EDLD+5362+&+5364+Embedded+Assignments+and+Reflection

Teahcer Interview-@http://docs.google.com/View?id=dggtpmb5_14c7x3cxmd Powerpoint-[]
 * EDLD 5362 Information Systems Management**-

I took a lot of different things away from this class even though I don't know how much of what I learned will directly aid me in the future. I don't say this because I feel that the information wasn't valid or important, but because of the direction I hope to take my career. You can split what the class covered into two seperate parts, systems for districts and systems for students/learning, I definitely see myself focusing more on the student and learning side in the future as opposed to the district (data gathering) side of things.

This being said I am going to focus on the assignments that I feel will aid me more in the future, those being the Week 1 teacher interview and the powerpoint for Week 2 that I created about integrating social networks into the classroom. The interview I conducted reaffirmed much of what I had learned about throughout the program, that teachers are not using technology to the fullest extent of it's capabilities to aid in student learning. In the interview that I conducted, I found that the teachers I spoke with viewed the internet as a teacher resource, but not as a student resource, some of the reasons behind this were time and resources (# of computers).

The attitude of teachers towards the internet and student usage is connected to another campus wide attitude, the use of our SIS, SASI as an attendance only program. SASI has many teacher tools for student achievement that for the most part are not utilized on campus or throughout the district. Whether this is a leadership issue or a funding issue (paying for additional services) is unbeknownst to me at this time. This is one of the key issues Sausner addresses in her paper regarding schools making the most out of their available resources, (Sausner, 2003). Although I do not see myself taking on a leadership role where I will be able to address this issue, I can see how it coud affect the work that I do in the years to come.

The powerpoint presentation that I did for the Week 2 assignment was focused on how and why to integrate social networking into the classroom. The presentation was designed to encourage teachers to go online and join online teacher communities that can offer collaboration, lesson plans, and support. The impetus behind this presentation is if 94% of the current student population is making use of the internet and what it has to offer (Graziano, Lenhart, and Simon, 2001), why shouldn't teachers do the same?

I gained a lot from doing the powerpoint, the first was more experience making a powerpoint presentation, I am not a big fan of Powerpoint, as I don't find it very interesting, but it is still a skill that I need to develop. What I really liked about this assignment, is that I feel that I prepared a presentation quality project, I would not be afraid to show this project to a group of teachers. Creating presentations like this one whether using Powerpoint, Photostory, or MovieMaker, is one of the things that I could end up doing in a new position as a presenter/teacher trainer.

In addition to challenging me to do something directly related to a potential future job postion, this assignment was strongly correlated with ISTE's Technology Standard II because it was intended to help teachers create technology based experiences for their students. Many teachers need help and motivation when it comes to using new technologies in the classroom, not only is that something that I am interested in doing in the future, it helps me meet Technology Standard II.A.3 (Williamson&Redish, p.44).

UDL Lesson Builder Lesson 1-@http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgv2bxmw_23dcz476fn UDL Lesson Builder Lesson 2-@http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgv2bxmw_28fcxh5gf7
 * EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology-**

If I were to select a course in this program to be the capstone course, I would select this course, not only because it was a personal favorite and very enjoyable, but because of how it brought together so many different aspects of what we have learned about in this program. As part of the class we had to use the UDL Cast lesson and book builders which helped us gain experience with Technology Standard IV, specifically evaluating educational technology, (Williamson&Redish, p.85)

I gained so much from this course because it required me to address so many different topics, e-communication and teamwork, the digital divide, Web 2.0 tools, working on collaborative documents online, and integrating the correct non-technology related TEKS into the lesson plans.

A large part of this course was a group based project where I had to collaborate with three other classmates. The prospect of working with 3 other people over long distances with no face to face communication is always a daunting task, but things could not have gone any better. The level of collaboration and positive back and forth communication was incredible, as was our teamwork. We did not have a designated leader, but everyone seemed to find a role that suited them well and then excelled in that role. I tried to be a motivator and an innovator, I tried to post as many new ideas as possible to our discussion and I made sure to post as much info as possible so that my teammates could see what I was doing to help them get going. Tamara was great at tying all of our ideas together as well as proofing, and Daniel organized our Google site page.

Many of the readings for other classes had made significant mention of the digital divide, but this was my first opportunity to go beyond discussion or the theory of how to approach the digital divide. Everything that I planned was in part planned to help students gain technology skills while addressing core subject areas as well, in this case language arts. It was my hope to keep every activity not oly technology based, but interesting so that the students would want to keep using the new skills that they had learned. While I do not consider myself a constructivist, I do feel that this approach would be considered constructivist in nature because it allows the students to bring their prior knowledge to the situation and make the learning their own, (Learning as a Personal Event: A Brief Introduction to Constructivism, 1999).

My goal was to plan activities that kept students from using the computer as solely a research or word processing tool. I hoped that by encouraging/requiring the use of Web 2.0 tools (a group wiki specifically) that I would be promoting technology skills, student creativity, and higher order thinking skills. Every lesson plan was designed to incorporate enough time during instruction for computer use that a students lack of a computer or internet access at home would not inhibit their ability to do well or learn the skills that they needed. Based upon my own teaching experiences and current research, (Page, 2002) I feel that any and all activities that can help bridge the digital divide should be implemented whenever possible.

 Standard III of the ISTE standards while addressed at least indirectly in most of the courses in the program was most directly addressed in EDLD 5364 Teaching With Technology. In this course as a part of a cooperative group I designed lesson plans using the UDL Cast Lesson Builder and Book Builder. These plans focused on creating a student centered, creative environment where technology was at the center of every learning activity. The use of programs such as wikis, Google Earth, Photostory or MovieMaker enabled me to address standards III A.1,3, and 6 in the same lesson plans.  What I gained from the lesson plans I made for EDLD 5364 was how to incorporate the technology TEKS, the specialized needs of students, the core curriculum TEKS, and how to bridge the digital divide. What I still need to address is how to take the activities I planned, which on paper occur in an ideal classroom, and translate them to the ‘real’ classroom where there are discipline, tardy, and absecet issues, etc.  As part of this assignment, I was part of a group, there is no doubt in my mind that it was one of the best groups that I have ever worked with. Our group communicated well, no one was afraid to voice their opinion, and everyone’s opinion was respected. We all found roles within our group and performed them well, we were all leaders of some aspect of the assignment. I feel that if I could find some way to bring this level of teamwork and communication to campuses or meetings, I could be a very capable and successful leader.   Standard IV was first addressed in the program during EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability. As a part of the course I used the PEIMS data to to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students on my campus. In my opinion, the first step in instruction is to figure what your students do and do not know. Once I obtained this data, I could formulate a plan on how to raise test scores for my target population (African American students who are economically disadvantaged).  While not every aspect of my action plan involved technology, a large part of it did. As part of the plan to raise test scores I called for increased small group tutoring, extended day, and ongoing staff developments, but the rest were technology based interventions. As part of my plan I called for the use of the computer lab for student tutoring as well, this not only gave students more one one one time with material at their level, but it helped to manage the size of tutorial groups. An added bonus is that the computer based tutorials can also be done on classrooms computers allowing the teacher to assist the student as needed.  The next step is to track student progress whether it is through computer based testing and online results such as the program my district uses TRIAND, or keeping records through a program such as EXCEL. This data can be used to increase the amount of tutoring, change the program beind used, or remove the student from the tutoring program if adequate progress has been made.  This was one of the first assignments that I completed in the program as such it was my first chance to think about how deeply technology can be integrated into a school initiative. Not only was it an opportunity for me to plan an initiative from start to finish, but it allowed me to start to see the full scope of the ways that technology can be used to aid student achievement. I especially liked how with technology you can do more to pinpoint specific student needs whereas with textbooks, etc. you are not always able to do so.  This took place during the second course in the program and was a ‘solo’ assignment, so my interactions and conversations with my classmates was limited. I remember that at the time the discussion board was never as lively as it is now. Even though every interaction on the has always been polite and professional, the discussions were not very substantive to start. I believe that as the members of the cohort continued to talk to each other and develop relationships, the communication improved.  Taking what I now know about Technology Standard IV and the the past assignments, I think there are ways to improve what I proposed for the original EDLD 5333 assignment. I feel that given the chance to rework the assignment more computer based exploratory learning could be incorporated as well as more online teacher resources and trainings could be found. Where I feel that I could use help in accomplishing something this size would be in my organizing and administrating. I do not have a lot of experience managing a group endeavor of this size and would need assistance from someone who does.
 * Standard III Reflection- **
 * Standard IV Reflection- **