EDLD 5368 Reflection: Week #5

• What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?

In the near future, online learning will become even more prevalent than it is today, and as educators, we need to be prepared to design lessons for that environment. The economic pressures and lack of funding for schools force teachers and administrators to think creatively about learning solutions. Online learning can reach a greater number of students than might fit in a classroom, so the cost of education is minimized compared to a traditional classroom. Another benefit of online learning is the ability to differentiate instruction. If the teachers in my district were trained in designing and implementing online learning, students would have more options for educational experiences, and they would have the flexibility and freedom to learn at their own pace and in their own learning styles.

• How will you professionally use your course that you designed?

I set up my Schoology course to reflect skills that I normally teach at the beginning of the school year, so I am looking forward to enrolling my new students in the fall and allowing them about two weeks to go through my unit. I designed my activities in a way that each lesson builds on the next, and if a student goes through the entire process, the learner will experience learning on a deeper level. Therefore, I plan to use this unit in the fall, and I will share it with my colleagues so they can see how easy it is to set up an online learning experience. If all goes well, I may use Schoology in the place of Moodle since Schoology has a focus on social networking for learning which I know my students will really enjoy.

• Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?

I will integrate online learning in my role as a teacher and as a technology specialist on my campus. My school has already begun relying on online learning for staff development, so this will be nothing new for teachers on my campus. With free software available such as Schoology and Moodle, it is simple to design online classes for both teachers and students. An added benefit is that teachers, like students, can access their online classes at any convenient time, so the process of setting up a schedule to meet is unnecessary. Also, the same professional development can be repeated multiple times for a variety of users without the necessity of having the instructor present for the training. The one drawback to online learning is that it might be easy to “cheat” the system by copying a friend’s answers or going through the information without reading it, but hopefully, as professionals, the teachers would take the online training seriously and realize that it has something valuable to offer.

• What questions do you still have about online learning?

One question I still have about online learning is its practicality in low socio-economic districts. Most of my students in my regular classes do not have access to computers at home, although a growing number of them have smart phones with Internet access. I am fortunate right now to have a full-time COW in my room for my students to use for online learning or any number of technology projects, but what happens when classrooms do not have access to one-to-one computers, or the students are supposed to participate in online learning at home? We can tell the students to go to a local library, a friend’s house, or stay after school to work in the computer lab, but the plain truth is that most kids these days play sports or work after school until late at night. Even if they don’t have these prior commitments, their parents simply do not have the time to take them somewhere to let them participate in online learning.

• What will you do with this new learning?

Wiggins and McTighe’s book, “Understanding by Design,” offered many new suggestions about how to design instruction using the “backward design” process. Although this process was somewhat familiar to me before, now I finally understand the reasoning behind designing units in this way. As teachers, we need to continually plan our lessons with the end in mind and decide exactly what it is that we want our students to achieve. Teaching should not be about “covering the material” and assigning activities; we should continually reflect on our goals and objectives and focus on the six facets of understanding (Wiggins & McTighe, 2000). Additionally assignments should be interactive, performance based, and require active participation. Of course, this process is time consuming, but I have realized the benefits of my students’ increased understanding in my classroom. I have already begun to integrate these ideals into designing my lessons, and I will continue this backward design process in the future.

EDLD 5364 UDL Lesson Builder

This week we used the UDL Cast website and the lesson template to create a lesson that reflected the recognition, strategic, and affective networks. As teachers we must recognize that every learner is different, and we should embrace their differences in learning styles. The concept of Universal Design of Learning is focused on providing various ways of presenting information, alternative methods for assessment and proving a students' skills, and increasing engagement and motivation in the classroom.

Even the CAST website is built on these principles - it offers the audience three choices in acquiring information: games, video, and text. In my lesson, I tried to incorporate these same principles by encouraging the teacher to offer several different choices of assignments and assessments as well as a variety of technologies that will encourage intrinsic motivation and engagement in classroom activities. Even though the process of arriving at a product may be different for each child depending on his individual needs, the goals will be met with the end result. Not only will this method inspire creativity, the differentiation strategies will allow children at all academic levels to achieve success and a higher degree of learning than a structured, traditional classroom.

PSA Reflection

Our group worked well together throughout this PSA project. Early in week 2, we formed our group (Rachel Lewis, Diane Shubert, Kimberly Irwin, and myself), and I came up with the topic for our project. The other group members expressed an interest in my topic choice, and Kimberly got to work on the script and narration. Based on her ideas, I began working on a draft of the shot list, and Rachel and Diane decided which clips they wanted to film. Kimberly found the statistics for our narration, and I found pictures of wrecks caused by texting. I also created the credits and works cited page with imovie. Two of my other responsibilities included acting as director and coordinator of online meetings. As director, I completed most of the pre-production PSA document. After Rachel, Kimberly, and I sent our video clips and pictures to Diane, she used Pinnacle to edit the clips together and add narration. During week 4, Diane sent out several versions of the video through email, and Rachel and I chatted with her about improvements such as adding background music and revising certain clips. At the end of week 4, I uploaded the final version to YouTube, and the four of us worked together to finish the revisions on the Pre-Production PSA assignment.

We used my wiki to post pictures of wrecks and statistics about texting and driving. I also recorded and posted transcripts of our online meetings through Windows Live Messenger. Another method of collaboration included using Google Docs to share ideas and keep everyone advised of our progress. We also sent out numerous group emails using Gmail which has an excellent system of organization for group projects.

Please click here to view our Google Document showing some of our collaboration.

To improve our PSA, we could have done a better job of blending the background music with the narration using the Audacity program. Also one section of the narration (6,500 accidents) seemed like it was spoken too fast, but we had a lot to say in a small amount of time. Overall, we are very pleased with the final result. I think our product is persuasive, realistic, and we worked together efficiently as a group. Each member was cooperative, helpful, and used her strengths to benefit the whole.

** This is an example of the Creative Commons license we chose to protect our work:

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

** Listed below are the websites I found for pictures of wrecks caused by texting:

"Driving and using cell phone?" SodaHead. June 23, 2009 < http://www.sodahead.
com/question/156486/driving-and-using-cell-phones/?link=ibaf>.

Monty, Chris (2009). "Texting while driving? Big Deal." Blippit. May 22nd 2009.
June 23, 2009 .

"Texting and driving." Truckin Road Trips. June 23, 2009 trips.com/texting_and_driving.htm>.

** This is the website where Kimberly found our statistical information about texting and driving:

"Texting while driving is taking a toll." Find Law. June 10, 2009. June 25, 2009
.

Week #2 EDLD 5363 Choice of Software

Directions: Post a 150-word blog entry related to your choice of software

I chose to use the imovie software to create my video for several reasons:

a. This past summer the teachers at my school began using Mac books, and we have recently purchased two Mac computers-on-wheels to share in the classrooms. I felt that I would be more likely to use imovie in my classes next year than I would Moviemaker, so I wanted to familiarize myself with this new software.

b. By the time I finished the week #1 assignment, I realized that I had run out of disk space on my IBM laptop. I transferred some files to my external hard-drive, but I knew that downloading video clips and music from the Internet for the week #2 assignment would consume a lot of space. I didn't want to take the chance that I wouldn't be able to save or upload my assignment because of low disk space.

c. I think I made the right choice of software for this project. Apple has published some great tutorials for their ilife package, and I found it helpful to watch short videos and then implement the techniques. It was especially easy to integrate pictures and sound clips into my movie since everything is stored in itunes, and that program is readily accessible by imovie.

d. On July 9, I will attend a class on imovie for my professional development summer requirement. I am looking foward to developing some advanced techniques with this software. I wish that I would have had that training before beginning this project, but by teaching myself how to use the software, I know that my students will be able to use the software without any problem.

Personal Digital Story - Week #1

I really enjoyed creating the personal digital story this week. The first two days were very frustrating, however. It took me a long time to decide what to write. I started by looking through all dad's pictures to find ideas. I had a lot of pictures, but none of them fit one particular story of my life. I didn't start using a digital camera until this past spring when I went on vacation, so I didn't have many pictures of myself or my life activities. Instead I found that I had a bunch of pictures of the animals we have owned over the past fifteen years. I am definitely a dog-lover, and my animals have consistently brought me love and joy throughout my life. One dog in particular, Tia, has been a great companion. I knew I had to focus my efforts on telling a story that embodied her character and attitude.

I started by talking to my online partner and my family about my story. I then identified a group of pictures that I wanted to use. As I looked at each picture, I thought of an idea and wrote it down. Eventually I put the pictures and the story into a logical order, and I finalized my script.

I must have spent two hours re-recording the narration to get the timing and voice just right. The first couple of times, the audio sounded distorted, so I plugged in the microphone from my guitar hero game. The audio was much improved after that.

I experimented with adding music, but I didn't like how the sound covered up the narration, so I took that out.

I am pleased with the final product. Maybe other people who don't know Tia won't find it emotionally moving, but it makes me laugh and cry at the same time. It is an honest reflection and a good tribute to this dog that I love so much.

Video Conferencing Tutorial

Strategies for Using Videoconferencing Technology in the K-12 Classroom:
A Teacher's Digital Handbook

http://www.d261.k12.id.us/VCing/Site%20Tools/sources.htm

The website I found was created several years ago by a teacher named Connie Pepper. The purpose of the website is to provide links to tutorials about videoconferencing, project based learning, and other technology tips and tools useful in the classroom. There are many different categories listed in alphabetical order that appear to be easy to use for research or reference guides. The intended audience includes both teachers and students, and the site is quite easy to use if the researcher knows what he is looking for.

On the other hand, if a teacher does not know where to start looking for information, this page might be somewhat overwhelming. It would take a long time to look at each of the links and decide what is the most valuable information. Additionally, since the page has not been updated in several years, some of the links do not work anymore.

This website does seem valuable to 21^st century, information-age education because it references helpful technology that is still available and in use in today's classroom. It also provides links for ITSE - Nets technology standards for both teachers and students. Additionally, the website contains a bibliography for helpful print sources if a user wanted to complete more research about applications for digital learning.

I recommend this website for other educators, especially those who have some experience with videoconferencing. For those who are relatively inexperienced with using technology in the classroom, perhaps another site would be more appropriate.