Moodle

I have heard of Moodle previously, but I have never checked it out for myself before now. I have already created my own class website using Weebly as a host domain, but there are functions that make Moodle preferable to the alternatives I have seen. For instance, Moodle allows for students to create profiles and leave messages on the blogs under their profiles, whereas, my current blog site does not require a log-in and students could potentially post inappropriate things without my knowledge of his/her identity. Moodle provides more than just a host for a teacher to put a calendar, submit discussion topics, and post files online. Moodle allows for an easy location for center activities within the classroom, and is open for feedback from other educators using the same Course Management System. I like using Weebly to set up my class website, but there are no easy opportunities to have an open forum with other educators about how they use the site with their students like there is with Moodle. As with most technology used in instruction, the students' readiness, interest and ability can be taken into account when creating activities via the Moodle site. For instance, having remedial, practice and extension websites available for the topics discussed in class listed by subject on the site would greatly benefit the students. By having these on the class site, students have the opportunity to differentiate on their own within the classroom. Many teachers are reluctant towards using technology within the classroom, but in reality it makes managerial tasks much simpler once the students have been modeled how to use it appropriately and effectively.

EDUC 6713- reflection

Looking back at my GAME plan, I find that I have made some progress in covering the NETS-S but not as much as I had hoped. I am still struggling with finding professionals in the field who would be willing to speak with my class about the content and/or the career possibilities. To be honest, I have not looked extensively, but I am hopeful that it will not be too difficult to find people who would video conference with a class full of future scientists. I am also fighting with the technology in my school. I came in this morning and my computer would not turn on. The power button is flashing red and I do not even get the "blue screen of death" so this limits the work I can do. I also have not gotten my Promethian board connected yet, so this again limits what I had planned to do. I am sitll working on updating my class website and adding to the current features. I feel like this course has added to my ideas to integrate technology into my classroom, and I am excited to implement some of the strategies as soon as I have the tools to do so.

EDUC 6713- week 7

To help my students futher their proficiency with the NETS-S, I plan on continuing my prior practices while adding a few new skills. I am still working on finding more professionals who would be willing to speak with my class and I am also writing a grant for webcams to use for video conferencing. I have just received my Promethian board (although it is not hooked up yet) and I will soon be able to utilize this for the students to practice more leadership in their own learning through technology. I am excited to see the possibilities this new tool will bring to my classroom, and I am also excited to see how I can use the GAME plan process to make my students more fluent with the NETS-S.

EDUC 6713- week 6

This week has been insanely busy with preparing my classroom, open house and getting ready for the first day of school. I have, however, looked into getting webcams to use in the school for the purpose of video conferencing. I spoke with teachers in other subject areas who are also also excited about the possibilities this new technology would bring to our school. Another part of my GAME plan I have worked on this week is my class website. I updated my Google Calendar and added some more information for the students to use throughout the year.

My principal has promised me a Promethian board, but it is still not here. I am excited about the opportunities this will allow, but I do not know how to use it or the capabilities. I figured I would just learn as I went along and played around with it. There are also other teachers in the building who have these boards who I can go to for questions.

EDUC 6713- week 5

I have not made much progress this past week in my GAME plan. The assignments for this upcoming school year are still being finalized and I have been working on helping my colleagues move their items to their new rooms. I am trying to stop being lazy- school is almost here- so I plan on working on my GAME plan some more for the majority of today. The goal I am finding the motivation for difficult is updating my class website. All of the areas (videos, links, etc.) are not complete for each unit and I would like to have this done ahead of time so the students can begin previewing at their leisure. I have contacted some other people about speaking to my class, but I have not heard back from them yet.

EDUC 6713 week 4

I have been moving and dealing with all of the headaches that go with it, so I have not had much time to work on my GAME plan this past week. I did relocate a resource I had heard of that will match scientists in your area with educators. This can be found at www.nationallabday.org. I forgot that I had registered a while back and I have received numerous matches who I can contact about speaking to my class.

So far, I have not noticed that I need to modify my GAME plan, but the possibility is always open. I am having trouble putting into words what I have learned so far because I already had these goals before starting this class, but this assignment has given me the motivation to work on it more. A question I have, though, is have any of you ever done video conferencing? I am thinking about using this tool for speakers who have busy schedules, but I am unsure about the resources needed for it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

EDUC 6713 week 3

Resources I will need to carry out my GAME plan include internet access in a computer lab, LCD projector connected to a computer, contacts in the professional realm who are willing to speak to my class in person or via teleconferencing, a website for the class, etc. All of these I have, but I wish to gain more professional contacts in more areas. Currently, I have a meteorologist, chemical engineer and aerospace engineer, but I would like to locate a geologist of some sort. I will try contacting my local geological society and/or museum to see if they are aware of any educational program that I could register my students for.

As for steps I have taken so far, I have updated my class website by refreshing the class calendar, adding text to read sites and I will be working on a new webquest next week. The new webquest will be over the lab created diamond called moisonite. If any of you are teaching rocks/minerals, I highly recommend you look into this cheaper alternative. Samples of moisonite are relatively cheaper and it is a great way to show students the hardest mineral on Moh's scale. I feel like my GAME plan is coming together, but there is always something more to do as ideas present themselves and as technology tools multiply and improve.

EDUC 6713 App2

Looking at the NETS-S I find that my current strengths include professional development (as shown through the pursuit of this degree), modeling digital-age work and learning (represented by my class website with frequent added elements/tools), and designing/developing digital-age learning experiences/assessments (shown through my differentiation and modified lessons based on prior knowledge, learning style and rate of learning).

The two standards I struggle with include promoting/modeling digital citizenship/responsibility, and facilitating/inspiring student learning/creativity. When showing a power point presentation, I usually do not provide the students with the exact location or reference information for the pictures, videos, sound clips, et cetera that I have inserted. Through my discussion of the slide I might mention the search engine or way that I located this piece, but I do not do a good job of modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. Another unfortunate truth is that I provide much additional information/resources on the website I maintain for my class, but with such a low income area very few homes have internet access and therefore are not as able to utilize the tools I have worked hard to provide. I do, however, have two classroom computers that I allow students to use during homeroom for this reason, but this is still not as equitable as it would be in an ideal situation.

My goals for improving the promotion and modeling of digital citizenship and responsibility include a stronger focus on interacting (professionally) with others via the web, as well as being sure to include the proper citations for every tool not originally created by me. My goals for better facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity include utilizing student blogs to discuss the learning process, as well as provide students opportunities to experience more real world applications through virtual field trips, discussions with professioanls in the field, et cetera.

Since school is not in session currently, I will plan to review the power points I have used in the past and attempt to relocate files and insert proper documentation; if the file's origin cannot be found, then I will replace the file with a new one including documentation. I would like to set up a video conferencing opportunity between my class and several professional contacts I have in the field of study that I will be teaching. I will have to check on the technological logistics of this when the technology director returns from vacation. As for student blogs, I would like to find a free or cheap host site where students must log in to post their ideas anonymously, but to where I can see who is posting them. Teaching middle school students, I worry about inappropriate comments and/or teasing occurring due to posts made. Do you know of such a thing?

I plan on evaluating my progress made in these standards at the beginning and end of each unit so that I can compare and calculate my growth.

6712 reflection

I had never before thought about the need for teaching students how to locate reliable and valid sources of information. I thought this was something that could be perhaps modeled once and forgotten about, but the reality is that it needs to be modeled frequently as well as reinforced and monitored throughout the students' years in school. I am now more aware of the need to first understand each child's prior understanding of the internet and then model the instruction from there. I value the freedom of learning possible through the internet, but now I know that students must be taught how to utilize this tool effectively in order to ensure that the students find valid and reliable information. I would like to see how other educators teach this essential skill to students in order to view a model I can utilize in my classroom. This is such an individualized and difficult task that I would like to have as many tools in my teacher repertoire as possible. I plan on asking my principal if I can organize a meeting of the technology committee next year in order to have a round table discussion of how the other teachers in my school go about teaching students how to effectively search the internet for the intended information.

EDUC 6711 reflection

Throughout this course, I have gained more information to support my earlier personal theory of learning. I do not wish to change any aspect of my theory, but I feel more confident in it since completing this course.

I have been integrating technology throughout the course. I have used webquests as well as added new features to my classroom website. My students now have forums to post questions to professionals in the field (my friends and relatives have agreed to answer these) which encourages a sense of curiosity in other areas of science as well as provides insight into real world applications. Also new on the website, parents have access to a calendar showing what we do in class each day. My sixth grade students still struggle remembering to write assignments in their agenda, or forget if they have homework. Parents email me constantly asking about assignments, so I have made a tool for the families to use to know what is occurring each day in my class. I have also used a digital camcorder to record presentations and have offered to provide the clip to the students' parents. By telling the students that they were to be recorded, I noticed a much higher effort level put forth on the projects.

I am always looking for new things to add to my class website (scmsearthscience.weebly.com). I would like to continue the calendar feature and perhaps expand the areas of science experts the students have access to question. There is a new movement for connecting professionals with educators, especially in the area of science. I have not taken advantage of this as of yet, but I intend to shortly.

Voice thread- student motivation

http://voicethread.com/share/898409/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

My desks are organized in sets of four to allow for group activities. Within each group, the students have a specific role: resource representative, scribe, manager, presenter. When assigning seats, I use a mixed ability but common interest approach. Since class sizes have been increased to thirty, I do have a group of two that I will use sometimes for higher or lower level learners. By having my students used to sitting in groups, it forms a sense of consistency and a sense of camaraderie among the children. This method makes classroom management much easier because the manager is the discussion facilitator and group mediator while the resource representative is in charge of gathering, returning as well as monitoring the use of any classroom materials. Presenters share with the class the conclusions their group has drawn, and the scribe writes all needed data during labs. The students know what their role is, what is expected of them and how to effectively complete their task.

Our textbook mentions the use of positive interdependence (p. 140) which I use during my labs. Since the scribe is the only one writing down data, the entire group gets the grade from the paper that the scribe turns in. This approach creates less papers for me to grade, as well as a sense of importance for teamwork. Overall, I love my use of group assignments because it promotes accountability, interpersonal skills, and promotive interaction.

In our resources from this week, I found several useful tools in order to integrate technology in my classroom, while still holding true to my group-based class. My favorite tool I discovered is the JASON project (www.jasonproject.org). Since I am a science teacher, this resource is highly useful for allowing students to complete online labs and explore other areas of scientific study.

Constructivism in practice

During Dr. Orey's presentation, constructivism was defined as "a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning" while constructionism was explained as "a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact of something they can share with others" (2009). While I agree with his statement that constructionism is more relevant to teachers in the classroom, I do also believe that it is vital for educators to be familiar with constructivism and how it can be applied. Inquiry learning is the first thing that comes to my mind when I read the above meaning of constructivism. Students who are engaged in order to discover a concept requires them to actively construct his/her own meaning. Constructionism, however, I think is not necessarily the answer one hundred percent of the time. Some students thrive more with dialogue and would prefer to talk out a solution rather than create an artifact. The truth of education is, though, that we must have some sort of proof that the students know the information. The easiest way to do this is to have the students create the artifacts themselves, but there may be other ways to achieve the same result. For students who prefer dialogue, the students could record themselves explaining a concept and thus have an audio file as their artifact. There are many ways to use technology to a student's advantage, and I think some educators try to make things too difficult and fancy, thus creating a sense of anxiety when students use technology in learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Behaviorist learning theory

"Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort" (Pitler et al, 2007, p. 155). The authors of this book show the ways that a teacher can demonstrate expectations and collect and interpret data on students' effort. By the educator providing feedback on assignments/behaviors, the students are receiving a form of operant conditioning to either reinforce or redirect a student's effort.

I have my students draw diagrams of scientific concepts and I always tell them that I grade on effort. I know what a child's best work looks like and I grade accordingly to his/her effort on the assignment. For instance, a student who reproduces a diagram exactly will not get full credit if turning in a stick person. I am specific on ways that students could put forth more effort on the assignment and students are reinforced when doing well by getting a high grade on the assignment. I do not, however, find the need to graph and calculate the percentages of effort put forth by the students. It seems like a large waste of time that does not directly benefit the students.

The overall theme of this week's lesson can be summarized as teacher commentary. When it comes to homework and practice, "If homework is assigned, it should be commented upon" (Pitler et al, 2007, p. 187). This also can be considered as part of operant conditioning depending on the comments made by the teacher.

It seems like common sense to provide feedback for a child on every assignment; however, a trend that I see many times is no comment on a paper that received a perfect score. These students should be receiving positive reinforcement for their excellent work. It does take more time when grading papers, but I find that the students care more about assignments because they want to receive a positive note from me. Also, when writing commentary, it is important to be specific on what the child needs to improve or did well. For instance, a teacher could write "needs more effort" but the child does not know which aspect of the assignment needed more. Or instead of "good job" an educator should tell the student specifically what s/he did well.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.