I am proud of the progress I made on the goal for ITEC 7485. I was able to learn new emerging technologies and share them with my classes and my colleagues. With my students I tried the program Scratch and was happy to see that they were also curious and willing to try it. They were excited to try a new technology that most had to used before. Additionally, we learned about AI programs and tools. I was able to present this information to teachers in PLCs to show them a variety of tools they could use with their students or they could use to help with their teacher tasks. These opportunities addressed ISTE 6b, 6c, 6d. I was able to facilitate for both students and teachers through this process.
I found this class to rejuvenated my favorite parts about instructional technology, which include exploring emerging tools and teaching others. I was able to learn about several new programs and tools that I had not previously worked with. While some were more challenging than others, I enjoyed working through the process and learning. With what I was learning, I was excited to share it with my colleagues and coach them through how to use it with their students. It was a rewarding experience. As an educator, I value the process and the collaboration when it comes to helping teaching evaluate tools that they want to use with their students. It needs to be impactful and not just using technology to use technology. There should be purpose and direction with it. As an educator, I will continue to share my findings with colleagues. In the past, I presented at conferences to share technology tools and ways to utilizes them in the classroom, but did not last year due to scheduling conflicts. I want to find ways that I can share still when I am unable to attend conferences. I used PLCs to help with that, but I want to reach a large audience. I appreciate the collaboration and brainstorming that comes with conferences and want to create something at the school or district level to do something similar. I will continue to develop this idea and welcome any suggestions as well.
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In ITEC 7485, my goal is to increase my knowledge of emerging technology tools that I can implement in the classroom to engage my students in the course content. I want to create learning opportunities that challenge my students to think innovatively and problem solve as noted in ITSE-E 6b and 6c. As I teach AP U.S. History, I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate technology into my classroom in a meaningful and impactful way. Based on the syllabus, this course will provide me with some tools and ideas on how to incorporate these tools and pedagogical approaches in my classroom. I intend to share these resources with my colleagues to see if they can find ways to utilize them in their classrooms as well. I am looking forward to this course and am excited to get started!
ITEC 8510 Reflective Journal 2
The readings this week discussed topics that I have been interested in for a while now. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that I want to try in my own classroom, but struggle with how that would look in practice as I teach AP US History. I have a couple of topics that I incorporate PBL into, and I would like to see that increase. According to Vega (2015), PBL engages students in critical thinking, collaboration, and develop real-world problem-solving skills. I agree with the impact that it has on students and how impactful this strategy is with students because I have experienced it with my own projects. I have students portray a Progressive Era reform movement with actual members from the time period that each student will become during the presentation day. They have to research their movement, explain why people should join it, and create a booth that students will visit. On the presentation day, they have to convince others to join their movement by explaining their person and the movement as they walk around and visit everyone’s booth. After the event, students then have a reflection piece where they see how their movement changed over time and connect it to the present. I consider this PBL, and I would welcome any suggestions as to how I can incorporate this more. Another instructional strategy I have considered is Personalized Learning (PL). Steiner et al. (2020) explained that PL practices include “personalized instructional practice,” “mastery-based practice,” and “social and emotional learning practice” and develops the whole student to help them for life beyond high school (p. 3). This is something that I would like to focus on more with my students to help them navigate through more personalized learning. What are some ways you incorporate this into your classroom? Figure 7 in Steiner et al. (2020) was one data set I found intriguing as it asked, “How Often Do Teachers Receive Student Performance Data?” (p. 10). Most responses stated that they receive feedback “One or a few times per year” (Steiner et al., 2020, p. 10). I was surprised by this response. While I may not have specific data weekly, I am able to gauge my students understanding through formative and summative assessments, which are standards-based within a month. From there I can create personalized learning opportunities; however, this is where I struggle with creating that for each individual student and would agree with Steiner et al. (2020) that teachers need more professional development on how to best incorporate this into the classroom (p. 13). One way my high school is creating more personalized learning is through a graduation coach who is working with at-risk students to help them be successful in high school. This position is new this year. While she helps everyone, the focus this year has been the freshmen class. She analyzes the new class coming in to identify student who scored low on the standardized tests and in the classroom. From there, she starts meeting with them to create learning plans for them to keep them on track to graduate. She creates a rapport with these students and supports them through a holistic approach. The graduation coach does help with at-risk 10th-12th grade students to do the same, but most of these students are playing catch-up. With the freshmen class, it can be more of a proactive approach, which I can see the long-term benefits of that. I will be curious as to how this will work over the course of the next few years. What would PL look like in a classroom where a teacher teaches 130 students? Kirschner and Hendrick (2020) further discuss instructional strategies and have a different perspective to say that “minimally guided instruction” does not necessarily mean that students will perform better in the classroom through an inquiry or constructivist method (p. 168). While I do believe there is some merit through inquiry-based learning, I do find that the implications discussed play into my hesitations of using this often with students without significant scaffolding. The article shows that teachers need to be mindful of “cognitive load theory” and learning tasks (Kirschner & Hendrick, 2020, p. 169). Another point that Kirschner and Hendrick makes is that the “medium is not the message,” which explains that a medium is a vehicle and it does not have much impact on learning, but instead, the instructional method is where the difference is made (p. 290). I completely agree with this viewpoint. In my early years of teaching, I used an assortment of technology tools with my students, but I quickly realized that I was just using technology for the sake of using technology. This did not help the students and since then I have continued to improve my instructional methods and have found tools that best meet the needs of the learners. Consortium for School Networking (COSN) analyzed hurdles, accelerators, and technology enablers in a world after the COVID-19 pandemic, which is what they attribute as the drive for K-12 innovation. COSN (2022) stated that a hurdle is “attracting and retaining educators and IT professionals” (p.14). This is something that I have experienced in my teaching experience. I serve on the Governor’s School Leadership Academy (GLSA) where they meet monthly and focus on teacher retention and how to best serve the teachers in the district. These monthly meetings cover a variety of topics and have guests speakers to provide resources to utilize in the field. As part of this process COSN (2022) suggested that in order to assist with this schools need to “consider a growth path for staff,” “create a positive organizational culture,” and “have a technology plan” (p. 15). I plan to take this information back to my district and GLSA to discuss plans to help with this. While I read this article, I questioned what the best plan of action would be to address the retention in a school or district? Would a committee need to be formed that focused on this or would it be more administration at each school that worked with the teachers? After looking at these instructional models, I believe that the district could benefit from both PL and PBL. I can see the benefits of these instructional strategies and developing students’ skills and academic knowledge. Both methods have their place in the classroom to develop the whole student and prepare them for life beyond high school. The district’s learning management system (LMS) is Canvas. It has the capability to have mastery learning complete with mastery paths and a new function called Mastery Connect. These allow for standards-based assessment and give more opportunities for personalized learning. These are promising resources for teachers to use and will come with some learning curves but should provide teachers with the ability to track and keep student data to show their progress through the year. Project-based learning is another tool that needs to make its way into the classroom more. I see the impact that this instructional strategy has given my students and would like to extend this opportunity to all students. Some teachers are hesitant to implement PBL because they do not see that their students are capable of executing these tasks; however, with proper support and scaffolding it is possible. In both instances, teachers will need adequate support, professional development, and coaching to benefit the most. References Consortium for School Networking. (2022). Driving K-12 innovation: 2022 hurdles and accelerators. Kirschner, P. A., & Hendrick, C. (2020). How learning happens: Seminal works in educational psychology and what they mean in practice. Routledge. Steiner, E. D., Doss, C. J., & Hamilton, L. S. (2020). High school teachers’ perceptions and use of personalized learning: Findings from the American Teacher Panel. RAND Corporation. https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA322-1 Vega, V. (2015, December 1). Project-based learning research review. Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes From the text, standards, and videos, there is a shift from the traditional classrooms of the World War II era and ways in which students learn that now take into consideration how students are acquiring this knowledge, especially with the tools that they have available with technology. Lowyck (2014) explained that as more technology becomes available there is an evident shift in the learning processes and areas of emphasis (p. 4). This is illustrated by the technological advancements after WWII, the launch of Sputnik, and personal computers (Lowyck, 2014, p. 4-5). As technology tools are incorporated into the classrooms, teachers need to utilize these to further student learning and engagement rather than just using them in place of a non-digital alternative. For example, instead of using the library for research, students would use the internet. This does not further enhance their knowledge or skills; it has just been replaced. Kimmons (2018) discussed how SAMR and RAT are technology integration models that have replacement pieces that teacher utilize in their practice and allow educators to reflect on the effect that technology integration has in their classroom. According to the International Society for Technology in Education (2016) standards for students, students should be able to be a “Knowledge Constructor,” an “Empowered Learner,” and a “Computational Thinker,” which are the names of some of the standards. This is much more than the surface-level incorporation of technology in the classroom. From analyzing the ISTE student standards, I found myself asking how am I modeling these skills with my students and what kind of environment I am creating to foster this with my students. The standards need to be brought to the forefront of instruction as a tool to aid in their learning and not just incorporating technology with no purpose.
Teachers are expected to get students prepared for the post-secondary world and make sure the students have the appropriate skills, such as 21st Century Skills. This information and skill practice is embedded into their teaching and methods. Additionally, the notion of the 21st Century Skills is used to make decisions at school and district levels but holds very little merit. Kirschner and Hendrick addressed that these skills are not new and are not learned, but rather traits that people have (Festival of Education UK, 2021). After reflecting on what is included in the 21st Century Skills: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity, it is clear that these are not nuanced ideas (Festival of Education UK, 2021). Kirschner and Hendrick included them in their Seven Deadly Sins of Learning (Festival of Education UK, 2021). This sin in particular stood out because it has been addressed in meetings where teachers discuss what future potential employers are looking for and how teachers can help bridge the gap to get students where they need to be before they graduate. It begs the question, what could be considered true 21st Century Skills that would move the margin and be appropriate for students to learn as they prepare the enter the workforce in a more modern time? As part of the Seven Deadly Sins, Kirschner and Hendrick discussed how motivation does not exclusively lead to learning or achievement (Festival of Education UK, 2021). As a teacher in an End-of-Course (EOC) tested subject, I found that during professional learning committee (PLC) meetings, teachers often used motivation as a reason why students were not performing well or why their test scores were low. However, Nuthall (2007) explained that is quite the opposite, where “learning requires motivation, but motivation does not necessarily lead to learning” (as cited in Festival of Education UK, 2021). This idea of motivation piqued my interest as teachers cling to it as a reason why students perform or do not perform well, where they need to examine their classrooms and activities to see what is leading to their scores and be more reflective in their practice as van Merriënboer and de Bruin (2014) explained. When teachers begin their reflection, van Merriënboer & Bruin (2014) brought up the point that “there are numerous conditions that affect the relationship between methods and outcomes: The ubiquity of interactions leads to a combinational explosion of factors influencing learning” (p.27). It is important to consider the relationship between these two while teachers analyze their practice. Being able to reflect on the practices that occur in the classroom is a skill that teachers need to be encouraged to do with a support system to help them reach their goals by reassessing what methods were used, the outcome, and relating it to the desired outcome. How can we best support teachers in the reflection process to help them bridge the gap between their outcomes and desired outcomes? Without answering this question, constructivist teaching approaches should be considered for a teacher as Taber pointed out that teachers need to be aware of where learners are when they begin and make connections with prior knowledge (Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education, 2017). This could be a great starting point in the reflection process. My vision for teaching and learning with technology would be to see a balance of utilizing technology tools in the classroom to further enhance and engage the students. From my experience, teachers are unfamiliar with the specific ISTE standards and how they should be incorporated into the classroom. While I do not want to add to teachers’ plates, I do want to create a space where they feel comfortable trying new technology tools in the classroom with support and using them with the ISTE standards in mind. I envision teachers taking one technology tool and incorporating it into their lessons through one semester and trying another one the next semester. This will give students and teachers exposure to at least some new technology tools and move toward full implementation of ISTE standards. As Taber explained, learning new processes or information needs to be chunked because the working memory has a limited capacity (Cambridge Institute for Continue Education, 2017). From my experience, teachers are inundated with all of these new and flashy technologies and it can be overwhelming, so they would rather stick to what they know and not move forward with the incorporation of the tools. Therefore, I would like to start by aiding and assisting teachers with narrowing down a couple of technology tools to try within the year as educators move towards more incorporation of technology in teaching and learning as well as the focus on the ISTE standards. References Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education. [CambridgeEDUC]. (2017, March 10). CIE | Constructivist Perspectives on Learning | Keith Taber [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/50lVLYAXzYE Festival of Education UK. (2021, June 30). Keynote | Paul Kirschner & Carl Hendrick [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/qt0Xbh88tsM International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). ISTE standards for students. https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-students Kimmons, R. (2018). Technology Integration: Effectively Integrating Technology in Educational Settings. In A. Ottenbreit-Leftwich & R. Kimmons, The K-12 Educational Technology Handbook. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/k12handbook/technology_integration Lowyck, J. (2014). Bridging learning theories and technology-enhanced environments: A critical appraisal of its history. In J. M. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. Elen, & M. J. Bishop (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (4th ed., pp. 3-20). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_1 van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & de Bruin, A. B. H. (2014). Research paradigms and perspectives on learning. In J. M. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. Elen, & M. J. Bishop (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (4th ed., pp. 21-29). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_25 Building online courses are not for the faint of heart. There are so many aspects that I was unaware of until this course. This course has made me completely rethink the design of online course content and make me realize what goes into the online courses that I have been a student in. This course has made me a better teacher and teacher leader in my school. Our district implemented the use of Canvas LMS starting this school year, in which I worked with teachers in their design of their online course through the semester. As teacher grow comfortable with the basics of the LMS, they would reach out to me to teach them some of the techniques and strategies that I use and that I learned in this course.
I plan on continuing to work with teachers in our school and district to teach them what I have learned in this course and try new techniques in my classroom. I am looking forward to implementing the online course that we built during this semester. It has encouraged me to try out some of the new strategies and synchronous sessions to work out any potential issues that we may have. I tried my first synchronous session as a test review sessions, which worked out wonderfully and the students responded well to it. I also tried a Skype virtual field trip as well, which gave the students a new authentic learning opportunity to experience. The students were able to talk and discuss with experts in the field as they learned about the Civil War. This course has given me more knowledge on how to design and build content that is accessible and meets the needs of all of my online learners, which has been an excellent resource. I am looking forward to continuing to be a teacher leader and learn more about building and implementing online course content. How to engage your stakeholders in your data team, how to collect data and compile it into a presentation, and how to properly create an action plan are the most important things I learned during this course. These are all areas that I know I will reference as I continue to grow as a teacher and are key points that a teacher needs in their classroom. It is one thing to have a plan, but if the execution of the plan or the follow up on the implementation is not there then the plan will not be successful. I see more than I have before, how you can take data that you are collecting in your classroom and turn it into something that will benefit you and your students, and even other teachers. Just because I teach social studies, does not mean that the strategies I use in my classroom can not correlate or be used in another subject area. By analyzing the data and creating an action plan, it paints a big picture of where you are headed and the steps to achieve your set goals. The strategies as to get stakeholders involved is important because without the support then it will be extremely difficult to have any changes and make the difference you want to make. As a teacher leader, I foresee myself referencing this information as we continue to grow as a school and district.
I believe the Data Overview was the most valuable field experience to me because it required me to take an inside look at the social studies department. As a fellow, social studies teacher, I found it interesting to see how our school’s trends when compared to the state and district scores. I taught US history a few years ago and I currently teach it now, so this allowed me to get a pulse on what has been going on since I was not teaching it. I am also the US History PLC leader, which requires me to have this knowledge to assist our group in the direction we need to be heading. By collecting this data, I have valuable information to share with my team, the economic PLC group, the social studies department head, and the administration at our school including our instructional coach. Social studies do not always get the most attention when compared to a math or English course, so to have this data it gives us a great starting point to improve instruction and student performance, especially students in the sub-population groups. While collecting the data, I met with our instructional coach to discuss my findings and gather resources from her research. We continuously share information and ideas regarding ways to improve instruction. I plan to continue to work with her through the year as we roll out Data Teams For Learning (DT4L). I had the opportunity to teach a training on how to collect data using our learning management system, Canvas, to aid teachers in seeing the data in their classrooms that they can bring to the PLC meetings. I also will be participating in a pilot program within Canvas called Gauge that works more with the data collection process. My PLC group will be participating with me to see how this will work next semester. I believe that by having this experience in this course, I will be able to best serve my PLC and represent our school well as we embark on this new data adventure. Through implementing our action plan and working in Gauge, I believe there will be some learning curves considering some of these teachers having been teaching this subject for several years, however, I believe that with the skills that we learned in this course, the instructional coach and myself will be able to show how essential data collection is and what information it can provide. There may also be some challenges as to what are the best practices and how to create these authentic data collection assessments that will provide important information for us to use. This along with the pilot program will have some growing pains as most teachers operate within their own classroom without seeking outside influence, but these pains are necessary and will be for the best. I am excited to continue to collect data and be a teacher leader in the school. ITEC 7480 is a course that has given me more confidence to incorporate blended/online learning into my classroom. Prior to this course, I desired to bring more online tools and modules into my classroom, but did not feel that it would be structured and meet the needs of my students in the way it was supposed to. After taking this course, I can confidently implement these techniques and strategies into the classroom. I effectively use the INaCOL standards when designing and developing my online modules. I can now share this information with colleagues in my school. This will beneficial as our school transitions to a new learning management system that warrants more online and blended techniques for the teachers and students to use and work with. In my classroom, I will be able to utilize the tools inside our learning management system better and create authentic learning tasks for them.
I am thankful for the opportunity that this course has provided and the discussions that provided me with new perspectives on online/blended learning. The field experiences allowed me to see how to properly plan and prepare an online module. I am looking forward to implementing it in the classroom this upcoming school year. I am sure that I learn from that experience as well. I also conducted a Twitter chat with our professor and fellow classmate. This is something I have always wanted to do. I am excited to host more of these in the future. It taught me how to develop questions that will warrant responses that fit within the character limit of a tweet and how to still make the questions and responses seem like bite-sized professional development for all that attend. I hope to bring more bite-sized professional development to my school and community. Through the coursework in ITEC 7410, I have gained numerous skills to assist me in serving as a school-level technology leader. I found the RSS feed useful to help me stay connected with cutting-edge technology trends, ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, and new applications. I love how the RSS feed houses a variety of sources that are all located in one place. It makes it easier to keep up with the information. The RSS feed has become part of my daily routine to continue my education in this field.
By creating a shared vision, SWOT analysis, and Action/Evaluation plan, it has given me the opportunity to become more involved at Creekview. I have been able to assess our current technology implementations, policies, and goals and converse with some of our administrators to learn more. I believe it has given us a great direction to go in to improve our schools. Our school has since created a technology committee and added members to it. This is a great step towards reaching our goals. I believe it is important to start with a strong shared vision as that document leads the SWOT analysis and essentially the Action/Evaluation plan. Through the completion of this project, it allowed Creekview to has a basis of where we were and show where we plan to be in the next school year. The activity that required us to complete an IT Grant could not have come at a perfect time. Since starting this instructional technology master's degree program, I have continuously looked for ways to get more technology at our school and research what type of technology that would be worth the purchase. I narrowed down my IT Grant to 3D printers and how it can revolutionize my history and geography classes. The possibility that is created and inter-disciplinary connections that can be made with this piece of technology will improve student achievement and provide them with more 21st century skills that they previously did not tap into. The process of completing the grant application has prepared me for more grants and has allowed me to see how to defend and justify how this tool would be the best purchase. Now that I have this skill, I am looking forward to completing more of these to assist in growing our technology at our school. I am thankful for the opportunities that this course has provided and how it has helped start the conversation about more technology and uses at Creekview. It has given us a direction to continue our quest for improving our school and ideas in which to do so. I believe that I have grown professionally over this semester and have been able to make an impact at Creekview. I will continue to use the skills and knowledge that I have learned in my school and district. Going into ITEC 7470, I was a little overwhelmed and nervous about what this class entailed. I have to say looking back on the semester, it definitely was not anywhere near what I thought it was going to be. I was under the impression that we would be reading and analyzing research for most of the course and learning about things that I could not apply to my own educational setting. I was pleasantly surprised at all of the useful information that I gained from this course. I see how valuable educational research is in making decisions at the school and district levels. This helps in the decision-making process of tools and initiatives that are chosen. It also provides support to a change in the program and helps with teacher buy-in to be able to back up the decisions. I now have a better understanding of how a technology coach goes about selecting the technology to teach the teachers. It is not an easy process, but a necessary one to vet the tools. Teachers want tools that are there to improve their classroom and student achievement. I did not realize this, and it has made me analyze decisions that have been made by our school and district.
ITEC 7470 has enabled me the skills to conduct research as an instructional coach to help with the process of selecting technology for our school and assist in developing the school improvement plan and shared vision. Through this semester, I have become more involved in the school’s technology plans and am now serving on the technology committee that was created. The course has given me knowledge and skills to examine and recommend tools based on all of the research that I have conducted to support what the teachers are wanting to accomplish. I find myself discovering new tools to try out and then looking for peer reviewed articles over them to see how other teachers use them in their classroom and how it impacted their classes. It has greatly assisted me as a technology leader at this school because teachers will email me asking for tools and I can provide them not only with the tools but with some research to support it, which has been extremely helpful for the teachers. I am looking forward to implementing the capstone project with my school as it is going to teach teachers how to use one of our new tools in a new way that will improve their uses of it. With all of the research and development of the course, it will allow teachers to see how important that these features are to help them meet their goals and improving student achievement. Below you will find the link to my ISTE Lesson Plan, Miscrosoft Office OneNote Class Notebook, and Screencast Presentation. Please have a look at it and let me know your thoughts and suggestions. The ISTE Lesson Plan document and OneNote Class Notebook has all of the rubrics and ancillary materials included.
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January 2024
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