Learning about Rcampus

I had never really explored the possibility of creating a online learning environment. I have enjoyed using one as I pursued my master's degree but had not imagined I would create one on my own to use with my students. Today's students are learning in a different way than previous generations of students. Therefore, the learning environment must change as well.

http://www.slideshare.net/AnnaLawrence/building-a-new-learning-environment

Trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together

Throughout the process of pursuing my Master's degree, I have learned about many various forms of technology that can be integrated in the classroom. During the courses that I utilized podcasting, Jing, and wikis I had envisioned using them as something that everyone in the classroom would be engaged with at the same point in time. As I began this class, I envisioned that differentiated instruction was providing different lessons for every child in the classroom and I imagined that would be the opposite of having a class using the technology tools I had learned about previously. What I have discovered is that actually the technology will support the instruction and will enable me to differentiate more effectively with the diverse learning styles in my classroom.

One struggle that I have faced as I began implementing the differentiated instruction in the classroom is that changing of the focus in the classroom from being teacher focused to student focused. It does require giving up some degree of control, although for many students, as their engagement increases so does their motivation. Additionally, I have been able to add to the number of computer work stations available in my classroom to assist with the integration of technology in the classroom. Last year as the school year ended I had one student work station, when the year began I had two workstations, and as of last Friday I have two desktop computers for students and three student laptops to utilize in my classroom. This is going to enable me to integrate the technology tools I have learned about without moving the entire classroom environment to the computer lab. Students will now be able to complete stations that do and do not involve technology in the same environment.

In implementing my differentiation lesson, I have only had time to implement the first part with students working on examining the various maps and questions for the Oil in the Middle East stations. Students have done well so far and the level of engagement is at a greater level than what students would have for a typical PowerPoint presentation about oil resources in the region. Students were having great discussions on topics and were engaged in using the resources to determine the population distribution patterns. Students will continue with additional research of the countries this week.

The use of the differentiation station wiki assisted my knowledge of differentiated instruction and universal design for learning because a great variety of resources were all accessible to the group. Additionally, as I am working to incorporate a variety of different activities in to the classroom I will be able to refer back to the wiki and look for different project and activity ideas. This will enable me to use my time more effectively and to incorporate more differentiated learning on a consistent and pervasive basis.

Going forward with the GAME plan

One of the biggest challenges I face in incorporating technology in the classroom is the time in the instructional sequence calendar and having the time to plan lesson that involve technology. I feel that I have gained a lot of valuable skills and tools in this class that will allow me to overcome these restrictions on technology. In my GAME plan that I initially created I discussed that I will be using technology more in my classroom by implementing at least one new form of technology from each class. While it is summer, which has delayed my implantation of new teaching technologies, I am using my time this summer to begin planning some lessons and/or units for next year. I am planning to use more differentiated instruction in my class next year and I would really like to focus on using technology increase involvement and increasing literacy skills in my classroom. I think that by incorporating Voice Thread and blogging I will be able to meet the needs of all the students in my classroom.

I have enjoyed the creating of a unit plan during this course as this is something that I can take and put into place in my classroom in the fall. I really enjoy that we created lessons that were in our curriculum area, that the lessons incorporated different technology skills, and that I will be able to implement the lessons in my classroom in the fall. I thought the process of using the wiki to provide feedback was an amazing idea. I know that I will be able to use that effectively in the classroom to provide more rapid feedback to students. I think that my students are going to be engaged at a higher level and gain a deeper understanding once they begin utilizing these forms of technology.

As I move forward beyond this class, I will remember the steps of developing and implementing a GAME plan. I think the most influential stage is the monitoring, because by monitoring I can determine if my students are achieving the objectives. So many objectives are required for students these days, teaching them skills to self assess their engagement will increase the level of student knowledge in the classroom. Next year, I am going to use blogging to respond to novels we read in my Social Studies class, additionally, I want to implement using wikis for sharing information in class. That way if students are working in groups, they can participate, collaborate, and contribute to the discussion whether they are physically in class or not. This contributes to the idea of having a "flat classroom" where there are not the traditional boundaries that restrict the classroom and learning. I can't wait to see what happens!

Getting Students in the Game

Students love technology! In fact, they are fascinated with most activities that involve technology. This is an important piece of knowledge that we can use as educators to help us engage students in the learning process. Part of this process should involve having students develop goals for themselve involving technology. Students need to desire to improve thier skills not just be told that the skiills are ncessary. I think the GAME plan would be very effective implemented with students. We have been setting goals at my class for the past year during the advisement lessons. At my school we have called these goals "SMART" goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive but I feel that these goals are very similar to the GAME plan steps.

I think that students will benefit greately from the Monitoring step of the GAME plan process. I would like to incorporate the technology skills that my students feel they need - this may take some independent learing on my part as many of my students are very skilled with different forms of technology. I will have studnets brainstorm a list of all the ways technology could be included in the lcassroom at the beginning of the year - using the Mimio and whiteboard. Students will record the list in thier Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) and will highlight in three colors - One - Technology they feel they are masters of, Two - Technology that they are somewhat familiar with and Three - Technology that they have never heard of before. This will allow me to differentate the learning and provide the skills and instructions on how to use technology, as I will be able to provide instruction for those who need it (like with Voice Thread) but not to those who know more about the capabliites than I am familiar with. Infact I might even incorporate those who feel that they are masters working with students who need assistance.

I am really looking forward to this higher level of integration in my classroom. I think by incorporating the technology all year and my students will advance thier skills on the different standards of the NETS-T. I think my students will really enjoy it as well and will be highly engaged.

Moving on

I am working on taking what I learned in my workshop last week to incorporate the technology resources that I will have next year. The Mimio interactive board is an amazing resource because the students will have the ability to interact not only with the board but also with the slate (similar to an interwrite tablet). I am working on developing units for the first nine weeks of instruction next year. I am also researching wikis and the use of wikis versus blog to allow my students to collabrate in and out of class.

I am still working on ensuring that I am achiving my previous goals. I could add that I will be working on collaborating more with the others at my school - however, that will be a lot easier as the new year begins in August.
So I guess I am in a holding pattern of planning lessons and ensuring that the materials for the fall are prepared so that I can fully implement the ideas in my classroom.

I think I am taking the steps that I need to acheive my goals. While the summer is delaying my implementation of the programs, I don't know if I would have as much time for research and planning if it wasn't summer - so I will continue moving on and making progress towards my goals.

Putting the pieces together

Today I have attended one of the best workshops/trainings as far as real applications in the classroom. Today's focus was on diversity in the classroom and meeting the mutliple intelligences of the students in the classroom. One of the best aspects of the class was that the training was led by two outstanding educators at my school. They have a highly functioning classroom where they are experiencing a high level of academic success and they integrate technology into all aspects of the curriculum. They team teach and are excellent at supporting learning in the classroom, one key aspect in their classroom is the love of teaching - it is clear in their discussions. Did I mention that they teach students who haven't been successful in the past on our state test and usually only experience limited success.

I am working on developing a differentiated instruction unit as an aspect of this class so I feel that I am making some progress towards my GAME plan. It is a really neat environment because we are able to collaborate and share ideas for appealing to the different learning styles in the classroom. Clearly I am not able to meet all styles in every lesson but as I plan a unit I can incorporate different aspects in different lessons in that unit. Additionally, tomorrow we are going to learn how to use a Mimio (which is a type of portable smart board) and Interwrite tablet. So that would fit the second aspect of incorporating more technology into my classroom. I am really looking forward to tomorrow so that I can continue this process. One of the best aspects of this time to plan is that school and postplanning is over so there isn't the same stresses and time constraints that are in place during the school year.

2 steps forward

As I continue working through the courses in the Master's program, I learn more and more about forms of technology that can be used in the classroom. I have learned about blogs, wikis, podcasting, and screencasting. I am still gaining confidence with these forms of technology and how I might incorporate them in the classroom. This is the last week of instruction with students so I haven't really incorporated any new forms of technology with my students this week. I did find a resource for an interactive game on personal finance this week, I was looking forward to using it one of the last days of school but wasn't able to due to schedule changes taht elimintated the class time that was needed.

One area that I feel that I am the weakest in is the development of wikis, and I saw today that was upcoming in the course so I am certain I will gain that experience this week. I really appreciate the fact that in this program we don't just learn about technology options, but we put them in use in our specific contnet area. I think that will help as we implement them into the classroom. I have a training coming up that will help with my GAME plan on June 2-4 that will focus on providing differentiated instruction. I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about implementing that into my classroom next year as well.