CO-PBST+7+Reflection

CO-PBST 7 Reflection

Teresa Powell 31 July 2012 EDT 3010, Reflection

7.1 Apply technology to the delivery of standards based instruction After completing all of the assignments for EDT 3010, I feel that there are now a couple ways that I have learned to apply technology in order to deliver standards based instruction. For example, when completing my WebQuest, a lesson about Africa, I first started out with creating a geography lesson. When I was finished, I thought it was a fairly thorough geography lesson on Africa. However, I then remembered that my lesson needed to address the Colorado state standards for geography. When I looked at the standards, I realized that my lesson only really coincided with one or two. I had to completely redo some of the parts of my lesson and change the assessment at the end in order to make sure that my African Safari lesson met multiple standards and also so that my students would be learning the content that they were supposed to be learning. Later, when I did my SMART notebook presentation, I made sure to take a look at both the first grade science standards before I started the project. I also made sure to check on the technology standards. What I learned from this is that in all areas of teaching, but especially time consuming technology based lessons, it is important to make sure that the standards will align with my lesson before I create it. This is especially true of the technology standards, as the students need to learn what they state has decided they need to learn and not just what I feel like teaching them. However, as long as I make sure to do this, technology and the state standards can really work together to give the students interesting and meaningful lessons.

7.2 Use technology to increase student achievement There are many aspects that, as a teacher, I will be able to use technology in order to increase student achievement. One of the most obvious ways that this can help is that technology usually makes learning more interactive, which can help students to become more interested and involved and hopefully increase student achievement. For example, in class a student that is engaged in a fun SMART notebook presentation and has the option to come up to class to write on the board is probably more likely to learn than a student that is hardly paying attention during a dull lecture. Technology can also increase students achievement because it can help students make discoveries and learn on their own. This is usually much more meaningful than a teacher simply regurgitating information to a class. With the a WebQuest, a student has the opportunity to search around the internet all on their own and to learn about things are more interesting to them. This makes for a much more engaged group of kids who see learning as more meaningful. This will no doubt increase student achievement in a classroom.

7.3 Utilize technology to manage and communicate information There are many different ways throughout the summer that I have learned how technology can help me to manage and communicate information. When exploring Web 2.0 I learned about many different tools that I can use to communicate information to my students. For example, the British library website has a huge database full of historical documents and primary sources from around the world. If my students were learning about European history and had the opportunity to explore this, they would be able to actually see copies of the document that we are learning about. If the students were able to get a look at the Magna Carta and the way that it was written, they would probably get a much stronger sense about what it means than if we had just discussed it in class. Technology also allows educators to communicate in different ways. When watching a video about incorporating technology into the classroom for my technology integration essay, I remember that engineers from NASA were able to Skype with students interested in astronomy. Again, this would make information much more meaningful to the students than if they had read the same information out of a textbook. Plus, they would have the opportunity to ask questions. Incorporating technology into the classroom give the teacher an almost infinite amount of possibilities, many of which can help students to understand what is being communicated to them in a much more full and meaningful way.

7.4 Apply technology to data driven assessments of learning I have met the standards of applying technology to data driven assessments of learning through the rubric that I created for my WebQuest. I had to connect what I wanted my students to get out of the assignment to how they could convey this information to me in a reasonable way. In order to do this, I thought about what information my students needed to explore on the internet, the Colorado state standards, as well as how they could make a project or assessment for this. By the time I finished my WebQuest, I really felt that I had made this connection and that my rubric aligned with what my students needed to learn and what I expected them to do. After completing this, I am much more comfortable with rubrics and know that in the future I will easily be able to make rubrics that coincide with my lessons that incorporate technology.

7.5 Instruct students in basic technology skills This class was not only an important lesson for me in technology, but was also very helpful because I now will be comfortable teaching basic technology skills to my students. I now fully understand how to use SMART notebook and could easily help my students to use the SMART board in class. I have a better understanding of navigating the internet from the work that went into my WebQuest project. After this class, I have an understanding of the program Audacity and now know how to record and then communicate information. In addition to the skills that I have learned, I now know how to incorporate these skills in a classroom setting. After that, assisting children with basic technology skills should be no problem and I am actually looking forward to this as I begin teaching.