EDLD 5366

This has been an interesting and challenging course. I created an animation for the first time and realized all the higher order critical thinking skills needed to do so. This made me think about how animation could be used in education for students to analyze, evaluate, and create which are all in the higher steps of Blooms. I enjoyed creating this animation even though I was way out of my comfort zone at first. Another challenge was the group website. I had three awesome ladies to work with. I prefer to just do my own work so that I can get it done how and when I want but I learned some important administrative skills: patience to work with others, commitment to a team, dedication to get a job done, and faith in those who I work with. I was very proud of the end result of our website and how it all pulled together to create an interesting cohesive project. The readings and videos of this course provided rich information and ideas that I thoroughly enjoyed and valued. The personal logo I must admit was my least favorite part of the course. I didn't have a problem creating the graphic but analyzing myself and finding what represented me was difficult. Reflecting and thinking about who I truly was and represented was quite difficult.  I am continuing to work on that in order to refine a personal logo that truly does represent my thoughts, feelings, and philosophies or one that just shows my true personality. Overall a very enjoyable, thought filled course. 

EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology Reflection of Assignments

This course was challenging but I do think I learned quite a bit from it. I had the opportunity to work with two other extremely knowledgable teachers. The ideas we came up with to solve the issue of addressing the needs of a varitey of students with different abilities was amazing. The CAST UDL and Ebook were both new to me. I had never seen or heard of them. I can see how they are both very useful. I enjoyed using the Ebook builder however I do see that it has some limits. The pros definitely out weight the cons however. I can see how this can be used as a remediation, reteaching, or review type resource and also an introduction to a new concept. I gained an insight to what other teachers are doing by working with my team and appreciate their ideas and efforts. This was a difficult time of year as far as busy teachers go however we pulled together and managed to produce a very good final project and accomplished getting the job done despite the busy days of our lives. Our google doc and site show a vast amount of collaboration as well as the emails we continued to share with each other daily. https://sites.google.com/site/edld5364twtgppawdavyouwil/team-reflections/week-5
This course has taught me how to integrate technology into a classroom with multiple abilities and to let the students have more of a role as far as their learning goes. They should be given the opportunity to show what they can do instead of a teacher limiting their efforts and creativity. I have found that students sometimes want to put out more than we might expect of them.

EDLD 5364 Week 5

“The research tells us that not all students realize the importance of effort. Many attribute their success or failure to external forces.  After watching some of the videos this week, I was intrigued by the concept of gaming as a teaching and learning tool. I have never played video games of any kind.  There are many online games that require higher order thinking skills in order to have any means of success as a player. Players must learn to use strategy as well as problem solving and team work in order to progress and level. The game is never the same due to changes in players, locations, and scenarios of the game. Typically there are many failed attempts before success is achieved. The interesting thing about these games is that the game is constantly changing therefore the player must decide what approach to take everytime in order to succeed. The crazy thing is that no matter how many times a player fails, they typically try again and again until they figure out what strategy will work.  Well effort means alot and the players realize that sometimes no matter how hard they try, it takes many times in order to succeed. Each time they fail, they learn something that they should or shouldn't do in order to get it right the next time. The crazy thing is, about the time they think they have something mastered and figured out the whole scenario changes and they have to reevaluate what  to do next. Isn't that what learning should be about? Shouldn't we be using and teaching students how to apply higher order thinking skills and problem solve?

This brings a new light on the quote above about external forces. I can see how students feel that things going on externally determine who or what they are and disregard their own efforts. They don't self monitor and see progress they have made, they just see the big picture of success or failure. Are standardized tests just setting our students up for failure? Who knows. I know there is a place for testing and accountability but progress should be monitored instead of just a grade on the test. Assessments should be something that truly show what a student can do. There may truly be a place in our education system that allows more of a game type curriculum where the text book is used as a manual to look up information or clarify it after it has been learned instead of the initial learning experience.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 156-157.

EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology Week 4

Technology has become such an important part in education in today's schools. This weeks readings included ideas and resources on using technology. They discussed using Web 2.0 tools, UDL's, and ways to integrate digital technology into education successfully. I realize that technology can play a huge role when integrated into and across the curriculum when done by an educated and informed teacher. Teachers who allow technology in the classroom and allow students to be productive and take an active part in the use of technology will have the best results in my opinion.

After reading this weeks readings and watching the videos I have been thinking about my teaching and what I allow in my classroom. I do feel that I integrate technology but maybe I need to allow the students to have more of a leadership role in what they do with it. I am about to start a project with a partner teacher this week that involves a lot of technology usage, Powerpoint, web research, web 2.0... I think I will give guidelines and structure but allow the students to have a little more self directed learning and see what they come up with... they may come up with a final project that far exceeds what I had planned. Something to think about...

EDLD 5364 Week 3

This has been a very challenging week. Learning and trying to understand how to use a new lesson plan with the UDL builder and trying to implement a student activity with the Book Builder was quite an experience. There are so many ways to use both of these resources but getting use to how they work and interact with each other was interesting. I know with time of course and practice that both of these will become easier to use. I see many possibilities with the ebook and can see what an effective and useful tool it could be in the classroom. I also thought the UDL builder was a good way to make sure all parts of an effective and successful lesson plan are included in an individual lesson or unit. I found myself feeling a little lost at times and not quite sure if I was on the right track with my lesson or not. I just went at it head on and am hoping that I am doing what is required.

The collaboration of this project also has allowed me to see what others are thinking and teaching and how they are implementing their projects as well. It is always good to see what other educators are doing to refresh and reinforce my own teaching style and methods. I am anxious to see what the final project has to offer and what it looks like when finally put together. It has been a good week but a difficult one. I have had issues using the google doc this week. I kept encountering errors and could not see the document in its entirity which caused me some issues with collaboration. An example of how great technology is when it works... but what would we ever do with out it. Looking forward to next week.

UDL Lesson -

This lesson was quite challenging - trying to figure out what to include, how much to include, etc. I used a variety of resources that I acquired from science teachers in my building who gave me valuable information and guidance. I am anxious to see how all of the lessons from our team build on each other and teach the concept of weather and geologic movement.   

CAST Book Builder -

The Ebook was a little challenging as well. I felt a little overwhelmed this week with all of the ideas going through my head. I decided the best thing for me to do was to provide a review or independent work for the students based on my UDL Lesson plan. I created a review ebook with a few open ended questions and some images that hopefully will help the students think and visualize. I had the background information recorded by the coach as well as having written instructions or text. The link follows:

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=share&book=7ad7e6db5c5ddede315e1dd8acadbeb5&sid=7665

EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology Week 2

After reviewing the videos and readings this week I began to think about the impact of technology on each student and how to differientiate in the classroom in order to effectively meet the needs of all students. Our project in this course relates to the same thing. In a diversified classroom, a teacher needs to use all available resources for success. Technology is one of the best tools to address those needs.  According to the CAST website, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) states that technology is used to include all learners regardless of their ability. The Principles of UDL give multilple means of representation, expression, and engagement. With this in mind, all students have the potential to learn when material is presented to them in a variety of ways and at their level. Brain research also plays an important role in the use of technology. Recogntion is the "what" of learning, strategic is the "how", and affective is the "why". Understanding all of these things and how they work together will provide a foundation that should help all students improve and succeed in reaching individual goals.

After reading the research from the Milken Exchange on Technology, there are positive and negative points regarding the use of technology. Most of the reasearch showed positive gains in performance. I realize that technology is not a one size fits all kind of resource. I think the most positive factor in student success and learning is the impact of the teacher on that student. When technology is viewed by the teacher as a positive and affective tool then the students perceive that as well.

Technology is a wonderful resource and is required for students to use and understand in order to be successful in today's workforce.

Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.mff.org/pubs/ME161.pdf.

Lessonbuilder.cast.org (nd). Diversity of Learners, Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009 from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

EDLD 5364 Teaching With Technology Week 1

The type of employee business are looking for today are problem solvers. Times have changed and so a new type of employee and students is required. To prepare our students for this type of work and future changes, they need to be literate in a different way. “To be literate today involves acquiring new skills, including those of using technology, understanding science, having global awareness, and most important, having the ability to keep learning.” (Solomon, G., & Schrum, L., 2007) Through the different articles and videos for this week, I learned about the three different educational theories, constructivism, connectivism and cyborg. These theories focus on changing the way educators teach and students learn. Constructivism theorizes that students come with a set of knowledge which will impact what and how they learn the new information presented to them (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1999). This process is individualized, as each student will use a variety of ways, but not the same ways, to learn new information being provided. Students also come prepared at different levels based on prior knowledge and therefore can acquire concept at different rates. Connectivism seems to agree with this but takes it one step further by saying that external connections that students make with other students, people, data, and so on, also impact their learning (Siemens, G., nd). Interaction plays a large role in this theory. both of these theories explain why students who are required to take the same "un-biased" state tests perform differently. No student comes to the table with the same information and experience therefore the results of these tests will be different as well.
In both of these theories, the inclusion of technology as a tool to learning is important. Using technology along with a well-designed lesson, “not only increases student learning, understanding and achievement but also augments motivation to learn” (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007). Kevin Warwirk, (nd), in his video, Cyborg Life, took technology one step further.  To be quite honest, this one kind of creeped me out a little bit. I even shared the video with some friends who had mixed feelings about this one and we had some very good discussions about the pros and cons. He proposes that in the future, technology will be implanted into people and that the knowledge will be downloaded into their brain. In this way, nature is given a helping hand to improve on the human design. It is this Cyborg theory that made me think about the future. By creating this hybrid of human and machine (cyborg), though it may be an easy way to access information, we will need to find a way to ensure that the information is used responsibly and ethically. I have an aversion to this theory and practice. I find that playing with the human body this way is a bit scary and , well, inhumane.  In the end, “The tools student use may change where and how they get the information, but only educators can make sure that students learn how to process and use that information wisely. (Solomon, G., & Schrum, L., 2007).








Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Introduction, 1 – 14.
Siemens, G. (nd). The Changing Nature of Knowledge. Youtube.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcTHndpzYg
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L.(2007). Web 2.0: New tools, New schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 7 – 44
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on October 4, 2009 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html
Warwirk, K. (nd). Cyborg Life. Youtube.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_l7SY_ngI