The decision-making process in creating a lesson integrating collaborative technology for use in the classroom requires more planning than a standard lesson. Not only does one need to create the lesson itself, careful consideration must be given as to which technology will be used and in what capacity. If the instructor simply adds collaborative technology to a lesson as an afterthought without deliberating its usefulness, the results could be detrimental instead of beneficial to the learning process.
When planning such a lesson, the first step is deciding what type of collaborative technology to use and how much its integration will add value to the lesson. The teacher has to evaluate if he has or can acquire the technology needed to successfully integrate it into his lesson. He must examine the lesson objective and what the collaborative technology will bring to the lesson. The technology side must add enough value to student learning, knowledge, or real life experience to justify the extra classroom time required to implement it.
The next step is to decide if the use of the collaborative technology is in compliance with district policies. The teacher may have to get special approval from administration, school board and/or parents before using the technology they have chosen. The potential risks that teachers run when using digital technology tools to collaborate outside the school can be very high. The more open source the collaborative technology, the more protective safeguards the teacher will have to take. If the collaboration is by email between your students and a second party outside the school domain, what is the teacher’s liability? How does the teacher monitor the emails between the two? How does the teacher keep the student and second party from using another means to communicate later with each other unbeknown to the teacher or student’s parents? These are all ethical concerns that must be addressed when considering the use of collaborative technology.
A few years ago I had my Introduction to Engineering and Design class collaborate with freshmen students at the University Of Kansas School Of Engineering. The educational goal was to encourage my high school students, especially minority and female students, to get a better look at and feel for their possibilities in studying engineering. I started planning for this collaborative exercise a full year in advance by partnering with YouthFriends of Kansas City, who happily agreed to be the liaison between the two groups.
My students first visited KU to be paired up with an engineering student at the university. It was decided the two groups of students would email about once a month throughout the school year to discuss the ins and outs of university life and the field of engineering. YouthFriends had a special software developed which put in place safe guards for the protection of students and teachers. The collaborate technology, including hardware and software worked fine, but did take advanced planning and implementation. The KU students later visited Harmon. At the end of the year everyone thought the collaboration was a success. However, I found it very difficult to formatively assess this type of an endeavor.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Multimedia Technology in the Classroom
In my classroom the use of multimedia has been on the conservative side. In a couple of the courses I teach I do not use any. It is not that I am against using some form of multimedia in those courses, it just that I have not been able to find anything that would be a natural fit. I feel that if I am going to use a form of multimedia it should be related to the subject, it should add to or build on the lesson, it should be interesting to the students, and in short, it should be a positive not a negative for that particular class subject.
When I do use a video to enhance my classroom lesson, I like to have some form of assessment that goes along with it such as a handout with questions to answer as they are watching or just shortly afterwards. Sometimes I have them write a short essay over the video. I also use major points or facts from the video on a more summative assessment either in the form of a question or a short essay.
In my Introduction to Engineering and Design class I play two videos that introduce and tie into one of my first lessons. I use my teacher’s computer tied into a surround sound system and projected to a larger screen in the front of the room. The first video tells the story of how one individual develops an idea to solve an engineering design challenge by first brainstorming with his family and friends, and then builds an awarding winning product. I show this video to help students see not only how an engineer uses the skills we talk about in class, but how an individual working out of his home on his own can put these skills to great success.
The second video I play shows how a modern day design company uses brainstorming to design an award winning new product. This video flows from the introduction of a client’s needs, to the design firm’s brainstorming ideas, to the final product showing all the steps and missteps between. I especially like this video because it has a woman that leads the design team, and has several other minority engineers in professional lead positions. I believe this to be important for my urban students to see. This diversity in the design world would be hard for me to show so well by any other means. Furthermore, the video adds something to the lesson that I could never fully explain or model in my classroom. Even taking my students on a field trip to a design company would not give the same level of understanding of process that is demonstrated so well in this video. I feel these videos meet the criteria I listed above and add to the value of the lesson.
Most of the classes I teach have state-set benchmarks that do not leave much room or time for deviation. The benchmarks are so plentiful that it is very difficult to address even half of them. There is something I have learned about in my graduate class at MNU that I do believe will blend in with my engineering class. I think I will start having my engineering students take digital pictures of different stages of their work from day one and upload them into Photo Story 3. This will allow students to document and give evidence of their work. Gifted students could show creativity by recording their voices and music to make their projects more appealing. Also, with my students using Photo Story 3 to document the progress of their work I will have a medium to better help parents understand what it is we are doing in class. Parents will be able to see their child’s progress. Photo Story 3 is a free software download that matches the technology I already have, and the expense of adding a few microphones and digital cameras is within my already constrained classroom budget.
When I do use a video to enhance my classroom lesson, I like to have some form of assessment that goes along with it such as a handout with questions to answer as they are watching or just shortly afterwards. Sometimes I have them write a short essay over the video. I also use major points or facts from the video on a more summative assessment either in the form of a question or a short essay.
In my Introduction to Engineering and Design class I play two videos that introduce and tie into one of my first lessons. I use my teacher’s computer tied into a surround sound system and projected to a larger screen in the front of the room. The first video tells the story of how one individual develops an idea to solve an engineering design challenge by first brainstorming with his family and friends, and then builds an awarding winning product. I show this video to help students see not only how an engineer uses the skills we talk about in class, but how an individual working out of his home on his own can put these skills to great success.
The second video I play shows how a modern day design company uses brainstorming to design an award winning new product. This video flows from the introduction of a client’s needs, to the design firm’s brainstorming ideas, to the final product showing all the steps and missteps between. I especially like this video because it has a woman that leads the design team, and has several other minority engineers in professional lead positions. I believe this to be important for my urban students to see. This diversity in the design world would be hard for me to show so well by any other means. Furthermore, the video adds something to the lesson that I could never fully explain or model in my classroom. Even taking my students on a field trip to a design company would not give the same level of understanding of process that is demonstrated so well in this video. I feel these videos meet the criteria I listed above and add to the value of the lesson.
Most of the classes I teach have state-set benchmarks that do not leave much room or time for deviation. The benchmarks are so plentiful that it is very difficult to address even half of them. There is something I have learned about in my graduate class at MNU that I do believe will blend in with my engineering class. I think I will start having my engineering students take digital pictures of different stages of their work from day one and upload them into Photo Story 3. This will allow students to document and give evidence of their work. Gifted students could show creativity by recording their voices and music to make their projects more appealing. Also, with my students using Photo Story 3 to document the progress of their work I will have a medium to better help parents understand what it is we are doing in class. Parents will be able to see their child’s progress. Photo Story 3 is a free software download that matches the technology I already have, and the expense of adding a few microphones and digital cameras is within my already constrained classroom budget.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Audio Multimedia Technology in the Classroom
In my classroom the lesson that I am teaching most often dictates the audio technology I use to present that lesson. There are couple times when I will play a digital movie with sound to help introduce and reinforce a lesson. Another deciding factor in audio technology is what I have available to use. In my very diverse classroom I have always had a great need to reintroduce a lesson more than once to my students.
Until recently I have never considered using a podcast to deliver a lesson or part of a lesson to my students. In my classroom environment, podcasting could be a great additional tool to reach many of my students. Approximately 20% of my students are absent each day, with a percentage of those students absent several days at a time. This high absenteeism is a real problem. Since students at Harmon all have school assigned laptops with wireless capability, podcasting might be a good solution to this problem. A podcast of my lessons would be a positive tool to help those students who are absent from class understand the lesson or lessons they have missed and to get caught up in their work. Podcasts seem like a natural fit for my classroom and students since my classroom has computers, software, and the teacher and students all have access to audio free ware to produce podcasts. A small expense would be an investment in headphones for my students to have to hear the podcast.
Almost 50% of the student population at Harmon is ESL. By having a podcast of lessons available, my ESL students could listen over and over again, stopping and starting as needed. Because all students have desktops and laptops networked to each other and to the Internet in my classroom, they would have easy access to podcasts. It would take only a few minutes of instruction time to show students how to listen to the podcast of my lessons. On the other hand, it would take a considerable (but reasonable) amount of time on my part to make most lessons available to students in a podcast form. I would most likely want to podcast the lessons that many students have trouble understanding, especially the ESL students. Once I created the podcasts, it would be very easy to make the lessons available to students by placing the files on the school network to download and listen to at any time. I believe that creating podcasts of some of my lessons is something that I should seriously consider doing to help make my classroom a 21st century classroom. This would be a very positive learning enhancement for my students.
I have always tried to have a mixture of teaching and learning techniques in my classroom while incorporating collaboration when feasible. The MNEA 2010 summer edition article “Teaching with Technology: Being Part of the Shift” published these statistics about retaining what students learn from different mediums: 8% of what they read, 18% of what they hear, 25% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see, 75% of what they hear and see and discuss, and 92% of learning is by doing. One can tell by these stats that multimedia alone is not sufficient, that a teacher must incorporate all the tools at their disposal and students must participate in their learning to achieve best results.
Until recently I have never considered using a podcast to deliver a lesson or part of a lesson to my students. In my classroom environment, podcasting could be a great additional tool to reach many of my students. Approximately 20% of my students are absent each day, with a percentage of those students absent several days at a time. This high absenteeism is a real problem. Since students at Harmon all have school assigned laptops with wireless capability, podcasting might be a good solution to this problem. A podcast of my lessons would be a positive tool to help those students who are absent from class understand the lesson or lessons they have missed and to get caught up in their work. Podcasts seem like a natural fit for my classroom and students since my classroom has computers, software, and the teacher and students all have access to audio free ware to produce podcasts. A small expense would be an investment in headphones for my students to have to hear the podcast.
Almost 50% of the student population at Harmon is ESL. By having a podcast of lessons available, my ESL students could listen over and over again, stopping and starting as needed. Because all students have desktops and laptops networked to each other and to the Internet in my classroom, they would have easy access to podcasts. It would take only a few minutes of instruction time to show students how to listen to the podcast of my lessons. On the other hand, it would take a considerable (but reasonable) amount of time on my part to make most lessons available to students in a podcast form. I would most likely want to podcast the lessons that many students have trouble understanding, especially the ESL students. Once I created the podcasts, it would be very easy to make the lessons available to students by placing the files on the school network to download and listen to at any time. I believe that creating podcasts of some of my lessons is something that I should seriously consider doing to help make my classroom a 21st century classroom. This would be a very positive learning enhancement for my students.
I have always tried to have a mixture of teaching and learning techniques in my classroom while incorporating collaboration when feasible. The MNEA 2010 summer edition article “Teaching with Technology: Being Part of the Shift” published these statistics about retaining what students learn from different mediums: 8% of what they read, 18% of what they hear, 25% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see, 75% of what they hear and see and discuss, and 92% of learning is by doing. One can tell by these stats that multimedia alone is not sufficient, that a teacher must incorporate all the tools at their disposal and students must participate in their learning to achieve best results.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Blog digital projection
The subject I teach, introduction to engineering, and the tools and software I have for the class drive the decision-making process in creating lesson plans that use digital projection for enhancing the lesson. In my classroom I use my teacher’s desktop computer, Dell laptop, Mac laptop, or student Mac laptop hooked to my projector to introduce a lesson or model a lesson to my students almost on a daily basis. In my field of teaching, the projector ranks fourth in order of importance just behind the teacher, student’s computer and software. When warranted, a digital sound system is linked to the projector to enhance the lesson. My students get several opportunities to employ technology to present research assignments to the class by using their laptops linked to the classroom projector. After a student’s presentation, I will often point out and bring to discussion the import learning points to the class. I find when using projection type data it is best to have interaction with my students to help maintain their focus and to underscore what I think are the import points of the data. Projectors start at a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars in price, but for hours used in my classroom per cost it is one of the most cost effective digital technology tools in my classroom.
The subject I teach, introduction to engineering, and the tools and software I have for the class drive the decision-making process in creating lesson plans that use digital projection for enhancing the lesson. In my classroom I use my teacher’s desktop computer, Dell laptop, Mac laptop, or student Mac laptop hooked to my projector to introduce a lesson or model a lesson to my students almost on a daily basis. In my field of teaching, the projector ranks fourth in order of importance just behind the teacher, student’s computer and software. When warranted, a digital sound system is linked to the projector to enhance the lesson. My students get several opportunities to employ technology to present research assignments to the class by using their laptops linked to the classroom projector. After a student’s presentation, I will often point out and bring to discussion the import learning points to the class. I find when using projection type data it is best to have interaction with my students to help maintain their focus and to underscore what I think are the import points of the data. Projectors start at a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars in price, but for hours used in my classroom per cost it is one of the most cost effective digital technology tools in my classroom.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Decision-making process in creating a handheld lesson plan
The lesson plan I created was a lesson in copying, by means of a scanner, a simple floor plan from a house design magazine and importing the image into AutoCAD. Teaching experience has taught me over the years that if I assign students to lay out a simple floor plan of a house to be used in AutoCAD, I get one of three results: 1) the student has no idea how to start laying out a floor plan, 2) the plan is too simple, or 3) the plan would never get built because of impracticality or ridiculous expense. The need is for each student to quickly and efficiently have a basic floor plan that can be easily manipulated in AutoCAD, and at the same time not have every student working on the same floor plan. By allowing students to pick a plan out of a magazine, I give them a choice and input into the lesson while assuring each student begins with a viable floor plan. Using a handheld scanner is the most convenient, easiest way to get all students up and productive.
I have several house plan magazines available for students in the classroom. The plans are not very large so that a handheld scanner can easily scan the image and download the file onto their computers. The decision was made to use a handheld scanner over a stationary flat bed because students could take the handheld scanner to their workstation once they have found a floor layout.
The handheld scanners cost $100 to $200 depending on specifications, quality, and available options. Hammacher Schlemmer sells a handheld scanner for $99 with the option of purchasing 4GB SD card for $29.95. Because of the relatively low cost, multiple scanners can be made available so that scanning is not limited to one student at a time. This seemed more efficient than having students stand in line to use a flatbed scanner.
I have several house plan magazines available for students in the classroom. The plans are not very large so that a handheld scanner can easily scan the image and download the file onto their computers. The decision was made to use a handheld scanner over a stationary flat bed because students could take the handheld scanner to their workstation once they have found a floor layout.
The handheld scanners cost $100 to $200 depending on specifications, quality, and available options. Hammacher Schlemmer sells a handheld scanner for $99 with the option of purchasing 4GB SD card for $29.95. Because of the relatively low cost, multiple scanners can be made available so that scanning is not limited to one student at a time. This seemed more efficient than having students stand in line to use a flatbed scanner.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Assistive technology in the classroom lesson
The drafting and engineering classes I teach use AutoCAD software to meet the requirements of the class. Students must be able to read and comprehend the thousands of different commands in AutoCAD to be successful. I try to have some type of modification for my ESL students to help them become better operators of the program. Students can communicate with the program by several different means such as typing in commands at the keyboard, using the mouse to pick on language menu, or a combination of these two methods. In a diverse classroom with ESL students not all students can read the ribbon or menu commands. I have gone inside the program and turned different options on that make the program more ESL friendly. One of the options is to allow more user friendly command ribbon with the commands showing up as a language command, a visual icon, or a combination of the two. In some cases when the student moves the curser over a graphic image/icon, such as something that looks like a five sided polygon, the word polygon will show up to the side. This is a great visual option for an ESL student. Another one of those options allows students to move their mouse pointer over a user icon and if the student leaves the curser over the icon for a second or more, the icon will pop open a small information box with simple visual clues to what that icon does or how to apply that command. I do a lot of modeling of the operation of the program on my teacher computer hooked to the projector. I show the students how these options work and how they can assist them in understanding how to navigate the program.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
What kind of learning environment do I try create for my students?
The environment I strive to have in my classroom is one in which students learn from me, from each other and from other resources discovered on their own or collectively through such mediums as the internet. I try to implement digital tools in my classroom in such a manner that students take what I teach them to become problem solvers and self learners. I believe that becoming a self learner might be the most import factor in a 21st century classroom. Part developing self learning is having access to digital tools and the internet. I try to create and maintain a casual, successful learning environment for my students
I would very much like to in the future to develop my own website where students could access a wide range of materials and information that is class related. This web site would have links to engineers, old inventions and future technologies that are being currently developed. I would like to link to You Tube so students could watch videos that cover manufacturing, construction and other subjects that relating to classroom activities. Because today’s students are computer literate, having grown up with technology, I would like to take the skills they already possess and apply them to the classroom. For example, most students have a Face Book or My Space account. They are already accustomed to communicating via technology. I would like students to develop a discussion group or blog that would relate to our focus in the classroom.
What are my top 10 elements of a successful 21st century classroom?
1. A safe and respectful environment in which all students can learn and feel comfortable enough to contribute their ideas. No child gets left behind and tolerance is always practiced. Students feel they can safely address the teacher about any problems they might have affecting their learning.
2. A learning environment in which all students regardless of race, sex, or religion have equal access and equal opportunity to succeed and the gap between different groups closes.
3. Administrators and teachers all have high expectations for students and work in collaboration to help meet the high expectations.
4. Differentiated instruction is used to help all students succeed.
5. Students take responsibility for their own learning while building a love for learning.
6. Teacher stays abreast newest technologies and applies technology in the classroom to enhance instruction or student learning.
7. Students become discerning gatherers of information. They learn how to find, evaluate, and utilize available resources.
8. Students develop the ability to solve problems by applying information and knowledge.
9. Students gain a sense of global community, understanding the necessity for countries and people to unite to solve the problems we face now and will face in the future. They need to learn what it means to be a productive, contributing member of the human race.
10. In the 21st century collaboration and communication skills are essential to work together to problem solve. These skills must be developed in the classroom.
The environment I strive to have in my classroom is one in which students learn from me, from each other and from other resources discovered on their own or collectively through such mediums as the internet. I try to implement digital tools in my classroom in such a manner that students take what I teach them to become problem solvers and self learners. I believe that becoming a self learner might be the most import factor in a 21st century classroom. Part developing self learning is having access to digital tools and the internet. I try to create and maintain a casual, successful learning environment for my students
I would very much like to in the future to develop my own website where students could access a wide range of materials and information that is class related. This web site would have links to engineers, old inventions and future technologies that are being currently developed. I would like to link to You Tube so students could watch videos that cover manufacturing, construction and other subjects that relating to classroom activities. Because today’s students are computer literate, having grown up with technology, I would like to take the skills they already possess and apply them to the classroom. For example, most students have a Face Book or My Space account. They are already accustomed to communicating via technology. I would like students to develop a discussion group or blog that would relate to our focus in the classroom.
What are my top 10 elements of a successful 21st century classroom?
1. A safe and respectful environment in which all students can learn and feel comfortable enough to contribute their ideas. No child gets left behind and tolerance is always practiced. Students feel they can safely address the teacher about any problems they might have affecting their learning.
2. A learning environment in which all students regardless of race, sex, or religion have equal access and equal opportunity to succeed and the gap between different groups closes.
3. Administrators and teachers all have high expectations for students and work in collaboration to help meet the high expectations.
4. Differentiated instruction is used to help all students succeed.
5. Students take responsibility for their own learning while building a love for learning.
6. Teacher stays abreast newest technologies and applies technology in the classroom to enhance instruction or student learning.
7. Students become discerning gatherers of information. They learn how to find, evaluate, and utilize available resources.
8. Students develop the ability to solve problems by applying information and knowledge.
9. Students gain a sense of global community, understanding the necessity for countries and people to unite to solve the problems we face now and will face in the future. They need to learn what it means to be a productive, contributing member of the human race.
10. In the 21st century collaboration and communication skills are essential to work together to problem solve. These skills must be developed in the classroom.
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