Teaching+with+Technology

Teaching With Technology [|Group Project Google Doc] [|Group Project Google Doc2] [|Group Project Google Site] EDLD 5364 End of Course Reflection

EDLD 53644 - ET 8035 Teaching with Technology Week Five Reflections April 1, 2012

"People attribute success to different sources: to their own innate abilities, to the assistance of others, to luck, and to effort. Of these possible attributions, the fourth, effort, is the wisest choice for someone who intends to achieve success or maintain it, as it is the only one within an individual's control." (Hubble,E., Kuhn,M., Malenoski,K., Pitler, H., 2007).

Much of the focus this week was on providing feedback that affects acheivement. We need to provide frequent assessment and feedback that supports and convinces our students that effort affects achievement, that they can control their own achievement by controlling their own effort. We also need to design learning that is relevant for today's students, social, and business needs. The trick is to create learning activities that address these needs, and still help students be successful in the assessment driven world of our government, school systems, and accountibility systems. Technology helps us to meet these aims in education. It can be used for data and recording,and it can be used for the actual assessment. James Paul Gee addresses this in the video, //Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games.// He discusses how the learning and the assessment are inter-connected and blended//.// A variety of activities that address multiple forms of learning and acheivement is a good way to help merge these two forms of need. Frequent assessment and feedback helps to drive these programs and increase achievement in all areas, including standardized testing.

//Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games// retrieved on April 1, 2012 from []

Hubble,E., Kuhn,M., Malenoski,K., Pitler, H., (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, by ASCD, p.155

EDLD 5364 - ET 8035 Teaching with Technology Week Four Reflections March 25, 2012

Week Four emphasized designing lessons focused on student centered learning. In an interview with Linda Darling-Hammond, she gave us a good background on collaborative learning. She discusses educating the whole child.This includes social-emotional learning as well as academic learning. This week focuses a lot on learning to work in a global society that is interactive and fastpaced. Teachers need to learn to work together as well as the students. They need to become problem solvers and learn how to organize and evaluate information by using their strengths and working with the strengths of other students. By learning to work as a team, they can be stronger as a whole. They are interested and actively involved. Teachers are no longer delivering a lesson. They are acting as facilitators. They develop a lesson that gives students a framework to build their learning on. IT lets them grow in directions that are relevant to the student and expands the basic concept. The standard is just the beginning. The students drives the lesson and by providing insight from a variety of directions, they often gain more than was ever expected. They will go beyond the goal when the learning is developed in a way that focuses on student-centered learning.

Edutopia.org.(December, 2007). //The collaborative classroom: An interview with Linda Darling-Hammond.// Filmed at the CAGEL form in New York City. Retrieved on March 23, 2012 //from// []

EDLD 5364 - ET 8035 Teaching with Technology Week Three Reflections March 18, 2012

A lot of emphasis was placed on developing lessons that addressed the different learning networks of the brain. The CAST site provided a lot of information and background on this subject. It explained the difference between the recognition, stategic, and affective networks and why it is important to use different types of techniques to address these networks. It provided the UDL Lesson model and framework to help in developing lessons that address the diverse needs of all learners. The lesson builder is a great tool for this.

I know that using the different tools to address the different needs and providing feedback in an ongoing process will help all learners. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski support their view on feedback with information from many areas. On page 42, the research shows "that the more immediate feedback is in the classroom settings, the greater the impact on student behavior (Kulik & Kulik 1988). Feedback is important in all lessons and in all teaching, as well as addressing all three networks of learning. This is not limited to teaching with technology.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. r., Kuhn, M., and Malenoski, K. (2007). //Using technology with classroom instruction that works//. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.

EDLD 5364 - ET 8035 Teaching with Technology Week Two Reflections March 11, 2012

"The challenge posed by greater diversity and greater accountability is to enable students with widely divergent needs, skills, and interests to attain the same high standards. To transform the pressures of diversity into opportunities for all learners, we apply insights about learners who don't "fit the mold" to helps us create flexible curricula and tools that will work more effectively for everyone. In this way, the challenges we face as educators inspire us to reconsider the way curriculum is designed and the way schooling is conducted." (Rose and Meyer, 2002) Diversity is encouraged in so many areas. Education is just beginning to recognize that diversity is not only acceptable, but should be encouraged. Education has a history of teaching everyone in the same way at the same time. We are finding that this is no longer the most effective way to address education.

This week, we addressed a variety of research data. In that data, we found that technology has a strong influence on learning when it is given direction. The Concord Schools’ plan addressed this by using the “ Universal Design for Learning, a research-based set of principles that forms a practical framework for using technology to maximize learning opportunities for every student.” (Rose and Meyer, 2002) This plan addresses the following needs: (Rose and Meyer, 2002) We need to address what we teach before we address how we are going to teach it. Once we know what we are going to teach, we need to know who we are teaching to as well. These elements will help us to decide the most effective way to address how we are going to teach.
 * Carefully conceived class-wide learning goals, inclusive of all students.
 * Individualized approaches for reaching those goals, including customized supports that change as learners progress.
 * Assessments that measure ongoing progress and provide teachers and students with useful feedback.

Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2002).//Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning.// Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervisionand Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Website. Chapter 1. Retrieved on March 11, 2012 from []

EDLD 5364 – ET 8035 Teaching with Technology Week One Reflections March 4, 2012

We started this course with an introduction to Constructivism and Connectivism. These theories are used to explain how people learn. Sprague and Dede provide a quote from Brooks and Brooks, (1993) which tells us that Constructivist Theory states that students “make sense of the world by synthesizing new experiences into what they have previously understood.” (1999). Connectivism follows the principle that “We can no longer personally experience and acquire learning that we need to act. We derive our competence from forming connections.” (Siemens, 2004) Both theories see the importance of new experiences. We need to build new knowledge through new experiences, and learn how to find and access the experience and knowledge of others. We need to learn what makes a reliable, dependable reference and how to connect it to our knowledge base. We are able to address both of these theories through the use of technology.

“The web is now a participatory, interactive place where we create information collaboratively and share the results. (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p.8) We can use this technology to gain new experiences and understanding and to help make connections to others with more information and experiences. Our goal as teachers is no longer to stand at the front of a classroom and deliver information. Our goal is to help our students learn how to access these experiences and knowledge and to find answers to our questions as well as their own. It is our job as teachers to “help them use the tools in educationally appropriate ways.” (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p.9)

Siemens, G. (2004, December 12). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. //Elearnspace.// Retrieved on March 4, 2012 from [] Solomon, G. and Schrum, L. (1999) //Web 2.0: New Tools, NewSchools.// Eugene,OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 8-9. Sprague, D. and Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. //Leading and Learning 27(1).// Retrieved on March 4, 2012 from []