EDUC 7726 - Putting it all Together Final Assignment

For my final assignment for EDUC 7726 we were asked to either summarize what we have learned or make a plan for how we would use the information from the course in the future.  At our last face-to-face class, I mentioned to a few of my classmates that I am beginning to apply for positions in other school districts.  My husband received an amazing job opportunity in Avon, CT and we will be moving to the area within the year.  In order to prepare for our move, I began applying for teaching positions both as a middle school math teacher and as a technology/digital integration specialist.  I have a passion for both areas and with my new 6th year certification in Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy, I feel that I have the ability to make a difference with either position.

In order to prepare myself for the possibility of receiving a position as a technology/digital integration specialist, I created a mind map using Mind Meister to organize my vision for what my role would be in a school or district.  The following is an image of my mind map:

As a technology/digital integration specialist, I have five groups of individuals that I will impact with my position.  The first group, in my opinion, will be where I spend most of my time and effort with integrating technology.  This group consists of the teachers.  I plan on assisting the teachers with whatever information and training they may need to effectively integrate technology into their classrooms.  This would include providing professional development, finding grant opportunities for teachers that focus on technology integration, and bringing experts to the district to teach the teachers.

Ensuring that teachers are aware of 21st Century skills and how to implement them into their lessons will be another primary focus of my job.  Along with creating assessments, project based learning opportunities, and fostering Personal Learning Networks within the school, I will provide the teachers with the skills they need to integrate technology to benefit themselves and their students.

The second group consists of the students.  I do not plan on initially working one-on-one with students with integrating technology, because most of that will be done with their teachers.  Although the information they receive from teachers will be in part due to what I am able to provide them with training and resources.  It is my goal to create online tools and resources that students can access outside of the classroom that will allow them to continue to integrate technology within their academic studies and professional lives.

My third focus group, the administration within the school, will need to be one of the front runners in the effort to integrate technology.  Once the teachers see that the administration is on board and embracing the digital integration move, they will follow their leaders and be more receptive to the changes.  My role as a technology/digital integration specialist will be to get the administration on the "technology bandwagon" and provide them with the tools they need to use technology in their everyday lives as administrators.

One of the biggest complaints that I hear from teachers after staff meetings is that they do not remember the material that was presented or that they lose the handouts that were provided.  My goal is to encourage the administration to integrate technology as much as possible with the professional development and staff meeting opportunities in the school.  If videos or presentations were created of the meetings, teachers could refer back to them to refresh their memory of the information.  In addition, if teachers are absent they can access the information they missed.  The administration could also implement online assessment or surveys using a variety of programs to determine if the teachers understood the information that was presented.  A few online assessment resources available are Socrative, Poll Everywhere, and Survey Monkey.  This would provide feedback to the administration on what areas were understood and where more training and PD was necessary.

My fourth group is made up of the parents and community members.  It is important for the parents and community members to be involved with the integration of technology within a school or district.  If we want our students to be proficient with 21st Century skills, then we must ensure that all individuals who work with them are also prepared and informed of what skills they need.  The teachers and administrators in the schools can provide instruction and assistance during school hours, but once the students leave they will need the other adults in their lives to assist them with these skills.  Getting the parents and the community educated and involved with the process will be another focus of my job position.  This will ensure that the learning by the students does not stop at the end of the school day.

Finally, I have personal goals for myself as a technology/digital integration specialist.  Although I spent a year in my 6th Year certification program and feel as if I have a good amount of expertise in the area of technology integration, I can always be more educated and informed of the resources and tools that are available.  I have said it before and I will say it again, I am a lifelong learner.  I want to continue to learn about the latest and greatest tools and resources that are available for teachers to use when integrating technology into their classrooms.  This learning will not only benefit myself, but I want to share what I learn with others and help them professionally and personally integrate technology into their lives.  As an educator I think it is important for students to see that those who are teaching them also enjoy to learn and seek out opportunities to learn new things.

I will admit that I know my goals and plans as a technology/digital integration specialist are extensive.  Time, money, and patience will be needed to reach my goals.  I will need to rely on others, ask for help, and be willing and eager to learn in order to be successful.  As Benjamin Franklin once said, "You can do anything you set your mind to."

ED7726 - Soapbox Presentation Reflection

Throughout my IT&DML courses I have had a lot of firsts when it comes to taking part in new and creative ways to share information.  This week I participated in a Google Hangout where we each got on our own soapbox and presented information on a topic for 8 minutes.  Besides a few technology glitches, I was very impressed with the format of the Hangout and the information that was shared by my fellow colleagues.  The time limit on the presentations was perfect for us to disseminate our information without others getting bored with the presentation. In addition, it required me as the presenter to find and present only the key points of my topic that I felt the others needed to hear rather than drag on about the subject for 30-60 minutes.

The soapbox format is something that I want to take with me when I work with my PLN at my school and within my district.  I wish we all had time to research and find information on every topic available.  In reality though, we need to strategically determine what we have time for and what can wait until a later date.  If a group of colleagues has a common interest, such as those with me in the IT&DML courses, topics can be split between everyone and 8 minute presentations can be created.  This is a great way to get everyone involved with a learning opportunity and provide as much information as possible during a short amount of time.  I think about the number of staff meetings where we sit for hours and listen to one or two speakers present.  Most of the staff is tuned out within fifteen minutes.  If staff members knew they had a role in the meeting and would be presenting information, they might be more interested in hearing others' presentations as well.

This format could also be implemented into a middle school and high school classroom.  The students could use it when reviewing for a final exam or upcoming assessment.  Students could work in pairs to discuss a topic and present the information to their classmates.  Teachers could then post the presentations online and allow for students to view them when they are outside the classroom.  Teachers could also use an online assessment program such as Socrative to create an assessment that students would complete after viewing their classmates presentations.

In addition to the format of the Hangout, I was very impressed with the information presented by my classmates.  The topics that were discussed were very relevant to everything that we are doing in our courses and within our classrooms.  I look forward to sharing the information presented with my fellow teachers and staff members at my school.

The following link will take you to my Google slide presentation on the shift of schools from STEM to STEAM focused curriculum.

STEM to STEAM - Elizabeth Ferry

EDUC 7724 Assessing 21st Century Skills Reflection

Each week I find more and more useful and applicable information as I continue on my journey through my IT&DML courses.  For my EDUC 7724 course this week, we looked at assessing 21st century skills.  Since we as teacher are teaching 21st century learners, we should have a good idea as to what and how we should be assessing the skills they need in order to succeed in today's society.

The 21st century skills that were discussed this week included critical thinking, leadership, creativity, work ethic, problem solving, meta cognition, technology skills, collaboration, global understanding, and digital literacy.  The materials that our instructor provided to us included infographics, cartoons, and videos which focused on some of these areas of skill.  We were then asked to compare the importance of learning to the ease of assessment of each of these skills.  The following screenshot was taken of my rankings for the different skills:

I have to admit I had a hard time completing this activity.  I wanted to put everything on the more and harder end of the graph.  There were a few areas that I thought may not be as difficult to assess such as technology skills, but I think I have this thought because of the amount of information I have received from the IT&DML courses.  I see some of the others ares as harder skills to assess because we as educators are just being to implement project based learning and curriculum that require our students to demonstrate critical thinking to a level that they have never been asked to do before.

My classmates completed the same activity and it was interesting to see where they placed the different skills compared to my graph.  We all seem to be under the same impression that there are no 21st century skills that are least important to learning and easy to assess.  Critical thinking was ranked pretty high on the importance of learning and ease of assessment on most of our graphs.  This week's activities and materials had me rethinking not only my own class lessons and how I incorporate the 21st century skills into the lessons, but also how assess those skills.  There is much work to be done on my part to make sure I am doing everything I can to prepare my 21st century learners and to make sure I am correctly assessing the skills that they need.  

ED 7724 Week 9 Prompt 1: MindTwister Math

For this week's initial prompt for ED 7724, we were asked to read a chapter on integrating assistive technology into the normal education classroom.  The authors, Bryant and Bryant's, primary focus throughout the chapter is the student.  They stress the importance for teachers to keep the students' academic abilities in mind when implementing ATs into the classroom.  I was very impressed with the number of resources that were listed and described in the chapter.  We were asked to pick one and investigate it a little more to provide a description, pros and cons of the system and anything else that would allow my fellow classmates to have a better understanding of the product.

Since I am a math teacher, I wanted to look into one of the math resources that were listed in the chapter.  I chose the math program designed to assist students with computation.  The program's name is MindTwister Math and it is created by Edmark, Inc.  The program is intended to be used by students in elementary grade.  Through my research, I found different reviews stating the projected age range of the participants.  The lowest grade that was recommended was 1st, while the highest grade was 4th grade.  Although most of the reviews have found that even 5th grade students enjoy using the software.

Photo courtesy of: www.rmlearning.com

The software itself tests students math computation abilities.  It offers assistance to those students who struggle with math skills, but also challenges though who are proficient.  In addition to single player use, the program is designed to allow users to cooperatively play with their peers all while taking part in a competitive academic program.

The following are reviews that I have read through and found both pros and cons of the program:
Discovery Education Review
The Journal Review
SuperKids Review
AllGame Review

Instead of asking you to read through each of the reviews, I have compiled the pros and cons into bullet form to detail how others view the product and its success as an AT device.

Pros:
-  User-friendly from both the students and teacher/parent standpoint
-  Age-appropriate
-  Problems reflect real world math examples
-  Multiple kids can participate at once
-  4 skill levels are available for participants
-  Students do not need to use a mouse with the program.  A keyboard will suffice with completing the tasks that are presented.
-  Can be used both at home and at school.
-  Price point is very good: $69.95 for two disks used for a school or a lab pack for 6 devices is $179.95.
-  School program offers teachers reproducible items to use in the classroom.
-  In addition to teaching and reinforcing math skills, it also teaches test taking strategies such as eliminating answers and using reasoning to find the correct solution.

Con:
-  There is one portion of the program that requires fast-twitch muscle reaction.  Some students with disabilities may find it difficult to complete this program due to the requirements of the user.
-  Student data is not available for teachers to analyze.
-  Competitive nature of the game can be difficult for young students to understand.
-  Students who cannot respond quickly may become frustrated with the fast response requirements of the program.
-  Can be used on desktops or laptops, but could not find anywhere that it states that it could be used on tablets or personal devices.


Overall I was impressed with what I saw from the program.  We are looking at different Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention strategies and programs to use at our school for math.  MindTwister Math seems to be a good resource that could be implemented into an elementary classroom.

EDUC 7726 Formative Assessment Middle School Math Class

This week we took a deeper look at formative assessments in my EDUC 7726 course.  Formative assessments are widely used throughout education to determine where our students are with a particular topic or content strand.  Teachers use these assessments to modify their lessons to help the students better understand information.

For this week's assignment, we were asked to select 3 different types of formative assessments that teachers could use technology with in their classrooms.  I have used technology in my classroom often, but not as often as I would like with formative assessments.  Since I was on a class field trip this past week as well, I decided to ask my students what type of technology they would be interested using with formative assessments.  They gave me a lot of ideas of things they used in classes before and also some that they have heard about from friends at other schools.  The 3 different types of formative assessments that I have chosen to discuss this week cannot all be applied into my own personal classroom, since my school district does not allow bring your own device (BYOD), but I wanted to investigate some of the ideas that my students have heard about that they would like to eventually use for formative assessments.

For a formative pre assessment, the teacher will create a presentation using PowerPoint that utilizes the TurningPoint system that allows students to use clicker devices to submit answers to questions on the screen.  The teacher will receive immediate feedback of each student's answers.  In addition, the students will see the results after the polling is complete.  The teacher will have the chance to address each question and explain the correct solution.  Once the pre assessment is complete, the teacher can use the data to determine what content areas need to be covered and what prior knowledge the students have and what they might need more background information in prior to the unit.

Throughout the unit, students will use the InteractMath website to complete lesson checks at the end of each lesson.  In addition to being able to print out their results, the students can also check their answers as they go through each lesson and the site provides feedback if the answer is incorrect.  This is great tool for students because of the feedback portion and for teachers since it is already created and aligns with the content material.  There are a variety of courses that are available on the website, which allows for teachers to differentiate if needed when providing instruction.  Although this site is run by Pearson publishing, the interactive lesson checks can be used with any middle school or high school math class.  The chapters might not align perfectly with other textbooks, but the content is the same across math courses.  A teacher might need to do a little front work finding the lesson that correlates with the lesson they want the students to complete.

As a formative post assessment, the teacher will create an assessment using Socrative.  If a school offers BYOD, the students can use their own personal devices to complete the assessment.  The system also provides the teacher the opportunity to open an assessment after school hours and allows students to complete the assessment at home or outside of school not during school hours.  There is a tutorial that can be found on the Digital Texts and Tools website.  This tutorial will walk teachers through the process of setting up an account and creating assessments.

It was important for me to find formative assessments that would not only engage students, but that would also provide immediate feedback to the students and the teacher.  Since most classrooms may not be equipped with enough devices for all students to use at once, it is important for teachers to keep in mind access and availability to technology.  It was also important for me to find programs that offer immediate data that is collected and displayed for teachers to analyze and use for their instruction.

EDUC 7726 Assessing Technology and Digital Competency

It is always a great opportunity to work with my fellow classmates on group projects.  This week for our EDUC 7726 course, I had the opportunity to work with Amy, Gail and Tim to create a Prezi on assessing technology and digital competencies.  Throughout our IT&DML courses, we have constantly read and researched the multitude of requirements and standards that our students will be asked to complete during their schooling.  These skills are not only necessary for our students, but also for the teachers to become proficient in, so that they can teach the students how to be successful digital citizens.

The first area that our group looked at was the definition of technology skills and digital competencies.  For this portion of our presentation we focused on two areas.  The first area focused on the ORMS Model which identifies that students should be successful in completing Online Reading Comprehension, Online Collaborative Inquiry, and Online Content Creation.  For the second focus of defining the terms we looked at the Common Core standards that were related to technology.  We looked at what our students would be asked in reference to technology in order to meet the standards of the Common Core.  I was especially interested in this portion of the research because everyday I am learning something new about the Common Core that I can implement into my classroom.

For the second part of our presentation, our group looked at describing and evaluating strategies that teachers would use to assess students' digital proficiencies.  It is one thing for us as teachers to instruct our students on technology skills and digital competencies, but in order to ensure they meet the standards that are set we need to make sure we are using adequate assessments to determine if they are meeting the objectives.  The following is a link to our Prezi: Assessment of Digital Literacy and Technology Skills.  You will see on the last few slides that there are a variety of items that teachers should look at when assessing their students' technology and digital competencies.  I found the checklist particularly interesting because students could use it when completing a project to make sure they are meeting all of the requirements for when they conduct online research.

One thing that I think we all have to keep in mind when we are addressing the issue of defining and assessing our students' technology skills, is that we will need to keep updated with changes and additional skills that our students will be required to know.  These changes will be a result of the continuous advancement of technology that our students, who are 21st century learners, will experience throughout their education.

I would like to thank my fellow classmates who worked with me on this presentation.  It is such a rewarding experience to work with different individuals on group projects.  The expertise and knowledge that they demonstrated assisted with the successful completion of the assignment.  Thank you again!

EDUC 7726 Best Practice and Assessment

This week for EDUC 7726, we were asked to select a section from best practice in assessment and add ideas of how technology could support the assessment.  I decided to select section 1.A. Purposeful: Used to inform and guide teaching.  I feel as if this is crucial topic for any teacher to make sure that their assessments are purposeful and are used to guide the instruction in the class.

It seems as if our students in our school are always being assessed.  There are times in my class that I have to take a step back from my instruction to make sure that the data I am gathering from the assessments are used to help me determine what and how I am teaching a specific topic.  It is vital for teachers to use the assessments to gather data and provide instruction based on the data.

One of the resources that I found helpful and full of information and additional resource links was Edutopia's Ten Tips for Project Based Learning.  Tip #5 discussed how to gather feedback fast to assess your students’ understanding of a topic.  This reminded me of the daily check ins or Do Nows that we perform in our classrooms to identify where the students are with a topic and what additional information or instruction might need to be done in class that day to ensure the students are fully understanding the topic.  

My recommendation to other teachers is to continue the assessment strategy of collecting and gathering data fast by having their students complete quick check ins, do nows, or exit slips.  Once their students have completed the work though, the teachers need to use it to drive their instruction and ensure that the students are where they need to be in order to meet the desired outcome of the lesson/class.  Sometime there does not seem to be enough time in the day to look at all the papers and results from the quick assessments, but I truly believe they offer valuable data that could make a huge difference in a child’s education.

One way to use technology to assist with purposeful assessments is to have teachers have their students use a Google form or an online site that offers the students an opportunity to complete quick assessments such as Socrative or Engrade. These sites can provide immediate data for the teachers to use to drive their instruction. The teacher can use the immediate data then to provide feedback to the students on their understanding of the topic and can make changes to the upcoming lessons to address any issues that might exist.

There are other online resources that can be used for assessment. Scholastic - Read 180 is an online resource that provide purposeful assessment that allows students to take part in instruction that is based on their abilities and understanding. This program is designed for literacy. In addition there is Scholastic - Math 180 that is designed for math.

According to Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, it is important for teachers to provide timely feedback to their students. Technology can provide timely feedback to students on their assessment results. It can also provide teachers with information on what their students know and they then can select strategies that will address the weaknesses in a content area.