This has been a very rough week for me. I have been sick all week, missed two days of school, and am having technology issues that are proving to be very frustrating. I am glad I must reflect on the readings and videos and not on other aspects of this week.
I enjoyed watching the two Digital Youth Portrait videos about Luis and Cameron. I do wish there had been a portrait about a young lady who enjoyed and embraced technology though. However, both of these young men were very inspiring. It was fun to watch them with their peers as well as adults who looked to these young men to teach them about the latest and greatest in technology.
Luis used technology not only to connect with his friends, but also as a way to encourage his younger brother and have fun with him, and he mentored other young kids through the 4-H Tech Wizards program. He helped his parents embrace technology as well in helping them learn how to pay bills online.
Cameron used his love of computers not only to make movies and announcements at school, but also to help himself improve his hockey skills. Of all the things captured in his video, this was the most innovative. Another thing Cameron did that I appreciate as a teacher, was creating videos to help his teacher illustrate a concept in math class. So many students are visual learners, and being able to watch a video that clearly illustrates a confusing concept is so helpful.
The videos showed that both boys were able to use technology to solve problems and work with others to do the same.
The video, Top 10 Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom, provided some good reminders on how to use the Internet more effectively in the classroom. I will be honest, a lot of times I use the Internet as a babysitter when I am busy doing the fifty other jobs expected of me besides actual teaching. I do many of the things listed, but one thing I need to work on is tip four, “Create your own interactive exercises.” (boxoftricks.net, nd)
I enjoyed reading Chapter 6 of the Rose and Meyer book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, as well as Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools by Solomon and Schrum. Rose and Meyer have great information pertaining to brain networks and using UDL in the classroom. The quote that stood out to me this week was from the first page of Chapter 6. “As our knowledge of the distributed processing in the brain grows, we know that the students do not have one kind of intelligence or one way of learning; they have many. To accommodate these many ways of learning, we can use what we know about how each brain network operates to make our teaching methods and curriculum materials flexible in specific ways.” (Rose & Meyer, 2002)
Solomon and Schrum discuss several tools in our reading this week, but the one that really stands out to me it the use of blogs to improve the writing process. My district, especially the high school, is focusing on improving our students’ writing abilities. Bringing blogs into the classroom as a tool to improve skills seems like a great idea.
There was a lot to do this week, and I feel like I only scratched the surface. Did I mention three week progress report grades are due, and I am not even close to being done with those?
UDL Lesson Plan:
Creating the UDL lesson plan was somewhat complicated. Our group decide to use 9th grade biology as our content area. None of us teach science, only two of us are even in the classroom and we teach CTE type classes. Needless to say, I had to look up terms like succession, ecosystem, stability, biomes, and various other science terms just to get started. I am very grateful to one of my co-workers who helped me by providing a unit and lessons to help us create our UDL lesson plans. At first, I was not sure why a UDL lesson plan was any different than the lesson plans I am supposed to create every day. As I read and worked on the CAST.org site on my eBook, I realized that UDL simply means I need to address all of my learners, whether, special needs, GT, or regular ed. students. Figure 6-1 in the Rose and Meyer online book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age was very helpful. As I was planning my lesson, I could look at that list and make sure I had activities and learning experiences that addressed the Recognition, Strategic, and Affective networks. I do not know if my lesson plan is what the professors at Lamar had in mind when creating the assignment, but I learned a lot throughout this very extensive week of work.
eBook:
Creating the eBook was actually a fun process. The CAST.org book builder is not the most user-friendly program I have worked with, but it allows you to change font, font size, use bullet points, change alignment, and add pictures. I chose not to work with the audio portion of the book builder, but if I create another one for my classes, I might try it. As I have mentioned in my other reflections for the week, I have had technology problems and been sick, so I am feeling the time crunch. I can see how looking at an eBook might help some students grasp the main points. I can also see how having a student, group, or class create the eBook would help reinforce learning.
References:
Boxoftricks.net (nd). Top 10 Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiisteObuhk
Edutopia.org (nd). Digital Youth Portrait -- Cameron. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-cameron-video
Edutopia.org (nd). Digital Youth Portrait -- Luis. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-luis-video
Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 6. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, New schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 77-98.
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