Standard 10 Meta-Reflection: Technology

Standard 10 Technology: Integrates current technology into instruction and professional communication/collaboration activities where appropriate.

I developed a class website using the SWIFT template to communicate with parents and students. I upload electronic copies of assignments and projects for students to access if they lost their copy or for parents to access. I also provide a weekly homework calendar with our daily activities, special events and due dates. Lastly, I write practice quizzes for students to take preceding an assessment to aid in their preparation. This has proven to be a vital source of information for parents and students as well as a worthwhile communication tool for me. I update this on a daily basis during the school year and include assignments which require students to access the website.

Artifact: Class Website

This blog post for an educational technology shows how various internet-based applications could be used in the classroom to differentiate instruction. I have used some of these applications in my classroom such as Inspiration to develop flow charts for note taking and iMovie for student-created video projects. These applications help students to master technology standards in the context of content standards because they are used in the classroom daily and as options for project products.

Artifact: Differentiated Instruction with Technology

I also used a program called VoiceThread to demonstrate a technology tip for a collaboration and communication tool called Jing. I showed how this piece of technology could be used for educators to collaborate on a common assessment or for students to work on a project together using the internet. The opportunities for this program and others like it are endless given the appropriate technology.

Artifact: Technology Tip

Communication Lessons Learned

For my reflection this week, I would like to share a few lessons I learned the hard way regarding communicating with parents. While they were frustrating to go through, I became a better teacher and communicator and I hope others can learn from my mistakes.

1. Proactive communication saves time. As a beginning teacher, my focus was on instruction and not student learning. I naively believed students and parents who were failing would seek help on their own. When grades were sent home,  I discovered that these parents and students had no idea how poorly they were doing and were upset with me. Now I contact parents and students quite early and offer solutions to raise their grades. I put the burden on them so I don’t create extra work for myself.

2. Email is not always best. I have sent out a few hasty emails to parents that have been taken the wrong way and resulted in some long and nasty replies which happen to be CC’ed to my administrator. Now, I either CC my administrator first so they are on board from the beginning or I call the parent to talk. It is too easy to misunderstand meaning through email. Many times, after a parent writes an angry email, they are much nicer over the phone because they don’t have a computer to hide behind.

3. Collaborate with a team. Many problem students have Special Education teachers or ELL teachers who work with them on a much more regular basis. Counselors also tend to know the students and their family much better while ELL teachers can be more culturally sensitive. I begin communication with parents many times but talking to other teachers and counselors first.

Communication with parents can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming as I learned from the discussion this week. Websites such as SEDL offer good solutions for a variety of situations. When teachers are proactive, don’t use email too much and involve their colleagues, communication can be extremely productive and effective.

Differentiated Instruction with Technology

Good teachers are able to use students’ differences to their advantage. These teachers avoid the easy “one size fits all” approach and seek to engage each student as an individual. This is commonly done by teaching to different learning styles or incorporating students’ interests. This can also be done using technology.

All teachers have projects that involve a presentation or written report. These appeal to only a select few learning styles and the others have to suffer through it. Take for example a book report. The students who learn by reading and writing do fine while the visual learner wants to draw pictures or a flow chart and the physical learner can’t sit still long enough to write a full paper. Below are some programs that could be used as alternatives to a written report for various learning styles.

Group learner- Post the report on a blog and have other students leave comments. (WordPress)

Kinesthetic learner- Act out an important part of the book on video and tape yourself explaining the significance of it. (video editing such as iMovie)

Visual learner- Create a flow chart showing the connections and important events for each character in the book. (Inspiration)

Aural learner- Record yourself explaining a significant part of the book and then let other students record their own observations and comments. (VoiceThread)

As you can see, these are only a few options teachers could use. The goal is to start with an existing project and find appropriate technology that enhances it. The focus should be on the content and learning goals while the technology merely engages students’ interests and learning styles.

Internet Access Issues

I encountered a common experience with technology this week- access availability. We moved into a new house and the internet is not working yet. I was unable to access Blackboard to complete my class assignments at home and had to find alternative access. I gained more empathy for students who have the same difficulty accessing the internet. As teacher attitudes toward technology change and it is used more and more in classrooms, these issues will become pertinent. What should a teacher do if the student does not have access to the internet? We saw a video about how a girl used her cell phone to access the internet but that only works with certain applications such as Facebook and Twitter. Here are my thoughts regarding student internet access:

• Alternative access points: These could be school computer labs, the teacher’s classroom computer, local library or even a local Starbucks (which offer 2 free hours a month when you register a Starbucks card).
• Flexibility in due dates: I am not advocating a new version of “the dog ate my homework” excuse but the fact remains that technology fails at times and students cannot be held responsible for that. A policy such as informing the teacher at least 24 hours before the assignment is due via email, voicemail or parent note will let the teacher and student come up with solutions and eliminate bogus excuses.
• Alternative assignments: Lastly, when all other solutions are exhausted, alternative, technology-free versions of the assignment should be prepared but not advertised to students. This allows the student to learn the same material without technology. This should only be used in cases where all other options have been tried.

As teacher beliefs toward technology change and it appears in more classrooms, access issues will appear and teachers need to have a proactive strategy in place to deal with them in a fair and consistent way. Sharing these with other teachers will help them avoid similiar problems and change teacher beliefs about technolgoy in schools.

Starbucks offers 2 free hours of Wi-Fi access a month.