Thursday, July 6, 2017

My Educational Technology Journey



B. TWO ARTIFACTS

One of my artifacts that I will definitely incorporate next year is my TES lesson on digital citizenship! Before this class, I totally forgot about this website and did not know how to use it correctly. Now I do!

ARTIFACT 1:
https://www.tes.com/lessons/f_tAO0tNzj-D5w/digital-citizenship-by-ms-keane

REFLECTION ON ARTIFACT 1:
I chose this artifact because it allowed me to pull so many resources on digital citizenship in one place. Digital Citizen is standard number two under ISTE-S. The standard states:"Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical."Using TES as a tool allowed me to design a unit that would incorporate digital citizen standard two. I wanted a tool that would not distract students from my main objectives of what it means to be a digital citizen. The article, MultiMedia as an Educational Tool: "A primary application of the interactive multimedia for instruction is in an instructional situation where the learner is given control so that he/she may review the material at his or her own pace and in keeping with his/her own individual interests, needs, and cognitive processes."
      I loved using TES because it was easy to drag and drop all of the resources that I wanted students to use as part of my digital citizenship unit. It was easy to move the squares around in the order that I wanted the students to follow. What I missed was the little white space below the square where you can add directions. Once I realized that, then I put directions for the students in each activity so they would know how to navigate it better! I also realized that sometimes it looks like the links work but I learned you have to double check those links and make sure they are working links!
      I teach computers once  a week. Using Today's Meet, I would ask students what do they know about staying safe online. Then I would have my students click on the Tes link on my library webpage and start with the directions . Students can ask any questions that confuse them about the directions via Today's Meet. They then start square 2 activity on Tes and follow those directions I have typed on there for activity two. Students can do on their own pace and speed as long as they complete all the directions. 

ARTIFACT 2:
The second artifact is reviewing digital tools and learning how I can incorporate a new tool in my classroom. I learned about plickers and this is something I can utilize in my library lesson plans. 

https://www.plickers.com/library

REFLECTION ON ARTIFACT 2:

I picked plickers because it incorporates the standard number one of ISTE-S as students as Empowered Learners. This standard:"Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences. I always have used Kahoot but I use that when I know I will have the computer lab and iPads available. However, that is not always the case as other teachers use the computer lab and iPads too. Using plickers will allow me to assess my students learning in the library with only the use of my smartphone! Students will be able to use plickers to demonstrate their learning. Plickers will give me immediate feedback and allow me to easily see where I need to reteach concepts. I only have an hour with my students once a week in library and so immediate feedback saves me time! According to the article, Perspectives on the Integration of Technology and Assessment:" Technology-enhanced formative assessments during instruction can provide immediate, contingent feedback and adaptive coaching for reteaching of problematic knowledge and skills."
        Signing up for Plickers was easy and free! Inputting students names was easy as well but it will be time consuming to input more than 30 names as I teach more than one class but at least I will only have to do it one time. I like that students cannot change their names versus Kahoot where they can. Being able to see the questions they got wrong was easy to navigate to. I also liked how it saves the scores automatically so I do not have to quickly download anything. I did have trouble scanning the plicker but I think it was because my paper was not laminated. So I will order the laminated plickers from Amazon for easier scanning purposes. 
      I do a  lot of read alouds in library where we discuss  characters, setting, climax, problems and conclusion. I will design a series of questions in plickers based on the book we are reading and based on the above terminology. Plickers will help me to see if students understand who was a character, what is a setting, climax, problem and conclusion of the story!



C. REFERENCES

ISTE Standards FORSTUDENTS. (2016.). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students

MultiMedia as an Educational Tool[PDF file]. Retrieved from http://cemca.org.in/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Section2.pdf

Pellegrino, J. W., & Quellmalz, E. S. (2010). Perspectives on the Integration of Technology and Assessment. Journal of Research on Technology in Education,43(2), 119-134. doi:10.1080/15391523.2010.10782565







3 comments:

  1. Deirdre,

    It is nice to meet you. I agree with you that Kahoot is a great and interactive game that the students love to play. It is very competitive and the students do not even realize that they are learning at the same time. Furthermore, students definitely have grown up with a lot of technology and can have more knowledge than us, teachers, at moments. I like to think that I am not too bad with technology but I have a few students in a couple classes that know how to code and even maneuver their way around computer management systems like GoGuardian. GoGuardian is a tool that you can use to monitor every student computer screen in the class if they have a google chromebook. Some students know how to block this out and it makes them look like they are not connected to the internet. It is reall interesting to see how good some of these students are with technology, so it is critical that we keep up as well. Great post. I look forward to working with you.

    Mike Grice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Deirdre,

    I have made quite a few Kahoot games over the years because my students love playing it. I agree with Michael that Kahoots are great to use as formative assessments. I am also learning a lot about technolgy by taking these courses through St.Francis.
    Thanks,
    Nat

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Deirdre,
    I too have dabbled in Kahoot! The kids love to play and the teamwork builds on the community aspect of the classroom that I want achieved for all who enter. I find that I dive in on a new project based on the new piece of technology that arrived in my classroom. I was able to earn iPads through a grant. But then we added Chrome Streams and now my focus is teaching 7 and 8 year olds how to login and navigate the launcher and websites.

    ReplyDelete