Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
my third blog entry
This class has given me a wealth of great resources which I am excited to explore further on my own time and probably implement in my classroom. It has also given me some basic ideas about what technology can accomplish in my classroom to improve education and engage students. In terms of the project, I learned that webquests can be a very valuable tool to vary instruction and expose students to new media, giving them creative ways to show what they've learned. I'm sure I will do more webquests after this looking for areas in my current curriculum that can use more enrichment and student ownership. This will be especially important as my school moves toward a 1:1 program.
The types of assignments and overall structure of this course also provided a good example of the variety of ways to conduct a class using technology resources - blogs, moodle, google docs, etc. While there are obvious differences between high school and graduate level courses, there are still many ways the way this class was taught could be applied to lower levels of education. In terms of questions that remain, I suppose I hope to learn more about the actual ways technology integration can provide better education, not just new, or novel education. I know that it can improve teaching and learning, but I suppose I'm preparing myself for some of my fellow teachers not being convinced of that. That feeds into what I see as my role among my colleagues where I teach. I do hope to support my colleagues efforts to integrate more technology, provide tips and advice, listen to their concerns, and share my knowledge. I enjoy this prospect, and am generally excited to share all that I've learned with my students as well as my fellow teachers.
I also know that I may some day be someone who resists all the changes technology brings (like some of my colleagues are today). However, by keeping up to date on new ideas and continuing to push myself toward better instruction that empowers students and gives them ownership of their own education, I hope to never be shut off to the new just because I'm comfortable with the way things have been done.
my second blog entry
As I am going to be putting several hours of work into a curricular integration project, I want to make sure it is something I will actually use in my classroom next school year. Because there is currently not very much technology integrated in my U.S. history class, I've decided to create a Vietnam War webquest that would fit well within that curriculum, and would get students interacting with a variety of web-based resources. The final product of the webquest will be a letter written from the perspective of a soldier about to come home from Vietnam near the end of the war. The student will put himself/herself in the shoes of a young soldier, and will show a deep knowledge of what the war was like, and what was going on at this moment in U.S. history.
A - Here's what I'll need to do to complete this project.
1 - Other webquests- look at others to get a feel for what a good webquest looks like.
2 - Review background materials - Universal Design for Learning, Making webquests interesting, NETs, and Michigan social studies content standards.
3 - Create the webquest in the form of a Google doc that will be shared on my moodle site. (Creating this will involve coming up with an idea, providing suitable online resources for students, writing a rubric, and adding pictures and formatting flair.)
4 - Write teacher notes. These will be detailed enough to help other U.S. history teachers implement this webquest in their own classes if they desire. Also included in this will be documentation of how this project meets curricular and educational technology standards.
5 - Write an outline for a presentation to give to 619 class Thursday. Create presentation using Prezi (or PowerPoint).
B - What I hope to learn.
I hope to learn how to make a webquest. Early on I realized that while I've assigned many webquests in class, I have not been doing them correctly at all. This will be my first proper webquest and I hope to learn what exactly goes into one. I also hope to learn how to develop a project with UDL principles in mind so that it is approachable to all students, and reaches students in many different ways.
C - Connection to my teaching practices.
What I mentioned above about Universal Design for Learning is something I hope to focus on not only for this project, but I hope those principles will be more evident throughout my curriculum. I also hope that the intentional examination of standards alignment will be something I can keep in mind more often (I rarely do at present). Lastly, my current U.S. history curriculum is fairly traditional, teacher-centered, and does not have much variety or technology. This project will definitely change that. It obviously implements technology, it encourages student exploration, creativity and the application of knowledge, and my hope is that it will truly get the ball rolling toward technology integration that leads to better teaching and learning in the U.S. history classroom.
my first blog entry
1) I have to admit, I don't know a whole lot about what will be covered in this class. In the next two weeks I hope to be exposed to some of the reasons for integrating more useful technology into my classroom as well as finding tools that move beyond the novelty of technology into the realm of the truly purposeful. In other words, I'd like to have a clear answer to the question, "How will this technology improve my curriculum, rather than just change it?"
Additionally, I hope to become a more effective resource for my colleagues to help them transition to the increasing prevalence of technology in our schools, especially as we integrate a 1:1 program in the fall of 2011.
2) My own experiences using technology in the classroom are pretty experimental and varied. Still, I definitely consider myself a tech savvy person and teacher, and in my global issues class I would be much less effective without the web. I rely quite heavily on technology for my everyday life as a teacher. The fact that I enjoy technology so much makes my life easier in many ways because most of my students "speak the language" of technology. I have, however, run into frustrated students who don't know why we can't just do things the old fashioned way. Some do actually resent the new wave of technology headed their way.
3) For my project I think I'd like to form a lesson or unit plan dealing with some current events for my global issues class. As this is the class in which I already use the web, however, it might be interesting to begin integrating more web-based lessons into my American history class. I'll continue to explore these possibilities this week.
(4) I am sure that what I learn in this class will form a large part of my own adaptation to the influx of student laptops next school year. I hope to explore how to improve my global issues moodle site, and possibly start moodle sites for my other classes. Next year in my school we'll be receiving 2 laptop carts in our department (right now we have ~3 labs for the entire school), and access will greatly increase. The following year we will have fully implemented a 1:1 laptop program. As the technology will increasingly be available, I am excited to learn how I can make the most of it to benefit my students.
Additionally, I hope to become a more effective resource for my colleagues to help them transition to the increasing prevalence of technology in our schools, especially as we integrate a 1:1 program in the fall of 2011.
2) My own experiences using technology in the classroom are pretty experimental and varied. Still, I definitely consider myself a tech savvy person and teacher, and in my global issues class I would be much less effective without the web. I rely quite heavily on technology for my everyday life as a teacher. The fact that I enjoy technology so much makes my life easier in many ways because most of my students "speak the language" of technology. I have, however, run into frustrated students who don't know why we can't just do things the old fashioned way. Some do actually resent the new wave of technology headed their way.
3) For my project I think I'd like to form a lesson or unit plan dealing with some current events for my global issues class. As this is the class in which I already use the web, however, it might be interesting to begin integrating more web-based lessons into my American history class. I'll continue to explore these possibilities this week.
(4) I am sure that what I learn in this class will form a large part of my own adaptation to the influx of student laptops next school year. I hope to explore how to improve my global issues moodle site, and possibly start moodle sites for my other classes. Next year in my school we'll be receiving 2 laptop carts in our department (right now we have ~3 labs for the entire school), and access will greatly increase. The following year we will have fully implemented a 1:1 laptop program. As the technology will increasingly be available, I am excited to learn how I can make the most of it to benefit my students.
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