Voice Thread

Where in the USA is NY?
In the book Firegirl one of the settings was New York.
We take a look at a map of the USA to find TN and NY. We also take an up close look at each state, a real life photo, and the state flag.

https://voicethread.com/share/14299921/

Keep in mind if you are using the telephone call feature you only have five time to record for every 24 hours! I had to record some twice, because of my loud children. So, I did not get to finish my recording before this assignment was due.

Constructivist Learning Theory, Teaching, and Learning

    Orey (Laureate Education (Producer), 2015) describes constructivism as being a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs their own meaning and Constructionism is a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others. In both constructivism and constructionism, knowledge is built by the learner (Parmaxi, A & Zaphiris, P, 2014). The instructional strategies are the many ways that teachers use to help the students to learn or get a better understanding of something. Teachers choose and use instructional strategies to help the students construct their own meanings and create artifacts. By doing both of those things you keep the students active and engaged and they will possibly remember it better. A few technology tools that can be used to help students to create their own meaning and build artifacts include the following. Power Point Presentations can be created and built by the students. They can include images, videos, and voice clips that they find and record. Word Processing programs allow students to type and build many projects on their own. All of these strategies and tools work together to support student learning in the way that they students are creating something from their own thoughts to better understand and learn. With the assistance of digital media and computer based technologies, learning through making and the emphasis on individual learners’ interactions with their artifacts are the basis of Papert’s idea of constructionism (Parmaxi, A & Zaphiris, P, 2014).

    I personally use Power Point all the time. I will encourage the use of it by my students to create one of their own for classroom projects or activities. I currently use lots of graphic organizers for my students for them to fill out and create on their own. The ISTE standard for students (ISTE, 2016) is 3c Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions. The students will use what they have learned to make artifacts. The ISTE standard for Educators (ISTE, 2008) is 6c Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems. I will create opportunities for the students to design artifacts for critical thinking and solving problems.

    For the Genius Hour projects I will have the students use a word processing document to record their thinking and to help them organize their thoughts. I will also want a hard copy printed out.  They will use this information to fill in their Power Point. The students will use Power Point presentations as their artifact to present their GH projects to the class on the topic of their choosing.

References

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for educators. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015e). Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Parmaxi, A & Zaphiris, P. (2014).The evolvement of constructionism:

an overview of the literature. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07482-5_43

Graphic Organizer and Virtual Field Trip for Firegirl

What are the story elements of Firegirl?

https://mm.tt/1454601534?t=WJkhxYYQoe

Behaviorism, instructional Strategies, and Technology Tools

 Educators that believe in behaviorism in the classroom view it as a system of rewards and punishments, in which they reward desired behaviors and punish inappropriate ones (Orey, 2010). Watson and Skinner are the two big names associated with Behaviorism. We know that there are two types of behaviorism. They are classical and operant. Behaviorist educators associate reinforcing effort and providing recognition as major instructional strategies to this theory. We know there are positive and negative reinforcements. This could be taking things away or adding them. The use of technology tools that are open ended, foster curiosity and the joy of discovery, and that do not provide “correct” or “wrong” responses (Moorhead, 2014) are essential for improving the classroom. These strategies and technology work hand in hand to support student learning. We need to use technology as support and not the main way of delivery or as an add on. We can provide the use of technology as a positive reinforcement, data collection, and analysis tools (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012). If the students are doing what you ask of them they could be rewarded with computer time. You could have rubrics for assignments available online or through a classroom website for the students to know exactly what the teacher expects from them. An online grade book could be made available for parents and students to be able to analyze grades and progress.

In my classroom, I am a big believer in rewards and punishments. As in giving things and taking them away. I also try to provide recognition and praise when it is due. I could see using Micropoll.com in my classroom. It is a form of web-based survey. I could use it as a way for my students to give me feedback, thoughts and feelings, or gather information on students that like or dislike specific things. This is evident in ISTE educator standard 2.a. (2020) Shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders and the ISTE student standard 3.c. (2020) Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

My scholarly journal article asks the question “What is he doing and Why is he doing it?” (Watson, 2009). This allowed me to see another person’s view on this theory. My popular source was a YouTube video. It was two guys role playing what Behaviorism is in the classroom using examples. It gives you real life classroom behaviors and how to get them accomplished.

I can apply this to Genius Hour by having everything I want the students to find out, learn, and answer on a checklist and displayed on the board. When the students choose a topic and are able to complete the checklist, they can reflect on what they found and described what they learned. When students are given the opportunity to choose and learn about something they are interested in it gives them more ownership and drive to complete the activity.

References

Moorhead, L. (2014, September 3). There’s no app for good teaching. Retrieved from http://ideas.ted.com/theres-no-app-for-good-teaching/

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2020). Standards for educators. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2020). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016

Watson, J. (2009). Behaviorism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PhnCSSy0UWQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=behaviorism+peer+reviewed+articles&ots=tX7aoNtwax&sig=VataTh0CcwKJvoezWkUTSKlqUxI#v=onepage&q&f=false

Reflective Essay

It was nice to watch and listen to the videos and audios. The examples of the teachers, their classrooms, and the presenters helped me to see different scenarios that I could learn from. They were all knowledgeable and were very easy to watch. The required texts and resources gave me other options to refer to and further my knowledge. Richardson tells us that teachers will see themselves as connectors, content creators, collaborators, coaches, and change agents (2010). I also learned about the ISTE standards for teachers and students. I had no idea about them and now I can use and go by these standards for myself and my students.  The activities got me to use them for myself and not just read about them. I wanted to learn and use them the right ways and then get a good grade. That had me thinking like my students. I have to do this activity the way my teacher wants me to, to learn what I need to, and get the grade I got for the work I did.

I have deepened my knowledge by realizing that there are so many other technologies to use other than Power Point. I was stuck in a rut and I have definitely learned many new tools and methods by taking this course. It’s not all about using and throwing technology at our students in our classrooms, it’s about using technology to help facilitate and further their knowledge. These technologies are making us reexamine the way we thing about content and curriculum and how best to teach students (Richardson, 2010).

One Web 2.0 tools that I am open to trying and using in my classroom is podcasting. I want to use it as the teacher and I also want students to have the opportunity to make and use them. A few roadblocks that we might run into are time to record or listen to them, buying and time to use the microphone, and me getting over hearing my own voice. I plan to overcome these by doing some of the following. I will give students opportunities to use the computer lab and giving them an allotted amount of time to record their podcast. They might also work in groups to record the podcast together. I will use classroom money to buy a microphone to use and demonstrate the correct way for the students to use it, so that it will last. I might also by a few of headphones that have the microphone built in. As for me getting over hearing my own voice, I will just have to do it and only listen to playback when I first record it. By using these web tools we use our new role as curator of both knowledge and people (Richardson, 2015).

The following are the two long-term SMART goals to help me in transforming the environment in my classroom. I want to use, incorporate, and learn about more Web 2.0 tools, in my teaching, in the next two years, to facilitate my students in their learning. I will keep a running log of the tools, as a visual, and I will list the ones I currently use and will add new ones to the list. Each year, I hope to add one to two tools to the list. By the end of the two years, I will have realized my goal if I have six tools listed on my running log of Web 2.0 tools used in my classroom. I have accomplished this by taking this class. I have already learned a few good ones that I now use and will keep using in my classroom. I will also keep researching new tools on the internet, asking colleagues, and continuing my master’s education. I hope to plan and design all lessons with the 21^st century skills in mind, in my teaching, in the next two years, to help prepare my students for their future. I will strive to use at least six of the twelve in each lesson. Each year, I hope to add one to two more skills used for each lesson. By the end of the two years, I will have realized my goal if I have at least ten of the twelve used in each lesson. I hope to accomplish this by having a printable of the skills available to me when I am writing my lessons to identify and check them off.

A challenge that I have to overcome is me forcing myself to use technology and think outside of textbook and paper. In being a master learner means that I can change my view and practice despite the traditional expectations and mindsets (Richardson, 2015). This course has given me very good information and examples of web tools to use. This course has also showed me how to incorporate these tools into my classroom.

References

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students.
Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers.
Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Richardson, W. (2015). From master teacher to master learner. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

My plan of using a blog in my classroom

Using a blog in any classroom would definitely bring needed change. It is 2020 and just about everyone is exposed to some type of technology on a daily basis. I would use this blog as a way for the teacher (Mrs. Davis) to communicate and collaborate with students, families, colleagues, and community stakeholders to improve and/or enhance student learning (Laureate Education, 2015).

I believe blogging can be used for any grade level or subject. At this moment I am not in the classroom, but it would be a welcomed addition to my teaching platform. Technological advances have led to radical social transformations which demand more flexible, diverse, and open learning (Munoz-Carril, P.C.; Gonzalez-Sanmamed, M., & Fuentes-Abeledo, E.J., 2020). It is a great way for us to all to say connected. It would be as easy as a click of a mouse or swipe of a finger. I believe it is beneficial, because it is instant and provides a paper trail.

The two International Society for Technology (ISTE) Standards for Teachers that I think may be met by blogging include 2a and 4c. ISTE Standard 2a states “Shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders” (ISTE, 2020). I believe it is met by using the blog its self to engage with all educational stakeholders. ISTE Standard 4c states “Use collaborative tools to expand students' authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally (ISTE, 2020). I believe it is met by using the blog as the collaborative tool to be able to engage with others locally.

The two ISTE Standards for Students that I think may be met by blogging are 1c and 7b. ISTE Standard 1c states “Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways” (ISTE, 2020). I believe it is met by posting a blog describing what they have learned to get feedback from others. ISTE Standard 7b states “Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints” (ISTE, 2020). I believe it is met by posting a blog that attracts other students to raise awareness.

References 

International Society for Technology for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2020). Standards for educators. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2020a). Standards for students. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Laureate Education. (2015). Walden's technology proficiencies. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Munoz-Carril, P.C.; Gonzalez-Sanmamed, M., & Fuentes-Abeledo, E.J. (2020). Use of blogs

for prospective early childhood teachers. Educación XX1, 23(1), 247-273, doi: 10.5944/

educXX1.23768