Online Learning

Currently, I use a few online experiences in my classroom.  First, I use educational games as often as possible to enhance learning.  Often in math, I create centers where students are able to use the computers to play an educational game related to current learning topics such as fractions.  For spelling, students use the website spellingcity.com to type in their words and play games.  Also, I have a classroom blog that I utilize for student questions.   

It was difficult for me to choose one online experience to use with my students so I will discuss two that I think would benefit them.  First, I would love to have students create an electronic portfolio.  A portfolio could be used in all subjects.  As a new teacher, I worry about parents not getting feedback on student achievement throughout the course of the year.  Some papers never it make it home and parents are left in the dark on assignments and how their child is performing.  With an online portfolio, student achievement is documented electronically.  This allows parents to have online documentation of learning throughout their child’s schooling.  It also develops life long skills for students as they use the computer to upload assignments.

Secondly, I like the idea of an online field trip.  I have never implemented this in my classroom, but I believe it would be very effective in subjects like social studies and science.  Our school is not allowed to go on field trips so I think that this is a great interactive online tool for students to feel as though they are learning outside of the school building.

There are a few online technologies that would be difficult to use with my students.  Career planning tools seem as though they would be more useful in high school rather than in elementary school.  The test preparation tool also seems as though it is for high school students getting ready for college.

Wikipedia and Wiki Page

After viewing Wikipedia and looking up the current school I teach at, there was no information specifically on Brummer Elementary.  I searched South Lyon Community Schools and found a list of all the schools in our district; however, there was  not anymore information given on Brummer.  I decided to make a link to Brummer Elementary and add some information so people could find out more about my school.  I added information that I found from our school website.  On the new page, I discussed the mission statement, the neighborhood concept, and who our school was named after.  

On the wiki site, I created a page that would be used for my students to write their book recommendations down during Reading Workshop.  This way, students have a place to go when looking for a good book or telling their classmates about their favorite books.  Also, using a wiki page is a great way to incorporate technology into student learning environment.

Here is the post that I made on Brummer Elementary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brummer_Elementary

Here is the screenshot of the post I made on Brummer Elementary:
http://screencast.com/t/9e8rPYt4D

Here is the link to my wiki page:
http://www.wikispaces.com/user/my/lnapierala21

Here is the link my Brummer Book Recommendations page:
http://brummerbookrecommendations.wikispaces.com/

UDL Guidelines

After going thought my Colombian Exchange lesson plan, I realized that I could improve my lesson immensely based on the UDL Guidelines.  I had a variety of benchmarks that I needed to improve on to help my students achieve success.  For example, although I showed a very quick five minutes BrainPop video on Christopher Columbus, that was the only auditory part of the lesson.  I realized that including an appropriate learning video or two on the web hunt would have helped students who were not auditory learners.  Overall, this lesson was best for visual learners and I was not taking into account other types of learners effectively.

Another problem was that although collaboration is good, I had 24 students jammed on 12 computers.  Unfortunately, this is the computer lab in my school; however, I could have put twelve kids on the computers while other students were working on another engaging assignment.  This would have made students take ownership for their own learning, while also being able to assist others.  Students would not have had as many distractions.

Also, it would have been a good idea to demonstrate what I wanted their final product to look like.  Although I modeled how to get to napieralanews.weebly.com and where they were supposed to put their response, I should have created an actual rubric with the points I wanted them to write about.  Some students were taking control on the blog, while others were watching the work being done.

There was good that came from this lesson though.  First, students got the opportunity to learn through the internet and not just reading their textbook for information.  They were more engaged in their learning and had clear objectives that they were working to achieve.  Students were much more apt to use dictionary.com then to get out a dictionary to look up a word.  The information presented was at grade level which helped students to be successful, but also challenged them in ways.

Overall, analyzing this lesson helped me see what guidelines I should use when creating a lesson.  Although it is unrealistic to do the checklist for every lesson, I was able to see what were important ideas to focus on next time such as creating a lesson taking into account auditory, visual, and hands on learners.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/14BTP7Q0heU7Fv_qmI6DMysTmjDQyjsTEb5b7kequXUc/edit?hl=en_US

WebQuest Evaluation

The WebQuest I chose to evaluate is “Rebelling for Freedom”.  This is a WebQuest designed by Jennifer Armusewicz, Emily Breiner, Kate Dougan, and Kate Wheeler from the University of Richmond,Virginia.  In this History and Social Studies WebQuest, students are asked to visualize themselves living in 1973, in the time period right before the American Revolution.   The colonists living in Boston, Massachusetts are asked again to pay ANOTHER tax on goods.  They are fed up with paying taxes and are going to stage a peaceful rebellion against England.  The students’ job from this activity is to figure out the best way to rebel peacefully to prove to England that they are sick of being controlled and told what they have to do.  

           The strategies used to teach this lesson would be a hands-on, meaningful learning approach.  Students would have knowledge of the ongoing problems between the colonists and England.  Their content knowledge will help them understand why the colonists are so angry when they are told they are going to pay MORE taxes.  They use deductive reasoning to construct the best way to have a peaceful rebellion.     

This lesson is a great activity for my fifth graders.  In the fifth grade curriculum, students learn about the American Revolution and how and why the thirteen American colonies were formed.  One goal for “Rebelling for Freedom”  is for students to write from their own perspective and explain their reasoning.  This lesson also has the ability to extend students in thinking about a current issue in society.  They could learn about another rebellion that has happened recently in the United States and compare and contrast both rebellions.  

  

           This WebQuest does not mention using technology.  However, students could not only a textbook but the Internet to search for the variety of reasons the colonists were sick of English rule.  They could search for ways other groups have rebelled peacefully.  Students could also be required to post their response on a Wiki page or on a blog so other classmates could respond.  Although technology is not mentioned, it definitely could be utilized effectively for this particular lesson.   
    
           The problem I see with this WebQuest is that there is not a lot of direction to it, lacking in specific step-by-step directions. Although I really liked the idea, the lesson does not go into much detail on how to effectively implement this into your classroom. If I was to improve this WebQuest, I would give more information how to successfully use this in the classroom, maybe providing a rubric of what the final product should look like.  This WebQuest does credit its sources, but is copyrighted from 2002-2006 so it could be updated.     

Here is the screenshot of the WebQuest I found- http://screencast.com/t/RWRrxxHnw

Here is the link to the webpage- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zk65o73mzntf6llBQmQteyu2fheTeaQWdGLR23R0DKk/edit?hl=en_US

Personal Learning Reflection Cont.

I am excited that I decided to get my master's in Educational Technology at Michigan State University.  I had a friend and colleague who was finishing up this program and she recommended it to me.  She said she learned a variety of useful ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I am glad I took her advice.  In CEP 810, I did not dread coming home from work and working on projects or assignments for this class.  I knew I was benefiting my students along the way.

After completing eight weeks of the class, I learned a wide range of skills dealing with technology.  Some of even the simplest activities such as creating a Twitter account, blog, and RSS Reader feed have been effective for me.  This class gave me the motivation to create a classroom website, which I will improve in CEP 811. My instructor, Melissa White was available to assist quickly when needed and helped to enhance my learning on educational technology.

My current fifth grade students love the idea of a blog and have written on my website blog numerous times.  Although they have not completely used it in the way I would hope (asking questions about homework and helping eachother) they have really taken to the blog.  Also, they enjoy using the useful educational games that I put on my Weebly website.

Although I was a bit nervous for working in a group on an online class, I think it was extrememly beneficial.  For example, our group's proposal was that personal learning networks could positively enhance learning.  One of my group members discussed collaborate classroom.   Before we worked on our project, I had never heard of it.  Now I think it is a great tool I can use in my classroom.  

As I said in my post a few weeks earlier, I will continue to find ways of incorporating more technology into the classroom.  Just in one short semester, I have learned so many new educational sites, as well as social sites that people turn to all around the world.  My long-term goals are to discover many more free online resources that are user-friendly to impliment into my classroom.

Thanks for a great semester!

MERLOT site

Visual Fractions Website

MERLOT 

I thought the site Visual Fractions suggested by Richard Rand on MERLOT would be very effective for my fifth graders.  After playing on the site for a few minutes, that was all the time I needed to discover its validity.  The quality of the content was valid and correct and it had useful fraction models for students to be able to visualize the content.  This website can be used for identifying, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.  Along with instructional models, it had interactive lessons attached as well.  I think the website would appeal to students.

After students use this site, they should have a better knowledge of  the meaning of fractions.  The target learners for this great website would be the visual learners who need topics reinforced that were learned in class.  This site hit a variety of stages as a teaching and learning tool.  It gave visual explanations of fractions.  For example, if you started playing a fraction game to compare fractions and forgot how to do it, you could click explain and it would provide a visual explanation.  The downfall would be that this site did not have a lot of application to new problems though.  Although this site could be used for a teacher to refresh their knowledge of drawing pictures to visual fractions, I think that it would be most beneficial for struggling learners.

The website is a very user-friendly site.  As I was searching through the site, I did not get easily lost.  When you go to the link, the home page consisted of a heading.  If you wanted to compare fractions, you clicked the compare button.  Next, you would click the learning tool to either compare with lines or to compare with circles.  Once you do that, you are learning.  It is as easy as that to get started.  Students would be able to work through this site with little teacher guidance.

Personal Learning Reflection

There were numerous ideas I have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology.  One of the first projects we completed was creating an RSS Reader.  This was a new tool for me on google and helped me find educational blogs and websites that could benefit me as a teacher.  I checked my RSS Reader daily in order to find new feeds that I could integrate into my classroom.  Also, I learned a lot about technology through my group’s SIG Presentation.  Our group decided that we were going to prove the effectiveness of using personal learning networks in the classroom such as twitter, blogs, collaborize classroom, and websites.  I created my own website which I now utilize on a daily basis.  I had never created a blog or website before and found out how easy it was to do.  I had never heard of collaborize classroom before.  I like the idea to set up a interactive blog for classroom discussion and have students vote and comment on their vote.  It is a way for students to reason in an interactive manner.  

The Internet helped my SIG group and I enhance our proposal on the usefulness of personal learning networks in the classroom.  We found many useful articles and blogs that we read and incorporated into our final SIG Presentation.  We also used a variety of personal learning networks.  I got the opportunity through this class to create a blog, website, twitter account, learn about online safety, and join professional organization such as MACUL.  I had never used any of these online resources.  

After I created my initial blog on blogspot, I really felt the desire to start my own web page and blog for my classroom.  Although I haven’t had a lot of people respond to my blog or ask questions, I hope to use it more in the future.  I think having a blog where both parents and students can go, can positively effect student learning  Students have the opportunity to help others, not only me helping them.  

I believe that I have began to meet my goals that I established in my Personal Growth Plan.  One of my goals was to utilize technology and become more knowledgeable with using technology.  At our school, we have CPS which is a handheld remote that can be used as a review or assessment tool.  I learned how to incorporate that into my teaching.   Also, by starting my own classroom website napieralanews.weebly.com, I achieved another personal technology goal from this semester.     

I will continue to find ways of incorporating more technology into the classroom.  Just from one semester, I have learned so many new educational sites, as well as social sites that people turn to all around the world.  I am excited that this class is the first class and that I have many more to go to feel more confident in my abilities to incorporate technology into my classroom.  My long-term goals are to discover many more free online technological resources that are user-friendly that I can implement into my classroom.