EDUC 6715I-2 New and Emerging Technologies Course Relfection

As this course and this program draw to a close I can reflect on what I am taking away from the New and Emerging Technologies Course and how I will use this learning in my teaching and professional practice:

Within the 8 weeks of this course we did two things that I think will be extremely beneficial as I continue my career in education. The first being that we examined a few emerging technologies and really reflected on their potential and possible applications for classroom use. By participating in this practice it gave us the tools to repeat this process for new and emerging technologies that will develop in the future. By being able to quickly analyze what technologies are effective it will save time and resources from being wasted on new technologies that don't have practical applications in my educational setting.

The other application that we participated in was creating a lesson that utilized a new technology and then commenting on how the technology used was beneficial for learning. By completing these two steps in week 6 and 7 it really gave great preparation for creating lessons that feature new technology and also how to rationalize the use.

We had some great resources during this course and one that I found particularly helpful was the article titled, "Change Agents." What I liked about the article and what I found beneficial was that they mapped out four ways that technology is changing education for the 21st century.(Lemke & Coughlin 2009) By keeping these "change agents" in mind it really gave me a criteria when looking at emerging technologies. I hope to refer back to this article when I am deciding how beneficial a new technology is.

Although this school year is ending shortly I feel confident that I will start the new school year in August with several emerging technologies integrated into my lessons. It is also my hope to secure a new position as a technology advisor in my school district which would make the learning and applications from this course even more relevant. I really am looking forward to combining the experiences of this course with the education I've received from previous courses to make myself a higher quality of educator and also to provide a better service to the 21st century learners.

Lemke, C., & Coughlin, E. (2009). The change agents. Educational Leadership, 67(1), 54–59.

A Presentation About the Benefits of Online Learning

WALDEN EDUC-6714I-1 Course Reflection- Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology

Over the duration of this course we have been focusing on making adaptations to the way we teach to reach the unique needs of every learner. The two strategies that we spent the most time with were, the Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction. Both of these teaching strategies go hand in hand with technology so they were perfect focal points for the course.

Before taking the course I was familiar with D.I., but not as knowledgeable about UDL. The act of creating a presentation for my colleagues on UDL was such a positive experience. By taking on the challenge of becoming an expert on UDL I really gained so much more insight than just reading and answering questions. For my presentation I created a UDL website. Although there was a lot of extra work in creating this type of project, the idea that other teachers in any part of the world could be able to access it and gain knowledge was extremely motivating.

Creating this project and completing other assignments for the course was made much easier with the help of our Differention Station social network. The purpose of the network was to share resources and ideas with group members on the subject of reaching all learners. I can only speak for my own group, but I think this was a very successful concept. The resources shared were in-valuable and being able to get feedback was extremely helpful. What is also great about this process is that all the communication is readily available for future access. For myself I plan on using the resources shared on the network whenever I am designing lessons and looking for ways to differentiate by analyzing my student’s needs and then checking posts to find applicable resources. My classmates shared several online and software resources that I can see myself utilizing several times during the school year to implement the principals of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction.

One of the immediate changes I plan on making in my own classroom is looking to create at least one alternative within each lesson. By alternative I mean giving students other options in the way student’s get information, use information, or are assessed. The one thing that I’ve really picked up from this course is that it is not so much about creating a unique plan for everyone, but by giving alternatives and options we can reach a broader scope of needs and learning styles. Technology can be such a great tool for this task simply because of the myriad of possibilities that it can offer. In classrooms 15 years ago computers and technology was only used for educational games, but today they can be tools for research, creation, and communication, just to name a few. I think with all that technology has to offer it creates a great situation for teachers who want to create adjustments that meet learning needs. I plan on using several of the tech resources and ideas from this course as soon as possible to really do what is best for my students. By meeting their unique needs, the hope is that every student receives a higher quality of education that caters to what works best for them.

61713I-1 Reflection

As this course and the year comes to a close we can relflect on our GAME plans and the other new insights that we can take away from our Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas class. To start, the GAME plan that I developed early in this course has been very successful. I've maintained my goal of integrating one online networking lesson and one lesson that offers several technology choices every month. I will continue to work towards meeting this goal with the rest of this school year.

The one thing that I really am taking away from putting this plan together is how effective the process is. Setting goals, actions, monitoring, and evaluation are the simple steps that I can follow for integrating new plans and goals in and out of the classroom. I'm really hoping to keep up my current plan and continue it next year while integrating a third goal of maintaining a full featured class website, following the GAME plan strategy.

In regards to technology integration,creating a unit plan in this course is something that I was happy to create, because I knew it was something I could actually use. For that reason I'm looking forward to hopefully putting it into play next month and seeing how these technology rich lessons work with students.

I've gotten a lot from communicating with peers and gotten the most from communicating in our discussion board. Hearing about classmates PBL and social networking learning ideas really gave me some inspirations for ways to include similar ideas in my 4th grade class. I'm looking forward to my last two Walden courses and the rest of this school year to put these ideas and everything else I've been picking up from Walden courses into practice. I'm also hoping to apply for a new position as a tech advisor with this completed degree, so I should probably follow the GAME plan model to make that a reality.

Using the GAME plan Process with Students

This week we've looking at digital storytelling and that is just one of the activities I am trying to include in my GAME plan to better meet the needs of my students. After looking at the ISTE NETS for students I can think about how they connect to my GAME plan and what I can do to better reach those technology goals.

The two main goals for my plan have been to add more online collaborative experiences and experiences that give students technology choices for how they want to complete assignments. With that in mind the first thing that jumped out from the technology standards was communication and collaboration. Much of the details of that standard matched closely with my own goal of incorporating more collaborative projects.

One technology standard that I saw that I want to work with in my GAME plan is research and information fluency. In elementary school conducting research on the internet can be challenging because of the various levels of experience with computers and the internet. However I want to work more on including these skills with my GAME plan goals so that all students can be prepared for middle school when they will be starting to do more online research. If any teachers have some ideas or projects for students who might just be starting out with research and online inquiry that would be greatly appreciated.

The last technology standard that I am hoping to incorporate more in my GAME plan and classroom is Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making. I especially think this is important at the 4th grade level because they are shifting from the stage of being given instruction and following it to really starting think on their own about what they want and how they can go about getting it. So with my collaborative and choices goals I am hoping that those assignments can have added levels of inquiry and open ended expectations. Any ideas for making this happen with my group of 4th graders would also be greatly appreciated.

Next week is our last week so I wanted to say thank you to all the other teachers who have given me a lot of grade ideas. Taking these courses online gives us the unique opportunity to connect in ways that a normal classroom doesn't provide. I hope that some of these connections continue for future courses and long careers as quality educators.

Revising My Game Plan

Throughout our Walden Course we have been picking up a lot of great ideas and insights from our resources and communicating with other teachers in blogs and discussions. I've been working these new ideas into my own GAME plan and I think that it has really made a difference in providing a better quality of education in my classroom. Some of the ideas that I have implemented or plan on implementing is a podcast assignment and an overhaul of my classroom website so that it is a communication portal for my students.

I am still working towards my GAME plan goals of implementing one online collaborative assignment and one assignment that gives students several technology options to complete. I have been successful so far and I would really like to stay on top of my plan as this Walden course wraps up.

Looking at the NETS for teachers I think I would like to expand my goals to work more towards the 6th technology standard of social, ethical, and human issues. I feel that I should be teaching and modeling a lot more of the proper and ethical ways for using the internet so that my younger students start on the right foot to use the internet safely and with purpose.

I think the key to continuing to work towards goals and developing new goals is to communicate with other technology savvy teachers to borrow ideas and clarify our own thinking. I'm planning on continuing to take ideas from teachers in my Walden courses, other employees in my building, and other teachers that I have met and connected with online.

If any other Walden teachers know of a good place to network with other teachers who integrate technology in the classroom please share and enjoy the rest of this week.

Evaluating my GAME Plan- Week 5

How effective were your actions in helping to meet your goals?
Things have been going well. I really worked hard this week to meet my 2nd goal of offering students choices and catering lessons to individuals by giving them several options for our poetry unit. The challenge was explaining each type of poetry for the students to choose from. This was really time consuming and I might re-evaluate how I explain the choices if I use this strategy in the future.

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I've learned that it giving students options means more time needs to be set aside to explain each option and give students choices. This is an adjustment that I needed to make so that I could delegate enough time for students to then work on there projects, which this week was poetry.

What do you still have to learn?
I would like to organize a wikipage for my Washington State social studies unit. I can remember learning about a good place to set up a wikipage from early in my Walden coursework, but can not recall. If anyone can remember or can recommend a appropriate site for organizing a wikipage I would appreciate it. I will do some research and see what I can come up with as well.

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
I am going to continue to implement my goals, but I need to start organizing time better. Since I teach elementary school I divide the day by subjects so I am lucky that I can plan to delegate more time on certain days for projects that require this. When I am looking at implementing strategies and technology this is something that I want to make sure I take into consideration for the future.