Bloglines - Looking for new tools?

Bloglines user lafuller (lfuller@lps.org) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

This post is from my professor's blog at the University of Florida. The list of Web 2.0 applications listed in the site she references is quite overwhelming. I looked at it as sort of a self-assessment to see how many of the services I knew actually existed! It seems like there's something new to learn about every day!

---

KD's Reflections -EME 5207

Looking for new tools? By Kara Dawson You may want to check out the link below if you are looking for a different blogging tool, a new email service or a new online bookmarking service (among other things). Web 2.0 applications are truly taking our society by storm. What doe this mean for us as educators? http://www.econsultant.com/web2/ One thing is for sure -technology and ethics is a topic we must address with our students (and maybe some of our colleagues). http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/03/16/teachers.credentials.ap/index.html">Dozens of teachers resign amid cheating scandal

More Questions And Results!

I teach kindergarten, so I ask questions like…How do I get my students to recognize letters and their sounds? How do I get them to blend and segment words? How do I teach them one-to-one correspondence and other pre-reading skills? How do I teach vocabulary?

I turned to the opening part of our day where we find out who our “helpers” are for the day. I have a teaching partner – we have 42 children in one giant space. So, it made sense for us to have two helpers each day, one for each teacher. I created a set of Power Point slides for each student. The slides are set up like a riddle – Here’s an example (Oh, “hand” refers to the symbol used to distinguish my students from Mrs. Z’s students – her kids are “stars”)







This has been a great way for me to address some of the questions I asked earlier – letters/letter sounds, blending, vocabulary, one-to-one corresp., reading left to right.


























































These are results of student assessment (averages), my current students compared to my class from last year. The class this year has had technology enhanced instruction – described above and in past posts, along with instructional support from additional reading teachers, special education teachers and a couple of great paraprofessionals.

Technology Integration – Questions?

As educators, we are constantly asking ourselves, “what can we do that will deliver our content to our diverse group of learners?” I take this question and try to find a way for technology to answer it.

I have a TV adapter for my computer, so I can put anything from my computer immediately up onto the TV screen. I have also loaded ALL of my music CD’s into my iTunes library and have organized the songs by the skill they teach – this way I can access them with very little delay, this really helps diminish transitions. Great songs from people like Dr. Jean Feldman and Jack Hartmann have also inspired numerous “videos” (this link will take you to my website – click on “Alphardy” or “Make A Rhyme”) that I have made or have helped the students make – this is a great way to transform material that you have into a presentation that will teach to all of the modalities – visual, auditory and kinesthetic (if you add actions).

Curriculum and Technology

I tried to think about curriculum development, and how I approach this task as an educator. I wondered, what does curriculum mean to me? What do I consider good curriculum? What does it involve? The words scope, sequence, spiral and scaffold all came to mind as things that I look for, things that indicate that someone had the “big picture” in mind when they were developing the plan. The process of backward design seemed to make sense in this context. Constantly, in the forefront of all of my thoughts, designs, and plans, I consider students, their ability to relate to material, the material’s relevance, effectiveness and its ability to engage the students. I think that most curriculum developers will take on the task in much the same way – why? –because, they too are educators. Standards can be set in place by just about anyone, but it takes an educator to turn it into curriculum, someone who can envision the end product, someone who can see how they would teach the material if necessary.

Technology should not be considered as a separate standard or objective. Technology’s place is in the curriculum stage, using it as a means of determining how to get to the end results in every aspect of education.

So, how does technology make it into the curriculum? It all goes back to teacher training – teachers who are comfortable using technology themselves will realize it’s potential as a teaching tool, they can see the benefits it has for their students, and they can get involved in the curriculum stage. It would be hard to develop a plan about something you know nothing about – this might just be the roadblock we often find ourselves up against.

Read About Blogs in Education

This post is primarily for the Everett Bloggers - these are a few links I have found that support the use of blogging for professional use and as a great way for students to "publish" their work. It can be quite motivational.

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/teacher_feature/teacher_feature096.shtml

http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/

http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/

If you have additional resources for educational blogging, please feel free to comment to this post so that my readers have access to your resources as well.

Multipurpose Blogging

This post is just an announcement to all of my blog readers that you might see some different things coming from my blog. This is because I am using one blog for many purposes, (EME 5207 - Designing Technology Rich Curricula, my practicum, an independent study, and this also posts to an LPS blogroll) but I can't see separating them because they are all about technology in education. So, bear with me and my multiple "blogalogues". If you're so inclined, please help me by responding to any of the ideas you find here. I value your feedback!

Thanks! Lynn

Philosophy & Curriculum

In the “Designing Technology Rich Curricula” Class that I am taking online through the University of Florida, we are studying curriculum development and the various factors that can influence this process. The first step of my discovery was to gain some insight into my own character and personality so that I can have a better understanding of how “who I am” relates to what I teach and why I teach it the way I do.

I have taken some of these assessments before, I thought I had probably changed quite a bit from when I first took the assessments – a lot has changed since my undergrad studies! But, surprisingly, I’m pretty much the same person I always have been. It was an interesting journey of self-discovery. One of those things that makes you go hmmmm… Just in case you’re interested in finding out for yourself, here are links to the assessments I took.

Cognitive Styles Inventory (Myers-Briggs)

Learning Styles Inventory

Multiple Intelligences Checklist

Risk-taking Test

Temperament Sorter

Another part of my assignment was to find out which educational philosophy I subscribe the most to…I found out that my educational philosophy is somewhat progressive, though I could find elements of several philosophies that I agree with and tend to emulate in my teaching. I think that my interest in using technology in education embraces the concept of change and requires me to teach children problem solving techniques and skills that will help them to react appropriately to innovative concepts and learning opportunities. Technology has changed the way we do a lot of things. Some of the things that used to be taught in school, things that were seen as foundations in education might be on the track to becoming obsolete. I won’t go into detail about exactly what I think those areas are, I don’t want to go public with incriminating evidence! But, I do feel strongly that some areas of education are changing, whether we like it or not. The answer is to embrace the technology that is changing it, the kids we are teaching won’t have a choice, so we shouldn’t always teach as though we do.

Skilled teachers explore many different ways to convey meaning to their students, so that they can successfully demonstrate an understanding of the subject being taught. In order to design instruction that teaches to standards, I think that teachers must have a strong understanding of the content of their subject matter. This is where curriculum comes in. Curriculum is a collection of activities and resources that are used to teach content that is directed by standards and objectives.

Teachers are the least self-centered people that can be found. We realize that “it’s not about us!” It’s about those we teach. We have to become all things to all learners so that we might teach some – it’s possible you have heard this concept presented somewhere before! If you know a little bit about my life outside of teaching, you’ll recognize where it came from!

Designing Technology Rich Curricula

If you’re in this online class with me at the University of Florida, welcome to my blog! My goals are described in the blog header. My blog focuses on issues related to technology in education, particularly primary education (I teach kindergarten). This has been a great communication tool for a technology focus group in my school. Several of the teachers in my building have blogs that chronicle ways they have used technology to enhance curriculum. You will notice references to my colleagues and their work in prior posts. This is my final course in the online Master's degree program. I will graduate in May.