Final Course Reflection

Computers in Education, IT 645, provided a broad survey of the uses of technology in education along with the opportunity to apply many specific techniques and skills for implementing technology to support learning and classroom management. This class was challenging in terms of the time commitment and the sheer number of different assignments. However, with a subject matter as broad as technology in education, the comprehensive nature of the course is understandable. At the conclusion of this course I can say with certainty that I gained a great appreciation for how and why technology should be one of the most important tools in virtually any classroom. The educational establishment is telling teachers across the nation that education technology literacy is essential for all educators and that fluency in all manner of information technology a required skill for students and teachers alike.

Since education is essentially a communicative process, I came to a greater understanding of communication in terms of messages sent and received while being filtered and acted upon by the sender, the recipient and the environment. I learned many ways that technology can be used in support of learning objectives but only after the objectives have been carefully articulated and the lessons outlined. Then, having a repertoire of technology media skills and tools at my disposal, the appropriate strategy can be selected based on the learners’ characteristics and needs.

A positive side of the e-text is the wealth of resources supplied with it. The podcasts contained interesting comments and personal experiences that related to the content of the text. However, I found it difficult to retain information from the podcast. Perhaps if the audio was accompanied by a slideshow or video it would facilitate assimilation of the information – or perhaps I am just not an auditory learner. The video clips, on the other hand, were a very useful adjunct to the text. Seeing and hearing how real teachers and students deal with technology in the classroom, observing how it is implemented, noting how it supports learning, all this is very clearly depicted in the video clips, and key terms and concepts are highlighted in the text box next to the video. I think it would have been an interesting exercise to blog about our reactions to some of the videos. Actually, I do use videos in my GED class because they add interest and variety to my class and offer authentic visuals as well as expert viewpoints.

I did enjoy creating my own blog. It was surprisingly easy to post articles, link files, and include photographs and graphics. The ability to receive comments from readers adds an interesting twist. I do believe I would use blogs in my own teaching, depending on the subject. I would want to strongly encourage greater depth and insight in the comments. This shows that the reader thoroughly read, comprehended, and extended the ideas in the original post. This is what I tried to do in my comments.

The hands-on projects provided a framework for applying the concepts learned by reading the text. These activities made the concepts real to me as I imagined how each technique would be used in my very own classroom. I felt the activities were the very best part of the course.

Hasn’t every teacher had to create a flyer for something in his or her first year of teaching? It might be a club meeting, tutoring schedule, parent meeting, open house. Making the flyer attractive and professional-looking portrays the quality and care that will go into the event being advertised, thus building the teacher’s aura of competence. This is a skill every teacher should have.

Excel is a versatile application with many uses in the classroom. As a classroom teacher, I used it for my grade book and for making seating charts and other classroom helps. Until I did the progress chart assignment, I had not experimented with the graphing tools on Excel. However, I really appreciate the usefulness of graphs for visual portrayals of data, and the Excel graphs of class grades turned out beautiful with the color schemes and shading of Excel 2007. I think this is a skill I could even teach students in a math class. They could collect data and use Excel to make various types of colorful graphs to print and display in the classroom.

PowerPoint is probably my all-time favorite application. I use it in so many ways in and out of the classroom. Creating a quiz with PowerPoint was fun. However, the main way I use PowerPoint in the classroom is as an accompaniment to lecture. For example, when studying American history, I use a PowerPoint slide show to display key terms and dates, and show illustrations, charts, and images of real documents and artifacts. All these visual elements add to the learning experience by stimulating interest and increasing retention.

The web tools assignments illustrate the abundance of resources that can be found on the internet. The Rubistar website is a nice way to ensure that rubrics are meaningful and consistent. A website for creating puzzles offers a quick way to create fun activities to reinforce learning. In addition, the puzzles can be stored for future use and modified. I think I could easily form a habit to use the test-maker website if I taught social studies or science. Having good templates for matching, short answer, and multiple choice quizzes is quite handy.

Making a movie was the most unfamiliar of all the assignments. I knew very little about Windows Moviemaker going into this assignment. I was not totally satisfied with how the application worked. For example, I was not able to figure out how to narrate the show. Instead, I recorded a separate audio file and inserted it into the movie. Then I adjusted the timing of the slides to go with the spoken word. After playing with the titles feature of Moviemaker, I decided to abandon that method and use PowerPoint slides (converted to jpeg format) instead. Admittedly, I may not have been using the software correctly. This is the one hands-on tool I am not quite sure I would use in a classroom. I am open to suggestions, though.

Trackstar is a fantastic tool, and I was glad to find out about it. Not only can it be used to collect websites I find, but also I can access the collections of other teachers who share their tracks. You can search for tracks by keyword to save time in finding good websites to use in class. I plan to create tracks for life science, earth and space science, chemistry, and physics to help my students study for the GED science test.

Related to the Trackstar assignment was the web evaluation assignment. Any responsible teacher should thoroughly evaluate and preview each website used in class. I do so using an informal holistic evaluation. However, I do see how districts may need to require a more formal evaluation tool. Even with all the good resources on the web, there is much garbage. Careless or incompetent teachers have the potential to expose students to websites that are worthless at best and harmful at worst. The web evaluation assignment reminded me of what to look for in educationally constructive websites.

I have used the Google website creation tool in the past. Google makes it easy for anyone to create a website with basic functionality. With some further exploration, I think I could exploit the Google features more fully to expand the functionality. I think every teacher should survey the students to determine what proportion of the class has internet access at home. A class website should be established if enough students have access to make the effort fruitful. In this assignment I learned many ways that a class website could improve communication and cooperation among teacher, students, and parents.

So many people today – both parents and students – have devices on which they can receive emails and messages. It seems as if today everyone is digitally connected to everyone else. It only makes sense that teachers should take advantage of this technology for improved communication. A listserv provides a quick and easy way to disseminate information to parents and students, and it is a snap to set up. Again, I would definitely consider using this technology in my classroom if enough students and parents have the capability.

With so many uses of technology both in the classroom and accessible by parents, it might be a good idea to offer a seminar on educational technology to parents so they can be informed about the digital classrooms of today. Parents should know that the classrooms of their children may be very different from their own school days.

I think an electronic portfolio is a valid way to assess learning for some classes - specifically, classes that lend themselves to project activities such as art, literature, and social studies. Perhaps it is my mathematics background or my rational nature, but I prefer more objective assessments for most subjects. I do think a portfolio is a valuable tool for displaying many talents and skills to prospective employers.

In this class I was able to display both my strengths and some of my weaknesses. To perform well in any online class, it is necessary to have good organizational and time management skills. These are my strengths. At the beginning of the semester, I fill in a blank calendar with each assignment for every class I take. I decide which days I will work on which assignments and highlight due dates of each. Then, as each task is completed, I mark it off the calendar. I check the calendar before each study period to make sure I stay on track. My weakness is spending too much time on projects, and trying to be too much of a perfectionist. Unfortunately, my final products sometimes still don’t reflect the amount of time I put into them. For example, I spent far too much time on the flyer, but I did learn how to do some interesting things with drawing tools in the process. Also, I can be somewhat longwinded when writing – as you can see from my blog entries as well as this final reflection.

In the future, I hope to secure a faculty position at a community college teaching business office technology or computer technology. I believe what I learned in this course will help me achieve this goal. I hope the electronic portfolios I have produced for my classes will show my skills and my professional pride in all that I do.

Week Thirteen

Chapters Eleven & Twelve

Question 3: What is educational technology literacy? Why is it important for educators?

All educators have a professional requirement and a duty to their students to be up-to-date not only in their content area, but also in their teaching methodologies. That is the purpose of professional development programs in school districts. However, teachers should be proactive in their professional growth, seeking out opportunities to learn more and become better educators. The podcast for Chapter 12 gave valuable strategies for teachers to take personal responsibility for professional development in the acronym COPE – collaboration, organizations, publications, and education. These strategies can definitely be applied to the acquisition and maintenance of educational technology literacy.

Educators are charged with preparing students to live and prosper in a technology-saturated information age. Technology is an integral aspect of today’s world. Should it not then be an integral part of how we educate our youth? Educators today must possess educational technology literacy – that is, the awareness of and ability to use current information technologies plus the ability to apply those technologies as teaching tools for the enhancement of student learning.

Education technology literacy is not a static condition. It must be constantly renewed and updated as technology expands and changes. In addition, classroom teachers are not the only educators who need it. Media specialists, the librarians of yesteryear, must be well-versed in cutting edge information technologies. Counselors and specialists need to be literate in education technology as it intersects with core instruction and best educational practices. Administrators and other education stakeholders must also possess education technology literacy to see that their districts are complying with and exceeding technology education requirements and integration of technology all classrooms.

Education technology literacy is a concept that should be important to every teacher and educator. The National Educational Technology Standards for students (NET-S) and for teachers (NETS-T) have been embraced by almost all states. These standards outline the competencies that are essential for technologically literate students and teachers. As a result, pre-service teacher programs must include educational technology components in order to be accredited. State licensure programs incorporate education technology requirements. Also, evidence of educational technology literacy is being required of in-service teachers through professional evaluation instruments, professional development requirements, and re-certification criteria. It is up to each individual teacher to stay up-to-date on particular mandates for education technology professional development and to be proactive in obtaining the necessary competencies.

Beyond the necessity to “dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s” for the required education technology mandates, teachers should want to be education technology literate. After all, technology has opened up vast new options for reaching all learners with innovative instructional methods. Learning best practices with educational technology and incorporating them into the classroom for the benefit of students is more than a worthy goal. It is an ongoing aspect of professional growth that continues for as long as a teacher will teach. In other words, every teacher should be a lifelong learner.

Week Twelve

Video Story and Listserv

The video project was very time-consuming for me. I had trouble coming up with content for my story. After running into a few dead ends, I found the website of a National Board Certified Math Teacher, Tricia Apel. She seems like a fantastic teacher. On her website she had photos of middle school math students working on various projects. So, I decided to use those photos for my story. Also, I spent some time trying to use the Movie Maker feature for titles, but I didn't like the way they looked on top of the pictures, and you could only do very plain titles without graphics. So I decided to use some PowerPoint slides instead. The audio was pretty straightforward. However, it took a while to find a peppy song to start and end the video. I finally found one on the Microsoft website and downloaded it. All in all this was one of the most challenging assignments for me. Click below to access my movie.



Creating the listserv was very easy. Just follow the directions from Google, and invite the members of your group. If the majority of the parents in a class have email accounts, this would be a great way to communicate with them. My listserv is called
panthers-math@google.groups.com

Week Eleven

Chapters Nine & Ten

Question 2
Why is it important to preview and evaluate videos? What tools should you use to be sure a video is communicating the intended message to your students? What are alternative learning systems? How might they enhance traditional education?

Why is it important to preview and evaluate videos?
Video can be a valid choice of instructional medium if it supports the objectives of the lesson plan. But even then, the implementation of any medium requires careful preparation. One important aspect of implementing video in a lesson is the necessity to preview and evaluate each video before it is used in class. By nature, watching a video is more a passive than an active experience. So, if the program is boring, confusing, or not well-done, learners will lose focus and not benefit from the content. However, if a video exploits the full potential of the medium – motion, color, sound, storyline, affect – it can truly enhance learning.

The text offers a comprehensive rubric for evaluating videos for classroom application. Videos are rated on a 5-point scale from poor to excellent. The rating criteria are

• Relevance to curriculum – Does the video focus upon key concepts and learning objectives?
• Currency and accuracy – Is the content up-to-date? Are the facts accurate?
• Engagement – Will it hold learners’ attention? Will it interest students and motivate them to keep watching?
• Support materials – Are there relevant materials to accompany the video?
• Technical quality – Are the picture, sound, and production values of high quality?

This rubric will help teachers ensure that videos will effectively contribute to the goals of instruction and not detract from those goals.

What tools should you use to be sure a video is communicating the intended message to your students?
All instances of communication convey messages – intentional or unintentional. With a rich, sensory medium such as video, it is very important that teachers take steps to ensure that intended messages are conveyed. Video can be a powerful medium. Often facts are intermixed with content that stirs the emotions or may cause students to question their beliefs. Therefore, teachers must try to anticipate student reactions on a variety of levels and be able to address the affective as well as the cognitive substance of the piece. Teachers must be absolutely sure the content on all levels is appropriate for students. Once the teacher is aware of the many messages that may be present in a video, he or she can take other steps to ensure that the desired message is delivered.

First the physical variables should be adjusted. The video should be tested in the classroom prior to presentation to make sure the sound and picture are clear. The room should be arranged so all students can see the screen and the lights should be dimmed just enough for ease of viewing.

Next, the instructor should take steps to engage the learner in the viewing experience. Good ways to prepare the learners for a video include reviewing the concepts leading up to the video, previewing the key points in the video, or discussing the subject of the video to activate background knowledge. A video study guide that students fill out during the program can facilitate active learning. Another strategy is to pause the video at key points to question, reinforce, or discuss important concepts. For example, when viewing a historical drama, the teacher may want to stop at several scene changes and discuss the implications of the action or have students reflect on their understanding.

To make sure the message was received, students can engage in follow-up activities. For example, a class discussion is one way a teacher can discern if students obtained the intended message. Other activities include essay, group projects, or extended research.

What are alternative learning systems? How might they enhance traditional education?
This question was a real eye-opener for me. I understand what traditional instruction is because 95% of my education was done that way. I also understand what distance education is because I have taken a variety of online courses and participated in synchronous and asynchronous professional development training. Traditional instruction offers the personal connection with a teacher providing direct instruction as well as spontaneous peer interaction. Distance learning requires that students take some of the responsibility of managing their own learning which demands good organizational and time management skills. However, by incorporating some aspects of distance learning into a traditional classroom, students get the best of both worlds.

Alternative delivery systems are programs in which elements of distance education are adapted and integrated with traditional educational practices. Creative educators who have implemented this exciting new format are finding that the combination of instructional delivery methods yields a more stimulating, flexible, and engaging learning environment. Asynchronous methods in particular can effectively augment and enhance traditional teaching. For example, teachers can post the PowerPoint presentation that was used in a classroom lesson along with a supplemental worksheet on a class website. Then, students who need extra time for mastery or who were absent can access the material from home. I recall another example of this concept when I taught developmental math courses at a community college. All of my lessons were cross-referenced with a set of video tapes of supplemental instruction. Students who needed extra help or who missed class could either check out the tapes from the library or request the media center to make a copy of the entire set. This was in 1998, prior to all the advances in distance learning, but the idea is the same. The use of asynchronous learning methods promotes active learners who take initiative for their learning. Other ways of enhancing traditional instruction with asynchronous techniques include schedules posted on a class website, discussion boards for small group projects, email and voice mail for parent-teacher communication, list-serve for class reminders and announcements, and web-based assignments.

I believe one of the most beneficial aspects of alternative delivery systems is the increased opportunity for all learners to interact and participate within their comfort level. Many learners are hesitant (or even petrified) to speak up in a large group setting. They simply find it very difficult to participate. Consequently, their ideas and opinions remain unheard. When given the opportunity to post on a discussion board, use a chat room, or send an email, these same students have a more comfortable opportunity to interact. Conversely, the students who are extremely verbally active in class will learn how to thoughtfully and patiently express their ideas in writing.

Week Ten

Class Website

I created a website for a hypothetical 6th grade math class. Class websites facilitate active involvement of parents in their child's school activities, and this is one key for student success. A website is a wonderful way to share information among students, parents, and teachers. Google makes it easy for anyone to make their own website. Granted, one must accept the limitations of the Google tool, but for making a very basic website it works well.

I wanted to create a simple, easy-to-use design where students and parents could go for class updates, assignments, resources, and basic information. I did not have any major problems with the project. The hardest part was making up the mock content for the site: homework schedule, introduction, faq, etc. I decided to use a graphic from my PowerPoint quiz for the logo. I simply changed the color scheme to match the lavender of the Google template I chose. I decided to go with all lower case for the main heading and page titles because I think it contributes to the sleek, modern look which I was going for.

Google's text editor is very crude. You can only do a little formatting of text. Also, it was somewhat awkward to add pictures, and the sizing and placement of pictures is very limited. However, these drawbacks are understandable when you consider that this is a free resource designed to be usable by anyone. The more bells and whistles, the more complicated it all gets.

The name of my website is Math Matters.

Week Eight

Puzzle
I enjoyed creating a crossword puzzle of geometry vocabulary. I think vocabulary in math is often overlooked, but it is important that students use proper mathematical terms in their communication about math just as in any other subject. Crossword puzzles are a fun way for students to review vocabulary. I have used other crossword puzzle makers in the past; however, the APTE tool was easy to use and produced a nice-looking puzzle. I like that the program generates all possible permutations while displaying the number of clues used although it was slightly awkward to “catch” the variations with the most clues.

Test
I really loved the Easy Testmaker website. It is versatile and easy to use. I chose to make a matching test, and I had no trouble with it. A wonderful feature is that you can generate alternate versions for each test for security purposes. Another great feature is that you can store your tests and edit them. Creating a key was also very easy. The process of extracting our test and key to turn in was confusing, but that would not be an issue with a paid subscription. For the busy teacher who likes to create her how evaluation tools, Easy Testmaker would be well worth the cost.

Rubric
Of the web tools in this assignment, I thought Rubistar was the most challenging to get the hang of. First of all, I don’t normally think of using rubrics for scoring math. So, I decided to devise a rubric for scoring a group project where students solve a multi-step application problem and create a poster describing the problem and solution. That way there is more to the score than a right-or-wrong answer. Once I got my mind on the right track, the process flowed smoothly. I think Rubistar is a good tool for creating rubrics and keeping them consistent within a class. It would be more valuable for subjects that lend themselves to holistic scoring such as writing or social studies.

Trackstar
Trackstar was fun to use. I am always finding and using various resources from the web, but I never had a good way to keep up with all my treasures. Trackstar is perfect for that. In fact, I plan on using it in my GED class. When we study for the science part of the GED, I have students choose from a list of interactive websites to explore and report to the class. Now, I can have them go to a Trackstar track where they can read a summary and see a preview before making their choice.

Website Evaluation
I thought this exercise was useful because it spelled out many of the criteria to be considered in choosing web resources for classroom use. For a beginning teacher, it might be desirable to do such a formal evaluation for websites under consideration. However, an experienced teacher who knows her students and is knowledgeable about the web and what is available on it can size up a website relatively quickly without the need for documents such as these. Of course, that is just my opinion.
NOTE: To view the Web Evaluation properly you must download it. The preview provided by Google Docs is not accurate.

Week Seven

Chapters Five & Six

Question 1: What is the Internet? What value does it hold for educators?

According to our text by Lever-Duffy & McDonald, the Internet is “a collection of interconnected individual networks” which has adopted a common communication format called TCP/IP and is not “owned or operated by any one entity.” The seeds of the Internet began to sprout when government agencies and research universities devised ways to share information with one another by networking their computers over long distances. With the advancement of computing power and telecommunication, the Internet grew organically as more organizations were linked to the existing networks. Internet service providers sprang up to provide Internet access to local schools and average citizens. Although relatively slow by today’s standards, data transmission via phone lines made the internet available in homes and school libraries across the nation. Now, the wealth of the internet is brought to us at much greater speeds by DSL service, cable modem, satellite, and even cellular technology. Just in the last 10 years, the Internet has paved the road for an information explosion which has changed the world as profoundly as did the invention of the printing press. Think about all the rapid communication tools used by many millions of people each day: email, internet forums, discussion boards, list-serves, instant messaging, online chat, remote desktop, file sharing, newsgroups, blogs, twitter, etc.

Before I studied chapter 7, I was unclear about the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web (or just “the Web”). The term Internet refers to the complex interconnection of thousands of servers using the TCP/IP communications protocol to make digital information available to billions of individual users throughout the world. The Web refers to the digital content of the Internet arranged into accessible websites comprised of individual web pages residing on the servers which are the backbone of the Internet. Truly, the advent of the Internet is one of the most significant developments of modern civilization.

The Internet and the resources of the Web hold tremendous value for educators in three aspects: instant access to a vast knowledge base, global communication, and web-enhanced learning.

The Internet is the world’s largest knowledge base. Search engines, directories, and portals allow teachers to find resources for a variety of needs such as subject area content, professional enhancement, and classroom management. Examples of resources for subject area content include government and non-profit websites for public information, online encyclopedias, and public domain materials. Teachers can also take advantage of resources for professional development found on the Web. Professional organizations maintain websites or portals containing research articles and publications. ERIC is a free, online collection of articles relating to educational research and issues maintained by the U.S. Department of Education. Education stakeholders share best practices and various tools with one another via the Internet. Examples include grade book applications, lesson plans, templates, worksheet and quiz generators, and diagnostic surveys.

Educators should definitely tap into the Internet’s capacity to facilitate communication. For example, teachers can maintain current communication and promote parental cooperation by means of email and class websites. By posting homework assignments, schedules, weekly lessons, and even grades; parents and teachers can work together more effectively to make sure students are staying on track. Another example is students in a French language class corresponding via email and voice/video chat with students in a French-speaking country. These are opportunities that would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago.

Finally, creative educators can use the Web to enhance teaching and learning. As bandwidth and computer storage both have become less expensive, more and more rich multimedia and virtual reality learning experiences are available on the Internet. We see wonderful examples of web-enhanced learning in this IT645 course: podcasts, streaming video, e-book, blogs, web-based learning management system, and file-sharing (slideshows, syllabus, examples, etc.). In addition, the developing Web 2.0 phenomenon is making it possible for students to collaborate across schools, states, and even nations with text, video, and audio communication and group editing rights for project documents.