Finding and Sharing Examples of Engaged Learning (2 hours)
Standards ISTE NETS-T
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:
d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
When beginning ITEC 7400 I learned what Engaged Learning activities were. On Edutoia.org there is a wealth of information and examples of these kinds of activities. These activities also involve great technology integration. The LoTi levels are also a concept that was completely new to me but it shows you how to evaluate the effectiveness and authenticity of a technology based lesson in the classroom. I decided to share this wealth of information with a fellow teacher at my school who was interested in finding new ways to teach using technology. We met and discussed all my findings. I showed her a few engaged learning videos on Edutopia and shared some great examples and how she could use them in her classroom. We also went over the LoTi level chart and I showed her how she could “rate” a project’s effectiveness. She was amazed to see all this new information and how engaged learning projects could be implemented into the curriculum she already teaches for second grade.
Showing how effective a blog can be (2 hours)
Standards ISTE NETS-T
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers:
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.
Since I started my master’s degree in Instructional Technology I was required to create a blog. This was a new tool that I had never used before. I discovered how valuable a blog is when sharing knowledge, ideas, and thoughts. One thing that came to mind was why haven’t I created a classroom blog. I met with some second and third grade teachers and showed them my blog and how I used it for my degree. I then showed them how they could use it to post messages to parents, homework charts, and other important information. We discussed how you could embed educational videos on to your blog for parents to see. I showed them a few possible hosting sites for blogs and how to get started. We discussed how great this would be as opposed to a classroom newsletter that has to be typed, copied, and distributed every week and this is something that can be updated every day. They showed a lot of interest in using this for the upcoming school year so we created a blog for each one of them. They seemed very excited and couldn’t believe how productive this would help them to be.
Engaged Learning Project Creation, Peer Review, and Delivery (4 hours)
Standards ISTE NETS-T
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
b. address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.
In second grade we teach the phases of the moon. Every year we send home a chart for students to track the phases of the moon for a full month. We rarely ever get these charts handed back in. I decided that my students needed a lot more motivation to track the phases of the moon so I created an engaged learning project called Phases of the Moon. The abstract for the project is as follows: The students will be first learning about the moon, its’ characteristics, and how it changes. They will then create a class wiki where they will decide what will be the most important things to post on it. They will even create and post an actual video demonstration to show other peers what causes the moon to change. Each night one student will be the “nightly scientist”. They will be on “night watch”. They will go home with the class digital camera and laptop (if needed) and observe the moon. The student will log onto the class wiki and report their findings in a chart and post a picture of the moon. At the end of each week we will briefly visit our wiki and talk about our findings. Toward the end of the second month we will look at all of our data posted on our wiki and discuss what we found and why? We will share our findings with the entire second grade. Students from our class will visit other classes and present our findings by inviting them to visit or even use our wiki. We will also try to arrange a chat or video conference with someone at NASA to not only share our findings but also have them answer any questions we might have about our findings.
After creating this project I then decided to share it with my peers at school and they gave me some helpful feedback for extension activities, rubric ideas, and creating a questionnaire for students to use when speaking with our NASA expert. Once I finalized this project, I shared it with many second grade teachers at our school. They were so excited and thought that with my help they might be able to implement this project for the upcoming school year. I cannot wait to assist them in this. They did seem very hesitant about using a wiki but that was only because it was completely new to them. I know the students will truly be motivated to do this project.
Integration Resources/Tools for Mathematics (3 hours)
Standards ISTE NETS-T
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers:
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.
I love to teach math but often times have difficulty doing so because some concepts are difficult to show. I created a presentation on technology resources/tools for teaching the 2nd grade math GPS. It included the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives which had great interactive tools for students to use and understand concepts like regrouping with base ten blocks. I also found Math playground which had a great tool for showing equivalent fractions with real fraction bars. The presentation also included Graph Club and the book Spreadsheet Magic which helps students collect and interpret their own data. FASTTMATH, AAA Math, and Brain Pop Jr. all showed games for motivating and skill building practice. The Math Forum @ Drexel showed great projects teachers could use for math, and I also showed a site full of ideas for using flip cameras to teach math concepts. I completed a handout to go along with the presentation and presented it to other teachers who showed interest in more resources/tools for their classroom. This was a great experience because I really found some useful things that will be very beneficial to my students.
