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

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.

PowerPoint Alternatives

Many teachers use presentations in their classrooms as a way for students to research and present information to their classmates. The most popular form of presenting this information is either PowerPoint or posters. The problem is these are usually the only two mediums students use and many don’t even use them well. There are  alternatives to PowerPoint and posters out there for students to use. I recently had two students think outside the box and created a fake MySpace page for a deceased physicist using PowerPoint (Niels Bohr MySpace). What a creative way to show information! There are other alternatives such as videos, ScreenCast, VoiceCast, Jing, and as mentioned before, Scratch for younger students.

Secondly, students are not being taught how to create good presentations. How many PowerPoints have teachers seen where there are 20 animated GIF’s jumping around bright yellow font that is difficult to read and two paragraphs of text copied from Wikipedia. As teachers, our job is to not only teach research skills and public speaking skills, but also how to properly use technology to present information. Let’s think outside the box and give our students more options than the traditional ones. They have imaginations that get used less and less the further they progress in school. Many of them will be asked to be creative in the work force and college, they need to be practicing those skills in all their high school classes.

Socially Constructed Learning

The article “Minds on Fire” suggests that traditional idea of lecture-based learning needs to be re-thought given the current technological advances. Learning needs to be viewed as participation in a community which allows students to acquire knowledge  when the need arises. This new approach to learning is not so new as many teachers have used labs and projects to encourage student interaction but not necessarily using the internet. Let me provide an example of how the web 2.0 of blogs and Facebook has opened up new learning opportunities.

As a young high school running coach, I don’t have much knowledge when it comes to planning running workouts, injury prevention and various the components which go into coaching a cross country or track team. Books, websites and videos have provided me with information but it is difficult for me to apply it to my particular situation. Unfortunately, I am the only distance running coach in my school so the opportunities for collaboration are few. The best resource I have found so far is a blog by professional running coach, Jay Johnson. Jay posts his workouts, strength routines and everything else that goes into training his runners on his blog. On top of that, he engages in dialogue through the comment section, direct email and Twitter with other athletes and coaches around the country. Being able to participate in this dialogue and email Coach Jay has helped me grow immensely as a coach. I can get affirmation and guidance from him and other coaches without ever meeting them face to face. Jay uses a variety of mediums such as slide presentations, online videos as well as the blog and Twitter mentioned above.

In a high school science classroom, I foresee this new approach to learning helping in areas such as using equations to solve story problems. One of the biggest problems students have in physics is knowing when to use which equation and how. There are a lot of tricks and exceptions in physics which make this a difficult process. I demonstrate these problems in class but students usually write down a few steps and the answer without the explanation. If I uploaded a few example problems to a website using VoiceThread, students could have that as a resource. Students could also be required to write and solve their own story problems and then critique someone else’s. I could monitor these discussions and provide information or clarity when needed.

Socially constructed learning involves learning in an online or physical community. Information is provided when it is needed and learning is achieved through collaboration. By using blogs, VoiceThreads and other media, learning can take place in a guided environment outside of the classroom and at the student’s own pace.

Coach Jay Johnson