New and Emerging Technologies Reflection

As a district educational technologist, this course contributed directly to improving one of my job elements which is to research, design and make suggestions on future district wide technology pilot programs and purchases.

Online learning modules are widely utilized in the school system I work for because the overseas military school system supports both a virtual high school system and also a blackboard based online learning environment for educators to participate in course on. Some educators are starting to use the blackboard system as a learning resource within their own classrooms which I will expand on next school year. Because of the nature of the military, it is not unusual for students to be absent for extended periods of time so online learning modules could be very helpful in these situations.

Multi-user virtual environments (MUVE’s) are an area that, other than this course, I have very limited experience with. I do see them as potentially excellent learning environments, especially for students who spend significant amounts of time engaged in digital role-playing. I am exploring the possibility of having a group of my tech-savvy school level educational technologists design a virtual training environment and collaboration world for educators in DoDDS Europe. Once educators get hooked on the virtual environment concept, it would be much easier to get them involved in student based MUVE’s.

As part of a lesson plan I created in this course, I incorporated digital game creation as an engaging student activity. Students selecting this project option, created simple video games which incorporated accurate chemical bonding concepts and information. In addition to learning the curriculum materials, students were also developing 21^st century skills outlined on the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website such as creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration (http://www.p21.org).

As the district educational technology instruction specialist, I also understand the realities of limited budgets and other roadblocks such as network security, over-emphasis on standardized testing and general ambivalence that stand in the way of integrating new technologies to benefit student learning. Some good news is that I received approval to create an emerging technologies task group with the other district technologists in my school system. We have a meeting scheduled in May to discuss new technologies and to outline pilot programs for next school year. I am lucky because my Superintendent is very technology aware he is interested in the information I have shared with him about the emerging technologies I have learned about in this course. The future looks bright for new and emerging technologies in my district.

Online Learning for the Classroom

The following Voicethread presentation describes the benefits and challenges associated with incorporating online learning in the regular classroom.

http://voicethread.com/share/1026803/

Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction

This week I had the opportunity to have a discussion with Cheryll Adams who has written books on differentiating instruction and who currently servers as the director for gifted studies at Ball State University. This conference helped corroborate my ideas about maximizing student achievement, throughout my district, by concentrating on professional development in the areas of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI).

The UDL theoretical framework provides for why differentiated instruction is necessary. Based on brain research, UDL shows that students learn differently and that flexibility in instruction supports more learners. The principals of UDL can help teachers’ breakdown their instruction into the three main aspects of learning which are: recognition, strategic and affective. Differentiated instruction then provides the means for designing learning opportunities that take into account each student’s existing knowledge, readiness, language, learning preferences, interests and other factors so that each student’s learning is supported. Differentiated instruction is essentially the “how” for Universal Design for Learning and technology provides the means to make it possible.

I understand that Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction are far more than a collection of tools and strategies. In my work as an educational technologist, I plan on helping educators examine UDL and DI as frameworks of learning and teaching. I will then provide concrete examples and management support as educators implement technology supported differentiated instruction in their classrooms. In my discussions with Cheryl Adams, I confirmed that effective management techniques are critical as educators plan and implement increased flexibility in their instruction.

Effective differentiation begins with understanding the readiness level and learning needs of each student. This requires a variety on on-going formative assessment strategies which can be supported in multiple ways through technology. Using online survey resources, such as surveymonkey, can help educators gather information on the learning needs for each student. In both my own teaching and in my position as a district technology instructional systems specialist, I plan on emphasizing the use of individual student reflection blogs as a formative assessment strategy. Another technology I am advocating that my district purchase, are sets of remote voting devices so that students can all participate in question-answer type activities. The voting devices provide immediate student feedback but also allow students to anonymously respond to questions while electronically keeping track of student specific responses for the educator. Once educators have gathered information about student readiness levels, they can determine what will be most beneficial in term of instruction. By differentiating this instruction, educators can provide flexibility in how student take-in knowledge, explore concepts and share what they have learned.

Most classrooms in my district now have interactive white boards which can help educators’ present information in ways that take advantage of multiple modalities. Online technology resources such as Webquests and interactive tutorials provide efficient methods for educators to differentiate instruction based on variance in readiness levels and learning profiles. I plan to scaffold many of my assignments, and to share this technique with other educators, in order to provide multiple paths for students to take as they work towards essential understandings. Integrating technologies such as video production, voicethreads, and social collaboration tools, can increase student interest and engagement. These tools also provide multiple ways for students to share what they have learned, while also providing sources of formative data for educators to monitor student learning. While all of these tools provide increased options for students to explore and make sense of knowledge, effective management strategies are necessary so that educators experience success as they transition to student centered classrooms.

I have found that elementary school educators tend, on a whole, to be more successful at integrating differentiated instruction. I think this is largely because they already have a toolbox of multiple grouping, management, and motivation strategies that they regularly use with their students. Secondary teachers, on the other hand, tend to rely on teacher centered control and grades. To counter this, I plan to introduce and model a variety of teaching strategies that will help educators in my district to gradually differentiate instruction. This includes the use of flexible grouping supported by training students how to effectively work in group settings. The use of anchor activities can promote independent learning while the educator provides assistance to those students who need it. Scaffolding and tiered lessons are additional instruction strategies that can provide flexibility and organization for differentiating instruction.

By utilizing UDL, Differentiated Instruction and technology, educators can gradually move towards creating learning environments that take into account the individual learning needs of each of their students so that all student experience maximum achievement.

GAME Plan Reflection

Over the past six weeks, I have been engaged in an individual professional development plan utilizing the GAME format of setting goals, performing actions, monitoring progress, and evaluating/extending the results. My goals were primarily focused on increasing the effective use of technology by educators as part of my districts current focus on incorporating the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for students and teachers. For one of my action plans, I gathered video footage of technology integration occurring in my district as a result of collaborations between school level educational technologists (ET’s) and educators. As a result of these observations, I learned new ways of utilizing technology to improve learning in a variety of subject areas and grade levels. I now also realize that technology in my district is often being utilized in a ‘special project’ format and is not truly integrated into the curriculum in the powerful ways that it could be. The Walden course on Integrating Technology across the Content Areas has allowed me to develop new ideas on how technology can be regularly utilized within the curriculum framework in ways that continually promote self-directed learning and emphasize problem solving. This is a change in perspective relative to technology integration that I will now incorporate in all my teaching with both educators and students.

My second action plan involved creating a technology integration intranet site to be utilized by educators throughout my district. Through the creation of this technology resource, I discovered a wide variety of new internet resources in the areas of web quests, concept mapping, electronic portfolios, internet literacy, educational networking, digital storytelling, online tutorials, problem based learning, and assessment with technology. I learned the value of focusing on effective instructional pedagogy such as problem based learning which naturally promotes the integration of technology tools. Because of this, the intranet site I created emphasizes learner focused instructional practices, interdisciplinary education and collaboration. I plan to emphasize these effective instructional strategies in all of my future educator training sessions.

The actions I took as part of my GAME plans increased my personal knowledge on how to effectively integrate technology in ways that promote self-directed learning and emphasize problem based learning. In addition, both the technology integration videos and technology intranet site will help educators throughout my district effectively integrate technology in order to promote highest achievement for each and every student.

Will My Professional Development Plans Help Students?

As a district level educational technologist (ET), I primarily work with educators. My first professional development GAME plan (Goals, Actions, Monitor, Evaluation / Extend) involves filming collaborations between school level ET’s and educators as a means for me to learn and then be able to share, effective examples of technology integration that improve student learning. In my second plan, I am learning new instructional strategies and technologies through the process of creating a district technology intranet website. This resource will ultimately contain technology integration ideas in conjunction with effective instructional methods in order to promote effective learning throughout the district.

While my professional development plans are primarily directed towards educators, the ultimate goals is to improve student learning as educators incorporate purposeful technology integration and utilize teaching strategies that promote 21st century skills. These 21st century skills correlate directly with the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Students and as educators increase their own skills in and application of the NETS Teacher Standards, the result will be increased achievement for all students. I believe eventually both of my plans will directly support all of the NETS standards for both teachers and students.

I shared my technology intranet website with my district leadership this week and they were very enthusiastic about it. I am now scheduled to present it at the next administrator conference in January. This will be an excellent opportunity for me to get administrator support throughout my district for effective technology integration and the use of teaching strategies such as problem based learning.

The websites and other resources that have been shared with me through this blog have been extremely helpful. This week I decided to change the ‘Video Production’ portion of my intranet site to read ‘digital storytelling’ because I think sometimes educators see the word “video” and they immediately think that it is too far from their comfort zone to attempt. The term ‘digital storytelling’ will be much less threatening. I am still gathering websites that educators have found particularly supportive in the areas of webquests, concept mapping, electronic portfolios, Internet literacy, educational networking, digital storytelling, online tutorials, problem based learning, and assessment with technology. I am sure there will be additional sections but right now these are keeping me plenty busy and, as ever, I am open to any suggestions.

Week 6 - GAME Plan Update

After going through the resources this week, I am changing my section on blogs and wikis so that it is titled social networking. Actually, I am taking the advice from Vicki Davis and I will call it educational networking. I was unaware of resources such as Ning or Think so they will definitely be included. I will also list and link to ideas and methods on how to incorporate social networking to improve learning. I have been garnering feedback from selected educators on what I have posted already and it is all very positive. Because of the scope of the actions in this project (GAME plan), I plan on working on it over the winter break and have ready for release to the district when teachers return in January.

I am still looking for excellent internet resources in the areas of webquests, concept mapping, electronic portfolios, internet literacy, educational networking, video production, online tutorials, problem based learning and assessment with technology.

My first professional improvement (GAME) plan involves documenting, with video, the collaborations between educational technologists and teachers. In the session that I filmed this week, the educator and ET had organized learning centers in a middle school science classroom. Most of the centers incorporated some form of technology and the students were thoroughly engaged in the learning activities. I also filmed a debriefing of the activity between the ET and the educator which will be extremely valuable. Educators are often so busy that they do not take the time to reflect on classroom events and learn from them. Reflection discussions between ET’s and educators are something that I will now stress as a component for effective collaboration.

One other piece of good news, I met yesterday with the IT chief for my school system. There is hope that our current Intranet will be converted into an Extranet that allows password protected access for students, parents and teachers from home. This would be a huge development and it would allow students and educators to create web content at school that could be immediately available for parents to view. My fingers are crossed that this will come to fruition.

All in all, it has been a busy and learning filled week. My professional development (GAME) plans have given me inspiration and I am excited about developing new resources that will increase the number of educators who are effectively utilizing technology to improve student learning in my district.

Week 5 - GAME Plans Update - HITS

I continue to work on my two professional development plans following the GAME structure outlined by Cennamo et al. (2009) which involves setting goals, designing actions, monitoring the process, and evaluating and extending results. This week I primarily worked on creating my district intranet website for sharing ideas on how to effectively integrate technology to improve student learning. What I am observing in many classrooms is that technology or ‘computer time’ as it sometimes referred to, is utilized as a filler or ‘fun’ activity and is not truly integrated with everyday classroom activities. The SMARTboards we are getting in the classrooms are helping to change this attitude but I think there needs to be an increased focus on pedagogy that emphasizes 21st century skills.

Now that I am actually creating my Intranet site, I am becoming more confident that this will be a valuable resource for increasing the effective use of technology to improve student learning in my district. I am learning about new technologies and new ways to implement existing technology tools to promote highest student achievement.

I have learned that I need to think bigger in terms of technology integration in the classrooms when I work with educators. I now see that many educators view integration of technology as a one time final project, instead of as a collection of valuable learning tools that can be utilized daily to promote student learning. This is especially true for educators who are actively searching for ways to differentiate instruction.

My biggest challenge continues to be working with educators who have very traditional views of education, where the teacher is responsible for dispensing knowledge. How can I best motivate these educators to consider approaches that incorporate authentic learning activities? With some of the educational technologist and educator collaborations that I am filming, I am observing the ET taking the role of ‘sage on the stage’ and I do not think this is helping the classroom teacher develop a 21^st century skills teaching mentality. How do I change this tendency?

On the Intranet site I am developing, I am emphasizing authentic learning approaches when I share ways to incorporate existing and emerging technologies. I have learned a tremendous amount as a result of my GAME plans and I hope to facilitate similar erudition with the educational technologists and educators that I work with.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2007). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning