ETEC 565: Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application
Assignments:Technology Proficient AssessmentI used the criteria listed in the ISTE document to reflect upon my own technological proficiency. I find that the Seven Principles of Good Practice are exactly that. I believe they are general principles that should be standard in every classroom and are not necessarily specific to technology.
Facilitate and Inspire Learning I have taught K-2 for 15 years and have spent the last two years in Denver away from the classroom but still connected to current practices through the MET program. I will be returning to the Calgary Board of Education in September where I will return full time as a classroom teacher. In the latter years prior to my move, I spent most of that time in grades one and two and truly saw passionate learners through an inquiry model of learning. Simply by beginning a topic where my students asked their questions immediately hooked them in and inspired them to further inquire using a variety of resources and technologies. A critical component of this process is ensuring students have a roadmap of where they are headed. I always create class rubrics with my students in order to promote self reflection and to help students clarify their understanding and thinking, planning and creative processes. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments As the age-group I have always taught are young children, they are just beginning to figure out how they learn best. Over the year, I try to introduce a few new technologies and tools which they can explore and towards the end of the year they have choice in what they feel most comfortable in using in their learning. Often times they end up working in small groups, pairs or individually, depending on how they feel they can work best. As mentioned previously, class rubrics are primarily used in my classroom but I also use a variety of other formative and summative assessments. A goal for me is to learn more about various digital assessment tools that I can use for the age group I teach. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning I have my own professional website as well as a twitter account. I intend to get my parents to follow my twitter feed as I feel I do keep up with current articles and relevant information on educational technology/digital technologies. In the past, I have also had a classroom blog where my students were a part of composing the blog for the day to inform parents of what was happening. This also inspired students to go home and tell their parents about their day or to read the blog which they wrote. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility I have to admit that I have not explored this area with my students. I know it is important that kids start understanding this responsibility from a young age. Last year the CBE signed on with Google so now when I return I will be able to have my students connect with the global community. Ensuring both students and teachers are aware of digital citizenship is a personal goal of mine. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership In my career so far, I have: - Been the Educational Technology Lead teacher at all the schools I have worked at - Supported the administration teams in providing professional development for staff - Supported teachers in using and integrating technology in the classroom - Had key roles on two school Learning Commons Committees to help transform their libraries into Learning Commons Future goals of how I will share my learning: - Expand on my Personal Learning Networks to include staff and parents. - Connect with colleagues and grow professionally - Offer professional development to staff at school or system PD days. - If the opportunity presents itself, I would like to continue to be a part of transforming traditional learning practices and environments into more constructivist environments, such as Libraries to Learning Commons. - I want to support educators to integrate tools, new media, and emerging technologies into their instruction. What are some of the “digital-age” skills that you plan to learn and start practicing, or want to further develop? I have outlined some of the skills I want to further develop above; however, as an educator, sharing what I know with others is a key reason for me pursuing my Masters degree in educational technology. With all the educational technologies out there, it is important for myself and fellow teachers to know when and how to use these technologies appropriately. Much of my program so far is challenging me to consider this and I hope to return in the fall to help others think about the various educational technologies that can support and impact students' learning as well as how to effectively use these technologies in their programs. I hope that through ETEC 565 I can learn from the opinions and experiences of fellow community members and reflect on my own beliefs around how technology should be incorporated in the classroom. Advice to LenoraFirst, I wanted to say that I really admire Lenora for being proactive and inspired to create an onlineanti-bullying resource for the band teachers. Despite the hurdles she will need to face to pull this off, she has the spark and anything is possible with that. Having said this, it may not end up being presented the way she imagines it to be, but her message will still get across to the other teachers.
I would have to recommend that Lenora first choose a design model prior to beginning. I would recommend she uses Bates and Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model as it will help her consider all components in this model and choose the right technology for her project. By identifying the advantages and disadvantage of each technology she will be able to make an informed decision rather than a hasty one. S - Students: Lenora first needs to consider whether her resource would expand to her students using it as well as the teachers. If her students will not use this resource, eventually, then the “S” for students in this model will now be considered for her fellow teachers only. As Lenora’s school is on theTsq’escenemc Canim Lake Band reserve, Lenora needs to think about the demographics of her teacher population and the type of access they would have to this particular resource. Would they only have access in the school? What is the bandwidth/connectivity like? E - Ease of Use and Reliability: Will this resource be reliable for teachers to use? What is the time commitment like for teachers to learn how to use this resource or work through it? With the demands on teaching today, is this a resource that the teachers will use? Perhaps it would be wise to collect this data from teachers before delving into all the work. C - Cost: There are many amazing and free software available but with Lenora’s dial-up situation, it may be difficult not from a cost perspective but from a cost of time perspective. This could take many endless hours to put together if she went this route. It may even be worth it to pay someone to design this for her if she were to weigh out financial cost vs cost of time. She has a relationship with theCradleboard Teaching Project Teacher’s Circle, I would recommend she put together a presentation about the resource she wants to develop and see if this group would support her and either put it on their site or fund her to have someone else develop it. Another alternative would be if teachers were infavour of this idea, the school could raise money for this project. There are creative ways to go abouts doing this if she wanted to outsource it. T - Teaching and Learning: Lenora needs to ensure she has outlined the learning outcomes for her project. What will her fellow teachers gain out of this site? Will it benefit them and if so, how will she measure this? I - Interactivity: What is the interactivity level she wants from this site? Will her site deliver content alone or will teachers have the opportunity to have discussions, take surveys, interact with others in a collective knowledge building environment? There are different sites that cater to synchronous/asynchronous or both, depending on what she wants. O - Organizational Issues: Since Lenora is starting this on her own, she will not have local IT support or school support. She will need to rely on various online forums/support groups to help her along the way. Again, with her dial-up issue, network/development issues could end up taking a long time to sort out and the cost of time becomes an issue once again. N - Novelty: I don’t see this being of great concern in this situation. I think if the resource is valuable, teachers will use it and make the most of it for their own professional development. S - Speed: Lenora needs to be committed to this project from start to finish. She will need to update material and deal with teacher interactivity (synchronous/asynchronous) on a regular basis. Depending on the platform she chooses, most will update itself; however, she would need to check on this prior to selection. Once Lenora has done this research, she can make an informed decision about next steps. In my opinion, bandwidth is a critical factor here and the time it would take Lenora to develop her site. I would highly recommend she speaks with the Cradleboard Teaching Project Teacher’s Circle first to see if they will collaborate with her. If not, I would suggest she tries fundraising so that she can outsource her project. It’s a fantastic idea but needs to be well thought out. References: Bates and Poole. (2003) “A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology.” In Effective Teaching with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pages 75-105. Trinh Case StudyWhat looks problematic to you in this case?
The main problem Trinh is facing is that she is offering her students many ways in which she can be contacted by: university email, Blackboard email, and blog on Twitter. Although Trinh cannot exactly set up “office hours”, she most definitely can set up parameters around how students can contact her. I would advise Trinh to have all messages from her students delivered to her university email account. At first I thought it should be her Blackboard internal mail account, but as a student using Connect, I have to wait to login and check my internal mail to hear back from my instructors, which is an extra step for me. If I could email my instructor from my gmail account and receive mail directly back to that account, it saves me more time, as I’m sure it would save my instructors more time. I also recommend that Trinh set up a discussion specifically for issues that arise during the course. Some of these issues include technical ones, not being able to access articles, or general course related questions. With this forum set up, other students in the class can offer suggestions and help with the troubleshooting which will lessen Trinh’s email count. Who are the stakeholders in this case, what has been done and what has not been done well by some of them? If Trinh is spending more time on communication, then her students are suffering from not having more of an online presence from their teacher. Trinh needs to focus more on her teaching presence: learners and teachers, and their interactions with each other and with content (Anderson, 2008a). As Anderson (2008a) highlights that this interaction can take place within a community of inquiry, using a variety of net-based synchronous and asynchronous interactions, Trinh needs to evaluate how she is using these tools effectively. It’s great that she is using a variety of multimedia educational artifacts, especially the streamlined live guest lectures. Her students obviously appreciate this. References: Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Assessment1. How informative this observation is in the context of your professional and learning practices?
I want to open with the following statement as the Reggio Emilia Approach is one I have done a lot of research on and have incorporated much of its philosophy into my own. Loris Malaguzzi once stated, “Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before” (cited in Fraser, S, 2000, p. 77). This is a powerful statement as it truly supports a personalized learning approach for teachers to ensure successful learning of all students. I have to say that I try really hard to ensure assessment is part of the entire process of the work my students do. As I have taught grades one and two for many years, most of the feedback I give my students is verbal. I am constantly asking them questions to help them think about their learning and how to proceed further. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I always create a class-generated rubric during inquiry work as well as for writing. I definitely need to get better at incorporating this for math. This usually takes 2-3 days to create but is a “guiding light” that my students always refer to. I have the program of studies beside me and we write our outcomes in “kid” language. Throughout the project, I have “check points” where we have self, peer and teacher assessments of how the kids are doing. A common question that you would hear if you were in my class is, “What grade do you want to give yourself? Check the rubric to make sure you are on track”. I do feel I still have a lot work to do to make my assessment practice better. I just found out I will be placed in a grade 4/5 Gifted and Talented Program when I move back to Calgary and I know that this is an age where I need to focus on “Helping students to monitor their own progress and develop skills of self-evaluation” (cited in Gibbs & Simpson, 2004, p. 12). I look forward to reading all of your responses to get ideas, especially if you incorporate models such as the weekly oral feedback model. 2. Are there other methods that are equally as economical, particularly in terms of instructor time, that are more suitable for assessment in a digital age? For instance, do you think automated essay grading is a viable alternative? The automated essay grading system sounds like an effective and economical method but the first thing that comes to my mind is, “how personalized is this?” Perhaps when considering grammar and spelling this would be ideal, but I would hope that the teacher still reads over the work to check for authentic writing. As for multiple-choice tests, I agree with Bates, T. (2014), in that this kind of test is limited for assessing high-level intellectual skills. The idea of e-portfolios captures evidence of student learning over time. It can be documented in multiple formats and contexts, and includes a student’s own reflection on his or her learning. As long as assessment takes place during the process of creating these portfolios then it is a fantastic digital tool for documenting learning. 2. Would it be helpful to think about assessment right at the start of course planning, rather than at the end? Is this feasible? Absolutely! It makes so much sense to plan with the end in mind (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998). Having a clear vision of what is ahead allows for: -thoughtful planning -personalized learning -better understanding of where you are and where to go next -purposeful task design and mastery learning -students better understanding their goals References: Fraser, S., & Gestwicki, C. (2002). Authentic childhood: Exploring Reggio Emilia in the classroom. Albany, NY: Delmar/Thomson Learning. Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and teaching in higher education, 1(1), 3-31. Wiggins, G. P., McTighe, J., Kiernan, L. J., & Frost, F. (1998, October). Understanding by design (pp. 0-87120). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age - BC Open Textbooks. Retrieved July 2, 2015, fromhttp://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/. Creative Commons1. What type of authorship license you would chose for your Learning Module Project (the Assignment 2 or Assignment 3)?
I have always shared my work and ideas with others and have always appreciated when others do the same for me. I see every child as a student of mine even if they aren’t in “my class”. So if sharing is going to inspire or help another child then why hold back? I feel the creative commons license is the best authorship license for my Learning Module Project. Having said this, I feel strongly about attributing the original creator and it would be wonderful to reach a point where students and colleagues are naturally doing this consistently. 2. If that is a group project, what your colleagues would choose? What negotiations procedure, you would offer to your group members to come to an agreement on the licensing options for your project? My colleague in this project also agrees that Creative Commons is the way to go. In working through this project he has been open in sharing many ideas that have worked for him in the grade group he is teaching and so there were no negotiations needed to reach this decision. 3. How does the discussion of copyright and internet freedom influence your teaching? As I teach young children, I have always talked to them about “copying” and why it is important to not do it. We work together in research projects and I teach them how to “put it in your own words”. I never had them reference their work because they are only 6 & 7 years old; however, as I think about it now, I could have easily made citation slips where they could fill out the author’s name and date. This way they start recognizing the importance of this at a young age. Young children also get excited about doing things like this and would probably use more resources so that they could fill out more slips :) Intro to Digital CitizenshipI have never created a digital story before and I appreciate the opportunity to do so. It took a while for me to decide on using Powtoon. It was actually my initial thought to use it and then I spent a couple of hours exploring other possibilities. There are lots of options available but did end up back to my first thought for various reasons. For one, to get the full experience of various tools you need to subscribe to it. Other reasons included the time needed to learn the tool and the limitations in going with set themes. I ended up creating a Powtoon as an intro to my Digital Citizenship course. I hope you enjoy it :)
MOOCs: A Dead End?Massive Online Open Courses for education (MOOCs) do have some benefits such as enhancing accessibility, lifelong learning, and perhaps increased student engagement (until students begin to drop-out). However, considering “an essential characteristic of open education is the removal of barriers to learning” (Bates, 2014), there are many challenges to MOOCs, especially when trying to design a “one size fits all model” assuming it will benefit learners from all over the world. Yuan and Powell (2013) discuss implications for higher education:
1. Pedagogy: Do MOOCs follow a sound pedagogy and organizational approach to online learning that will lead to quality outcomes and experiences for students? What new pedagogies and organizational mechanisms might be required if MOOC are to deliver a high quality learning experience? 2. Quality and Completion Rates: Compared to most online courses, MOOCs lack structure and rarely include the role of an instructor. Drop-out rates are also significantly high, for example “MOOCs offered by Stanford, MIT and UC Berkley were 80-95%” (cited in Yuan & Powell, 2013, p. 11). 3. Assessment and Credit: These courses are a platform for tremendous knowledge-building, but most of them do not actually qualify as being “recognized” courses for employment or for credible institutions. Other issues to consider when thinking about MOOCs and developing countries: Language barrier – still remains to be the biggest issue as in most parts of the developing world, English is not the primary language, even though it could be the official language. They also demand a certain level of digital literacy from the participants, which has raised concerns on inclusivity and equality of access. Community Priorities – MOOCs are designed with a specific topic or focus in mind and unless the course reflects community priorities, then how will it strengthen capacity? Cultural Divide – What is the context of the course being offered? Translations are taken literally and often have no familiar cultural context. References: Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs; Chapter 10: Trends in Open Education. Teaching in digital age (online book) Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. (2013). MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education. |
Library to Learning CommonsThis week’s readings and discussion made me reflect on the transformation of my school library to a learning commons. I was on the core committee at my school for this project and although we did not “formally” use the ADDIE model, it definitely is a model we unknowingly followed. All phases in this structure represented a flexible guideline for the entire process of this transformation and provided us with a sound road map and clear vision. When it comes to transforming a library, schools need to consider many factors from environment, learning spaces, pedagogy/school philosophy, clients (students and teachers) using the space, technology, and constraints. For this discussion I will focus on the technology piece. Prior to beginning this work, the Learning Commons Team had to arrange PD for teachers to discuss thoughts, ideas and concerns about this shift. Many teachers were unfamiliar with new technologies we were considering such as LEGO Mindstorms and a new green screen. We held “lunch and learn” sessions to share with each other the benefits of these new technologies and how they could be implemented in the classroom. The other core components of our committee was a student representation group who also brought forward thoughts, ideas and concerns from the student body, Parent Council, and the school’s IT support person. Students visited an Innovative Learning Technology Center and explored all the technologies that were were considering prior to purchasing. I felt this to be a thoughtful process and took an entire year before we began making any changes to our library. In Nel, Dreyer and Carstens’s (2010) article, they suggest that designing a course in teams where many experts work together is a key characteristic of a successful course. I transfer this statement over to this Learning Commons Project and completely agree that it took many experts from teachers to students and parents to make this shift a successful one.
After reading about the Agile model, I feel this model fits perfectly with how curriculum is delivered by individual teachers using the learning commons space. Now that they have a space that includes various technologies to choose from and spaces conducive to individual learning needs, students can access the right tools they need for a more personalized learning approach, and teachers can plan with this in mind. When reflecting on this process, I feel my school spent a lot of time considering various technologies and their affordances. There may have been some purchases that not everyone was in agreement with as comfort levels varied; however, ensuring the right PD was in place to support teachers in using these technologies was planned for in hopes that teachers would embrace them. Considering the primary and secondary criteria to this situation, we were a collaborative team working together to ensure all the pieces fell into place. We knew that we needed to break away from a “traditional” lab and library so learning for students was more fluid and project-based. A common space soon became the school’s “hub” for learning and access to all technologies increased on a daily basis. References: Bates, T. (2014). Chapter 4: The ADDIE model; Chapter 8: Models for media selection. Teaching in a Digital Age. (online book) Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258. (PDF) Learning Management Systems: affordances and limitations
In their examination of the effects of LMS on university's teaching and learning practices Coates, James & Baldwin (2005) argue that technologies are not pedagogically neutral, but through their very design, they influence and design teaching.
1. Have you been experiencing some of the pedagogically restricting effects of LMS in your own practice? 2. Give examples of the restrictive and the choice-widening LMS features, which affect the learners' experiences? 3. What are some of the advantages and dangers of the process of standardization of knowledge and instructional practices? K. Cpiro notices a growing interest to more flexible and personalized learning designs, and sees it as a trend which is already replacing the "one-size-fits-all" principle of LMS architecture. 4. Would your conclusion be different from what Cpiro gets from his observations? Give examples to support your judgment. I agree with Coates, James and Baldwin (2005), in that technology is neutral until it is used and influenced by the operator of the tool. A Learning Management System (LMS) is a pre-designed system and affords educators to create content and choose levels of interactions as he/she sees fit. Once a designer begins to “feed” the tool, it no longer is neutral. Although there are many pros to using a LMS, there are some pedagogically restricting effects of LMS in my own practice. I am big on Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and I plan with the end in mind. However, the process and path to get to the end is dependent on my students. By using a LMS, I would be confined to the structure of a linear path as opposed to a more fluid process of inquiry. For example, consider the option to create modules. In an inquiry approach I would not need to go from module 1 to module 4 in such a linear manner, my students would be the ones to generate the content; therefore, “ In-built functions may not encourage awareness of or experimentation with sophisticated pedagogical practices” (p.27). IBL is a non-structured process and I feel there should be more fluidity and an “open” approach in the LMS. When I think of the discussion component, the questions are led by the instructor. In an IBL approach, the questions are asked by the students. Now I know I could probably design a course to fit an IBL model the best way possible (i.e. let my students lead the discussion with their questions), but at this point would an LMS be the best avenue for this type of teaching and learning? I would have to say that for large institutions where the lack of time and money to design individual and unique courses could fall into either the pro or con side. Having standardized courses will save time and money, and an instructor does not need to start designing from scratch; however, “the incorporation of LMS into universities makes it likely that such academics will gain most of their experience in teaching contexts saturated by such systems” (p.27). I know in our MET courses the instructors work collaboratively to design a consistent course for all students enrolled. I wonder if any of the instructors feel that there are pedagogically restraining effects teaching this way? As for disadvantages, I would imagine that when changes are made or newer versions are introduced to the LMS platform, there may be interruptions to the course. In the MET program, oftentimes Blackboard is shut down for a short period of time for maintenance and this may cause a minor interruption to both the instructor and the students. This also leads into tech support. If an instructor has an issue or a student, the instructor has to go through some form of IT support. In previous courses, this has happened when students cannot access certain articles and the instructor has to “get back to them”. So not being able to troubleshoot yourself is a disadvantage. As I have touched on personalized learning and how a structured LMS does not lend itself fully to IBL, I would agree withCpiro in that there needs to be more personalized designs if the goal is to achieve a more personalized learning approach. As Coates, James, & Baldwin (2005) note that “Within limits imposed by particular systems, staff are able to develop interactive web pages, upload and integrate digital resources, and develop assessment tasks and spaces for onlinediscussion” (p. ). I think this is a great start to more flexibility in design; however, I really like Cprio’s (2014) 3rd point around curation and collecting learner generated content rather than creating the courses and scheduling events which lends itself “towards more flexible and personalized learning material instead of a one-size-fits-all course”. Mobile Technologies1. Give an example of organizational policy that regulate “use of mobile technology” or “mobile devices”. What is the purpose of these rules?
In the elementary school I use to work at, mobile devices needed be kept in a locked cabinet in the office at the start of the day, and at the end of each day students would pick them up. They brought their devices to school to stay in touch with their parents or use it on their bus ride home. The only reason for locking them up was to avoid lost or stolen devices. I work for the Calgary Board of Education and there is an administrative regulation for Responsible Use of Electronic Information Resources: http://www.cbe.ab.ca/GovernancePolicies/AR1062.pdf This organizational policy applies to staff, students, parents, volunteers, contractors, guests, visitors, and those who are authorized to act on behalf or are associated with the CBE. Purpose of regulating: Security: viruses, password protection, device encryption Applications: allowed and not allowed (i.e. YouTube is not allowed without teachers overriding → control over content, i.e. adult material). Control of endpoints: ensure compliance with policy, FOIP, emails (sensitive info). 2. In what way mobile-learning affects the instructional design practices? Once the needs, audience and available resources have been analyzed in the design process, using mobile games and apps to support learning, I believe, will “make an activity both intrinsically and extrinsically motivating for a learner” (Ciampa, K., 2013). In a previous course, I did a research project on gaming and I can see a strong correlation between the elements outlined in Ciampa’s (2013) article: challenge, curiosity, control, cooperation, competition and recognition, and how they all contribute to engaging and meaningful learning. According to the MIT paper “Moving Learning Games Forward,” gaming can be used as: authoring platforms, content systems, simulations, trigger systems, technology gateways, exemplars of point of view, documentary, texts to be critiqued, and for research assignments(Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., and Salen, K., 2009). With all of these entry points, the instructional design practice now becomes more flexible and personalized. 3. What could be some of the mobile-learning specific rules for creating educational materials? -Teaching copyright and fair use is important for all educators to do. -Using a creative commons is a great tool for communicating what rights an owner allows a user. Only use material which is Fair Use. -Ensuring FOIP and security issues are addressed. -Teach digital citizenship! References: Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. (PDF) Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., & Salen, K. (2009). Moving learning games forward. Retrieved from http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf Learning Interactions1. What are some of the examples from your teaching experience, which fit the Anderson’s learning attributes?
A lot of my more recent teaching experiences have included an inquiry based approach. I feel that this approach fits Anderson’s (2008a) learning attributes completely. Prior to moving to Denver, my Grade ones did an inquiry about “Water”. This was sparked by them wanting to raise pennies for a charity and chose to donate to Free the Children- pennies for Clean Water. Students researched all about water, from what is usable water to water on earth. They questioned how water can be cleaned, hot we can help provide clean drinking water to people who need it, illnesses that occur with unclean drinking water, and much more. With the use of many technologies from iPad's, online videos, Smart Table activities, and video conferencing, all four of Anderson’s (2008a) learning attributes were evident. Students added what they knew and what they wanted to know in one document and collectively found answers to all their questions. Class generated rubrics are also a huge part of my classroom learning and my students use rubrics to assess their learning and ensure they are on track. 2. How well this classification reflects your learning experience with the interactions organized for educational purposes? At this point in my life, an online learning environment is ideal only because it is convenient. I am also a more shy and reserved person; therefore, I feel that my participation in terms of sharing my thoughts and ideas in an online course is far greater than my participation in courses I took for my undergrad. Part of that reason is also because I have the time to collect my thoughts and think about what I want to say before "posting". Having said this, the discussion threads in online courses does an excellent job of helping to create a community-centred learning environment because everyone has to participate and more knowledge is shared because of that. 3. What are some examples of the digital tools that are conducive to the Andersons’ classification types? In my 510 course, I came across this global weather project put together by a teacher in Australia. She uses a LMS called Schoology to collaborate with students all over the world in deciding where in the world is the best place to live? As this was a blended-learning approach, the online component clearly demonstrated a dominant student-content interaction that engaged learners in the global community to connect and learn together with the same objective in mind. I personally feel that this approach incorporates all four attributes of learning discussed by Anderson (2008a). You can view the video at:http://www.schoology.com/group/25228991/blog/post/96508089 4. What digital tools you never implement in your instruction and would not recommend for educational use? What are the reasons for this?I’m not sure I have come across digital tools that I would not recommend. Again, I teach gr.½ and so if I were to discourage using any tools it would be because they are not age appropriate. I think there are many fantastic tools out there and yes, they must be evaluated before having students use them. However, what does not work for one, may work for another, and that is why digital tools are best for a personalized learning approach. "The net provides opportunities to "plunge ever deeper into knowledge resources"-grow knowledge, find your way around knowledge, benefiting from thousands of formats/contexts" (Anderson, 2008). References: Anderson, T. (2008a). "Towards a Theory of Online Learning." In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory of Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Twitter: A Powerful Tool1. What new learning outcomes could the use of social media help develop?
-networking beyond the four walls -knowledge building -improved digital literacy skills -improved communication skills 2. Consider an example of popular Social Media, use the SECTIONS model for evaluation: explain to what extent, you think, using this media would improve the instruction, if at all? I have chosen to evaluate Twitter for my future Grade 4/5 students using the SECTIONS model: S - Students: My grade 4/5 students are in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program. They come from all areas of Calgary and are high functioning students who need to be challenged. They work well independently and thrive on inquiry projects using technology. E - Ease of Use and Reliability: Twitter is intuitively easy to use. It’s a reliable social media tool that upgrades itself. It’s limited with its 140 character tweet; however, this is a language that students can learn to use and interact with and gain so much from. If used appropriately, the possibilities are endless to connect with other people and experts from around the world and build knowledge together. C- Cost: Twitter is free to use T - Teaching and Learning: Twitter is an excellent tool for research and sharing knowledge. Once students have a plan, Twitter is one of many avenues to find answers and share learning. I - Interactivity: Twitter offers interaction with learning materials, student-teacher, and student-student interactions. O - Organizational Issues: Students will need to set up a Twitter account and support can be provided by the teacher and working collaboratively with fellow peers. It’s a low-maintenance tool that requires minimal support. N - Networking: Twitter is a powerful networking tool and enables the learner to connect with others beyond the classroom walls/course. S - Security and Privacy: Parents need to sign a consent but the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) teachers can have class accounts where the teacher sets up the account and monitors the use. 3. When you select media tools for your instruction, what criteria do you follow? In my previous years of experience teaching grade 1/2 the most important criteria I have followed is “ease of use”. I didn’t need to worry about privacy issues as my my students never set up personal accounts online for anything. I also considered the purpose of using specific technology for the task or activity students were involved in. It had to make sense and it had to be easy to use otherwise I would have 25 dependent and unhappy 7 year olds!! November (2012) discusses the ways of using Twitter as educational tool.1. What is your opinion about the use of Twitter in instruction? Support your reasoning with examples and/or arguments. I have never used Twitter in my classroom as I truly got into using it personally a couple years ago. As I will be returning to a grade ⅘ GATE class in the fall, I will definitely be using Twitter in my instruction for both students and parents. At the very least, it’s a powerful tool to read up on world news and have classroom discussions about issues, thoughts and ideas. The most beneficial aspect of twitter is that it’s not a “read only” document. Students can respond back with their own arguments and what they believe in and connect with people and experts from all over the world to gain some powerful knowledge. The other beauty of Twitter is sharing what is happening in your classroom or school with parents and community. Communication is key as parents like to be in the know with their child’s education. My sister is the AP at a French immersion school and took charge of setting up a Twitter account and inviting her staff to be a part of sharing this way. If you have an account you should look at her feed as it’s a great example of how Twitter can be used for this reason: @kinggeorgecbe GAFE vs Microsoft Office 365When looking at examples between restrictive and choice broadening types of solutions, I had a conversation with my sister around the decision to go with Google Apps For Education (GAFE) vs other alternatives for the Calgary Board of Education (CBE). As she was a part of this decision, her team looked closely at, and tested and compared all features of Microsoft Office 365 and GAFE. At the time, the decision to use GAFE ultimately came down to the seamless synchronous functionality and the ability for collaboration to occur on Google in real time. I then questioned the decision to go with a Google cloud-based service and the privacy issues related to FOIP. She mentioned that after much prototyping of the product, it came down to the fact that the educational benefits of using GAFE far outweighed the risks in terms of FOIP.
Taken from: http://www.baschools.org/pages/uploaded_files/tigertracks_apr08-2015.pdf Microsoft Office 365 Office 365is a cloud-based service that offers several upgrades from older Microsoft versions including the ability to: • Create and edit Word, Excel andPowerPoint files wherever and whenever. • Enjoy a consistent Office experience across PCs, Macs, Windows tablets, iPads and most mobile devices. • Utilize Microsoft OneDrive, which gives users unlimited personal cloud storage that can be accessed from anywhere and that syncs with their computers foroffline access. • Access Outlook and OneDrive from home or your personal devices. • Share and edit documents with other colleagues throughOneDrive. • Download Office 365, including Word, Powerpoint, Excel and other tools, for free on up to five devices. Google Apps for Education Created as a teaching and learning tool, GAFE gives educators and students the ability to create, edit, and collaborate with one another. It also organizes and simplifies workflow in the classroom. This teacher to-student tool creates a teaching and learning experience that enhances engagement while also preparing students for current and future technology. • This does not replace Outlook for email or other Microsoft Office applications currently utilized for various job functions, but it is intended to be an additional tool for instructional purposes. • You can share and collaborate on Google products with other staff members OR students. These may include documents, presentations, spreadsheets or forms. • Educators can instruct students to collaboratively work together in real time without having to be in the same room. • A student’s ability to organize and access work is now easier than ever |