Mobile Learning Lab

I visited The Innovative Educator Blogspot and chose two articles to read:  Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard and The Worlds Simplest Online Safety Policy. I'm pleased to report that I am only guilty of one of the "No Nos," the one that says "Don't Leave Your Audience in the Dark."  I plan to follow one of the author's tips for this problem, which is to add several lamps throughout the classroom to help with this problem. The Worlds Simplest Online Safety Policy outlines the hows and whys and teacher implications of an easily adoptable school policy for online safety. The topics in this blog are very relevant to me and I added it to my RSS feeds. I also visited Handheld Devices in the Classroom and saved a section on "digital cameras in the classroom" for future reference. I also visited all the other links provided in the lab.  
I was already a member of Classroom 2.0, but added myself to the Cell Phones in Education group and added a comment in the discussion forum.
I visited Poll Everywhere and created a poll for my students asking them about their favorite movies with PG-13 or lower ratings. This information will be helpful to me because in a few weeks I'll be a bus leader (my 4th year doing this) for our annual 8th grade Washington DC trip. Having a few DVD's for once-a-day bus downtime on the 4 day trip is very helpful.  I was very surprised at how easy this site was to use and happy to see students can respond via the web (not just cell phones.) Our current school district policy is student's phones have to be off during the school day. I also liked how you can customize the design settings for your poll. I also looked at the PowerPoint graphing template they provide. Again....very easy to use.  I currently do a lesson in my class where students create a class survey, gather data, then turn their data into a spreadsheet and corresponding graph.  I can incorporate Poll Everywhere into this lesson. My students currently gather data in the face-to-face mode.
I do use digital cameras in my classroom, currently on a pretty limited basis.  I plan to start using them for podcasting. I would also like to be able to incorporate use of students cell phones in my class but think this would be a "hard sell" to get administrators on board due to school policy against this. I also saw the question come up on Classroom 2.0 of what to do about students who do not have a cell phone, and nobody offered any suggestions. I am inspired by all the suggestions I saw from other teachers about how to incorporate these technologies in the classroom!

Wicked Problem Project - Final

Wicked Problem Project - Final

Text of My Problem The important educational need I am seeking to address with my Wicked Problem Project is how to effectively teach academic (content specific) vocabulary. Educational researchers have concluded that "systematic vocabulary instruction is one of the most important instructional interventions that teachers can use." (Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano, et al. 2001) For my own students, I have identified 50 technology specific vocabulary words they need to recognize and understand in order to perform proficiently on our 8th grade county-wide technology assessment.  Additionally, our Reading School Improvement (SI)Team has identified teaching content specific vocabulary as an across the curriculum goal for our school.  I think the strategies I am proposing for using technology to address this problem in my own curricular area will be transferable to other content specific situations and therefore will help in our school's quest for overall improvement. Our Language Arts Department Head indicates that the way teaching content specific vocabulary is currently handled in our school is that: "1) it is ignored, or 2) students define words and draw a picture to go with the definitions and that’s it." While the second solution is better than ignoring the problem, we feel we can and should do better. Text of My Solution I propose using technology to address this educational issue by utilizing Web tools and interactive games that make learning vocabulary fun and interactive for students and that offers teachers tools for designing and implementing "a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary." According to the research, students will benefit in significant and lasting ways from this instruction. In “Building Academic Vocabulary.” Marzano and Pickering identify a six-step process for teaching new terms.  Here is a link to a video that explains these six steps:  http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/media/siteASCD/common/six_step_flash.html. This table outlines the six-step process and how I’m incorporate technology in each step to make the process more effective and engaging. So, how does TPACK fit in with my project? What is the TP knowledge for the solution? This is the six-step process combined with the various technology applications outlined in the previous chart.  It is important that the steps are followed specifically and consistently to get optimum results. What is the TC knowledge for the solution? Pictures and graphics present powerful visual information that increase students understanding of sometimes abstract or confusing vocabulary. Also, students would not always be able to come up with lists of synonyms, antonyms, or related words on their own. The use of an on-line thesaurus or dictionary would aid in this aspect of six-step process. The threaded discussion makes the content more intellectually accessible to students who do not like to speak up in the classroom setting. Students who rarely volunteer anything are often much more willing to share via the "written" word in a classroom setting. What is the PC knowledge for the solution? Students construct meaning of the vocabulary by describing terms in their own words.  Using non-linguistic representations helps many learners "get" the content. Also because we are using a six-step approach, scaffolding is "built-in" to the process. The strategies are engaging, collaborative, and represent "best practice" in the field of content specific vocabulary instruction.  Here is a short video of a couple of my students discussing vocabulary.  Kelsey and Dylan’s focus is on the terms browser and grammar check. Findings and Implications Due to time constraints, I did not fully implement my project, but I do feel I was able to test out the most important parts of it. I saw evidence of success in implementing my wicked problem project on Systematic Vocabulary Instruction when observing: Student’s electronic academic vocabulary slides including definitions they created for the terms and pictures they found or created to illustrate them. Student’s informal discussions with each other of the meanings of words and why they illustrated them the way they did. Accurate responses when we played vocabulary games. Lessons learned in my vocabulary project that others might benefit from knowing about are all about making assumptions! First of all, do not assume that just because our students utilize technology frequently and on a daily basis, that they know the "language" of technology. Secondly, do not assume that just because you know how to play a game that your students will also know about it. I would not have a clue where to begin to play the video game "Halo." Likewise, my students had no idea where to begin in "Password." Marzano’s approach to teaching academic vocabulary is current best practice. I think my integration of technology into the approach improves student learning. This is the essence of TPACK. I’m committed to making this wicked problem project part of my regular curriculum.  I will also be sharing the project with our School Improvement team in hope of getting other teachers “on board” with me!

Group Leadership Project - Final

We used several tools to deliver our professional development Edmodo tutorial.  Jing was used for the narration and screencast.  Jing videos were recorded with Quicktime, imported into iMovie to edit, then uploaded to YouTube.  iMovie was used to add the title, headers, and ending text.

One of the things we learned during the final production was that Jing has a 5 minute contiguous recording limit. Because of this, the narration and screencast were done in six separate video segments which were from 1 to 2 minutes long each. During final production I also learned about the site yousendit.com. This is a free site you can use for sending and sharing files up to two gigabytes in size.

If we had to develop a similar product again, we would avoid using Jing in the creation of it. The SWF format files are difficult to convert.

Here is our professional development screencast:

Personal Learning Plan

Wicked Problem Project Part D

Findings and Implications
Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?
A problem that I was trying to work around in implementation of the project is that my classes follow a nine to ten week "marking period" schedule.  I get all new students four times per year.  The implementation part of our projects hit at the end of a marking period and was followed by a week-long spring break.  Key parts of my wicked problem project on Systematic Vocabulary Instruction were implemented as planned with some modifications due to time constraints. Specifically, I was able to:

• Identify 50 crucial academic vocabulary terms for my subject area and grade level.
• Invite two four-person teams of 8th grade teachers to join me in implementing technology infused instructional processes for teaching vocabulary in their subject areas.  These teachers represent science, social studies, math, and language arts curricular areas. Even though I invited them to join me in this effort, one of the four-person teams said they did not have the time in their instructional schedules to implement this plan.  The other team said they would like to try it at the beginning of the next marking period.
• Use video or computer images to introduce academic vocabulary terms to students.
• Have students begin to create electronic academic vocabulary notebooks. They created slides that defined 10 of the 50 technology terms in their own words and added a graphic to represent the word.
• Involve students in games to reinforce the meaning of the words.

One part of the Systematic Vocabulary Instruction project that I did not implement at all was to have students revisit the slides they made and "add knowledge of the term" in the form of synonyms, antonyms, or additional pictures.  Another part of the project that I spent very little time on was in having the students "revisit the terms and discuss them with each other."

Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.
I saw evidence of success in implementing my wicked problem project on Systematic Vocabulary Instruction when observing:

• Students electronic academic vocabulary slides including definitions they created for the terms and pictures they found or created to illustrate them.
• Students informal discussions with each other of the meanings of words and why they illustrated them the way they did.
• Accurate responses in the vocabulary games.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you've learned here?

If I were approaching another project of this type, now that I have this experience, I would try to narrow my projects' scope and focus more.  Marzano has written a whole book (and sections of several others) on how to effectively teach academic vocabulary. I could have started specifically with vocabulary games and built my whole project on that topic. Marzano's approach is a multi-step approach though, and that is why I tackled the problem the way I did.

What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

Lessons learned in my vocabulary project that others might benefit from knowing about are all about making assumptions! First of all, do not assume that just because our students utilize technology frequently and on a daily basis, that they know the "language" of technology. Secondly, do not assume that just because you know how to play a game, that your students will also know about it. I would not have a clue where to begin to play the video game "Halo." Likewise, my students had no idea where to begin in "Password."

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
Things I will change include:

• Incorporating threaded discussion into the initial classroom discussion when introducing new vocabulary for students' electronic notebooks.
• Setting aside time for students to revisit their notebook so they can collaborate with classmates and so they can also "add to" their slides.

Marzano's approach to teaching academic vocabulary is current Best Practice and I think my integration of technology into the approach improves student learning, so I am committed to making my wicked problem project part of my regular curriculum.  This is the essence of TPACK.

Group Leadership Project - Part B Storyboard and Script

Our storyboard and script for the group project was created using Google Docs so we could all collaborate and contribute from our separate locations. Our screencast is aimed at teaching teachers:

• how to create an Edmodo teacher account and adjust the settings
• how to create a class group and student accounts
• directions for having students log in to their accounts
• instructions for retrieving student information
• and "how to's" on polling students

We all contributed to the project. My major contribution was the "script" and "transitions" portion of the assignment. The andragogy used in the script portion considered the needs of the adult learner.  Specifically, I tried to:

• help decrease anxiety by making connections to something most teachers already know (i.e. Facebook or at least the knowledge that our students are big users of Facebook!)
• trying to take a coaching rather than judging approach
• explaining why they need to know something (Edmodo would be a valuable tool in motivating students to participate)
• making the topic relevant to their immediate needs (again helping to motivate students)

(Malcolm Knowles, 1984).

Jing will be used for our final product.  One member will be the "voice" of the screencast. The rest of us will take care of editing, revising, and polishing the screencast. Click on the link below to see our Google Doc:

Group Leadership Project - Part B Storyboard and Script

Web Conferencing

After exploring the different options for video conferencing in the Web/Video Conferencing Lab, our group decided to use a different option. We used a video communication platform called tinychat that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice, and video chat. One group member set up the chat room and shared the URL to it with the rest of us. Our room is set up so it can be reused for more group work.  One group member recorded the tinychat session then used VisualHub to convert the file so he could upload it to YouTube and share the recording with the group. 

We actually ended up having two on-line brainstorming meetings.  After reviewing our 1^st recorded session, we found that we did not take care of some important details regarding our Group Leadership Project, so we needed to meet again.  The lesson learned from this is that an on-line meeting is really like any other meeting and an agenda is a very good idea.  So, I created an agenda for the 2^nd meeting to make sure all important discussion points were covered.

Advantages to using tinychat include:

• It’s free and easy to use
• You can set up a disposable chat room or one that you plan to reuse.
• The chat rooms are browser-based so there is no third party software installation needed.
• You can link from tinychat to your Facebook or Twitter account with a mouse click.
• You can voice, video, or text chat or use any combination of the three.

 During our first meeting, my microphone would not work so I used the text chat feature to participate in the meeting.  During the 2^nd meeting, one group members video was not working but we could hear her.

Tinychat will support up to twelve video feeds at once and double that amount in audio feeds.

Some of the problems we encountered using Tinychat were:

• Lag time in voices.  You could see the person talking, but their voice followed later. We were all using wireless routers and this may have had an effect on this lag time problem.  Next time I’ll try using my Ethernet line to see if it helps with this.
• Echoes – I think this problem could be alleviated by all parties wearing headphones.  Two people were and two were not and I think this accounted for the echoing.

Since you can embed the chat room you set up on your website, one application I could see for using this with students would be to let parents know they could conference with you on-line if they had any questions or concerns and because it supports multiple video and audio feeds, students could join the discussion.

Another way I think you could use this with students would be to have an audio chat in the classroom so students could try using a program like this with “technical support” from you.   I would do a session like this and have the topic be “Being webwise and safe on-line.”

Part C - Implementation - Wicked Problem Project

Part B – Application of TPACK to the Wicked Problem

The TP Knowledge for the Solution
The teaching strategies and methods I ‘ve chosen for my wicked problem project include the six-step process for teaching new vocabulary identified by Marzano and Pickering in Building Academic Vocabulary. Using a web browser, presentation software, and a projector with screen or interactive white board would enable teachers to find or create video or computer images to help students visualize the meaning of the vocabulary term. (Step 1 of 6)
Students would use presentation software like Prezi, SlideShare, PowerPoint, or GoogleDocs to create their electronic academic vocabulary notebook. They would also use drawing program software when they wanted or needed to draw an illustration for the notebook rather than finding one. (Steps 2 & 3 of 6)
On-line dictionaries and thesauruses would be used to aid students in adding clarification to their vocabulary words by adding a list of synonyms or antonyms, listing related vocabulary, or adding an additional picture or graphic. (Step 4 of 6)
A threaded discussion model would work well for having students discuss the vocabulary with each other. (Step 5 of 6)

PowerPoint templates for Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune, Bingo, The $25,000 Pyramid, and Password will be used for involving students in vocabulary games for additional practice with the terms. (Step 6 of 6) This table outlines the six-step process and how I’m incorporating technology in each step to make the process more effective and engaging.

The TC Knowledge for the Solution

The technology makes the content in my problem more intellectually accessible because pictures and graphics present powerful visual information that increase students understanding of sometimes abstract or confusing vocabulary. Also, students would not always be able to come up with lists of synonyms, antonyms, or related words on their own. The use of an on-line thesaurus or dictionary would aid in this aspect of six-step process. The threaded discussion makes the content more intellectually accessible to students who do not like to speak up in the classroom setting. Students who rarely volunteer anything are often much more willing to share via the "written" word in a classroom setting.


The PC Knowledge for the Solution

The pedagogical strategies I have chosen to follow for this problem make the content more accessible to students because the strategies are engaging, collaborative, and represent "best practice" in the field of content specific vocabulary instruction. Students construct meaning of the vocabulary by describing terms in their own words.  Using non-linguistic representations helps many learners "get" the content. Also because we are using a six-step approach ,scaffolding is "built-in" to the process. 

Wicked Problem Project Part A - Description of Need or Opportunity

Systematic Vocabulary Instruction The important educational need I am seeking to address with my Wicked Problem Project is how to effectively teach academic (content specific) vocabulary. Educational researchers have concluded that "systematic vocabulary instruction is one of the most important instructional interventions that teachers can use." (Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano, et al. 2001) For my own students, I have identified 50 technology specific vocabulary words they need to recognize and understand in order to perform proficiently on our 8th grade county-wide technology assessment.  Additionally, our Reading School Improvement (SI) Team has identified teaching content specific vocabulary as an across the curriculum goal for our school.  I think the strategies I am proposing for using technology to address this problem in my own curricular area will be transferable to other content specific situations and therefore will help in our school's quest for overall improvement. Our Language Arts Department Head indicates that the way teaching content specific vocabulary is currently handled in our school is that: "1) it is ignored, or 2) students define words and draw a picture to go with the definitions and that’s it." While the second solution is better than ignoring the problem, we feel we can and should do better. I propose using technology to address this educational issue by utilizing Web tools and interactive games that make learning vocabulary fun and interactive for students and offers teachers tools for designing and implementing "a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary." (Building Academic Vocabulary, Marzano and Pickering, 2005).  The first step in addressing this educational issue for the different curricular areas involves identifying crucial academic vocabulary for subject areas and grade levels. I have done this in regards to technology vocabulary for 8th graders. I've heard that there is an initiative taking place in our county at the ISD level to identify the crucial vocabulary for all core subject areas. This identification would be helpful in getting school-wide or even district-wide participation in implementation of a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary. In the meantime, I plan to ask two four-person teams of 8th grade teachers to join me in implementing technology infused instructional processes for teaching vocabulary in their subject areas. These teachers represent science, social studies, math, and language arts curricular areas. According to the research, students will benefit in significant and lasting ways from this instruction. In Building Academic Vocabulary, Marzano and Pickering identify a six-step process for teaching new terms: Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term. Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their notebooks. Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another. Involve students periodically in games that allow them to play with terms. Technology would be very useful in Step 1 of this process. The teacher needs to introduce the new term to students in an informal way. As Marzano and Pickering suggest, this could be done by using video or computer images as the stimulus for understanding the information. Teachers could also use technology to find or create pictures that exemplify the term. These technology integration activities could be achieved using a web browser, presentation software, and a projector with screen or interactive whiteboard.   Steps 2 and 3 of the process require the students to restate in their own words a description, explanation, or example of the term. The method suggested for this step is for students to keep an Academic Vocabulary Notebook where they record the term, it's meaning in their own words, and a picture to represent the term or concept. In the case of my one-computer-per-student classroom, it makes much more sense for them to create an electronic academic vocabulary notebook. I will try using the format shown at the following link (http://www.jonesapr.com/techterms/sample_app_pages/) as a model for students to create their own entries. Students could use Prezi, SlideShare, PowerPoint, or Google Docs for this on-going project. To engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms (Step 4), I will have them add to the slide they've created for each term. Options for this additional clarification of the word would be to add a list of synonyms or antonyms, list related vocabulary, add an additional picture or graphic, or create analogies or metaphors with the term. On-line dictionaries and thesauruses would be useful references in this activity. In Step 5, students revisit the terms and discuss them with each other. This could be accomplished with a classroom think-pair-share activity where students pair with a partner to view and discuss each others slides. I also think a threaded discussion would be an effective tool to get students collaborating on the word meanings. The 6th and last step, involving students periodically in games that allow them to play with the terms is easily and effectively impacted by the use of technology. PowerPoint templates for Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune, Bingo, The $25,000 Pyramid, and Password are available specifically for this purpose at http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/ppt-vocab.html.  Other games and websites customized  with technology (or other academic) vocabulary will give students choice in practicing these concepts.  Examples of sites include: http://quizlet.com, www.zooburst.com, www.onelook.com, and http://www.eduplace.com/kids/sv/. The following table organizes the technology suggestions with the steps of the process. Indicators of a successful project will be: Student's vocabulary slides with meanings of terms written in "their own words" and meaningful illustrations or graphics to accompany their definitions. Observation of student's informal discussions with each other of the meanings of the words and why they illustrated them the way they did. Accurate responses when we play vocabulary games. Class-wide average test score increase of 5% or more (compared to previous years) on the 8th grade end-of-the year Technology Assessment (these results will be available in June.) The closest effort I can find to what I am trying to accomplish with my project can be seen at http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/TN.html .  Schools in Tennessee are taking a state-wide approach to using Marzano’s six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary.

Group Leadership Project - Part A Brainstorm Session

On Sunday, March 13th Jenni, Heather, Kevin, and I met "on-line" for our group brainstorming session.  The web conferencing tool we chose to use for this meeting was tinychat and Kevin set up the online meeting place for the group. Tinychat is a live video communication platform that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice, and video chat. The only requirement to use it is to have Macromedia Flash enabled. Kevin recorded the tinychat session then used VisualHub to convert the file so he could upload it to YouTube and share the recording with the group.

In tinychat, we were able to see each other via webcams and Jenni, Kevin, and Heather were able to speak to each other.  I was unable to get my newly purchased microphone set to work so I had to participate by listening and contributing via the chat room. This was a little frustrating because I can't type as fast as I can talk, and those who know me know I usually have something to say!  Even so, I am satisfied with the direction our brainstorming session went.

Screenshot in Edmodo

We are planning to do a professional development  session where we teach educators how to use the online resource Edmodo. Plans for what we will teach educators to do with Edmodo include:

• Creating a teacher account
• Creating a class group
• Creating student accounts
• Retrieving student information

We are using the collaborative feature in Google Docs to work on the script and storyboard for this assignment and plan to meet again online in the same tinychat room to decide who will be narrating the screencast.  I forgot to confirm with the group what program we would be using to create our screencast.  At this point, I'm assuming we are using Jing but will bring this up at our next online meeting.

In the meantime, I returned my defective mic/headphone set (it had a "short" in a wire) and replaced it with a working one! If anyone asks for my advice on purchasing this piece of equipment, I will recommend they spend the extra money to get a USB connection. The recording of our online meeting can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCLo2WqudCw.

The advantages to using the web conferencing tool tinychat were that we could see and talk to each other as if we were in class together collaborating. Next time, I think our online meeting would be more organized and productive if we had a written agenda at the start of our meeting.  This would assure that we were hitting all the assignment requirements like making sure the work was distributed among group members, that we concluded the meeting with a firmer timeline, and that we were clear about what technology we would be using for our final product. Using tinychat as a web conferencing tool was far superior to what I've used previously for group work.  Both in CEP 810 and CEP 811 my groups solely used GoogleDocs as our collaborative tool.  The problem with GoogleDocs used in this way is that the "typing to talk" gets cumbersome and sometimes confusing.  It is slower and more difficult to get clarification about another group members meaning using GoogleDocs.  Tinychat gives you almost all of the benefits of face-to-face communication.  You can instantly clarify meaning through conversation.

A disadvantage to using the web conferencing tool tinychat is that there were some voice delays and audio cutting in and out which made us miss whole pieces of a conversation. This was improved when the group member relocated to an area closer to his wireless router. Another disadvantage of using tinychat is that one person sets up the account and has to notify others in the group about how and when to get into the chat area. If people are not checking their email that day, they miss the notification of the meeting time and URL.  Luckily, I had the cell phone number of the group member who was unaware of the meeting and notified them to check their email. Also, because one person does the whole set-up and the others just "attend" the session, the actual process of setting up, recording, and converting the file is still unknown to me. When it comes to using new technology, I'm definitely fit into the "learn by doing" constructivist learning style.

Group Leadership Project - Part A Brainstorm Session Follow-up Meeting
On 3-30-11, Kevin, Heather, Jenni, and I met again on-line to discuss our Group Leadership Project.  We used Tinychat for this meeting, like we did the first time.  I used the chat room feature in tinychat to type in an agenda for the meeting before we got started. This was very helpful because it kept our group focused on the specifics of the project that we need to have a plan for.  We decided that the technology we will be using to make our screencast is Jing but also agreed to check out alternative programs we could use that are listed at the following site:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software.  We have a storyboard/script for the project started in Google Docs so we can all collaborate on it.  The document can be found at the following link: Script/Storyboard for Group Leadership Project. We have agreed to have contributions to this document completed by April 2nd.  We also still agreed that it would be best to have one voice narrating throughout and Jenn volunteered to be our voice.  Kevin plans to edit and revise the screencast.

Tinychat again worked well for our meeting.  Jenn had the "technical difficulties" this time. We were able to hear her voice, but not see her on video.  We had some problems with voices cutting out and some echoing.  The recording of this 2nd online meeting can be seen at: http://vimeo.com/21732807.

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CEP 812 Video Podcast Dawn Harris Introduction

Reflections: CEP 811

The quality of assignments in CEP 811 was exceptional and had a big impact on the amount of growth I feel I achieved in this course. I learned to use Goal Directed Instructional Lesson Plan Design and apply it to my own lesson plan, but I also feel I was experiencing Goal Directed Instructional Lesson Plan Design from the perspective of the learner throughout the duration of the class!

This was my first on-line course and that in itself was another big learning curve for me. I think one of the really wonderful things about an online course is the possibility of interacting with students from distant locations, and that was definitely something I got to experience in this course.

I was also introduced to the MERLOT on-line resource for educators. I was able to publish two of my works on this site and also wrote a critical analysis of classmates work which was published on MERLOT.

I feel the work on application of UDL principles was the most important thing I learned.  The UDL checklist is something I will keep utilizing to make sure I am doing a thorough job of optimizing learning for ALL students. I was introduced to some assistive technologies I had not been aware of like free text-to-speech features available online that you could incorporate in your lessons to accommodate students who face challenges interacting with written material.

In addition to this blog that I created in CEP 810, I now have a classroom website, a coach's website, and a wiki that I want to start using in my day-to-day interactions with students, their parents, and my colleagues. I am enrolled in CEP 812 and look forward to completing MSU's Educational Technology Certificate Program in about 8 weeks.  I plan to apply for admission to the Master's Program and continue this journey through the summer and next school year.  I would like to take the remaining courses I need to get the State of Michigan Educational Technology Endorsement and then finish the rest of the Master's Program. I have always felt that education opens your eyes to "what you don't know."  My eyes are wide open now to many more things I would like to learn and be able to share with my students!

Online Learning in My Classroom

One type of technology I use with my students that qualifies as an online learning experience is a web-based career planning tool. Career Cruising is a program that incorporates interest inventories, career exploration, and portfolio compilation.  Using Career Cruising, students create an Educational Development Plan (EDP) and an online portfolio which helps document the career development process they go in our school district from 8th - 12th grade.

Another type of technology that qualifies as an online learning experience  I can use with my students is the Blackboard Learning Management System. I have begun to use this software and would say my classes fit into the Web-enhanced category. An online course called Using Technology in Career Exploration is available for my students use. I have been selectively choosing parts of this online course to meet curriculum requirements for my 8th grade and 6th grade students. I find using this online course easiest for delivering content and in some instances to assess student performance. So far, I have not found that monitoring student progress is an easy thing to do in Blackboard.

Using Blackboard and the online course Using Technology in Career Exploration can help me meet curriculum requirements because the course contains an Internet safety oriented Web Quest, rubrics for several assignments, and a threaded discussion board. I evaluated the Web Quest for one of my assignments in CEP 812, identified it's strengths and (most importantly) shortcomings, and made a plan to supplement what is missing. I have not used the threaded discussion feature yet (I guess I just need to take the plunge), but plan to in the future.

Following is a list of content standards these technologies help me teach:

Career Planning Tools - Career Cruising
Students develop an EDP and a career portfolio.METS 6-8 2c-1, 2c-2
Learning Management System - Blackboard
Interactive discussions and use of rubrics for assessment are helpful here.METS 6-8 1b-6, 2a-1, 2b-1, 2b-2, 2c-3, 3a-2, 3a-3, 3b-1, 4a-1, 4b-1 
WebQuest - Be Web Wise and Safe On-line
This WebQuest involves online research and collaboration among team members. METS 6-8 2b-1,2c-2, 3a-2,5a-1,2,3,6b-1

The online learning experience for students lends itself to using pedagogical strategies I already know and love. Following is a list of some of them along with an example:

• Identifying similarities and differences- In career exploration, students identify how similarities between school subjects and careers.
• Summarizing and note taking -  Students do a project  that involves online research, summarizing and note taking, and using technology to synthesize this into a presentation. 
• Setting objectives and providing feedback- Students set SMART goals for themselves and reflect on whether the process they identified is working to help them achieve these goals.
• Utilizing questions, cues, and advance organizers - Students use advance organizers to organize information about themselves regarding personality traits, likes and dislikes, lifestyle preferences, and hopes and dreams and use this information to analyze career choices.

Technologies I think would be harder to use with students are wikis, educational blogs, and RSS feeds. The reasons I think these technologies would be harder to use are twofold: 1) Our schools filter blocks these technologies and 2) Even though we have learned about these technologies in this certificate program, I still am having a hard time coming up with a "focus" for student use of these technologies! This is one of my goals for the future.  I am a "work-in-progress." but at least I am in progress!  Dr. Plair's assertion that: "There is some rational thought to the saying – Rome was not built in a day.  And nor does an online learning experience have to be built in a day." really gives me hope!

Wiki Lab

My school district is listed in Wikipedia, but the information is so underdeveloped that Wikipedia refers to the article as a stub. Only Kearsley High School was mentioned in the article.

 

I added to the “history” section of the article with a brief description of our location, number of students, and a listing of the seven schools that make up Kearsley Community Schools. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearsley_Community_Schools  

I created a wiki in Wikispaces using the Plus Plan for Educators. Per the Wiki Lab instructions, I also created a free wiki account in PBWorks and experimented with that wiki space according to the lab instructions.  I decided I liked the layout of Wikispaces better and therefore used it for my performance tasks.   The URL is https://drharrisclassroom.wikispaces.com.  Here is a list of some of the features I used or modified:

• I chose the notebook theme and applied the red (it looks more like dusty rose) color.
• I played around with changing the style sheet and then decided to leave it on the default setting.
• I tried adding a logo but was not happy with how much space it took up on the page so I reset that feature to the default also.
• I set Permissions to “Everyone can view pages, but only members of this wiki can edit pages.”
• I also checked “Allow membership requests.”
• If my school district ever allows (i.e. unblocks) Wikis, I will use the UserCreator feature to add my current students to the wikispace. 

I sent invitations to 4 of my colleagues to join my wiki as collaborators.  Again, because the filter on our internet at school blocks wikis, they will have to participate from home. The content of the wiki is links to webpages that I have learned about in this class that I did not know about before that I think would be helpful in planning lessons for our students at AMS.

UDL Principles Applied to Career Pathways Lesson Plan

Representation, expression, engagement- three powerful tests to see if your lesson plan is truly learner based!
Below is a screen capture of the"checklist" for UDL that I used to self-evaluate my Michigan Career Pathways lesson plan.  It was nice to see how many checkpoints of UDL that were addressed by my lesson.  It was even more important to see the barriers to learning that were not addressed in the lesson plan.  I noted on this checklist the specific parts of the lesson plan that I felt featured the principles.  I also noted on this checklist the barriers to learning that still existed and suggested provisions that could be made to address these barriers.

An Evaluation of Learning Material in MERLOT

Introduction to Copyright for Educators

This learning module was designed to provide a basic understanding of copyright law to college students majoring in education. The module presents information and then uses a series of scenario based assessment activities to encourage critical thinking and understanding.

Quality of Content:

1. The software presents valid concepts, models, and skills.  It provides a basic explanation of copyright law. It presents information and then uses scenario activities to check for understanding.
2. The software presents educationally significant concepts. Topics covered include:  copyright basics, movies,and music, fair use policy, software types, software licenses, internet and e-mail.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
The materials in Introduction to Copyright for Educators could be used in the following stages of the learning process:

1. Explanation- The module introduction,identifies reasons copyright law is a concern in the academic community. 
2. Demonstration -The problem is explored in six specific different areas of copyright law.

The target learner is a college student planning on majoring in elementary or secondary education.After successfully learning with the materials on Introduction to Copyright for Educators, the student should be able to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.The software could readily be integrated into current curriculum.  Because of the modular design, students could work through it at their own pace.


Ease of Use
The software is very well organized and presented in a logical fashion.Colors, fonts, and layout leave a general impression of consistency.  The user easily moves from one part of the module to another without getting trapped or lost.  The user is given scenario's to read, listen to, and respond to. If they respond incorrectly, an explanation is given of what the correct answer should be. Even though this site is meant to be used by college students studying to be educators. it is so relevant to my middle school curriculum that I plan to incorporate use of it next marking period.  What a find!