Final Project

Hello-
Below are the artifacts for the Technology Integration Unit Project.
Enjoy

1. Prezi with demo videos-
https://prezi.com/mwy48y2sbhuf/technology/#

2. Lesson Plan-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-XE7mRCFtTraWwteHlrUzBJbzg&authuser=0

3. Multimedia Presentation-

Article Review #3

Article Review: Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in a Multicultural Classroom

In the article, the authors address the importance of the use of multimedia in the classroom to help increase creativity, innovative problem solving, and improve communication between other students.  Using technology in the classroom allows for the teacher to incorporate a variety of learning styles.  The technology will help bring different cultures together that are all in one setting, the classroom.

There is a need for teachers of the new classrooms to find new approaches and resources to help with learning of the multicultural students.  Technology will allow the learners the opportunity for equal communication and interdependent learning experiences.   Using the technology will increase the needed language skills that the learner will need in and out of a school setting.  Multimedia will effectively facilitate learning on several different levels from collaboration to individual learning styles.

Essentially regardless of cultural background all learning styles are possible, it is the communication that is needed to be able to reach all learners.  Over the years as technology has developed it has been possible to customize the learning environments to help with language acquisition of the multicultural limited English students.   By creating a cooperative learning environment it is encouraging students to participate with their learning and creating an environment that increase communication amongst their peers and self-confidence.  Technology can also be used for individual learning, as it can be designed for the specific learners levels.  The teacher facilitates the use technology by guiding the learners to the right site for new experiences in learning.  Finally technology can help with the learning of new content concepts that are hard for the students to visualize may be easier to understand using technology.

The use of technology will help foster the learning of new language learners in the classroom.  Using different technology resources will support the learners by creating new experiences for their creativity and their imagination.  Teachers will be able to provide meaningful ways for the learner to participate by creating meaningful learning environments.

As a teacher in a school with a very diverse population, many that are English language learners I find that technology can actually be difficult at times to use in the classroom.   As the group I teach are refugees who have not had technology, until now.  So I do think that it depends on the experiences the learner has had prior with technology on how successful it is used in the classroom.  I do know that when I use technology with the students that have been in the country for at least two years there is less of a learning curve, but the newer  the student it can be somewhat difficult.  However, if the students are in the right setting, that is a smaller class such as ten students or less, than the use of technology has a higher success. 

Reference

Hollenbeck, J. & Hollenbeck, D.  (2009). Using technology to bridge the cultures together in the multicultural classroom.  Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519991.pdf

Article Review #2

How do teachers determine which technology to use in the classroom?  That is one of the questions that Ronald A. Berk provides answers for in his article “How do you Leverage the Latest Technologies, including Web2.0 Tools, in your classroom?

This article provides different strategies for integrating technology in the classroom for 21^st century learners.  The strategies are based on the generation of learners that have been named the Net Generation (Net Geners), born between 1982 to 2003.  This generation has never known a world without technology.  However that does not mean that this group knows how to use these tools for learning effectively.  It is important that teachers understand how this group uses technology and how they think before applying technology in the classroom. 

This generation of students is no better or inferior to other generations, their world is just more connected than previous. To be able to understand how to connect with technology we need to understand their learning characteristics to be able to better leverage the use of technology for learning. Below are 10 specific characteristics that have specific implications for the use of technology in the classroom by these learners (Beck 2010) .

1. TECHNOLOGY SAVVY
2. RELIES ON SEARCH ENGINE FOR EVERYTHING
3. INTERESTED IN MULTIMEDIA
4. CREATES INTERNET CONTENT
5. LEARNS BY INDUCTIVE DISCOVERY
6. MULTITASK ON EVERYTHING
7. COMMUNICATES VISUALLY
8. EMOTIONALLY OPEN
9. PREFERS TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION
10. PREFERS TYPING TO HANDWRITING

The preceding characteristics are typical of most Net Geners according to the surveys (Becker 2010).  It is essential that teachers understand these characteristics to connect with the students.  The author provides a great “Memory Jogger” of technology teaching strategies that a teacher can use to connect with the characteristics of the learners. Below is a brief summary of the of a few of  the strategies that were suggested to work with the characteristics of these learners.

• Incorporate technology meaningfully into lectures, in-class and out-of-class assignments, activities, and demonstrations.
• Provide assignments that draw on students search engine skills, but give guidance and structure on how to maximize the value of the search
• Use music, videos, video games, other games, ect. That is student favorites in lectures and assignments
• Provide students to create their own blogs, micro blogs, and wikis
• Plan games, simulations, improvisations and role-playing in a virtual environment
• Consider students to multitask in the learning environment
• Include graphics, images, and visual representations in your presentations
• Use hybrid or blended methods to encourage interaction and opinion sharing
• Allow students to pool existing knowledge to share online
• Encourage students to take notes using PC’s/Macs or handheld devices

It is important to recognize that the classroom has changed and that it is gearing more towards a learner-centered environment, and the teacher is becoming more of the “guide on the side”.  Once the teacher has surveyed the characteristics of their students then the teacher will be able to use the strategies above to an advantage in the classroom setting.

I really enjoyed this article as it provided me with a reminder of how the 21^st century learners are different from other generations.  Though I was born on the cusp of this generation technology was very limited in the classroom.  As a teacher of 13 years now I have seen a dramatic difference in the way students learn compared to now and then.  I so find that I must use these strategies in the classroom to provide my students with the best possible learning environment.

Reference:

Berk, R. A. (2010). How do you leverage the latest technologies, including Web 2.0 tools, in your classroom? International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 1-13.

Article Review # 1

Article Review #1

The Importance of Learning Philosophies on

Technology Selection in Education

In the first part of the article it is discussed the nature of the learner and the nature of knowledge.  It is said that we are all born with a blank slate, tabula rasa.  However, the author is quick to point out that the idea of a blank slate is flawed.  That genetics do play a part in the development of an individual’s brain.  From the birth to adulthood we are all active participants in learning, rather than passive learners.  It is essential to understand the nature of knowledge to understand learning. 

The three learning philosophies and the social interactions that are framed within each that are explained in this article are the following, Socratic Method, behaviorism, constructivism. Though all three are fundamentally different all include social interaction.  It is the social interaction that is examined closer and a connection is made with different technologies to support each learning philosophy in the classroom.  In the classroom the behaviorist social interaction is very important, but would primarily be a teacher to student exchange.  The constructivist social interaction would be with the More Knowledgeable Other or the teacher. In this view the individual ideas would become shared ideas in a group.  Finally the social interaction that occurs in the Socratic Method is between peers and teachers to find the answers, this method is structured but ultimately it is the student who comes to the answer, not the explanation of the teacher. It is important that teachers actively select a learning philosophy to use rather than going on intuition, experience, or advice. 

Technology is referred to as contemporary digital technologies that can be used to support teaching.  The technologies include computers, the internet, and hardware, software, and infrastructures.  Technology allows for a quicker way to communicate and should be thoughtfully used in the classroom.  The behaviorist would use the technology in the classroom to reach a broad audience in a short amount of time.  A teacher can have a very large audience with no worries of time and distance.  Teachers would be able to offer richer artifacts and new forms of assessments that can be used and saved at later times for review by students.  The constructivist use of technology would be centered on blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networks, and video conferencing.  Constructivist would have greater resources than the others.  The Socratic Method would use technologies would use real time, rapid response technologies such as webinars, live chat, and twitter. 

While there are a great number of technologies available, there are also disadvantages.  Some of the disadvantages include learner and teacher access to the technology, the ability to use, potential for distracting the learner, and the cost.  Disadvantages that can occur for the behaviorist are distractions and the variety of points of view that are available on the internet.  The constructivist would have to deal with the style of interaction, it would be very different that the classroom.  The Socratic Method would likely encounter difficulty with the taking part in meaningful and timely discussion due to the media used. 

It is necessary for the teacher to discuss and encourage meaningful interactions to be successful with the technologies. Teachers should adopt a learning philosophy to integrate into their teaching practice and include exploration and experimentation on a continuous basis. 

Social interaction is becoming more and more important in the classroom.  I know that my appraiser looks for how the students are interacting when visiting my classroom. This article provides teachers with different options to support social interaction in the classroom with meaningful learning.  In my opinion this article can be a very useful resource for teachers to pin point which learning philosophy is being used in the classroom when integrating technology.  I think that it provides great examples of relevant technologies that most all of us now have in our schools.  The explanation of the disadvantages I found really helpful, it gave me a bit of a warning of what can happen.  What I found to be the most intriguing part of the article was that the author suggest that we adopt a learning philosophy and develop it in our classroom.  Rather than going with the flow, pick one a stick to it!  I’m not sure how I feel with that, because I find that I use more than one.  However, one of the author’s purpose of the article was for teachers to “amplify” their teaching philosophy.  It is definitely food for thought!

References

Hickey, G. g. (2014). The Importance of Learning Philosophies on Technology Selection in Education. Journal Of Learning Design,7(3), 16-22.

Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Tools

My final reflection on Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning is very positive.  Incorporating these tools into the classroom is very important for the teachers and students.  Technology is here to stay and will only become more prevalent in education and the classroom.  With that being said after researching for the past few weeks different Web 2.0 tools I feel that the advantages are stronger than the disadvantages for using in the classroom.

Advantages of Web 2.O tools:

•  Increase student engagement
• Social networking encourages discussion outside of the classroom
• Available anytime 
• Sense of ownership

These tools will allow students and teachers to learn in their own environment by collaborating, finding authentic audiences, providing different expressive capabilities, and new opportunities.  In the future I will look for such affordances as mentioned above.

Currently there are only a couple things that can and at time do hold me back from technology, lack of technology and internet connections.  But those two are few and far between these days due to the increase usage of tablets and smartphones. 

In the future I plan to continue to use technology in and outside the classroom; the only thing that I will avoid is technology that does not allow for learning.

Vanity Search Revisited

This time around I do have a footprint! Compared to Week 1 and Week 7 my footprint has become a more evident and is expanding.  I used my username for a search rather than my first and last name, as I figure the username is more important.  Also I am still transitioning between maiden name and married name, so I am difficult to locate. 

As an educator two things have occurred to me as my footprint becomes more evident. 

1. I must still be aware of what I join, what I use, and what I post as I can be traced.
2. Now I am becoming a part of a much larger community of educators that ideas, tools and lessons can be shared.

My students will also become a part of a larger community that I must explain what a digital footprint is and how important it is to be aware of it, and also they will be able to share with other students outside of the classroom, building, state, and country.

Personal Professional Development

http://www.wreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Web-2-0-benefits-of-e-learning-wreporter.jpg

The reflection for this week asks the question- How will I implement personal professional development in Web 2.0 and learning?

How I truly see myself implementing professional development is through my curiosity and interest of the technology and possibilities that are out there. I want to know more, and I want to be able to share with others, whether it is my students, my colleagues, or friends. I believe having that desire to know more and want to explore is what is going to help my plan.  I will do research, I will explore, I will take chances, and I will share, I will take classes, I will play, and  I will think about the my future and the future of technology in and outside the classroom.

Here is my current Personal PD Plan: