Web Resouces to Prepare Students for CCSS

There are lots of things out there on the Common Core and Technology, I have done a little searching even on Pinterest there are a lot of ideas.   Find resources at some place other than the State of Oklahoma Department of Education that suggests how students could be better prepared for the common core using technology.
Share the link, critique it, and talk about how it could look in a real classroom.. (ie is it realistic? what problems might you encounter if you try it? )

The Common Core State Standards emphasize on using technology authentically. There are many instances where students are required to use technology for research or online publishing. The following sites would be great to prepare students of all levels for the technological jumps they will have to make according to the CCSS.

Writing Standard 6 Grade 8: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

http://www.boomwriter.com/home/Schools - Students are given online writing prompts and the students anonymously vote and collaborate on their favorite chapter. It’s very interesting and fun way to publish and review published writing.

http://www.storyjumper.com/ - Students can create a readable e-book with pictures and text.

Required Online Highschool Classes in Idaho

"Last year, the (Idaho) state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate..." (Richtel). After reading the New York Times article published about this event, I feel that both sides of the argument have good points.  The state policy makers feel that students need the experience of an online class to help them gain the skills they might lack when they are faced with an online classroom in future college classes. The teachers fear salary cuts so the state can strengthen it’s technology infrastructure so that these online classes can be taught. They also fear that lawmakers are forcing technology into the classrooms without their thoughts and professional opinions being taken into account.

The state legislature does have a really firm basis to make this type of educational legislation. The National Education Technology Plan does acknowledge that students that are in classrooms today are different and that the schools must adapt to meet their learning needs.

“The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.”

                                                                        (U.S. Depart. Ed. . pg. 8 par.6) 

Students will never gain the skills that they currently need without experience. “It is reported that 90% of all higher ed. institutions offer Internet courses….Institutions of higher learning, particularly community colleges, report that withdrawal rates in online courses have surpassed traditional courses by at least 20% (Capra  2011). The state legislators in Idaho just want to make sure that their students have the skills that could help them succeed when they do get to college and experience an online environment. 

            The teacher’s concerns about this new law are legitimate. The article by Richtel states that the students and teachers are to be given laptops to aid them in producing and participating in these classes. One-to-one computer initiatives are very costly. Often it is the policy makers that fund these programs without any knowledge of what the teachers actually need. Teachers want technology in the classroom, but they also want to learn how to teach with it. The law that was passed should have a teacher professional development component to be anything close to being effective. Also, not every student needs a computer for an online class. Perhaps rather than buying every student a laptop, the schools can loan out a laptop to any student that is actually currently enrolled in the online class. This would mean less money spent on technology and no painful blows to teacher pay or benefits.

            Taking into account the Common Core State Standards that are on the verge of being implemented, it looks like more technology budget allocations will have to made in order to ensure the success of all students. It was said at a recent Oklahoma State Department of Education meeting by a reprehensive of the PARCC Consortium that students would not be able to pass the Common Core tests without basic computer knowledge. Technology skills are sprinkled all throughout the Common Core standards.  Everything is represented from basic research strategies to online publishing and blogging. Perhaps the one-to-one initiative could aid the teachers in getting their students to mastery level with the new standards.

Cited:

Richtel, Matt. "Teachers Resist High-Tech Push in Idaho Schools." New York Times [New York] 3 Jan 2012, n. pag. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/technology/idaho-teachers>.

Capra, Theresa. "Online Education: Promise and Problems ." Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 7.2 (2011): n. page. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/capra_0611.htm>.

United States. U.S. Department of Education. Learning Powered by Technology: National Education Technology Plan 2010 (Summary). Alexandria: ED Pubs, 2010. Web. <http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010-execsumm.pdf>.

Third Reflection-Who Really Benifits from Technology in the Classroom?

This article was published this weekend in the LA Times..   http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120205,0,639053.column  ..

Do you think that the integration of technology is really a racket to make money for business? Does movements to use more technology in classrooms have our students' best interests in mind?

Read the article and share your thoughts on it.. we will discuss it face to face next week..


 The article from the LA times really shed some light on some important issues that instructional designers, administrators, educational technology companies, and teachers need to reflect on and discuss. The author of the article says educational technology companies are looking for an easy way to make money and they don't have student learning at the forefront of their design. The author is also worried about the potential that the technology will not have a significant effect on student learning similar to the educational TV movements in the '60s and '70s. 

 What makes one piece of technology better than the other? What is the cornerstone to effective technology integration? Who can design a classroom that suits all the students individual educational needs? The answer to all these questions is an effective and authentic teacher. A good teacher is the only way a student's knowledge can grow positively within classroom instruction. The way a good teacher incorporates the technology into instruction is with lessons that are already exemplary in the first place. There is no substitute for a teacher's direct relationship with the students and their own classroom atmosphere. Technology is just a tool that if used effectively could boost an already effective teacher into a teacher that knows no bounds. 

Now the author, Michael Hiltzik, does have some shortcomings in his arguments within the article. He is unrelenting that schools could quite possibly spend $479 on an iPad for each student. What the author fails to account for is that schools already spend on upwards of $700 per student per year on textbooks. Hilzik also fails to account for the growing need of future employers to have students authentically trained and possess critical thinking skills as put fourth by the Common Core Standards. The opportunities for individual laptops or iPads in student hands effectively trains students for the real world. I don't expect doctors or lawyers to produce textbooks every time they are faced with a problem found within their profession. More often then not they are going to look toward the internet for a solution and current research or cases. The world is changing how it acquires its information. If we don't let our students change with the times then we will be selling them out. 

Second Reflection: What do I need to work on?

Part of becoming a better technology using teaching is doing a self assessment of your skills..  what are some areas that you need to work on to make more meaningful use of technology in your job.  If you are not sure how to answer this.. ask your coworkers or fellow students - they might be able to tell you.Make sure to tell me, why it limits you, or your teaching.. 

 

Reflecting back on my PD's I have had and the Science class I taught, I feel that there are some improvements I could make in two different areas that could make my use of technology more meaningful to the learner.

The first would be to better connect the technology to the learning objective and choose the technology that would best highlight and supplement this objective to increase overall learning. Picking the correct technology for the lesson is vital to help the student advance toward mastery of the learning objective. I believe sometimes I choose a technology that feels more like the "flavor of the month" or the latest and the greatest tools. It is a defiant need in my own instruction.  

The second way I could have a more meaningful use of technology would to put the tech into the teachers hands and let them manipulate and learn the tech for themselves (with a little guidance). The main goal of my job is to get the teachers to incorporate more technology into their lessons and that would be hard to do if they didn't have much experience with using it for themselves. The teachers would not only learn how to use the new ideas but in learning they would also learn how to troubleshoot for possible problems they might encounter in using these items. 

I hope that as my semester goes on I can work on these weaknesses and hopefully make gains toward becoming a better overall instructor.