Looking Back at Our Future: A Reflection on Emerging Technologies for the Classroom

We are now at the end of our last course in the Integrating Technology into he Curriculum Masters program at Walden University. Finally! As our final project in our emerging technologies class, we were asked to create a lesson that uses an emerging technology, substantiate the use of this technology with our colleagues and administration, and then pursue funding through a grant proposal. This project is an excellent way to showcase all that we have learned in this course.

The initial step in this process was the identification of an emerging technology that we would like to use with our students. To do this we had to examine technologies and evaluate them for effectiveness with our students. Then we had to build a lesson that integrates this technology into the curriculum. I chose to create a lesson about the moon's phases and its effects on tides using Moodle and Edusim. It was really exciting to search for and find so many multimedia resources to add to the class Moodle for this lesson. I found games and videos and interactive websites. I think I most enjoyed exploring the learning package from Edusim "Night & Day – Earth & Moon." I am looking forward to seeing my students experience these resources, too.

The next step involved preparing a report to substantiate the use of this technology with our students. This was the most thought-provoking portion of this assignment, and the most challenging. It is easy to imagine the arguments against implementing new technologies that many of our colleagues and administrators might use. Thankfully, this course equipped us with information to combat these attitudes. We specified the ways that the assignment supports content as well as the needs of the 21^st Century student, and explained how these two goals are compatible. We explained the need for supporting both goals. Then we provided an argument for technology policy changes in our schools and districts. To do this effectively we had to draw upon the knowledge that we have gained throughout this program.

The last portion of this assignment had us writing a rationale for a grant proposal seeking funds for the technology we used in our lessons. Once again, we had to explain how the technology would effect our students' learning and explain how it would prepare them for living, working, and learning in the 21^st Century. We also had to explain how the technology would transform our students' learning by engaging the students and addressing their modality and ability needs. To do this we had to understand how 21^st Century students differ from past students and find ways that the technology meets those needs.

I think it is important that those of us finishing this program take on the role of technology leaders in our schools, if we haven't already. To do this, I will actively seek out emerging technologies to implement in my classroom. I will follow blogs of other technology leaders and frequent websites that stay ahead of the curve on Technology. Another way that I might keep abreast of what is new is by joining educator communities on Second Life and checking in to see what is happening.

To influence and lead the adoption of the technologies I discover as well as the implementation of technologies that support 21^st Century Learners, I will provide an example of their implementation in my classroom. After successful implementation in my classroom, I will seek out other teachers with an inclination toward technology and share it with them. By doing this, we will be able to demonstrate the potential of the technology on student learning. One teacher can influence a few, but a team of teachers can influence many! It is my hope that by influencing others in my school, we can help create an environment where students are ready to face the challenges of the technology-rich world they will inherit.

Glogster

Try Moodle!

Here is a glog I put together to show the benefits of using Moodle in the classroom. I hope you enjoy it!

http://mrsjeffers.edu.glogster.com/trymoodle/

Looking Back...

Once again, I am asked to reflect upon my latest course at Walden University, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology.

One of the most beneficial projects of this course has been the group Ning. On it, we have shared resourses and strategies for Universal Design for Learing and Differentiated Instruction, many of which will be very helpful to me going forward. We have shared sites that will help us get to know our students, and when you have over 500 students with over 600 planneed for next year, any help in this area is greatly appreciated! If I can get to know my students, their interests, and their abilities, I will understand how to best serve them. Without this understanding, I am just fumbling around in the dark, so to speak.

There were other ideas presented that I will implement. We learned about computer helps such as sticky keys and text-to-speech software that can be useful for some of my students. We learned about the need for multiple means of represetation, action, and engagement. Honestly, this will be hard in the computer lab because of the time constraints that I face with my students, but I plan to do a much better job of giving my students the choices that will keep them engaged and help them master my content.

Another change that I wish to implement is incorporating more and better assessments into my teaching. Because I am not held responsible for grading my stduents' work, I tend to let this slide so that we can move on to the next project. We store our work in a folder on our computers that serves as a sort of digital portfolio, but I want to formalize this a bit. I want my students to start adding their own assessments of the work they have created. I want them to be able to see clearly what they have learned and accomplished in my room. It is important to me that my lab be fun, but the students must know that they are learning, too.

Though this course was definitely beneficial, I have to say that I have most looked forward to our next course in this program, Emerging Technologies. I was really encouraged when the course materials arrived in an envelope too thin to contain a book because "emerging" technologies could never be presented that way. By the time a book was published, they would no longer be "emerging," would they?

I imagine I will soon be letting you know about the emerging technologies I learn about. I hope they live up to my expectations!

Here is a VoiceThread that I did for my current Walden course.

http://voicethread.com/share/1039251/

Here is a Glog that I did for our Walden course. I hope you like it!

http://mrsjeffers.edu.glogster.com/learning-about-udl/

Reflections and New Prospects

I have gained a lot from my latest course at Walden. In this course, we learned about the GAME plan and were asked to use it as a tool to help us strengthen our confidence in at least two indicators in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). I chose the two that involved collaboration with students, peers, and community members and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness. I liked the way the GAME plan forced me to organize my plan of attack on my new learning. Instead of just haphazardly trying out new skills and activities, I first worked out how I planned to implement them and the means I would use to judge their and my effectiveness. I am not naturally so systematic in my approach to new things, and honestly, I expected it to be quite a chore, yet it was surprisingly refreshing. However, because we all teach in an imperfect world, I did run into some snafus in this process. I learned that this process has the potential to really help me focus my energies in obtaining the goals I set for myself, but that I must be flexible as well. To that end, I am still waiting to finish some of the plans I laid for myself.

I did pick up some wonderful new technologies that I plan on using with my students. For example, someone in our class mentioned Kerpoof.com, and I think this is going to be a wonderful way to introduce my students to social networking in a completely safe way while we work on our writing skills. Communication and collaboration is one NETS-S that I find difficult to cover due to the fact that so many wonderful sites are blocked by my district. The district administration, while being very pro-technology, has a very negative view of social networking, and I am excited to have a way around this problem.

As I think about the changes that all of this will bring to my teaching, I must remind you that my situation is different from most of my peers in my Walden course. I am a computer lab teacher, so each of my lessons revolves around technology. I am always looking for new technology lessons, but instead of looking for ways to incorporate technology into my content lessons, I am looking for ways to incorporate content into my technology lessons. The difference may be subtle, but it is different. This course has given me lots of ideas for incorporating content, such as through digital storytelling and problem based learning. I am excited to use these new skills with my students!

This course has also opened my eyes to another set of "students" in my school. I want to share my new knowledge with the teachers I work with. Over the last week, I have helped my principal get his first blog and podcast up and running, and he has decided that this would be good for me to share with our faculty. In our school, each grade level has a day each month where they spend time after school in professional development. I am going to be using some of this time to teach our teachers about podcasting first, and then I hope to share blogging and more with them. I was very excited that my principal saw the educational prospects these technologies hold for our students. It is my hope that as I become comfortable with other technologies that I will be able to share them as well. It is also my hope that many others in my school will share my enthusiasm with technology. I can't wait to get started!

Fun and GAMEs!

In this last blog assignment for this Walden course, we are asked to describe how we will use the GAME plan process with our students to develop proficiency in NETS-S. (http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm) Looking at these standards, I see several (well actually, quite a lot) that my students need to work on. The first one that I want to tackle in my elementary computer lab is

	2. Communication and Collaboration
	Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Though I think we do a very good job of collaborating within the walls of my classroom or even within the walls of my school, I feel that we do not nearly do enough of this with learners and experts in other locations. I also do not feel that we do enough collaboration online. This is my fault. I do not have any trouble creating a lesson that uses online collaboration, for instance, but I am intimidated by the implementation of such a lesson. There are just so many variables to manage. I think I need to accept that the first try at one of these projects might not be perfect, but the next try will be better, and the next even better.

One way to get the ball rolling on my focus on communication and collaboration would be to get the students to establish their own GAME plans as guides for increasing their proficiency in this area. I understand that by having the students write their own GAME plans, they will gain ownership of their own learning. They will not just have to passively accept what the teacher has handed down in her role as classroom dictator. They will be motivated to take responsibility.

However, I do have a concern about this process. Because the GAME plan strategy is so learner-directed, it seems that without considerable (obsessive?) teacher monitoring (Get out the roller skates!), there is a lot of room for students to get distracted, off task, or even actively engaged, but towards the wrong goal. I would think that it would take some training for students to fully understand their role in this process. To this end, I think I would introduce this strategy by discussing the NETS-S with my students and having them come to a consensus on a group goal. Then we would develop the GAME plan together. This way I could provide guidance as the teachers become familiar and adept at this process.

After one cycle of GAME, I would have my students work on another plan in groups. That would give them a little more autonomy, but allow me to monitor their progress in a manageable manner. Then I would have them work on individual GAME plans, but we would all do the same goal so that we could collaborate where needed. Only then would I send them "out on their own."

As the computer lab teacher, I would have a better chance at introducing the GAME plan with my students this way. I see all of the students in my school each week, so I could start my students with the first steps I mentioned in the early grades and move toward the later steps in the older grades. A regular classroom teacher might have trouble fitting all of this in within the window of one school year.

Anyway, I would appreciate any comments anyone has for my GAME plan implementation. Thanks for reading!

Not Letting Go...

This week in our Walden course we are asked to llook once again at our progress towards meeting the goals of our GAME plan. I am feeling like a bit of a broken record here (remember those?), but I am still stuck. I am no where near ready to let go of the goals and plans I have made even though my schedule may have shifted somewhat. I still want to accomplish what I set out to do, and I will. As a matter of fact, I find the goals I established to be ones that require an ongoing effort. They are not the types of goals that can be ticked off my list. These are areas that I will continue to try to improve.

That said, there are some things that I have learned and can apply to my instructional strategy. As an action to accompany one of my goals, I have planned on creating class wikis with my students. I have tried this once before, and the biggest frustration was getting all of the students to join the wiki. They needed email addresses, and if they used mine, all of the options were not available to them. One of my peers in our online learning community had run into the same problem and provided a simple solution. Now I am no longer dreading this part of our wiki activity when we get to work on it.

Another thing I have learned is that it might be a little rough to get the ball rolling, so to speak, when beginning a new technology project, but the results are well worth it. For example, getting teacher buy-in for the teacher wiki projects ahs not been easy, but I think it is begining to come together. I can envision it as being the go-to source when teachersare looking for resources for a particular lesson they want to teach. It may take us a while to get it there, but I know it is going to happen!

I am really not ready to set new learning goals for myself at this time, because I do not feel like I have made the progress I would like on the ones I have already chosen. Once again...I will get there. I would like to expand my use of podcasts to other classes in our school and help other teachers start podcasts on their web pages, too. I think it would be a wonderful way for them to showcase what is going on in their classes. We have monthly professional development meetings by grade level in our school. Perhaps I could find out if a grade or grades would be interested in having me teach them how to do this during that time. I mean, if we have to stay after school, we might as well learn something useful, right?

One thing that I want to keep in mind as I set new goals for myself is to try to do a better job of timing the start of my actions to accomplish these goals. It seems like my lab time with my students is constantly being interrupted, but some months are better than others. Next time, I want to start my GAME plan in one of those "good" windows.

A Holding Pattern...

Well, I seem to be in pretty much the same place this week that I was in last week with my GAME plan. I am still focusing on getting A+, the tutorial program I mentioned in my previous posts, up and running, and I think I am just about there. The kids seem to really like the motivational program I have initiated with it, and they should be comfortable enough to work on it in their classrooms. This will hopefully free me up so that I can work on my standards. Won't that be wonderful!

The teachers I have spoken to about the wiki are still willing to add their input to the teacher wikis, but the art teacher has asked if we can wait just a little bit to work on the school gallery. I have worked with her on things in the past, and I know that this will get done. She wants to see our school establish a gallery as much as I do, so as soon as she can handle working on it with me, we will tackle that project.

The student Skype and wiki projects that I had hoped to initiate are still on hold for the moment. As I mentioned in prior posts, the students started their research for the wikis earlier, and I think that we will return to that project in a week or so. I actually had a student ask me when we were going to get back to that last week. I was glad to know that the interest was still there even after such a large interruption. That is promising!!!

Through all of these struggles, I have learned one thing about my GAME plan. Flexibility is a vital component that is not given proper credit in this acronym. A teacher can have the best plans in the world, but the school and classroom situation may change and render the plans unobtainable, at least for the moment. The teacher needs to be able to either adjust her plan or be willing to put them on hold until the situation changes.

Until my situation changes, I will continue to do what I can to accomplish my GAME plan now and be patient until I can accomplish the rest.

Just checking in again...

Stopping for just a moment to check where I am on my GAME plan, I realize that I am in kind of a standstill. I hate to say that, but I do want to be honest. There hasn't been much of any change since last week.

Parts of my plan are still on hold because I am not actually teaching much (any) right now: I am administering a tutorial program called A+ to my students, and I didn't realize that I would be doing this for so long. The original plan was to get the students used to the program so they could comfortably go back to their classrooms and work on it with their own teachers, and I think I will be able to let it go (to some extent) very soon. However, I am now implementing a new reward/motivation system for the program, and I have to get that running first.

I have also been out of school for 3 days this week and had another project (the school's 4-page newsletter) to complete. I wish I had had moe time this week to work on my plan.

I have managed to do some things, though. I have explained the teacher wikis to a few of my peers and asked them to share their favorite sites. The podcasts are still up and running, as they were last week. Because of a crazy schedue, I haven't had lunch with the art teacher or even been able to share more than two sentences in a row with her, but I should see her tomorrow and get the ball rolling for the student art gallery.

The student wiki projects and the student skype projects are not cancelled: They are just briefly postponed. I plan to pick up those projects again as soon as I am back to my regular teaching schedule. (Trust me: I can't wait!) Cross your fingers and pray that this happens soon!

Checking In

Looking at the GAME plan that I created last week, I asked myself the following questions:
What resources will you need to carry out your plan (video, reading, experts or colleagues, etc)?
What additional information do you need?
What steps have you been able to take so far?

The resources I need to carry out my plan are already available in my school. We have a computer lab and laptop carts for the students. We have laptops for all of our teachers. Microphones, headphones, and headsets are available. We also have a few webcams available. Each classroom has a Smartboard and we have a camera to use to photograph student work and school events.

I need to see about locating websites that connect interested teachers, and I need to look into upgrading my VoiceThread subscription. Either that or I need to get the other teachers in my school to subscribe. I also need to find teachers who would be willing to add resources to the wikis so that we can publicize them to the faculty of my school.

So far, I have been able to set up the teacher wikis that I have planned, and I have been able to have my students start the research for their wikis. I have begun to publish podcasts of students reading their writing on our school website. I have not been able to begin my Skype projects, but my principal has asked me to do a tutorial program called A+ with my classes, so this part of my GAME plan will just have to be delayed. I do have one class who is interested in this project, so at least I will be able to assist them during my planning time. One last thing I need to do is meet with our art teacher to plan the student gallery. I think we may be able to do this during our mutual planning time this week.

I’ll be back with you next week to let you know how I am coming along.

My GAME Plan

As an elementary computer lab teacher, I work with students ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade for about an hour each per week when my class is not interrupted for testing, a mandated tutorial program, or an assembly. That is a very limited time window in which to accomplish my technology goals. Therefore, I strive to collaborate as much as possible with classroom teachers in my school. This way, I can reinforce the content standards while my students learn about technology and my students can tackle more complex projects than they could possibly do in my lab alone. I think this creates a wining situation for my students.

In my current course at Walden, I have been asked to develop a GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 4) for strengthening my confidence in at least two indicators in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). With my situation in mind, here is my plan.

Goals
3b. Teachers collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
4d. Teachers develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

Actions
3b. Develop a wiki for teachers to share ideas and resources. Teachers will be able to share Smartboard activities, arts-integrations lessons (we are an arts-integration school), helpful websites, and more traditional types of activities. Publicize the wiki.
Have students develop wikis about content they are studying. These would be collaborative lessons with classroom teachers. The product of these wikis would also be shared with the faculty of my school in an effort to encourage more teachers to use this tool.
Publish a school art gallery on VoiceThread to allow parents and community members to view and comment on student work.
Publish podcasts of student writing.
Classes will use Skype to meet with expert community members about content they are studying. For instance, they might meet with a banker when studying interest or a wildlife expert when studying about animal adaptations.
4d. Search for websites that connect teachers who are interested in collaborating on projects and contact those teachers.
Have our classes to use Skype to collaborate with students in other countries.
Post work on VoiceThread for our newfound network of learners to collaborate or comment.
Develop a wiki with the other class about the topic we are sharing.

Monitor
Ask the following questions:
3b. Are the teachers participating in the teacher wiki? Do they know about it? In the students’ wiki, are the students learning the content? Can they discuss what they are learning? Do the gallery and podcasts have visitors? How can we encourage more visitors? Do the parents know about them? Who are the classes Skyping? What other experts can we contact? How do we locate these people?
4d. Are there any teachers in my network that have already tried this activity? How did they find partners? Are there other sites for ideas about such projects that I can learn from? After talking with my partner teacher, are their changes to the project that he or she would suggest? Are the students excited about the project? If not, how can we increase their excitement? If so, how do we maintain it?

Evaluate and Extend
Ask the following questions:
3b. Did the collaborating teachers value this project? In what ways would they change it? Did the students master the content according to the classroom teacher’s assessment? Would the classroom teachers recommend the project idea to their peers? Did the parents and community respond to the gallery and podcasts? In what other ways can I collaborate with these stakeholders?
4d. In addition to the cultural understanding and global awareness, did the students master the content portion of the project? In what ways could I improve this project? Does the cooperating teacher have any suggestions? What changes would the students suggest? What other tools could we use to collaborate with students from other cultures? How can I get other teachers in our school involved in such projects?

I hope that my focus on these areas will increase my proficiency, make me a better teacher, and make my class more engaging for my students. I would appreciate any ideas anyone wishes to share regarding my plan.

Thanks for reading!

References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
NETS for Teachers. (2008). International Society for Technology in Education. Retreived January 13, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/Nets_for_Teachers.htm

Reflection

I have grown so much as an educator through my study of integrating technology into the classroom at Walden University. The course I am just completing, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, has proven to be just as enlightening as my prior courses. Thought I have learned much in this course, the one thing that has really struck me is how our students need to be taught new literacy skills to be able to successfully maneuver in our digital world. Yes, reading and writing are still critical, but students need to be able to use these skills within a new setting. I remember being told to focus on having our students to read more and more nonfiction, and this was on the right track, but the information that our students are bombarded with requires much more than being able to understand how to read nonfiction print. Students are often faced with unreliable, inaccurate, and invalid information online, and they need to not only be able to read this information and glean what is relevant and important, but they need to decide if the information is to be trusted. This involves a whole separate set of skills, but they are skills that are definitely worth cultivating in both ourselves and our students.

As an elementary computer lab teacher, the bulk of the responsibility of teaching these skills is likely to fall on me, at least until the majority of my peers understand the importance of information literacy. However, these skills really need to be taught in the context of the rest of the content my students are learning. I don’t believe that any skill taught in isolation will make connections for the student and therefore will not be likely to be valued or retained. Because of this, I will be seeking more and more opportunities to collaborate with other teachers in my school and help my students make the necessary connections. This will also provide me the opportunity to teach the new literacy skills and their importance to my peers. I feel that as we share successful collaborative projects with the rest of the school, others will “catch the fever” and want to use the wonderful tools available to them. This should make the learning of both content and the information literacy more relevant to our students, and this should be a goal of all teachers, not just the tech savvy.

Because technology is always changing, a professional goal I have is to be able to keep up with new tools available. There are many ways to accomplish this goal. One way is to establish a network of others who value technology. There is a group of us in my school district, and we meet periodically and share a group on FaceBook. I am also working on creating wikis for teachers at my school to share digital resources. Other means include reading blogs focusing on technology, attending workshops, and joining ISTE. Their journal is wonderful!

Another professional goal that I have is to introduce new technological tools to my peers. Our school is about to start monthly professional development meetings for each grade level. This would be an excellent time to share a new idea for integrating technology with our staff. In a recent evaluation of our school, we were told that we possessed wonderful technology resources, but that they were not being used to their full potential. I think I can help to fix that problem. I also think that as the computer lab teacher for my school, I should be an advocate for technology. And as I work through my Walden courses, I am feeling more and more confident that I am quite capable to meet this challenge.

Critical Evaluation Screencast

Our Walden assignment this week was to use screencasting software to critically evaluate a website. I enjoyed looking through the websites listed for us. They were all quite humorous. I will list them for you at the bottom of this posting so that you too can get a chuckle.

As I was doing this screencast, I kept thinking of ways that I could use this technology at my school. It would be wonderful for makeup lessons for absent students. It would also be a good way to explain concepts to the faculty (such as our new gradebook software) so that they could visit and revisit the video as needed. So many uses.

Oh well. For now, here is the link to my screencast. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope I didn't say "um" too many times!

http://screencast.com/t/YjdlOTZj



Just for fun, here are the links we had to choose from. Enjoy!
RYT Hospital Dwayne Medical Center
Help Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
MartinLutherKing.org
The British Stick Insect Foundation
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
Britain for Americans
Computer Tan
Save the Rennet

Reflecting on My Personal Learning Theory

This week I am reflecting on the changes to my own personal theory of learning and my ability to effectively and appropriately integrate technology into my classroom. I am realizing that some of my views have been altered, but that others remain fairly constant.

At the onset of this course, I made the following statement regarding my views on learning, "My personal learning theory is that learning is reliant upon students being engaged in the classroom and making connections with new information." Of course I still think that this holds true, but after taking this course, I would like to expand on this idea. Yes, learning is dependent upon students being engaged, but I really feel that the principles of the constructionists and social constructionists are also a crucial part of my personal theory. I can think of no better way to learn and remember something than to dig in and do it. Constructionists call the product of this hands-on approach an artifact. Social constructionists prescribe that students need to interact with others while creating their artifacts. Both of these ideas ring true with me, and I think that both of these ideas will help students make the connections that they need to make to learn.

As I have stated before, I am the computer lab instructor in an elementary school where I teach students in K-5th grades. This makes my situation as far as technology integration a little different from most of my classmates. My entire school year is devoted to technology. (Well, at least the parts not devoted to testing: MAP, STAR, etc.) My biggest struggle is not how to use technology in my class, but how to integrate it with other subjects so that I am not teaching technology in isolation. This is also one of my long-term goals. My students need to have an authentic purpose for the tecnology that we use. To this end, I have decided to make an even stronger effort to plan with other teachers in my school so that the projects in my room reinforce the standards and material being taught in the regular classroom. For instance, I am planning virtual field trip projects with the fifth grade social studies and science teachers so that our students can visit places we would never be able to visit otherwise. This way our students will be able to create episodic memories of their experiences. I plan on extending this to the lower grades this year as well.

Another technology that I plan to incorporate this year is cognitive mapping. I want to teach the students in my lab to use tools such as spinscape and Kidspiration (which we have, but is not being used) so that they can create visuals to take advantage of Paivio's dual codong theory, but I also want to teach my fellow teachers to do this so that they can use it in their classes on their Smartboards. I just see this as being so useful in the regular classrooms, and I think my peers will, too, once they are introduced to it.

Perhaps the technology that I am most excited about is Voicethread. I am already working with our art teacher to create an online gallery of student artwork using this tool. We will post this gallery on our school website, just like I post the podcasts of our Principal's Pride Writing winners each month. I can't wait for the students to share about what they have learned in completing their art projects instead of just having "pretty pictures" to show to our community. I think the students and community will be excited about this as well. Voicethread has other possibilities, too. I want to use it to have students share projects thay have completed in their classrooms and to collaborate on problems they are trying to solve. With guidance, I think this technology could be used with even the younger students in my school. The trick will be to interest their teachers in it so that they will collaborate with me.

I guess this leads into one of my biggest long-term goals. I want to show my fellow teachers what technologies are available to them and help them integrate these into their classrooms. I can do this first of all by modeling the technologies with the students in my lab. I think that once the teachers see what can be accomplished with technology, they will want to use it too. I can show them what the students are doing in the lab by asking them to allow the students to share their projects on the Smartboards in their classrooms. I can also offer professional development at my school or dsitrict on using these tools. I am also willing to give up my planning time to help my fellow teachers if they need assistance.

One last long-term goal that I would like to mention, and perhaps my toughest challenge, is to do a much better job of using technology with my kindergarteners. Most of them cannot read yet and they are so young with such short attention spans that one 55 minute block of computer lab time each week is just not ideal. I would love to have their lab time broken down into two shorter segments, but since this is not going to happen, I need to think of other solutions. I have never taught kindergarten before, and last year I spent entirely too much time on Starfall with a little Word and Paint and a few other websites in the mix. I need to find other activities and projects for them to complete in my lab, and herein lies my challenge. Where do I find these activites? Everything I seem to find online is for older students or doesn't fit well into a lab setting. I think my answer is to begin building a network of other educators who teach computer skills to kindergarteners. A wiki would be a good place to compile and share our ideas. Another idea would be to share bookmarks through Delicious. I certainly hope that I can get some help in teaching these littlest members of my school.

I have learned so much through this course, and I am excited to share with my students and peers. It is amazing what is available out there for us to reach our students and help them learn if we are just willing to take a chance and try it. I think I will give it a try.

Online Art Gallery Ideas

I have posted a Voicetread project below in which I seek help in creating an online gallery of student art work. Please take a moment to visit my project and offer any helpful suggestions that you might have. Thank you!

I hope the embedded player for the Voicethread shows below, but if it does not, then the post below this one has a link to the same project. Thank you again for your help!

Student Gallery Voicethread

I have created a Voicethread that explains a need that I have at my school. I am trying to find a good way to create an online student gallery. Please use the link below to visit my Voicethread and add any suggestions that you might have to help me. I am also including the voicethread in an embedded player.

Thank you!

http://voicethread.com/share/571448/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

New week at Walden, new topic.

This time we looked at Connectivism and Social Learning Theories. To me, this has been the simplest, most intuitive set of theories yet. In our video, Dr. Michael Orey spoke of social constructivism where learners are engaged with other students in the process of constructing something, but they are also engaged in the process of conversing about the construction taking place. Dr. Orey said, "Its those conversations that the students engage in that really help concretize and help them understand something." In other words, coversations and bouncing ideas back and forth between people is the way we learn best.

Dr Orey also spoke of Social Constructivism where the learner has a zone of proximal development, which is the level of work that provides just enough challenge that a more knowledgeable other can provide the necessary support for the learner to be successful. The learner is dependent on the more knowledgeable other, and that is what makes this a social learning theory.

The strategies and tools that we examined this week tie in very nicely with social learning theories and with each other. For instance, the strategy of cooperative learning in our text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, is just about as social as you can get. In this chapter we studied the best ways to have "students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning" (Pitler, et al, 2007, p. 139). According to the social learning theorists, "By combining teamwork and individual accountability, students work toward acquiring both knowledge and social skills" Learners are responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their group members. "This process results in a deeper understanding of the material and more potential to retain the material." (Orey, 2001).

Most of the tools that we looked at this week are based on cooperative learning principals. We read about a teacher who uses a movie-making project to teach about mathmaticians. The students are learning about the mathmaticians from each other. We also learned about web resources that allow students to interact with experts in different fields. How's that for a more knowledgeable other? Keypals allow us to expand our cooerative learning groups to include other learners or more knowledgeable others from anywhere. Webquests allow teams to work on problems presented virtually.

Website creation is one social learning tool that I have personally used in my classroom. In this activity, I had my students use a wiki to create our webpage, and it provided the opportunity for multiple classes to work on the same project at different times and to be able to communicate with each other regarding the project. I hope that my students got a better understanding of the material as they debated what should and should not be included on the wiki.

I really enjoyed exploring the social networking tools listed in our resources this week (Any excuse to get on Facebook is a good one!), but I worry about the classroom use of some of them. Facebook is wonderful, but I am an adult and I have enough wisdom to avi=oid many of its dangers. I don't think that putting my elementary students on there is a wise decision. I loved what I saw of SecondLife, but I would need more time than I possible have right now to explore it and evaluate its safety. Honestly, I would expect it to be blocked by my district's block-happy technology big wig. I wonder how long it will take other developers to create a similar platform that might be safer for educational useage with minors. I bet it will happen very soon. Can you imagine having students studying history to create the town, city, or settlement as it appeared at the time an event took place. Can you say "So long, diaramas!" For the digital natives we teach, this will be wonderful! It sure beats a poster or a shoe box.

The webquests I looked at seemed an aweful lot like virtual field trips with a problem to solve for groups. Is this a fair assessment? I don't know. Anyway, webquests certainly do involve having students work together on virtual problems, so learning will occur as they create a solution.
I am looking forward to exploring using Google Docs this coming year so that my students can comment and collaborate on projects and work on projects at home or on any school computer just by loggin on. Edublog will also allow the sudents to comment on other students' ideas.

As our book says, "To be prepared for the fast-paced, virtual workplace that they will inherit, today's students need to be able to learn and produce cooperatively." I love this quote. I hope that I can do my part to prepare them for this challenge.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Constructivism/Constructionism in Practice

The Walden assignment for this week is to look at the correlation between the instructional strategies we have explored and constructivist/constructionist learning theories. To be honest, I had some trouble distinguishing between constructivism and constructionism, so I had to watch our video a second time. In it Dr. Orey describes constructivism as "a theory of knowledge stating that that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning.' He describes constructionism as "a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others." He also describes Symour Papert's idea of the principal mechanisms for learning: assimilation, accomodation, equilibration, and schema. Schema are our concepts of things, and equilibration is when the input we receive fits nice and neatly in our current concepts. When something doesn't fit, we experience disequilibration. We regain equilibration by either cexpanding our old concept to allow the new information or by creating a whole new concept to fit the new information.

In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors suggest several activities that demonstrate this process. They all have the students learn by constructing some sort of artifact. In one, they suggest a spreadsheet activity that has the children predict which types of investments will earn the most given certain circumstances. The students then plug formulas into a spreadsheet, graph their results, and present their findings. In this process the students start with one schema about the best way to earn money through savings. When they test this theory, many find that their assumption is wrong (disequilibration) and have to change their idea about the best way to invest (assimilation). The same process happens with the data collection tools for the rain pH project and in the the history game.

I really like the idea of the By Kids for Kids website because it really makes students think as they create their artifacts. I can see how students would face disequilibration when their ideas don't quite work out or even when they are deciding on an invention that might solve a problem that they have. In the process of testing their inventions, they would have to open their minds by expanding schema (assimilation) as they find new materials to accomplish the same goals (what if we made this out of aluminum instead of paper) and as they realize that they might actually have to try something completely different (accomodation).

Two other websites caught my eye. They were Darwin Pond and Astro-Venture. I can see my students getting very excited as they manipulate the environments and situations these sites provide. It makes me think of their Webkins that they are always dying to check on. Obviously, students using these programs would be constructing artifacts, and even better, they would be having fun doing it.