Final Reflection

PART I: What did you learn?

Throughout this course I picked up several new ideas that I can bring back to my classroom. In my midterm podcast, I mentioned Google Plus, Google Drive, and digital portfolios as key takeaways for the upcoming school year. I also discussed my interest in continuing the conversations with our IT Department to develop a digital citizenship course for incoming seventh and ninth graders or possibly integrating it into all grade levels. Since that time, the following topics stood out and are immediately applicable:

• Digital storytelling has appeal to students of all learning styles. I have often used video clips or short films as supplementary materials and students will be highly engaged with opportunity to create their own video to demonstrate their learning.
• Web quests present students the opportunity to use a variety of digital resources. Students will have the opportunity to research, collaborate, and create both independently or in small groups. They also act as excellent data bases, which will keep students on track and better organized. 

Several of our post midterm assignments have included connecting our assignments, lessons, and/or web quests to state and national standards. Connecting my curriculum, instruction, and assessment to state standards has been a common practice but the addition of the ISTE national standards presents an interesting component to the work. As a New Hampshire Social Studies teacher, I am expected to evaluate students based on course competencies, which are content based. It doesn't matter if a student demonstrates their knowledge verbally, written, or in a multimedia presentation. Although I am proponent of technology integration, I wonder how these standards are evaluated in competency-based models. 

PART II: Question and Answer

1. Why is it important for all teachers to integrate technology into the lessons they teach, regardless of the age of the students or genre that they teach? Or is it?

All learners are surrounded by technology -- students and adults. Whether classroom technology is as simple as a desktop computer or as advanced as a SMART board or other tools, it impacts the way students learn and the practices teachers use to instruct and assess. Web 2.0 tools improve student engagement and increase collaboration between students and teachers. Technology provides additional resources, improved connectivity, and limitless opportunities. In order for students of today to work in jobs of tomorrow, technology has to be integrated in school lessons.

2. Discuss what may be barriers to technology and how you as the teacher can overcome them.

The primary barrier to technology integration is money. The secondary barrier is teacher education. Funding speaks for itself but teacher education is a critical factor. Technology is rapidly changing and many teachers are struggling to catch up, never mind stay up to date. It must be a focus of professional learning plans and consistently shared with faculty and staff. Without regular, focused training on technology integration, teachers will continue to struggle with best practices (and tools) for student engagement and career preparation. 

Field Experience: IT Interview

The field experience assignment for my Learning Through Technology course was to interview an educator who utilizes technology or integrates technology through his/her curriculum. As a teacher, I have had the opportunity to do much of the latter. I am fortunate to have a variety of technological tools in my classroom including a SMART board, iPad, and flip camera. All of my students also have iPads, which has opened up the curriculum, instruction, and assessment to a variety of pathways. With that said, I chose to focus my field experience on the utilization of technology. I interviewed Tom, our IT Manager. Tom has worked as a technology integrator and director at a number of schools. He joined our staff in January of this past year and he is responsible for installing hardware, system management, and server configurations. Tom also manages our ticket system for trouble shooting and student/staff accounts and folders.

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1. We have number of technological tools in our classrooms. How are you gathering data on student and staff use of technology?

We have used student and staff surveys to gather data on technology use, professional learning needs, and the ticket system. This past year, Carin (our IT Integrator) did a series of classroom walk-through's to get a better feel for how students and staff were using technology. The District Technology Team created a number of uses and/or activities they were looking for and Carin would just check off whether or not it was happening. A walk-through doesn't always tell you the complete story but it gave us a better idea of how technology was being used. 

2. How have the surveys and walk-through's helped to inform the professional learning opportunities for the upcoming school year? 

Several of the surveys told us that the staff wanted more iPad specific training around applications, presentations, and iMovie. We are offering content specific application training early in the year and will focus on presentation tools after that. Hopefully the application training will spark increased iPad use among both staff and students. The walk-through's indicated a need for SMART board refreshers for staff members and Google training for both staff and students. The seventh and eighth grade students will have Google training once a week in September and we are still working on plan for high school students. 

3. I'm assuming that the walk-through's indicated that a number of students were using iPads for non-academic purposes. How can we better manage or restrict the uses of technology by our students?

The seventh and eighth graders keep their iPads on classroom carts and don't have access to the Play Store. We didn't observe much misuse at that level. The high school students are another story. They can take the iPad home and they can download games, use snap chat, etc. on the iPad. It is not a huge concern of ours because students always find a way to be off task and this is just how this generation of students does it. If we restrict the access on the iPad any further than we already have we will create a culture that says we don't trust the students, which will also limit their ability to explore on the iPad and the web. It will also invite some students to find a away around the restrictions, which is another concern to consider if we restrict its uses any further. 

4. How can we do a better job of using the technology to keep students on task?

It starts and ends with continuous professional learning. The staff need consistent training on ways that technology can support the curriculum. The new professional learning plan hits on technology each month and that should help staff members of all levels of technology integration to find ways that technology can be better utilized in the classroom, whether the training is something new or just a refresher. I think people with walk away with a number of ideas of how technology can be used for formative assessment and that should be very appealing to the students. 

5. What does our technology plan look like three to five years from now? 

We are currently adding fiber lines from the server at the high school to the elementary school and the technology building that will increase the bandwidth considerably. That will allow for us to improve our out dated phone system and better support our 1:1 environment. With the infrastructure that we have in place we are considering desktop virtualization which runs through a server system and allows users to access the operating system and applications anywhere in the school building. It is much more economical and easier to manage. 

I have had the opportunity to work with Tom for the past six weeks and his thoughts on technology have changed my mindset considerably, particularly around the importance of professional learning. In a previous blog post (and from my frame of questioning), I noted that I had been considering the idea of adding restrictions around technology in our school system but my conversations with Tom (and Carin) have made me think about the problem differently. In order to get the students to use technology for academic purposes and less for gaming and chatting, we need to spend more of our professional learning time to educate our teachers about technology use in the classroom. We have several professional learning goals but this doesn't have to be done independent of or at the risk of not achieving those goals. Our goals related to differentiated instruction, project-based learning, and school climate and culture can, and should, involve technology integration. With this mindset, I am confident that staff use of technology will increase as will student engagement and work artifacts.

Week #7: Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a relatively new story form that focuses on a person, event, or general topic using computer tools. Digital stories are short, anywhere from two to ten minutes, and incorporate sounds, words, and images to evoke an emotional response from the viewer. An emerging type of digital storytelling is documentary films such as the Ken Burns PBS series and the 30 for 30 series produced by ESPN films.

The website Digital Wish offers several lesson plans for incorporating digital storytelling into your classroom. One particular lesson entitled, the Earth Day Movie Maker Documentary, requires students to study the effects of human-environment interaction on animals and to "create a short film documentary on an animal(s) of their choice, focusing on their lifestyle and their plight of survival in today's world." After researching a particular animal(s), students used a flip-camera to film the animal at a local zoo and uploaded the footage to Movie Maker and added a narrative to it. It's a creative idea to engage students in their learning and it brings a powerful story to the audience.

I have had the opportunity to work with digital stories in my experiences as a teacher. In the Pittsfield School District, we are shifting our philosophies to a student-centered environment, in which the student (rather than teacher) takes the lead role in learning. We created a documentary called, A Day in Life of a Student (scroll to the bottom of the page after you follow the link), to demonstrate what this non-traditional learning environment looked like.

We started the process by writing a general outline of the film and we jumped into capturing footage of students in various classes as they led discussions or interacted in small and large groups. Our second step was to review the footage and write scripts for the narration of the film. We had originally intended to interview students but it was challenging to collect good sound bites. Once we completed the narratives we uploaded the audio and video footage to iMovie to create the documentary. We included pictures, newspaper clippings, and short informational pieces to help tell the story. The final steps to the process were incorporating subtitles for the film segments (to help it all fit together) and adding music to add a dramatic effect.

Their are several approaches to digital storytelling. In an article written by Samantha Morra, that originally appeared on Edudemic but now is updated on her blog, she describes the 8 Steps to Great Digital Storytelling. Her planning process includes writing a proposal, doing research, gathering images, audio, and video, and ultimately sharing once everything is pulled together. A similar process is commonly used for writing an essay but a digital story appeals more to students interests. In EdTechReview, they explain that digital stories can be "used to improve student's learning through multimedia" and that "these stories are an expressive medium medium that can explain the most intricate topics in depth, integrating it with the rest of the curriculum." Students have the ability to create their own stories and teachers can use preexisting stories to introduce or support a topic.

A student may use a digital story to meet the following Common Core Standards and ISTE NETS Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5
Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

ISTE NETS Standard #2: Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

• Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
• Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
• Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures
• Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

ISTE NETS Standard #6: Technology Operations and Concepts 

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. 

• Understand and use technology systems
• Select and use applications effectively and productively
• Troubleshoot systems and applications
• Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Audioboo: Midterm Reflection

listen to ‘Midterm Reflection’ on Audioboo

Week #5: PBS Films

This week in class we watched the PBS Frontline documentaries Digital Nation (2010) and Generation Like (2014). The following are questions posed to the class and my responses to them based off the information gathered during the viewing and my personal experiences.

1. Compare and contrast each documentary. What was similar or different from the first one Digital Nation filmed in 2010 to Generation Like filmed in 2014 ?  

At first I found the two documentaries to very different from one another. Digital Nation was focused on multitasking while Generation Like examined the growth of identity forming through social media. However, as each film went further in depth of its topic, it was clear that the idea of connectivity was a key feature of both documentaries. Digital Nation explains that video gaming can lead to people making connections with other players and building strong friendships. In some cases, it even leads to romantic relationships. According to the film, one-third of female players have made a romantic connection with another player. In the documentary Generation Like, people build an identity through likes, follows, and re-tweets, and use these connections to meet new people as well as build fan bases. Several entertainers, such as social media personalities and aspiring skateboarders and musicians, use the connections they made on social media to start careers in pop culture. 

2. Your thoughts on multitasking. Do you agree? Can you multitask? Do you disagree with the video on the topic of multitasking? What do you think our students think about multitasking today?

I multitask quite a bit. In fact, while I was watching the films, I had the Red Sox game on in the background (on mute) and replied to a few text messages while taking notes. I consider myself pretty good at multitasking but after watching the film and seeing the studies they conducted, I am not so sure that I am. However, my job requires me to multitask and it carries over into my personal life. At school, I may be in a meeting but I am checking my email or preparing for the next meeting by scanning through the agenda or reading through other materials. I consider myself to still be "present" in the meeting by listening and participating in the conversation but my mind is often in two or three different places. I think the key part of multitasking for students and adults is that they have to be able to manage the multitasking. While a laptop is considered appropriate in the classroom or workplace, a cell phone may or may not be. Students and adults have to be aware of the NORMS in their environment and allow for their multitasking to adhere to it. 

3. Is there an addiction happening in society today with technology or is it just a new way of living? Should we be concerned?

There certainly seems to be a growing addition to technology. The dependence on technology has led to studies of whether or not drunk driving is safer than texting and driving. In South Korea it is being treated as psychiatric disorder and addicts may be sent to camps to help relieve technology dependence. In general, the side effects of it can be poor grades or lack of job production, poor communication skills, and eye/ear complications. Only the "top ten percent" may be considered a high risk for addiction but even that percentage is enough for concern. 

4.  Do video games serve a purpose in education or are they a waste of time?

Video games seem to be the "doodles" or side tracks to classroom production today. Students have always had a tendency to draw during direct instruction or lectures but now they are gaming, snap chatting, or using the video screen to fix hair and make-up. It is a pet peeve of mine and one that I have gone back and fourth with my technology team on. We have considered further restrictions on technology devices and made plans for gradual release but students always seem to find a way around them. Ultimately, it comes down to creating a safe, collaborative, and empowering culture around technology integration, rather than a restrictive one, no matter how frustrating the "doodles" of today's generation may be.

5. How did what you watched in the two videos support your feelings about technology or how did it change your views?

More than anything else, I think the Digital Nation helped to reinforce my evolving philosophy around technology integration. Two weeks ago I would not have written the response to the question above. For the past two years I have felt that students are not prepared to be digital learners but at the same time I have enough responsibility for helping them become one. Although I have utilized several technology tools in my classroom, I have not embraced the ideas of sharing and connecting with them to appeal to "instant gratification" needs of the students in my classroom. Now that I am developing a stronger grasp for the capabilities of the tools, I think I can start to build a better culture for learning through technology. 

6. Are kids and adults today ruining their digital footprints by sharing too much information online without realizing that it may be detrimental to their future? Should they care? Are they focused on too much of what others think?

One would think after watching Generation Like that your digital footprint can only improve your stature and lead to positive connections. However, if it is not used appropriately, the consequences can be harmful. The misuse of social media can lead to fall out among friends or it can be detrimental to your career. Last week I referenced a study done by the Microsoft Safety and Security Center. According to the survey conducted by Microsoft, 38% of colleges admissions officers found something online that had a negative impact on their evaluation of a student and 70% of U.S. job recruiters have rejected candidates based on their online reputations. Whether people care about their digital footprints or not, you can't argue with the facts. 

7.  What do you feel are the dangers of technology use?  Are there any?

Most of the dangers center around sharing information such as credit card information, your location (through a picture you upload from your phone) and your thoughts and/or opinions on a topic. Students and adults are typically unaware of the dangers that the web and social media present. Sharing general information when ordering something through an online merchant or posting messages and images of yourself can be harmful to your personal and/or professional life. I would strongly encourage a digital citizenship class, or at least a crash course, for digital users to avoid the pit falls of technology misuse. 

Week 4: The Digital Citizen

When I think of digital citizenship, I am immediately drawn to the idea of citizenship and the rights and responsibilities that come with it. For a variety of reasons, mainly my own education and teaching background, I place a high value on incorporating the principles of citizenship into my Social Studies courses. However, when you add the term digital to citizenship, it seems to get much more complicated and, in my experience, it is not part of elementary or high school curriculum. Many educators struggle with "when should it be taught" and "who teaches it." Some even wonder "what is it?"

The Microsoft Safety and Security Center defines digital citizenship as "the norms of behavior with regard to technology use." The concept includes a variety of concepts ranging from digital literacy to online safety and good digital citizenship should be practiced "when you use computers, gaming consoles, or mobile devices (to) promote a safer online environment for all." According to Microsoft, a high percentage of teenagers use technology today. 

• 97% of teenagers play computer games
• 93% of teenagers use the internet
• 75% of teenagers use mobile phones

Additionally, Microsoft offers some staggering statistics about the misuse of technology by teenagers that have negative, and in some cases, criminal, consequences. These statistics support the need for digital citizenship to be part of school curriculum. 

• 91% of teenagers share nude/semi-nude images and suggestive messages sent to them
• 49% of teenagers report receiving or viewing hateful, sexist, or racist comments
• 43% of teenagers have been victims of cyber bullying 

On a positive note, Microsoft also reported that American teenagers and parents "are actively managing their online reputations -- with an eye toward good digital citizenship." This sentiment further supports the need for digital citizenship in the classroom. With a growing need to monitor online behaviors and teach safety skills, their has never been a better time to advocate for digital citizenship.

As we begin integrating digital citizenship into the classroom, the common question is "who teaches it?" The answer is simple -- everyone. Parents are students are responsible for monitoring and managing online behaviors, while teachers bare a responsibility with the influx of Chromebooks, iPads, and other 1:1 devices in the classroom. The starting point for teaching it lies within the Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship. Many, if not all, of these themes can be connected to each grade level and incorporated into a K-12 curriculum.

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There are an abundance of resources to build a digital citizenship curriculum. Common Sense Media integrates the themes (with a slightly different terminology compared to above) using the following scope and sequence:

• K-2 introduces the themes of internet security, literacy and communication
• Grades 3-5 build off of the above themes and integrate the themes of etiquette and rights and responsibilities  
• Grades 6-8 also build off of previous themes and focus on law (source citation and cyber bullying)
• Grades 9-12 emphasize self image and communication (including your digital footprint)

Several options exist for implementing the curriculum. The themes can be addressed in computer classes or by classroom teachers. In many cases these themes can be integrated into existing curriculum. Teachers can take 10-15 minutes to focus on a particular theme before using online sources for research or social media for collaboration. At Wilson Focus School in Omaha, Nebraska, Mr. Pane shares a lesson he developed for his fifth grade class to evaluate sources using superheros!

Super Digital Citizen Video Link

As the term citizenship begins to evolve and take on new meanings in the digital age, it is essential that students learn the foundations of digital citizenship in order to avoid the misuses of technology that today's teenagers are experiencing. With more schools emphasizing the themes of internet safety and security, literacy, and communication, students will be better prepared for the social and academic landscape of the 21st century.

Week #3: Blogging

PART I: Blog Visits

The world of blogging connects you to entrepreneurs, educators, and other intellects through just a few clicks of a button. I scanned through several this past week, starting with Jeff Utecht's blog post on I'm being pulled to Google. Utecht is an educator with more than 10,000 blog followers and he is a certified Google Apps trainer. Most of his posts were short but simple and he encouraged his followers to join Google Plus in his latest post. Although I am familiar with Google and its various capabilities, I had never heard of Google Plus, which is the second largest social networking site in the world with 5.8 million active followers. The post also includes helpful links that include a Google Plus User Guide and 7 Google Plus Communities to join. With Google starting to phase out the use of Blogger (see the sign-up page with the upgrade to Google Plus option), this will certainly be a post to revisit soon.

The next blog I visited was Maria Knee's classroom blog called the Kinderkids. Knee is a Kindergarten teacher in Deerfield, New Hampshire. I was drawn to her blog because I remember attending a conference she presented at a few years ago. The blog was filled with pictures of student work, class videos posted to YouTube, and Skype conversations. I like how the blog keeps followers from the school community (and the world according to the blog) connected with her class. The blog also acts as a historical database for student work and those exemplars can be shared with future generations of students. It is always challenging to go back and find an essay, poster, or presentation from a previous school year to share with a current student or class but with a class blog, the information is stored and easily shared. I look forward to starting to my own school blog to keep the school community up to date and connected to both the past and present.

The first two blogs I visited were excellent but I hit a bit of a rough patch searching through other blogs. Some were just too similar to Maria Knee's classroom blog and others were too distracting or hard to follow. Luckily, I found a blog by Vicki Davis, a Computer Science teacher and IT Integrator, who posted the Top 12 Summer Tips for Top Teachers. I appreciated her thoughts on making the worst into the best and revitalizing physical health -- two areas I have focused on in the past but have yet to find the time for this summer. Davis also had some great links in her last tip, which was to "hit a home run on the first day." I enjoyed the video link to If I Knew Then, a collection of thoughts from teachers on the first day of school. I am working with our administrative team to design our new teacher orientation in August and this video may be worth sharing.

PART II: WebQuest Preview

I have taught a variety of Social Studies classes in grades 9-12 but for the past three years I have been teaching tenth grade American Government and Economics -- two courses that require a lot creativity to keep students engaged with the curriculum. The students are usually brutally honest about the assignments and projects that they like or dislike and one particular project that has them hooked, but can always use some fine tuning, is an economics project on personal finance and budgeting. The project is relevant to the students and offers real world applicability but the final product always seems to fall a little short. The task and process for the project are the strong points and I hope to integrate Web 2.0 tools or other technology aspects to the evaluation and outcomes of the project.

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I have started to explore alternative outcomes for the project (students have written a budget analysis in the past). One helpful link was the 35 Best Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom. I am interested in learning more about Glogster and exploring other options in this link. I have used Prezi, Wikis, and Wordle in the past but Glogster has the capability to include audio, video, clip art, and a variety of colors, fonts, and backgrounds. Many of my students are excited to get out the markers and glue to make a poster but this multimedia experience should energize most, if not all, students involved with this project.