Spotlight on Emerging Technology 6715

Spotlight on Emerging Technology Presentation:

http://prezi.com/rbs-wjndbf8i/course-management-system/

Anticipation of Colleagues Rebut:

After visiting moodle.com and navigating through the website I realized that for some educators and teachers CMS (Course Management Systems) is a great technology tool to have and use as part of their everyday teaching and learning. But for others who aren’t as technologically savvy, CMS’s are quite intimidating and overwhelming. Teacher’s are already short on time, that some will think that Course Management systems will take up a lot more time that they don’t have.

As I present this presentation to my colleagues I am anticipating a lot of rebut and complaining due to not only time being an issue, but for some of the veteran (older) teachers who aren’t as up to date with technology. What they need to realize is the flexibility and accessibility of CMS’s and Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). With using Course Management Systems and Virtual Learning Environments there are pros and cons.

Some of the pros of using these emerging technologies are having accessibility anytime and anywhere. Students, parents, and teachers will have the ability to sign onto these networks at anytime and navigate and search for whatever information they are looking for. Another pro would be the frequent parent/teacher communication. In today’s busy society the parent involvement is decreasing drastically. Since we are becoming such a 21^st century technology world, more parents are connected to the Internet. Whether its cell phones, email, I-Pads and much more, the parents would rather contact through technology rather than face to face. One of the best attributes about these programs is the increase in participation. Students love getting to spend time on the computer and if we gave them a secure VLE with plenty of material to search through, I really feel as though it will improve the student participation.

Although, I would love to be able to “sell” Course Management Systems and Virtual Learning Environment’s to my colleagues and only have pros to using these networks, there are some cons. I know that for the district we teach in the biggest concern is going to be that a lot of our students don’t have Internet accessibility due to being in a low-income area. What they don’t understand is that the students will always have accessibility to it during the day. I know that doesn’t make it accessible anytime, anywhere, but depending on what the teachers put on these networks the students won’t always need to use them at home. Another con that I am sure my colleagues will rebut is losing face-to-face interaction with parents and students. As much as I would love to agree with them that this is a negative, I truly feel that using these programs will get us further with the parents and have greater communication since technology is such an on- the- go tool.

Teachers, educators, parents and students won’t have any clue how to use these new technological programs unless we teachers who know how to use them teach it. Although I know this won’t be an easy presentation due to the fact that my staff can be hard to “sell” I think that once they play around with it and see what all can be done, they will slowly learn to love the idea.

Reflection 6714

This class, Reaching and Engaging all Learners through Technology has been so enlightening and eye opening. I have learned so many different tools and resources to use and implement into my classroom. Being able to work in a social network group and learn from each other has been really helpful and important. I always thought I was doing a pretty good job of trying to meet the needs of all of my students especially the ones who have IEP's, but after taking this class and learning about all new tools and resources, I feel as though I am falling short on my responsibilities as a teacher. This class has made me realize that I have the classroom environment conducive to learning, but now I need to focus on the needs of the individual students to make sure they succeed and learn.

The first thing that I am going to change and implement into my classroom is giving my students a learning styles survey in the beginning of the year. Starting the year off with a starting point of where each of my students is and how they prefer to learn will be a key component of meeting their learning needs throughout the year. Another tool I will implement a lot more of is technology. Our school has so much technology available to us, that I need to take advantage of it and use it. I have started implementing the use of a SMART slate which is a mini smart board. The students can participate in interactive games using the SMART slate. I have also let the students participate in projects using the programs powerpoint, kidspiration, and word.

After taking this class I have so many new ideas for my students to participate in using technology that I have to slow down and think about how to go about them and if my ideas are grade appropriate. Dr. Stephanie Throne and Dr. Grace Smith stated that we are "falling short at our jobs if we don't give them the tools they are capable of learning." This is so true. If we don't give our students the tools they are able to learn, then we aren't doing our job. We live and teach in the 21st century so we need to teach to what the student are growing into, not what was appropriate in the past.

GAME Plane Reflection Week 8

Looking back at my GAME plan and the goals that I set for myself, I am very satisfied with the final outcome. My 2 goals were to integrate creative lesson plans using technology and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness. I have accomplished these goals with confidence and am very happy with the outcomes. Not only did I incorporate creative lessons using technology, but I also got to use my Unit Plan lessons that I created in Week 7 in my classroom to see if they worked.

Not only did I accomplish my GAME plan goals, but I learned so many more activities and ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Technology is really a great tool when dealing with differentiated instruction. It gives so many different options and tools to students that have different learning abilities. One tool that I find to fit the needs of most students is Voice Thread. The students have options on how they do it. They can either record their information or they can type it. Depending on what kind of learner they are, they can choose which one best fits their need.

After taking this course, and becoming more familiar with the different technology programs and tools that are out there, I will make it a point to incorporate technology into every subject area. My students love learning different things on the computer. According to them they don't think the computer is actually learning. They think its play time. So as long as they are learning while "playing" then I am doing my job. Of course I will always monitor the students as they "learn and play". This course has really got me excited for more technology interaction.

Using the GAME plan with Students

After going through the GAME plan process of setting Goals, taking Action, Monitoring progress toward achieving goals and Evaluating whether the goals were achieved and Extend your learning to new situations, (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) I have learned a lot. I really felt that the GAME plan kept me on track of meeting my goals. I could always look back at the goals I set and alter them depending on what I felt needed to be done. I didn't want to let myself down by not achieving my goal, so continually looking back at my goals was motivation to successfully achieve them.

The GAME plan process would be very beneficial with students. If they can set there goals early and understand what it takes to meet their goals, they will be more likely to take action on how they are going to go about achieving their personal goals. Does anyone have any good ideas for lower elementary in creating their GAME plan for the NET standards?

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Revising my GAME Plan

At this point I don't feel as though my GAME plan needs to be revised. I feel very strongly about my progress and success of my GAME plan and integrating technology into my lessons. I really like how the book Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach has broken down the chapters into content area specifics and how to incorporate technology into each separate content area. Since I teach 2nd grade, it was very helpful to me to see how it is used in a variety of the content areas since I teach all of them. I really enjoyed learning different ways to incorporate technology into the social studies curriculum, because sometimes, I find it harder to get good solid lessons for social studies. This has given me some really good ideas.

My two NETS-T standards that I chose were:

• Teachers promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
• Teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

I really feel like with all the technology integration that I am incorporating into my lessons the standard of promoting, supporting, and modeling creativity and innovative thinking is really coming to a head. The students are getting so excited about the use of new technology. I don't feel as though I am quite ready to add new goals, but I will extend my previous goals by adding in another form of technology. I would like to try and incorporate digital cameras within in my classroom. I guess this could be considered a new goal or an addition onto my previous goals. I would need to find some good lesson plans that involved digital cameras. That can be on my next GAME plan.

All in all I am really please with myself on how I approached my GAME plan and how I have achieved my goals. I was definitely a self-directed learner. "You are self-directed anytime you learn a new skill or pursue more information about an intriguing topic, sparked by something you read or heard." (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer (2009)

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Evaluating my GAME plan progress

Well, I can finally say that I think my GAME plan is almost mastered. I have my students using the slate board daily. They are using it to solve math problems, edit sentences with grammar and correct end punctuation, drawing life cycles in the correct sequence, and creating their own t-charts of living and non-living things. It is amazing what technology does to the atmosphere of the classroom. When the students are using the slate board, they know that their are rules and that if they break any of the rules and aren't working as a group or a team, they lose their privilege to participate using the smart slate. Technology engages the students on content area that with paper and pencil was boring to them.

I have not quite mastered using the mimio bar and finding lessons that go a long with it. One reason is because I am still waiting for one to come available to keep in my classroom, and two I haven't had the time to learn how to use the smart slate as well as the mimio bar. Our school uses the program microsoft OneNote to communicate and share different lessons and activities, so slowly people are adding their own personal templates that they created or found to OneNote for us to use with the Mimio bar. I am hoping that soon I will get the chance to integrate the Mimio bar into my lessons and use it with my students for interactive activities. "As a self-directed lifelong learner, you'll be able to respond to the rapid and continuous technological changes that inevitably will occur during your professional career, keep your skills up-to-date, and better meet the needs of your students today and in the future."

In order to master my GAME plan I am going to have to adjust my goal of finding lessons for the Mimio bar and strictly stick with lessons that go along with the smart slate, since that is the tool I have available right now. Availability is key with technology in our school. Our school is so large that it takes awhile to be "my turn" with using the different technology tools.

Monitoring my GAME plan

Well, I have some pro's and con's about my GAME plan. There have been a few bumps in the road. While I have been so excited and pumped about learning different lessons that incorporate technology, the technology that I have checked out and wanted to learn more about has been a little difficult. The Smart "Slate" that I checked out from the media center wouldn't hook up to my laptop so I couldn't get it to be "interactive" for the students to use. Today, our technology coordinator came to help me and now it is up and running. I need to play around with it a little more before I let the students play with it. Then the mimio bar that I was planning on checking out, there is a waiting list for people who all of a sudden want to try it. (Can you tell I am a little bitter, because I just want to jump into this technology with both feet). On a positive note, I am learning different lessons that I can incorporate into the curriculum and let the students use. I am familiarizing myself with a whole new world of technology integration.

I need to modify part of my plan, which is involving our media specialist, while she is willing to work with me and help me find books that go with our curriculum, she doesn't really seem to have the time right now. I think I am going to have to set up a meeting with her to just jot a few book titles down and see if I can go from there. Otherwise, I am going to have to go and make myself comfortable in the library and find these books myself.

So far I have learned that if achieving my GAME plan involves help of another staff member, things may take a little bit longer. I am beginning to realize that I have to teach myself about the latest and greatest. They have always said that to be technology savvy you must play and create trial and error. "You can pursue informal learning opportunities by reading books, completing tutorials, asking others, or searching the web to find answers to your personal questions." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) So that is my next step.

1. Cennamo, K., Ertmer, P., & Ross, J. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.