One particular thing that I learned in this course that I did not know before is how to analyze research to evaluate whether the research was reliable. It is important to consider the researcher(s)' credentials but it also important to consider the quality of the research, which varies depending on the type of research being conducted. It is important to be able to evaluate research for its credibility when being a leader in instructional technology, whether that be a school leader or a technology coach. A leader should be able to find applicable research often since this particular field changes constantly, be able to evaluate the results of the research, and apply it to their practice. As an instructional technology specialist, this course has been valuable to me because I can now search for resources more effectively, determine the quality of the research, and use it to make me a better, more informed technology coach. Much of the research I did for my annotated bibliography was very applicable to my current position and I am excited to be able to apply what I have learned this fall.
Prior to taking this course, I was primarily familiar with scientific research, specifically biomedical research, as that is my background. As I began this course, I was concerned that educational research would be very different from what I am used to, especially when considering methodology and that I would get them confused. I know now that while reading and analyzing are very different, it was not so different that it was confusing. The research methods often followed the same process as the scientific research I am accustomed to. One misconception I had prior to this course is that the larger the sample size, the more reliable the research. However, this may not always be true, especially when considering qualitative research.
One particular thing that I learned in this course that I did not know before is how to analyze research to evaluate whether the research was reliable. It is important to consider the researcher(s)' credentials but it also important to consider the quality of the research, which varies depending on the type of research being conducted. It is important to be able to evaluate research for its credibility when being a leader in instructional technology, whether that be a school leader or a technology coach. A leader should be able to find applicable research often since this particular field changes constantly, be able to evaluate the results of the research, and apply it to their practice. As an instructional technology specialist, this course has been valuable to me because I can now search for resources more effectively, determine the quality of the research, and use it to make me a better, more informed technology coach. Much of the research I did for my annotated bibliography was very applicable to my current position and I am excited to be able to apply what I have learned this fall.
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Out of all of the courses I have taken so far in the Instructional Technology program, this course has been the most thorough and in-depth. There were many tasks to complete and waiting until the last minute to do assignments for this class was not an option! I feel very accomplished now that I have all assignments complete and looking back at what I have done in this course makes me realize how much I have learned. I could list every single assignment that I felt taught me something important, but to be honest, there are too many of them to do that so I will focus more on some big ideas that I have taken away from this course. First, it is important for a Data Coach to keep things simple and straight-forward. I tend to provide way more information than necessary and not only did I learn that this is not effective when it comes to data, it can be highly ineffective. I also learned some effective strategies to target this, like the use of simple, colorful graphic displays when giving a data overview. Second, I learned that you have to look both "deep and wide" when looking at data, meaning that you can't only look at overall data over the past three years but you also can't just drill down into a single year's data to find the real story. Third, I learned the big picture of data analysis, what I feel the administrators see but what teachers often do not, unless they have an effective data leader at their school. Our schools focus much of their data professional development on the teacher's use of formative assessment data to drive instructional practices so this was a different approach that I feel made me better understand the motivation for goals in our school and system improvement plans.
If I had to choose one field experience that was the most valuable, it would have to be the one that really allowed me to apply those skills stated above: the Data Overview. At first I was very overwhelmed with the amount of data available to analyze and this made me realize the need for presentations on data to be simple. As I started to drill down, there were trends I began to notice that I was shocked to see. It was at that moment I realized that if you are looking at data, it is important to present changes over time along with comparison data. Previously I have seen trend data just with overall scores and sub-group comparisons and strand-level data were for the year only. However, looking at trends over time while drilling down into those two levels made a big difference in the story that appeared. What is most interesting about this project is what I did afterwards: I requested other data to see if I could find some of the same trends there. I wanted to see if this was isolated to this grade level and subject or if it was a trend that I found in other areas. I haven't finished looking at this data yet, but I want to continue to apply what I have learned and share my findings with school leadership. This would be highly welcomed by school leadership. However, a challenge I would face would be applying the Using Data Process/Data Wise Process in its entirety to the data teams that already exist at each of the schools. Much of what I have been taught is already in place but in a different way - data is used to drive day-to-day instruction and much of what the data team would be doing according to the processes I have learned is reserved to the administration at each school. I believe that that will likely remain the same, but I do hope to assist my administrators in looking more closely at trends in data and using these to develop short- and long-term action plans. Back in late July, I began a new position in my school district. I am working as an Instructional Technology Specialist serving four schools in our district, two that are primary level (kindergarten through second grade) and two that are elementary level (third through fifth grade). This is a brand new position in our district and when this position was created, a position serving grades 6-12 was also created. My partner and I work very closely and collaborate with almost everything we do, especially since we feel that we should set an example for others in our district. We also felt that an important part of our job was to have a place where our teachers could access training materials online and a platform for communicating with them. At that point, our website, Trojan Tech Teachers: What's Going On At? was born. It has been an exciting journey for us so far, with district-wide training days, development of online professional development, and the first ever Edcamp Lee! We have seen much growth in our teachers and students this year and are excited about all that is to come.
One thing that has had a high impact on administrators and teachers is our weekly blog. We use it to update everyone about what is going on at various schools throughout the district and to boost morale. We alternate authoring the blog every other week and try to send it out on Mondays (we began by sending on Fridays until we realized that people often do not check their emails on Friday afternoon!). This week's post got a lot of attention from administrators, teachers and even support staff. I realized that it would be an excellent idea to being sharing the posts that I'm authoring on my portfolio blog to "make the connection" between what I am doing at work and what I am doing with school. Below you'll find previous posts I wrote on our weekly blog and I will continue to post links to our blog on a regular basis. Enjoy reading! 02/24/2015 - Tapping Into Our Power - Lee County Favorite 02/09/2015 - One Week!!! 01/26/2015 - Not Good...Not Better...We Want to Be the Best 01/12/2015 - New Year Brings New Opportunity 12/08/2014 - Where Did the Year Go? 11/10/2014 - Be Fearless 10/22/2014 - Nothing to Fear, Only to Be Understood - Special post for Digital Citizenship Week 10/15/2014 - We Are Happy and We Are LEE 09/30/2014 - What's All the Buzz About? 09/15/2014 - Rockin' Around LCSS 09/02/2014 - Feeling (Whole) Again 08/15/2014 - So Loved This course was likely the most valuable I have had so far in the Instructional Technology program, though I feel that I say that at the end of each course. This one, however, really immersed me in what it meant to be a technology coach and at a perfect time. I was hired this year as one of our two system technology specialists and the principles I have been learning in this course applied directly to what I was doing in my job.
One of the most valuable experiences was the coaching journal. I have been assisting and coaching others informally for a couple of years and now do it more formally but have up until now been just going through the motions rather than picking a particular focus and identifying various factors that affect the coaching process. I have also not been properly reflecting on my practice and the coaching journal experience allowed me to do so in way that I saw how critical this process was to my and my teacher's success. In addition to this assignment, the organization of the one-hour technology workshop also helped me grow professionally. The ADDIE workshop explained the way the workshop should be organized and was very thorough. I felt applying these principles made the process much more simple and focused for me and I know that following these principles also had a positive impact on teachers participating in the workshop. I have learned so much about web tools this semester. There were a few I had already put to use, especially Edmodo and Twitter but I truly appreciated the expansion of knowledge I received about other tools in this course. I have to admit that at the beginning of the semester, I was very overwhelmed by the idea of blogging every week but found upon our discussion of using student blogging in the classroom that there were so many different ways to incorporate this tool. I knew that to have student buy-in that I would need to familiarize myself with it. I am grateful for this for two reasons. First, I have actually come to love reflecting on what I have learned about the different tools we have tried this semester. Second, I did use student blogging in my classroom for the main tool in my lesson plan project and I am still astonished at how it transformed my students. I never expected them to like it as much as they did and I can’t wait until the fall when I can begin the year with this tool and really take it to new heights. Another thing I especially appreciated from this course was familiarizing myself with internet safety. That may seem silly to some, especially considering my students are in high school, but I ended up having a few parents have many questions about using web-based publishing in the classroom and I was so grateful to have such solid ground with which to inform parents.
There were so many tools to try out this semester and I still do feel that I haven’t gotten to know them as well as I should to be able to use them to their full potential. It was pretty arduous to learn about a new tool every week and keep up at work with so much going on in the spring (testing, curriculum mapping for a new course). I felt that during the fall I might have been able to give each tool the time it deserved. That being said, I did learn a lot and am excited to continue to implement what I have learned about blogging, wikispaces, and other tools in my classes and to teach my colleagues about them as well. I thought I knew a lot about implementing technology into a curriculum for a school or even a school system. I felt that integrating technology into classrooms was relatively simple and it only took someone to guide teachers into using it. I realized that it was much more complicated than I had originally thought: it requires many people collaborating and funding from multiple sources, among other things. One of my favorite assignments from this class was reading technology plans. It was very informative to see what a technology plan from a larger school system looked like. I think that by reading my school’s SIP and analyzing the way in which technology was integrated into the SIP was also an eye-opening experience, especially when comparing it to technology plans from across the state. After analyzing the plan, I had the opportunity to do a SWOT analysis of our campus. I was really most interested in the opportunities that existed on our campus and plan on trying to get our staff to make use of these. It was also interesting to see what our faculty really thought about technology integration when they knew it was anonymous. What I found was that a lot of teachers were more open to change when asked in that format than when we spoke in groups. I used those surveys while developing an Action Plan for Technology Integration for our campus. I submitted the plan to the administration and I hope to eventually lead our campus with the implementation of the plan.
In this project, students were to use Kidblog to generate blogs on the various terrestrial and aquatic biomes throughout the world. As they began to gain comfort in their blogging, students were asked to incorporate various multimedia of their choice to enhance the content of their blogs. See the video below for a full summary of what my students did. Most people have heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” When breaking down this quote, a reader usually interprets it to mean that a child is more likely to be happy, successful, and productive in his life if all those with whom he comes into contact influence him in a positive manner. A study completed in 2010 refers a study in 1987 which calls this a family’s social capital (Hohlfeld, 2010). A higher social capital influences the child in a positive way. It is therefore important to consider all factors that influence a student’s learning.
Technology and technology access provide students with an array of possibilities when you consider that technology allows for more personalized learning and allows students authentic learning experiences. It’s also important to note that many technological tools allow students to express their creativity but in order to do so, students must build their skills. To do this, students must be allowed to practice. A 2010 study showed that students who have more access to technology both in school and in the home and are using it often are more likely to have a greater breadth and depth of knowledge when it comes to using technology creatively (Barron et al, 2010). We also know that this must begin early: 95% of brain development occurs at a very young age (before the age of 5) and rapid brain development also occurs during puberty (Smith and Throne, 2009). However, a study done by Common Sense Media shows that for children ages 0 – 8, only 48% of children whose household income is less than 30,000 have a computer in their home and only 27% of parents of this same group own smart phones (Rideout, 2011). Though this home digital divide does exist, schools play an important part at helping to bridge this gap. They can begin by allowing students and other community members to check out digital tools to use in the home. A study done in Florida shows that this is increasing but not as much in schools with lower socio-economic statuses, which is where it is especially needed (Hohlfeld, 2010). It also should begin at an early age so that younger students will have access when their brain is in its highest rate of development. Schools can also help by providing training for families and community members and involve students, parents, and community members in the technology planning process (Hohlfeld, 2010). Teachers and schools can also aid in providing students a social network of peers and mentors who are interested and experienced in using tools. It has been shown that when students are exposed to a network of these kinds of mentors, it can lead to increased engagement in these types of activities themselves (Barron, 2010). When we say to ourselves, “It takes a village,” we have to consider what we want our village to look like. We can empower the children of our communities by building our village the way we wish it to look, by providing our children access to the types of people we want to have a positive influence on them and the tools to empower themselves. Barron, B., Walter, S., Martin, C., Schatz, C. (2010). Predictors of creative computing participation and profiles of experience in two Silicon Valley middle schools. Computers and Education. 54. 178-179. Hohlfeld, T., Ritzhaupt A., Barron, A. (2010). Connecting schools, community, and family with ICT: Four-year trends related to school level and SES of public schools in Florida. Computers and Education. 55. 39-405. Rideout, V. (2011). Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America. Common Sense Media. Smith, G. and Throne, S. (2009). Differentiated instruction and middle school learners. Differentiating Instruction with Technology in Middle School Classrooms. ISTE. If I had to describe diversity in my own words, I would begin by using the term different. People tend to lump diversity into discussions about race and culture but in reality diversity can mean differences in those things in addition to age, intellectual level, social and emotional awareness, learning style, learning difficulties, physical abilities, religious background, among many other categories. Prior to the technological advancements that we have seen the last few decades, it was not abnormal for someone to not be exposed to other cultures in their entire lifetime as explained in The Case for Cultural Awareness by Lynn Hilt. However, with the advancements in technology and access to information from all over the world that we and our students now have at our fingertips, it is both easy and vital that we create learning environments that foster student awareness and respect of each other’s differences.
We can begin by understanding that our students are all different and meet them where they are at in the learning process. By bringing technology access to our classrooms, we can create personalized learning experiences in which students guide and sometimes even control their own learning (Richardson, 2012). In this type of situation, students work at their own pace and master the content in their own way, rather than having someone control their learning for them. This learning environment actually cultivates a feeling of safety for students since they realize that the teacher cares for them and their needs as an individual, which is important for learning and brain development (Smith and Throne, 2009). With technology, we are also able to provide tools to assist students who are different due to various disabilities and allow everyone the opportunity to achieve their learning goals (Edyburn, 2006). So we begin by setting an example – that we understand diversity within our own classrooms and respect each student’s needs and desires. We can further promote cultural awareness and respect by connecting our students with other people in the community, around the country, and around the world. Harnessing the power of the internet and technology in the classroom is at its finest when teachers use tools like Skype to connect students to other students and to professionals who can promote their learning. This exposes students to different people directly and creates an authentic environment in which they can learn this vital skill. In addition to using tools like Skype, blogging is an exceptional tool in which students can express their own thoughts to share with others and analyze other’s viewpoints as well. Blogging is an easy way to connect with others and can be done on a small scale, with classmates and parents. Classmates can provide feedback on a blog or share their own thoughts on what was written. They can also teach one another within the blogs. Parents can also be provided access to a students’ blog and can be a part of the learning. Students, though they may not act as such, are eager for approval and allowing parents to have access can expand the learning that happens through blogging (Smith and Throne, 2009). It can be extended into the students’ community or even further when the blog is made public and shared with people across the globe. Students in other parts of the world can comment in the same way that classmates do. If the blog is public, there is also a possibility that students from different parts of the world may have personal feedback that others would not. For example, a student may do a current event blog on the Pistorius trial coverage. A student from South Africa may be able to provide a first-hand account of how the public is reacting to the trial. Another example of how this could work is having students blog about the characteristics of various biomes around the world (which my students are about to do). A student living in one of these places could comment and provide feedback about what it’s like to live in that biome. An environmentalist could spark a discussion about a particular environmental issue in the biome. This tool fosters the idea that the classroom extends beyond the physical walls; that learning can happen within the classroom but can connect people from everywhere, regardless of their differences. Edyburn, D. (2006). Failure is not an option. Learning & Leading with Technology. Retrieved from https://kennesaw.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/456068/fullscreen/10046450/View Smith, G. and Throne, S. (2009). Differentiated instruction and middle school learners. Differentiating Instruction with Technology in Middle School Classrooms. ISTE. Retrieved from https://kennesaw.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/456068/fullscreen/10046451/View Richardson, W. (2012). Preparing students to learn without us. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from https://kennesaw.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/456068/fullscreen/10046452/View One benefit of the internet is the possibilities it holds for publishing and sharing original content. Anyone can create original work and share it with others and comment on other’s work. However, it is in this realm of possibility that holds its dangers: anyone can publish, view, or comment on things posted on the web and no one can deny that this fact is scary. It’s enough to make any teacher hesitant to test the waters of these publishing tools.
So how does a teacher who is considering the value of these tools in their classroom to proceed? The key is balance and preparation. Don’t let the scary stuff deter you from allowing students to have an incredible, engaging learning experience. No teacher is to step blindly into this without first considering the following things: 1. Administration Preparation: Have a discussion with your administrators about what it is you want to do and why you want to do it. Administrators and technology leaders can advise you about what filters are in place and what sites will likely be blocked. They will also be able to provide you assistance if certain software needs to be downloaded and is blocked by a firewall. For more information on firewalls and why they exist in education settings, visit Internet Safety and Security: What Teachers Need to Know, which explains how firewalls protect the privacy of you and your students. 2. Student Preparation: Chances are, all firewalls and filters are not going to protect your students from every possible inappropriate thing they see on the internet. Heather Walport-Garwon states in her blog The Importance of Internet Safety that rather than denying students use because we know they will run into this situation, educate them on how to respond. It’s of vital importance that students understand that once on the internet, the walls of protection surrounding the student have fallen and they must know how to conduct themselves properly and how to protect themselves. 3. Parent Preparation: Teachers should also be open and honest with parents about how students will be using the internet for learning and publishing content. Schools should also communicate the same idea as above with parents: it is inevitable that students will use the internet and therefore we must teach them proper use in order for them to protect themselves. 4. Teacher Preparation: The best possible way for students to conduct themselves safely and properly on the internet is for teachers to model ethical and safe use themselves. In addition, Vicki Davis points out in her blog A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom that teachers can harness the power of certain types of publishing while still having barriers by using alternate websites like Fakebook or Edmodo. It is the responsibility of any teacher using the internet in their classroom to be well educated on the safe and responsible internet use of their students. There are many resources available to teach internet safety to students, but one of my favorites is Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media provides many resources for educators who want specific lessons to use in their classroom. |
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July 2015
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