Final Project: Technology PD Course

This is a three part course with a user-generated learning focus.  Students will work through three lessons which will challenge the learner to reflect on current uses of technology in the classroom, curate resources for integration into the curriculum and finally contribute to a large learning community.  I created this course with the high school teachers at my own school in mind.  For the most part, these teachers are aware of technology but may not see ways in which technology can be better integrated into their own course content or might be fearful or too overwhelmed to make the step.  This course will introduce new tools and ask learners to find applications for each tool in his/ her classroom.  Learners will record these ideas on their professional learning blog so that others may benefit from their insights.  The final assignment asks teachers to integrate at least one new technology tool into their course syllabus.  This syllabus can then be shared on their blog- allowing for the other teachers to learn and possibly gain new ideas!

Introduction/ Lesson 1 
Lesson 2 
Lesson 3 

Book Talk 2: To Sell Is Human

Apps for Teaching Reading

Audiobooks

This site is great for high school students because it has a large collection of audio books.  The classic books (over 5,500) are free.  Students can read or listen to books like Romeo and Juliet and Treasure Island. Our English teachers can have students download books rather than buying class sets of classic titles. 

Blogger

I am planning on having my students keep their reader response journals online in a blog.  The blogs will allow for collaboration between students-- they can follow each other's blogs, comment and discuss.  

Good Reads

This app gives you recommendations based on books you have read and liked and allows you to join in book clubs.  What I like best about this blog is the interaction with friends component-- you can see what your friends recommend/ are reading.  I hope this will encourage my students to have more informal discussions about reading.

 Idea Flight

This app allows for students to share ideas and presentations on an IPad.  One person is the pilot who leads groups through a presentation-- others follow along through wireless technology on their own IPad screens.  I want to use this app for book reports.

Prizmo 

This app can be used to scan text.  It creates pdfs that can be shared.  I intend to use this app to convert text and allow students to listen to reading.

Reading Trainer  

Reading Trainer improves your reading speed and retention rate with 12 exercises.  I'm not going to formally use this in the classroom (I don't want students to think that good reading is only fast reading) but I am going to recommend it for students who want the challenge outside of class.  

Show Me

Students can create and watch tutorials.  I am going to use this for grammar exercises.

Skype

This app is great for video conferencing.  I plan on using this to connect with other classrooms for book talks. It could also be useful for guest author book talks.

Soundnote

This app tracks what you type and draw while recording audio, so you'll never worry about missing an important detail. This app is helpful when teaching notetaking.  Students can record a lecture and listen to it again while picking out main idea points. 

Talk to Me

This app can be used to read words out loud as they are typed.  This is helpful for students when they are writing and needing to make revisions. 



I don't use very many apps right now.  I have used Quizlet in the classroom for vocabulary but haven't integrated any other apps.  I personally use the app Good Reads because I am always looking for fun books to read.  Before listening to and reading the module resources this week, I was of the mind that apps were useful in the classroom but that students don't use them properly outside of the classroom.  I think there is still a skepticism about app learning among educators and parents.  Mobile learning needs a buy in from the student-- they need to utilize it with the intention to learn rather than just for the fun of technology. One of the benefits of mobile learning is the accessibility.  The apps travel with the student literally everywhere they go! .  However, a barrier in the way of mobile learning is the distraction and the view that mobile devices are for entertainment. Students need to focus in on the learning app rather than multi-tasking social media and text messages (Shuler, 2009).

I think that the best way that I can encourage my students to use mobile technologies in learning-appropriate, meaningful ways is to introduce them to useful apps.  Rather than trying to talk to students about their behaviors, I think it is best to first encourage and draw them in with what the technology can do.  Since most of these apps allow for collaboration, students will find that they enjoy working with them and habits will change.  Rather than using mobile technology as they did before-- almost primarily for entertainment, they will begin to use it for academic pursuits.

I would consider myself an optimist when it comes to mobile learning.  I have read about how effective it can be and I have researched apps that appear to be wonderful for my classroom learning goals.  However, I'm going to be cautious and not call myself an advocate yet.  I am eager to try these strategies out in my classroom and see the effectiveness for myself. At my school we currently have a ban on cell phone use from the start of school until the end of the school day.  Our internet filter also blocks out most social media so it will be a challenge for me to start integrating mobile technology.  I will need to get permission from our principal and will need to outline the reasons why I think that the technology is needed for our reading curriculum.  However, with the information that I have learned, I think that I will have a great case for the use of mobile technology in our reading program! 

Book Talk: Who Owns the Learning?

Digital Citizenship: Action Plan for Schools

Digital Citizenship Initiative

VoiceThread: Digital Divide

This is a dialogue between my classmates in W531 discussing the digital divide created using VoiceThread.

New Literacies

The readings for this module discuss the new literacies emerging from our ever-expanding use of the Internet and computers.  Lapp, Moss and Rowsell (2012) assert a need to address these new literacies in order to teach the "skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to adapt to changing technologies influencing all aspects of life" in the 21st century. They note that literacy in the 21st century points to changes in the ways in which we use technology.  The influence of technology can be seen in all aspects of life, and therefore the need for instruction and assessment of these literacies will help prepare students for the future (p. 367).

This graphic incorporates the many terms and phrases associated with the new literacies of the 21st century.  I created it using a free online program called Tagxedo.  The graphic portrays how I see the terms-- they are all interconnected and often used interchangeably.  However, these new literacies give us the ability to connect to people from all over the world (hence the shape of the graphic).  Fluency in 21st century literacies means that a person can connect (and compete) in a global forum.   After completing the readings, I believe that, while there are a few nuances that distinguish each term, the words digital literacy, media literacy, and 21st century literacy mean essentially the same thing.  Each term is used to describe a new skill set that has emerged from our use of the Internet.  Students need to be able to use the Internet to find, classify, organize, and share information.  They also need the skills to evaluate whether a particular resources is credible and obtain skills in synthesizing and merging information from many sources (Allen 2010).

Here are my definitions for the vocabulary terms:

• Digital/ Media/ 21st Century Literacy- being able to create using an online format; being able to communicate using a variety of formats; using technology to communicate; learning in a digital age with the Internet; Allen (2010) raises the issue that with the new 21st century literacies ideals comes a problem of authorship.  He writes that there is a growing concern among educators about authorship.  Are students genuinely creating or merely synthesizing information?
• Examples in the classroom: Wiki pages, student blogging in response to reading, Skype interviews for research, reading eBooks
• Information Literacy- draw conclusions from lists, graphs, charts; students need to be able to sort and analyze information
• Examples: Microsoft excel skills-- spreadsheet manipulations (make charts, graphs from data)
• Computer Literacy- knowing how to navigate a computer as a tool of research and communication, use computers to find, sort, share, and analyze information; additionally, many of the readings cited a need to be literate in computer programming (Flash, HTML, etc.)
• Examples: Computer programming, movie making, using apps for learning, creating Power Point presentations
• Visual Literacy- communicate and understand the meanings of images; create symbols to convey meanings 
• Examples: Movie making, slideshow art galleries online, Visual Thinking Strategies
• Social Media Literacy- using the internet as a mode of communication with friends, peers, media news outlets, etc. Students will need to know how to distinguish the credibility of an online source.
• Examples: Twitter searches, Skype, Google hangout

In summary, I believe that the digital literacies are all interconnected.  By finding ways to integrate technology into the core curriculum, educators will probably use many of these terms at once due to the overlap in the definitions.  As I stated earlier, it seems like digital, media and 21st century literacy are used interchangeably.  They describe a type of skill set that has emerged due to our use of the internet.  The rest of the terms seem to fall under these as subheadings.  Each subsequent term highlights a different skill that is needed for 21st century literacy.  Information literacy seems to be a subset skill of digital/ media/ 21st century.  It calls on students to take information gained and organize and sort.  Computer literacy also is a subset skill in that it asks students to be fluent in how to use a computer (or tablet, smart phone, etc) as a research tool or to create new content.  Visual literacy is a subset skill that focuses specifically on interpretation of images.  This skill is necessary because computers and the internet use so many icons and images.  Finally, social media literacy is a subskill that calls on a student to be a part of a global forum of communication and learning but to also have skills to responsibly use this social media.  An emphasis on teaching these skills in the classroom will allow students to be successful in our globally connected society. 

Resources Cited:

Allen, R. (2010, August). Dawn of the new literacies. Educational Leadership, 52. Retrieved January 26, 2012, fromhttp://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/aug10/vol52/num08/Dawn-of-the-New-Literacies.aspx

Lapp, D, Moss, B, Rowsell, J. (2012). Envisioning New Literacies Through a Lens of Teaching and Learning. Reading Teacher, 65(6), 367-377.

Additional Resources:

Alvermann, D. E. (2010). I think they're being wired differently: Secondary teachers' cultural models of adolescents and their online literacies.Adolescents' online literacies: connecting classrooms, digital media, and popular culture (pp. 163-182). New York: Peter Lang.

• This article discusses benefits and concerns over students' use of technology through the use of teachers interviews.  In my opinion, one of the most interesting discussion falls on pg. 170: "(Students) have so many choices that they never have to stick with something that's uncomfortable, that is challenging, or makes them think in a way they don't want to think. [Our kids] are reaching graduation and don't have any real understanding of the world .... they only know the parts they know well and they're comfortable with."

Lapp, D, Moss, B, Rowsell, J. (2012). Envisioning New Literacies Through a Lens of Teaching and Learning. Reading Teacher, 65(6), 367-377.

• I selected this article because it follows the efforts of a teacher in New Mexico who is implementing new literacy strategies in her classroom.  The article breaks down the role of educator and the role of students and pairs these "job descriptions" with actual dialogue and text taken from the classroom observations to give teachers ideas for implementing these new roles.  The goal of setting up a classroom for new literacies is to challenge the student to do the work rather than the teacher: "In these spaces, critical and new literacies merge within standards-based curriculum, allowing students to see education as something they do rather than something that is done to or for them" (376).

Digital Native

As a young teacher, still relatively new to the profession, I find myself caught in a very odd position.  I am a digital native.  Unlike many of my colleagues, I do not have resource books but instead find educational resources and student work online.  Many educators that I have encountered are suspicious of the movement towards technology in the classroom and are resistant to the "trend".  From what I've seen, I do think that this resistance stems from a fear of new technology.  Teachers are caught in the middle of wanting to provide the best learning experience for their students but also needing to monitor and take responsibility for student use of technology. I had a colleague once tell me that once you have been a teacher for a long time, you start to see trends come and go in a cycle.  However, there are "tried and true" methods that will always produce results.  I think that this mentality is shared by many professionals in education.  There is this search for a silver bullet for instruction- methods that will solve our problems and allow every student to learn.  Veteran teachers have seen so many programs come and go and so there is a resistance to throwing themselves all in to what might be seen as the next trend.  However, to view the use of technology as a trend or silver bullet is a mistake.  Embracing technology in the classroom will allow for innovation and creativity on a platform comfortable to most students.

Students have changed and I see that everyday. Solomon and Schrum (2007) noted that the digital natives in our schools today are living in a world that is fundamentally different.  For example, students in the past had to research and seek out answers but students of today do not have to scramble to find information; now it comes to them.  Everything that a student looks at online has links and feeds to other articles and sites (p. 27).  This can be overwhelming.  Rather than push students away from this wealth of information, my aha moment was the realization that our students no longer need help finding the information but knowing what to do with this information.  They need to be able to work through data and find connections, analyze references, and sift through to find the main idea.  While the technology might be intuitive and easy to figure out, organization and analysis must be modeled and taught. As an educator, one of my new goals is to seek out resources for creating customizable databases for the classroom. I can teach students how to collect and store data in an organized way online.

Gilbert (2009) asked: "What might we have to go away and break in order to move things forward in the 21st century for the children in your school?" (p. 45).  I think that when problems with our curriculum arise, we always want to fall back to something safe or methods that we have tried in the past.  For example, if a student comes to us not being able to read, we immediately want to brush the dust off of a phonics book and start sounding out letters.  However, if we acknowledge that our students are growing up in a technology infused environment, we have to force ourselves to try to find new solutions.  One of the mantras for reform that was always referenced when I was getting my M.Ed was you can't expect to use the same process to yield new results. If you set out to the solve the problems in the same ways that haven't worked, you shouldn't be surprised when it, again, doesn't work. Students are used to evaluating everything.  Is this product worth the price, is the game worth my time, is this comment worth my response.  They leave ratings and feedback and comments to sift through information and find what works and what doesn't in their online communities (Prensky 2006). They are innovating and using technology to seek out solutions to old problems.  Why aren't we doing the same in our classrooms?



References:
Gilbert, I. (2009). Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only idea you’ve got. Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?: things every teacher should know (pp. 42-46). London: Routledge.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Students and learning. Web 2.0: new tools, new schools (pp. 25-44). Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.

Prensky, M. (2006). The emerging online life of a digital native. “Don’t bother me Mom, I’m learning!”: how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! (pp. 40-51). St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House.

Tech
by: caromurp

PLN

Videos: Teaching a 21st century learner/ digital native

Digital Natives: Rewiring Young Brains

Are They As Savvy As They Seem?

Introduction

Hi! My name is Caroline and this is my blog for W531 Computers in Education! Throughout the summer session, I'll use this blog to capture my thoughts and impressions over the readings as well as plan for implementation of new technologies into my course content.

A quick blurb about me:  This upcoming school year will be my fourth year teaching. I taught fifth grade in Tucson, AZ at San Xavier Mission School for two years and high school Art and Theology at Providence Cristo Rey High School this past year.  Next year I am returning to Providence to teach Reading and Art.

I love teaching (and learning!) so I am taking this class to gain new insights into using technology more effectively in my classroom.  There are so many resources and I often feel overwhelmed trying to bring them together into a day to day program.  I want to take this summer to plan ways to better integrate technology rather than just making it an add-on or supplement to existing curriculum.  I am looking forward to sharing my professional journey through this course!