Instructional Technology Professional Development Plan

During this Instructional Technology course I have experienced some ups and downs. As my classmates will ultimately hear first hand of my frustrations with some of the newer technologies (sorry team, but thanks ahead of time for listening) in this blog posting I intend to discuss what I’ve learned, connections I’ve made and what potentially I will to with this experience.
I joined my first ever online, live, full scale, teacher techie group. It is called The Educator’s PLN: The personal learning network for educators. I truly would not have joined if it had not wowed me. Upon perusing its pages, it seemed reputable, safe and easy to use. I think I will learn a whole heck of a lot there and I’m really excited to have the time to join in on some of the great live offerings. Here is their URL address, http://edupln.ning.com/ maybe I’ll “see” some of you there. I also signed up for the PBS teacher site. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/. Again it is an organization I’m familiar with and “feels” safe. In our earliest classes together, having a safe learning environment was a big issue with many of us and we could relate to how our kids in our classrooms feel about this also.
For the past three years or so my district has offered from time to time, a class on using a smartboard in the classroom. One of my goals this year is to take this class. I must compliment my district on their professional development offerings. They are free to us employees and are usually presented by educators within our district, who get paid for doing it. We also receive credits that we may use for certifications. I will work on getting a smartboard available to use for more interactive lessons. NOT just presentations. My hope is that the students will be able to learn how to use it too.
So I want my students to have fun, feel safe and get excited about the possibilities that we will be exploring together with technology.

Project Based Learning and Technology

PBL, it makes me think of an after-school snack or yummy sandwich from my childhood. And we did get to engage in project-based learning when we were growing up...it was called summer vacation and playing outside. The neighborhood was our classroom and we had plenty of eyes watching us to make sure it didn’t include their flowerbeds or garden hoses that happened to be left out. We made our cruise ship out of a fallen tree. But this is the kind of energy and engagement and learning that was taking place in the video about the school that used the PBL model. I really appreciate the comment by one of the teachers or the principal about the need for kids to learn to communicate and use social skills for the rest of their life. That would be a main element for PBL. Also it was thrilling to see the technology at their fingertips, comparing the letter “b” by dragging it over the letter “d”, video clips and other fact finding feats of the smart board. I think it’s important to have the benefit of quick retrieval of information, substantial technology resources and an effective teacher to guide and streamline it all. I did notice that the groups working with teachers were very small. That is a dream situation and I’m sure it takes lots of teacher collaboration. Test scores wouldn’t be an issue if we could give students these learning opportunities throughout their school lives.
I remember the days in school I didn’t dare ask a question because I’d surely get the pat answer “well, why don’t you look that up”. Surely every middle class family had a set of encyclopedias? That thirst for wanting to know is one of the main reasons I went into teaching. We humans are curious beings and that is the main ingredient for project-based learning. Life long learning will drive us for, well, the rest of our lives. Technology is awesome!
I visited two of the other sites and wow! One of them on podcasts would be great to use as a short clip for students learning about online safety. The other was a middle school blog and I only got through the diary part. There was so much there. But the teacher diary section just confirmed that it’s all good, even when it feels bad (teaching).

Teaching with software tools, multimedia and hypermedia

One of the most successful strategies I have used in my middle school classrooms as well as my high school classrooms is the LCD projector hooked up to my desktop. The Internet site availability is very limited in my school district, even to teachers. I was able to locate and access a few interactive sites for American Government, Mathematics and the ISBE even had an ISAT interactive that worked well. Most of my students are struggling, hence the need for their IEPs. The greatest asset of the technology we used was student engagement. Even the kids that seemed to “check out” on a daily basis participated.
I often use test, reading passage and math practice generators. These have been valuable for use in differentiated instruction and /or modifications. When I was instructing in Pre-Algebra and Algebra we had a very nice, all encompassing curriculum called Carnegie Learning. It consisted of a consumable workbook with group activities, problem solving practice and an online component that had good tutorials, instructional games and some drill and practice. I also consisted of a productivity tool for teachers to follow student learning through the computer assessed student work. It generated reports from data collection and analysis, which was used for informing where student needed more support. For the majority of my students the challenge with this program and really many other types of technology is the difficulty of the any reading that is included or necessary for full functional use.
As I’ve commented in a previous blog reflection, even my high school students had difficulty navigating a computer keyboard not to mention the visual overload and frustration level vocabulary on much of the Internet and some programs they were expected to use at a certain grade level. I want to investigate if there are such things as hi/lo web pages much like the books and reading passages I try to find for my struggling readers. I’ve dabble in online lesson plan templates, nothing outstanding yet. Our district uses electronic gradebooks and I love it! It is the same company package that is used for IEPs. The efficiency between the electronic gradebook and the IEP generator is like night and day.
The fact that I use an IEP generator does not particularly seem like an enhancement to achievement or an accommodation of a learning need. Our IEP program is aggravating to use; way too time consuming instead of efficient.

The greatest need I’ve observed in middle schools and even high schools is our student’s lack of basic keyboarding skills. Seriously, if we are talking “an ideal technology situation” then we need to begin in the “Head Start” programs and preschool! Implementation of a lesson on the ABC’s would be with the use of brightly colored keyboards with really big keys. High-speed Internet connections would be a must. Haven’t we all witnessed the kid with ADHD having to wait, and wait, while the computer loads at the speed of…well, certainly not lightning. And in this ideal technological world standardized testing would be gone. Student’s achievement would be based on their actual yearly progress, which would be easily accessed via this technology.

I’m amazed at just thinking on the possibilities that could be offered through computer programming. Imagine a computer application that could sort of self-program as the student progresses through his/her interaction with the technology. As the student inputs information (in whatever form) the program can “decide” on what choices to put forth to the student. I don’t mean like the really good programs we have now, for example Carnegie Math, Key Train, Compass Learning or some other kind of NWEA style learning program (all of which I hold in high regard), but some kind of extremely flexible application that could take a child from a basic interest in, for example grooming horses, all the way to the strategies and physics of horse racing. The students are leading their own higher-order thinking. “To infinity and beyond” (Lightyear, Buzz).

I may be digressing from the point of this assignment, but I want to comment on the statistics regarding the home/school acquisition of technology. “School helps to equalize the disparity that would otherwise exist in computer and Internet use among the various household income categories”. I just do not believe this. I know the study was in 2002, but the authors seem to say that the percentage of overall computer use has probably gone up. That I do agree with, but I think most educators would see a larger disparity between income levels now. I’ll look into it and let you know what I find out.

Self Introductory Power Point

Beginning the school year, students as well as teachers can introduce themselves and get to know others by creating a powerpoint presentation about themselves.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/CIBeginningOfSchoolSelfIntroductoryPowerPointProjectIdea612.htm

Social Studies Lesson - Designing an American quilt using desktop publisher.

This computer lesson will enable each student to integrate Social Studies within a simple desktop publishing design
Students will familiarize themselves with their culture and increase their ability to incorporate technology by using publisher and the Internet.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/CISSMDDesktopPublishingCultureQuilt69.htm