Web Conference July 2nd

I set up to attend the web conference on July 7^th but due to an emergency the conference was not held.  I really did not have any questions about the assignment but I wanted to ensure that I attended to clarify if it was anything that we may have missed.  I watched the recording on July 2, 2012 at the link http://lamar.adobeconnect.com/p7jk7vntrlb/.  This was an informative web conference.  This conference talked about the reflections that are due for the course.  I had questions about some of the information that needed to be submitted during the previous week and Dr. Abernathy answered the information.  I do hate that I did not get to actually attend any of the web conferences but having them recorded helped me with completing my assignments.

Web Conference June 16th

The web conference is a good tool to record for students to look back on for clarification.  I watched the taping on June 16, 2012 on through the link http://lamar.adobeconnect.com/p22tw8cy0an/.  I like the way that Dr. Abernathy was able to go over the questions and answer as needed.  I feel that the web conferences help personalize the course and give a better fell of the traditional classroom.  Before watching the conference I was confused on whether we were to complete our podcast with a partner or just get input from our partner.  I learned of a new tool call sugarsync.com.  I plan on using this tool and dropbox.com to send large files to my colleagues.  

Web Conference June 4th

I watched the recording of the web conference that took place on Monday, June 4, 2012.  The link to the recording is http://lamar.adobeconnect.com/p3ua3kmo10e/.  I was unable to attend this conference due to my work schedule but I felt it was important to view to see if any of the questions I had were answered.  The conference went fairly smoothly considering it was the first of the course.  There were some technical difficulties with the audio but Dr. Abernathy was still able to answer the questions that asked.  I experienced some of the confusion that other in the classroom did such as the reading needed in the classroom, are we to complete discussions for the class and assignments that were outdated. I was not sure about week ones digital story assignment but I know that because I viewed this discussion it helped me organize what I needed to successfully complete this course.

Making the Movie

Making the Best of It!

Here is my story of my first deployment overseas with the U. S. Air Force.  This is a time that i will never forget.  As part of the assignment we were to tell a digital story using photos and narration. I used Photo Story 3 to create my story with music then uploaded to movie maker to attach to youtube.   I will use this format again there were some glitches I ran into doing this but I can see the potential.

Teaching with Technology Week 5

Week 5

     This weeks reading did not include as many articles as the previous weeks.  I enjoyed reading the lesson on reinforcing effort and how to use the data to motivate students to continue to learn.  Success is not always achieved on the first attempt, reinforcing effort can help the students understand that some things will take practice and determination.  The idea of having the student track their practice and participation to show how effort equals to success is something I never thought about.  I think at times we do not give student the credit about how much they can understand in relation to their learning.  I will definitely use the idea of student tracking to motivate my students in the future.  

     This is the last week in the teaching with technology course and just like the others I have learned many things.  This is one of the courses I look forward to taking and I was not disappointed.  I have learned many new Web 2.0 tools and new methods for teaching and motivating students. I truly understand how students can learn from others even when not in the same area because I have learned many things from my fellow group members although we have never spoken on the phone or in person.

Soloman, G & Schrum, L.(2007). Web 2.0: New tools, New schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 99-116

Teaching with Technology Week 4

      This week reading focused on professional development and student cooperative learning. I really found the lesson on professional development helpful because I feel that this is an area that our teachers need more support in. Technology may not be new to all teachers but I feel a significant majority do not have the knowledge or confidence to actually integrate technology in the classroom outside of assigning a word processing assignment. Web 2.0 new tools new schools talks about how the norm for professional development is a one day class with an expert who show you the product and then leaves (Solomon, 101). We are taught that when we introduce students to new information we should still go back and allow them to practice to ensure that they have the full understanding. Is it that because we are teachers that does not apply to us. When you attend a professional development class, the Instructor (Expert) is the teacher and the attendees are in the role of the student. Should we not have a chance to practice or the opportunity to ensure that we understand the information given? The reading helped me take a different perspective of how I feel professional development should be handled. It should not just be a mandatory thing but something that engages the participants. Part of the reading and videos discussed the learning environment of the student. It is important for students to work together to accomplish a common goal. Technology helps to make this easier for all kind diverse learning groups. Using the information learned in the previous weeks on UDLs, using wikis and other Web 2.0 tool, there is a wealth of knowledge that students can create new and creative things if we allow them to. When reading some of the reading it helped me come up with ideas to engage my students and encourage group activities. There are a lot of people who prefer to work independently rather than groups but if they are motivated and understand the purpose of the assignment, they may learn more than they imagine. Soloman, G & Schrum, L.(2007). Web 2.0: New tools, New schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 99-116

Teaching with Technology Week 3

      This weeks online readings focused on learning about UDL (Universal Design for Learning).  When the term UDL was first introduced I had no idea what UDL stood for, what it meant or most importantly how it would help me teach with technology.  I read the first article "Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age" and received some information about UDL but I still didn't really understand why this was a subject that I needed to know in regards to teaching students with technology.  Why devote one fifth of a class to UDL?  Why three articles instead of just one?  Well once I begin reading the third article, I begin to really understand how UDL (Universal Design for Learning) can really help in the classroom and why it should be included.  Computers are a big part of technology and often is the most utilized tool for teaching with technology; we often forget that everyone cannot always access this technology or may have to access it in a different way. 
      In an effort to provide meaningful experiences and engage a diverse group of learning the UDL tool can be used to customize lessons for all diverse learner.  In today's classrooms we have students with a variety of knowledge, student with learning disabilities and physical disabilities.  These students can learn the same thing but we may not be able to teach in the same exact way.  When dealing with Universal Design for Learning it focuses on the brain process (Recognition, Strategic and Affective).  Everyone learns differently and the UDL helps to customize the process of learning for everyone.  Blind student, Deaf student, and students with other disabilities are still able to use the computer and other technology resources sometimes just in a different way. 
      This weeks book reading focused more on the different ways technology can be used in the classroom to enhance learning.  The chapters talked about how Web 2.0 tools  (Wikis, Podcast and Flickr) can be integrated into subjects such as Math, English, Science and even Social Studies.  Although these chapter did not per se focus on UDL I can definitely see how these tool could be used to customize instruction and learning of a diverse group.  Blogs would be a great tool for a student with a speech impairment to participate in discussions or using a podcast or clip-art to teach a students with auditory issues.  This weeks reading and video were filled with a wealth of information that I will utilize in the future.

Teaching with Technology Week 2

  This week assignment we were to brainstorm about how to teach technology to a group of diverse students as a group.  I believe we did develop some ideas about how to accomplish this task.
     This weeks readings involved a lot of research about how technology affects student achievement and benefits students in the lower social economical classes.  Technology can help student become engaged in learning and can offer a lot of experiences and knowledge that a student may have otherwise not had the opportunity to experience.   I learned how student in lower social economical areas have a significant achievement growth with the use of computers.  I never really thought about students that are in higher social economical areas looking at technology as a norm versus other groups in lower social economical area valuing the technology because it is not apart of their everyday life.  I believe that technology will continue to help student of all social economical level and abilities grow.  I think it is important to let student have access to technology in the classroom.  The readings this week really confirmed my knowledge that technology is an asset in the classroom.

Teaching with Technology Week 1

WEEK 1
     The third course in my program focuses on Teaching with Technology.  I really expected to get a few hand on activities completed using the technology I learned about in my first course.  In this course we are going to work in groups to create ways to effectively teach with technology with a scenario provided by the instructors.
     In the first week we had a lot of interesting articles to read and I must say that they were all beneficial. The quote I found significant is "Technology can help to create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems." This quote was found in "How People Learn, Brain, Mind, Experiences, and School" page 207. The reason I thought this was a powerful statement is because often people look at technology as 'just another gadget' or just a place to find answers quickly. Technology has so many different uses and problem solving is one of them. If a child is actively engaged in learning and can use technology to help find some of their answers; that can spark an interest to want to find out about other things. The more knowledge a students gains, the more likely they are to explore things that are not familiar to them thus creating questions. This helps the student gain more knowledge and leads to lifelong learning.
       The articles for this weeks reading have taught me that you do not need to be an expert in order to teach technology but you will want to know what you are looking for.  Research shows that  using technology in teaching can help children grow.  I look forward to learning more about how technology can be used in classroom to positively teach students.

Research Methods

     This course really went by fairly quick.  When enrolling for the course I really did not know what EDLD 5301 Research Methods would really go over.  My thoughts were what would we research?  How would this course tie into my degree?  Is this course dedicated to one way to research or mainly just one research topic?  The first week answered all of those questions for me. The course is to learn about action research! 

     I found the books “Leading with Passion and Knowledge” and Examining what we do to improve our schools” very helpful.  I found that “Leading with Passion and Knowledge” gave detailed information on what Action Research is all about and why Principal and teachers would conduct action research.  The analogy about time to exercise and time to inquire (Dana, 15) I found amusing because I can relate to it 100 percent. The sample questions included in the text on page 65-66 really helped me develop questions of what I wanted my own action research to be about.  “Examining what we do to improve our school” helped me understand the process of developing and completing the action research plan.  This book is the perfect guide for action research. 

     The topic of time is what caught my interest. Time is always an issue. One of the things that I thought about the most was how will principals find the time to do action research with all of the unexpected issues that arise. "Lack of time will always be an issue" (Dana, 16) so if you plan on the inquiry into your schedule it will help the overall growth of the school.  I still would have liked more time to develop an action research topic because time was a factor due to the schedule for my mentor and my schedule. 

     I have stated to research about other action research about effective use of technology in the classroom and there really isn’t much data out there.  I have found that there are many articles on how to integrate technology and what kind of technology is normally used in the classroom but not about proficiency level of teachers and integration of technology.  I am excited about what the outcomes will be.  I do have some time to improve because the school I am at the research will be completed later in the year due to testing schedules.  I found the discussion board and blog comments helpful because it gave me feed back on the topic I choose. 

Action Research Topic

      Ok, we finally decided on a topic.  How does the proficiency level of the teacher affect the authentic use of technology in the classroom.  This research plan will answer will involve several components.  Does the proficiency level of the teacher affect the way he/she uses technology in the classroom?  Is technology (including technology labs) used for authentic technology use?  How are teachers implementing technology in the classroom? How can technology be used to maximize student learning?  I know that this is alot of questions to answer but the subject really will help develop a better use of technology in the classroom. 
     With the amount of technology around us it is suprisingly that the technology TEKs are not as detailed as they project the need will be in 2025.  Over a decade from now the students of today will have graduated and be in there higher level education or careers and it is important that just as we (digital immigrants) stay up with technology that the digital native must as well because it is ever changing. 

Action Research

So this week we were asked to develop some topics for actions research.  Since my focus is technology,  I decided to based them off of none other than ....TECHNOLOGY!

The three topics I have developed for action research are: 

·         Is the use of technology effectively used in the classroom?

·         Is online professional development a useful tool for getting information and training teachers? Are teachers really learning?

·         What are the comfort level of teachers to teachers to use technology in teaching reading effectively?

The subject topics are still up for review by the site supervisor but after reading more about action research this week, I feel that these are definitely topic that can be beneficial to the school.  The main topic I wanted to focus on is technology.  Technology can be involved in a lot of different aspects of the school environment.  Since my main focus is technology, it was decided to use this as an action research focus.

Without discussing the topic with my site supervisor I feel confident that these will be perfect topic to develop from.  

Education Technology Concepts

I was very excited to start the Educational Technology Program but I was really unsure what to expect. The first class, Concepts of Educational Technology, I really only expected to talk and learn about some of the ways that teachers can use technology in the classroom. When I say some of the ways, I expected to do a lot of reading and learning of the terminology of the technology world. My perceptions of what I was going to learn were a bit different from what I expected, which was great but I though I would maybe get a little more of the technical side. I learned technology terminology but more from an educators point of view. The articles that I read really helped me look at educational technology in a new way. Up into this point I was all about finding ways to incorporate technology in a lesson. The class had a hand on approach to introduce technology in the classroom and I felt that this provided a better outlook on how I can use the tools in the classroom better than reading activities in a book. The coursework activities far exceeded what I expected to learn at the beginning of this program.

The material I learned in class helped me put into perspective what I should be asking my students to do. I know that I can improve in all areas but I feel with time I will improve. I have gained enough knowledge to feel comfortable allowing my students to explore blogs and wiki in a classroom setting. I am not currently in a classroom setting but I feel that I am prepared to integrate technology within the classroom where the student will definably benefit and learn. I will be researching some websites to find blogs and social networking that will allow monitoring of post. I know that there is so much out there that my future student and I can benefit from and taking this technology class has really open up my eyes to the possibilities of an engaging technology infused classroom.

          I really look back and wonder how I was able to complete some of my assignments. I have not gotten my wiki to look like I would like but I am working on improving the appearance. Time is definitely the main factor for my lack of fully creating and structuring my wiki and blog. I know that although my wiki and blog name was a little generic time absolutely paid a factor in creating them. I really hate that I could devote the time I would like to improving and really just focusing on developing my work. Time is not lost! Although I did get everything like I would have liked, I am going to continue on and improve as I go along. The hands on activity in completing the task were well worth the time. This is only the first class and I have so much more to learn I am sure that the end result will be more than I have imagined.

      I was successful in carrying out all but two of my assignments. Now that I look back theses assignments did not include a lot of information but I have been so overwhelmed with other issues that they took away from the time that I needed to complete the assignments. I will still complete the assignments but I had to prioritize what was more important at the time and my family matters more. I really want to complete the program in a timely manner but having to attend to family is my priority at this time. Upon starting the program I was ready for a lot of assignments but I was not prepared for an internship. I really wish I had found out more before starting. I know at this time since I am not in a school and often work long hour that competing an internship at a campus or other site is not an option. I would like to network with some of the schools near my home but again timing is a factor.

            All in all I will say that the course was a success for me. I learned how to use tool through Google. I learned how I can set up my own blog and I also learned how to create a wiki. The wiki tool was something that I was introduced to about two years ago but I was never able to figure out how to actually complete one myself. The course also helps me to classify why students today seem so different from when I was a student. The digital natives have a total different way of learning that I plan on infusing myself into the culture so that I can ensure that my students are learning lessons for lifelong learning. I know that my technology skills are not at the top of the scale but I am capable of teaching, monitoring and accessing student using technology. At times it was stressful trying to work and complete assignments but I so happy that I have started the process that I can wait till June 2013 when I can look forward to helping others utilize educational technology.

Web Conference

I attended an online web conference on April 20, 2011.  This was a new experience for me.  I have taken online classes before but I never actually participated via webcam in an online forum.  

The web conference was set up to discuss the details of the required internship, answer question and issues. Although this was a required web conference, it was one that I would have not missed.  Upon research of the program I was unaware of an internship and never would have though the planning would start in the first class.  I had to get those details because in the first few weeks of the class, noticed that I maybe the only person that is not in a current teaching position.  During the web conference we were told to set up a site mentor (i.e. someone at our school) and that the program allow you to take not one but two of the TEXES exam.  Well one exam I do not qualify for because I am not in a classroom but I would still like to take it if I could at a later date.  Well I have addressed that issue as well as what I should do since I am not at a site.  Unfortunately, I will get that information at a later time. At the web conference, we were able to listen to the internship requirements, look at a power point and ask questions all at the same time. Awesome! 

All in all, I enjoyed attending the web conference because it allowed me to put faces with names.  I must say the conference was a success and technology was definitely on our side.

e-rate

More PowerPoint presentations from LaToya

The Plan

Education is important to the success of this county.  We are constantly changing and the way our students learn has changed tremendously.   Technology plays a great deal in this change and because of this the Department of Education has released a draft of the National Educational Technology Plan.  “The Plan” as I call it has goals in which we can aspire to, to ensure that as these changes are happening we are preparing our students to success.

 The Obama administration is the driving force for the technology goals.  One of the goals is to raise the amount of the nation’s population of college graduates from 39% to 60%.  The goal is aligned with President Barack Obama address to Congress, February 24^th, 2009 “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” (Obama, 2009)   The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students who graduate can succeed in the future.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Enrollment rates are unequal: 69% of qualified Whites…58% of comparable Latino and 56% of African American graduates” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007), actually enter 2 year or four year colleges.  The Plan involves actions to not only raise those percentages but make them equal across the board.

The Plan is focused on not just addressing the issue of students entering college but setting a foundation for all students (K-12) to have the ability to progress throughout school into their college years. The Plan says we can make this happen by focusing on five areas: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure and Productivity.  We can change our standards and learning objective to include technology in different domains to engage and empower learners.  We can constantly assess, revise and research technology to find creative innovative ways to ensure improvement. The way we teach can be changed if educators work as a team and allow the student to become the center of the learning environment.  We would also need to address the infrastructure by ensuring that all educators and students have access to technology in and outside the classroom and ensure that students are making progress thought out there school years.  I find that this plan does work towards changing the way that educators teach in the 21^st century.  If we align teaching the way students learn then it is bound to be a success.  Check out the full plan at http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf

HISD Technology Goals

This year marks the fifth year in HISD Long-Range Strategic Plan for Technology. Was the plan a fail or a success?

HISD goals were to: increase student achievement, increase management efficiency, improve public support and confidence in school, create a positive district culture and provide facilities to standard program.  HISD put a lot of thought into how they could best make this plan work for students and teachers alike.  They even went as far as to ask the teachers what they felt was needed.  I know asking the person that does the work is a stretch but that’s who else would know best.  (Go figure!)  Teachers weighed in and I think that this just may have helped this plan succeed. Teachers asked for more technical support and data management.  The strategy was to increase the help desk function and at time have trained personnel on campus to assist with tech issues and system updates.  They asked for a unified system that allows data exchange.  They responded by working on obtaining software that would allow effective collaboration of student record and eliminate repeat work.  After looking over the plan I can see that goals are met and can’t wait to see what other improvements that will be made. 

Unfortunately, I am not able to access information about the professional development available with the district but after speaking with several HISD employees I have learned that there are professional development opportunities available on the HISD employee portal.  I would really like to see what the plans are for HISD in the coming years.  With the budget cuts and the teacher layoffs how much of the technology budget will be affected?

Educator and Student Knowledge and Skills

Technology is all around us and weather we are tech savvy or not, just face it, we all use technology.  Many think that just typing a paper or checking your email make you capable of teaching others how to use technology.   I think that it is extremely important for educators to have the knowledge and skill to operate the material they will be allowing the student to use.  I am not saying this to say that a teacher must be an expert but they should have a working knowledge to know how to best use the technology to enhance the students learning. 

I find that it is important to find out what knowledge and skills a student has before starting a project.  Many times we underestimate a student’s knowledge of technology because as the teacher we are here to teach them.  This a huge mistake because as teachers we are also learners and learning can come from anywhere even a first grader showing us how to use a tool on the new software program.  

This is where I find technology assessments useful.  They help you to understand the skill and training in an area. This can help the person self assess what they feel that are okay, good or proficient at.  In every way I advocate for using assessments to determine the level of help that is needed.  Now having the time to compete a detailed assessment can cause a problem.  When assessments are used you are getting what the person perceives to be their level of skill.  If a student was asked if they knew how to use the computer there response may be “yes” but if that same students was asked if they knew how to use the page stroll, shortcut, email, word or excel.  You would get a better understanding of what they are capable of doing. 

I think that when ever we are working with technology it is important to know the level of the person you are working with educator or student.