EDTECH 541 Final Reflection

Part 1: Course Reflection

During this program, this was the class that I was most excited about. It really helped me understand more about the full integration of technology in my class.  I was able to purposefully integrate technology into the lesson planning process in a more meaningful way. I was able to learn about different resources and look for the resources needed. The book used in class was an excellent guide for resources. I was able to look at the book online and was given a tremendous amount of videos and sources to work with.

In each of the modules I felt that I was meeting the different AECT standards because I had to fully understand the sources I was working with. Knowledge, pedagogy, environment, professional knowledge and skills, and research were touched in each of the modules because we had to plan our lessons according to our content area and classroom. Every assignment made in this class I will for sure use it in my own classroom.

Professionally, I’d say that I was pushed this semester to not look at technology and think of it as another thing to teach to. Instead, it made me realize that I can integrate it just like any other content area that is already being integrated. I was able to intentionally look at an app or software program and plan my lesson from there. I was able to do research and use technology that would best serve the needs of my students. Just like Roblyer said “It requires a complex combination of what teachers know about the content they teach and how they decide to teach that content.” I was able to touch on this part every time an assignment came up. I changed the way I thought of the implementation of technology. I always thought of a lesson and thought of adding technology, now I think of how could technology not be part of my lesson. This course has made me challenge myself to learn more and teach more. I am and I know I will be using these assignments in my classroom.

References

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (7 ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Part 2
My self assessment is as follows:

Content: 70/70
I was able to connect content taught into my every day life and I reflected on it. I explained myself in detail and was insightful in my connections.

Reading and Resources: 18/20
I used our weekly readings and searched for other articles to help support my thoughts.

Timelines: 17/20
I tried to make my blog at the beginning of the week, most of them were posted before the due date and I felt it gave others enough time to respond.

Responses to other Students: 30/30
I responded to peers reflections and made comments based on their reflection.

135/140

 

Walled Gardens

http://voicethread.com/app/player/?threadId=8848918

Walled garden Transcript

Have you ever tried to play a video as part of your lesson on your school computer and not work? Have you ever tried to access a website that you thought was so amazing and were not able to access? Yup! That has happened to me as well. This is thanks to the walled garden that many schools provide for their safety. When I decided that I was going to integrate more technology in my classroom. I came across very different scenarios. The most noticeable was the limited knowledge that students had with laptops and IPads. Learning how to properly hardware and software were my introduction lessons. Students knew many programs but needed accessibility to them. I then realized I needed to help my students gain knowledge and be exposed to different apps and sites.

Webopedia describes the term ‘walled garden’ as a web browsing environment that controls the access that the user has to information or any websites. I have found that sites that can be used in the classroom are part of the walled garden, making it impossible to access information.

When I started using Google Classroom with my class. I had planned a great lesson. Students were to use a link to a YouTube video I had posted and respond to question that were given. Picture the perfect scenario… Wifi was working amazingly, students were already logged in to classroom, they had their headphones on and were ready to click on the link. I was working with a reading group, and then picture the worse…students all raising their hands at once saying they video was not available. I tried to troubleshoot and even then I had no luck. Yup, Immediate change of plans happened on the spot.

How was I supposed to help students deal with this issue? I didn’t I changed my plans and ended up playing the video on my SMARTboard and students had to go back into Classroom and do their responses. It was very disappointing. I ended up putting a help ticket so they would let me use YouTube in the classroom.

There is an immense amount of projects that could be powerful for collaboration with other teachers or classrooms. For example, Projects by Jen. She has many projects that teachers can join and so can their students. These projects are great to help integrate technology into all the subject areas that one must teach.

I don’t believe the solution to this is giving free range to students to go on about the internet. It is about teaching them about digital citizenship and teaching them ways in which they can learn how to properly use their resources. I am all about tearing those walls down and building bridges to help us navigate different websites with all the incredible information that is yet to be found. I’d like my students to be able to appreciate the ‘technology gardens’ and be able to learn about them. The use of the walls have limited the experience that students are able to have. In the schools, students are being ‘watched’ but as soon as students leave the school they encounter a world with unfiltered content. As Dailygenious.com states, ‘By putting filters between children and content, they don’t learn how to judge the quality of what is in front of them since everything put to them is ‘good’.’ The key here is to teach them to be digitally literal and understand all the good and bad things that the internet can bring to them.

References:

Leach, Jimmy. (2017, March 3). Schools’ walled garden approach to content means pupils don’t learn necessary skills. Retrieved from http://dailygenius.com/schools-walled-garden-approach-content-means-pupils-dont-learn-necessary-skills/

Projects by Jen.  Retrieved from http://projectsbyjen.com/index.html

Walled Garden Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/walled_garden.html

Contiguity Principle #1

During this week in ED TECH 513 we were to learn about sketch noting and the contiguity principles in e-learning. I decided to focus on the contiguity principle #1 in e-learning. Principle #1 focuses on the placement of text and graphics on screens or windows.

Clark and Mayer focus on giving advise as to what to avoid when putting text and graphics together on a webpage, a site or anything that is used as an e-learning page. I thought of this chapter as guide to help me in other courses. Clark and Mayer gave a lot of advise of things not to do on a page that is used for e-learning. As I was reading I thought to myself what things I could do to help my pages have good flow. The following sketch note is a good summary of what things to focus on when designing pages.

• Text and pictures on the same page
• Coordinate text and graphics
• Integrate text and graphics
• text and graphics side by side

When searching sketch noting I couldn’t find something that I was easier for me to use. I decided to do my own sketching. I wanted to create something that was easy, catchy and simple to understand.

 

References:

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008). E-Learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

The Basic Three

Let’s go back a quite a few years…I remember all the times I watched my sisters use the typewriter… it was painful. They were secretaries to lawyers, so their documents had to be on point. If they made a tiny mistake all their work was thrown and had to start their document again. Type, type, type, error… scream, throw paper out… start over… I think about it now and I have backspaced about five to ten times. How amazing it is that my document does not have to be thrown out and I don’t have to think about throwing my laptop out the window!?

Yes, I like the accessibility and flexibility that documents, slides and sheets gives me. “The basic three” as Roblyer calls it makes the perfect trio to me and many others using docs, sheets and slides. They are easy to use but takes time and practice to be able to use all of the features that they have to offer.
In my work environment, I have access to the Google Apps for Education. Google Docs is my go to. I resisted to using the Google Suite. My reason behind it, it was unknown and it is hard to keep up with all the changes happening to different software. I gave it a chance and ended up liking it. I do like to go back to Microsoft office when I cannot find the feature I might need in Google Docs or don’t know how to use it. Many documents that I often create are shared with my colleagues, if we make changes I go to the main document create the changes and not worry about emailing the document again. I’ve had to learn to like the use of Google Docs.

As a teacher I think Google Docs is a lot easier to use and teach to. My students have used the Google Docs and Sheets and they have a high level of engagement and curiosity when using them. It is not easy to have students learn all the ins and outs of the programs, but with good practice at the beginning (and probably a few headaches) later in the year it is all worth it. Roblyer explains how these “software tools help to improve with appearance, accuracy, interaction and collaboration.”  With Google docs, students get to experience the writing process in an easier and manageable way for them. Students are able to do their draft, share with peers and teachers and they are also able to make corrections in the same document. Teachers do not have to chase papers around and are better able to track students’ work. They can make comments and give suggestions to the students’ work. The ability to help students make corrections is so much easier. Google Slides have been used in my classroom to present different concepts such as giving a presentation of a simple machine and giving a presentation of what multiple meaning words mean among others. Students get to practice ‘public’ speaking and the minimal use of text slides but still be able to get their point across.

The use of “The Basic Three” is a great skill to have and it also has easy access. My third graders are excited to use technology in a way that is meaningful to them. The use of the basic three in my classroom will help them to be more knowledgeable in the future if they were to use it. Now if you were to ask me, would I teach ‘The basic Three’ to my students using Microsoft? Maybe, but not before I would teach Google Applications.

 

References:
Roblyer, M. D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. Nova Southeastern University: Pearson.

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PBL Planning and Preparing

During our fourth week in EDTECH 542 Technology-Supported Project-Based Learning, we were to further the develop our PBL planning and preparing.

Internet/Web 2.0
I have learned that technology is an engaging tool that helps and motivates students to collaborate and participate in given topics. In the final project for the PBL, students are in charge of using technology (apps, website, GAFE (Google Applications)) as a facilitator to help them demonstrate their findings in an engaging and interactive way. Students will be doing individual presentations on their identity, therefore, it is expected that students use their creativity to demonstrate themselves.

Scaffolding-  Since students are Spanish Language Learners there will be a lot of scaffolding to understand our driving question.

• Collaboration with partners
• Reading and translating with partners
• Notecatchers

Reflection

This week was a reinforcement of the learning that has been happening. This week, we read over some articles and made me think of  the planning that we do in my classroom. We start with the standards and have an end product in mind. It helped me to reinforce that our assessment is a critical part of our project. It has to be meaningful. It also made me think of Understanding by Design, a planning guide.

EDTECH Definition Graphic

When I started to read this chapter on Educational Technology. The graphic on page 5 about the key elements of educational technology took me back to a few weeks back when we first talked about this. As I read, I found myself thinking how I was going to be able to learn the ins and outs of such a big topic. I soon realized that I wasn’t going to be able to become a tech savvy, but I was able to have many tools in my tool box to be able to use during my career. Just like teaching, I am never going to be able to have the answers to all the math problems, science and social studies topics, etc. I just know that I need to be prepared to use  and manage what I know to prepare myself and if that is not a possibility, start to create to facilitate learning and improve mine and my students’ performance. This was a great reminder of all that is and all that Educational Technology could be.

I am very visual to fully understand I needed to put all of this information together to be able to understand this chapter and the many resources that Educational Technology entitles. Piktochart was very easy and friendly to use.

Januszewski, A. & Molenda, M. (2008). Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary.   1-14.

 

Annotated Bibliography

Here is the link to my Annotated Bibliography

This was probably the hardest and most time consuming assignment, reading all of the articles to find them useful or not useful was a very interesting journey.

I feel that in my school there is always a need for professional development to the integration of technology. We are always trying to integrate it but failing to do so. I decided to do my research on integrating technology in the classroom, there are many obstacles we face while trying to integrate and I felt that I needed something to guide me. I found several great resources that were very helpful and led me to understand that I am not alone when I try to integrate technology. Several resources gave me good strategies to overcome these barriers, some others helped me to solidify that children can learn at any age, we are lifetime long learners and some others gave me a starting point as I start to integrate in my classroom.

I decided to start with what I have and include the technology I can if possible and when possible.