Final Project - due Monday, May 6

Greetings all - Happy Spring!

Please click here for instructions about your final project.  And email if you have any questions—it really is just a continuation of the work you've already been doing so is not difficult—just do it with care.  I should have feedback on your last project by the end of this weekend.   

I empathize with you in taking an on-line class.  It's frustrating for me as well to not be able to hold discussions, compliment or challenge you on your thinking, really engage in the issues present.  Since this is only a one credit class, the goal is to provide a framework for your personal, and trust me - ongoing, investigation into how media and technology shape the way we understand and teach, and ultimately 'know' what we know.  And your students will have a different framework than you do—subtle, but different.

On a very pragmatic note, your digging into the standards will help you land and keep a job.  On a more philosophical note, this class will hopefully keep a window open in your teaching strategies to a more critical and thoughtful use of technology and media in your content areas. 

Good luck.  I look forward to seeing your excellent work.

Lisa Phillips

Engrade oddness

Just a heads up that for many of you, Engrade is not providing a correct average score.  A reminder that Interactivities (1 thru 5) will provide 50% of your grade, timely/thoughtful blog posts comprise 25% and your Final Project will be the final 25%.

Interactivity #4 Feedback

All spreadsheets and blogposts comprising Interactivity #4 have been formally assessed and final scores have been posted to your Engrade account(s). The average score of submissions was a low 7 out of 10 points:

Below is the scoring checklist for this assignment (The checklist was also posted in the Interactivity #4 guidelines). It is worth re-viewing as you contemplate the score you earned. 

(click to enlarge)

Note that we curved the final set of grades (to your advantage), so the numbers on your individual rubric will most likely add up to a lower score than the one you were finally assigned within Engrade. I did this to acknowledge that aligning technologies, strategies and standards (also known as "technology integration") is a challenging activity, particularly since some of you have not yet worked in depth with lesson plans; neither have many of you completed your methods courses within your pre-service program. Please know that we are sympathetic to this fact and made accommodations in ways that are appropriate to the assignments.

The most common mistakes made on this assignment were (in rank order):

• Spreadsheet not fully labeled with all the required information.
• Selected technologies did not align with the teaching strategies.
• Standards were not identified and supported.
• The lesson plan lacked a clear curriculum goal.
• Narrative blog post failed to do any or all of the following: provide a rationale for choosing lesson plan; identify gaps in the lesson plan; or did not explain the necessity of the technology.
• Lack of clear identification of (language for) teaching strategies in the spreadsheet.

Those who earned 5 points or less on this assignment most likely did one or more of the following (in addition to making the mistakes listed above):

• Made their spreadsheet inaccessible by failing to change the settings to "public."
• Did not include a narrative blog post to accompany the Google Spreadsheet.

Moving forward, you will have one final opportunity to engage in technology integration (the alignment of selected technologies, with intentional strategies,and required curriculum standards) in the final project of the semester (worth 25% of your grade). Guidelines for the final project will be posted on April 11th.

Interactivity #5: A Standards-based Approach to Technology Integration

Due date: Wednesday, April 24, 5:00 PM

Interactivity #4 required you to select a lesson plan and to identify teaching strategies that ideally achieve content standards in your particular subject area. For Interactivity #5, you will explore a second layer of standards that both students and teachers are expected to achieve: The National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) and The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T).

For this purpose you will collect some basic data from a classroom teacher of your choice (currently working in a school that can be in New Jersey or out-of-state) about the impact of national technology standards and to what extent they are taught, integrated and achieved. Keep in mind, the NETS are not considered a separate subject area. They should be accomplished throughout your pedagogy/teaching strategies as you teach toward your curriculum content goals. This is in contrast to the (Common Core) standards in Technology and Engineering that the National Assessment of Educational Progress will officially debut in 2014. [click here to see a draft of those standards]. You can see that there is overlap between the NETS and the NAEP's standards; however, the significant difference lies in technology as a separate subject area versus technology as a pedagogical means to another curricular end. For this interactivity, we will be using only the NETS-S and NETS-T because they are integrative by design. Update: Check out this link  that more closely aligns the Common Core with the NETS-S. You might find it useful, as the Common Core standards gain momentum.

Step One: Know Your Standards

First, become familiar with the NETS-S and the NETS-T. "Familiarity" means that you know how to locate them and you understand them. You can find them in Appendix B (pp. 127-130) in Rethinking Technology in Schools. Additionally, you can find Student Profiles for specific grade levels by [following this link]. The NETS were originally created in 1998 and then updated in 2007 and 2008 by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).


Step Two: Select a Classroom Teacher

Reach out to a teacher that you know from fieldwork in previous or current courses or a relative who is a teacher or any school district where you have a contact. Any teacher will do, but the optimal choice is to select a teacher within your content area and grade level. Ask the teacher if you can conduct a short interview about instructional technology use in their school and/or classroom. (If you are already a substitute teacher and/or working in a school district, you may complete this Interactivity in the school where you work).

Step Three: Interview the Teacher about the NETS

Once you have secured permission to interview the teacher (In-person, by phone, via email or using Skype are all acceptable methods), then use the following NETS Adoption Survey as a general guide on which to base your interview. Keep in mind if you submit your responses, you cannot retrieve them as they go directly to ISTE. So, record your responses in a separate document first. The survey questions are meant to generally assess whether the teacher and the school in which they work are successfully implementing the NETS-S. Here are some additional suggestions/considerations:

• It is not uncommon for teachers to be unfamiliar with the NETS as many administrators are not trained in this area and cannot provide the leadership and support needed (see the NETS-A). It is therefore a good idea to present/email a copy or link to the NETS-S and NETS-T to your teacher for reference during the interview.
• You must secure their permission if you voice record the interview. Be mindful of excluding anything that the teacher says is "off the record."
• It is a good idea to let the teacher know that his/her identity will be concealed (although the school district and grade level will be mentioned) and that the interview data will be used only for purposes of a larger discussion in your teacher preparation program about technology integration in the K-12 setting.
• Make sure to document in some way the teacher's responses to the questions—either through your interview notes, voice recording or email chain.

Step Four: Share and Reflect

Describe the teacher's responses in a narrative post/paragraph on your blogspot (approximately 400-500 words). Make sure to conceal the teacher's identity (to protect their privacy) and begin your post with some basic contextual information about the school setting (e.g., 9th grade math teacher in Nutley School District). As concisely as possible (in paragraph format) address the following questions:

• Based on the survey responses, was this teacher knowledgeable about the NETS-S and/or the NETS-T? If not, what was their initial reaction when you presented those standards to them for the first time?
• Has this particular school and/or district begun to implement the NETS-S and/or the NETS-T? If not, what other technology initiatives exist to increase students' proficiency and media literacy?
• Were you surprised at any of the teacher's responses? Why or why not?
• As a future educator, how would you speak to others within your school about the NETS-S and NETS-T?

Step Five: Add the NETS-S to your Interactivity #5 Spreadsheet—in the Standards Column alongside your content area standards.

Keep in mind that your strategies column as well as the technologies that were either included in the lesson plan or that you added should dictate what NETS-S indicator your students are achieving. Somewhere within your post, please provide the link to your Google Spreadsheet. It should be the same spreadsheet and link for Interactivity #4.

Your final score for this assignment will be calculated according to the following criteria:

8 Ways Technology Is Improving Education

When I read Sarah Kessler's post on "Mashable Tech" that lists 8 ways technology has improved education, I immediately thought of Interactivity #3 and the construction of your content-specific technology inventories. According to Kessler, these are the improvements catalyzed by (digital) technologies:

1. Better simulations and models

2. Global Learning

3. Virtual Manipulatives

4. Probes and Sensors

5. More Efficient Assessment

6. Storytelling and Multimedia

7. E-books

8. Epistemic Games

Some of these made your inventories, and some of them might be new to you. If you're curious, her video-rich article is a good read. [click here to read more]

Blogs and Posting

BLOG POSTS/RESPONSES count for 25% of your grade.  I track not only your posts on your own blogs (15 unique posts are required), but your posts on other people's sites (1-2/ week are suggested).  And I absolutely factor in who is posting over the course of the semester vs. say, in the last three weeks of class.   Some of you are falling behind.  The more you post within your group, the less likely I am to miss a post of yours.  However, if you don't feel that you have enough people in your group to get inspired by/about (or they are not posting), feel free to look at other classmates' posts and respond!  I'll find your work.

Interactivity #4

The Pedagogical Uses of Technology Due date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 by 5:00 pm EST

If you haven't already, please begin Interactivity #4

How many teachers use a Smartboard simply because there is one installed in their classroom instead of intentionally choosing the tool based on thinking deeply about what they pedagogically want to accomplish? At this point in the module, I want you to conscientiously think about where, when and how learning occurs and how to intentionally create technological environments that facilitate those learning goals. This is not an easy task. However, it is incumbent upon every teacher to approach technology integration in this way.
 
You will work individually on this assignment (this is not a group project).