Assignment #3

• What are the takeaways from the articles on 21st Century Skills and the Common Core AND/OR the material from John Hattie that will influence your technology decisions;

I am interested in CCSS from a trainer perspective. I would like to include the "how to" of CCSS integration, utilizing technology, in some of my break outs. Therefore, the P21 components were interesting to me and seem as though they could be useful to incorporate in the educator training.

• How your project experience has helped you;

Well, I had never heard of a webquest before and even tried it out by creating one! Since I am a bit of a techie, I can definitely see myself practicing getting better at creating them and using them in my presentations as examples for educators.

• How you see technology being used in your own classroom;  

Same as above, using webquest examples in teacher training, as well as other technology use.

• What your future plans are for technology in your teaching;

I would like to create a training workshop for educators on examples and "how to" on integrating technology into instruction.

• How do you plan to keep up with technologies (e.g., journals, PLN, PD); and

Well, I have a ways to go yet before I finish my degree and each class introduces me to more tech. for teaching, so for a little while, my peers, assigned articles and professors will be the ones keeping me up on ed. tech. options.

• What outstanding issues or questions you think need to be addressed as you continue to learn about and use technology?

I think the varying levels of technology experience in school.  In other words, I feel there need be a better job teaching tech. use right away, in early elementary, in order to level the field of ability so technology can be integrated much more in instruction.  Along those lines, is the lack of accessible technology in classrooms.  Many elementary classrooms have 1 or 2 computers for students to use, which greatly limits the ability to integrate technology into every unit or lesson.

Blog Assignment # 2 - week 9

1. How can teachers find balance between knowledge- based content standards and process oriented skills?

I feel that while teachers are still being evaluated on knowledge based content standards, they need to be integrating the process oriented skills now, into their current lessons, without dropping the knowledge-based content for now. Since this is going to be the new way of evaluating, once common core standards "are common" they do need to look at their lessons differently now and start to incorporate the process oriented skills in their instruction. Not wait until the complete standard change date to look at it.

For some educators, they already use process oriented learning in their teaching and have all along, if they support this pedagogy, and for others, this is a complete shift in "how they have always done things." I am hopeful that the latter group of educators won't fear asking the first group how they integrate this new way, common core standards, into their lessons. It is crucial that educators work together during this transition, and not as their own island, as I have seen in schools so often.

2. What are the key factors that help improve the success of inquiry-based lessons?

Wikipedia states the key factors are:

Specific learning processes that students engage in during inquiry-learning include:

• Creating questions of their own
• Obtaining supporting evidence to answer the question(s)
• Explaining the evidence collected
• Connecting the explanation to the knowledge obtained from the investigative process
• Creating an argument and justification for the explanation^[6]

• The topic, problem to be studied, and methods used to answer this problem are determined by the student and not the teacher 

3. What role can technology play in assisting those factors? Give specific examples.
I think that technology can play a key role in inquiry-based lessons in that using the internet can allow one to research any topic or subject one chooses.  The students need some guidance on searching techniques, and analyzing information, but with that, there research possibilities are wide open.

Ideas for using technology:
To create their own questions, students can create a survey, using google forms, for another student to take, or simply technology to begin a PowerPoint.

To obtain supporting evidence, the student can use internet searches, carefully defined.

Explaining evidence, and connecting the explanation to obtained knowledge can be done using a PowerPoint presentation, or a blog. Their supporting argument can also be included in the PowerPoint or blog.

All of the above must be student determined.

Week 5 Blog Assignment:

• What were some of the factors that played a role in ensuring positive results when technology was integrated in the classroom?

Teacher training played a role in tech. integration, but not just ONE professional development (PD) day of training on the technology for the teacher, but rather an ONGOING PD training schedule of some kind was needed to ensure continued technology learning and integration in to the curriculum.

Another point was student and teacher access to technology.  There needs to be adequate time scheduled for students, as well as teachers, to use the technology to not only collect data, but synthesize it and create uses for it. 

It was mentioned in one of the articles, that teacher planning and collaboration time needs to be intentionally scheduled to discuss and plan continued technology integration in to their teaching of the curriculum.

• What are ways that you can, in your own setting (or for those not currently in a classroom, in your future setting), ensure that these factors are present or absent? (Be specific to your situation; do not make general statements.) 

I would like to incorporate technology training into the PD presentations and training that I give in districts regarding ways to meet the needs of gifted students in the classroom. I would also like to include ways to use technology to help the students with disabilities, and am looking into types of programs to use, that I can recommend. (Which could be used for ANY LD student, gifted or not.)

I may even create a PD workshop on integrating technology into current curriculum for teachers, and explain the uses for GT kids, and GT/LD students, along with, the instruction that can be used for the general ed. students. Although, this sounds similar to the previous example, it is a separate audience, and conference schedule (GT conferences, vs. conferences for gen'l. ed. students.)

I want to show the use of technology to create a rubric (or enhance a current rubric) that can be used for all levels of learners, to show mastery of content, with the ability to collect data, analyze it, and synthesize it by creating a final project.

• How would you go about evaluating the success of a unit, lesson, etc., that involved the integration of new technology?

I would create the assessment questions beforehand, for example, the list of content that need be mastered by the student for that unit, and then create the project to reflect that mastery.  As an example, for a Native American Indian unit, a high level student who can already recite the content assessment answers that are new to the general ed. and lower students, can go on to create one's own Indian tribe.  In the project, the student would show mastery of certain concepts by explaining what the tribe would wear, eat and home structure based on the climate and geographic location where they lived. The student can use technology to collect, research and analyze data, and then create a model of what it might look like, draw samples, or continue with the technology to create a video or PowerPoint presentation to share with the class.

• Finally, what could you do to disseminate successes and failures to your colleagues, administrators, and school board members?

Grade level teacher teams can meet once a month during planning time, before school, or over lunch, to collaborate and share technology uses in curriculum.  As well, there can be a project event each semester, or at the end of the year, where teachers, school board member and the community are invited to view the students' projects created with technology integration. Standardized test score comparisons year to year can also help to show success.

Well, it is a month into this course, and, although, the homework here has been double the amount of other courses in my major (online courses) I have learned a lot already from the other students, and the articles assigned by the the professor. (thank you classmates!)

I feel eager to go into schools right now to help them integrate technology further into their curriculum!  With my experience and all that I have done and learned up to this point (albeit, I acknowledge there is still much more for me to learn) I already can see how I can help teachers that I know to use tech. better.  I am itching to help teachers on behalf of the students!

Introductions

My name is Kelley E.B. Senkowski.  I have been an Independent Consultant for Gifted Education for the past decade. I spend my time training educators, administrators and professionals through presentations, professional development days, and teacher curriculum consulting,  as well as consult with parents, about meeting the unique needs of the gifted child. I am pursuing the Ed. Tech. degree in hopes of learning how to better use technology and offer new ideas to educators in order to meet the needs of the high level learner in the classroom. I believe that anything incorporated into the classroom for the gifted child, can be used and offered to all children using the appropriate learning level.

What keeps me going, is seeing that the gifted population has been forgotten in the past decade as state budgets disappeared.  They are just as different (in all ways) from the average level student, as the special education student is from their age mates (who also appropriately need curriculum modification); and they are still in the classrooms. I am also interested in learning how to use technology for assisting the gifted child who has learning disabilities.

In my spare time, I like reading, camping, ministry work, walking, soccer, weight lifting and am just taking up archery. However, with five children ages 6 - 17 years (first grade to freshman at MSU), I rarely have time for pursuing my interests at this point in my life. So, I try to incorporate them to do with my family when I can.

I am looking forward to learning from all of you and your experiences.

Find me on Facebook under GiftedConsult, and "like" my page for updates and info.