NETS

On the whole, I feel that I am pretty strong in meeting these standards.  Since I started my coursework at Walden, I have been familiar with the NETS-T standards and have strived to include them with my state benchmarks.

There are two, though, that I think I can improve upon.  The first is "Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments".  I try to give students a lot of exposure to different tools they can use for their projects.  One of the sub-standards is what catches my eye: "a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity."  Social media is becoming the biggest revolution in world since the Industrial Revolution, yet many schools simply block these sites and pretend they don't exist.  I envision my students working in a world where digital networking is one of the cornerstones of their careers.  If we are turning a blind eye to it in schools, where are they ever going to learn it?  It is easy enough to say that they will be able to learn it on their own, but that, in my opinion, is asking an awful lot of teenagers who rarely think of the rules in school let alone when they are online.  I think that it is my responsibility as an educator to find ways to work social media into my curriculum.  This will probably require meeting with the principal and some other higher-ups to get access, but I think it can be done if, of course, the goals are educational.  Evaluating success could be difficult because social media is sort of uncharted water in the classroom, so my goal would be to get some social media into the curriculum and have it stick.

The other NETS-T standard I would like to improve on is "Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership."  My curriculum at Walden and my interest in technology has put me ahead of many of my colleagues.  I would love to continue learning about new tools and try to keep up with all of the changes.  I feel that I need to take on a leadership role in my school/department to promote the use of technology in the classroom.  I would like to offer some professional development courses in my school to give people the basics on how they can integrate technology into their courses and become an available resource for anyone who wants to learn more.  In addition to keeping up with new technology tools, I can also explore other content areas to determine how technology could be used.

Reflection

The most striking revelation I had during this course came when I was working on Application 4.  As I looked through the website “Britain For Americans”, I quickly noticed something was off.  I thought it was humorous, but in terms of being good for research on the culture of Great Britain, it terribly wrong.  The big revelation came when I typed in the website to Google and it was the first result that came up.

This was such a big revelation because I could see myself very easily falling victim to it.  My tendency has become, thanks to the internet, to finding information as quickly as possible.  “Nearly good” is better than “best” provided that it is found quickly.  I know that my students search the same way.  The big lesson for me in this course was that I need to rethink both how I search and how I teach students to find information.

There is great value in modeling good research techniques.  On top of taking it slowly, a lot can be gained by taking time to explore sources in depth rather than skimming the first few websites that are found. 

Next fall, the first unit in my AP Language class is a literary criticism research paper.  I plan on spending as much time on the process with students as I will on their finished product.  This summer, I would like to explore some websites they could use to search for information on literary criticism so I will be able to point them in the right direction this fall.

Reflection

I wouldn't say that my overall personal theory of learning has changed.  If anything, it has only been reinforced in my mind that technology needs to have a stronger presence in my classroom.

A past professor I had at Walden suggested to us that we not use technology simply because it is there but rather because it makes learning easier or better.  I try to keep this in mind as I consider what different technology tools I could bring into the classroom.  This leaves me with two goals as I move forward with changing my teaching practices to include more technology:

1) Become a paperless classroom


As the world becomes more and more based on a paperless model, I think it is important that my classroom begins to reflect this.  My desire to go paperless is not linked to any pro-environment ideas but rather the fact that in my experience, students get more out of technology based assignments and are required to do more independent thinking with them as well.  The best ways I have seen so far to get students to produce original, creative work is to give them projects that have a strong basis in technology.  As I go forward, I would like to increase this.

2) Explore assessment options with technology


I feel that the standard multiple choice exam is slowly turning into a relic of a past era.  It will require a lot of brainstorming on my part, but I would like to see projects become better assessments of student learning in my classroom.  This is definitely a long-term goal and I am still in the beginning stages of just developing this idea.  I would like to collaborate with like-minded teachers to hear what has worked for them.

I plan on continuing to use web-based programs like Animoto, bubbl.us, GoAnimate.com, and Voice Thread to implement these goals.  One program I would like to utilize with my students is Google Wave.  Once this gets out of beta, I plan on piloting it with one of my classes on collaborative projects and essays.  Hopefully the feedback from the students will give me more ideas on how to use it.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.



http://voicethread.com/share/899857/

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Voice Thread: Making the Switch to Electronic Textbooks

Here's my VoiceThread for this week's application.

It's not so much a problem as it is a goal: when do we make the switch to electronic textbooks?

Cooperative Learning

I believe that cooperative learning is going to be the central focus of education in the future, and that may be as soon as the next few years.  The depth and availability of tools to learn in this manner is amazing, and the number of careers that are becoming based on collaboration makes it necessary for students to learn these skills early on.  It's not enough to simply have students count off by number and work together on a worksheet.  Group projects must be in-depth and push for a process that requires students to work through the tasks as a team--brainstorming, editing, finalizing, presenting, etc.

What I really enjoyed about this chapter was that so many of the tools are easily accessible and applicable to the classroom.  Google Calendar, for instance, can keep students up-to-date on classroom events.  Shared bookmarking allows students to recommend websites that they think are valuable to their peers.  Website creation offers the opportunity to express creativity and potentially critique the work of their classmates.  Multiplayer games offer a chance at relaxation, but also at learning.

These tools might not form the basis of a class, but they all assist in enhancing the experience for students.