Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I think back over the semester of work in Introduction to Educational Technology, many different thoughts and feelings come into play. Each of us has learned so much and worked so hard. This course for me has been two courses in one: one course learning all the new information and the other course learning all the new tools and technology.

I am amazed at the amount of new information I have learned this semester. Through research, I learned so much about the community and district in which I work. I have learned about upcoming and future trends that can help me to better serve that community, and what is the current status technology framework of my district.

I am motivated to present new ideas and concepts to my staff and students because of all the new tools and techniques I learned. Infographics, Google Forms, Voice Thread and Word Press have already become big parts of my ever-growing “tool box” that I have used and will continue to use.

I am proud of all the work I have done and all the things I have learned. Many times through the semester, I was challenged by the amount of work and the amount of information I was expected to learn, but never once did I think to give up because I was so inspired by the idea that everything I was learning, I could use to help my students and staff.

Finally, I am grateful, to both Anthony and all of my classmates, for their support, encouragement and enthusiasm throughout the course. Online courses sometimes give a feeling of disconnection but I felt a definite sense of camaraderie and I hope that through the rest of this journey, I will keep these connections. I look forward to seeing what the rest of my journey will bring!

School Evaluation Summary

Researching the technology plan and systems at Anybrook Public School District has made me aware of the many complex issues that must be considered when using a system-wide network and how very difficult it is to implement a system where end users range in age form 3 to 73! Not only is it the infrastructure – hardware, software and wiring etc., but budgets, training and curriculum that must be considered as well. Add into that the various opinions and new technology options and it becomes an extremely challenging task at best. I have a newfound respect and patience for the IT department and administrative staff. Their jobs are daunting!

Training and time continue to be the greatest obstacles regarding integrating technology. Teachers and staff simply do not have the time to learn all the new innovations and features of technology tools. With the new initiatives for Common Core Curriculum, SBAC testing  and SEED – the new teacher evaluation system, all professional development time and resources have been exhausted. I am hopeful that in the future when many of the new initiatives have been set in place, technology training can be more widely offered in the district.

I am impressed with this district that works hard everyday to have the best learning tools and instructors in place for all students. Students are always the top priority.Top level administration is extremely supportive while remaining fiscally responsible to the town budget. I admire the willingness of staff to take part in committee work on their own time and work diligently to come up with solutions and recommendations to improve the current system.

School Survey

School Evaluation

Tech Trends and the NMC Horizon Report 2014 K-12 Edition

As I read through the NMC Horizon Report 2014 K-12 Edition there were so many things that were fascinating to me. Being new to the technology field after years in the Library Media field, I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. Throughout this course, I have been amazed and, at times, overwhelmed by the volumes of information available. There is just not enough time to take it all in!

I have to admit that it took me almost the entire week to get through the NMC report. I was really trying to focus and digest each section of the report and pausing to apply it to my particular situation in my district. I was so impressed by the report that I passed it along to my superintendent who also read it and thought it timely because our district is going through a lot of growing pains and changes with regard to technology. She was meeting with our technology consultant this week and she found the information valuable.

Initially, I thought I might want to continue in this unit where I left off in our last unit.(See previous post: https://susanmcgannonedtechlearninglog.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/annotated-bibliography-for-using-ipads-in-the-elementary-classroom/). I have been spending many hours deploying our new set of iPads and thought I might focus on the mid-range trend of Hybrid Learning Designs. However, I kept coming back time and again to the fast trend in the NMC report regarding the rethinking the roles of teachers. I think one of the great things about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is the idea of shifting responsibility for learning over to the student and having the teacher be more of a facilitator/coach. I believe that technology, in many ways, can help reach this goal. However, a key step in this process , according to the NMC report, is to train teachers in efficient way to use technology to support their lessons, assessments and data collection. Training for teachers is a very weak link in our district and, in our school, an area I believe I can be of service to my staff and ultimately our students.

With this fast trend regarding the changing roles of the teacher in mind, I am developing mini-workshops and YouTube videos to train teachers on technology tools that can help them and their students shift the role of the teacher in the elementary classroom. I have combined many things I have already learned through this course, Edtech 502 and a recent conference on technology for teachers. I will be presenting the first of these workshops on an upcoming professional development day for staff. Below you will find a link to my first video tutorial that I will show as part of an instructional workshop on how to use Google Forms. In this video, I combine using Screencast-O-matic, a great (free!) screen casting tool, Google Forms, WordPress and YouTube to show teachers how to use and develop forms to assess and collect data.

This process, so far, has been exciting and very worthwhile. It is so great to implement things we are learning in class into real life situations in my professional work. I am excited and nervous to present and train my teachers but I am addressing a need that has been lacking in our district. We have so much technology funded and thrown at us with no support or time for training. I can’t wait to apply more of what am learning to help my staff!

Here is the YouTube video tutorial I created for my training workshop, Google forms for Teachers:

Annotated Bibliography for using iPads in the elementary classroom

I was excited to do the research for this project because I have been researching the issue of iPads in the elementary classroom since the end of the last school year (2013-2014). I was notified by my principal in June that beginning in Fall 2014 I would be teaching classes on iPad reading etc. one day a week. I was given a block of time lasting almost 2 hours but that was all the direction I got. No training, no support but over the summer 10 iPads arrived and when I asked our IT department to deploy them I was told “IT is not supporting the use of iPads in the district.” So I have been researching and floundering on my own. I have requested at least an email to be set up so I can create an Apple ID to purchase apps but that was 2 months ago and still no email. So in the meantime I have done lots of research and so this annotated bibliography furthered my cause and given me some direction.I really like the idea of “peer-reviewed” articles. It helped me immensely to whittle down the amount of articles to a manageable level.I have also gone ahead and developed a web-based page using WordPress so that students can use the iPads with online resources and I have used Google forms to develop assessment tools for student work. So lots of tools and ideas from this course have been helping for my issues in my “real job”!

https://docs.google.com/a/u.boisestate.edu/document/d/118L8uB2eSq2J2PoGFYamIb6wCVU7qkLFnfhpEAKDtzw/edit

Redesigned RSS in Education Lesson

When I read through and reflected on the feedback on my original lesson (see previous post), I recognized a challenge to improve my lesson but also to confront a reoccurring theme online: very little appropriate content for younger students through RSS. I went back and searched through Feedly and Google and finally found a few things/sites I could use so that students could be introduced to RSS in the elementary classroom.I created another Feedly account for students. While I kept the initial objectives and rubric, I redesigned the assessment in Google forms and now have student data collected through this form of assessment.

So now, with the opportunity to redesign my lesson, I have developed this lesson and I am excited to use the Google form for assessment to keep an organized data collection tool and have a paperless assignment!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uia5FbeWn4OZ1qEBgB0gkwpxCq1PJMDBwhS_oVdFqmw/edit

Feedly Home Page

Nasa Image of the Day

The site the students will go to:Animal of the Day

National Geographic Photo of the Day

Screen shot of Google Form for Nonfiction assessment

Another screen shot of Google Form for Nonfiction assessment

RSS Lesson Plan

I was excited about this unit on RSS feeds. I was familiar with Feedly and the concept of RSS feeds. I had already set up a Feedly account for personal use and found it to be very addictive and have often had to limit my time reading through all the articles that Feedly sent each day. Using an RSS feed really makes the me realize how limitless information can be.

As I progressed through this unit, my biggest discovery and challenge was the lack of RSS feeds targeted toward students in elementary school. Specifically, RSS feeds available for students below the 4th grade level. I was really frustrated and spent many hours searching for age-appropriate materials for my young students.I really wanted to develop lessons that were authentic and useful for my students. I began to see and understand that if one was to look for engaging interactive and educational material for the 3-9 year old group, apps were numerous and readily available but web activities and sites were not. I really spent a lot of time thinking about this issue and came to the realization that this scenario made sense for a couple of reasons. First, parents, teachers and caregivers do not want these youngest students on the Web for fear of exposure to inappropriate material. Second, apps are readily available and can be used across many platforms and devices without internet access thus making them easier to access and transport. Still, I feel that this group should be better served on the web.

Given more time, I would have liked to develop (and plan to develop) a blog for the young students I serve with sites and resources for them and the grade level teachers. Through Feedly, I have begun to gather sites and sources and hope to develop a blog on WordPress as a resource for my school.

I have piloted the lesson I developed for this unit with two different groups of third graders during this past week. It was highly successful and the students were very engaged with the articles on Scholastic and very excited about the entire lesson. In the future I plan to have the assessment done on the computer/iPad rather than on paper so that students will get additional keyboarding time to continue to develop keyboarding skills.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNXCbiBFFXuNJfAAnUFehx7Su4e69n6B-blICmhvG5A/edit?usp=sharing

Engaging articles on magazines.scholastic.com

Many students loved the robot article!

Anything about dinosaurs is always a hit with my students!

Our class in my Feedly feed!

Feedly offers lots of topics and subjects to search!

Customizing with color themes is available.

Screen shot of my home screen in Feedly.

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Organizing Feedly feeds.

The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide

https://edtech.voicethread.com/book.swf?b=6090874

While working on this project, I learned a lot about the community where I am working. From an outsider’s perspective, Old Saybrook appears to be an ideal community. It is beautiful, affluent and welcoming. However, as I dug through the research and surveys, I discovered that with all of the positives, no community is perfect. While money appears to be no object, I learned that the digital divide in some communities occurs due to the misallocation and expenditures of those funds. All the money in the world,with good intentions, won’t increase access if the funds are used for the wrong purposes.

I also learned that the inequalities are not just focused on those who are less affluent than others. I think in many communities, we forget about the needs of those with disabilities. I was really encouraged and excited to learn about the resources and equipment that are available to those who are physically,mentally or learning disabled!

In the future, I would like to present my findings to the administration. I think the weight of the responses to the survey combined with the research on alternatives for allocating resources might make some progress toward getting access and better technology to the end users who really need them. I have already shared and I will continue share the resources I have found with staff who work with our disabled students. It’s exciting to help!

If given more time for this project, I would like to explore more of the features of both Google Slides and Voice Thread. I think I could jazz the presentation up a bit more and practice a bit more with the voice over to improve on it. I think I still have a lot to learn about the tools and their possibilities.

Code of Professional Ethics in Educational Technology

Reflection

 

In analyzing this scenario, the most interesting thing I discovered while the applying the AECT Code of Ethics is that both sides of the scenario rely primarily on Section 1 of the code. The IT Director’s primary concern is the privacy rights and protection of the individual, in this case the 3rd grade students. Administrators, staff , students and families also lean heavily on Section 1 of the code with regards to the access rights of the individual and the individual’s rights to participate fully in any educational technology program in a safe context. Both sides of the scenario have absolutely the safety and protection of students as a paramount concern. However, when such restrictions are placed on a program as to limit participation, those restrictions hamper the individual rights to participate. I believe that in the very near future, the broadcasts will be opened up for outside viewing.

 

As I have delved into several of the scenarios, it has become obvious to me that scenarios can be very convoluted. Some instances can have all layers of application of the code-individual, society and profession, and it can be difficult to decipher which commitment takes precedence over any of the others. Also, personal subjectivity is very difficult to hold at bay when situations present themselves and I have strong feelings and opinions on either side of an issue. But if I am to apply the AECT code properly I must put aside any personal subjectivity and remain as objective as possible.

 

I view the development of professional ethics as an important tool when defining educational technology. I believe that it is critical that the AECT continue in its work of evolving and changing the AECT Code of Ethics to continually keep pace with the ever-changing field of educational technology. As our worlds of technology and education grow and as we apply that technology to learning, we must always consider the ethical impact technology has on individuals, society and the profession of education.

https://docs.google.com/a/u.boisestate.edu/document/d/1SAtEwn8FnFzGOsm1QQLw-fa3LXnGLBfj1S8Qw2E0kkI/edit

EDTECH Definition Graphic Reflection

The definition of Educational Technology according to Januszewski and Molenda (2008): “…the study of and the ethical practice of facilitating, learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.” is rather awe-inspiring to me. It showed me in one sentence what an awesome responsibility we as educators have when incorporating education with technology. We must be diligent in our duties as teachers to choose wisely when we employ any facet of technology. We have a huge responsibility to make sure that the tools we use are not only safe and appropriate but valuable assets to the learners in our classroom. We do not want to use technology just for its own sake, but rather to enrich the learning experiences of our students. When we choose technology materials we must do so in an ethical manner being sure to be good role models for students in our practices of respecting the work of others and attributing credit to copyrighted materials. Careful thought and consideration must be taken!

After searching the web for “infographics” I found an article from a site called Edudemic (http://www.edudemic.com/diy-infographics/) entitled “10 Fun Tools To Make Your own Infographics”. I am familiar with the Edudemic site so I read through the article and visited each of the 10 recommended Infographic sites. All of them were similar in many ways; they all had various templates and tools to help aid the user in developing infographics but after “test driving” them all I chose http://www.canva.com for its high rating and recommendation from Edudemic and its ease of use, not to mention the free and inexpensive paid graphics!

In my development of my graphic, I chose a template of clouds and the image of a chameleon because what struck me in the definition of Educational Technology in the reading by Januszewski and Molenda was the evolutionary nature of Educational Technology. Like the chameleon and the clouds, both Education and Technology fields are ever-changing and evolving. I chose circles within circles because the elements of Educational Technology are so interrelated to one another.

One aspect I am finding challenging in this course that with each new assignment, we are not only learning new concepts and material, but also new technology tools and skills. Sometimes it can be frustrating and other times I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I think that it is like taking two courses at the same time! I also find it extremely valuable to learn about new resources so that I can incorporate them into my everyday work with staff and students.