Digital Citizenship Week

The article, Developing Digital Citizens, by Vanessa Monterosa, discussed the importance of social media, digital citizenship, and some guidelines on how to start implementing these things in your district. As the second largest district in the nation, Los Angeles Unified School District wanted to take initiative and embrace the power of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Knowing that “more than 70 percent of college admissions committees use social media as a recruiting and filtering tool when reviewing applications, and more than 50 percent of employers use social media to screen candidates”, the LAUSD partnered with Common Sense Education to kick off a Digital Citizenship Week. While preparing for their second annual Digital Citizenship Week, they took into consideration some “lessons learned” from their first event and listed some guidelines for successful integration or discussion about digital citizenship in your own district. Some guidelines included putting together a diverse team, defining social media terms, identifying key social media topics and content, creating partnerships, connecting with a variety of stakeholders, and establishing a digital citizenship week.

After researching more about digital citizenship and understanding the importance of integrating it into education, I was interested in reading about a district implementing a digital citizenship week. Also, I’ve recently joined the professional development team in my district and was curious about how a few people might approach this task. Like most undertakings in education, implementing things district wide is no small feat. However, I like the positive, need based approach that the LAUSD took on digital citizenship integration as well as the “lessons learned” turned “guidelines” for other districts. I agree that a diverse team is essential. I have such a diverse staff at my small school that even the smallest conversations can bring to light many challenges, obstacles, and even solutions that were previously unseen due to just differences in opinion or backgrounds. Understanding the need and working as team to have common language and key concepts would also be beneficial. As educators, we need to remember that we are there for what’s best for the students, not what’s easiest for us. Keeping this in mind helps us to stay focused and need driven. When implementing anything district wide, partnerships and stakeholder inclusion are vital. The more people who are invested mean more people to encourage implementation, more people available to support implementation, and more people to follow through and follow up with after implementation. Lastly, a digital citizenship week stands out to me the most. It sets the tone that this concept is important, not just to the students, but also to the staff, administration, and community. By providing resources, lessons, and professional development for teachers, as well as real life experiences for students,  just solidifies the idea the district feels integration of digital citizenship into education is essential. It seems like a lot of work to set up and do but at the same time, the learning outcomes from an event like this definitely outweigh the challenges and obstacles you have to overcome.

References

Monterosa, V. (2015). DEVELOPING DIGITAL CITIZENS. Leadership, 44(3), 30.

Preparing New Teachers with Technology

In the article, Preparing New Teachers with Technology, Christine Jones discusses the fact that districts could be facing a teacher shortage issue. The economic recession forced many districts to lay off both new and veteran teachers. And with many teachers nearing retirement and lower than average enrollment in teacher preparation programs, Christine believes that technology might be the key to keeping good teachers.  She states, “one way to retain qualified teachers is to offer them the appropriate support early in their careers to avoid burnout and to refine their teaching practices.” To test this idea, a Teacher Induction Program in California started to implement technology usage and support with their students. They are giving students practical experience of using Google Classroom as a tool to distribute content to their own students by using it as a tool to assign and submit their classwork. If they see the benefits of the digital submission capabilities, ability for instant feedback and collaboration, and more, than they are more likely to initiate and use that type of innovative tool in their classrooms. In addition, Google Classroom is no longer a “new program” first year teachers have to learn while trying to learn all of the grade level standards and resources their first few years teaching. It’s the “norm” for these new teachers. The Teacher Induction Program is also incorporating iPads, videotaping of proteges teaching, student digital portfolios and website building into their curriculum. They are encouraging the students to use social media to create their own professional learning networks. The overall thought is, “if  we don’t invest now in our new teachers through training and support, we will continue to lose teachers to other professions.” Why not teach teachers with technology programs that we hope they will continue to use in their own classrooms.

I think that this idea of teaching teachers using programs they will be expected to use makes total sense. Why use a learning management system that is out of date or not relevant?  We should use current tools to help teachers with their transition from training to teaching. From experience, learning new grade level standards, expectations, resources and more can be very overwhelming. When you throw new programs in like google docs or google classroom on top of it all, teachers’ feel burnt out. If new teachers are exposed to and given time to practice the ideas and concepts like student digital portfolios, using social media for education, or website building, they are less likely to be hesitant or unable to incorporate those things in their classroom.

I can see some obstacles to this concept though because not all districts use google or have the capabilities to be very “digital”. Overcoming these obstacles would be difficult as teacher preparation students don’t always know where or what they are going to be teaching. So in order to be fully “prepped” for their position, students would need to be exposed to a variety of the tools available which could be overwhelming. Ideally, I think it would be great for a new teacher to spend a year, or even half a year, co-teaching or working with an instructional coach to become familiar with their resource and expectations. Mentor programs are usually very helpful but they also load more time and work onto new teachers who are already struggling to keep up. Just like we say with our students, individualized support would be most beneficial. Seeing as that’s not always attainable, technology training and support early in a teaching career would be the next best thing.

References

Jones, C. (2017). Preparing new teachers with technology. Leadership, 46(4), 16.

What's Hot, What's Not

In the article, What’s Hot What’s Not for 2015, by Greg Thompson, 5 ed tech leaders were presented with 10 instructional technology topics and were asked to provide a prediction about what will be hot and what might not. Out of the ten topics, only two were selected as a “hot” topic and only one was “not”. The rest were placed somewhere in between, using a “lukewarm” rating.

All 5 ed tech leaders agreed that student data privacy concerns were a hot topic for the upcoming year. Whether at school or at home, students engaging in a digital life deserve some privacy. BYOD (bring your own device) was also an upcoming, hot topic as it provided non affluent districts with a way to incorporate more technology. The “lukewarm” concepts, or mediocre ones, were using social media as a tool for teaching and learning, digital badges, OERs, e-portfolios, augmented reality, learning analytics, and apps for learning. It seemed like the main reason these concepts were neither hot, nor not, was because each of the 5 ed tech leaders views were different. Ratings were given based off of opinion, experience, or political views, rarely research based facts.  The one “not hot” topic was learning management systems (LMSes). The article discussed that most staff is unsatisfied with where LMSes are and that in their full form, they are too complicated to use. Districts roll them out in large scales, but only small percentages of teachers use them collaboratively or as intended. Thomas C. Murray states, “The potential in this area is vast, but remains generally underutilized in 2014.” From experience, I would have to agree with this.

Overall, I found this article very enlightening. There were a few topics that I didn’t really know much about before hand, like digital badges, augmented reality, and learning analytics. Seeing as this article was published in 2015, the ed tech leaders predicted correctly that these “lukewarm” topics were just that, mediocre.  After reading about them, I could see both the pros and cons to each. I found it interesting though that BYOD was predicted to be “hot” and that there was no mention of 1:1. It seems to me that BYOD has seen some better days and districts are making the jump to 1:1 instead. The most insightful piece of information from this article to me though was the unanimous rating of “hot” to student data privacy concerns, and not for the reason you might think. At first, I thought putting filters on computers and monitoring students on their devices closely was a no-brainer. But, after reading Christopher Harris’s (one of the five ed tech leaders) comments about it being the students without unfiltered access that suffer the most, I sort of changed my mind. On page 7, Harris stated, “there are the real concerns about students who need to search for information to answer questions about their sexuality or find resources to respond to a sexual assault.” The idea that a student might need to research such topics and would be fearful to do so with filters and close monitoring in place, is something that had never crossed my mind and I can see where we may need to back off and respect students’ privacy.

References

Thompson, G. (2014). WHAT'S HOT WHAT'S NOT for 2015. (cover story). T H E Journal, 41(12), 12.

Math Apps

As I was reading my article, I immediately thought of the conversations we had in class today about making sure our assessments were valid and reliable. The article stated that they focused their reviews on four areas, “(1) the quality of mathematical content, (2) feedback and scaffolding, (3) richness of interactions, and (4) adaptability of the applications.” They chose tablets, mainly because Apple’s iPads were new and sweeping the nation. But also because they knew what was needed in education. They had the idea that “tablets could personalize learning and improve student learning outcomes. A key to achieving this goal is in the form of formative assessments to track student learning and provide timely feedback”, something these new apps might be able to do.

They narrowed a list of 64 apps down to 16 through various factors. These 16 apps were then subjected to two researchers taking notes on positives and negatives in each of the four areas listed above. It was interesting to read that they were a wide variety of different age groups and genres available out there. However, it was not surprising that the majority of the apps on the list were targeting a younger audience and game oriented. Interestingly though, they did not find any that claimed to be assessment apps. They found “four recommendations for researchers and assessment developers on designing tablet-based mathematics assessments: (1) Thoroughly review the mapping between concepts/operations and objects/actions early in the task design stage; (2) Start with what evidence is needed to make inferences about student performance, and design the interactions to collect the necessary data; (3) Create opportunities for students to self-reflect or explain their problem-solving process; and (4) Adopt the mindset of app developers to keep the user engaged, on task, and moving forward to ensure that students are “in the game” enough to accurately assess content knowledge.”

The thing that I find most interesting about this article is that what the researchers recommend for designing tablet-based math assessments is actually very similar to what teachers need to do when creating or considering any kind of assessment in their classroom.

1. There needs to be mapping between concepts. We shouldn’t teach things in isolation but instead as a progression or unit.
2. We need to start with the “why”. It needs to be designed to the collect the evidence and data  we are looking for.
3. Assessments need to provide an opportunity for reflection and revision, how else will students learn from their mistakes.
4. The students need to be engaged. There usually is no effort put into something that meaningless.  

References

Cayton-Hodges, G. A., Feng, G., & Xingyu, P. (2015). Tablet-Based Math Assessment: What

Can We Learn from Math Apps?. Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, 18(2), 3-20.

Tablet Based Math Assessment

Digital Assessment

Intended Audience:

• My first grade classroom

Learning Objectives:

• RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
• RL.1.10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.
• W.1.5.  With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
• W.1.6.  With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.  
• SL.1.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
• SL.1.4 Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
• SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
• SL.1.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.

Rationale for Instructional Approach and Media:

• In first grade, we do a poetry unit. Students would be exposed to a variety of poems throughout the unit. They will have been able to play around with writing their own poems/rhymes and may chose to read aloud a published poem or their own original work. They will be required to circle/highlight rhyming words, as well as draw a picture to visualize the poem or nursery rhyme. This will be a written assessment. I also created an online assessment working on just the rhyming piece. This digital assessment will be used, in addition to the written piece, along with an oral piece, to assess the objectives listed above.

Rhyming Test

Rhyming Games Screencast

Intended Audience:

• My first grade classroom

Learning Objectives:

• RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
• RL.1.10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.
• W.1.5.  With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
• W.1.6.  With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.  
• SL.1.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
• SL.1.4 Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
• SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
• SL.1.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.

Rationale for Instructional Approach and Media:

• In first grade, we do a poetry unit. My screencast would be used to show students how to access and play rhyming games to practice the skill at school and at home. Students would be exposed to a variety of poems throughout the unit. They are required to identify rhyming words and/or word families. They will also produce their own “screencast” using the Draw & Tell App where they will illustrate their chosen poem/rhyme and then record themselves reading it aloud.

Rhyming Games Screencast

Draw and Tell

I read an article discussing the app, Draw & Tell. First off, I noticed that it actually referenced a website, duckduckmoose.com, which is now working with Khan Academy to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Totally neat! The founders of the website set out to create the next generation of learning apps for kids to grow up with. That’s where the Draw & Tell app comes into play. As we’ve been learning about all sorts of new technology tools, screencasting has been mentioned as new digital learning. At first, I couldn’t see how screencasting would fit into my elementary classroom. Then, I stumbled upon this article. It states that this Draw & Tell App is a “superb screencasting and digital story creation tool, which will work on an iPad or iPhone.” It starts by having the kids first create a blank page or select a coloring page. They add colors, drawings with “pencils”, “paintbrushes”, etc. and even characters, stickers, or stencils. These young artists can then add audio when they are finished creating their masterpiece. Stickers can be manipulated as the audio is recorded if they wanted to be moving things. Finished work can be saved and emailed at the touch of a button.

The possibilities of using this tool in an elementary classroom are endless. Students can be expected to draw and explain vocabulary words. They can summarize a story or event using this app. They can basically explain any concept in any subject area. The article discusses using it for a formative assessment option, as a learning center, one-to-one, or even in small groups. It makes meeting the Common Core State Standards related to producing a multimedia project a breeze.  With my class receiving 4 or 5 iPads next year, I am really looking forward to utilizing this app in my classroom.  

References

TROUTNER, J. (2014). Draw & Tell (http://www.duckduckmoose.com/) Ages 3 - 9. Teacher

Librarian, 41(5), 70.

(n.d.). Retrieved July 18, 2017, from http://www.duckduckmoose.com/

Draw & Tell App Article