The Space Between - Final Blog Post - Work in Progress

Part I: How technology shapes learning in your classroom

•                What is your research question?

•                What inspired you to come up with that question?

•                How did you collect data?

•                What did you discover while analyzing the data?

•                How will the results influence your future use of technology as a learning tool?

            In my second placement, in a junior high school, I observed teachers feeling pressure to have their students interact with technology. I wondered why these junior high teachers felt such a strong pressure to do this when I did not see the same kind of urgency in the high school setting. Mrs. Robertson, an English 3D instructor, explained “many students, in my classroom in particular, are not exposed to technology in the same way as some of their more privileged peers might be. Most of my kids don’t have smart phones and a few have to go to a relatives’ house to use the Internet.  They need all the practice they can get while at school.” Her explanation confirmed my understanding of the technology gap, and how some teachers feel the pressure to close that gap. Another instructor, Mrs. Carmean, teaches 8^th grade English and reminded me that the new common assessment, Smarter Balanced is a computer-based test, that will be given to all 8^th graders this spring. She expressed her concern, “students who don’t have much exposure to reading and writing at a computer, could test below their ability level.”

I had many different questions initially about technology and learning. They stemmed from what I observed in the classroom. I observed technology being implemented in the classroom in a variety of ways. Instructors using iPads 

Tah-may-toe/Toe-mah-toe-  My Question: Stated Three Ways

Are students cognitively overloaded when asked to perform a task that requires them to use technology? What I am looking for in this inquiry is when students are given an activity, and the activity requires the manipulation of technology does it interfere with the student’s ability to complete the task. Does the use of technology help or hinder the learning process?


Part II: Reflection on ED325

When I first entered the computer lab I felt like I was one of the less computer savvy people in the room. I knew my way around the basic process and software but that was where my comfort zone ended. I entered the room intimidated but also curious. I was curious about what other tricks I would learn, tools I would encounter and how I would learn to implement them in an educational setting. What I didn't expect to learn about was theory. I loved how open and invested the class was in discussing the benefits and pitfalls of technology in education. Though I didn't come into to the room a techie, I did enter the room a thinker, and the space we were given to explore and discuss was by far the most beneficial thing to me. 

I am still learning, and assume I will never stop learning, about different aspects of technology but now I feel equipped to investigate and evaluate each new development  with the knowledge I have already acquired and the skills I practiced in this classroom.


I have learned about a variety of tools I can use in my class. I have learned skills that will help me in my teaching, like using iMovie and QuickTime to create and edit educational shorts. In fact, I used QuickTime to record my screen to show how to go through the steps to make a copy of a Google doc and then share it. I learned how to make Prezis so that not only can I present information in an engaging was but I can also guide my students through the process of creating their own engaging material to present.

APPs

EXCITING! I am the proud owner of a brand new shiny, hand-held computer!! Also known as the do everything thing or iPad mini.
Finally, I feel like I have entered the world of education technology and apps!! Besides being a completely distracting time suck, it is also a wonderful piece of teaching technology. 
As I have only just gotten this device I am still new to all the fancy things it can do, and I have only scratched the service of its many possible uses as a teacher.
In the one week that I have had my iPad I have downloaded:

• Netflix and Amazon Instant Video Apps
•  I used them to show clips in class
• GoogleDrive App
• I used this app to coordinate a research project that my students did. By sharing their files with me and mine with the them I had full access to monitor each group.
• While before I used the website, the app allows easy access from the iPad
• Paper by 53 and Notability
• Paper is a gorgeous app that you can use to design andorganize information visually
• Notability is a great tool that facilitates note taking and has a voice to text capability

All of these apps have practical use for me personally, but also can be used for teaching

The capability of mirroring surpasses any other advantage that this tiny tool provides, in my opinion. Mirroring allows me to be mobile throughout the class while still projecting information and interacting with that  projected information. Given that I am no longer anchored to a chair in front of a doc cam, nor tethered to a white board at the front of the class,  I gain the perspective of the student while also being able to use proximity to attend to attention issues in the back of the class. 

To facilitate this projectional capability I purchased the Notablity app. I had seen different teachers project a worksheet on the screen from the devices and then annotate and highlight the worksheet, as a model for the students or write down students answers on a worsheet. They told me about the app and said it was one of their favorites. At 2.99 I think this app is a worthy investment. 

Other Apps that I might consider using: EDU creations- for flipped classroom. Working with the virtual whiteboard to record lessons.
Talking Rapper- for ESL classroom. An engaging app that would help students produce
Shake- a- Phrase- for a middle school English classroom
Word Foto- a way for students to visual word in a text, to convey theme, etc.
DuoLingo- a supplemental game for the World Language classroom - Bonus, it's Free!

PLN's - Another three letter acronym

Teaching can often seem like an overwhelming individual endeavor, in order to avoid this feeling of isolation it is helpful for teachers to join and participate in a professional learning network, or PLN. This network can be withing the school, within the district, but teachers are now using social media and other technologies to reach out and network online. The purpose of these PLNs is to provide a space where teachers can ask for help, provide ideas and receive feedback on questions and ideas, in doing this PLNs not only aggregate information but also provides a dynamic sense of community.

There are many different forms of PLNs and many sites are devoted to curriculum sharing. It is important when interacting with these sites to read and review with a critical eye. With the copious amount of matieral available online it is critical to sift, organize, analyze the validity of information with attention to the currency of the information, the reliability, authority of the source and lastly the purpose/point of view. Indications of validity are: the site/blog is well known, has good reviews and it is relevant to what you are looking for. When looking at a site I also look at the comments below the post. I look at the dates to see when it was most recently read and commented and I look over to see if the comments are mainly positive or negative.  

The blog I was guided to through my trusted hub of EDUTOPIA, was a blog called “ I Want To Teach Forever”  by Tom DeRossa. His blog covers a variety of topics and themes and his purpose seems to be aggregating information from a variety of sites on a certain topic. I was interested in finding a place were I could access free lesson plans. I typed ‘lesson plans’ into the search engine on the site and it brought me to a post by a guest author Karen Schoeitzer, who is a writer for TeacherDegree.org. The post was entitled, "40 Places to Find Free Lesson Plans Online". Karen reviews each of the various sites and  I found them very helpful.

The Learning Games

I have thought often about motivation in my classes and in the classes  I observed, and how I can achieve a even a modicum of interest and engagement in my little minions. In my observations I have seen normally sloth-like teens and pre-teens jump for joy or roll their eyes and then sit up straight in their desks at the mention of the word "game."

I have seen games work really well in Spanish and in Science classes. Games help spice up the monotony of the school day and usually incentivize the student to participate. Where I see the issue with games is with what the students are actually learning.

There are many questions and implications to be addressed. Are the games fulfilling some type of educational purpose and not just a behavioral tool to garner engagement? Are the games designed to help the students integrate information they already know deeper into their grey matter? Are the games designed to help students with rapid recall of information? Do the games demand problem solving skills and understanding of the material to come up with a solution? 


Different types of games work well for different types of purposes and usually some types are more effective in a certain subject area than others. I have seen a science class learn about  genetics through an online game where you breed your own dragons. I have seen a Spanish class use a website that works like Mad Libs to help use context clues for new vocabulary. These were both fun and effective.


What I have been struggling with is how to implement games in the English classroom. I want a game that doesn't require huge amounts of reading or writing, because that would turn the majority of my students off. Also, I don't know of a game that really does a good job incentivizing students to correct grammatically incorrect sentences. I think that a game like Words with Friends could work in my class especially if I could project the game on a screen and adapt it from a two player game to a two team game (taking the pressure off of just one individual- and also tapping into the idea of crowd-sourcing). Words with Friends is great because there are many ways you can access it; on Apple devices, Android devices and on Facebook.

On an partially related note,  after class I was listening to NPR when the words 'role playing game' were said and my ears instantly perked up. It was a game about being a Russian immigration inspector, called "Papers, please" and thought it sounded like kind of a dreary game, I listened on, and found out that is kind of the point. You are placed in a game where you have to be a detective and your role is to be as thorough as possible. It exposes your to varying levels of politically loaded situations, like having to send back a refugee into a country where they might be killed, so that you do your job well, or letting them through and not following orders. As we are discussing the Holocaust in my English class right now, I felt elements of this game would be translatable for their discussion about what they have read about the people who though the banality of their actions allowed the mass extermination of a population occur.   I am not sure how much class time I would devote to the game if  I ever did decide to use it, but I am still ruminating on the idea. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

Tech Tool of the Week: Word Sift

This tool struck me as really interesting for use in the ELA classroom

http://www.wordsift.com/


I did a practice run with the tool using the text from one of the many really brilliant writer/thinkers in our English cohort. Her post can be found here:

I think that its a great tool to allow students to see a visual representation of what would be the main ideas or key words of a text. These are some things we ask students to identify when examining a text.

I still need to sift through some more thoughts on this tool and its uses and implications before my post is completed.

Pros and Cons of Tech

Things that should be done with technology:

Ø     showing video or graphics that will help clarify concepts and excite their imaginations!

o      using technology to expand the kinds of activities students can do in regards to a subject 
like a literary map on Google maps to help the setting come to life

Ø     facilitating parent-teacher communication

o      email, weekly/monthly online newsletters, teacher webpage

o      facilitating teacher- student communication

o      webpage, email, EDU 2.0

o      Facilitating student- student work/collaboration

o      tools like Google docs to do group work at home

Things that shouldn't be done with technology: (with focus on my subject area, English)

Ø     replacing reading with using media

Ø     replacing face to face parent-teacher communication

Ø     small group discussions

Ø     close readings of a text

The main claim I would make about the use of technology as a learning tool is that it shouldn't ever be used to replace something but to enhance it.

Technology tools should not replace face to face human interaction, they should be used to facilitate learning by expanding the possibilities of interaction. Technology should not replace the content but be used to enhance the content.

I have reservations about the uses and reliance on technology, as you may have seen in other blogs. This is based on the tendency for tech to become distracting or from threat of it having unforeseen implications. Yet, I am definitely for using technology in ways that enhance learning for students. I want to/ must prepare them for a world I can hardly fathom because it will be so technologically integrated.  My role is to help guide and provide ways for them to interact on a human level and on a technological level.

ED Tech Tool of the Week: Google Forms (Drive)

link to notes on google drive


Here is my practice of the use of Google Forms: