Assessing Meaningful Learning With Technology

The technology based rubrics are very helpful for all subjects and all instructors. The online page is easy to navigate courses through grade level and assignments. Clicker devices and Quizdom are just a few great ways for teachers to create an interactive learning space for quizzing students in a fun way. The clickers give students an opportunity to show off their knowledge of the assignment as well as break out of their tedious work sheets and note taking. These tools are beneficial to both students and teachers; unlike tests which intimidate most  students and don't allow them to learn from their mistakes. The online website "Inspiration" provides great visuals and maps for student learning and is helpful for organizing and structuring assignment outlines for educators. With the "Presentation Manager" tool on the website, teachers have the ability to prepare students for class presentations and projects with the proper tools and equipment.

Thus far I have really enjoyed this course and learned a lot of helpful tools for my future classroom. I am not tech savvy person but these course assignments have shown me easy ways to engage students while making sure I'm not frustrated and overwhelmed with all of the different ways of technologies. This course has introduced to different portals for reaching out to my future students through many sites, my favorite being Blog Spot. I will definitely incorporate many of these technology tools in my class assignments because technology continues to grow and is a major part of our society. Especially since I will be teaching high school English, I plan to familiarize my students with as many helpful tech/non-tech tools needed for them to be successful in the working world.

Technology Application Standards

I will teach High School English.

(a)  Introduction.

(1)  The English Language Arts and Reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are organized into the following strands: Reading, where students read and understand a wide variety of literary and informational texts; Writing, where students compose a variety of written texts with a clear controlling idea, coherent organization, and sufficient detail; Research, where students are expected to know how to locate a range of relevant sources and evaluate, synthesize, and present ideas and information; Listening and Speaking, where students listen and respond to the ideas of others while contributing their own ideas in conversations and in groups; and Oral and Written Conventions, where students learn how to use the oral and written conventions of the English language in speaking and writing. The standards are cumulative--students will continue to address earlier standards as needed while they attend to standards for their grade. In English I, students will engage in activities that build on their prior knowledge and skills in order to strengthen their reading, writing, and oral language skills. Students should read and write on a daily basis.

(2)  For students whose first language is not English, the students' native language serves as a foundation for English language acquisition.

(A)  English language learners (ELLs) are acquiring English, learning content in English, and learning to read simultaneously. For this reason, it is imperative that reading instruction should be comprehensive and that students receive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and word attack skills while simultaneously being taught academic vocabulary and comprehension skills and strategies. Reading instruction that enhances ELL's ability to decode unfamiliar words and to make sense of those words in context will expedite their ability to make sense of what they read and learn from reading. Additionally, developing fluency, spelling, and grammatical conventions of academic language must be done in meaningful contexts and not in isolation.

(B)  For ELLs, comprehension of texts requires additional scaffolds to support comprehensible input. ELL students should use the knowledge of their first language (e.g., cognates) to further vocabulary development. Vocabulary needs to be taught in the context of connected discourse so that language is meaningful. ELLs must learn how rhetorical devices in English differ from those in their native language. At the same time English learners are learning in English, the focus is on academic English, concepts, and the language structures specific to the content.

(C)  During initial stages of English development, ELLs are expected to meet standards in a second language that many monolingual English speakers find difficult to meet in their native language. However, English language learners' abilities to meet these standards will be influenced by their proficiency in English. While English language learners can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, their level of English proficiency may impede their ability to demonstrate this knowledge during the initial stages of English language acquisition. It is also critical to understand that ELLs with no previous or with interrupted schooling will require explicit and strategic support as they acquire English and learn to learn in English simultaneously.

(3)  To meet Public Education Goal 1 of the Texas Education Code, §4.002, which states, "The students in the public education system will demonstrate exemplary performance in the reading and writing of the English language," students will accomplish the essential knowledge, skills, and student expectations in English I as described in subsection (b) of this section.

(4)  To meet Texas Education Code, §28.002(h), which states, "... each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of textbooks," students will be provided oral and written narratives as well as other informational texts that can help them to become thoughtful, active citizens who appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation.

(Source: Texas Education Agency at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/)

 In my classroom I will encourage students to use their resources available at home and as well as trips to the computer lab for research as provided above in the first section of the TEKS. Of course in my English class I will assign a writing assignment at least once a week for students to exercise their creative and powerful thoughts. Although, I won't assign boring readings and writing topics, if I even select a specific topic at all. I want students to be excited about learning and excited to write. Therefore, I will relate the writing and reading assignments to things that are interesting and important in their lives. In addition to the writing and reading assignments, I hope to engage in the "oral conventions" of the TEKS through in class discussions. 

As presented above, I selected those TEKS to expand on because I believe they are the most important ones of the course. Reading comprehension is necessary for students to build their writing and speaking skills. All of the TEKS are related to one another in some way. Writing skills are important for future career work, as well as communication skills in the work place. The in class discussions will provide students with practice for impromptu talk as well as public speaking in general. I will hold online discussions as well so students will be able to learn new technological skills which are growing in the work place. All in all, writing, reading, communication, and research are important life, work, and English skills necessary for a success. Each one of these TEKS will provide students with the opportunity to gain experience in each one of these fields.

Visualizing with technologies

I feel like visualizing with technology is so important and helpful to all students because there are so many visual learners in education. All of these tools such as paint, sketch, etc. are all important to giving students a well balanced education. It is important for students to become familiar in the visual arts so they can apply these techniques to other subjects. Also, I think it is important for kids to explore there artistic side of the mind in order to be well balanced in other subjects. There are many other tools that are directly related to other subjects such as the geometer sketchpad for visual geometry. Imaging molecules with chemistry visualization tools is necessary for students to see chemistry from a different angle.

All of these visualization tools help students apply what they have learned in class and through homework and put it all together in a different format. It expands their minds past the work sheets and readings through its visual aspects and techniques for learning. The maps that Google provides are very interesting for students to look at and explore. There's not any paper maps that can engage students as much as the Google earth map does. I can't express how awesome all of these tools are for students. These have transformed the old fashioned ways of learning and modernized them. They engage students to a whole new level in education and I believe they are all very useful in every aspect of learning.

I have heard of the word 'Pod casting' before, but I never really understood exactly how the term was defined. In reality, it is quite a simple term which basically refers to an audio broadcast that has been turned into an Mp3 for modern technology purposes. I learned from this assignment all of the way pod casting is used today and techniques of how to apply it to education. Pod casting would be helpful in a situation when a teacher could not make it to class but still needs the students to understand the lecture and assignments. Using a pod cast is a great way to engage students outside of the structured classroom and it teaches students responsibility and how to manage time well.

Pod casting is different slightly different from the Web 2.0 tools discussed in previous assignments because of how it is used. It is used on Mp3 players mostly and allows for students to have even more opportunity to understand lectures through its device. It is much easier for a student to carry an iPod of some sort around, rather than a laptop computer. Voice thread, Wiki, Blogs etc can sometimes only be accessed through a computer, or even more challenging, a desktop. However, pod casting is similar to these tools because it is an electronic way of learning. It does allow for students to learn material outside of their desks, yet it doesn't allow for many responses or class participation, similar to what the other tools allow.

I do not have an iPod or an Mp3 player, I simply use my smart phone to access my online music and downloads. Currently I do not have any pod casts down loaded because I prefer to listen to music instead of listening to a lecture of some sort. If I feel the desire to actually put my cell phone to good use, I use my Iheart radio app to access all of my news broadcasts. I believe that this tool, along with the others, will be beneficial to modern society. I would pod cast my lectures as an educator when I am home because of an emergency and I could not make it to class. Also, I would use it to tie up any loose ends about an assignments and answer questions.

Web 2.0

Wiki's are different than Blogs because anyone can edit them and complete change what is going onto the page. Blogs are controlled by the owner of that blog page and others can only comment to the blogs, but not change the theme, idea, or purpose of the blog itself. Wiki's help keep things organized and in one place for everyone to see and add to or make changes to. The video Wikis In Plain English shows a great example of how emails and other types of messaging can become clustered and important information can be lost throughout a group of people. When your many blogs, websites, and Wiki's become overwhelming in size, it is always helpful to create a social booking webpage where you can store all of your favorite pages and share them with others. Voice thread is also helpful for holding online discussions with your students.

All of these helpful tools I have learned from this assignment are completely new to me and very helpful in so many ways for everyone; not just educators. Wiki's are beneficial to students because they allow the students to be creative. I would use a Wiki in my class as a way for students to engage with one another about assignments, topics, and ideas they are learning in class. I would have my students edit, add, change the page however the want to keep the discussion going and make sure they do so at least once a month. Social booking is great for teachers to post specific web pages students will be using for a research assignment or something of the sort. Its a better, cleaner, more organized way to keep track of the important links and allows students to access them on their own time.

The difference between right and wrong (Copyrights, Fair Use, Cyberbullying and Netiquette)

It is so important as educators to teach our students how to correctly reuse info from the internet, cite these sources, and most importantly, treat others with respect online.This lesson has taught me more than what I already knew about copywright and fair use laws by providing definitions and examples, as well as a helpful cheat sheet. I have learned what to inform my students of, and how to do it. Beginning with the "Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act", students will be familiar with the four factors that determine fair use (the purpose and character of the use, nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality,and the effect of the use upon the potential market.Teaching students about the negative outcomes of cyber-bullying is so important and begins with proper netiquette.

I feel that ever area covered in this assignment is important for students to understand in order to be safe and smart online. Cyberbullying is such an emotional and important problem that all kids should be aware of and the effects of this can't be stressed enough. As a future educator, it is m job to not only engage my students in a learning environment, but to be their parent away from home and keep them safe. Therefore, I should use the cheat sheet, and keep all the links for these webpages so I can appropriately assign work to the students. Keeping students safe while they are exploring the internet is achieved through my own research and assessment of the assignment, as well as educating students about what I have just learned today in this assignment.

Mapping information

This assignment taught me a lot about the most important part about research, "Is it factual information?" This is a question that I have never given thought to because I am a little naive when it comes to online researching. "Google" is my favorite search engine because it is simple and easy to use. I feel like other search engines such as "Yahoo" and "Bing" are too cluttered with excess information and advertisement." I already dislike using the internet, especially for school purposes, so when the page is cluttered it makes me feel overwhelmed and can sometimes even be distracting. In the article "Search Engine Watch", Dave Davies writes about one of the many reasons Google is so successful. Davies writes, "they have successfully provided the results people are looking for in a manner those searchers either enjoy or are comfortable enough with not to switch to a different provider." (Davies,2013)This is so true, in my opinion, because I love Google's homepage and layout as well.

However, after doing this assignment I am now more skeptical than ever. Usually I just select the first link that appears but for future searches I will need to look deeper and analyze ever part of the website I select. One of the ways I can be successful researcher in the future, is too look over every part of the website of my choosing, including the author, external links, and ever typing in the main topic into a different search engine. Using the different search engines has shown me the different techniques each engine uses which leads to different link orders. Also, finding the correct publisher is and important link to finding the credibility of that author and site. The article "5 Find the Publisher of a Website", teaches researchers how to pin point the publisher through a step-by-step process. The author also provides future educators with two links, age appropriate for students practice in the classroom.

 After learning all of these helpful tips toward researching credible work, I am definitely on board to having students learn these skills at a young age. I wish I had learned this when I was in high school, even last week when I was doing tons of research. It is necessary for students to learn the importance of credibility in order to provide accurate information when needed. As children grow, technology does too which means their is more room on the internet for misinformation to be found. If students use critical thinking skills, evaluation and are taught "Information Literacy", they can successful locate accurate information in all search engines and databases. As a future educator, I will definitely use this skills and remember this activity so I can relay this helpful knowledge to my students.



Work Cited

Davies, D. (2013, Sep 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2048976/Major-Search-Engines-and-Directories

Learning, N. (2012, Mar 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/information-literacy-resources/5-find-the-publisher-of-a-web-site/