Final Reflection - CEP 812

Effective Strategies


Throughout this course, I have been reminded that just with teaching without technology, teaching with technology requires careful consideration of the teaching strategies that will maximize student learning.  Perhaps for some concepts, technology does not help enhance learning.  Sometimes tutorials will be more appropriate than drill and practice and sometimes simulations will be better than drill and practice.  It's necessary to evaluate what you want the students to gain from the lessons and then look at what strategies using technology may be most effective.

Evaluating Uses of Technology

I try to find web-based technologies that can work in my setting.  This is often challenging considering the little access we have to computers and the Internet.  Therefore, it's important to consider how things may be modified to be able to use with what we are given as well as how I can directly incorporate it into something we are already doing.  I find that when I am able to do this, I am not modifying our learning, but modifying how we reach the end result given what resources we have. 

Personal Goals

I am continually learning how to incorporate technology with limited resources.  It may often seem like I sound like a broken record.  I am finding that it is becoming easier to incorporate technology in ways that work with my classroom.  I may not be able to include all students all the time, but the nature of how my classroom is structured allows for me to provide students opportunities that best meet what they are doing at the time.  This may mean that I work with one student on a particular project and teach them something new, while another students learns a different technology.  We are learning together how we can best use the resources we have. 

Beginning in January, I will be serving on a committee that will look at how we can best improve the technology situation at our school.  I'm looking forward to taking back what I have learned in these three courses and helping to educate others. 

New Goals

For now, I think it is best to continue developing goals that I have already begun to meet.  This will mean perhaps taking them a step further.  It is a continual process, but I am pleased with how things are progressing.  As stated earlier, I will continue to help my school gain resources and skills that will help teachers feel empowered to use technology in their classrooms.  Long-term, I hope to complete the Masters program associated with these three certificate courses.

TechQuest Project Evaluation

My experience with this TechQuest project has given me the opportunity to think through how to use technology to solve a particular problem or need.  In doing so, I have been able to understand the importance of the planning step in order to be sure that technology is being used effectively so as to help solve the problem or need being addressed.  Without this step, I do not think that similar projects will be as successful. 

It would be interesting to see whether a project like this could be completed for a whole school.  Perhaps a committee would be given a problem of practice within their setting; it would then become the committee's job to see how technology could be effectively used to solve the problem.  This could be difficult in large schools, but could work in a setting such as mine. 

One thing I may do differently is create a project that will not take quite so long.  I am still excited about my project and seeing how students grow throughout the process, but I worry that my time frame will be too long.  It may be hard to keep excitement going for several months.

In regards to this specific project, one lesson I learned is not to be afraid to include additional technology that may make things run more smoothly.  For instance, writing survey questions should have been done using technology.  Despite having few resources, I think this could have made this process go more quickly had we chosen to use shared documents or wikis to compile our questions. 

Due to the nature of my classroom (multi-age, grades 6-8), I will not be able to repeat this particular project each year.  However, I could put this project in a three-year rotation so that it comes up once for each middle school student.  Similar projects could be completed during the remaining two years.  I do feel that it has been successful thus far and will, therefore, try to repeat it again in a few years.  Depending on how the remainder of the project unfolds, I may choose a different time frame try to shorten the length of time of the entire project.  Careful evaluation of this entire process will be necessary to determine how to do so, as it may be difficult to know what to cut.  All in all, I think the project is valuable for students and uses technology effectively.    

TechQuest Project Implementation

The implementation of my TechQuest project has begun.  Please click here to listen to the podcast and hear how it is going so far.

Internet Research for TechQuest Project

Search Results
When conducting a search for resources for my TechQuest project, I focused on a few aspects of the project.  This included resources for mini-lessons to use in the classroom alongside the TechQuest project to make sure that I do not conduct the project in isolation, resources to help me understand some other ways that schools and educators have used collaboration to help bring the world to their students, and resources that may help in the implementation of the project.  For the most part, I was pleased with the results.

Mini-lesson Resources:
Facing the Future - This website contains free downloads for curriculum on global issues and sustainability.  Some of these resources could be used for mini-lessons to help students think critically about what to include in their survey, how they would like to incorporate learning about these issues with collaboration with people around the world, and begin to apply what they learn.  Facing the Future also provides background information on global issues and ideas for service learning.

Globalization 101 - This site also provides suggested lesson plans on a variety of issues and "issue briefs" that describe some fundamentals for particular issues.  It also provides news analysis and videos on different issues. 

Schools Using Collaboration Resources
ePals - ePals provides safe collaborative technology for schools to connect.  It includes ePals projects that allow for collaboration through the use of forums and the opportunity to connect with classrooms around the world.  This site also includes a classroom finder to help connect classrooms as well as a student page that provides the chance to respond to questions and see what students around the world say. 

Sister Schools - This is a program that links schools in Seattle with school programs in Uganda.  It specifically works to help students in the U.S. learn social responsibility by learning to serve those who are in need.

Students of the World - This French non-profit association seeks to bring world culture's to young people around the world.  You can find pen-pals, blogs, and forums for use around the world.

Seeds of Learning - Seeds of Learning has a sister school program that pairs U.S. classrooms with classrooms in Central America.  They send themed packets to each other throughout the school year.

The Teachers Corner - This site provides schools the opportunity to engage in collaborative online projects.  It also provides schools the opportunity to find pen pals or key pals.  Collaboration projects allow students to work on the same topic and share activities, findings, and reflections online. 

Implementing the Project Resources
ePals - The portion of this site described above that could aid in the implementation of my project is the chance to upload your own projects.  This could be an option for us as we continue to work on our project.

Learning from the Search
Global issues, globalization, and collaboration are current hot topics in education.  Therefore, this search was fairly easy to conduct.  I mostly used Google and felt that this provided the information I needed.  In some ways, there is a wealth of information out there, so the tricky part can be sifting through it to see what is actually useful.  I discovered that there are many sister schools programs as well as sites offering school pen pals.  Next time I may search for journals that provide articles on specific schools and what they have done that worked really well.  It seems that even though this idea doesn't seem to have a strong verbal push, the number of resources available that allow schools around the world to collaborate is quite numerous.  I'll be interested to see how this plays out in the future and whether we will see this more as organizations move towards using Web 2.0 technologies to connect these schools.  
 

TechQuest Project Description

The Global Student

According to the Michigan Department of Education, “The challenges of the 21^st century will require students to be globally literate regarding major global issues and the processes necessary to inquire about issues, gather information and make decisions that arise during their lifetimes.  They will need to be ready and willing to assume citizenship responsibility and to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a pluralistic, democratic society in an interdependent world.” (K-8 Social Studies Grade Level Content Expectations, Michigan)  There is no doubt that globalization is becoming a large part of our society.  American students often do not understand globalization or the importance of understanding people and cultures from around the world.  At a small school such as the one where I teach, students become comfortable with their close-knit community and may not consider those in their greater world community.  However, it is becoming apparent that being a part of a global world is something that students will need to understand and yet this can be difficult to teach children.  This is a need in educational settings across the country.  A solution that helps to bridge the gap between a world that is not globally connected and one that is will be more critical as we move further into the 21^st century. 

 This problem is apparent with middle school students because many young adolescents are self absorbed.  Additionally, Ann Arbor Learning Community has goals written into its charter that support the growing need for students who are moving toward becoming globally responsible citizens.  Web 2.0 technologies are opening the door for collaboration and methods that will aid schools in using technology to solve this problem.  Indeed, the use of technology can be a solution, and one that will have a deep and lasting impact on the students of today and tomorrow.     

Addressing the Issue

The Project

            The goal of this project is that students will utilize a survey, Web 2.0 technologies, and website design to engage in a thoughtful exploration of global issues.  It is designed to give students the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning by allowing them to incorporate issues that are important to them. 

 The study will begin by marking on a map in the classroom where the students and teacher know people around the world.  A list of these places will be included on a class wiki that will be used to collect ideas and survey questions.  Students will collaborate with one another to determine survey questions and to create a survey using Survey Monkey.  Once the survey is written, students will send the survey to the list of people they created at the beginning of the project.  Upon completion of the survey, students will be given copies of the results to analyze.   Students will now look at themes or patterns that can be seen in the survey results and create a website to display these themes and patterns.  The website will then be published and sent to those who completed the survey so that my students can communicate with them what they learned through this portion of the project.

 One group we hope to target with this survey is middle school students in the north of France.  The class has a connection to these schools through the instructor’s sister.  The ultimate goal is to create a relationship with these schools where the students collaborate with one another.  Together, the students will create a brochure to be placed on the website created in the first part of this project.          

  A third part of this project will allow students to move toward action.  In this part of the project, small student groups will address a particular issue that they discovered throughout the first two parts of the study.  Each group will use a Web 2.0 technology to collaborate online before creating a page on the class designed website.  Their page will address the issue their group chose to address.  

             The multi-layered approach to this project will aid the impact on student learning.  This project has scaffolding throughout, which will allow students to continue to move beyond their previous knowledge and to put this knowledge into practice. 

Current Research and Resources

Facing the Future

The Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for Social Studies

Globalization 101  

The Miniature Earth

United Nations Millennium Goals

Implementation Plan

This TechQuest Project will be implemented in three parts over the course of several months.  Part one will begin immediately. 

1. Survey, Survey Results, and Web Design (Nov.-Jan.) – During this part of the project, students will create the survey, analyze the survey, and design a website to display information they gained through this “experiment”.
2. A Case Study (Feb. – March) – This part of the project will give students the opportunity to focus on one area of the world, in this case, France.  Students will continue to use Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with students in France and will work with them to create a bilingual brochure to add to the website. 
3. Action Plan (April-May) – The final part of this project will require students to address a particular “issue” that they discovered throughout Parts I and II. 

The Four Common Places of Education:

1. Teacher –

• The instructor for this project will be a middle school (grades 6-8) social studies and math teacher.
• Throughout the project, the teacher will serve as a facilitator and coach while students have the opportunity to help lead and guide parts of the project.
• Ultimately and ideally, the learner will also become a teacher for others.

 2. Learner –

• This project will be done in a multi-age classroom with students ranging from sixth to eighth grade.
• Most of these students have average access to technology at home.
• As the project progresses, the learner should move from students in Ann Arbor, MI to include people from around the world.

 3. Subject matter

• Learning to become global students – expanding our horizons by exploring people around the world
• A Case Study – narrowing our focus to gain in depth understanding of students in France
• Action Plan – using our knowledge to move us toward action

 4. The Setting

• The project will mostly take place in a middle school classroom at a public charter school in Ann Arbor, MI.
• The classroom has limited computers, so some students will also work at home to help keep things moving at a steady pace.
• It is hopeful that the setting will expand and move beyond the walls of our small school as students collaborate with people around the world.

Project Description - Draft #2

According to the Michigan Department of Education, “The challenges of the 21^st century will require students to be globally literate regarding major global issues and the processes necessary to inquire about issues, gather information and make decisions that arise during their lifetimes.  They will need to be ready and willing to assume citizenship responsibility and to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a pluralistic, democratic society in an interdependent world.” (Sixth Grade Social Studies Grade Level Content Expectations)  There is no doubt that globalization is becoming more and more a part of our society.  American students often do not understand globalization or the importance of understanding people and cultures from around the world.  At a small school such as the one where I teach, students often become comfortable with their close-knit community without considering others in their greater world community.  However, it is becoming apparent that being a part of a global world is something that students will need to understand and yet this can be difficult to teach children.  We need to solve this problem and learn how to bridge the gap between a world that is not globally connected and one that is.

I see this problem with middle school students to be important because so many young adolescents are self absorbed.  Working in a charter school, I have additional goals that accompany our school's philosophy.  One goal we have in our charter is that students will learn to become globally responsible citizens.  How will we do this if we do not consider the ways that students will be impacted the most?  How are we to teach students to be globally literate and make informed, reasoned decisions, without taking them to experience these places first hand?  Technology may have an answer for this compelling problem.    

            For this project, we will use the Internet to create a survey that will be sent to students around the world.  We will start by marking on a map in the classroom where we know people around the world.  These people do not need to be people we know well, but to whom we at least feel comfortable sending something.  Students will then create lists of questions for the survey.  Since this will not be a project on which we spend all of our time, we will utilize Web 2.0 technologies so that students can collaborate online to decide what questions should be on the survey.  The survey will be created using Survey Monkey.  After we send the survey and students analyze the results, a team of students will create a website that will display what they have learned through this survey.  Other students will have the opportunity to look at different themes discovered while creating the survey and will create pages to add to the website.  The website will then be published and sent to the same people so that my students can communicate what they learned through this project.

 One group I hope to target with this survey is the middle school students my sister is currently working with in the north of France.  The ultimate goal with this group is to create a relationship with these schools where the students collaborate with one another.  For my students, this will be one way of them expanding their global knowledge and for my sister’s students it will be part of their English lessons.  I then hope to meet some of these students when I visit my sister in France and will be able to incorporate that into my classroom as well.  This is part of the project that will not be completed until after the course is finished.        

Class Reflections

Coming into this course, I felt I had a pretty decent background on many of the topics discussed, perhaps with the exception of using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.  My undergrad tech class required us to make a website, and my teaching portfolio was done with PowerPoint in a similar way that the StAIR project was.  However, I still feel this class broadened my horizons and required me to think about effective use of technology.  I have been challenged to think about how technology can be a part of my instructional teaching, not just the means to an end.  I have given thought to the idea that my own "style" of teaching can be shown using technology.  Creating a StAIR or WebQuest require the teacher to think about the teaching going on, not just the result or what the student will create.  I liked being challenged to think about how to most effectively carry this out and feel that some instructional strategies such as metaphors, inductive/deductive reasoning, simulations, and the rule-example work quite well with integrated technology. 

I still sometimes worry that too many teachers just use technology for the sake of technology and I am concerned that this will lead to students depending too much on it or not learning some critical skills.  As much as I would like to incorporate blogs into my classroom, I have mixed feelings about this.  I worry about students losing face time with each other.  Will they simply become content with sitting in front of a computer to communicate with other people and lose the face-to-face communication skills?  I know it might seem drastic now, but if I think long term, I can't help be wonder about this.

I do feel I have learned some new ways to be able to use technology effectively despite not having many resources.   In fact, I am able to incorporate much of what we studied this semester without too much trouble.  I am eager to continue to see how I can improve the use of technology in my classroom. 

I am looking forward to serving on a committee at school that will be looking at how to improve the technology at our school.  I feel this class has aided in allowing me to know ways to help lead this committee.  My goal is to do just that, and then work to train some of our teachers in how to use technology effectively.