Technology survey

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Final reflection on integrating technology and DI.

Two immediate adjustments I will make in my instructional practice are when I start the biome project in January. We will be using online organizers, websites for research and then the students will be able to use various forms of technology when they have to present the information. This can be in the form of PowerPoints, podcasts, video or any other way they want to present as long as it is approved by me.

Another adjustment I will make is to I want to integrate more technology in my classroom is by providing more opportunities for the students to have access to the computers in our school so I can have online discussions with my students on our school districts social website. I will need to be aware of when I can have access to the computer lab.

One area I am slowly going to work on is getting a support system started which can include calling on colleagues and bringing on principals as partners (Tomlinson, C., 1999). I would build a portfolio of activities I have done in class, what worked, what did not work and how other teachers can integrate technology in their class. In doing this I hope it would encourage other teachers to get more involved with differentiated instruction.

Tomlinson, C. (1999). Differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Retrieved from the Walden Library ebrary. Chapter 9, "How Do Teachers Make It All
Work?

Monday, November 1, 2010

Final Reflection

When I was working on my GAME plan I discovered many websites which I can use for locating information. I also discovered websites for blogging, interactive websites and online collaboration. I also appreciated the comments from my peers which helped towards the completion my GAME plan.
What I did not know before starting this class was the NETS-Standards. Even though I teach science I will incorporate these standards into my teaching. In incorporating these standards it also provides students another way to practice 21st century learning skills.
In our video series Dr. Arnie Abrams states not to just use technology for the sake of using technology but using it “to accomplish your goals and hopefully matching those to state, local and national standards” (Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer), 2009). I really like this statement because it challenges me to find new and significant ways to use technology as an educational tool. I always want to make sure when I use technology that it has a strong educational and instructional purpose. I do not want to just develop a PowerPoint for notes but to use it as a learning tool which my students can use to show me what they have learned such as creating a digital storybook.
I am working on locating additional websites for online organizers so students can either have a hard copy of an organizer or the option of using an online organizer to help them organize their thoughts and information. I also would like to one day let my students have the option of doing their journal work online or in a notebook.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Using the GAME plan process with students

The GAME plan can be used quite easily to help the students to develop their technology skills. One way to establish ways students could communicate and collaborate with each other as by using collaborative websites. They could monitor different collaboration websites and determine which website would work best for them. They could then use a blog to evaluate and extend their thinking. Another example would be for the students to develop a GAME plan for critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. They would take what they already know about collaboration and start on a problem-based project which would require them to set a goal of identifying problems in a particular area. Then they would take action to find out more about the problem and what could be done. The students and the teacher would continue to monitor their progress through the use of the blog. They can also evaluate the information they collect to see if they need to look beyond the initial problem to finish their project. As students are working on the GAME plan for critical thinking, problem solving and decision making they will also incorporate the research and information fluency standard as well. The standard states “students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information”. (National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T), 2008). So one GAME plan can incorporate more then one technology standard at a time plus it would also combine the technology standards with our state learning standards for science.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

More of my GAME plan

As I continue on with my GAME plan I am still trying to collect my websites. I have found some while doing work for my Master’s Degree. Right now we are looking for interactive websites and I was pleased to find out that Wikispaces is no longer blocked at our school. I had set one up last year but then a couple weeks later it was blocked. I was very frustrated because I wanted to use it for classroom collaboration. An online collaboration website our school is using is Schoology.com. In reading about how to best integrate science into the classroom it states that part of it depends on the teachers way of communicating with students, parents, administrators and community members through technology and print. (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P.,2009). Schoology is an interactive site which the students can go and access a teacher’s webpage in order to work on assignments with students or teachers. The school is hoping to be able to make it available to parents as well in order to see what their child is doing in class. Our media specialist worked very hard at keeping this from getting blocked because she feels this is a great way to encourage 21st century learning skills.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Continued evaluation of my GAME plan

Another evaluation of my GAME plan

As I begin to start my lesson for my graduate school project I realized that many of the websites which I have gathered will work well for my problem-based project. I already have several environmental, governmental and science websites which will help with the final project. One observation I am making is that the list of websites I am gathering will be helpful for projects I have planned this school year.

What I want to do now is locate interactive organizational diagrams which can help my students to organize their thoughts and information before working on a final product. The students could use a website which incorporates a web-type organizational diagram while doing research on the Gulf Oil Spill. They will make the oil spill the center issue and then use the outer circles to add the rest of the information. My students have not had experience using the online webs so we would have to do one together prior to the activity. This way the students will not feel too overwhelmed when they work on their project.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Third review of my GAME plan

I realized the other day when reading the two objectives which I want to work towards that I had not blogged on how I would model creativity and innovative thinking. I went to our text for the course and looked up what it meant to model creativity and innovative thinking. According to our text there are six types of creative thinking and I am going to make divergent creative thinking part of my game plan. This means my students will take a point and move outward to a variety of perspectives (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P., 2009). Later this school year I am planning on doing a lesson on the Gulf Oil Spill. As part of the lesson I want to provide them with the question of “How do you think the environment will be affected by the Gulf Oil Spill”? I would have the students use the websites which I am currently collecting and research how the area is affected already and also research other oil spills and the results of those. I still need to locate all my websites but I have obtained several of them and put them in an online bookmarking site so that they are accessible where ever I am. I have discovered several websites for science, government, and news. I made folders on the bookmarking page which helped me to keep them organized. I still need to go through the government websites to see who deals with environmental issues with in our local, state and federal government. I want to be prepared so if an environmental issue comes up in the city I work in then my students can get involved in learning about the issue and decided if there is something they can do about it.

One area I am going to have to modify temporarily is my professional development on technology due to my work and school load. I will not be able to attend the Podcast professional development. I am hoping they will offer it again but until then I will try and work with it some more. I do know our media center does have microphones and they have used podcasting before, so I will check with them.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Continuing My GAME Plan

As I continue on with my GAME plan I need to develop a list of websites which have current event information. Some of these websites will be news websites on a local, state and national level. Other websites I will add to my list are science and environmental websites such as NASA and EPA. I currently have these websites bookmarked on my computer in my classroom and at home but I need to have them on a flash drive so they are with me where ever I am. Another step I need to take is to locate the names of people involved with our local and state government who deal with environmental issues. I know I can locate some of them on our county website but I need to find other sites where I can find the information I need. The third thing I need to do is to become more familiar with presentation tools such as podcasts or video streaming. I am currently enrolled in a professional development class about podcasting. I have used podcasting once but am not really comfortable with using it with my class until I have more training so I am looking forward to this class. Anytime there is a professional development class dealing with technology in our school district I try to take it because the more proficient I am with multiple media modalities the more helpful it will be for my students.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

My Game Plan

New technology is constantly being developed and it is my job as a teacher to learn what is out there and how I can incorporate it into my classroom. In the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers there are some specific goals which I would like to concentrate on in order to use technology as an efficient teaching tool (National Education Standards for Teachers, 2008). Two goals I have established for myself is to promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness and engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems (National Education Standards for Teachers).
One way I will achieve these goals is by exploring different issues which pertain to my students on a local or national level. There are different websites locally which I could obtain information from such as local politicians and environmental scientists in our area. I also need to be up to date with the environmental issues which are occurring today. This can be done by monitoring news websites as well and what is being communicated on television. I want my students to know about their community and nation and develop ways in which they could become affective caretakers of it.
I will monitor myself by keeping a log of what websites I have visited and if they are reliable resources of information. If they are not then I need to keep navigating the internet for more sites. I need to question myself to see if these websites would be user friendly for my students. If they are not then they would not be a beneficial teaching tool for me to use. I need to constantly be aware if I am meeting my learning goals. If not then I must modify them and decide what I should do differently (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P., 2009). I feel one way of keeping track of myself is by either blogging or keeping a journal of my goals and research. This way I can go back and evaluate myself in order to become a better teacher and researcher.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful
Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Final Reflection

One of the most striking revelations I had about the teaching of new literacy skills is the amount of skills that my students need to learn verses 20th century skills which I needed to know when I graduated from high school. There is so much information on the internet which is available to our students right now and they need to know how to navigate the internet and be able to discern what is appropriate or not. I really enjoyed the assignment in which we had to investigate a website. I will definitely do this activity with my students because they need to know that not every website is legitimate or has the accurate information they are looking for. A developmental goal I would like to achieve is to learn various ways in which my students can use the internet in their educational development. I will take as many professional development courses in my school district that I can and also talk with other teachers to see how they have used the internet and other sources of technology in the classroom. Another way in which I am reaching my goal is getting my Masters Degree. I have learned about many new techniques on how to use technology in my classroom and have several of my classmates and instructors suggest websites they have used. I am continuing to look forward to my upcoming classes at Walden so I can continue to learn and understand technology and how to use it in my classroom.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

What needs unblocked

Good evening. I just wanted to share my frustration as a teacher with certain websites being blocked by a school district. I teach environmental science at the High school level and my students and I have been focused in on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. My brother-in-law is part of the air force that is dropping chemicals on the oil spill to help clean it up. This is the first time in history this has been done and I would love to have him talk with my students about it. The problem is he probably won't be home until school is out. I would love to be able to use Skype and have him explain to the students exactly what he is doing but Skype is blocked by our school district. Arg!!!! If Skype was blocked by your school district and you were able to get it unblocked I would love to hear how you did it.

Thanks!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Time went by fast

Well this class went by quite quickly. I have learned many new ways in which I can use technology to support learning and how it can be used in a teacher centered classroom as well as a student centered classroom. I have realized through this course that I mainly use technology in a teacher centered classroom but I really want to strive to have a student centered classroom.

One instructional technology tool I would like to use in the future is using computers to help them take notes or summarize notes. Ideally I would love to have laptops in my classroom but I they could take the notes into the computer lab and reorganize them or have a computer activity to help reinforce the notes they were given.. Another way I would use the technology is by having them blog with me on certain subjects or with each other. There is a website called Weeble for Educators where I have a page set up for my students with websites that they used for a poster project we just did. It also has a blog there where my students could have posted any questions they may have had.

Next school year I plan to be more organized with my ideas about where and how to use technology. I would have them set up blog accounts early on so it can be an active source of communication between myself and the students. I would also use different strategies in providing notes to my students and provide different ideas in how they can organize them. This would require me to get into the computer lab more often so I have the access I need to the computers because it can get difficult to get lab time. Of course, ideally I would love to have laptops for my own room.

Friday, April 2, 2010

voice thread

Okay, I am not sure I did this right but here is the link to my voice thread.

http://voicethread.com/#u831993.b1040339.i5545379

Cooperative learning

"Cooperative learning is not so much learning to cooperate as it is cooperating to learn" (Pilter,H., Hubbell,E.,Kuhn M.,Malenski,K.,2007). This was the phrase that stuck with me as I read our learning resources on cooperative learning and the social learning theory.

Cooperative learning can be used in conjunction with social learning theories because students have to learn to work together in order to learn the material. Technology can do this in many ways. I usually use the Internet for just as a resource for my students but eventually what I would like to do as a teacher is use it as a communication tool between my students and other students within the United States or even the world. Many of my students will probably never leave the area in which I teach. In using the Internet for a communication tool it will allow them to see what else is out there.

Another resource the text mentions is web-enabled multiplayer simulation games. I did not know these were available to play as a group. I like that it would involve problem solving and academic information both at the same time.

I really wish I could have been introduced to the process of cooperative learning and how to introduce it to my students at the beginning of the year. I will investigate possible ways of using the technique this year but I know for sure I will incorporate this into my next school year at the beginning of the year.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Constructivism and Technology

This week at Walden University we are studying about the constructivist and cognitive theories of learning and how technology can be used to help teach our students based on these theories of learning. Dr. Orey (2001) says with constructivism the student is actively building knowledge as they learn and is a learner centered classroom. This what I want to talk about.

There are many ways we can use technology in the classroom that builds upon this theory. We can use it to generate and test hypothesis through a system analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making. (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007). Web resources can be a great resource in historical investigation and decision making. My students have used internet resources to help investigate certain environmental issues and to decide which problem they want to work on. The text also gave a website called Smog City which I want to use as another way for my students to understand the knowledge and concern behind pollution. We are also going to be doing studies on the air quality in our area and they can use data collection tools to help keep track of the information. These all involved the student actively building knowledge and makes it more of a learner centered classroom.


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with
classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Friday, March 19, 2010

Cognitism and technology

There are several ways that technology can be used to emphasize the cognitive theory of development. The cognitivist persepective states that learning is a mental operation that takes place when information enters the senses and then undergoes mental manipulation and then stored and eventually used(Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J.,2008). There are many ways in the learning resources that showed how this can occur. One way is with Word processing programs. This includes graphic organizers to help organize information in which a student can organize their reading or notes. They can use KWL charts to help establish what they know, what they want to know and what they learn. Using mutlimedia can help to activiate prior knowledge. Students can then use this information to help them to understand the new information they receive.

One area that my students struggle with is summarizing information they have learned. They give me a look that says, "How do you do that". A graphic organizer would help them to do this but computers are not always available to do this. I feel this would be a very beneficial way for my students to be able to summarize the information they are given. I am fortunate that I have a least three computers in my room but ideally I would love to have a computer for each student.

I would really love to be able to use wikis and blogs with my students. Unfortunately most of them are blocked by our school or my students do not have internet access at home. I will continue to do what I can with the technology that is available to me and hope that one day I can have laptops for all my students.


•Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
•Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundations, pp. 2–35

Friday, March 12, 2010

Behaviorism and technology in the classroom

In my readings for my college course online I have learned that there are ways you can correlate the principles of the behavior theory with instructional strategies.

The first one is using web resources to allow students to practice concepts and skills repeatedly which provides immediate feedback and follows along the lines of modeling and shaping the skills of students. The second one is using a spread sheet software to help with reinforcement by using it to help the students to track their performance and progress. Many times students do not feel even if they put in extra effort that it will help. If you have them follow a rubric based on how they are doing in the classroom and then do before and after statistics the students can see the benefit of putting more effort into their work. This in turn would hopefully give positive reinforcement to learning. A third way teachers can provide immediate feedback through technology is from using communication software such as WordTrack which allows teachers to insert comments directly onto students papers.

In our learning materials this week we are reading from an online textbook titled Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology and it states “Students work for things that bring them positive feelings, and for approval from people they admire (Orey, 2001). If we can use just the above mentioned techniques to provide positive feedback and feelings then there is a better chance of success amoung our students.