21st Century Instruction

When I began teaching 7 years ago, I had no idea how much it would change. Students today are living in a society where mobile phones are now small computers capable of getting them anything and pointing them anywhere they want. Technology is a part of their lives and they are more than ready to use it at school as well as at home. This creates some interesting challenges for us in the teaching field because we are now responsible for preparing them to meet the demands of the 21st century with skills that will empower them to become contributors to society. One of my challenges as an instructional specialist is finding ways to empower the teachers of the campus to implement technology and use it effectively. This means they are actually teaching with technology tools on a regular, if not daily basis, and students are using real-world situations to problem solve. It's an incredible way to look at things and our students are in great positions to really contribute to something they deem important.

Week 2 Web Conference Reflection

The fact that we now have the capacity to collaborate and conversate over the internet is phenomenal. Attending this week's web conference was a reminder of that feat. With that said, this week's web conference had its share of problems. There was an echo throughout the conference so it was very difficult to understand and interact with the cohorts and Dr. Abernathy. I do not feel that it was as beneficial as previous web conferences have been. The audio issues were definitely a major factor in that. Otherwise, it was good to see cohort members and interact with them over the world wide web. Hopefully the next web conference will be better.

Instructional Design Reflection

What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?
How will you professionally use your course that you designed?
Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?
What questions do you still have about online learning?
What will you do with this new learning?

Embracing the implementation of online learning can benefit not only students but also teachers and taking the time to really pour into the design process would only help teachers become better facilitators of their online courses. One of the most beneficial pieces of online learning is that it allows teachers to easily differentiate instruction. This is a huge benefit for students! It gives them a manageable time-table to complete tasks and assignments plus it allows them the opportunity to request help for concepts they may have trouble comprehending. The implementation process is also an important factor in using online courses. If teachers are comfortable with not only the design process but also the implementation process they can effectively facilitate online learning in their classrooms and on their campuses. The comfort level they achieve can only help them become better facilitators and implementation specialists.

The online learning course I've designed was specifically tailored for students who are struggling with the traditional classroom teaching methods for basic math concepts. I've designed my course to allow the students to bring in more student-centered learning strategies and collaborative learning. This also allows students to pursue some of their own learning responsibilities. Additionally, I plan on using my online course as a training tool where I would elicit assistance from teachers on improving the overall course for students. This would allow teachers to see an online learning module along with student work examples which could help ease fears of implementation and design.

I would plan on implmenting online learning as a teacher and as a staff developer. As a teacher, I see the opporutnity to differentiate learning, I also forsee the opportunity to expand student learning outside of the traditional classroom by bringing in professionals to collaborate with students. Additionally, the online learning environment is a collaborative environment where teachers and students can interact on assignements and learning modules.
As a staff developer I would use online learning modules to help my campus personnel. Online learning allows teachers to work at their own pace in a collaborative environment that is beneficial for all participants. The only problems that could pose as a potential pitfall would be follow-through on the course modules. It's important that the facilitator remain involved in discussions, if they are a part of the course as well as stay abreast of grading assignments and offering feedback to staff.

Since our district uses online learning a great deal, I'm comfortable with using and designing online learning courses. I see the potential for additional online learning modules to train teachers on designing and implementing their own and that leads me into the final prompt.

I'm currently working with a group of technology teachers to design a balanced literacy module integrating technology into balanced literacy standards. At this point the modules have been completed and they are now ready to integrate into the school district's staff development courses for this summer. Going into next school year, I'm planning to create more online learning modules for campus staff development as well as integrating more online learning in the classrooms. Currently, I would estimate that 30% of the campus classrooms are using online learning modules. I hope to have at least 50% usage by this time next school year. I plan to attack that by creating more online modules for teachers to research and use as well as more staff development opportunites for teachers to learn more about online learning.

UDL

I guess my head is spinning from the whirlwind that was the UDL lesson building experience. It was an experience I'm really excited about implementing but at the same time it was extremely intense. There was so much to think about and so much attention to detail but I'm confident that the lesson could really be an effective tool for educating students. I'm actually excited about the experience and will enjoy using the UDL lesson builder in the future. It's a great tool to get focused on covering curriculum and integrating technology. Til next time!!

One Challenging Project

As the final week closes on the Multimedia Video Technology course it's been interesting to sit back and reflect on the experience of creating a PSA with a group that I never worked with face to face. It was challenging but the opportunity was a worthwhile fulfilling experience. One of the most challenging obstacles was trying to figure out how to communicate with one another and we quickly realized that emailing was not the best way to work effectively and efficiently. The overall project itself went rather smootly and I feel everyone was very excited by the final project result. If I had to do it differently, I think I would have used more of google documents and I really loved how well using one members wiki worked out for everyone. I'm really happy about our project and I hope it comes across as exemplary work.

Enjoying video

I really enjoy creating video. There is so much creative freedom involved and that creative control is really exhilarating. The assignment for this week was challenging because there is such a vast amount of information available on the web that the fact that we had to narrow it down to a one minute video was very difficult. I finally decided that I should do a video about something I enjoy and that is golf. The video I created was from You Tube and it was interesting to see how much power could be generated from a golf club making contact with a golf ball. I was hoping to capture the force created by the strength of Jason Zuback, his driver, and the force from the driver pounding the golf ball. I incredibly impressive that he was able to generate enough power to thrust a golf ball through 2 plates of tempered glass. Amazing!!!

Multimedia Fun

I love the challenge of putting together a picture through multimedia. It allows you to create something that could inspire people as well as motivate them to do more or even be more. This week I had an assignment to create a digital story using photos, music, as well as other tools to help create the story. I had a blast doing this and I'm really looking forward to the next assignment. I used some previous experience to create the video. First I began writing the script and storyboard to help create the flow of the story and once I had that all down it was pretty easy to get the rest of the story to fall into place.