EDUC 6714 Reach and Engage All Learners

Reflection

One of the most immediate adjustments I could make in my classroom to customize instruction with the use of technology would be to access some of the tools presented at the UDL and CAST websites. These resources have presented valuable insight on customizing classroom instruction especially for the diverse learners (CAST, 2008).

My classroom of students may not consist of some of the extreme cases of diversity such as students with physical disabilities but there are students in my classroom who come with uniqueness in their “thinking patterns” as described in our resource about brain research and its impact on learning. For example, a specialized function of the learning brain is the strategic network which processes how an individual plans and executes an action. (CAST, 2008). As a teacher I realize how much I would want to be mindful of this strategic process to better understand and support students in their learning. When it comes to students demonstrating or presenting what they have learned students achieve best when they can access the information, understand it and present it when my curriculum is flexible to meeting the needs of all learners. Salend (2009) affirmed that the use of technology will give students choices in how they access and understand information in multiple ways.

I would also concern myself about understanding my students’ learning preferences, interest and styles and connecting them to my content.) . Utilizing ongoing assessments such as formative and pre-assessments in the beginning of a new unit or lesson would help to understand where students are in relationship to the knowledge and skills. Then I can adjust my instruction as suggested in the principles of DI to meet the needs of all students according to students’ learning preferences.

Most important to my instructional practice is creating a successful learning experience that challenges and supports each learner and adjusting my method and materials as the learner needs. Flexibility is a principle encouraged by UDL and DI which I expect to apply in my classroom instruction while teaching my content to diverse learners to assist them in multiple ways to access and comprehend the content. (Laureate, 2009). The availability of technology tools will assist in creating a flexible environment. Smith and Throne (2007) suggested that technology can help students to retrieve information, gives students some control or be more responsible for their own learning and is a tool to differentiate by students’ interest, readiness and learning profile. I will technology with more of intentional purposes for addressing the needs of the diverse learners.

As I reflect on my present practices and how they impact the diverse learners in my classroom it is clear that I can enhance the support given to all learners as I consider taking small steps and not panicking about the time consumption to implement the principles of UDL and DI. My confidence in teaching the diverse learners in my classroom has inspired from accessing the resources presented from UDL and DI. It is important for me to keep in mind that differentiating instruction is not about labeling students but knowing each student is unique with various abilities and qualities and that my classroom of students is a typical classroom representing a range of diverse learners (Meo, 2008).

References

Center for Applied Special Technology. (2010). UDL guidelines, version 1.0. Retrieved from http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Tomlinson, C. (Speakers). What is differentiated instruction? [Motion Picture]. Baltimore: Author.

Meo, G. (2008). Curriculum planning for all learners: Applying universal design for learning (UDL) to a high school reading comprehension program. Preventing School Failure, 52(2), 21–30.

Salend, S. (2009). Technology-based classroom assessments. Teaching Exceptional Children, 41(6), 48–58.

Smith, G., & Throne, S. (2007). Differentiating instruction with technology in K-5 classrooms. Belmont, CA: International Society for Technology in Education.

Tomlinson, C. (2008). Learning to love assessment. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 8–13.

Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning profiles and achievement. School Administrator. 66(2), 28–33.

REFLECTION ON THE GAME P LAN

As I read the quote from Igor Stravinsky, “ I have learned throughout life as composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge”, it made me to reflect on how and what I have learned towards integrating technology across content areas. Have I been able to reflect on the mistakes or false assumptions I may have had about implementing technology into my instruction or about self-directed learning. One mistake or false assumption I may have had is that students may be emerged as part of the 21^st century digital natives but there is much to teach them about using technology academically and implementing a GAME plan to guide self-directed learning activities (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). It is important to not make the mistake in knowing that although students are self-directed learners anytime that they may learn a new skill such as manipulating features on a new cell phone, that they would not need the assistance of a GAME plane in their learning process. I perceive that using the GAME plan not only in my learning process as a teacher but teaching it to students would have on them as lifelong learners. It is a skill I will use in the upcoming school year. As self-directed learners the four steps of the GAME plan are: to set goals, take action to meet those goals, monitor your action towards reaching your goals and then evaluate if you reached your goals as described by Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009).

As affirmed by Gordon (2000), technology is changing the way we teach and learn. I agree with Gordon (2000) that as educators we longer have the choice of viewing technology as optional in our classroom instruction. Back to the quote by Igor Stravinsky, I have gained a fountain of wisdom and knowledge as I have learned from my mistakes or false assumptions about integrating technology into my content area. Technology is a tool that supports creative thinking skills. It gives students access to authentic learning experiences and renders itself as a tutoring tool. It also can be used in a variety of ways to help diverse learners in the classroom. Having student to practice using the GAME plan will only enhance their self-directed learning skills when teaching them to use technology.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Gordon, D. (2000). The digital classroom: How technology is changing the way we teach and learn. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Education Letter.

USING THE GAME PLAN PROCESS WITH STUDENTS

The GAME plan presented by Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) is recommended to assist especially self-directed learners. As self-directed learners one is able to set their own goals, take action to meet those goals, monitor your progress and then evaluate how effective your learning outcomes were. (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).

With much scaffolding, especially in the beginning, students could benefit using the suggested GAME plan specifically in lessons when learning technology. Teaching students to set goals when they are doing a research assignment, for example provokes then to identify what is it is that they want to learn and create good questions to research. Having a GAME plan in front of students assists them to keeping the objective of the content insight. The GAME plan also would help students to understand how they best learn a technology; rather it was from reaching out to others for help, from reading instructions, from self-directed learning skills or a combination of any of these learning techniques. Learning and using technology in any content area can be distracting from the context in the lesson. But having a GAME plan could help students to stay focused on the objective.

Considering my learning objective as a self-directed learning of technology using the GAME plan was an excellent way to pin my attention on my learning objective. It was especially helping in evaluating my goal and helping to reflect on areas I needed to revise in my actions to reaching my goal. Dr. Cennamo (Laureate, 2009) affirmed the benefit of incorporating the GAME plan to help students as self-directed learners particularly when learning new technology.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

REVISING MY GAME PLAN

Reviewing the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) (2008) there are two standard indicators that I have focused on. The first indicator is NETS-T 2.a to design or adapt relevant learning experiences to incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. And the second indicator is NETS-T2.b develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

One major lesson that I have learned along this journey is that when using Wiki as a collaborative tool only one person at a time came edit the site which was pointed out by Davis (Laureate, 2009). This can be a disadvantaged if there are more than two working on a group project. Therefore, since I have never used other social networks as online collaboration in the classroom I want to consider applying self-directed learning skills to understanding the creative ways to implement them into my content area.

Until I have access to our school administrator and the school’s media technician it will be challenging to prepare to implement any the goals I have set before me. I am confident that once I can implore the support and modeling of the school’s media technician that I will integrate the technology tools that I have set as my goal. Specifically, I expect to learn from my colleagues the desired digital tools that will enhance learning for all students such as online collaborative tools and social networking tools.

In this learning process for using technology as a learning tool, I have discovered that a great amount of time is required when you are a self-directed learner. Learning technology requires much modeling for me; therefore, I will want to have access to learning environments that can show how to use technology resources so that I can implement them quicker and with ease and confidence into my instruction. To give students options for learning with technology will engage all students, and meet individual learning preferences as affirmed by Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009). Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer(2009) also mentioned that the most influential factor in using technology tools effectively into classroom instruction is our own beliefs about our role as teachers using it. I have approached my learning and reaching my goals in the GAME plan with a belief that students will enhance their learning with technology. Therefore, there will be an ongoing developing, monitoring and evaluating my personal GAME plan.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

The National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) is located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

EVALUATING MY GOAL PLAN

Reviewing my goal in the GAME plan which is to learn to use computer as a conferencing tool I perceive that my actions thus far is guiding me to my goal. The unfortunate aspect is that I need more time to feel comfortable with the use of the computer as a conferencing tool. There are other aspects to using Wiki as a conferencing tool that I would like to more proficient with. For example, I would like to embed audio recordings but I need to determine if the computers in the classroom will accommodate sound. Also, I would like to have more opportunities to see this tool in action from someone who has used it. Presently, summer vacation is here and I would have to wait to seek out colleagues. Although, I do have an opportunity to possibly meet with the Librarian Technician who can also assist me.

At the moment I can perceive what the benefits are in integrating this technology tool into my lessons such as impacting students’ communication skillsl, cooperative learning or critical thinking skills, as mentioned by Keengwe, Onchwari, and Wachira (2008). Until I actually implement it into my classroom instruction and see students using it I remain concerned about the time students will need to use and benefit from using computer as a conferencing tool. I am confident that once this technology tool is used in the classroom it would create a student-centered environment and with proper amount of scaffolding it could be used to engage students and create a culture of collaboration and interdependence which is affirmed by Ertmer and Simons (2006).

References:

Ertmer, P., & Simons, K. (Spring 2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K-12 teachers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 1(1), 40-54. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl.

Keengwe, J., Onchwari, G., & Wachira, P. (2008). The use of computer tools to support meaningful learning. AACE Journal, 16(1), 77–92