a lesson that used gaming to teach an ecology unit and explored options that would allow my school to receive a grant. I was amazed at how much is offered online and how inexpensive it can be. In fact, the lesson that I designed uses a free program offered through jason.org. The program is funded by donations and grants received from scientific organizations and is able to offer free resources to science teachers. This assignment is just one of many lessons that I will create that use technology instead of traditional teaching methods. The technology allows for more effective teaching and also provides differentiaton to the curriculum that I teach. It allows for students to learn at their own pace and accommodates for many problems that they might have. It will take time, persistence, and the help of others, but I am confident that I will be able to improve my classes and I hope that I will be able to influence other teachers to do the same. People in general, and especially teachers, are resistant to change. I believe that the best way to get others to change is to lead by example. Once kids start going into other classes and talking about how cool mine was, I think that other teachers will be more receptive to change. If not, I will just have to keep trying and bring along as many as I can.

Assessing for Learning - Reflection

As I took the Walden University Course "Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology" I learned some very valuable lessons and continued to change some of my mindsets about technology in the classroom. The first things that I gained was information about how technology could allow me to learn the interests, learning styles, intelligence preferences, and learning profiles of my students. I still love to have casual conversations with students to get to know them, but often times I miss shy students with this method. Different surveys that we explored will help me to better know and understand the students in my classes. Through discussions and postings on a Google Group, I was able to learn about a ton of different online resources that I would have never known existed. It was great to practice using this type of social networking and in the process find these great resources. Probably the most important thing that I learned from this class is that classes should be designed using the universal design for learning, or UDL. There is no reason why we should not be creating our lessons in a manner that will reach students with diverse needs. It will provide better learning opportunities for all learners and save time because less modifications will be needed in order to meet students' IEP's. Differentiating instruction by using technology helps accommodate the universal design. By using technology as an integral part of the education process, and not as an exception, many more options are available to students and teachers. As a result, many different learners will be given the best opportunity to succeed.

Moodle

Here is a link to my screencast explaining the benefits of a course management site such as Moodle:

http://www.screencast.com/users/mschmoll/folders/Jing/media/04ab36af-bb29-4cc6-9b2e-37d572a6f5e6

References:
Moodle.org: Open-source Community-based Tools for Learning. Web. 23 July 2010 http://moodle.org/.
Seymour Community School District. Web. 23 July 2010. http://moodle.seymour.k12.wi.us/.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). New and Emerging Technologies. Baltimore: Author

UDL

Please click on the following links to view the screencasts explaining Universal Design for Learning.

http://www.screencast.com/users/mschmoll/folders/Jing/media/4345c4cb-ba1f-458a-9a35-409384b7929e

http://www.screencast.com/users/mschmoll/folders/Jing/media/710bf377-425e-45de-9b23-461ee0e8e31e

References:
CAST: Center for Applied Special Technology. Web. 22 July 2010. http://www.cast.org/.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology. Baltimore: Author

Reflection: Final Blog Post

I found "Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas" to be a particularly helpful course for my professional development. I say this because it allowed me to create lessons that I can specifically use in my Science classes. I also found the GAME Plan to be an outstanding way to set goals and work toward them. Not only did we set a goal, we put it into action, monitored it, and evaluated what we had done. As with anything in education, it is still an ongoing process and I plan to continue working on my GAME Plan to improve my use of the SMART Board in my classroom. I have found many useful websites and received valuable feedback from classmates that are already proficient in their use of similar technology. Often times I find myself on an island as I learn about and implement new strategies into my classroom. This process has allowed me to collaborate with other teaching professionals that helped me to see things in a different way. It provided me with a weekly check in to see if I was meeting my goal.

The new learning that I have done as a result of my GAME Plan will be valuable to my students as I implement the strategies into my classes. Simply having access to great technology does not improve student learning. It must be used properly to be effective in the classroom. The key now is to continue using my newly gained knowledge to improve my classes instead of simply sitting on what I have learned. Fortunately I will be receiving even more training with the technology this summer and will have time to play with what I have learned. I hope to modify some of the lessons that I already teach by using the technology as well as create new lessons that would not be possible without it. These changes will help my students as I begin school again next fall. It will be especially helpful considering that the things I have learned are specific to the subject that I teach. Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far on this journey and feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) lists the following standards for students: Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; Research and Information Fluency; Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making; Digital Citizenship; and Technology Operations and Concepts. (taken from: http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm) Just as I have worked on improving my use of the SMART Board in my classroom using the GAME Plan method, students can improve their skills in each of these 6 standards by doing the same. It is neccesary to set small goals over the course of time so that students do not feel overwhelmed. On the other hand, a lot of the standards go hand-in-hand. A well designed lesson should incorporate critical thinking and problem solving skills while also addressing some of the other standards as well. Most of the projects that I can think of would require some type of research and just about all ideas can use some type of collaboration aided by technology. I think that the key is to determine what content area standard is trying to be reached and then use the technology standards to enhance the experience for the students. By using the technology standards, the students will not simply be learning science, math, reading, etc. skills. They will be improving their 21st Century skills as well.

GAME Plan Survey

As I continue on my journey to improve my skills using the SMART Board that I have had recently installed in my classroom I decided to tap into the knowledge and opinions of the students before they were gone for the summer. After they finished their final exams I had them complete a short survey to help me to get an idea of where they are at when it comes to the board. What I learned from the survey is that the students in general really like using the board. They admit to being reluctant at first but that when they do not have a choice, they usually end up enjoying the experience they had as they used the board. They particularly liked using it in ways that had them competing against other individuals or teams because they felt like it helped them forget that they were in school (at this time of the year they will openly admit that they would rather not be in school). It would not necessarily require the interactive technology, but the kids really liked playing games in which they drew pictures to try and get others to guess what concept or vocabulary term that they are trying to depict. Not only do they have fun with this, but it also then provides a visual image that the students can use to correlate with the term in their minds for future recollection. As the school year comes to a close and my little cherubs embark upon their summer vacations, I look forward to some down time followed by some relaxed exploration of how I can use the board better with the next group of students that I will have next year.

Revising My GAME Plan

Today is the last day of class for our Seniors and Friday is the last day for the underclassmen. Next week we have Semester Exams on Monday and Tuesday. I am at the point in the year when I am no longer trying to create new lessons, but simply carry out the plans that I have made. The work that I did integrating the SMART Board into the fetal pig dissection worked well. Only a few students chose to use the technology as a substitute for the actual dissection. Those who did gave me good feedback about the experience. This summer I have a workshop where I will be learning more details on how to better use the board. It is my hope that I will be able to more effectively integrate new lessons after receiving some training.

My NETS-T standard that I have been working toward meeting is to: "Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources." I have learned quite a bit about the board that has helped to meet this goal. It is a never ending process, though. Each time that I develop a new lesson, it will always be in the back of my mind: "How can I use the SMART Board to get the students involved with this lesson?" At this point, my goal is to do this as I develop new lessons and by doing so continue to meet my larger goal of meeting the NETS-T standard. It is also my goal to get students involved in some of the planning. I have found that when the students help to create the learning strategies that they take more ownership and learn a great deal.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

As I continue taking actions toward achieving my goal of truly using my SMART board for what it is intended I have made a decision on what to do with the fetal pig dissection and have been working toward using handheld devices to play a jeopardy game projected on the board.

For the fetal pig dissection, I have decided that during class, the students will need to use their time researching the different parts of the pig and their functions. Once they have completed that task and filled out the packet that accompanies the task, they will then be able to use the laptop computers to start practicing the dissection using the computer program. They will use their class time to practice and they will then be assessed by coming in at a scheduled time to show their proficiency on the SMART board. I decided to require them to do it outside of class time so that they would be encouraged to do the actual dissection during class.

I found out that the social studies department in our school has hand held devices that will indicate which student "buzzed in" first. I plan to use the devices to play a game of Jeopardy. The students will read the answer off of the board and then state the question if they are the one who buzzed in first. This will hopefully add a competitive and fun atmosphere to an otherwise boring set of questions.

As I continue on this journey, I have found that the resources that I need are available, but it takes some digging. There are many very knowledgeable teachers in our building, but I have found that I often get caught up in the business of everyday teaching and do not take the time to tap into the great amount of knowledge that is out there. This project has helped me to do just that. Using the SMART board as it is intended is a never ending project. There are always more or other things that can be done so I hope to continue to search and implement these ideas. I have learned mostly how better to navigate the software that comes with the board, but I still need a lot of practice. I constantly come up with questions about how to accomplish tasks or how better to do them. It is great to have other teachers that can answer questions. I just wish that there was more time in the day that we could collaborate.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

As I continue to play with my SMART board and attempt to improve my skills and techniques I realize that I have it mounted too low. When originally asked where I wanted the board, I wanted it to be low enough so that all students could reach the top. I did this with the mentality that I wanted the students to be interacting with the board. I now realize that the counter in front of the board blocks parts of the screen, depending on where a student sits in the class. I am going to have the board raised 12 inches so that it can be better seen. To accommodate for shorter students, I am going to steal an idea from one of the videos that we watched for class. I saw a grade school student standing on a stool to reach the top of a smart board. It is low tech, but should help improve the students' ability to utilize the technology that I have in my room. I have also been playing around with some websites that will allow students to dissect a fetal pig using the SMART board if they refuse to dissect the actual specimen that we have in class. I am torn though, because I worry that more students will refuse to dissect the actual pig because they would rather not get their hands dirty and just do it using the technology. I look at it kind of like refusing to go on a field trip and choosing to take a virtual field trip to the same place. The technology offers opportunities if the real experience is not accessible, but I still think that the students will benefit from doing the actual dissection more than doing it in a virtual setting. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

One of the NETS-T indicators that I would like to improve is to: address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. I recently had a smart board installed in my classroom. Up until now I have not been using this board up to its potential. This summer I am scheduled to get training on how to use the board as an interactive tool. I have researched several interactive websites that will help me teach science concepts and use the board as it is intended.

Another indicator that I would like to improve is to: engage students in eploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. I am always looking for ways for students to be engaged in their own education instead of simply listening to me talk. It is my goal to add at least one activity to each class that engages the studetns without them learning content by reading from a textbook or listeninng to me talk. I think that it is crucial to have students use technology to help guide them through things that they need to learn.

Course Reflection

At the beginning of the course, I felt as thought I was a behaviorist. I still feel as though I subscribe most to this theory of learning, but I am also much better informed about other theories than I was before the course. I still very much feel as though rewarding desired behaviors and punishing bad behaviors is a very effective way to teach. Most of the other theories relate to things that I have done in class, but may not have been able to explain why.

I have had students construct artifacts such as papers, blogs, and powerpoints, but I did not understand the psychology behind why it was effective. I have always had students work in groups because I think that they need to be able to work collaboratively in order to be efficient in most lines of work. I used stories and tried to connect concepts to other life experiences but did not realize that I was using cognitive learning theory.

In the future I would like to use an interactive whiteboard effectively as a learning tool and not just as an instructional tool. Currently I have a projector and a screen, but I will soon have an interactive whiteboard. It is my goal to use this technology to get the students actively involved instead of simply another instructional tool.

I would also like to make better use of blogs. I have used blogs on a limited basis, but I think that it is a great way for students to continue discussion outside of class. Many students are not comfortable expressing opinions during class. I will continue to push them to do so, but a blog can be very helpful in doing this. It also holds students socially responsible for creating quality work. They will not just be graded by the teacher, but their peers will be evaluating their work as well.

In the long term, it is my goal to become more efficient in website design so that I can use it as a part of my classes. I currently run a website for our wrestling club, but it is very simple and would not meet all of my goals in the classroom. Another long term goal that I have is to use voicethread as part of some of my lessons. I thought it was an exciting way to learn and present information.

Connectivism and Social Learning

Students will naturally want to socialize with their peers. Instead of denying them the opportunity to do so, I try to provide them with time to do it in a meaningful way. On a weekly basis, my students do labs in my science classes and must collaborate in order to solve problems and use the scientific method to learn more about the topic being taught. I have found that students will begin to tune out the teacher if the method of lecturing is used too often. I also believe that students will retain information longer and with better understanding if they learn through doing. Often times the labs can be done using computers and lab equipment that will help students prepare for a job using technology or in a research lab.

Another method that I have used that requires technology and the "jigsaw" method of instruction involves powerpoint. A unit that I have the students do deals with the human body. Students know that they will be tested on the different organs and body systems. The students are allowed to choose an organ or organ system (depending on how complex the organ might be) and then they must research that organ. They are then responsible to present the information to the class. By doing this project the students must be able to do research using technology. They must know how to create effective powerpoint presentations. They have to decide what information is important and teach it to their classmates. They have added responsibility and ownership because they know that the entire classes grades rely on them effectively presenting the organ that they have been assigned.

Integrating Hypotheses and Constructionism

Generating and testing hypotheses is often thought of as something done only in science classrooms, but this is not necessarily the case. People generate and test hypotheses many times everyday and do not even think about it. In order to be good problems solvers, students must learn how to create valid hypotheses and then find efficient ways of testing them. Technology allows students to do just that.

In my science classroom, students often do measurements using probeware that uploads directly to a laptop computer. The students then use software to create tables and graphs of the data to help them draw conclusions about the hypothesis that they have tested. By using the technology, instead of just measuring and graphing by hand, the students get experience dealing with computers that will be valuable as they go to college and enter the work force. It is also a much more efficient use of time. Many of the tedious and repetitious tasks that students used to have to complete on their own can now be done in seconds using computers.

Another way that science students can create and test hypotheses is to pick a controversial issue and make a stand. The students could make a stand based on what they already know. When they do this, they are creating a hypothesis. The could then research the topic to test whether they have a valid hypothesis and then present their findings to the class. Not only are they questioning their current beliefs and testing them, but they are also engaging in constructionism. By creating an artifact to show what they have learned, the students will be better able to remember.

Cognitive Learning Theories

Cognitive learning theories have a strong foundation in making connections in one's brain to help recall information. Information is not lost, it is just inaccesible because it does not have a strong connection in the brain. In order to better recall information, an individual must make strong connections to other things that are already understood. It is much easier to explain the anatomy of a wolf to a student if he or she has been to the zoo and actually seen a wolf. The student will be able to recall the smells, visual cues, and other sensory data from the day that they saw the wolf at the zoo. If they have not seen an actual wolf, it would be helpful to explain how it might be similar to a dog, which they have seen. This would be a perfect example of how episodic information gets into one's long term memory.

Today I had a substitute for my classes because I attended a workshop on groundwater in the state of Wisconsin. The workshop was informational but was mostly intended to teach us how to use models that we had received after applying for a grant. The model is an excellent example of using connections to explain how groundwater systems work. The students are unable take actual cross sections of the earth and watch chemicals as they flow through a water system, but they can see it using the model and dyes. By seeing the flow of water the students will be able to make much more concrete connections when we discuss the water cycle. Another way to help students understand the water cycle is by using technology. Three dimensional images on powerpoints can help students visualize something that would otherwise be very confusing.

Concept mapping is an outstanding method for helping students understand and comprehend information. I currently use weekly assignments that require students to make concept maps because they force students to make connections in their brain and then put those connections on paper. I have yet to do the application for this week and make concept maps using the technology resources, but I can see how they would be quite useful. Instead of having to scan students concept maps into the computer or make copies of them to share with other students, they will already be in an electronic format. I will be able to pull them up quickly to use on the projector. It will also be a skill that will be valuable for students that go into many different fields.

Behaviorism in Practice

Effort is the most important part of student learning. Intelligence is very important as well, but regardless of how intelligent a student is, their effort will determine how much they learn. All students will learn much more when they put effort into that which they are learning. It is the role of the teacher to use all accessible resources to try and enhance the effort put forth by the students. Technology can be a very effective tool in motivating students to do well.

The school in which I teach has an online gradebook. It is an extremely valuable use of technology because it helps students track their grades which almost always correlate with the amount of effort that they are putting into the class. It helps to involve parents becuase the parents have up to the minute information about whether their student is completing assignments and how well they are performing. If grades go up or down, parents know right away.

Homework and practice are an important part of students learning new concepts. It is certainly not the only thing that should be used when exploring new concepts, but it is a great way to help students reinforce what is being learned in class. I have a few interactive programs at my disposal and find them very effective. I use pen and paper assignments as well. I think that regardless of how assignments are completed, they are effective. Technology allows students to see pictures and videos that help them to understand and remember what is being learned. A well set homework policy and providing a clear purpose of the assignments are important so that students put effort into completing them.