For our final assignment we were to reflect upon several articles and video and also share a couple of websites with a teacher. The following information includes this information.
#1 Article Reflections
Article 1 U.S. schools lag behind in use of technology.
There is an average of 1 computer for every 5 students, each student should have their own personalized computer. Most every student has access to the internet. A main reason for lagging behind is the lack of training educators have in order to teach children to use technology. They believe that enough funds can be reallocated in schools budgets to allow for each student that have their own computer. Obviously they have never been in a small school district and looked at the budget. We are very lucky in our small district that technology is important to our board of education, administration and faculty. We have been able to provide a laptop for each high school student but the middle school and grade school students have to share.
Article 2 National Education Technology Plan
The NCLB reform was put into action to close the achievement gap. Schools are still educating students based on an agricultural timetable, in an industrial setting but telling them they live in a digital age. I think this is very true. There seems to be such a reluctance for change is so many areas, especially technology. I think a lot of it is the fear of the unknown. Since kids have little fear they can learn the technology easier without hesitation of messing up. Schools need to keep up with the transformations that are going on in all aspects of the world. The National Education Technology Plan is looking at educational needs and what action needs to take place to get school systems to move ahead with transformations.
Article 3 NETS: National Education Technology Standards: for Students, for Teachers and for Administration.
NETS Project enables stakeholders in PreK-12 education to develop national standards for educational uses of technology that facilitates school improvement. There should also be student assessments and evaluation of technology use. Good student standards should be developed and enforced in regards to technology. I think the only way to get some school staff on board with the technology revolution is to make it a requirement that they have to implement it in their classrooms. If it is a requirement the proper training needs to be provided to the staff also.
Article 4 Don't Just Adapt Technology, Adopt It!!
There is a 4 step process in adopting technology. Most people remain stuck in the "Dabbling" stage. Most people want to just stick with the old familiar way of doing things when new ideas come out. There can be a lot of resistance and in some cases administration will even refuse to allow students to use the advanced technology. Old things can be done in new ways though, like interactive digital learning.
There can be technology barriers. Each student should have access to their own computer and be allowed to personalize and customize it to their learning needs. Even sharing a computer with two students will delay the technology revolution. I think it would be great to have a 1 to-1 computer student ratio but for some districts it is just not realistic with the budgets the way they are. There can also be social barriers where teachers and administrators resist change. They believe that implementing new technological techniques will disrupt rather that improve learning in their classroom. Students should be consulted in technology changes as they are most likely ahead of the adults in what it new. There needs to be new organization and curricular changes to keep technology up to date in the schools. One comment that stood out to me was that students should sue for a better education if they are not getting what they should in the area of technology. I thought that comment was funny.
Article 5 High School.com Making the Switch to Learning
There is a program called Project Promise through Colorado State University for people choosing to make a mid-career switch to teaching. The program is for a post bachelor degree teacher licensure program. There are only 20 students selected a year to participate in the program. The people participating state that they are not only just teaching them to be teachers but are demonstrating to them how to teach. There is a lot of hands on, on site learning for these prospective teachers before they go out on their own. This sounds like a pretty interesting program.
#2 )Apple Learning Exchange Reflection
I did not get much out of this site. The high school teacher that I shared with did not find it useful either. He did find one thing http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=346 The Holocaust Museum Experience: Exploring Daily Decision-Making, but felt he it took too much time searching for information. It definitely is not useful for early childhood education as far as I could tell.
#3) ALTEC: Innovative Technologies to Improve Teaching and Learning Reflection
I got a lot more use from this site that the Apple Learning. I really liked the Casa Notes. These are notes that I could use in my preschool and just add my information more quickly than having to compose the whole thing. I also liked the TrackStar for setting up lessons. I think it would take some time but it is something that you could set up neatly and save them so you could use them again. I liked this better than the Google Lesson plan that we did. The ThinkTank would be a good research tool for students to use, it gives them a little guidance. Another part I liked was the Arcademic Games. I could see using these as reinforcement for my Title I students and as activities in the afterschool program.
The high school social studies teacher that I shared this with also liked it better than the Apple Learning. He said he found more on ALTEC in 5 minutes than he did the whole time on Apple Learning. He explored the following sites in the 4teachers area and thought they could be used in his classroom http://wizard.4teachers.org/ web poster and web worksheets. Also http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrackMemnersFrames.do;jsessionid=3F86CBDF59701F1F863CBB5DABB1?number=9003&password for the great thinkers and documents.
#4) Edutopia Video Reflections
Harrison Central High School
This high school is on the cutting edge of technology. The use it to take virtual field trips, in social studies, math, music, cheerleading, etc. They to a great amount of cross curricular activities. In science they have done projects with probing the water and testing it. They are making learning more personal through the use of technology.
Mary Scroggs Elementary School
This elementary school is one of the most wired schools in the country. Their K-5 do a live news broadcast that is shown school-wide. Every student has a network account and can connect at anytime anywhere. Most curriculum is delivered through technology. Students will submit homework through email and are able to get instant feedback from the teachers. Teachers like this method because it eliminates clutter and piles of papers on their desks. Papers don't get lost by students or teachers this way. One idea that I like was the teacher who did a daily summary on the class webpage. She sat and typed in what the students had to say about their day as they were saying it. Parents could access this webpage to see what their kids did that day.
A Product of Learning
This school had an ethnically diverse student population. The believe in hands on learning across the curriculum with technology. They were creating a Fading Footprints CD. In music they would record the music for the CD, in art they would research and paint he animals that would be on the CD. They also made a video for the CD. Every subject could be incorporated with technology in creating their CD. The students are able to learn from "doing". The school was also able to connect with the local business through this project too. The hooked up with the local printing company by having them print their newsletter and it expanded to having them print books for each student and CD covers. They stated that their school test scores with from the bottom 1/3 to the top 1/3 with the use of more technology.
Leading with Laptops
In 2002 19,000 laptops were given to students and teachers in Maine using unusual budget surplus money. The students do research field trips using different science equipment. They use the laptops in a variety of ways, allowing the students to be inventors and creators, there are many applications for the students to learn and work with. Students learn to figure out for themselves. They learn more by doing than just reading about it.
Assessment Overview
Most kids in our schools today are way over tested. We need to have other tests besides standardized tests. We should have performance based testing along with some standardized tests. There can be students who are wonderful test takers but multiple choice tests do not prepare students for the real world. Students success can be measured by the outcome of their projects.
Engaging in Real World Projects: Shorecrest
Students need real world experiences. There are a couple of students who are making demo tapes for Microsoft. They are doing something that is relevant to their worlds and still using physics, math and creative writing while doing it. By associating their education with the real world they have more personal motivation to succeed. Their site based council is helping to make restructuring decisions for the school.
Knowing What You Learn
This was about a student who had been taken out of the classroom for academic support all of his life and he hated it. Teaching needs to be individualized to each student. By keeping these struggling learners in the classroom other students can learn how to help struggling students learn too. Teachers need to be aware of students needs and help children discover their learning styles. Learning specialist, Steven Corelis screens all students to find their strengths and weaknesses and then talks with the children to get them attuned to their learning styles. I think that it would be wonderful if all children could be screened like this. It would definitely help the students, parents and teachers.
#5) What I think about this course.
I truly enjoyed this course. I think I would have enjoyed it more during the regular semester when things didn't get so crammed into a short period of time in the summer. I felt that there was a lot of useful information but not enough time to really learn it. By the time I get one concept figured out I am on to the next one. I would like to be able to spend more time on some of the programs to really figure out how I could use them in my classroom. I do plan to keep the resources that I got from this class for future reference. I look forward to taking the next technology class that us elementary education students will take. I am actually switching over to the early childhood unified program when they get it in place so I don't know if I will still have to take it for that program. I felt like a lot of the information we learned was not geared toward preschool but I think that a lot of it I will be able to take and adapt to make it work for preschool. Many of the sites are not low enough leveled for preschool resources and you really have to search for them. I hope that in the future there will be more early childhood resources that are easier to access. The majority of the things we learned in this class I had not had experience with yet. I think what will be most useful to me is the del.icio.us tags and podcasting. I will continue to use Kan-ed, especially for state standards and benchmarks. Right now there is not much in the way of standards for preschool but I'm sure in the future there will be and it helps me to be able to look at the kindergarten standards and just take it a step lower, or at least know what I need to prepare them for when they go to kindergarten.
