The two NETS-T indicators that I choose to strengthen my confidence in are: 2c Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. 3b Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
2c- Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
According to Dr. Ertmer, in order to effectively integrate technology, an educator not only needs to be knowledgeable about technology but also confident. The knowledge involves the teacher’s ability to show students how technology enables them to present the content utilizing technology tools. Technology can address diverse learning styles with the various digital tools that can incorporate visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic into instruction. My plan is to implement more short videos and other modalities of technology into instruction. I want to also provide students with additional digital tools and introducing them to voicethreads and software programs such as Microsoft publisher and PowerPoint can give students’ authentic learning opportunities that facilitate creativity and critical thinking skills. Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer note “creating a culture of thinking can help you attend to their diverse cognitive (intellectual) and metacognitive (reflective) needs” (p. 169). Since confidence and knowledge are instrumental to effective teaching, I will create a voicethread and or screencasts to illustrate and model these digital tools. Students become more knowledgeable about these tools from teacher modeling and self-directed learning outside of the realm of a classroom. As Dr. Ertmer mentions I need to be confident enough to step back and let students utilize their strategies and abilities with digital tools.
3b- Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
I chose this indicator because my personal philosophy is that student success is the partnership between students, teachers, parents, and the community. Peer collaboration is also a piece of the puzzle to student achievement. I would like to address this indicator by implementing a classroom blog and a peer collaborative blog. I think for those students who have a hard time finding their voice that this technological tool is ideal for promoting a level of social networking and breaking barriers of speaking up. I think that this tool would also allow insight into student work as I would encourage parents to check out our classroom blog. Teachers many times only have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues who are in the same grade level, missing out on insightful knowledge of other peers. This is where a teacher’s corner blog site would be ideal for sharing ideas and information. Dr. Ertmer stated that a supportive culture is encouraging for colleagues who want to take risks and incorporate technology into the curriculum. The other tool I want to ask peers about is the possibilities of video-conferencing with community members who are experts in their field and can offer learners real life experiences related to content areas. I believe that if parents, teachers and the community can collaborate about the education and educational needs of students that today’s climate of accountability will shift to the importance of working together to give students' the best education possible.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). “Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1” [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
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Hello Susan,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are very fortunate to have access to computers and a wide range of technology options. Voicethreads and software programs such as Microsoft publisher and PowerPoint are very valuable tools. I teach technology / engineering classes at the middle school level and have found the integration of some of these tools has been of great benefit. For your benefit I would like to focus on one in particular, voicethreads. You mentioned planning to use a voicethread as a teaching tool. I also have this piece of technology as a teaching tool in my wood shop classes. My goal was to stress the very important issue of safety while working with tools. In the past I have used posters, and DVDs to get my point across. Nothing has been more effective then the use of a voice thread I created on safety in the wood shop area.
I think you have a great idea for using a voicethread and or screencasts to illustrate and model the digital tools you plan on using. http://www.screentoaster.com/ is a nice voicethread site. It’s free and easy to use, you may already be familiar with it, if not I would suggest you consider it.
Good luck with your project!
John M
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteCollaboration with students, parents, and the community has always been an issue with educators. I believe that technology can help us to be more effective in this endeavor. There are two tools that I would recommend because I use them. They both seem to be effective.
The first is a blog. At the site Kidblog.org, http://kidblog.org, free space is offered to teachers who want to set up classroom blogs. This site is nice for a few reasons. The first is that it is free. The next is that it offers a controlled environment. The teacher can set the parameters in terms of site access and use. In other words, you can control what is posted and this eliminates possible cyber-bullying and unwanted invitations. Administrators and parents love this aspect. Finally, the space is large and you are not limited to a certain number of students, classes, or blogs.
The next tool is a Wiki. I utilize Wikispaces.com, at http://www.wikispaces.com. As with Kidblog, the site is free and very large. The environment can be as limiting or as open as you want. It is more powerful than the blogging site, but it's purpose is a little different.
I just recommend that you look at both to see if they can meet your needs. Take the time to learn how to use them, so that your students can utilize them efficiently and easily. I hope that you can use my recommendations. Good luck with your GAME project!
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteUsing of blogs to communicate with students, parents, peers, and the community is a great idea. I believe that this is the easiest way to communicate to a wide range of people with the least amount of time consumed. I have had a blog site at my last teaching position and it was a wonderful tool. I did not use any outside blog site because my district had already created one for their teachers. I used it to post students work, like you mentioned, and post important upcoming calendar dates of students and parents. It was well used by everyone.
I like you idea about video conferencing with community leaders. My suggestion is to contact them and see of they have Skype and set up a time during class for them to visit. You might even take it a step farther and find leaders in their fields from around the world. I would think that if you contacted some of these corporations they would be glad to help you. Make it a media event and have them talk about goal setting and how they go about achieving those goals. This would fit perfectly into learning how to be a self-directed learner.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI have a similar approach to the same indicator. I like using blogs to communicate with parents and peers outside of the school. Its better than email because I feel its like a FAQ section. Where if parents have the same questions or concern it would be answered on the blog and they can see it.
I also like the use of the blog because not everyone has an email address which sounds strange in this day and age, but the blog allows for people with emails to comment and or ask questions.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI feel as if you are headed in the right direction and I like the fact that you want to use VoiceThread. I find that tool could be very benificial to the classroom and students process to become authentic learners. Working with online tools also allows students that have access to computers and the internet at home to work on their projects away from school.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the classroom blog. I have heard of the website http://kidblog.org but had no idea that there were no limitations for the amount of students or classes that utilize it. My district has just recently allowed blogging at the middle school level but I believe it is being conducted on the teacher’s web pages. This site is something I will share. For now at least the district has not been as open to wikis which from my experience in a past course could be very useful to students. Progress has been slow but at least progressing in the right direction!
Nish,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about a blog being more useful than e-mail because it could act as a FAQ section that reaches out and answers many questions some parents may not even think to ask in the first place. I have also found that e-mail is deleted by accident and with a blog the information is more accessible.
Murphy,
ReplyDeleteI like the versatility voicethreads can offer. It can be an authentic technology tool that promotes creativity and addresses the many diverse learners.
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ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI also have used posters in the past for just the steps on how to save and open files on the network. I only wish that I had used voicethreads or screencasts in the past to get the point across. It is helpful to know that you have experienced a similar dilemma and have had positive outcomes when utilizing various modalities of technology. Thanks for the vote of confidence!