StephP TIE Blog

Dynamic Learning Communities

2009-11-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

Compared to some of the other article we read during class, I think this article does a good job of opening up the idea of dynamic learning communities on both positive and negative aspects of this topic. The real world examples also help the connection to what is defined as a DLC. We all want our students to take more control over there learning and dynamic learning communities many be a good place to start. However, the lack of control that the teacher has may discourage teachers at the elementary and middle school levels. As I was reading the article many questions did come to mind and I kept my classroom in the back of my mind. Currently there are so many restrictions with teachers and meeting test scores, so where does the time come in to explore these options. Because you are taking control of your own learning, where is the teachers’ role come into play? Does a facilitator constitute having too much control? So many students are learning in controlled environments were the teachers designed the lessons and what they want the students to learn. I wonder how the student would react to having equal control as the teacher. I don’t know if some of these students would know where to start and some would show there natural leadership. As an adult learner, you are motivated and willing to try new things, but the question comes to mind as to why then would we pay money to earn credit on something that you may not learn from a designed instruction from a teacher but a DLC. If DLCs were to be implemented in schools, I think they would need to discover how to solve problems that may arise with the limited control and the best way to assess the learning.

Media and Attention

2009-11-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

There are many myths and truths about media and technology and its influences on academics. The most obvious point of this article that everyone should understand is no matter what media or technology you use the “What matters are the ways in which teachers choose to use, present, and teach with the technology” . In educational situation, the students use of technology in the school or home setting is only “good as the instruction they receive in how to use it”. How the teachers or parents choose to use technology will determine how it will “enhance student learning”.

As Marshall McLuhan famously said, "The medium is the message." I really don’t think that the number of hours you watch TV, or play on the computer or watch movies correlates to the how successful you are in school, but what they should be concentrating on is the content and skills they are using or gaining from watching or playing these programs. There are many things on TV that children should not be watching, especially with the rise of reality TV. However there are some interesting TV programs that have educational value, it just depends on how you incorporate and use it in your lessons. There are some issue with parents, administration and even teachers about watching movies and TV at school, because they want to know how it’s being used in the curriculum. I know some people feel that it’s just a “movie day”, and yes sometimes teachers do use movies as free time, but when movies or TV are used for educational value thing go in a uproar. I know that the Social Studies curriculum was questioned for watching the movie Glory in 8th after learning about the Civil War. Personally when, I found out about that I was shocked because that was a movie I remember watching and discussing when I was in 8th grade. Some parents are arguing that the movie is too violent, but I have to take a look at what kind of movies the students are watching now. Even though this “violent act” is what happened during the war, the movie was edited and these “violent” parts were taken out. These parents still think there is no educational value of watching this movie and the teachers need to prove why this movie has an educational value in their curriculum.

With the rise in new technologies and media some adults are scared because in the “traditional” sense, by using these technologies in school the students are not learning. Playing, being interactive, engaged, and having fun, can’t be considered learning, can it? It just depends how these are being used to “enhance student learning.”

UDL to unlock the potential

2009-11-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

UDL is what we as teachers should be strive for in and outside of our classrooms. It always should be about the students and how we can reach them in the designs of the curriculum and supplemental materials given to the students. Implementing something such as universal designs on the materials we create for our students will help us as teacher manage our time we spend on trying to recreate these materials we may want to use again at a later time. This article provided several charts and examples to try to implement the universal designs on teacher created supplemental materials, such as study guides and test.

The example provided in the article about study guides, was a good example of how easily supplemental materials can be universally design to meet the needs of all students. Sometimes I find that teachers try to squeeze as much information onto a study guide or use the one provide by the book. These materials may include too much information for the student to know what to study for and therefore the student may become frustrated with trying to study because they don’t know what to concentrate on. Once you have created some kind of template for study guides, you can then apply these rules and applications to other material you create. It’s so much easier to spend your time making things that are valuable to your students rather than making something that the students would get frustrated with in addition to the frustration that will continue because of the assessment results. These design principles, such as properly using the size of font, placement, spacing, color, bullets, etc. may help the student focus their attention to the content that is most important for the lesson or unit.

Considering a graphic designer was brought in to aid with the universal design workshop at the middle school mentioned in the article, I think it would be important for teachers to take design workshops. Being an art teacher and already have basic knowledge of design principles it is important to all teachers to use in their classroom on any material used for the students. Many teachers don’t think about these design elements as part of “art” but they really are. With the advances in technology there are many avenues teachers can take to make universal designs for learning easily and assessable to other teachers.

Learning Anytime, Anywhere

2009-10-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Learning Anytime, Anywhere
By: Fletcher, Tobias, and Wisher

Of course as teachers, we hope that our students learning to occur anytime, anywhere. The ultimate goal of the ADL initiative to make learning accessible to everyone is a great idea, but will it truly reach all types of learners. With the increase of technology, it does make it possible, but this type of learning anytime, anywhere requires more of the self motivated and guided students. The idea of making instructional materials accessible through digital, sharable and downloadable files is something in the near future that will help helpful to those students who cannot meet in a face to face setting for a period of time.

Let’s take for example, many of our students are out with the flu and some students are missing up to a week of school. If these material where available online and accessible to download, these students and parents will be able to access and see what their students are missing and what they can do to help. Teachers are always worrying how and if some of these students are able to catch up, but if these material were available to access, the question comes back to the students by wondering if they have the self motivation to access these material to catch up with the rest of class? Another part of the article that caught my attention is that learning may take place on handheld devices. What I found interesting about these handheld device, such as the I-Touch, when the students in our school found out we have I-touches in school, they wondered why we would have them in school. They didn’t know why we would buy them for school, because you can’t access anything on it. If students were able to complete their journal writing on their blog from their I-touches at the beginning of class, instead of writing it on a piece of loose leaf, how many more students would be interested on completing this task. However it comes back to where they would use these devices at and if they were able to access websites, not blocked by the school. If these ADL environments are used an important issue that should be addressed is internet safety and proper researching skills, because I find so many students not knowing how to researching using the internet, and plagiarizing they information they find.

I know that ADL is based more on the constructivist classroom, but what they need to work on is how it can be used successfully in the classroom before it is used outside the classroom. These ADL learning environments should not be set up for learners to fail, but to succeed. Personally I had a bad experience with distance learning class especially with the teacher facilitator role and extraordinary amount of work that went the class. Yes, giving the responsibility back to the students and putting the learning back into their hands in a goal of the 21st century learner, but how much is too much?

2009-10-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Politics of Curriculum: Origins, Controversies, and Significance of Critical Perspective
William F. Pinar and C.A. Bowers

After reading this article I think I had more questions rather than understanding of the politics of curriculum. What I do understand is curriculum is political. What I do find interesting in the link between curriculum and society. It seems that the academically and intellectually rich get richer and the poor get poorer. No matter what era you read about, what is consistent with schools is that society influences what type of curriculum is being taught. When you don’t follow the majority or what society tells you to do, it makes you resistance or disrupting the norm. Are you as a teacher really in control of your teaching or is the curriculum controlling your teaching and what students are going to learn. To some teachers they resist change because it seem that it is more work to change what they are doing, even if it is not working for the students. One solution to this problem is to give students more control over their own learning, but when will there be acceptance of this problem. The teacher is the key to student learning and they have the power to break through the politics and reflect upon what will work for your teaching and your students learning. Curriculum is affected by the society and majority, so how can we as teachers control these influences in order prepare our students for the future. We are not producing students that are going into trades and labor fields, but students who will become problems solver who can to think on their feet.

Assistive Technology

2009-10-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Rose, Hasselbring, Stahl, Zabala

From my understanding assistive technologies are created to help students overcome barrier specific to that student’s disability and environment. The universal design for learning creates products to reduce barriers to accommodate to a wide range of students. Both assistive technologies and universal designs for learning work hand in hand with each other in the way that when thinking about peoples specific needs the general or universal design will be effective and useful to a variety of disabilities.

After reading this article it really got me thinking about the students with disabilities in my school and how the school provides them with assistive technologies and universal design for learning. There are several students who come to school with their electric wheelchairs and recently one of our teachers is now in an electric wheelchair that specifically fits her needs. Architecturally, we do have wide hallways and elevators, but one design flaw they could have worked on is the lockers. All of the lockers are close together and for a student in a wheel chair they should probably include more space around the locker as well as more shelf spaces at a level where their books can be stored and reached. Our school should also think about installing the electric doors, so when they enter and exit the building that can do it on their own. Independence is very important to people with limited mobility.

In the classroom there are many things that we try to adapt in our curriculum to fit the students’ needs. With the recent growth in technology in relation to the textbook, it’s good to see the electronic version of the textbook, so it can be adapted in such ways to enlarge the text or even convert to Braille. This brings me back to a couple years ago when I had a student who was blind in my art class. I have never experienced this before, so I thought it was a good learning experience. In the back of my head whatever I was doing with the other students in my classroom, I had to think about what I would do with the student who was blind. Any reading materials and worksheets had to been given to his aid to be transferred into Braille. When talking about color, I used scented markers to help him identify colors and tried to use raised textures to help him identify spaces on a drawing surface. Creating 3D pieces of work came easier that 2D due to the fact that it is more tactile for him to manipulate with.

Teacher Learning

2009-10-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials to Promote Teacher Learning
Elizabeth A. Davis & Joseph S. Krajcik

Students learn from their teachers and teachers learn from their students. In the article, they discuss ways to promote teacher learning and it got me thinking about professional development experiences. The article talked about ways to promoting teacher learning through a combination of face to face experiences, on line discussion groups for support and support with the educative curriculum materials. Going to just a workshop, is not enough to have ongoing learning. Workshops do entice teachers with new learning experiences for their classroom, but do teachers they have the continuing support and willingness to change and implement these new learning experiences into their curriculum.

One sentence in the article spoke to me about teaching learning and when it comes into play. “Teachers learning experiences are haphazard after their initial preparation.” It takes several times after teaching a specific concept to understand and collect some data to see how you are using your knowledge, the student’s knowledge, and pedagogy to see what students are actually learning from the lesson. Reflection is the one of most important parts of teaching and it is where teacher learning comes from. As a teacher you are contemplating different ideas when preparing lesson, learning to adapt to diverse styles, as well as considering the unknown or questions that may arise while you teach the lesson. In my classroom, I like that I am able to teach a lesson 4 different times in the school year, because I am able to adjust my teaching based on what my students are letting me know.

I agree with the point that teacher learning is more complex than student learning because teachers are sometimes critical about “new things” that may throw off their routine. Teachers would not be in the field of education if they didn’t think they were going continue to grow and learn, just like there students do. Teachers do have the drive and acceptance for learning, but it is important to have a supportive environment, time and patience to improve their teaching and knowledge in content area.

2009-09-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Curriculum and Society: Rethinking the Link
Alicia De Alba

Today’s students learn differently then students in the 60s and 70s.The curriculum during that time was geared toward preparing the students for the real world “working world”. What are we preparing our students for if we gear our teaching towards a test? As for the culture conflicts, we still have the struggles with privilege versus the underprivileged, or between different cultures, just occurring with a different generation. However, with the different time comes more sensitivities and freedoms to these culture. Everyone has an opinion about some issues, both positive and negative and with schools we have to “tip toe” around certain issues both political and religious. Let’s take the recent example of the conflict schools and parents about President Obama’s speech. In our school district, in order to watch the speech, you had to get parental consent and show the curricular goals that met the reason why you would show this particular speech. In previous presidential debates or speeches there was no such need for parental consent or assurance that these speeches and debates meet some kind of curriculum goals.

One sentence in the paper, I think really captures the overall purpose of the paper that states, “we need to rethink this relationship to enable us to recapture a purposeful, critical and analytical view of our work in education (p 481).” Basically we need to keep up "with the Jones'". We as teachers need to understand the social changes of today’s society especially with the boom of technology with today’s generation and use it in our curriculum. When teaching in today’s society we try to strive connect our lesson to the “real world”. What comes to mind when I think about curriculum and society is the topic of service learning. Which is commonsensical! In order for our students to understand a little more about their society connecting the curriculum to service can help students understand more about the connection to the “real world” and what they are learning about in school. Basically assuring them that what they are learning in school is memorable instead of memorized.

Curriculum Integration

2009-09-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Curriculum Integration
J. A. Gibbons

Well, to be honest I had to read this paper a couple times and I really don’t know if I fully understand the examples of “curriculum integration” in this paper. Personally, I want to read something that gets to the point, in plain ole’ English. So from what I understand and what he concluded in his paper 30 years ago may still be true today; one teacher doesn’t know enough about two disciplines to integrate them. Five years ago, when I started clinicals and student teaching, integrating different subject areas and creating interdisciplinary units were a staple, especially at the elementary level. It seemed to be easier at the elementary level to gather teachers together to develop and teach these types of lessons. While working in the middle school level it seems like teachers need to follow a compound curriculum, where lesson one is taught, then lesson two and so on, which results in no time to explore other elements or disciplines.

After reading this paper, some questions arose such as, how can we improve our teaching through integration? Do teachers know how to integrate different disciplines together? How do we as teacher know when we are integrating? So these questions lead me to wonder, are we really “integrating” technology or other disciplines within our curriculum, or are we just saying we are. The integration of two subject areas requires the knowledge of more than one teacher as well as meeting the goals of both subject areas in order to unify them. We also need to distinguish between interdisciplinary lessons versus integrated lessons. It easy enough to incorporate different disciplines in your lessons, such as art or technology, but are you really enhancing the subject matter and knowledge learned. As teachers we need to work together to figure out how to connect subject areas together, but where the problem lies is how to meet curricular goals in both areas in order to “unify parts so that the result is more than the sum of these parts (Gibbons)”

TIE536

2009-09-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

About Me
I teach Art at Homer Junior High School, part of the Homer School District 33C in Homer Glen, IL. I am in my fourth year of teaching art, third year at the junior high level. I currently teach the Art/Technology classes as part of a rotation of during the school year. Our exploratory classes are currently set up as a rotation so each student will get a “taste” of each class (Foods/Sewing, Art-2D/3D, Woods/Electronics, Art/Technology, & Health). I teach 4 different classes, 2 sections 8th grade level art/tech and 2 sections of 7th grade level art/tech. Besides the classroom teachers and art moms, the first time the students in our district experience a formal art program taught by art teachers is in 5th grade. The 5th and 6th grade curriculum develops the students’ basic art skills touching upon the elements and principle of art by creating both 2-D and 3-D works of art. When the students get to 7th and 8th grade, the students build upon the basic 2-D & 3-D fundamentals as well as the experience to the digital side of art. Our department is looking forward to incorporating more visual arts technology into the art curriculum.

Technology available to use and teach with in my Classroom
Within my classroom I have 30 laptops, a tablet, ceiling mounted projector, and color printer, which have wireless capabilities as well as a Elmo(document camera and a DVD/VHS player. In my Art/Tech class the student will experience technology through researching on the Internet, Photoshop Elements, PowerPoint and Windows Movie Maker projects as well as the basic drawing and design fundamentals.

It is vital in my classroom to have my tablet computer and projector, which I use every day, when introducing a lesson with a PowerPoint, showing a video clip or demonstrating steps to a computer project. This technology allows me to easily and quickly show my students visuals of what we are learning as well as if any questions arise I can I answer them quickly by showing “how to” via the computer or document camera. Plus it’s a bonus for all students because it’s large enough for everyone to see.

Technology Integration
According to our definition formed in class, Technology Integration is seamlessly incorporating multimedia and other innovative tools to enhance the teaching and learning of subject matter.

I like to think that I try to incorporate technologies into my classroom as much as I can. I try to develop at least one or two lessons that use digital art tools to help enhance the traditional art curriculum. So many students think art is just drawing or painting and it’s much more than that. There is so much to do in the visual arts field that in my class I hope to at least introduce or improve students’ knowledge about programs or websites that will help them learn more about art.

One of my goals for my classroom teaching is for the students to learn about the basic digital/drawing tools and know how to use them correctly to create digital art and design projects. I would also like to show my student that whatever we use in my classroom they can use to incorporate into other classes project. I want to students to explore of variety multimedia software and be able think about art and design principles when creating their projects, since there are a multitude of technologies available to use. I ultimately want to build up an art curriculum using digital art tool and to learn how to use the variety of multimedia software so I can effectively teach the software to myself and my students.

Blog #4- Technology Integration??????

2008-06-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

As an educator, I believe we have many technologies available for us to use, but what seems to lack in most districts is the professional development and ongoing training. I believe our school has the technology available to use, but not all of teachers in our building are ready for the “technology integration” aspect for that 21st century classroom. Most teachers are comfortable using the Internet and the Office Software (Word or PowerPoint), which is how they justify the integration of technology in their classroom. In the article it mentioned that the professional development training for technology was effective for non- instructional tasks rather than instructional tasks with the students. Training for teachers on tools they need to use, such as SharePoint (our school website) or SchoolMax (online grading) is important, but if teachers are struggling with that aspect how will you ease the teachers' transition to integrating technology in their classroom. I think if we wanted to use the technology as an aid for student achievement we need to meet with teachers and give them ongoing training with the devices and software we have so they can begin to integrate them into their lessons.

It is not the quantity but it’s the quality. Same idea applies to technology, just because you have the technology doesn’t mean that teachers are using it. You can have all the technology in the world, but if you buy it and don’t know how it works or what all you can do with it, it will not be used by teachers. You need to start with technology that is easy to use so teachers feel comfortable with it and hopefully will become intrinsically motivated to use more and learn more. As I said earlier it all starts with the teachers, but teachers do need to be provided with that ongoing training, whether it is with an outside source or a group of teachers that meet once a month to discuss questions/concerns or share ideas.

Just in my classroom alone, I have a wireless projector, Tablet PC, an Elmo, 2 scanners, 3 digital cameras, and 30 laptops available for me to use. Have I received in depth ongoing training, not really? I do consider myself intrinsically motivated because I was given all of this equipment and I wasn’t going to let it sit there and not be used. I have explored some options for next school year, but I am still developing lessons that are going to integrate the technology and software, I was provided with. This year the students have used Photoshop to create computer art projects, created a PowerPoint presentation to explain the Six Guidelines of Photographic Composition and I use PowerPoint almost every time I introduce a lesson. Next year my goal is to create more “active” mini lectures, so the students are participating during the lecture, work more on art critiques using online sources, and I am incorporating a Windows Movie Maker project that deals with the elements of art and design.

Your focus is on that students, but you as a teacher need to feel comfortable using technology equipment, because in today’s society your students have been expose to it since they were born. As a teacher, you want to get adjust your curriculum so you are integrating the technology but not miss out on the content of your lessons. You ultimate goal is to create a fun, active learning environment, where the students and the teacher have open lines of communication.

Blog #3- Whiteboards & SRS

2008-05-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Whiteboards and Student Response Systems (SRS) can be incorporated into any classroom, but how can I incorporate these tools into specific lessons in my classroom. Art is hands on, however the part that students are uninterested in is art history, criticism and aesthetics. I wanted to focus in on those aspects and get students more involved and be able to interact with the discussions and presentations on artists, techniques and works of art.

The Whiteboard

PowerPoint Presentations & Computer Program Demonstrations - The Whiteboard allows you to move up to the front and be interactive with the device you are presenting with. Instead of controlling a PowerPoint presentation or Photoshop from the computer you can touch the screen, draw on top, or zoom in to a particular area of your presentation. I can be up at the front of the room and guide the students along by touching the screen and “becoming the mouse”. When using Photoshop, we can use the whiteboard for a review of the tools by having the students come up the board and show the class how to use the tools and to review the step of the computer project that we have already completed. I believe the whiteboard will engage and intrigue the students because they can actually use it and touch it, which involves them in the lesson.

Student Response Systems (SRS)

Art Critics - I would use the student response systems for critiques to help elicit discussion from students. The students would be art critics and I would create a PowerPoint presentation with some artwork and questions based on artists or techniques we are learning about. This lesson will help student learn to talk about art using the steps to art criticism (description, analyze, interpret, judgment).

Interactive Lectures-I usually talk about the artist or technique being used before we start any project. Since I already use PowerPoint to deliver my presentation, I would use the student response systems to get my students more involved and check for understanding.

Review Game- At the beginning of class each day we go over a question of the day. This question relates to what we are doing in class that day or reviews terms or techniques we already used. The students copy this question down in their sketchbook and are able to use them to do a crossword puzzle. The crossword puzzle is a way for them to recognize and review the terms we talked about during the quarter. The student response systems can be used in a review game with the crossword puzzle before the final exam at the end of the quarter

Using the SRS devices will allow the students to have an opinion and make them feel they are part of the lesson. These devices will also help them ask questions or will help the teacher understand what he/she my have to review based on the responses of the students.

Any new technology tools that you can use in your classroom is way to engage your students and help them focus in on what you are talking about. For example, the students in my classroom have never seen a document reader (ELMO) before and when I use it in my classroom my students were intrigued. I used the Elmo in my classroom for the first time about a month ago for a demonstration and I actually have seen more students paying attention and focusing during demonstrations, compared to when I have done a group demonstration with everyone gathered around the table. Just by incorporating technology tools in your lessons it will get your students attention in what you are doing by how you deliver it. I believe, consistently using new technologies in your classroom will get the students excited to not only use the tools but they will understand what you want them to learn. Students need to be re-trained from passive learners to active learners and you will see that light bulb go on more often.

Intergrating Technology into the 21st Century Classroom

2008-05-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

After reading the article, Designing Change for Faculty, Students, and Institutions, I think that it discuss very relative points on how to develop and integrate technology into the 21st Century Classroom. Before any change can happen, each teacher needs to accept that there is a need for change and “the need to learn”. Teachers are afraid of integrating technology because of their lack of knowledge or lack of time. Lack of time is a poor excuse because if your ultimate goal is to help your students retain the things that they learn in your classroom you need to take the time to change. Things that worked 20 years ago in the classroom, aren’t working currently. Your not going to change all teachers minds, but if you show the effectiveness and easy of use of technology integration, they may willing to try different things in there own classroom.

To begin integrating technology enriched lessons into the curriculum for our students, we need to “educate” our teachers on how to do it. It is important to show all teachers how to properly use any programs or technology device. During our SIP (School Improvement) days, I believe we need to organize and develop workshops for teachers in our building. These workshops can cover the “basic” technology skills to how to use interactive programs in the classroom. By introducing a technology concept to a small group of teachers and showing them the easy of use and how to incorporate these skills or programs into the classroom with curriculum they are teaching, it will help them to understand the importance of the technology integration and the affects on the students’ long term learning. The workshops or training should be on-going, so teachers can have a support line to help answer any questions and provide feedback for any problems that might occur. If teachers feel comfortable using technology and know that they have support they will be able to make that transition smoother and will more likely use it in their classroom.

For that “traditional” teacher in the building we can start small. We don’t want to throw everything out and expect teachers to use all of the technology skills, we wouldn’t do that to our students, so why would do it to teachers. With proper instruction, communication, support, and in small doses, I think that teachers will be more comfortable integrating technology into the curriculum. Lecture is one “traditional” tool, that is still very important in the classroom, but by allowing students to “actively participate” in the lecture format, it will help students get out from the “stuff and dump” passive learning environment. Every teacher in our building has a computer; some even have tablets that they can use for “interactive” lectures. Showing and informing teachers how to use PowerPoint and the tablet to incorporate more student communication can be a start for the more “traditional” teacher to get there feet wet with the 21st century lecture format. If the students are engaged and “actively participating” in “mini- lectures” they will be able to engage in higher level thinking by applying the information that they talking about-making that real world connection.

I also thought it was interesting that in the article it refers to talking to the students about the “what”, “why” and “how”. If we want to move the students from the passive environments to active learning environment we need to answer their questions about change and why it’s important for classroom learning. Teachers have these questions, why can’t the students? Students are comfortable doing something like worksheets because it’s that easy “A”, but some don’t want to sit back and be given the information. Incorporating “active learning environments” will help the students become engaged and will be more apt to participate and communicate to each other.

Before purchasing any technology device, it is important to talk to teachers about there current curriculum and then figure out what types of software or devices would well in the classroom. It is important to have technology available for you to use, but the technology coordinator should be expected to show teachers how to use these devices properly, otherwise they won’t be used by “all” teachers. It’s important to stress that we don’t want to replace the importance of the content; we as teacher should look at “integrating” technology as an aid to retain the content for the long term. The 21st Century Classroom, integrates technology and helps students gain real world skills and higher order thinking by creating “active learning environments”.