Reflection

As this course comes to a close, it is important to reflect on what has been learned and how it will affect technology decision making and change in school. The learning activity and implementation plans developed in Weeks 6 and 7 demonstrates my learning in this course. A new and emerging technology that is not at any school in the district was identified that could have a long term impact on teaching and learning. Strategies were created to implement this new technology and ways to fund this process through the use of grants. Change agents were also looked at to meet the needs of 21st century learners.

One immediate adjustment that I will make to my efforts to identify emerging technologies with the potential to transform teaching and learning, influence and lead the adoption of new and emerging technologies in my school, and incorporate educational technology to support 21st century learners as a result of my learning from this course is to join the community technology committee. This committee made up of community members from around the school district learns about new and emerging technologies and ways that they can be integrated into the classroom. For example, they helped integrate Activboards (interactive whiteboards) into every classroom in the school district and continue to integrate other technologies such as Activotes into the classroom to support teaching and learning. By being on this committee, I will be more aware of new and emerging technologies that may help teaching and learning and I may even be able to pilot new technology so that others can integrate technology into the classroom.

APP4: Emerging Technologies and 21st Century Learning

Click here for my presentation which illustrates how online learning modules, such as Moodle, can fill instructional gaps and support meaningful, authentic, student learning.

Reflection: Blog Post

I will use the resources in the Differentiation Station social network to help implement the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction into my classroom and school. We have learned and shared many great resources about instruction and assessment for diverse learners. For example, online tools and surveys can be used to get to know students’ readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles. I can use these tools to help understand students better and provide them with more opportunities to be successful in the classroom. One immediate adjustment that I will make to my instructional practice regarding the use of technology integration to customize instruction as a result of my learning from this course is the online program found on www.xtranormal.com. This program which is similar to a text to speech program allows the teacher or student to type in text to create a simple yet engaging animated movie. This tool can be very useful to engage students which is helpful in instruction and assessment.

Universal Design for Learning: Sharing Ideas and Building Resources

Click here to watch a video about Universal Design for Learning.

References

http://www.cast.org/index.html

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore: Author.

Final Blog Post

In this blog post I will reflect on what I have learned and how it will affect my ability to effectively and appropriately integrate technology in the content area I teach. The GAME plan that I developed and followed throughout the course can be viewed in more detail by reading the previous blog postings below. The physical education classroom website that was created has increased collaboration and communication with teachers, students, parents, and other community members. Other teachers have taken ideas from the physical education classroom website and used these ideas on their own website such as the year in review section to let people know what has been learned so far in the current school year. Parents and students like to view the online physical activity calendar and participate in the activities as a family as a fun way to exercise and keep their bodies healthy. This website is helping people be physically active and healthy. The easy communication with parents via email has been a success as well. For example, parents and teachers are able to have convenient communication with one another without having to figure out a time to meet in person or worry about students losing notes that are being sent to and from home.

One immediate adjustment that I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in physical education class as a result of my learning from this course is an online program called Xtranormal. This website allows users to type in whatever text that they want and the online program will quickly and easily create an animation video to present the text that was typed in by the user. This may allow teachers to present information in a way that will engage students and increase their understanding of content. Another piece of technology that will be integrated into the classroom is when a student earns a “star ticket” while in my classroom, I will email the student’s family to let them know how proud I am for their effort in physical education class. Having positive contact with families can promote a positive learning environment and can also help parent-teacher interactions in the future if a concern about the student arises thus making it easier for teachers and parents to work together to help the student.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

Teachers can examine the National Education Standards for Students (NETS-T) and use the GAME plan process with their students to help them develop proficiency in these standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S. Students will go through the same steps as the teachers go through. Students will set goals based off one or two standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S. They will then take action by stating what they will do to achieve these goals. Next they will monitor their progress of their learning and receive feedback from their peers and teachers. Finally, they will evaluate and extend their learning through reflection.

For example, students may select standard 1a: apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. Students could create a short one to five minute digital story integrating technology by using pictures, video, music, and narration to share their problem-based learning projects with other students. They could develop a GAME plan using these ideas to help them accomplish their goals. This is one way teachers can use the GAME plan process with students to help them develop proficiency in the technology standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S.

Revising My GAME Plan

I have learned different ideas that can be applied to my instructional practice since learning about the NETS-T. For example, a physical education classroom website was created to collaborate and communicate relevant information with students, parents, staff, and community members. This idea to create a classroom website was based off of the two standards from the ISTE’s Educational Technology Standards for Teachers that were used in the GAME plan: 3b – Collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation; 3c – Communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

The goals that I am still working toward include finding a blog or wiki that can be used in conjunction with the physical education website to allow people to collaborate with one another. Once a blog or wiki has been found, students will need to learn how to use this technology appropriately.

I am not ready to set new learning goals until I have developed my classroom website further. However, based on the NETS-T, the new learning goal that I may set for myself in the future may be related to standard 1b – Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. For example, students could learn how to use heart rate monitors to assess their fitness levels to help them create plans to lead a healthy life.

The learning approaches that will be used next time to improve my learning will be to continue to research ways to incorporate a blog or wiki into the physical education website. Further communication is needed with the instructional technology department in the school district to determine which options are available. If possible, a practice session would be used to test out this new technology to determine if it would be beneficial to students before full implementation would begin.