Part V: How does your project connect with other key issues in Educational Technology (500 words)
Is wikipedia a good source? For many of our students they look at wikipedia as an easy tool to gather information and then disseminate out facts. Most English teachers would argue against this! They would caution their students about using Wikipedia as a reliable source when researching a topic. Developing information literacy, technology skills within our students is a must. Part of my plan is to continue to develop our students skills and educate them about the factors of reliable sources. Making certain when they look at a source they can identify that it is indeed a good source. Hopefully, the students will have some background knowledge that they can pull from as we discuss this topic.
I actually am going to erase the word “differentiation” from teachers vocabulary...OK, I’ll try;) If we as educators focused on developing a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) we could meet the needs of all students. UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all students equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a framework for creating instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments that work for every student instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Technology is a great way to provide equal opportunities for all students to learn.
Here's are some of the web tools that I will be using with our students to help build technology-based UDL experiences in the cyber-classroom:
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Bubbl.us - brainstorming and organizing tool. Good for visual thinkers/learners. Easy to use, sharing capabilities & customizable features. Prezi.com - online presentation program to illustrate information, ideas, concepts and research. Takes a little practice constructing a Prezi. Has sharing capabilities.
STUDY SKILLS TOOLS - Study Stack - create interactive web-based flash cards or use ones already created. Quizlet - create flash cards or use ones already created. Diigo - use the highlighting and extract annotation tools to collect important information.
WRITING TOOLS - StoryBird - collaborative storytelling. StoryMaker - online story tool. Provides structured support with audio. The story can be printed off or linked as a PDF. Animoto - create a video slideshow to have students express what they are thinking about. VoiceThread - students can create a digital story using pictures, text, voice, etc., to tell their story.
COLLABORATIVE TOOLS - Google Docs - create online documents, spreadsheets and presentations and share out with any student or teacher in Saline Area Schools. Glogster - online postering.WordPress.org - blogging tool.
To share the Digital Citizenship message as easy and consistent as possible, Saline Area Schools has adopted the following Cybersafety Campaign - STOP. THINK. CONNECT! Easy to remember and can lead to a classroom discussion or serve as a reminder of the steps everybody should think through before going online. Stop: Before you go online, take time to understand the risks and learn how to spot potential problems. Think: Take time to think about the places you are visiting online, the information you are sharing and the communities you are participating in. Always watch for warning signs and consider how your actions online could impact your safety or others. Connect: If you have taken the time to STOP & THINK, then you can CONNECT online with greater confidence and enjoy knowing that you’ve taken the right steps to safeguard yourself and your computer. This is the message that we continue to educate our students with from the time they enter Saline Middle School. A message that we continue to review with our students each time they boot up.
The focus of my project will be project based learning opportunities. I not going to provide them with the answers, this is where they will use technology, prior knowledge and understanding to come up with the solution. I can assure you that it won’t be just an item that is “googleable” and bam there’s the answer. Nope, they will have to use technology tools, research and creative thinking to create the project they are working on.
This plan will be one that builds on itself and over time more and more staff will become trained in the cyber-classroom understanding. In the beginning, it will be myself, the director of instructional technology, the media specialist and the assistant principal. The five of us will be developing the lesson plans and actually working within the cyber-classroom. Shortly after the first trimester we will target a small pocket of staff to be trained. The overall goal would be to have the staff train each other and over the course of the school year we can have the majority of the teachers trained. In my opinion and my experience that by using this method of teacher training teacher has proven successful in prior years with other new initiatives.
Is wikipedia a good source? For many of our students they look at wikipedia as an easy tool to gather information and then disseminate out facts. Most English teachers would argue against this! They would caution their students about using Wikipedia as a reliable source when researching a topic. Developing information literacy, technology skills within our students is a must. Part of my plan is to continue to develop our students skills and educate them about the factors of reliable sources. Making certain when they look at a source they can identify that it is indeed a good source. Hopefully, the students will have some background knowledge that they can pull from as we discuss this topic.
I actually am going to erase the word “differentiation” from teachers vocabulary...OK, I’ll try;) If we as educators focused on developing a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) we could meet the needs of all students. UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all students equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a framework for creating instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments that work for every student instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Technology is a great way to provide equal opportunities for all students to learn.
Here's are some of the web tools that I will be using with our students to help build technology-based UDL experiences in the cyber-classroom:
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Bubbl.us - brainstorming and organizing tool. Good for visual thinkers/learners. Easy to use, sharing capabilities & customizable features. Prezi.com - online presentation program to illustrate information, ideas, concepts and research. Takes a little practice constructing a Prezi. Has sharing capabilities.
STUDY SKILLS TOOLS - Study Stack - create interactive web-based flash cards or use ones already created. Quizlet - create flash cards or use ones already created. Diigo - use the highlighting and extract annotation tools to collect important information.
WRITING TOOLS - StoryBird - collaborative storytelling. StoryMaker - online story tool. Provides structured support with audio. The story can be printed off or linked as a PDF. Animoto - create a video slideshow to have students express what they are thinking about. VoiceThread - students can create a digital story using pictures, text, voice, etc., to tell their story.
COLLABORATIVE TOOLS - Google Docs - create online documents, spreadsheets and presentations and share out with any student or teacher in Saline Area Schools. Glogster - online postering.WordPress.org - blogging tool.
To share the Digital Citizenship message as easy and consistent as possible, Saline Area Schools has adopted the following Cybersafety Campaign - STOP. THINK. CONNECT! Easy to remember and can lead to a classroom discussion or serve as a reminder of the steps everybody should think through before going online. Stop: Before you go online, take time to understand the risks and learn how to spot potential problems. Think: Take time to think about the places you are visiting online, the information you are sharing and the communities you are participating in. Always watch for warning signs and consider how your actions online could impact your safety or others. Connect: If you have taken the time to STOP & THINK, then you can CONNECT online with greater confidence and enjoy knowing that you’ve taken the right steps to safeguard yourself and your computer. This is the message that we continue to educate our students with from the time they enter Saline Middle School. A message that we continue to review with our students each time they boot up.
The focus of my project will be project based learning opportunities. I not going to provide them with the answers, this is where they will use technology, prior knowledge and understanding to come up with the solution. I can assure you that it won’t be just an item that is “googleable” and bam there’s the answer. Nope, they will have to use technology tools, research and creative thinking to create the project they are working on.
This plan will be one that builds on itself and over time more and more staff will become trained in the cyber-classroom understanding. In the beginning, it will be myself, the director of instructional technology, the media specialist and the assistant principal. The five of us will be developing the lesson plans and actually working within the cyber-classroom. Shortly after the first trimester we will target a small pocket of staff to be trained. The overall goal would be to have the staff train each other and over the course of the school year we can have the majority of the teachers trained. In my opinion and my experience that by using this method of teacher training teacher has proven successful in prior years with other new initiatives.