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Focus question: How are lesson planning and student assessment enhanced by technology?

Lesson design and development is a concept used for activities that teachers do to create, teach, and evaluate lessons with students. Lesson design and development using technology includes how educators will use electronic resources to enable academic content, teaching goals, methods, procedures, and learning assessments. With technology, teachers can enhance their lesson plans with greater visual and auditory elements.

Academic content means the facts, concepts, ideas, skills, and understandings that teachers will decide to share with students. State and national curriculum define what will be taught in the classroom, but not entirely. Teachers must choose what will be explained and explored every day. Educators will be using technology on what to teach. They will be able to search for an immense collection of curriculum resources and information.

After teachers know what to teach, they will now decide the teaching goals, methods, and procedures they will use. An educator needs to set a goal because it’s the reason why a lesson is being taught. In order to achieve the goal, a method will be used to convey academic content to students. Then procedures will be set by the teacher and how much time will be spent on each activity. Goals, methods, and procedures are combined into formats for daily learning. Technology supports lesson development by: presentation software, visual thinking software, web-based diagram, flowchart-making tools, teacher-developed websites, threaded discussions and email, podcasts, blogs, wikis, interactive software, webquests, intelligent tutoring systems, digital cameras, movie-making software, and assistive technologies.

Before, during, and after teaching lessons a learning assessments can occur. Teachers evaluate student knowledge, understanding, and performance by using learning assessments. Learning assessments can be summative, formative, and diagnostic. Summative is a summary of what students have learned at the end of the lesson. Formative is happening as a lesson unfolds, while diagnostic is preceding a lesson to measure what students already know. Assessment and evaluation process can be supported by technology tools, which include: electronic tests and quizzes, gradekeeping software, digital portfolios, student response systems, online surveys, and learning performance rubrics.

Tech Tool link: Web Resources and Apps for Lesson Planning.

The article discusses about how online resources can help new teachers organize learning experiences for students. It also mentions that online resources offer examples on how to incorporate the ideas into classroom activities. The article provides web resources and apps to start creating lessons and to expand our knowledge as a teacher. Annenberg Learning is a multimedia curriculum resource, which contain lesson plans, interactive activities, and videos for classroom use. My Lesson Plan is an app that uses customizable templates to support lesson planning.

Summary & Connection:

This chapter explores how teachers plan, construct, deliver, and evaluate lessons. It discusses how teachers can engage students and incorporate technology into the lessons. A teacher should be able to use technology to enhance academic content, learning assessments, teaching goals, methods, and procedures. Technology plays an important role in lesson development.

In lesson planning there are two different approaches—student learning objectives or Understanding by Design (UBD). Student learning objectives are the planned outcomes of your activities, not the activities themselves. A teacher will identify teaching methods, write out lesson procedures, and state what kind of assessments will be used. Understanding by Design is set forth in a series of books by educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. There are three main components that UBD has: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, and plan learning experiences and instruction. Lesson plans on topics and ideas for engaging students in learning are available via the Internet. Technology provides a way to access lesson-planning templates using UBD and student learning objective models.

The chapter addresses on how teachers assess and evaluate students. Educators are always designing ways to assess what students are learning. There are two contexts that teachers discuss evaluation and assessment: “what teachers do as they finish a lesson or unit to evaluate and grade student performance, and what teachers do throughout a lesson or unit as they constantly monitor student performance” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). This helps the teachers to determine who is struggling and who is not. Teachers are influenced by three factors about assessment: personal experiences, standardized testing, and teacher tests. It’s impossible for a teacher to determine what students think. Some educators believe that test assessments best define what students know or is able to do, while others believe in performance assessments.

Resources:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B.P. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Fbraid. (2008, February 25). Building technology enhanced lessons. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/fbraid/building-technology-enhanced-lessons97-03

Focus question: What are the essential ideas for teachers from research on the science of learning?

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School is a book that extended research on the science of learning. The research is based on social psychology, cognitive psychology, anthropology neuroscience, and technology. It explains that from young, humans are goal-directed who always seek information.

One of the essential ideas that a teacher should have is constructivism, which means construction of new knowledge based on what they already know. In order to reach out to the students, they need to associate new knowledge with ideas and information the students already know. For example, instead of telling facts about the earth revolving around the sun, the teacher should take the students out to observe. This way the teacher starts to build a process of new knowledge. The students begin get involved both physically and cognitively in the learning process. This is called active learning, in which the students start to pursue questions about the topic. Active learning has three main implications for teachers: they must know and work with understandings that students bring with them, they must teach subject matter in depth with examples, and the teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum.

Educators tend to follow one or four combinations of the learning theories. Constructivism is that a person constructs and interprets the world in their own way. Behaviorism “maintains that learning is a set of changes in human behavior created as a response to events in the environment” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). On the other hand, cognitivism claims that nonobservable and internal constructs influence learning. Seymour Papert created the term constructionism, which holds that learners build their own knowledge and add the ideas as public entities.

Learning for the 21st Century! Bluesofamedia Channel

Tech Tool link: Web Resources and Apps for Developing Digital Literacies.

The article offers a website called Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus, which allows students to research word meanings and their connections to other words using a mapping program. In a World…Drama, is an app that enables students to create a movie trailer with their own title and rating. The article provides websites, apps, and e-Books for developing digital literacies.

Summary & Connection:

Chapter three discusses the research on the science of learning and four learning theories teachers follow as they use technology in teaching. It also explains how technology makes transformative learning possible in K-12. The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) central goal is transformative learning with technology.

I believe that transforming learning with technology is important. Teachers need to create opportunities for students by engaging them in learning, such as: thinking critically, problem solving, developing digital literacies, communicating and collaborate electronically, and express themselves creatively. Technology enables teachers and students to express their creativity using pictures, symbols, numbers, and generated words. Teachers and students are able to create PowerPoint presentations and be creative with it.

The chapter further discusses about digital citizenship, which means membership in a society or a country. Just like a citizen, a digital citizens has rights and responsibilities. These rights include writing, photos, and graphic designs are subject to copyright protection. It is important to know that you cannot “falsely present another person’s work as one’s own, or share confidential information without permission” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011).

Resources:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B.P. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Focus Question: What are the major issues, developments, and trends in the field of educational technology?

Educational technology has barriers, developments and trends. Educational technology refers to “a particular approach to achieving to the ends of education” (The Field of Technology). Nearly all schools have Internet access and the ratio of students to computers has improved. Still, K-12 schools lack technology in the classrooms than is the norm in higher education. Educational technology also gets replaced or updated less often. Some schools have multiple computers, flat screen televisions, and interactive whiteboards. However, other schools are still locked in the past and lack access in technology. It means that their computers are in poor conditions, limited software, and software and hardware are incompatible. Lack of access to technology is a major barrier. Teachers that have access to multiple computers incorporate it into classroom learning. It’s much easier to divide the class into small groups, with one group on the computers while the rest do other activities.

Besides lack of access, there are other obstacles to technology use. These obstacles blocks teachers from integrating computers into classroom teaching. Henry Becker, a researcher, first identified the following factors: teaching schedules, curriculum requirements, technology skills, organizational support, and personal attitudes. Another barrier is digital divides and participation gaps, which means students that lack access to the latest technologies at school or at home.

Technology has developed over the years and is slowing being integrated into classroom instruction. It is used for drill-and-practice worksheets, word processing, encyclopedias, and research. Technology has changed teaching and learning in productive ways by: “differentiating instruction to offer students diverse learning experiences, motivating disengaged individuals, creating group and cooperative learning situations, allowing access to academic information from multiple sources, and letting students visit places and observe processes that cannot be seen without electronic systems” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). The trends of technology today are laptops, smart boards, iPads, flat screen televisions, and nooks.

Photo credit to Alvin Trusty on Flickr

Tech Tool link: Apps for Teaching and Learning.

People have heard about apps, which is short for application. Applications is a “software program that runs on a smartphone or tablet computer” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). There are hundreds of thousands of apps and it increases as people demand for more. The article discusses that apps are educational technologies that offer a way to inform teachers and engage students. There are apps for every academic subject including: English/Language Arts, science, history/social studies, math, and general information. The Elements and 3D Sun, Poetry, Early Jamestown, Mathboard, and How Stuff Works are all apps that are developed for educational purposes. It’s essential for a teacher to find and use the best educational apps for information management activities.

Summary & Connection:

This chapter explores about educational technology in K-12 schools. This topic is covered by using questions about issues and trends. A career that matters to everyone is teaching because it’s filled with “powerful complexities, endless questions, and wonderful rewards, it requires constant learning” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). Technology makes important goals to be accomplished easier.

A concept that is mentioned is digital disconnect, which refers to “the differences that students perceive between themselves” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). Youngsters are comfortable finding information online rather than searching in a book. It goes on to discuss about the key issues for technology-using teachers and explains each question that was asked in the passage. It explains about our innovation and technological readiness, technology choices and student engagement, barriers to technology use, roles for technology in teaching, methods for teaching with technology, and students and their technologies.

Resources:

The field of educational technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gse.pku.edu.cn/qwang/main/The Field of Educational Technology.htm

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B.P. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Focus Question: What roles does technology play in the lives of students and teachers?

Technology plays a major role in the lives of students and teachers nowadays. Everywhere I turn I see people on their smartphones, laptops, tablets, and eReaders. It has turn into an every-day thing. Technology enables people to browse, create, and communicate. I’m really interested in technology and programming. I’m willing to learn how to code and build software myself.

Today, children are born into a digital world. They are surrounded by advanced gadgets and learn how to use it rather quickly. These youngsters experience a “digital childhood characterized by television watching and increasing use of computers and other digital media” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). Schools have begun to allow students to bring their mobile devices and use it for web search. Most teachers assign students to create a PowerPoint presentation, which exposes them to technology. College students register for classes through computers at home or in school. Most of their assigned work requires the use of technology.

Teachers incorporate the use of technology into their lessons plans. It reinforces their lessons by enabling them to show digital photos and videos. Educators use technology to communicate with the students as well. If a student doesn’t understand their homework, then they can contact their teacher online. Technology forms part of an every-day life for both students and teachers.

Tech Tool link: Tablets, Smartphones, and Laptops.

As a college student that enters into the teaching profession, we will be using computers in the classroom. It’s a good idea to get familiarize with how to access, manage, and share information with students. The article discusses about what types of technology a teacher can use for school. It also explains each gadget and what it does. Tablets would be used for maps, dictionaries, and research just like smartphones and laptops. As a future teacher, we need to choose what kind of devices we will need for our professional work.

Photo credit to Cybercorrere Departmental Digital Agency on Flickr

Summary & Connection:

The first chapter introduces on how to become a 21^st century teacher. It tells the reader what skills and technologies teachers need to incorporate into the classroom. I’m excited to learn more and expand my skills with technology. The chapter further discusses that teachers use technology in three primary ways: inside-the-classroom instructional tools, outside-the-classroom use by teachers, and inside-the-classroom and outside-the-classroom use by students. It’s amazing how teachers and students discover how technology is a powerful learning tool.

I believe that digital identity is important when becoming a teacher. Digital identity refers to their technology talents and competencies. They should learn how to “maintain websites and blogs, use computers to compose and calculate, research trends and information online, make electronic presentations, and perform countless other activities technologically” (Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, 2011). Educators need to have personal commitment in keeping up with technology and incorporating it into their curriculum. There are three important goals when building a digital identity: building a multimedia resume, learning resources and teaching tools, and modeling technology for students.

Resources:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B.P. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.