Reflection

The digital era has changed the way educators view their roles. It has also changed the way students view learning. I believe that this change will enhance learning and strengthen student motivation. I have come to the realization that though my own learning experiences in the past were driven by teachers who were committed to helping each student develop his/her communication skills, most of my teachers could best be described as cheerleaders. A realization I have had as the result of this course is that it is my challenge to become a facilitator of learning. If I can achieve this goal, I will have opened my students to a world of life-long learning. I will also have afforded them resources and an audience that extends well beyond the walls of our small, rural school.

I have come to the realization that, without a doubt, my role is significant if my students are to learn about, with, and from technology. I must develop a constructivist approach if effective learning is going to take place. Structuring learning activities that meet state standards, develop literacy skills, and allow for inquiry to occur will require increasingly large amounts of planning on my part. I must construct learning experiences that allow my students to engage in Problem-Based Learning. In other words, my students must learn to identify problems, ask their own questions, research answers, report results, and create a state in their own learning. I believe in this challenge whole-heartedly. However, I also realize that managing planning time, scheduling time for students to be engaged in the tasks I’ve outlined, managing classroom behavior, and evaluating student growth and performance are all concerns that I will face.

I have previously attended a 3-day workshop taught by PBL expert, Hiliary Davis. I have also worked with a safety and mobility program that engages students in the use of PBL to address their safety as passengers, as pedestrians, and when they are in charge of the wheel. However, in its current state, this curriculum does not call upon students to engage in a research component. I have had very little experience developing strategies for engaging my third grade students in research. I realize that I need to pursue additional professional development so that I can introduce my students to the sound research practices. I realize that I need some additional training in the use of wikis, virtual field trips, and other collaborative tools. I am presently participating in an educational technology professional development plan that will last throughout the 2010 school year. I have submitted a request to receive instruction in the areas I have mentioned, and I look forward to first learning to use these tools myself, and then to using the tools with my students.

I realize that it is not enough to recognize the need for using technology to address literacy, I must identify the tools available and learn to use these myself. As I participate in professional development during the current school year, I plan to establish a wiki for sharing ideas related to the safety program I mentioned with a school in Northern Ireland. My students will post writings and pose questions to their distant learning partners. As the year progresses, I hope to involve my students in some simple collaborative projects using wikis. In this manner, I can practice my skills and introduce my students to new technologies at the same time. In time, I plan to use more of the collaborative tools available on line. A good summary of my plan forward is that I am committing to being a lifelong learner myself. I plan to continually seek technologies that will engage and empower my students. I am hopeful that my open attitude will benefit my students and my own professional development.

Final Reflection

 My Personal Theory of Learning stressed the importance of relevancy in the selection of both materials and methodologies.  I continue to see the tremendous impact to be had from creating units of integrated study that have relevance in the lives of my students.  As stated, many of those whom I teach come from families where education is less than a priority. Most of the children that entered my classroom last week see little importance in the traditional tasks that they have previously been asked to perform in school.  They see no correlation between school and their “real” lives.  I believe my greatest challenge this year is to change these attitudes.  I hope to teach my students how to learn and to empower them to take action in their own school as well as in their community.  The resulting attitudes and abilities will, hopefully, lay the groundwork for creating engaged citizens.

   During the 2009-2010 school year I plan to become a collaborating partner with Clemson University’s Automotive Safety Research Institute, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Michelin as we work to develop a model plan for teaching safety and mobility.  To this end, I plan to engage my students in the use of a writing engine that guides students through the writing process as they utilize the Cruiser Safety Curriculum as a point of departure.  This on-line tool will allow my students to write and have their writing reviewed by peers as well as by me.  These writings will also be available for parental review as well as review by participating students from other schools.  The anticipation of a live audience will provide motivation for my students. 

   Though I have just begun to scratch the surface with podcasting, I plan to further utilize this tool.  My students can take their writing one step further by podcasting their ideas.  Because safety and mobility are topics appropriate for all students, I believe that this point of departure will have meaning for my students.  I believe that podcasting will help to provide my students with a purpose for sharing their findings as well as a stage for presentation.  Providing students with real world problems and tools to interact with these problems allows them to assume increasing responsibility for their learning, giving them more motivation as well as feelings of accomplishment-setting the pattern for them to become successful life-long learners. 

   I plan to extend my use of iMovie during the current year, as well.  To add meaning to this tool, I will initiate a safety patrol “club” at my school during the next month.  Students will attend weekly training sessions related to responsible pedestrian safety and will use these ideas as points of departure for the creation of public safety messages to be aired on the school’s closed circuit television channel.  Students in grades 4 and 5 will be eligible for participation in this club, and will serve as ambassadors for the school.  They will continue to grow responsible attitudes, beginning with the ground work that I have laid for them in the third grade.  They will further utilize their story telling skills and cooperative problem-solving strategies to promote responsible decision-making.  Two spin offs of participation in this club will be the encouragement of individual expression, unlimited creativity, promoting collective knowledge construction, and individual reflection.  Service in the Safety Patrol Club will provide students from all backgrounds, with varying academic abilities, opportunities to engage in authentic learning.  I hope that my third graders will be motivated in their writing using the on-line writing engine and podcasting as they move towards the hope of serving as a safety patrol when they enter the fourth grade.

   Students who elect to participate in the Safety Patrol Club, will have weekly training sessions throughout the year.  Following participation in the fourth grade, students may elect to seek participation as a leader in the group while they are in the fifth grade.  I believe that using technology to help drive involvement in this program will help promote thinking, improve student behavior, and promote a feeling of empowerment among my students.  I hope to study MAP and PACT scores for my students this year.  I will be interested to see whether or not the increased use of technology and the anticipation of additional opportunities in the future will both motivate students as well as increase their academic performance.  I also plan to administer a pre/post attitude test to students to determine their feelings related to pedestrian safety.  I will use the data collected to determine whether or not attitudes related to safe decision-making are actually occurring. 

     My plans to increasing the deliberate use of technology to support the development of a safe lifestyle as it relates to mobility will benefit students in their present lives as well as I the future.  I plan to begin attending training sessions related to the writing site during the month of September.  I will also administer pretests to my students in the next three weeks.  Then, I will begin teaching the Cruiser Safety Curriculum during the final weeks of Sepember and early October.  I will spread the integration of these units of study out throughout the year.  During May, I plan to host a school-wide Safety Fair, to be led by my students.  They will use the information, skills, and attitudes they have developed as they share messages of safety with the school population.  They will also have a safety cinema where students can preview the many products created by my third grade students this year.  Those fourth and fifth grade students who participate in the Safety Patrol Club will also participate in the Safety Fair.  Hopefully, these activities will add a sense of relevance and direction for my students.

Application 5

Learn more about how I would like to begin a Safety Patrol Program at my school.

http://voicethread.com/share/574423/

Week 5

Cooperation is a life skill;  most jobs and/or social relationships involve cooperating with other individuals to accomplish goals.  Cooperative learning provides opportunities for students to participate in groups as a means of enhancing learning.  The ideas presented in this week’s  reading support implications previously presented for constructivism.   Specifically, cooperative learning allows students to participate in discussions where multiple representations of reality are presented.  Students gain from one another’s efforts, but also share a common fate based on the efforts of group members.  Participants in cooperative learning know that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one’s team members.  They feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for accomplishment.   
    Society requires its members to exhibit cooperative behavior.  It stands to reason that students need practice working cooperatively with others, then, to be successful later in school and in life.  Cooperative learning correlates with the principles of social learning in many ways.  As students work together in small groups, they must develop a positive interdependence if they are to successfully solve the problems presented to them.  No one member of the group will possess all of the information, skills, or resources necessary for reaching the desired learning outcome. In addition to positive interdependence, students must engage in positive interaction-probably face-to-face to facilitate the development of commitment to each other as well as to their mutual goals.  A third element of cooperative learning is individual and group accountability.  Students must be accountable for contributing their share to the group learning process as well as to working jointly with group members to “produce” an end product.  As a component of this process, students must learn to interact appropriately to share ideas.  Social skills such as leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict-management empower students to manage both teamwork and taskwork  successfully.  Students also learn to present their findings appropriately as part of cooperative learning.  
     Although cooperative learning cannot be used to address every curriculum area, I think it has a valid position among the strategies to be used in support of Problem-Based Learning,  character development, and service learning.  Cooperative learning supports implications of constructivism for instructional design.  It supports theories related to social learning.

Week 4

his week’s reading states that when students are generating and testing hypotheses, they are actually engaging in what I believe to be higher order thinking skills.  They are applying content knowledge to situations that allow them to do more than just memorize facts.  As I’ve mentioned many times, I believe that there is power in not just rote memorization, but in mastery of content.  I believe that when students engage in problem-based learning and create content that for the purpose of sharing ideas with others, they demonstrate real understanding.  Technology can be used in a variety of ways to support this strategy.  Through the use of data collection tools, interactive simulations, podcasting, and creating movies learning can be supported.  It has been my experience that enthusiasm builds, involvement increases, and performance is enhanced when technology is used to support content learning.

     Ideas presented in this week’s learning point to the value of real-world learning experiences.  Problem-based learning allows students to assume a more active role in guiding their own learning experiences.  In essence, students are learning “how to learn.”  I believe that providing students with experiences of this type help to prepare them for life beyond the classroom.  Not only do they work with content and technology, but they learn to work in teams and gain experience in skills such as public speaking.  I believe all of these skills are critical as we work to provide our students with 21^st century skills.  

Week 3

Technology can impact student learning in a number of ways.  One such way is to engage students in cognitive activities that would otherwise be out of their reach.  During a recent social studies lesson, I created a virtual field trip for my students.  I was attempting to help my students understand the changes that took place in South Carolina during reconstruction.  I created a "photo" of South Carolina prior to the Civil War and then a photo of our state following the Civil War.  Students were asked to produce an essay describing changes in life the resulted from the war.  The essay was actually written in the form of a diary entry.  I felt that use of technology through the creation of my version of a virtual field trip enhanced student understanding of the ideas I was attempting to impart.  Curiosity was enhanced.  In addition, students were able to reflect on their learning as they created their journal entries.  Once the students completed their journal entries, they were assigned to small groups.  Each group then combined resources and prepared an "interview" of a Southerner and created a video podcast to share with the class.  This activity called for higher order thinking skills.  Students were able to present information in a manner that was interesting as well as fun.  I felt that real learning occurred. I believe the ultimate result of this project was that the students gained a fuller understanding of the South during reconstruction.  My learning goals were met. 

Application 2

Although I have been in the teaching profession for only a short while, I have found varying theories related to the ways students actually learn. One theory presented in the reading this week is the idea that students need to find the relationship between their success in learning and the amount of effort they put into their work.  A spreadsheet that allows students to track their progress is even presented.   This tool can be considered as a support tool for the behaviorist learning theory as it does reward learning.  As with any tool, its effectiveness would need to be measured before it could be considered to be a viable tool for use with students.  A question that comes immediately to mind is whether or not the time spent interpreting the rubric would justify its use.  As a third grade teacher, I would also question whether or not my students could use the tool to evaluate their own learning.  If they were unable to draw appropriate conclusions having used the rubric,  the use of this tool could be in question.

     There are a number of software packages on the market that allow students to practice skills and move up through a series of levels.  Many school districts actually purchases licenses to these products as they can be correlated to state testing (MAP).  The software automatically assigns skill sets based on student performance on these tests.  Then, the students work through the practice activities.   Statistics related to the use of these products support their use.  I believe, that as with any product, this activity can work for a  certain amount of time.  I also believe, though, that a variety of activities are needed to ensure that learning is taking place.

   Chapter 9 of the textbook, provides a look at the use of homework as a support mechanism for learning.  The idea that students need many practice sessions to master skills supports the uses of technology as a means of providing this practice.  The authors provide many resources that can provide specific learning experiences for students.  Using these sites supports behaviorist learning theory as it provides drill and practice. However, I believe that true mastery occurs when students use technology to share their ideas and access information.   I have reviewed a sampling of the sites provided, and I have noted that most do not address higher order thinking skills.