EDLD+5364+Teaching+with+Technology

Emily Priesmeyer Week 1 EDLD 5364 The videos and reading assignments for week one have been truly useful to me. I viewed the videos prior to reading and I found the John Abbott and George Siemens interviews most relative to how I am teaching right now. For the past two years, I have been trying to move from a teacher-centered classroom to a more student-centered classroom. As a technology teacher, I have an advantage in creating a student-centered environment because I have a lab of 25 computers, but in some situations I have found it difficult to let go of some of the control and give that over to the students. "Learning as a Personal Event" and "If I Teach This Way, Am I Doing my Job?" were very helpful to me. I have found myself going back to them over and over when planning with my team at school because they reaffirm that the changes we are making are the right ones. I am thrilled about the Group Project. After reading the scenario, I was excited because I am currently struggling to teach in a similar situation. This group project will be the perfect opportunity for me to work with a team to create solutions for my situation. Even after a few discussions and comments from my group members, I feel like I will be able to contribute to the group and learn from our varying areas of expertise and experiences. I've also been inspired to begin searching for solutions based on what I have already read and heard. I've found several promising leads at Techlearning.com and worked this week to create a network of teachers and experts in special education and gifted and talented from which to gather information.

Emily Priesmeyer Week 2 EDLD 5364 This week's video and reading assignments fit right in with the assessment for and of learning philosophy we use at my school.Chapter 1 from //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works// helped validate that what my team is doing when we write unit plans and "I can" statements is leading us in the right direction in our goal of beginning with the end in mind and using new technology as teaching/learning tools. Many of the tools mentioned in the chapter are not available in high school. However, we use blogs, Survey Monkey, and Rubistar weekly in our classrooms to assist students in assessing prior knowledge and assessment for/of learning.

I enjoyed reading the research on the effects of technology on learning. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msoasciithemefont: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msobidithemefont: minor-bidi; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msohansithemefont: minor-latin;">//Technology-Enriched Classrooms: Effects on Students of Low Socioeconomic Status// and in //The Impact of Technology on Student Achievement: What the most Current Research has to Say// brought up two points that caused me to examine my classes and how technology is impacting them. First was the statement that teachers must choose the right technology tool for the job. I began to ask myself if I am using the right technology tool to assist students in accomplishing their goals. I need to do a better job at the beginning of the school year with my low socio-economic students who do not have access to computers and gaming systems at home. I need to to a better job of helping them make connections between the different software we use since their experience with software and gaming is more limited and they are not as confident as the other students when navigating through software. This will boost their confidence from the beginning, and based on what I read in the article, they will be more confident in their abilities and ultimately more successful. I'm also hoping this will help them in other classes that require them to use computers and a variety of software. The second statement that caused me to reflect on my own classroom was that students who are engaged in simulation situations retain more information, have better reasoning skills, higher order thinking skills and problem-solving skills. While I do put my students in some simulation situations, I need to do more of this kind of thing. I realize that it will take more planning and preparation, but I am willing to do that if it means my students will become problem-solvers and learn more than just my course content.

After reading about Universal Design for Learning and watching the videos, I would like to know more about this philosphy. It seems very straight-forward as a "common-sense" approach to teaching, but most of what I read and heard are things that teachers are already trying to do in their classrooms. I would like to see how experienced UDL teachers are using technology in their classes because I have a very diverse student population in my classes and I would like to see them all using tools that are best for them. In one class, I have 28 students. Nine of them are special ed, and five of the special ed students are moderately MR. The regular ed students range from average to GT. I would love to have more technology tools in my kit to reach all of them on the level they need and deserve.

Emily Priesmeyer Week 3 EDLD 5364 Universal Design for Learning is the main focus this week. I am interested in UDL because I have always struggled with reaching every student in my classes and helping them reach their goals in a way that is best for them as individuals. UDL seems to be the perfect solution for doing just that on three different levels. Unit plans have been a focus of improvement in my department at school for the past two years and I am excited about the prospect of taking those unit plans to the next level by applying the principles of UDL to what I've already done. I must confess, however; that time is a concern for me. Teachers have such limited time and the thought of reworking an entire unit is daunting. I am willing to try and put time into this to see where it leads. Another concern I am hoping to address is the UDL approach to reaching those students who are in in-school suspension or alternative discipline situations. I am still responsible for their learning and I am not sure how this is going to work when I don't even know some of them. The Digital Youth Portraits were wonderful to watch. It is amazing what a wonderful tool technology can be in the hands of a person who really wants to use technology to learn. Luis is very similar to most of my students, but he has an advantage because he has a personal computer. Many of my students whose parents are immigrants, or are economically disadvantaged, simply don't have the financial resources to buy a computer. I also liked to see that the administrators and teachers in those two schools were willing to put aside their fears and allow students to use technology. Obviously, Luis and Cameron had been taught appropriate use and did not pose any concerns for teachers. Not all of our students are like them. I am going to visit edutopia.com again to see if there is a video or other resource that illustrates teaching appropriate use. I'm hoping to find something to eleviate some of the fears on my campus.

Emily Priesmeyer Week 4 EDLD 5364 The focus of the reading and videos this week, student-centered learning, assessment and teacher support, are all topics I have been faced with confronting this week in my own classroom. It is so meaningful to me when I can relate what I am currently doing to what I am reading, and apply the things I am learning to my job. The videos I found most impactful this week were the two centered around actual classroom projects. The teacher in Georgia who has made incredible efforts to bring global, project-based learning to her students in a rural area was inspirational. After seeing the amount of learning her students do on a daily basis, and the number of technology tools she has managed to integrate, it makes me wonder how she convinced her administrators to allow her to do it. The video about the team teachers who teach a block of art, biology and multimedia inspired me to work harder as a team teacher. I team teach a technology class in it's first year of implementation and I now have a sense of what my teaching partner and I can do for our students to make the class more meaningful. The reading assignment I found most useful and informative was UDL Chapter 7, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age. UDL is such a common sense approach to teaching and learning that it seems almost too good to be true. I have tried to incorporate the principles of UDL for the last two weeks and actually rewrote a lesson I taught this week. The hours I spent rewriting the lesson and finding resources really paid off. For the first time, two of my special ed students who cannot type finished the writing assignment with the help of the screen keyboard, and it made all the difference in their level of independence. I am so pleased. I would like to attend training in UDL so that I might be able to help all of my students in the same way.

 Emily Priesmeyer Week 5 EDLD 5364 I couldn't agree more with the Big Thinkers, Gee and Barab, in the edutopia.org videos when they said that authentic assessment is the new way to meet the needs of students in the 21st Century. I completely identified with Gee when he said that schools must become fun places to go and teaching must be viewed as "sexy". Barab reiterated this when he said that students run home from school to play games that could be utililized in educational settings. Going home to play is far more fun than sitting in a desk with a textbook as your means of gathering and interpreting information. Students must learn to use web 2.0 tools if they are going to be successful in this global community/marketplace and our schools simply are not preparing them. It is refreshing to know that there are men like Gee and Barab out there trying to improve the educational system, but when Gee said that teachers must take matters into their own hands and take back their professionalism-he was correct. Teachers must own up to the fact that we do not have to be "know-it-alls" anymore. We have to learn with our students and write our own curricula, instead of relying on books. I also enjoyed the reading in the Web 2.0 new tools, new schools because I teach in a school that implemented Assessment for Learning three years ago as a means to increase student retention and success. It is so important for schools to provide students with opportunities to use a variety of media to show what they have learned. Assessment tools do not have to be pencils and scantrons, but it has been my experience that administrators are still focused on the TAKS as a means for judging success. I love that this book offers real examples of successes and shows how authentic assessment can result in students meeting testing standards. Information in the Using Technology with Classroom Assessment that Works was also extremely relevant to today's educational struggles. Student accountability is a huge concern at the school in which I teach. I like the idea in the text to create a spreadsheet that shows the relationship between effort and assessment outcomes. It echoes what Howard Gardner said in the video about students not realizing the importance of trustworthiness and credibility until they become adults. The effort rubric illustrates for the students that accountability is not an adult issue, it's everyone's issue.