Spotlight on Emerging Technology: Online Learning in the Elementary Classroom

Presentation for Application 4 in EDUC 6715 New and Emerging Technologies

Reflection: 6714, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology

Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson and many other instructors within the last eight weeks have helped further develop within me insight and understanding in how to best meet the individualistic needs of my students.  Through various articles, videos, and reading within the course text, I have further developed a deeper understanding of how students learn in various ways, “some by hearing, others, by doing, some alone, others in the company of peers, some in a rapid-fire fashion, others reflectively (Tomlinson, 2001).  This learning brings relevance to my professional approaches as a teachers as I refine my teaching approaches and instructional strategies. 

In reflecting back over what I have learned in the last eight weeks, I have encountered new learning and developed further understanding of prior learning.  The concepts of Universal Design for Learning were completely new to me, and brought a world of understanding of how to meet a vast array of diverse needs within a wide variety of students I teach and will teach.  While I had heard of Differentiated Instruction, I had not received enough effective training in how to successfully implement these strategies.  Through the CASE website and many online resources and strategies provided through my group assignments, I feel equipped with a toolbox of invaluable resources helping me reach the goal of accommodating each individual student need within my classroom. 

Taking into consideration the many concepts I have learned in class, one of the main issues I would  like to address within my classroom is learning to get into the minds of my students.  Technology makes this venture easy and accessible for effective implementing this into my learning environment for my classroom.  Technology plays a vital and intrigual part of my implementation of UDL and DI.  Tools such as online surveys and student inventories will allow me to determine student interests, likes, dislikes, and other invaluable information necessary for understanding the various needs of my students.  This tool will provide many diverse ways for students to have freedom in sharing their their input and ideas for each curriculum unit.  Another excellent technology resource I found for ideas of implementing UDL and differentiating various subjects is K8 Access Center.  Valuable information such as differentiating ideas for each subject, and teaching and learning straties are provided, allowing teacher to chose from a pleathera of strategies and suggestions for meeting the diverse needs of all students.

Through this class, I have been challenged to develop my professional understanding about UDL and DI.  Through my initial learning, I have been encouraged to not only learn about these concepts, but also continually evaluate how I can implement these concepts into the the daily strategies and procedures of my classroom.  I am excited to take these next steps to better serve and meet the diverse needs of all my students.  

An immediate adjustments to my instructional practice regarding the use of technology integration as a result of my learning from this course will come in the form of evaluating my curriculum units about how I can initially begin implementing small steps of UDL and DI.  Many times it is frustrating through trying to enact to much to quickly, but I am determined these approaches hold to much value for instructing my students that I want to build slowly and gradually to ensure the success of my plan.   

In viewing the class and group resources on differentiating instruction, I have been struck by how many helpful sites and quickly available information is to support me in this new journey.  A vast amount of assistance is available, and I am encouraged that I don’t have to “reinvent the wheel.”  I am truly excited about my develeopmental learning form this course!  

Differentiating Instruction for Learning Multiplication

Technology Instructional Resources:

1.   Squidoo.com: a first through eight grade math website providing highly interactive, skill level adaptive, bright and colorful websites that brings math learning alive meting the diverse needs of each learner in the classroom.

2.   Thinking blocks: Model Your Math Problems: This week as I prepared my lesson on multiplication, I found this excellent multiplication site for student third grade and above.  It uses audio and visual approach to learning multiplication supported by problem solving steps, ideas from a math tutor and the ability to build models for solving a problem.  This will be an excellent resource for supporting the diverse learners in my classroom. 

3.   Multiplication.com: this website is appropriate for all students in elementary school or middle school students needing math foundational skills, provides diverse activities for helping teach multiplication skills. As I seek to provide various approaches in teaching my students multiplication, this great variety of activities will allow students choices meeting their learning style needs.  Classroom games

4.   GlobalClassroom.org: this site provides math and reading resources for students in elementary school.  In developing resources for my math lesson in multiplication, I found teaching approaches for implementing technology into the process of learning multiplication. These tools provided a interactive game or challenge while building valuable multiplication skills.  Multiplication Hidden Pictures.  

Technology Resources for Differentiated Instruction

These resources will equip any teacher in the endeavor of implementing differentiated instruction into the classroom through the medium of technology.

1.     Leveraging Technology to Differentiate Instruction: http://www.slideshare.net/itsco/leveraging-technology-to-differentiate-instruction

I loved slides 17-23 in this slide presentation which discuss learning contracts and choice boards can become an major tool for teachers desiring to differentiate classroom instruction.  This week’s resources especially stressed personal motivation and multiple choices in learning and these two options fit beautifully with these.  I could implement learning contracts at the beginning of each unit to allow students to set their own expectation level for learning.  The choice boards would then be used through the various topics within the unit to allow diversity in what the student chooses to learn about.  Both of the tools provide utmost freedom in choice of instructional learning!

2.     Nine categories of instructional strategies most likely to help students learn: http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/DIFFK5-excerpt.pdf

This excellent resource provides invaluable information on how differentiated instruction through the use of technology become an excellent resource for any teacher.  I especially enjoyed reading pgs. 18-19 where effective instructional strategies were given, how these strategies would be applied in a differentiated classroom, and the type of technology that could be used to support the strategies. 

This tools would be a vital part of my planning of instruction each week.  I would be able to choose the strategies that best reflect the curricular studies for the week, then provide various technology based activities to support my chosen instructional strategies.  In considering this week’s resources, teachers who strive to implement DI must provide multiple approaches for meeting the various learners’ needs.  This resources takes into consideration these needs and provides teachers a toolbox of wonderful resources.

3.     Differentiation Wins Big in South Carolina: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-ten-key-lessons

This multi-level story provide a awesome visual glimpse into a school located here in my state who is doing a SUPERB job in differentiating instruction through technology.  The article provided ten tips for personalized learning using technology and what it looked like at their school. It also gave tips of how to make the most of digital tools in the classroom such as put the tools in the kids hands and give the kids a real audience. 

Also, another facet of the story I leaned a great deal from that reflected so many of this week’s resources  was a section called “What Works in Differentiation Instruction in Elementary Schools.”  Strategies for getting started focused on what a teacher could do in five minutes, five days, and 5 weeks, 5 months,  and 5 years to begin developing a differentiated classroom. 

4.     Technology Support for Differentiated Instruction: http://faculty.otterbein.edu/ckilbane/stateconf/

This resource provided not only strategies and tools for differentiating instructions, but many of the tools were also focused in achieving Universal Design for Learning objectives.  Excellent technology tools were provided for many areas , but these were the tools that I could quickly and easily implement in my classroom in small groups or individual projects: adjusting content material for reading levels, translating text, provide variety in media formats, assistive technologies, presentation and assessment tools, pre-assessment tools and many more. 

5.     Differentiated Instruction and Technology: http://8thfloorwiki.wikispaces.com/Differentiated+Instruction+and+Technology

This wiki discusses technology resources that address student needs and the various learning styles they each have.  Strategies are provided to meet visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners; may alternative projects are listed.  I would use this resource to not only find out how ipads, digital cameras, videos, and podcasting provide learning choices for students, but also many resources in the form of videos and podcasts support teachers in understanding the tools at their fingertips for their class.  In listening to this week’s resources I heard a lot about putting technology tools into the students hands, but obtaining hardware can be difficult; this site provided information on grants teachers could participate in to help solve the problem of providing the necessary technology tools.  

Final Reflection

As I reflect back through my learning and development these last eight weeks, I am pleased by my progress, excited about future learning, and still desiring to continue the challenge of my GAME plan.  As I developed this plan in week one, I had specific set ideas of what I thought it meant to accomplish the goals I had set for myself.  From the beginning I felt frustrated and discouraged because these goals had been attempted before, and I had not successfully found a way to accomplish them up to this point.  I was concerned how I would overcome my past inabilities.

Throughout the first several weeks of the class I constantly fought my frustration of how to attain my goals.   I felt defeated and wasn’t sure how to lay aside past attempts and regain a new perspective.  Through research, talking with peers, and much introspective thinking, I realized I wasn’t able to attempt or even attain my goals because my perspectives were limited and flawed.  I needed more of an open mind and willingness to attempt new ways for successfully reaching my two goals.

My first goal encompassed “facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity.”  I envisioned enabling my students to use collaborative tools to share their creativity, thinking, ideas, and perspectives not just within my class but also with other classes around the world.  I felt I had already attempted this through my class website blog, but never really saw success as the students only commented on the academic topics when made to.  The only student responses outside of curriculum writing was from former students who wanted to contact me about how they were doing since leaving my class.  This is not what I envisioned in the use of a blog as a collaborative tool where students sharing their thoughts, ideas, and creativity.  Throughout this course, I began to realize my goal could be accomplished just not with the current tools I was using.  While I knew it would be difficult, I took the plunge out of my comfort zone and developed a new blog in Google that would allow me greater capabilities of sharing pictures, videos, and student input than my prior blogging tool.  This blog would also allow for our blog content to be posted to other collaborative sites drawing in many more readers than ever imagined with my prior tool.  I began to see automatic differences in the excitement and student involvement within the first couple weeks.  My new class blog lead to even more openness for better blogging tools for my students.  I discovered KidBlog.org and after sharing examples of this with my students almost every student wanted to start their own blog.  I saw as my ability to embrace new tools and engage a broad audience with an enthusiasm for sharing through the written word, my students wanted to be a part of this exciting venture and share their own thoughts and ideas. 

My second goal was centered around “designing and developing digital-age experiences” for my students.  I wanted them to become more actively involved in their own educational goals, developing their own learning and actively involved in assessing their progress.  After making the changes in my blogging process, I found this only brought about more motivation for accomplishing this second goal.  Blogging blossomed into developing my own professional learning network on Twitter.  This single move has opened a whole new world of how to not only know about the latest digital-age experiences, but how other teachers are using them within their own classrooms.  Meeting other “technology enthusiast” teachers through Twitter brought about collaboration with our first international school blog contacts which sparked conversations between my students and 4^th graders in Argentina.   My students have also made connections with other classrooms in Iowa, Illinois, and California simply through sharing their curiosities and becoming active in learning about the world around them.

As I move forward from these successes, I admit I have apprehension.  Learning and implementing new technology takes a lot of times and commitment; what if I am not able to maintain this success?  In considering the future, I realize my success will come in taking baby steps.  It is most freeing to let go of preconceived ideas, strategies, and plans, and observe with a new perspective the abundant possibilities of growing one step at a time.  

Progress Report of GAME ~ Week of April 13

I am experiencing a great deal of success in accomplishing my two goals for my GAME plan!  I have experience incredible research this week as I have delved into the world of Twitter.  As one fellow colleague stated in a tweet, "If you are using Twitter for professional development, you are way ahead of the curve!"  I have personally begun to experience this and realized what a gold mine of resources I have at my fingertips!    This medium allows me to read sources, collaborate with other teachers, and gain strategies, all three steps I wanted to take in accomplishing my goals.  


My class blog has taken off and we've already received a couple nationally and international comments.  It was really special to see the following blog (Values Matter)and realizing my students were someone else's first international response on their blog.  I am amazed at how the walls are coming down in my classroom!!!  These are major steps in accomplishing my second goal, and an amazing digital record of the progress of my baby steps of achievement!  


The NETS for teachers and students mirror one another. The goal is that if I as a teacher can accomplish these skills, I can then turn around and not only model them for my students, but also help them to accomplish these valuable skills.  In considering how to help students grow in their abilities of accomplishing the NETS for students, I look forward to sharing my blog and experiences that I have gained from this class.  I know the students will identify more with me as they see me in a "student role," and I'm hoping they will gain a sense of accomplishment as they start to see the necessity for baby steps of growth!

If you are not following Edna Sackson on her blog or Twitter, you need to!!!

I always read wonderful information on Edna's blog, and I wanted to reprint the following information from her blog on March 31, 2011.  It's great stuff and very useful for all teachers!  

10 ways for teachers to save time…

MARCH 31, 2011

tags: teachers, time management

by whatedsaid

I always read wonderful information on Edna's blog, and I wanted to reprint the following information from her blog on March 31, 2011.  It's great stuff and very useful for all teachers!  Teachers never have enough time. We have curriculum to cover, skills to teach, reports to write and meetings to attend. The demands are endless, both in and outside the classroom.

10 ways to save time, both in and out of the classroom.

I’m sure you there are hundreds more so please share yours.

1. Don’t talk about how little time you have.

Use the time to do some of the things you don’t have time for.

2. Reduce meeting time.

Only meet if you have to. Start on time or have something to do while you wait. Keep it brief. Stay on topic. Don’t get sidetracked.

3. Set the timer.

When you feel overwhelmed by everything you need to do, set the timer for 15 minutes and start. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done. Do this once a day and see what you can achieve. Try it with your students too.

4. Talk less in the classroom.

Establish routines. Use signals. Trust your students, everything doesn’t have to be controlled by you. Scaffold independent learning so that students can get on with it.

5. Collaborate on a Google doc.

You don’t need to email documents back and forth. You don’t need to meet with the people. You don’t even need to be in the same place.  Work together on the one doc. Use different colours to show who said what. Use it with students too.

6. Use Twitter.

If you need a resource, a video, an article, a song or a tool… someone else has found it already. Ask for help on twitter. Help others in the same way. There’s on tap support 24 hours a day.

7. Have small group discussions.

Give every student an opportunity to speak without having a whole class discussion. Move between the groups. Have groups share with the class only what was most interesting or most contentious.

8. Set up a class blog.

It’s an easy way to learn with your students. They can respond to questions, comment on each other’s presentations and have discussions, without taking up class time.

9. Manage your emails.

Set up class and parent distribution groups. Organise folders in your inbox so that you can easily file things you might need later. Act quickly on emails and delete when done.

10. Prioritise.

Acknowledge that you are human and can’t always do everything. Decide what is urgent and what can wait. Accept that you aren’t ready for some things and will get to them when you are.

And if you have any spare time, watch some of these!

http://www.teachers.tv/series/time-savers

How to Make Quality Comments When Blogging

I found this wonderful class blog where the teacher, Mrs. Yollis, and her students teach us how to develop quality comments when blogging.  They have five tips for writing quality comments. I thought this would be a wonderful resource for any teacher, especially elementary teachers.  Here is their video:



How to Compose a Quality Comment! from yourwonderfulteacher on Vimeo.

Check out Mrs. Yollis' blog for lots of great ideas!

Breaking Down Classroom Walls With Web 2.0 ~ Collaborative learning through social media

The Brains Behind BrainPOP Series: Breaking Down Classroom Walls With Web 2.0
Wednesday, April 20

4:30 pm EST

RSVP: http://classroomweb.eventbrite.com/

We're kicking off a series of webinars designed to help you get to know the people behind BrainPOP! In this first installment, you'll meet David Grandison, Jr., our Production Manager and a social media guru. Join David and explore the ways social media and collaborative learning can enhance the development of 21st century skills in your students. He'll offer an overview of the newest types of educational tools out there and discuss methods to make them work for you and your students. 

Progress Report ~ Week of April 4

I have had the most AMAXING week diving into social networking and online colaboration.  I saw the entire process come alive through a couple experience I had through simply exploring the websites provided in our assignment.  Each of these experiences lended itself to helping me further fulfil the goals of my GAME plan.

As I strive to "facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity" and "promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes," my goal was to research online sources.  This week I found the most amazing 4th grade blog where students are actively engage is writing expressing their own creativity and understanding of the world around them.  Please check out this classroom blog: Mrs. Surridge's Class.  Each student has their own blog within the class blog, and they actively blogging about their lives at all times of the day and night!This is truly blogging, self expression, at its best!

I also was able to collaborate with two 4th grade teachers about the possibilities of our classes blogging.  One teacher is in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the other is in Illinois.  Both were very excited about the possibilites our classes had for online collaboration, so now I am introducing both blogs to my students and discussing how they can become actively involved with these two classes. Both these contacts I discovered through the Flat Classrooms Ning.  I am truly excited about the possibilities and experiences that are possible through social networking and online collaboration!

Progress Report of Game Plan ~ Week of March 28

Thank goodness for the refreshing time of spring break as I've come to the planning process with a fresher, clearer mind in how to approach accomplishing my GAME plan.  

As I have spent time this week researching technology mentors and resources relating to my two goals, one simple idea became clearly obvious to me about my first goal.  Each resource that captured my attention and effectively demonstrated student reflection and collaboration highlighted the use of a vibrant, growing, interactive blog.  While I have a class blog within my website with SchoolWorld, its capabilities are limited, and I'd have to say it is not accomplishing what I desire and am drawn to in other great classroom blogs!  I have had an internal struggle for the last year about changing my blog, but I knew this would be a bit of a complicated process, so I kept putting it off.  After thinking through and contemplating how I would accomplish goal 1 of my GAME plan, I knew it was time to change blogs!  One factor that made this switch easier to accomplish is the familiarity I have developed with blogspot.com because of my blogging experiences in graduate school.  This week I have successfully launched our new class blog, and cannot wait till my students return to school to get them started in the collaborative process!!!


Not only will my new blog help me accomplish goal 1, but I am wanting to use this platform as a springboard into students using technology to pursue their individual curiosities sharing them with the class and our blog audience.  Not only will our class blog be used in collaboration about creative student learning, but it will also be a place to document student curiosities, learning goals, and assessment of individual and group progress within academic learning.  The blog become a type of journal where students share and fellow collaborators become active participants in goal setting and assessing of individual and group progress.  


I have to admit, my confidence in accomplishing my GAME plan has grown in leaps and bounds this week.  I feel as if I final have the focus for implementation of my goals.  As I move forward, my questions are about how to work around my student teacher's solo teaching time and what will be my first couple of academic activities that will easily lend to collaboration, student curiosities, goals, and assessments.  


Here's an excellent article I came across this week about a 3rd grade class in Minnesota using their blog in an effective way:
     They're learning to write, and they've got readers

My Progress Towards Accomplishing My GAME Plan:

In working through the many steps in accomplishing my goal, I am at a frustrating point.  With limited time due to several school responsibilities that have left me stretched thin, I am having a difficult time finding information and resources to accomplish my goals.   My thoughts are that over my spring break, this next week, I want to spend more time researching resources necessary to accomplish my goals.  I also want to reconnect with several professional collaboration websites and starting talking to other teachers about how they are working through the ideas I’m contemplating. 

I have also considered as I read through my goals, that I may need to be less broad and focus on one or two key ideas that would encompass the two ISTE-NETS that I desire to grow in.  I think in the beginning when I wrote my GAME plan, I was unsure of what I was aiming for.  Whether talking to my instructor or re-reading instructions, I want to gain a clearer picture of the end goal I am trying to achieve with my GAME plan.  After more indepth time contemplating these issue, I forsee having many more ideas to share of what I have learned or new questions that have come up in my learning process.  

Carrying Out My Game Plan

In reviewing my Game Plan, several resources are necessary to carry out my plan.  First, developing a network of resources to study and analyze learning more about student reflection using collaborative tools allows me to build a foundation of learning for my plan.  Also, I need other teachers who can share their use of these collaborative tools and how they effectively incorporate these strategies into understanding their students thinking through the use of these collaborative tools. 

This week to help me begin the process of achieving my GAME plan, I reached out to a teacher within my district to begin this process of learning from another peer on student reflection collaborative tools and other ideas I am learning in this class.  She responded positively and was supportive in wanting to assist in any way she could.  Another step I am wanting to take is more reflection on which curriculum topics would be suited for this type of learning approach.  Sometimes I have difficulty with this, especially in the area of Math.  

My Game Plan ~ NETS-T

In considering the ISTE- NETS-T (for teachers, http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx), I found several areas I felt confident in.  In contemplating areas I wanted to develop more confidence in, I have chosen these two areas of the NETS-T:

#1: Facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity: promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

#2: Designs and Develops Digital-Age Experiences: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

G: My goal: to develop confidence in the two areas listen above. 

A:These are the following actions I will take to meet goals:

·      1. research each area online to find other teacher/schools who have dealt with the same difficulties

·      2. read articles addressing the areas of weaknesses

·      3. talk with other teachers within my district to determine how they pursue fulfilling these two areas of concerns I desire to grow confident in.  

M: How I will monitor progress towards the achievement of my goals:

·      1. journal about conversations, contacts, articles read, anything dealing with my learning about these two areas.

·      2. write down questions and concerns of implementing these goals.

·      3. find teachers to discuss these concerns with.

E: How I will evaluate whether goals were achieved; extend learning to new situations:

·      1. my evaluation of whether or not I have achieved my goals will be determined through an analysis rubric based upon this game plan

·      2. evaluation will also be determined by growth of students as they implement my new learning and development of my goals.  

10 steps to successful tech integration…

I read these tips on a blog I am currently following, and I wanted to share these with my readers.  I have personally experience each of these steps as I have grown in my understanding of technology as well as when working with other teachers as they develop their technology skills.  

1. Start with two people.

Ideally you need a technology facilitator and another teacher whose focus is more on learning and pedagogy. That way, it’s never lonely when there’s resistance, there are complementary outlooks and more hands are available to help.

2. Invite volunteers.

Don’t try and force anyone to implement technology before they are ready. Work with a small group who’s willing to give it a go. Gradually others will come on board, when they see what’s been achieved by their peers or when their students initiate it. Don’t even think about presenting tech PD to large group of teachers all at once.

3. Offer plenty of support.

Once teachers have seen a tool demonstrated, they will need support practicing and applying it. Don’t be judgmental. Differentiate. Everyone can learn, but we all learn in different ways and at our own pace.It looks like this. Allow for it. Team teach. Offer to go into a class with a teacher who’s ready to give it a go. Demonstrate. Solve problems. Be there.

4. Aim for ‘just one thing’.

Don’t expect teachers to be experts. They just need to be willing. Make them aware of that. Aim to get teachers to try just one new thing. The concept is expressed really well here!

5. Get teachers teaching teachers.

Once teachers have used a tool to enhance learning in their classes, provide an opportunity for them to show others what they did. Have a show-and-tell session where ideas and examples are presented by teachers for teachers. Invite teachers to show others how to use tools they have already mastered.

6. Start from the learning.

This one is the most important. Tech for tech’s sake is a waste of time. Teachers are far more likely to integrate technology if they see the educational purpose. Begin with your learning goal, then plan your learning experiences and see what tools might support or enahnce the learning. See an example here.

7. Bring Admin onside.

If the heads are not leading the way themselves, invite them to training sessions. Invite them to classes. Show them what’s happening. Talk about what’s possible. Tell them what you need in order to move the school forward. Share examples from other schools. Share examples from yours.

8. Involve the students.

Teachers don’t need to know how to do everything. Kids will readily and enthusiastically help both the teacher and each other. Encourage teachers to release control to their students and become learners themselves. Here’s one teacher’s take on it.

9. Follow-up.

Create a wiki for teachers to refer back to. Add the tools they have learned. Include examples of how the tools can be used for learning. Add written instructions to which they can refer back if they are stuck.This is our wiki, maintained by the inimitable Linda (@lindawollan)

10. Be persistent.

Never miss an opportunity to suggest a way in which technology could enhance the learning. Offer to take care of the tech side yourself, if it means teachers will try something new in their teaching. Never, ever give up.

References:

http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/10-steps-to-successful-tech-integration-2/#comment-2303