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

Heidelberg's Integrating Technology Site

This has been an extremely hectic week so I have not made as much progress on my GAME plan as I had planned (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). My superintendent suffered a heart attack but luckily we managed to get him to the hospital before he went into total cardiac arrest. It was certainly a reminder about the dangers of stress. Anyway, due to the domino effect at the Superintendent’s office, I had several additional tasks added to my plate.

I did meet with my small Intranet development team on Monday morning for about an hour but the entire time was spent configuring Dreamweaver and the Intranet sites. Here are my latest thoughts on my plan for increasing my proficiency with eductional technology:

Are you finding the information and resources you need?

I was unable to film any other ET/educator collaboration this week although I did meet with a video instructor at one of my schools. This educator suggested that I create a video teacher resource page on my Intranet so that tips and suggestions can be easily shared among that group of educators.

The more I think about it, the more I want to make sure that the resources and links that I make available on the Heidelberg Integrating Technology Site (HITS) are useful. So many educational sites I visit have numerous links but many of the resources are not helpful or go to sites that require paid subscriptions.

The main intranet sections I am currently working on are:

Webquests

Concept Mapping

Electronic Portfolios

Internet Literacy

Blog and Wikis

Video Production

Online Tutorials

Project/Problem Based Learning

Assessment with Technology

If you know of any web resources that you regularly use or find particularly useful in any of these areas, please share them with me.

Do you need to modify your action plan?

I am receiving positive feedback about my plan for a technology integration intranet site from educational technologists and educators so I think it is going to be larger than I had first envisioned.

What have you learned so far?

While researching for some of the additional resources for this week, I discovered an article about the Moodle resource. The Consortium for School Networking article (2008) described the features of this free learning management software and I see numerous applications for this tool in my district.

What new questions have arisen?

I am still struggling with how best to organize the information on the intranet website so that it is useful for educators. I have looked at numerous educational resource websites and often there are so many hyperlinks that it becomes overwhelming and difficult to find the resources that are truly beneficial. I think for this Intranet site I will only include links to resources that educators have utilized with their students. In fact, eventually it would be nice to include a short video of the technology being utilized by the teacher and students along with the resource link.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Consortium for School Networking, W. (2008). CoSN K12 Open Technologies Implementation Study #3. Moodle: An Open Learning Content Management System for Schools. Consortium for School Networking, Retrieved from ERIC database.

GAME Plan First Actions

I accomplished the first step in my plan which was to have an Intranet site established for my use by our IT department on the Department of Defense Dependents schools (DoDDS) webserver. Now I am planning the organizational structure of the website so that it useful for the educational technologists and teachers. I am thinking about separating the website into general areas such as Project based learning, Internet Inquiry, Webquests, etc. Within those general areas, I will have resources and links to lesson ideas separated according to elementary, middle and high school. If you have found an organization structure or website elements on educational related website that you really like, please share them with me. My webpage creation skills are not the best but it is another one of my professional development goals this year.

This past week I was also able to film three school level educational technologists (ETs) collaborating with educators. Schools in my district are spread out so it does take at least a day for each ET. I am now editing the clips together. In addition to filming the collaborations, meeting with the ET and educators does help me gauge how we are doing with the integration of technology to promote students learning.

This week I was also involved with a program called Creative Connections. Over 150 DoDDS students from across Europe apply to attend this 5 day educational retreat where they are immersed in a fine arts or performing arts workshop that stresses creativity and learning new skills. I assisted with the video production workshop and it was amazing what the students were able to create during the week. The Thursday night performance included these videos and I plan on posting it to the website this weekend. We also steamed the production live which was nice for parents who were unable to attend the show (including some deployed parents.)
The secure website for Creative Connections 2009 II is located at:
https://owa.eu.dodea.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://doddshost.net/now/cc10/index.html
username: dodeateam
password: achieve09

GAME Plan related to the teacher NETS

Recently I was selected as a district level educational technologist (ET). My primary responsibilities are to support the school level ET’s, educators and administrators with the effective integration of technology in order to promote highest student achievement. I think that all of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for teachers are important and require continual attention because of how quickly technology changes. My current focus in terms of the NETS teacher standards is in the area of professional growth and leadership.

As part of my personal professional development, as well as to support the educators I work with, I will be utlizing the GAME plan method outlined by Cennamo et al. to guide my self-directed learning (2009).
My GAME plan for professional growth and leadership is focused on the following two ISTE NETS teacher standards:
5b – exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others.
5c – evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.

Goals –
Demonstrate a vision of technology integration and increase the technology skills of ET’s and educators in my district. Increase the use of existing and emerging technologies in order to improve student learning
Actions –
I plan on filming and creating short video examples of effective technology integration throughout my district. These short videos will be shared with all ET’s and educators using a district technology intranet site that I will create.
As part of the district technology intranet site, I will share information and ideas on how to use existing and new technologies in order to promote student creativity, innovation and achievement.
Monitor –
I will gather responses from ET’s, educators and administrators on whether the videos and Intranet site are useful resources for promoting the effective use of technology to support student learning.
Evaluate and Extend –
Through site visits and discussions with ET’s, educators and administrators I will determine whether the technology integration videos and district intranet site are promoting the more widespread and regular use of existing and emerging technologies to promote increased learning. I will look at ways of extending intranets to each school so that educators can share technology integration successes and ideas with each other throughout the district.

This plan will not only give me a chance to improve my own knowledge and skills in many areas of educational technology but it will also assist educators throughout my district with effectively utilizing technology to promote highest student achievement.

References:
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Information Literacy and Online Inquiry Reflection

My district has been utilizing the NETS teacher and student technology standards for the past several years but we have struggled with how best to facilitate the development of the associated 21st century skills. The Walden course, ‘Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom’ directly addressed this problem and provided numerous insights and strategies for teaching 21st century skills.

The QUEST model provides an efficient approach for incorporating the key literacy skills of questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing and transforming information into authentic lessons (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). Through the process of designing a unit lesson plan, I now recognize the many opportunities there are daily in the classroom for students to develop and hone 21st century literacy skills. Looking back at my teaching career, I realize that I often provided students with quick answers and fact based lectures instead of designing learning environments that actively engaged them in researching information, synthesizing and transforming; ultimately resulting in increased depth of understanding. This approach also supports students in become more self-directed and confident in their individual ability to learn.

As a district level educational technologist, one of my primary goals this school year is to facilitate the development of 21st century skills in teachers and students throughout my district. I believe the learning unit I created in this course can effectively be incorporated into virtually any subject area and grade level and I plan on sharing it with the educators in my district. This past week, I worked with the school level educational technologists on a coordinated approach to emphasizing internet literacy skills such as search techniques, web site evaluation, and information reliability. I am developing an information literacy presentation for the next school leadership meeting so that internet inquiry and literacy skills are encouraged and supported by the administration at each school. I also plan to continue my own research into information literacy and online inquiry so that I can share new strategies and applications to promote the development of 21st century skills in all of the students and educators in the district.

Resources:Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Course Reflection

The ‘Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology’ course provided a critical connection that I was neglecting in my work as a district educational technologist. While I have been extremely successful at promoting the use of a wide variety of technology resources by educators and students, I was missing the critical link between educational theory and instructional methods. Intuitively I understood that actively engaging students in problem based learning was effective for getting them to think critically, solve problems, collaborate and be creative. What I was failing to do was to effectively communicate the theory behind the methods I was advocating to educators. I know now that by researching and discussing the theoretical basis for the educational techniques and technology integration I am advocating that I will become a much more effective staff developer. Next school year, I will provide a philosophical and/or theoretical basis for any technology or instructional method that I am advocating that educators utilize.

Another adjustment that I will make in my daily work is the general method I have been utilizing to evaluate technology integration in my district. Up to now, I have primarily focused on end products that teachers and students provide as evidence for student learning. From now on, I will spend more time and effort determining the actual instructional value that utilizing the technology provided students instead of primarily looking at final products. I will ask educators and students to share how the projects contributed to increased learning. Process is definitely more important than the product which is something that I have lost sight of over the years. In an attempt to get more funding for technology, I have been overly focused on sharing impressive final technology products instead of emphasizing how the projects improved student learning. This is definitely an area I will improve in next school year.

I am excited about emphasizing the district wide use of concept mapping tools next year. My district purchased licenses for both Kidspiration and Inspiration and I am committed to making sure these tools are used to effectively improve student learning in grade K-12 next year. In my own work with video production students, I am looking forward to using VoiceThreads and collaborative documents next school year.

This course really helped me connect learning theory with instructional techniques and the integration of technology. I had many of the pieces to the educational puzzle but they were all scattered on the table. This course has helped me to start to put these pieces together so that they can mutually benefit one another and help me create learning activities that truly benefit and promote highest achievement for each individual student.

My First Voicethread

This was my first attempt at making a voicethread and I see all sorts of potential for it to be utilized with students in grades K-12. As a video teacher, I wanted to see if voicethread might work as a vehicle for students to share their videos and also receive feedback. I posted the following demonstration public service announcement that I created that has multiple endings.

http://voicethread.com/share/530225/

I did have considerable difficulty uploading the video. There were issues with the firewalls and internet explorer cache. Of course, I did not know what the problem was so I tried to convert the video into every conceivable video format with no luck. I gave up and attempted to load up a sequence of pictures which did not work either. It was then that I discovered the true problem. This is definitely a tool I will experiment with the summer and introduce to the teachers' in my district at the start of next school year.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Computer based social networking is becoming an increasingly important feature of our society. One recent example is having astronauts in space tweeting about their experiences and answering questions. I also think about the relatively recent increase in my own dependence on the utilization of online communication in the form of e-mail, chat rooms, blogs, websites, and webinars. My own children log in to their e-mail and facebook accounts almost immediately when they get home and I have had to make rules so that they engage in activities that are not always online.
With this in mind, it is important that schools provide students with opportunities to learn effective and responsible use of social networking resources. Unfortunately in my district, many of these resources are currently blocked because our network infrastructure is intertwined with the military network. The resulting security protocols mean that almost all blogs, chats, wikis and commercial e-mail resources are blocked. Students and teachers cannot access facebook, Youtube, and pretty much any other resource that has the potential to contain any questionable content.

My school system has purchased a student e-mail service that allows for blogs and which filters all student email for inappropriate language or pictures. The vast majority of blocked email and pictures are false negatives but a small amount of inappropriate communication has been halted. The number and variety of blocked resources often make it necessary for educators and students to find information at home and transport it to school using data sticks or other means.

Some successes this year in my district include the use of Buzzword which is an Adobe product similar to Google Docs (www.acrobat.com). Since our district has extensive licenses with Adobe, it was easier to get it approved. We are still awaiting approval to use Google docs. Anyway, buzzword allows students to do word processing online and submit files to an educator’s drop box. The educator or others who the document is shared with can provide feedback on the document. It also allows students to collaborate on documents. In the classrooms we tested this with, all students had internet access at home and it became a very valuable resource. The days of corrupted documents on data sticks and other technical problems were practically eliminated by using the online resource. The one problem was slow internet access at one of my schools which limited its effectiveness at school.

Webquests have been utilized widely in my district but the number of blocked sites are making it more frustrating for educators. When teachers have the time and assistance to create their own webquests, the results are overwhelmingly positive.
Edublogs and Second Life are both currently blocked in my district. I am looking forward to using voice threads more in my district next school year. I had one student test it out by using it to create training resource for her yearbook staff.

I am of the belief that it is important to teach students how to responsibly use online social networking resources. When sites are just blocked, students do not learn anything except to look at the site when they get home where there is often little internet supervision. I would much rather students have the opportunity to develop the skills and attitudes to deal with inappropriate internet content in a supervised environment such as the classroom. Students are going to use social networking regardless of whether it happens at school or not. The benefit of using social networking resources in the classroom is that they will naturally help engage students and it will give them the opportunity to use the technology in a responsible and useful manner.

Constructivism in Practice

As a former science teacher, I fully appreciate the statement that, “when students generate and test hypothesis, they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content” (Pittler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.202). This strategy can be incorporated with any subject area by providing students with opportunities to problem solve. In my district, we have made a concerted effort to train educators with the development and implementation of project based learning lessons with an emphasis on the use of technology tools. One thing we have done to assist educators in the successful use of project based learning is to establish school support teams composed of educators, information specialists, educational technologists and administrators so that the individual teacher is not overwhelmed with thinking that they are all alone with, what for many of them is, an entirely new approach to teaching.

There are now so many quickly available tools, ideas and support forums for educators interested in providing effective constructivist learning opportunities for students. The resources this week showed me some new websites that I will definitely use in the future. I like the project based learning planning documents that are located on the PBL site and I will provide this resource to the educators in my district. - http://pbl-online.org/ProjectPlanning/PlanningForm.htm . The increased use of web based simulations may be particularly helpful in my district because current IT restrictions have resulted in extensive delays and rejections of software based programs. I think some caution needs to be exercised to make sure that educational ‘games’ are integrated in the curriculum and are supporting student achievement and not just used as a type of reward. I have found the material and blogs on http://www.edutopia.org/ to be particularly helpful. The Best on the Web for Teachers site is a good starting point for finding web based resources that can support virtually any classroom activity or to provide sites for parents to use with their children at home that support what is happening in the classroom.

One element of project/problem based learning that can be unsettling for teachers is that students often do not proceed in the same manner or sequence in finding solutions to their problems. As such, it is necessary for educators to monitor student progress and to use questioning techniques to assist students in discovering errors in their logic or to expand their thinking. The teacher is no longer in the role of dispenser of truth and the ‘right’ answers. Two years ago, Jamie McKenzie came to my district and provided training on how educators can facilitate increased opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking. He presented a variety of project ideas and methods and one thing that I continue to utilize regularly is his information related to questioning techniques. Sharing this information with educators in my district has helped them focus on getting student to think more deeply about their questions instead of just providing them with the easy quick answer.

Evan Glazer effectively sums up the potential of constructivist education in the form of problem based instruction by stating that, “problem-based inquiry emphasize learning as a process that involves problem solving and critical thinking in situated contexts. It provides opportunities to address broader learning goals that focus on preparing students for active and responsible citizenship. Students gain experience in tackling realistic problems, and emphasis is placed on using communication, cooperation, and resources to formulate ideas and develop reasoning skills.” (2001, p.4)

Resources:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Glazer, E. (2001). Problem Based Instruction. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved <5/24/2009>, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitive Learning theories and information processing research indicate that the storage of information in long term memory and the ability to subsequently retrieve that information is directly related to the number and variety of mental connections made between existing and new mental constructs If students listen to a lecture and are not actively involved in making associations with the information based on existing knowledge and experiences, there is less likelihood that the information will be remembered, let alone combined and synthesized to create new understanding.

Instructional strategies that assist students in making more connections and that provides images and other representations of information, will make it easier for students to remember information and increase their understanding of it. Technology tools such as Inspiration, that model the networking of information that occurs in the brain, are particularly effective for helping students discover the connections between small pieces of information. This aids in the conversion of information from short term to long term memory. It also help with the retrieval of information because more associations and connections between information has been facilitated. Adding pictures and other sensory representations of information with further enhance the number and quality of the cognitive connections.

I think educators who design lessons, such as virtual field trips, which actively engage students in utilizing, organizing, manipulating, and sharing information, will find that their students’ ability to understand, remember and make new associations will be greatly improved.

Drill and Practice Websites

As the internet links under this week’s resources showed, there are numerous educational sites which can help with the drill and practice of facts. I had not seen the Prentice Hall Social Studies Tutor http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/ss_skills_tutor/. The tutorials were a bit dry but for a short period of time and for targeting a specific skill, I think it would be beneficial. It might be especially useful for those students who have difficulty reading because it was accompanied by audio. I could see using this site as part of a learning center.

The keyboarding site, (http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/Business/Keyboarding/)
could be useful in my district because we mandate keyboarding training in grades 3-6. This site would enable parents to help their students practice at home or during the summer.

The Webmath (http://www.webmath.com/index.html) site has a variety of math support resources and drill activities. The nice thing about this site is that students at almost every level can use it. For differentiating instruction and providing students with practice at the level that is most beneficial for them, this is a great feature.

Another math and science website that is utilized extensively in my district is the Shodor site, http://www.shodor.org/educators/activities/. Dr. Panoff has provided numerous professional development trainings in my district and his interactivate math site provide teachers and students with some very interesting and engaging math activities: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/

The technology tutorial site is another one I can see myself using often with students http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line.htm . For those who like written step by step directions, this site is perfect. Another technology tutorial site that I like to use is www.atomiclearning.com , this site has short video tutorials related to numerous applications so it is good for those visual & auditory learners. The atomic learning site is a paid subscription but many of the basic tutorials for each application are free.

There are so many great sites for drill and practice that I really do not understand how teachers can continue to rely so heavily on pencil & paper worksheets. I know, in part, it has to do with computer availability in the classroom but hopefully we will continue to move towards a 1:1 computer to student ratio in our schools. While behaviorism based drill and practice generally focus on lower level thinking skills, they do reinforce learning and provide the building blocks for higher learning. The nice thing about internet based drill and practice is that sites can be located that correspond closer to the learning styles and preferences of each student.

Behavior Interventions

Fortunately, I have had very few instances in my 20 year teaching career where I had to escalate a student behavior plan to include parents, administration, or a team of teachers. With the vast majority of chronic behavior issues, I have been able to work directly with the students in order to develop plans that were effective in motivating students to exhibit behaviors that were supportive of learning for themselves and others. With that said, I have gathered information this week that will be helpful for the teachers in my district and I to be more effective when dealing with chronic behavior issues.

I have often been asked to participate in teaching team meetings in order to discuss the disruptive behaviors of various students. In many cases, the behaviors that these students were displaying in other classrooms, simply did not happen in my classroom or occurred infrequently. I attribute this primarily to creating a classroom where the vast majority of students are interested and engaged in what is happening in the classroom. Jones and Jones describe the most important factors succinctly when they state, “there is no substitute for effective teaching in a caring environment” (2007, p. 390).

In the handful of chronic behavior issues that I have elevated, I realize now that I could have had more effective results if I had done a better job at consistently documenting the student behavior over time and if I had created behavior contracts that were signed by everyone and which clearly delineated the responsibilities of each stakeholder.

Dr. Wolfgang presented a simple technique and form for documenting interactions with a child in regards to inappropriate behavior which recorded in two columns, what happened and the actions taken (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). In the past, I have not kept track of those quick knee to knee discussions with students but from now on I will consistently document behavior issues and my responses because, “collecting and analyzing data can prevent teachers from continuing an ineffective behavior change strategy or terminating an approach that is having significant but gradual success.” (Jones & Jones, 2007, p. 393).

Additional information from Dr. Wolfgang that I find particularly helpful is the questioning technique for the confronting-contracting escalation step which focuses on getting the student to reflect on their behavior and to develop a contract with specific actions the student needs to agree with (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). The following websites contain behavior contracts and forms that can be modified and utilized with students:
http://specialed.about.com/cs/behaviordisorders/a/behaviorcontrac.htm
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-discipline/resource/6283.html
I also like the steps Dr. Wolfgang outlines for conducting a staffing meeting which focus on developing specific contributions that each stakeholder can make to solve a clearly defined problem (Laureate Education Inc., 2008).

One thing that I have learned over my career is that it takes considerable time and effort to work with students with chronic behavior issues. The reward is that by helping students recognize and modify their inappropriate behavior, they become more aware and in control of their actions. The result is that their learning improves and they experience increased success not only in my class but also in other classes and even in other areas of their lives.

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program twelve. Interventions for Severe and Chronic Behavior Problems [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teacher Behavior Continuum Scenario

Except for my first year of teaching, I have rarely experienced situations of defiance by any of my students. This is primarily because I learned early on in my career that creating engaging lessons that interest and involve students, is an effective preventive measure for students who act out as a result of boredom or frustration. The most common conflict issues in my teaching relate to disagreements between students because my teaching incorporates a significant amount of collaboration.

In the majority of serious conflict situations between students, my usual response was to jump in and solve the problem by directing students who was right, who was wrong and what their next steps would be. In terms of the teacher behavior continuum outlined by Dr. Charles Wolfgang, I jumped directly to the rules and consequences stage and commanded solutions to the conflict (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). The power rested completely with me and the students involved were not given the opportunity to analyze the situation and work out a solution. While initially effective, this approach did not empower students to practice solving their own problems and was not effective at exposing the source issues related to the conflict between the students. “If we are to assist students, we need the clearest possible understanding of how the view a situation. If we merely punish or remove students, we will be the last to find out what may be influencing their behavior, and we may be the first to incur their frustration” (Jones & Jones, 2008, p. 355).

Conflict between students is going to be a natural component of projects that incorporate collaboration. Instead of performing the role of judge and jury, I think it is more effective to explicitly familiarize students with methods of solving their own problems. In this way, students will have opportunities to practice conflict resolution skills that will serve them well in the future. In my own teaching, I plan to train students with Glasser’s steps for problem solving as well as to experiment with student facilitated peer conflict resolution techniques such as the think-feel-act model (Jones & Jones, 2008).

In my current role as a facilitator for increasing the use of collaborative learning models that incorporate technology, I need to include problem resolution as one of the components. This means training educators on how they can mentor and teach their students effective techniques for conflict resolution. Because I work with educators at all grade levels, I plan to incorporate an inquiry into conflict resolution skills and lesson plans. Websites example such as the following will be included in this research: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-discipline/resource/3038.html

Training students to effectively solve interpersonal conflicts, in a manner that provides all parties with acceptable solutions, will provide a multiple of dividends in the classroom. Foremost, students will be engaged in active problem solving and practicing conflict resolution skills that will continually benefit them in the future.

Resources:
Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Program eleven. Limit Setting and Anger Management [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Academic Controversy

Academic controversy can be an effective instructional method that will actively engage students. According to Dr. David Johnson, conflicts that are managed constructively increase achievement, higher level thinking, cognitive and moral development, collaboration, and lead students to becoming more effective in dealing with future conflicts (Laureate Education, 2008).

In my work with educators, I plan to introduce academic controversy as a method of instruction that teachers can use with their students. I think an effective way to accomplish this is to have educators participate in their own academic controversy lesson. Because district wide standardized testing is coming up, I plan to engage educators in a lesson where they analyze the pro and con positions of standardized testing.

The procedures I plan to follow for this lesson are effectively outlined at the following website which also contains student handouts for the different steps as well as rubrics: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/classroom/controversy.html

The procedure will be as follows:
1. Organize the educators in groups of four.
2. Within the groups of four, two people will work cooperatively at coming up with a pro stance on standardized testing while the research pair works on a con position.
3. Educators will have access to laptops with internet access for research.
4. Each group of two is given an opportunity to present their arguments to each other with the group of four without comments or discussion.
5. Open discussion within the group of four with each side questioning the findings and conclusions of the other side
6. Research pairs will switch perspectives and adopt the alternate point of view.
7. Each pair presents the best arguments for the position they formerly opposed and listen to the other side.
8. The group of four now works together to formulate a new position that all the members of the group agree with.
9. The group prepares a report to share with the entire class.

Once I finish this lesson, I will engage educators in a discussion about the lesson. Topics will be explored such whether the lesson engaged them, how the procedures can be adapted for their students, the brainstorming of possible topics, and a discussion concerning the lesson elements that are necessary in order to successfully facilitate an academic controversy activity with their students.

The final step of this is to receive a commitment from educators that they will try an academic controversy lesson with their students and share their results with the group.

I think academic controversy is an excellent way to engage students in higher level thinking and rigorous academic work. At the same time, students learn important civic skills such as being able to work with others who do not share the same viewpoint as well as the ability to examine issues from another person’s perspective. In addition, students are given the opportunity to develop conflict resolution skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program eight. Conflict Resolution [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Relationship and Community Building

My effectiveness as an educator hinges in large part on my abilities to creative positive relationships with my students and to engage them in effectively working with each other. In my current role as a staff developer, I often observe educators who, while experts in their subject areas, do not take the time to establish effective relationships with and among their students. Because these are such critical aspects for creating effective learning environments, during future professional development sessions I will model and provide strategies that educator’s can use to create more effective relationships. “Student clearly behave in ways more conducive to learning when they perceive that their teachers are willing to assist them with their schoolwork, value them as individuals, treat them respectfully, care about their learning and their personal lives, and maintain an orderly, safe classroom environment” (Jones & Jones, 2007, p.77).

This year I introduced a student e-mail system in the district. I believe that it may also be a tool that could increase effective communication between students and teachers. Because teachers also have an email account on the system, I will recommend that they use it to regularly communicate with students. Because it is separate from their regular teacher e-mail, I think educators will be more willing to use it as effective communication tool with their students.

Many educators utilize large group question and answer periods to introduce information and to check for understanding. Jones and Jones point out that, “we should try to maximize the percentage of correct responses so that students do not become confused by competing, inaccurate information” (1997, p.99). Currently I am piloting the use of Senteo voting devices so that question and answer periods can effectively engage all students and provide instant feedback from the entire class. Not only does this technology help focus on correct information but it also engages all students regardless of any unintended biases by educators.

A third area I plan to focus on to increase effective relationships between educators and students relates to the effective use of praise. I know I have a tendency to praise too much thereby risking creating what Dr. Pat Wolfe calls “praise junkies” (Laureate, 2008). I plan to work on modeling the effective use of praise by focusing on providing feedback which is specific and to also promote activities where students can practice making value judgments on their own work instead of depending on external approval from the educator.

Encouraging effective relationships between students is another key area that I have been focusing on this school year. One initiative that I have worked with educators is the use of project based learning in order to increase student achievement. Because these learning situations naturally incorporate collaborative interaction among students, I believe that it will promote a shift from the teacher centered instruction that is common in many of the schools in my district.

Another strategy that I am working on at the district level to increase collaboration among students relates to the use of video technology. In many of the schools in my district, student produced school news show are helping students share their accomplishments with each other while also improving the overall school climate. This year I also introduced some video creation software called Adobe Visual Communicator which makes it very easy for classroom teachers to create individual classroom news shows. Video production is naturally motivating for most children and it promotes collaboration and sharing. Classroom new shows accentuate the positive accomplishments and learning that is taking place in the classroom and it is a great way to share what is going on in the classroom with parents.

Recently I have also started introducing the use of web based tools such as buzzword, blogs and wikis. These tools naturally promote students interactively working together and sharing with each other. I will make a concerted effort to use these tools in my professional development trainings and I am confident that gradually they will be utilized more with students.

I believe that engaging educators in the inquiry of how to improve their relationship with and among students, will result in higher achievement for all students. I will continue to model ideas and techniques that have worked for me and encourage educators in my district to share their successes with each other.

Resources:
Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of
support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn &
Bacon.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program 2: Prevention and Planning [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Goals, Rules and Procedures

As a staff developer, I do not have a classroom of my own but I work with many educators and I have the opportunity to observe numerous approaches to classroom management. In my training sessions, my primary goal for effective classroom management is summarized by Carolyn Evertson who describes effective management as the things a teacher does to create learning environments that promote highest student achievement (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). Two other specific goals that I also consider important for effective classroom management are the creation of an environment of respect and for students to learn to be in control of their own behavior. In many classrooms, I observe rules that are supportive of these goals. The most universal classroom rules I have observed are: respect yourself and others, do your best, and follow instructions. The first two have been stalwart rules that I have utilized throughout my teaching career and I think they support my three goals for effective classroom management. While I have seen these rules in many classrooms, I have also observed how many of the practices and procedures in classrooms work against them.
In order to promote more on task learning time, effective classroom management techniques are critical and I can assist educators in this area by modeling effective management during my training sessions with them. I have consistently observed classrooms where the teacher is asking the students questions and only one student is called on at a time and consistently only a few students are really engaged. I am currently introducing technology which allows for increased student participation in these types of question and answer sessions. The tool is the Senteo voting devices that allow each student to electronically respond to questions. The responses are immediately transmitted, tabulated and graphed on a SMARTboard. This instant feedback is an excellent way for educators to make sure everyone is involved and to regularly gauge student understanding and interest.
I have also observed numerous situations where educators and students end up frustrated as they try to use technology because procedures and directions for projects have not been clearly communicated to students. In my technology trainings with educators, I will emphasize the clear articulation and demonstration of all aspects of each lesson as if I were doing the project with students. By modeling the effective staging and preparation of each lesson, I can help teachers be more effective when they do the activities with their students.
The final area I would like to improve in is to increase student motivation by providing more choices during learning activities. I think providing students with choices promotes increased engagement while also encouraging increased responsibility for their own learning. There are some interesting new technologies in this realm that I am exploring including Moodle as mentioned in this website from the University of Minnesota (http://dmc.umn.edu/activities/choices/).
As an educator, I was effective at classroom management and I had very few discipline issues. I would venture to guess that my classes were above average in terms of student time on task. Despite that, I have learned many techniques and procedures this week that I think will make me even more effective in the regular classroom once I return which I hope will be soon.

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program four. Goals and Rules [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Highest Student Achievement with Technology

I recently completed a course titled, “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and the Society.” As a result of this course, I not only learned about new technologies but more importantly I examined ways that I can utilize technology to improve instruction and increase student achievement throughout my district.
Towards the beginning of the course, I was introduced to blogging, wikis and podcasts and learned how to use these tools to engage in professional development inquiries related to subjects of interest to me. This course allowed me to discover the value of several technology tools for myself before even considering how they could effectively be utilized with students. I believe this was an excellent model of how technology tools can be introduced to other educators and it is one method that I am currently implementing with the adult learners I work with. I am finding that once educators see value in technology for themselves, it is much easier for them to successfully utilize the technology with their students.
I have always based my teaching on a constructivist learning philosophy. I focus on providing students with situations where they can use information to construct meaning and find solutions to real problems. The technology tools I was introduced to in this course, along with the information on the critical skills and attributes that society will demand of its future workers, have strengthened my belief in a constructivist learning model. I have found that students are more motivated to learn when their studies focus on relevant issues and engage them in utilizing student centered technologies. A distinction that was particularly valuable was whether I was using technology with students to do the same old things or was I emphasizing using technology to do new things. The new technologies that are opening up worldwide collaborative networks are particularly exciting and are creating new ways of operating in many realms.
I believe one of educators’ primary responsibilities is to prepare students so that they can adapt to technology and methods of operation that have not yet been discovered. I do not believe this is supported if educators are teaching using the teacher-centered approach of the last century where the teachers held all the answers.
After 20 years of teaching, I continue to model being a life-long learner. I believe if students develop a desire and passion for continued learning, they will be able to find solutions to the complex problems that they will encounter both in their personal lives and that we face as a global society. One of the greatest aspects of being an educator is that I learn new things every day and, as an educational technologist, my particularly focus is on how technology can be utilized to maximize student achievement.
Last week I prepared an issue paper for my Superintendent about the role of the school level educational technologists in my district in an attempt to preserve these critical educational technology support positions. Here is an excerpt from that paper which outlines the general goals for myself and the educational technologists in my district:
“Educational technologists (ET’s) facilitate the appropriate use of existing technology and encourage the use of new technology. The technology tools available in our schools help teachers differentiate instruction and directly address DoDEA standards. ETs build capacity among teachers to ensure that technology is working smoothly for instruction. ETs are needed to support and encourage the transformative use of new technologies including blogs, wikis, podcasts, the extranet and other Web 2.0 tools. These tools and many others facilitate communication between the schools and the community, highlighting the achievements of students and teachers, and enable student and teacher collaboration across the globe. Becoming proficient with these new technologies is a critical component to technology and information literacy as our students enter the 21st century workplace.”
To support these goals over the next year, I am going to focus on providing training for my school level educational technologists on the latest best practices in the areas of adult learning theory, differentiated instruction, backwards design, formative and summative assessment, and coaching models. In addition, I will continue to focus on effectively training educators with the use of web 2.0 and other technology tools for both their own professional development and for integration in their classrooms in order to promote highest student achievement.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website has always been a bit difficult to use with educators as a learning tool. The mission statement is located in the “about us” section or in the Press Kit under “Events and News” while I think it should be front and center on the home page. I think the framework for 21st century learning page is the most useful part of the website and it is what I regularly share with educators. The framework provides a visual representation of the interrelated nature of the student outcomes and support systems. The links to the 21st Century Student Outcomes provide additional links to resources in each skill area. The links to the 21st Century Support Systems are less useful in that they give a very broad overview of each element. As with most standards, specific actions and methods are often difficult to locate. To use a map analogy, while I think the 21st century skill framework provide a large scale map of where we need to go, it does not provide the specific street by street directions on how to get there. I am also surprised about the relatively few statewide initiatives in relation to 21st Century skills.
I know many educators, including myself, have focused on learning and innovation skills much longer than just the first 9 years of the 21st century. Certainly the information literacy and technology skills have evolved and changed but the focus on thinking, innovation and creativity have been stressed by many teachers over the decades. It is good that a renewed focus is being placed on these critical skills and it sounds like they may also be part of the national report card: http://www.eschoolnews.com/emails/eSN/0122ResourceCenter.htm
Despite some minor website shortcomings, it is helpful having the 21st century skills framework (created by businesses, educational & community organizations, and government) that specifically outlines the skills our students need to develop in order to become successful and productive citizens.

Blog Idea

I work with a variety of educators at multiple grade levels so I was thinking of ways that blogs could conceivably be utilized with all of them. I would like to see teachers establish class blogs and a suggestion as a way to start would be to use them for weekly student reflections on what they have learned during the week. I think regular student reflection on what they are doing and learning in school is often lacking in classrooms. Teachers could provide writing prompts such as “describe something you did this week that you enjoyed,” or “describe something you found difficult this week.” While giving the opportunity for students to reflect, this blog would also provide valuable information to the teacher about student perceptions. Often what educators think they are teaching is not actually what the students are learning. As part of the blog, students would be required to provide feedback to a certain number of their classmates.

Video Production - A Powerful Learning Tool

Video production is a powerful learning tool that is inherently motivating to students. It can be utilized with all grade levels and in all subject areas. The challenge I am facing is how to motivate more teachers to use it regularly in their classrooms. When I first started using video in the classroom more than 10 years ago, it required excessive time editing with analog equipment and final products were often not very polished. Despite the technology shortcomings of that time, the process of creating videos was always interesting to my students and engaged them in exploring issues in order to effectively communicate information. Because video production also requires collaboration, planning, communication skills and problem solving, it supports curriculum standards in multiple subject areas. Over the past several years, advances in technology have made video production tools powerful, inexpensive and much less time consuming. Certainly the explosion of home video sharing on the web bears witness to the continued interest that youth have in video and it makes sense that we spend time teaching students how to communicate effectively using this medium. Tools like Visual Communicator 3 (formerly sold by Serious Magic and now owned by Adobe) have made it possible to create videos using only a computer and webcam. Despite the ease with which video production can now be accomplished, I still can only get a handful of teachers to use it as a regular learning tool in their classrooms. One of the problems is professional development time and competing with administrator’s requirement to use PD time on issues related to system wide testing and issues such as NCLB. Regrettably, at the end of the day, PD time for enhancing education through the use of technology is simply not a priority. This week my students and I are doing our first live video webcast of an important district event. I am hoping the increased exposure of the value of video with both district leadership and parents will help increase the time and resources provided for supporting video production as a valuable tool that can enhance student learning.