End of CEP 812 Reflection

What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

The biggest thing I've learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology is to take the time to thoroughly explain each step in the process to your students. Don't assume they know anything already. This will save on confusion from their perspective and will help ensure they are able to independently work with the technology when the time comes.

I have also learned to think more critically about "bumps in the road" when implementing a new technology. Prior to taking this course I was the kind of teacher that just "took things as they came". In other words, if a problem came up, I thought about how to fix it. But until a problem arose, I didn't think much about what could happen.

I've also thought more deeply about holding students accountable for work done in a digital format and teaching them digital citizenship before turning them loose in a blog or wiki!

How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

Prior to taking this course, I had been using the web-based technology of using a website to organize course information and communicate to parents. I had never really thought of students creating websites to host or showcase their work. This is an idea I may incorporate sometime in my teaching future.

I also feel that in this course, compared to CEP 810 & 811, I've become more familiar with wikis - and the power they can have in the classroom for collaboration purposes. This is probably because my TechQuest and SIG Proposal both utilized wikis as a major component, but either way, I'm glad to know more about them as I feel they can be one of the most powerful of the Web 2.0 technologies.

Through posting our assignments in a blog and having peers from our group comment on them, I can see the potential for using blogs in the classroom. In the other two certificate courses we used a blog to post personal reflections. This was good for the purposes of that course, but before this course I was having a hard time trying to figure out the full advantage to using blogs in the classroom.

How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

I have actually learned more than I ever expected to through my three certificate courses. My goal coming into the program was to learn as many new technologies as I could and integrate them in to my classroom. I was really to the maximum of technology integration as I could be prior to entering the certificate program with the resources I knew how to access and use. Through these courses I have learned to use the following new technologies:

• Blogs - Blogger
• Wiki - Wikispaces
• Screencast for storing online images, videos, and podcasts
• Audacity for creating podcasts
• You Tube recording and uploading video
• Microphone
• Webcam
• Google Apps spreadsheet for surveys

Not only did I learn the mechanics of these new technologies, but I learned how they can be effectively used in the classroom. There is a big difference in knowing how to operate a technology, and knowing how to apply it to meet an educational need. Along these lines, I've learned how to think about a problem I encounter in the classroom and which technology might be best to address the problem. Over the course of these classes I have had a reversal in my thinking about integrating technology. Prior to these courses I would try to integrate a technology just because I thought my students would like it more or my building was pushing us to use the new technology they had purchased. I mainly used technology to enhance my presentation by making things "look cool". I am now more thoughtful about integrating technology by making sure that it fits a need I have so that I am implementing change with difference, rather than just change.

Do you have any new goals?

I have several technology goals. I have listed them in the order of priority:

1. Develop a 9 week technology elective course to teach this year to my middle school students.

2. Implement my TechQuest plan with my 7th and 8th grade science classes.

3. Continue to support the teachers in my building with professional development opportunities in technology.

What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

Plan for Accomplishing Goals:

1. Technology Elective Course - I have already begun to create a website describing course objectives and posted some WebQuest activities for extra credit. I am incorporating my Fair Use Lesson Plan into this course. I will need to work with the media specialist at my school to see if students will be able to create websites using Google Sites and use Blogger, as I will incorporate WebQuest design as a course assignment and blogging weekly progress toward course goals. Once I figure out which web-based technology my students have access to, I can start designing the projects in more detail. I will do this before school starts this year. I also need to create a course outline of the technology I will teach each week and sequence the projects/assignments on paper so I fit everything I'd like to teach into the 9 week block.

2. TechQuest Implementation - First, I need to figure out if students can access Wikispaces through their student accounts at school. If they can't, I'll need to figure out a way to get these allowed. I can contact the technology specialist to help with this. I then need to spend sometime digging into the features of Wikispaces to see how to set up student accounts and enable the proper protection for students. I can do this before school starts. Once I figure this out and am comfortable with it, I can begin creating my detailed lesson plans about what to teach and how to teach the various components of my TechQuest plan.

3. Technology Professional Development - I am the chairperson of the Technology Committee for my school. Last year I began hosting monthly 30 minute workshops to teach teachers new technology skills. Toward the end of the year I introduced creating websites using Google Sites. This really took hold and teachers loved it! We had one workshop session on creating a site. I had 7 teachers in attendance to learn, plus 5 people from the Technology Committee there to support! Over the summer, my principal sent out an e-mail that he'd like every grade level to develop a website this year and begin posting newsletters electronically to help save on paper costs. I have helped 6 teachers over the summer develop websites by coaching them in the steps. My big goal for this year is to have every grade level develop a website, and the skills needed to make it more than just text. I am working with teachers at their current capacities and what they think their site will need. I will start the year by hosting at least 2 Website workshops to help everyone get on board or learn new skills.

I would also like to see our yearly technology survey become digital, so we don't have to spend a lot of time manually analyzing responses. We use responses from this survey to figure out what areas teachers would like to focus on for technology professional development. To do this, I will need to talk to the technology specialist at my school and run this idea by her. Either she or I could take our original format of the survey and convert it into Google Apps or Survey Monkey.

Project Evaluation

I have not yet had a chance to implement my TechQuest, so this post will be from the perspective of what I assume will happen. Please be reminded, for my TechQuest I will be creating small study groups who will use a wiki to collaborate on study guides for science tests throughout the year.

I will evaluate the success of my TechQuest from data obtained from several sources:

1. Student feedback from online surveys. Please recall as a part of my implementation process I will have students take online surveys about their participation, and that of their group members, 3-4 times a quarter. On these surveys, I will also have a question or two related to how helpful they perceive the study groups and wiki collaboration to be. If the students believe the study groups are useful to them, they are more likely to be engaged and studying, and this would be an indication of success. I will also be open to student's ideas for adjusting my TechQuest plan, as needed, if they for some reason should feel like any part of it is "busy work" or unhelpful to them.

2. Science test scores. Although in my 7th grade classes I will not have any prior "hard data" to compare their science test scores using wiki collaboration to test scores from using traditional study methods, I can look at overall test scores in each class to see if most students are achieving an A or a B on their tests. If students are passing tests with scores like this, this will be an indicator that my TechQuest is successful. Of course, I don't have any way of knowing for sure that it is my TechQuest that is helping students achieve these scores, but I can assume it is playing a portion of the role.

Something I always have the students do when they finish taking a science test is complete a "self-assesment" of how they think they did. They check boxes in two columns of a page to indicate the things they did that helped them prepare well for the test, and things they either did, or didn't do that may have detract from their score. This information can help me, and students analyze what they are doing well (perhaps in their study groups), or what they may need to work on. These self-assessments combined with test scores can be a good indicator of how the wiki and collaboration groups may be supporting student learning and how successful the program is.

3. Group work observations. The final indicator of the success of my TechQuest will be the observations I make as groups work together either in the classroom or in the computer lab. As I am circulating and listening to conversations, I will get a sense for how each group is functioning and how they are using their time to build community and collaborate on whatever project is at hand.

In thinking about the current components of my TechQuest project, there is nothing I would change. However, I do need to have a plan in place for consequences should a student sabotage another's work, or simply copy the work of others and then post it as their own.

I know unexpected things always come up when you actually implement something, but without knowing my new students yet and all the variables they will bring to the atmosphere of the project, I find it extremely difficult to predict major structural changes I will need to make. What I really like about my implementation is that it is progressive in nature. We will begin by forming groups and then working in the classroom to build a sense of community within the groups.

I suppose one dimension I could add to the formation of groups is the assignment of group roles so each member has a specific part to play. I know this can be helpful in balancing the work load, which is one of my goals, and it can create a sense of interdependence among the group members. I did not include this in my original TechQuest design, as I do not want to groups to feel like they are bound to rigid roles, but yet, as the groups develop, I want students to assume natural "roles" in accomplishing the task of supporting one another. At this point, I am still more comfortable with students finding comfort in a role they naturally gravitate toward. I think this will work because I have an accountability system in place with the peer evaluations of participation and the group points students can earn toward an end-of-the-quarter incentive for demonstrating good group work.

Things I like and will keep the same are:

• Heterogeneous, assigned groups
• Team building activities and hands-on experiments/group work prior to work on the wiki
• In-class time given to develop sense of community
• Direct instruction given to all about how to post on a wiki and proper digital citizenship protocol
• Private and digital self - and peer-evaluations
• Point incentive for good group work

Some good lessons I have learned actually came through the research I conducted for my part of my groups SIG proposal. Our topic was using wikis as a collaboration tool to motivate students to learn. I was in charge of finding resources to help teachers plan for implementing wikis into their classroom. Since I have never implemented a wiki in my classroom for any purpose, I found it helpful to learn from teachers who have already tried and learned some things along the way! Here are the most helpful tips I've learned that I will incorporate into my implementation:

• Be very specific and show students how to interact with the wiki in a step-by-step manner.
• Do not assume that just because students are "digital natives" that they know how to effectively use the Web 2.0 tool.
• Give students time to practice their "wiki skills" in an environment where they can ask questions.

To see more ideas for successful wiki implementation visit our SIG planning page at: http://sites.google.com/site/20techies/planning-preparation

Personal Reflection

When I began the TechQuest project at the beginning of the course I thought of an authentic problem in my classroom to address with technology, but in the back of my mind I thought "I'll probably never do this." Now that I've gone through the process of really thinking about my plan for implementation, I now believe "this is so cool, I'm definitely going to do this!" I think it's great how my mind has changed and how the process of thinking about how to address this problem that seemed so complicated and "messy" at the beginning seems so doable and fun now! I think this has been a very useful assignment, and I like how we have taken the entire class to slowly work on it. I think providing time for these plans to sink in my head was much needed! I feel like though this I've actually helped myself plan for the coming year! YEAH!!

TechQuest Project Implementation Podcast

Please enjoy listening to my podcast!