III. Model digital age work and learning
rockymounttelegram.com
Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work
processes representative of an innovative
professional in a global and digital society.
a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems
and the transfer of current knowledge to new
technologies and situations
b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents,
and community members using digital tools
and resources to support student success and
innovation
c. Communicate relevant information and ideas
effectively to students, parents, and peers using
a variety of digital age media and formats
d. Model and facilitate effective use of current
and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze,
evaluate, and use information resources to
support research and learning
processes representative of an innovative
professional in a global and digital society.
a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems
and the transfer of current knowledge to new
technologies and situations
b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents,
and community members using digital tools
and resources to support student success and
innovation
c. Communicate relevant information and ideas
effectively to students, parents, and peers using
a variety of digital age media and formats
d. Model and facilitate effective use of current
and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze,
evaluate, and use information resources to
support research and learning
It can be difficult to take what I already know and have learned in one format and apply it to something completely new. Sometimes it can seem much easier to format it on a blackboard, on a piece of paper, or in a worksheet. But the technological age certainly provides opportunities and challenges which allow information and knowledge to be spread in new ways and to people who may never have been able to have access to that information before. It also allows students with different learning styles to have new opportunities to receive education, and gives the teacher new ways to communicate with students, families, and colleagues around the world.
The concept map is a great way to digitize the knowledge I have and put it in a format that students and parents can easily and quickly see and comprehend. For my concept map, I was preparing a lesson plan on the history of twentieth century innovations. Instead of planning out my lesson on a legal pad or a Word document, I created an image centered concept map using Inspiration, a software program designed to help teachers and students plan and create concept maps in a variety of formats. On my concept map, I stated the objective of my lesson as well as the standards my lesson would cover. I then listed the instructional content, the sample project that I would create and show the students, as well as the assessment criteria wherewith I would grade the student projects.
The concept map is a great way to digitize the knowledge I have and put it in a format that students and parents can easily and quickly see and comprehend. For my concept map, I was preparing a lesson plan on the history of twentieth century innovations. Instead of planning out my lesson on a legal pad or a Word document, I created an image centered concept map using Inspiration, a software program designed to help teachers and students plan and create concept maps in a variety of formats. On my concept map, I stated the objective of my lesson as well as the standards my lesson would cover. I then listed the instructional content, the sample project that I would create and show the students, as well as the assessment criteria wherewith I would grade the student projects.
This concept map gave me two advantages over a regular lesson plan in a Word document. First, it allowed me some extra practice in modelling my thoughts and knowledge in a technological format, which will ultimately allow those thoughts to be shared with a far greater audience than I might otherwise be able to teacher. Secondly, I would easily be able to use this concept map as an outline for students to take notes on, or as something to share with parents as an example of what their children are learning - and the projects that their children need to complete!
Digitizing knowledge and information does not need to stop with in-class work - it can extend to communication with students and their families. I created an Excel spreadsheet to work as a gradebook for an imaginary course. By using this gradebook, I can easily input the original quiz, homework, or final assessment grades and have the students' final grades appear by a pre-written formula.
This gradebook is an excellent method to see the total results of my whole class in one area and one format. The grade distribution chart, where I might look first, tells me that while most of my students are doing relatively well, there is a sharp dropoff of student understanding below the C grade. No students have received a D, and 1 student has received an F. This signals to me immediately that I need to consider a form of differentiated instruction for Jake Laughlin.
After looking at the overall grade distribution, I can look at the comparative scores for students on tests and papers. Jacob Bressner, for example, seems to be struggling a little bit with his writing (term paper), but did an excellent job on his project. On the other hand, John Isen had a very hard time with his project (time management issues?), but has done an excellent job studying for his quizzes and exams, and also in writing. This comparative knowledge will help me know my students strengths and weaknesses and be able to individually coach them in areas in which they need help.
I then used the data from my gradebook, created a mail merge, and wrote a form letter to my students' families to let them know what we were doing in class as well as to tell the families what grades their students were receiving at any given time. Again, the ease of having an electronic version of my mailing list, my student grades, and what I want to say to parents all in one place not only makes it more effective for me to communicate with students and parents, but makes it more likely that I will. Were I to use this system in an actual school system, I would create not only a form mailing letter but a form email that I could mail merge and send out quickly to parents. This would allow parents to collaborate with me more quickly and efficiently in making sure that their students stay on top of their homework and are supported fully in their academic endeavors as well as their outside activities.
Digitizing knowledge and information does not need to stop with in-class work - it can extend to communication with students and their families. I created an Excel spreadsheet to work as a gradebook for an imaginary course. By using this gradebook, I can easily input the original quiz, homework, or final assessment grades and have the students' final grades appear by a pre-written formula.
This gradebook is an excellent method to see the total results of my whole class in one area and one format. The grade distribution chart, where I might look first, tells me that while most of my students are doing relatively well, there is a sharp dropoff of student understanding below the C grade. No students have received a D, and 1 student has received an F. This signals to me immediately that I need to consider a form of differentiated instruction for Jake Laughlin.
After looking at the overall grade distribution, I can look at the comparative scores for students on tests and papers. Jacob Bressner, for example, seems to be struggling a little bit with his writing (term paper), but did an excellent job on his project. On the other hand, John Isen had a very hard time with his project (time management issues?), but has done an excellent job studying for his quizzes and exams, and also in writing. This comparative knowledge will help me know my students strengths and weaknesses and be able to individually coach them in areas in which they need help.
I then used the data from my gradebook, created a mail merge, and wrote a form letter to my students' families to let them know what we were doing in class as well as to tell the families what grades their students were receiving at any given time. Again, the ease of having an electronic version of my mailing list, my student grades, and what I want to say to parents all in one place not only makes it more effective for me to communicate with students and parents, but makes it more likely that I will. Were I to use this system in an actual school system, I would create not only a form mailing letter but a form email that I could mail merge and send out quickly to parents. This would allow parents to collaborate with me more quickly and efficiently in making sure that their students stay on top of their homework and are supported fully in their academic endeavors as well as their outside activities.
Finally, I had the opportunity to research and model the use of digital tools to support my own learning, and thus, that of my students. I collaborated with my peers on a discussion board to use digital resources to research digital resources that would help us in our teaching careers. As a history major, I was interested in finding technological resources beyond videos of archaeological digs - which are great, but only minimally helpful in teaching thousands of years of history. To my delight, I found a website called Flipped History on which one teacher explains his experience flipping a history classroom and offers help to other teachers who are interested in the possibility. This provides me not only with digital tools, but also a digital professional network where I can find more help on how to teach my students best. Another history student also made a great point about the value of blogging in a classroom - an innovative idea that could really support student learning by keeping them engaged and collaborating with one another.
Ultimately, all of these projects and discussions allowed me to demonstrate my own ability to use technology in a global society while also being able to connect individually and personally by means of technology and face-to-face communication with each of my students, as well as their families and my colleagues.
Iv. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
toledoblade.com
Teachers understand local and global societal
issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital
culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in
their professional practices.
a. Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal,
and ethical use of digital information and
technology, including respect for copyright,
intellectual property, and the appropriate
documentation of sources
b. Address the diverse needs of all learners by
using learner-centered strategies providing
equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources
c. Promote and model digital etiquette and
responsible social interactions related to the
use of technology and information
d. Develop and model cultural understanding and
global awareness by engaging with colleagues
and students of other cultures using digital age
communication and collaboration tools
issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital
culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in
their professional practices.
a. Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal,
and ethical use of digital information and
technology, including respect for copyright,
intellectual property, and the appropriate
documentation of sources
b. Address the diverse needs of all learners by
using learner-centered strategies providing
equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources
c. Promote and model digital etiquette and
responsible social interactions related to the
use of technology and information
d. Develop and model cultural understanding and
global awareness by engaging with colleagues
and students of other cultures using digital age
communication and collaboration tools
edutopia.com
If we expect our students to be good, responsible citizens in our nation, we need to teach them how it can be done - a lesson which is learned primarily from the model of parents and educators. This is no less important in the digital society than it is in the classroom, community, or global society.
I have had a number of opportunities both to learn about and to demonstrate my ability to understand digital responsibility issues in a global society as well as my ability to act legally and ethically when presenting information that I have gleaned from another. My first opportunity to study and model global and societal awareness was through the video case study. While this project was completed primarily to give me some ideas as to how to effectively integrate technology into my classroom, the video that I studied helped me engage global awareness of different cultures - especially minorities in America - who live in our own country and to whom we owe respect and help where it can be given.
I watched a video called "Anatomy of a Project: 'Give Me Shelter'" on Edutopia. It was showing the work that an 11th grade social studies/English class did to create a multimedia presentation on the homeless in their city. The teacher was very involved in helping the students organize the project, as well as presenting some scaffolding to help the students determine their plan. The students were very interested in the project, both because they were in charge of many of the portions, but also because they were learning about a subject which they knew existed (the homeless) but had very little first-hand knowledge of.
The students were allowed to use and learn to use a number of different technologies - both the standard software on a laptop or iPhone, as well as audio/visual editing software such as GarageBand and iMovie. After the students interviewed their subjects, took photos and videos, and planned their individual scripts, the teacher asked the students to take what they had written and create one seamless video from each of their individual projects, thereby requiring the students to use higher order thinking in terms of evaluation and analysis as well as improving their ability to work as a team.
Other projects like this would be good to do in a high school social studies classroom - even classes not focused on present history/civics could use video creation to represent what they learned from people who lived through a war (Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm), or to create their own representations of historical events. One project I would like to try with students would be to have them use Autodesk's animation capabilities in small groups to create a short movie or animated game about whatever historical event they are studying at the time. Knowledge of how to use this software is not only useful for game and movie designers, but could also be useful to students who wish to go on to study engineering, architecture, etc.
I was able to introduce and discuss this video with my classmates on an online discussion board, allowing them to join with me in learning about the homeless society in our own country and considering the global implications of how we can make an impact simply through teaching and using technology with our students.
The most definite way in which I was able to learn about and demonstrate my knowledge of ethical responsibilities in a digital environment was through a collaborative wiki that I created with three of my classmates. Together we worked to create a document in which we explained the issues surrounding plagiarism and copyright, particularly as they affect educators. The four of us chose different aspects of plagiarism or copyright to cover. It was important to us that we discuss all of the aspects of how to teach what plagiarism is as well as how to avoid breaking copyright law ourselves. Here's a piece of our first discussion:
I have had a number of opportunities both to learn about and to demonstrate my ability to understand digital responsibility issues in a global society as well as my ability to act legally and ethically when presenting information that I have gleaned from another. My first opportunity to study and model global and societal awareness was through the video case study. While this project was completed primarily to give me some ideas as to how to effectively integrate technology into my classroom, the video that I studied helped me engage global awareness of different cultures - especially minorities in America - who live in our own country and to whom we owe respect and help where it can be given.
I watched a video called "Anatomy of a Project: 'Give Me Shelter'" on Edutopia. It was showing the work that an 11th grade social studies/English class did to create a multimedia presentation on the homeless in their city. The teacher was very involved in helping the students organize the project, as well as presenting some scaffolding to help the students determine their plan. The students were very interested in the project, both because they were in charge of many of the portions, but also because they were learning about a subject which they knew existed (the homeless) but had very little first-hand knowledge of.
The students were allowed to use and learn to use a number of different technologies - both the standard software on a laptop or iPhone, as well as audio/visual editing software such as GarageBand and iMovie. After the students interviewed their subjects, took photos and videos, and planned their individual scripts, the teacher asked the students to take what they had written and create one seamless video from each of their individual projects, thereby requiring the students to use higher order thinking in terms of evaluation and analysis as well as improving their ability to work as a team.
Other projects like this would be good to do in a high school social studies classroom - even classes not focused on present history/civics could use video creation to represent what they learned from people who lived through a war (Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm), or to create their own representations of historical events. One project I would like to try with students would be to have them use Autodesk's animation capabilities in small groups to create a short movie or animated game about whatever historical event they are studying at the time. Knowledge of how to use this software is not only useful for game and movie designers, but could also be useful to students who wish to go on to study engineering, architecture, etc.
I was able to introduce and discuss this video with my classmates on an online discussion board, allowing them to join with me in learning about the homeless society in our own country and considering the global implications of how we can make an impact simply through teaching and using technology with our students.
The most definite way in which I was able to learn about and demonstrate my knowledge of ethical responsibilities in a digital environment was through a collaborative wiki that I created with three of my classmates. Together we worked to create a document in which we explained the issues surrounding plagiarism and copyright, particularly as they affect educators. The four of us chose different aspects of plagiarism or copyright to cover. It was important to us that we discuss all of the aspects of how to teach what plagiarism is as well as how to avoid breaking copyright law ourselves. Here's a piece of our first discussion:
After discussion, we each did a little research and joined it together - allowing us a chance to demonstrate our ability to discuss with "netiquette" as well as to be responsible as we worked together to meet a deadline - even in a virtual world! We created a recommendations page to share with our whole class, as well as being sure to include a bibliography so that we would not steal any copyrighted ideas on plagiarism.
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Finally, we published the wiki so that it could be used by a wide array of people, including ourselves - and so that both our classmates and our future students would be able to learn a respect of copyright as well as ways to avoid plagiarism. Both of these activities - the wiki and the video case study - gave me an opportunity to discuss, collaborate with my colleagues, and put into practice what I am learning about how to interact with a global society as a mature and responsible person.
