The Online Experience

There are so many online resources that it can often be overwhelming to decide which ones to use and where to find them. The State of Michigan provides a really nice guideline with examples of different resources for the various reasons a teacher would use technology.

There are many technologies that are used for the online experience. The technology that intrigues me the most is the idea of a learning management system such as Blackboard, Moodle, or Edmodo. To myself this is the starting point. I like to keep things in a logical order and often with my students they are always students that breeze through things with technology and others that are as slow as molasses. These systems allow the teacher to keep organization for online learning and they are easy to use!

An online learning management system could be used for any subject at most grade levels. It allows the teacher the opportunities to really use any pedagogical strategies needed. The most obvious would be independent self-paced learning with a teacher available to coach students through lessons that are teacher-directed via internet tools. However, with the ability to create the assignments, add links, and use other internet tools intertwined with these systems you really could have your students use online collaboration with tools such as Google Docs or you could have students learn through Stand Alone Instruction Resources, Webquests, or games. Students would not only be learning subject content, but also be learning NETS standards and online ethics. All of this can be done while being able to manage the business end of being a teacher such as grades and feedback.

Like I stated before, these systems are rather easy to use. I think that most of the technologies that you use within a learning management system would be harder to use. There are various ones listed on the guideline document that seem extremely interesting and applicable to the classroom, but it would take time to learn and make sure you fully understand and are prepared to answer/help your students navigate through these issues.

Pythagorean Theorem- StaIR

Pythagorean Theorem- StaIR

StaIR- Pythagorean Theorem

For my technology class I was asked to complete a StaIR. This stands for Stand-Alone Instructional Resource. This is a resource that a student could use to learn a topic completely independently. It teaches the topic, includes independent practice, and feedback.

When asked to do this I wanted to make this for something that could be used within my classroom. I chose to complete a resource for the Pythagorean Theorem. This is a standard that is necessary for all seventh grade students. I will be able to use this to differentiate this in both my Math 7 and Pre-Algebra class.

Please feel free to use visit, download, and use my resource.
StaIR - Pythagorean Theorem

The Usefulness of Wiki

Wikipedia is a controversial subject when it comes to the world of education. I know that as a teacher in the middle school we never let our students use Wikipedia as a source. Most of our students do not yet know how to determine what makes a site credible and may not know until they have a technology class that is not even required for all of the students. Also, what really declares a blog credible. Anyone can add, delete, or edit information in a Wiki. For example, below I show a picture of the Wikipedia page of my school district. This page is very outdated and includes statistics for the school district from several years back. I do not know these statistics. However, I did change a few things that I am aware of. Before I had changed it it had the elementary principal listed as Michael Benczarski. This was true in 2010, but since the school year 2011-2012 Krista Bethke has taken that role and Micheal's sole principal ship is at the middle school. I also have added that the elementary is now listed as a focus school. However, even though I am a teacher in the district I would not consider myself as a credible person to write statistics for the school and had the ability to do so.

 

Even though I do not find Wikipedia often a great source for my students. I have been able to use wikis as a great tool of collaboration and communication. In my classroom website  I have been able to create pages for my students and parents aware of the schedule within my classroom. I have also been able to include copies of assignments and classroom notes. It also has links to many resources that we use within the classes. 

Not only have my wiki creations been used as a source for communication. I have created classroom webpages for a few classes that I have taught. With the Century 21 class that I taught, I used Wikispace as a source for collaboration. On the classroom website that I created for educational purposes I invited all of my students to the class. This website had privacy settings that only allow members to see and edit the webpage. This made it safe and secure for my students and helped keep parents mind at ease. On the website each student created their own page from our class homepage. When we worked on projects, we posted products on the page that each person created, and then peer edited each others work right on the website. Students were able to leave comments, help with other students grammar, and have the opportunity to share with the entire class rather than a few people chosen for a peer editing group. This was extremely fun when the class decided to study fairy tales and we created fractured fairy tales.

There are so many useful ways that blogs could be used within the classroom. However, the teacher needs to really take the time to understand and decide the best ways to use them.

Universal Design for Learning

UDL describes a traditional curriculum as a curriculum that lacks diversity and poses barriers for a diverse population. It is believed that the traditional approach has barriers that have teachers create accommodations and/or modifications to the curriculum for differentiation and this often creates lowered expectations. However, a curriculum with a UDL approach assumes that in today's world student diversity should be expected. The curriculum should be designed to include all learner's. This would result in creating high expectations for all learners.

With this idea in mind, I have evaluated my lesson given prior on balancing equations using a UDL checklist.

I have also gone back and made some changes to my lesson. If you would like to see the updated version here it is: Balancing Equations.