Program Learning Outcome Four:
Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment
Reflection
I
spent a lot of time preparing my reflection project. The most difficult part of the project was summarizing
the rich and intense program that I had been participating in for sixty
weeks. The journey has been long but
well worth the many, many, hours of hard work!
I
am presenting my reflection project in VoiceThread. The link is below:
MATLT Program Learning Outcomes: Ranked by
Importance
I have ranked the
following Program Learning Outcomes to my individual work setting as a
kindergarten teacher in an elementary school.
I have ranked them from first to last regarding the importance each has
to me as an educator. I will briefly
discuss how I use or do not use each PLO as an elementary teacher. I will also explain why I ranked each PLO in
the particular order and the value it provides me as a kindergarten teacher.
PLO One-Demonstrate
knowledge and skills related to learning using technology
Technology is a
way to help educators design and implement learning experiences which engage
learners in complex, realistic learning (Newby et al., 2011). The MATLT program has really helped me
acquire the skills needed to bring technology into my classroom. The program has introduced me to many new
technology tools as well as how to use those tools to enhance my lessons. I feel it is very important for teachers to
know how to use technology before introducing it into the classroom. This program has not only helped me learn
about the tools but it has also provided me the benefits of technology use as
well as the pedagogy behind it. I will
use technology to bring life to the learning experiences I present to my
students. I will also share the skills I
have acquired with my colleagues. Collaboration works and brings about the best
ideas and best experiences. I look
forward to sharing my skills with as many learners, young and old, as I
can.
PLO Eight-Demonstrate
the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in
support of learning and leadership
Collaborative
planning provides opportunities for learning and growth among those who
participate, helps them look at the
change initiative from different perspectives, gain understanding of differing
viewpoints, channel conflict, and create a network and team with the
participants (Spiro, 2011). Spiro (2011)
explains participants who engage in collaborative planning grow in their expertise,
openness to diverse backgrounds, cooperation, teamwork, learning, and trust.
When I started the
MATLT program, I joined the Technology Committee at my school. I was very interested in what technology my
school had and what plans there were for new technology to be added to my
school. I learned a lot about what we
have and what we do not have. I also
learned about what others were doing to use technology in their classrooms. Last year my district formed a District
Technology Committee to discuss the future of technology for our schools. I was a member of that committee as well and
was anxious to hear some of the goals for incorporating technology into more
classrooms. The first on the list was to
provide wireless Internet service to each of the three schools in our
district. I have been into my classroom
and the wireless Internet has been installed.
I was very happy, given my district’s budget crunch, that this goal was
met so soon. I plan to continue to be on
both of these committees to help make informed decisions regarding the use of
technology in support of learning and leadership in my classroom, school, and
district.
PLO Two-Demonstrate
knowledge and skills in current and emerging instructional technologies
The world’s
knowledge base can be positioned at the fingertips of all students (Lever-Duffy
& McDonald, 2011). I think it is
important to keep up with the current instructional technology tools and find
ways, despite budget cuts or lack of time, to get these tools into the hands of
today’s learners. This program has
helped me to learn about the emerging tools and how to use them with my
students. In the last two years I have
acquired two iPads and a SmartBoard. I
have taken some additional workshops on how to use the iPads with my students
and need to learn a more about the SmartBoard and how to really use it to
enhance my lessons. Several colleagues
in my school have SmartBoards and iPads so I plan collaborate with to help me
grow even more in my skill base. I plan
to continue to read and learn about what is new in instructional technologies
and have been introduced to many sites, blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds to keep me
busy.
PLO Three-Design
learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies
to support the needs of all learners
Hall, Strangman,
and Meyer (2003) explain the model of differentiated instruction requires
teachers to be flexible in their approach to teaching and adjust the curriculum
and presentation of information to learners rather than expecting students to
modify themselves for the curriculum. Technology
offers teachers many tools to help support the needs of all learners. It appears that technology helps teachers
meet the needs of each learner as never before.
Differentiation of instruction and matching technology with the varied
learning styles of today’s learners is easier for teachers. Acquiring the tools often seems to be first
on most teachers’ lists when it comes to getting technology into the
classrooms. However, knowing how to use
it educationally should be at the top of the list even before gathering up the
tools. I am guilty of getting the tools
before knowing how to effectively use them.
I plan to work on the strategies before going further with acquiring
more tools. I need to figure a good plan
of how I will use technology-enhanced lessons to meet the needs of all of my
kindergarteners. This will not be an
easy task but one that must be done in order for technology to be effective and
my students to be successful.
PLO Five-Exemplify
ethical practices of technology usage
Access to
technology and the opportunity to learn to use it appropriately will be vital
for each student’s economic success now and in the future (Newby et al.,
2011). This learning outcome is one I am
aware of daily in my work setting. In my
district we have to get parent permission for students to use the Internet as
well as for us to post anything on the Internet about their child. We have a CIPA filter that filters out as
much inappropriate information as possible.
We are just starting to use Twitter to offer more ways for parents to
gain information in a timelier manner. We are constantly made aware of the
responsibility we have with our own privacy as well as the privacy of our
students. Privacy is an issue that will
never go away. Making parents as well as
students and administrators aware of what is happening in the classrooms and
schools as well as having open communication are the keys to keeping privacy
issues at bay.
PLO Seven-Utilize
technology to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate
findings
There are many Web
2.0 technology tools available to assist designers and instructors support
learner success. Such tools might
include tests, surveys, blogs, journals, virtual worlds, e-portfolios, digital
imaging, as well as videos (Bedard-Voorhees, Johnson, & Dobson, 2011). Wagner and Ice (2012) explain data at the
educational level can also help us build better systems of education. This learning outcome has been near the top of
my list for the past year as I have used technology just as the outcome
states. My new principal is big into
collecting student data, analyzing the data, and interpreting the results of
the data. He is also big into
communicating the findings to parents.
My husband and I have created a spreadsheet and tracking system in Excel
to the collect the reading and math scores of my students four times a year. This program also develops wonderful graphs
to present to other teachers as well as parents. The growth is very evident when the data is
analyzed and presented in a graph. Many
parents have been impressed with this new system.
PLO Four-Apply
research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment
I have learned a
lot about research to support learning in a technology-enhanced
environment. I did some research on the
iPad and how effective it was with advancing the skills in reading and math
with kindergarten students. What I found
in the little research available was that it did in fact increase student’s
skills in reading and math. In my
research, I located an article on ProQuest entitled, "Educators Say Ipads
Help Scores." In this article
Washuk (2012) reports test results showing iPad use with kindergarteners along
with improved teaching methods are improving learning. The interesting thing that I found when doing
the research was that the iPad had only been available to consumers in the last
three years. That would explain the
scant research that was out there. I
have always been slightly turned off by research before this program but hope
to one day conduct some of my own research with my own students. I think it would be fascinating to get into
their little minds to see and observe what they think about technology and various
other topics.
PLO Six-Evaluate
technology resources to facilitate effective assessment and evaluation
Program
evaluations are performed occasionally to examine how well a program is working
(United States Government Accountability Office, 2005). My school is in the process of evaluating the
AimsWeb assessment tool we currently use to test students on their reading
levels. In fact, we are in search of
even more technological tools to help us really diagnose what issues students
are having with reading. The tools are
out there but an evaluation needs to occur in order to find the best tool to
meet the assessment needs of the students a school is trying to assess. If I were to use an assessment tool found on
the Internet, I would need to perform an evaluation on that tool to know
whether or not it would be an effective tool to use with my kindergarten
students. I do not see a need to do that
anytime soon. However, it is good to
have learned about some tools to evaluate technology resources within the MATLT
program. I think this is an important
learning outcome but I ranked it further down on my list because I am not the
one who would be doing the evaluation for the entire school.
The Reasoning behind
the Rankings
I ranked
PLO One first because I feel that I should have knowledge and skills related to
learning using technology before any of the other Program Learning
Outcomes. I need to know how to use
technology before I can teach with it or teach it to my students. Next I selected PLO Eight because I felt I
needed to be a part of the leadership team that would decide what types of
technology tools would be available for me to use in my classroom. PLO Two was next on my list because once I
knew what tools would be available; I could find the current and emerging
instructional technologies to use with my students. If I didn’t have wireless access available to
me, I would not be able to provide Internet based programs for my students to
use. PLO Three was fourth on my list. Once I had some knowledge and skills related
to learning with technology, and once I knew what tools I would have available
to me, then I would be able to design learning opportunities to meet the needs
of all of my learners. PLO Five dealt
with ethical practices and found its way to the fifth spot on my list. With any Internet usage come privacy issues
and ethical practices. I would certainly
need to make sure I communicate all uses of technology in my classroom with my
administrator, students, and parents just in case any issues were to
arise. PLO Seven was sixth on my list
because it is important but the other learning outcomes need to come
first. The other outcomes are building
blocks to number seven of the PLOs.
Without the others earlier on the list, this may not exist. The seventh on my list was PLO Four simply
because research is not as important to me as the other learning outcomes at
this time. I feel I need to grow in the
first six I listed before dabbling in technology-enhanced environmental
research. The final outcome on my list
is PLO Six. It ended up in the final
spot because evaluating technology resources to facilitate effective assessment
and evaluation is not something I do or need to do in my job currently. The reading specialists tend to focus more on
this learning outcome and report their findings to the teachers. One day I may find that I need to dig deeper
into this outcome but for now, it is at the bottom of my priority list.
Design
and Development Challenges When Creating an E-Portfolio
Getting
started was the first challenge I met when deciding on what type of Web tool I
would use for my e-Portfolio. I
referenced the examples that Dr. Orlando had posted in the course materials to
see what might be expected of me in designing an e-Portfolio. He provided many examples for me to examine
which was very helpful. I am a very
visual learner who feels more comfortable and can dive right in when I have an
example to look at.
I chose to create
my e-Portfolio in a blog and decided Blogger would be the site I would build it
in. I have worked in Blogger before and
felt somewhat comfortable working with it again for this project. Early on in the course, I decided to build
the framework for my blog. I added pages
and gave each page a label. I also added
a welcome post as well as an introduction post to the home page with a link to
my Glogster introduction poster. I was
feeling pretty good about where I was at as I started adding the content to the
pages. However, frustration set in as I
was adding the content because as I would go to look at the content I had just
added, it would not look right. Some of
the pages had lost some background color and some of the spacing was off. Technology has really become my friend
throughout this master’s program but I have noticed that it is sometimes an
enemy too. A few times during this final
project it became my enemy! I decided to
get the content loaded and offer my issues up to my peers to see if anyone
could help me remedy my lack of background color and spacing problems.
I
left the ranking of the PLOs for last because I felt that assignment might be
the most challenging of the final project.
The challenge was not so much putting the PLOs in a specific order but
describing why I ranked them that way. I
could see the light at the end of the tunnel as I began the PLO ranking
assignment. I knew I was just about
finished with the final project and the master’s program as well. I pulled myself up by my boot straps and
trudged ahead. I am sure I am not alone
in the challenges I experienced during this final project and I am sure I am
not alone in the excitement of this grand accomplishment!
Overall, I am
pleased with how my project turned out.
I think it is appealing to the eye and very thorough. I am hoping it is not too thorough and that I
have not included too much information.
I enjoyed creating the e-Portfolio and think it is a great way to house
the many assignments created and recreated in EDU697. As always, I look forward to the feedback I
will receive on this final of final projects for the MATLT program.
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