Reflective Post

Photo credits to Denis Krebs on Flickr 

          Throughout my experience in EME2040 I have expanded my communication and critical thinking skills, and have learned about technology management, global responsibility, and scientific reasoning. 

In this class, I developed an internet based project that uses technology as a goal of K-12 instruction. I did this by completing a collaborative lesson plan, web-quest, and a teacher web page. In my collaborative lesson plan, my group and I developed a math lesson plan for seventh grade following the Common Core standards. Since technology integration is a key concept of this class we focused on using that in our lesson plan as well. Our lesson included videos, a smart-board, and geometry software. In my web-quest I created a counting lesson for kindergarteners. This too integrated technology. Throughout my kindergarten lesson I included videos and online games as well as in class actives, tasks, and an evaluation. One of the last assignments was a teacher web-page. This was one of the higher point assignments and was more extensive. But, I enjoyed this lesson the most. In this activity the goal was to create a web-page for my “class” that included key technology concepts. I enjoyed using the weebly website because it had plenty of designs to choose from, was easily navigable and user-friendly, and was appealing to the eye. This activity taught me the importance of addressing the student’s parents, developing a learning theory, discovering websites for students, and choosing classroom textbooks. In this activity I chose my learning theory to be cognitivism, and on the webpage I hyperlinked additional information which you can read about here. 

Throughout this class I had several opportunities to evaluate various software used in classroom instruction. I did this through activities such as a website review, teacher webpage, and a collaborative lesson plan. One of my first assignments was to create a rubric that evaluated an educational website. This was an excellent first assignment as it introduced me to the educational websites available and the content that they include. Before choosing one website to evaluate I viewed several and their different forms of technology integration. Some websites were filled with brightly-colored graphics and educational games. While others, like the website I evaluated like TIME, were simpler and packed with more information but still child-friendly and involved technology. I have never made rubric in my life so this activity was a challenge. But, it gave me true insight and appreciation for all that is involved in a teachers job. Rubrics are a critical key to student knowledge and success on assignments. In my teacher webpage I evaluated several websites before choosing to hyperlink three for my students to explore. I also had to find several online websites that contained true lesson plans (task, evaluation, etc) using technology integration. 

I explored the legal and ethical issues of technology, and reflected on my research in my discussion post along with the rest of the class. Previously, I never explored the topics of legal and ethical issues. Among the issues to choose from to research were information privacy, copyright and fair use, or cyberbullying. I chose copyright and fair use because it was not a topic I knew too much about but yet its importance was stressed throughout the course. Throughout the course anything we used had to contain proper resource attribution, and pictures we used had to be found through a creative commons search. While researching copyright and fair use I learned that copyright is the legal boundaries that provide the owner the right to control how their published work is used. Fair right is how to decide what work to use, and how to give the owner credit. This was a very information activity that I will benefit from in everything I do because proper attribution is key to being successful in anything that involves research. 

I created a portfolio where I provided reflections on technology integration and classroom management. The reflections were provided in my instructional wiki, teacher web-page, web-quest, and this reflective essay. In my instructional wiki I wrote about homework and practice in education. Throughout this activity I learned about the importance of repetition through homework and activities, practice strategies, in-class activities, and how to integrate technology into both homework an practice. 

I evaluated several websites and educational resources and reflected on the discussion board. In my discussion I reflected on the pro’s and con’s and strategies of flipped classroom. This was nothing I had ever heard of and I learned how this strategy involves using technology for students to view the lessons at home and then practice in-class.

I analyzed technological tools for assisting diverse students and provided a reflection on my collaborative lesson plan and the discussion board. In my collaborative lesson plan we incorporated peer tutoring and evaluation as strategies to assist diverse students. In my discussion I provided insight into hearing aids, amplification devices, and argumentative communication as ways to assist hearing impaired students. I also wrote about an audio loop, voice recognition software, and a FM system. All of these strategies were excellent ways to help hearing impaired students and also involved technology integration. 

Lastly, I evaluated technological tools for assisting english language learners and provided my research and reflection in my collaborative lesson plan and the discussion board. In my discussion I wrote about ESOL strategies to help diverse, apprehensive students feel involved and engaged in classroom activity. 

There were several collaborative activities, and every discussion board activity involved interaction with other students. Although, I was apprehensive to do an online collaboration I truly enjoyed both assignments (wiki, lesson plan) and think that they went very smoothly. These assignments prepared me on what to expect and different strategies to take when collaborating with someone online in the future. Most likely, there will be times in my career when I will have to work with someone entirely online. Through these assignments I got to further explore google docs, learn how to use a wikispace, and understand the importance of email communication and meeting times. In the discussion boards I was able to gain insight into others research and opinions as well as their opinions of my posts. These activities were a fun way to connect with other students online. 

Photo credits to Lloyd Dangle on Flickr

I enjoyed the structure of the textbook and thought it was an easy read - I have no suggestions for book improvement. The course content was easily navigable and was not filled with extensive reading but rather videos and articles - which I enjoyed. My suggestions for the course would be the digital blog posts. The instructions were very clear, but because the internet is so diverse some extra clarification is needed. When it came to pictures I would like to know about finding them on the creative commons search. Through my search on creative commons I found several pictures from blogs and I would like further clarification on whether or not these are acceptable in order to increase student success. 

Resources: 

 Brandi. (2011). Cognitivism. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/31012664/Cognitivism  

 Dangle, L. (2000). Lloyd Dangle at USC Creativity & Collaboration. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/83665349@N00/5261584474/in/photolist-91WZKG-77vKw8-r1wTJJ-3Kx1Vx-duMEYb-72vDN7-reArDw-8y9LbK-9zsb65-hPd8JZ-qziGki-5MpRG7-psnrxW-hoJ6Lj-rqCM71-9dyrJ6-9hzrvX-91WYyL-ac5iB6-8WdP68-4yin56-4a4Ad2-qXvRBe-bBLYiv-5DQz53-hoJ7BN-8tjQ2B  

 Korbel, K. (2015, June 14). LessonPlan Template. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHNnYXmxhpK9Dt6beVVwor9_254dYLiWK9WvOMPx6CM/edit?usp=sharing

 Korbel, K. (2015, June 14). Ms. Korbel's Kindergarten Class. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://korbeleportfolio.weebly.com/ 

Korbel, K. (2015, June 7). WebQuest: Counting for Kindergarteners: Created with Zunal WebQuest Maker. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=288009

 Krebs, D. (2011, November 25). Technology Use. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/6400358699/in/photolist-aKzvE4-9hsheb-9uRbw6-arQ9ML-d4MjAm-5zuCMB-asGg7J-efoWfy-kR3Lhv-nTA4gP-q9JHHV-zEuNT-5eUFSS-rjHT6L-e4rtrf-67tGXJ-7vUb5p-4XaZuB-t1UBo-4pYNoQ-4v572g-sxgGNU-6rtuia-5zAruA-dZE3LC-4qAha1-8qq2tS-bGis