Cub Fan

The most striking revelation I have had during this course is that I no longer dread doing internet research with my classes.  It is not something to be afraid of or intimidated by.  With my new found knowledge and confidence I am now able to break down the process into smaller chunks of information and teach it to my students.  I am now more comfortable combining technology, literacy, and inquiry.  I have a much more clear appreciation of literacy skills and how they are needed to locate, understand, and use information from the Internet and the need for our students to be literate in different ways.

The influence on my teaching practices going forward will be three fold.  First, I have developed an understanding of learning and reading, not only print but also Web text, which will serve as a basis and motivation for my instruction.  Secondly, I will utilize the QUEST model as an organized way to teach the inquiry process, highlighting essential literacy approaches that the students will use to be successful, and lastly I will try to bring all of these new found techniques into a  consistent outline of learning successes for my students.

The step I am taking for my professional development goal is a ‘google applications’ online course which is being offered from the University of South Carolina.  It is a five module, five week course which covers igoogle, the google calendar, google docs and collaboration, google blogger, news and groups,  google sites, and  google picasa and google talk.  The skills learned in this class will be highly transferable in my classroom at school.  There are many, if not all, of the modules in this course which I will be able to utilize to enhance the learning experience of my students as well as develop my own information literacy and technology skills.

I believe that any modification to my Personal Theory of Learning, which I developed in week one, would only give me a deeper understanding and appreciation of the topics which I spoke about seven weeks ago.  The biggest opportunity for myself will be the ability to differentiate instruction, which my administration is always talking about, but not really providing much in the way of support.  It will allow each student to pursue the course curriculum in many different ways.  My goal will be to provide alternative delivery platforms of which to choose from.  I will encourage the students to collaborate to find the one that fits them best and they will find interesting enough to keep them coming back for more.  I have written about the ‘brick wall’ previously, I want the students to find ways in which to accomplish their tasks even though they will run into road blocks along the way.  Asking me for the answer the first time they encounter an obstacle should not be their immediate act. 

My immediate adjustments will be to put any and all of my materials in digital form and have themaccessible at all times.  I want to develop a seamless, wall less classroom that is open for business 24/7.  Collaboration has been an issue previously in my classroom so I would like to have tools available right away to introduce the students to these ways of working together.  I will have a package of google docs, wiki’s, blogs, and pod casts to integrate into the classroom experience in order to enhance the course work experience.  I believe that the students will grab the opportunity to work together outside of class in a virtual environment and I anticipate a new level of production from all students top to bottom.

My long term goals are two fold.  The first will be to create a portfolio of alternative assesments to be used for each unit of my courses.  I will no longer rely on one and only one way to assess student achievement.  As we have been exposed to in the previous four courses we have taken there are numerous and creative ways to present our knowledge and level of understanding of the subject material.  This approach will help me to achieve my second goal and that is keep myself refreshed and always looking forward to ways in which to improve my delivery protocols.  The various projects and assessment artifacts will keep the courses interesting and fresh.  My courses are very current event oriented and therefore lend themselves to a real time delivery system.

http://voicethread.com/share/530765

I found the VoiceThread very easy to work with after a little trial and error.  I discovered that a artifact which I made with a new iPanel would not upoad.  I do not know why…..anyone?

Like I have said so many times before, the impact that these instructional strategies have with the principles of social learning theories are far reaching.  By incorporating the social networking and collaboration tools which are in this weeks resources, along with the all the others which we have been exposed to in recent weeks, classrooms as we know them will surely cease to exist.

Social learning theories support the performance of instructional strategies that make possible student communication, collaboration, and cooperation with others.  Connectivism increases the social learning theory to include the human network which we can then organize and manage using these new technologies.  By developing this human network we will put our students in the position of not having to literally be in the ‘classroom’ to be in class.  The classroom will no longer be defined by four walls and a door but rather by our ability to connect with each other anytime, anywhere.  Class will never ‘start’ or ‘end’.  If we manage the information correctly we will be able to collaborate with our students and them with each other as the need arises.  I find this potential flow of information and dialogue intriguing.

In this weeks readings I find the six tasks that we can use to generate and test hypotheses (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski 2007) to be very applicable to my Business course electives.  The six;systems analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making lend themselves to my goal of having a paperless classroom and doing all work in small groups and on a continual flow basis rather than starting and stopping with each new section.  My courses lend themselves to be project based and the reference in the text regarding how technology can be utilized to “allow students more time interpreting data rather than gathering the data-a process that can be tedious and error prone,”(2007) will enhance the classroom experience of generating and testing hypotheses.

The lessons will become much more ‘real’ for the students by working their way through a series of project based simulations and scenario’s which they will easily be able to apply to life experiences.  This will give much more meaning and depth of understanding to the text book dry material.  By varying the delivery process we can only increase student involvement and potentially their retention of the material.  By including them in the decision making they will  help to define the criteria and the appropriate weighting given to each desired input and outcome.  By keeping the students engaged in the planning and implementation process we can look forward to increasing knowledge and higher achievement.

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

There are many connections between the cognitive learning theories and the two chapters from this weeks resources.  The first, “Summarizing and Note Taking,” aligns with cognitive learning in that it teaches the students to ‘delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information.’  In order to accomplish this the students must be able to analyze information at deep level.  Lastly, the structure of the information can be an important aid to summarizing and using dialogue producing tools such as a blog will create the back and forth discussion which will enhance learning at all levels.

The chapter on ‘Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers’ engages the students ability to retrieve, use and organize information previously processed.  This supports the cognitive process by its use of analytical questions, advanced organizers, skimming and the use of explicit cues.

These strategies dove tail nicely in classes like mine where we are constantly layering on new knowledge which refers back to concepts from earlier dates.  We are building a data base of knowledge within our students and we need an organizational tool which will facilitate their ability to process and recall it at a later date.

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

There are several things I like and use in this section.  I really like the idea of the spreadsheet for the students to track their own effort and achievement.  I feel that one of the best things we can help them learn is self reflection and honest evaluation of their own attitude.  The ability to do this at a young age will stay with them for a very long time and benefit them in their future interpersonal relationships.

We use technology a great deal in my Marketing, Business Law, and Finance classes.  All of our work is listed on a class website with the ability to turn in almost everything electronically. One of my goals for next year is to be paperless in the classroom.  I would also like to integrate wiki’s for their group projects and podcasts for audio learning outside of the classroom.  I would like the students to feel as if the class never starts and ends by the clock on the wall.  We get together between those hours but they have ways to stay in constant contact and work together before and after the designated time frame of the class schedule.

My technology skills prior to this course were limited to my laptop and use of the ceiling mounted projector conected to said laptop.  In seven short weeks I have learned about and put into classroom use the web 2.0 tools of a class blog, a wiki for collaborative group work in my Marketing class and the use of a podcast for the Stock Market competitive events in which we are currently competing.  I see the podcast as an ongoing tool to be maintained from semester to semester by the students for school wide use and even as a link to our school website for use by the community at large.
My knowledge of the teaching and learning process has been deepened by the fact that I truly believe in the not to distant future the classroom will not be bounded by four walls and four ninety minute time slots a day.  The school day (and year for that matter) will not have start and stop times. Year round school anyone?  All students will learn and progress on an individualized plan much like the IEP system which we now have for only certain children.  The course and class process will have a constant flow of students coming in and out (not literally) and moving on to the next level at their own learning pace.
As far as being student centered I believe these web 2.0 tools allow all of us to distance ourselves from the idea that we teach a subject but rather that we help students learn about a subject by setting them off on a learning experience which they direct and we merely provide guideposts and support.  By being more learner centered we leave ourselves open to all kinds of new things that people left to their own devices will seek out based on their interests and passions which we would never be exposed to if we did all the work.  There is not a week that goes by that I don’t learn things from my students just because of the way in which they look at things that I would never have considered.
Goals would be centered around getting my school and district to allow access to these new web 2.0 tools on the school network.  On a selfish note I can get individual websites unblocked for my classroom use which I am in the process of doing.  The real challenge will be to take what I have learned and share it with staff in my building so that the students are exposed to it on a daily basis and not just in my courses.  I envision the students using wiki’s and blogs across the curriculum as part of their school experience.  This would lead to cross course project work with groups of students working together and they would not have to be in the same class just the same course.  The collaboration possibilities are endless.  So, I see my main goal to be to recruit receptive staff members and then mobilize them to work on the less receptive.  If you can get enough going on this path then the resistant ones will see they no longer fit in and will move on by their own choice.

I think the site is very well done.  Since it has only existed since 2002, I feel that it is just starting to deliver on its real potential to educators.  I especially like the ‘online tools’ section and the access to a data base of 21st century skills assessments.  I see it as a clearinghouse for all the information which is out there.  This web-based repository is named Assess21.  I also like the one called Route 21 which is a source of how these skills are supported through standards and current curriculum requirements.

I was surprised to see the involvement of so many Fortune 500 companies.  The implications for my students can only be positive.  By using the read/write web in this manner we can keep our content almost in a real time mode.  We can adjust and fine tune on a daily basis as we watch the days events unfold.  We no longer have to wait for someone to put it down on paper.  With the right equipment we can comment and react as it happens.  To me, this is very exciting.

I teach Business Courses, (Personal Finance, Marketing & Business Law) At Wando High School in Mt Pleasant SC to 10th – 12th graders.  I am going to use a blog during the 2nd semester as a classroom tool.  My idea is to have it as a discussion forum for weekly topics in the news.  We do  a lot of current events relating to business.  We play a Stock Market simulation game and I see it as a place for the kids to exchange investment ideas which are working for them.  I will also use it to post classwork and assignments so as to keep the kids and their parents informed.  I would like to post as much course material as possible there so that the students will always know where we are even if they are not in class for whatever reason.  My rationale for this site is that it is a resourse that is not limited to the 90 odd minutes a day which the class meets, but rather a open ended discussion forum which is active around the clock depending on the circumstance and need.