Blog Post K

Video Credit to Gabbgorrilla on Youtube

In Chapter 4, I read about how teachers are able to enhance lesson development with technology. Things such as Academic Content, Teaching Goals, and Learning Assessments were discussed.

Teachers are responsible for what they are teaching their students such as facts, concepts, ideas and different skills. This is known as Academic Content. School systems have certain requirements for teachers and what they want them to teach their students. Lesson development must be connected to local curriculum, which are then connected to state and national standards. Things such as using internet search engines, electronic databases, online encyclopedias, blogs or wikis can help teachers research and retrieve information in new ways. 

When teachers try and figure out what it is they want to teach, they usually decide by creating teaching goals, methods, and procedures. Goals are the reason why a lesson is being taught. Methods are the instructional strategies teachers use to convey academic content to students. Procedures are the scheduling and grouping of students by teachers during a lesson and the decision of how much time to spend on each activity. I think this three step method is a great way to keep teachers on track with how and what they are going to teach their students. They can use different methods to help teach such as, large or small groups, discussions, lectures, role-plays, simulations, and even learning games. 

Learning assessments occur before, during, and after teaching lessons and enable teachers to evaluate student knowledge, understanding, and performance. These learning performances can be summative, formative, or diagnostic. I think some great examples of learning assessments using technology are electronic tests, digital portfolios, or online surveys! These will really help teachers get an understanding of what their students ended up learning in class. 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post J

Video Credit to robstechpage on Youtube

In Chapter 11 I learned about how students and teachers use technology to assess learning. Several ideas such as Digital Portfolios, Online Surveys for Pre assessments, and Digital Portfolio Resources were discussed in this chapter.

A digital portfolio is a collection of educational and professional materials stored in an electronic format. It's an organized way for both teachers and students to keep their materials to show their growth and development over time. Some things you might find in a digital portfolio could be digital copies of paper materials, videos, audio, Powerpoint's, or photos. I think that digital portfolios are a great idea for students. Especially at a younger age level, it'll be easier for students and parents to look at an entire folder of their work from the school year. This will give them a better understanding of all the improvements they've made over the year. It's also a good way to save to information students learned in class.

Online surveys are an effective way to activate prior knowledge and involve students in the pre assessment process. Online surveys are an easy way for teachers to collect data and document student learning. Pre assessments are usually given before introducing a new lesson or topic. These are given to let teachers know what students already understand about the topic they are about to learn. It helps teachers know what they still have to teach about a subject. I think these are great ideas for the classroom environment. It's a great way for students to anonymously share what they do and do not understand. This way they won't need to feel embarrassed about what they share in the survey, and their classmates will be able to see as anonymous.

A few Digital Portfolio Building Resources discussed in this chapter were TaskStream, iLife, and Apps. TaskStream gives users a variety of different design options. It also includes presentation portfolios, leaning or work portfolios, and resource portfolios. iLife is created by Apple. You can import photos into iPhoto or iMovie and you can add test, titles, keywords and even sound effects. Some Apps listed were Webshots, Issuu, Mixbook, and PikiWiki.

Credit to Katie Conroy using ABC Word Cloud

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.