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Collaborative Bookmarking: Diigo

I have started an online collaborative bookmarking page in Diigo.  I hope to build it with many useful education sites that I can share with my colleagues and they can add their favorites too.

Lesson Plan: Graphing

Here is a lesson I created and taught on graphing.  I used jelly beans as it was the week before Easter.  The students graphs turned out great but of course their favorite part was eating the jelly beans!

Prezi: Professional Development Training

This is a Prezi I created for professional development training purposes.  It covers the difference between student-centered and teacher-centered learning.  In it I also discuss copyright and fair use guidelines for educational use.  The speaker notes can be viewed below.

Prezi Speaker Notes: Professional Development Training

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Professional Development Training: Student-Centered Learning 

 

21^st Century Classrooms Require 21^st Century Teaching

Teacher-Centered vs Student-Centered Learning
Teacher-centered learning – when information is delivered to the students focusing on retaining facts or procedural knowledge. Ex: Students are given the definitions of the branches of government and expected to match them together on an exam.
Student-Centered Learning – when students are required to formulate a problem, collect information, manipulate the data and collaborate together to come up with a meaningful solution. Ex: Students are given the assignment to make a law. They are required to come up with their own law and research the path it must take from idea to reality.

Student-Centered Learning Environment using Technology
What does this look like? It is a movement from teacher lecture to teacher facilitator. Successful implementation is technology used in a classroom "that is student centered, uses a form of inquiry instruction, and engages students in meaningful collaborative group work". (Gary R. Morrison, 2010) As teachers we have objectives, targets and standards that have to be met through our lessons. It is imperative that we use technology to accomplish the task set before us. So if the standard says, "draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step "how many more" and "how many less" problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs," (Commom Core Initiative, 2014) we need to give a real world, meaningful application of information. A teacher can then facilitate discussions between groups of students and instruct on how to input gathered data into a software program that will generate a bar and/or picture graph. In a students centered environment understanding of their own world is emphasized. They will compare what they know to what they observe. They have direct contact with information, collecting the data and applying the gathered information.
    To stay up-to-date on best practices for teaching 21^st Century skills you can visit, www.p21.org. (M.D. Roblyer, 2013)

National Educational Technology Standards
    The National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) were created by International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to assisted teachers in integrating the new curriculum into their classroom instruction. Regular use of various digital tools is stressed through the NETS-S. The standards can be found @ www.iste.org. The standards put forth that technology should be used to discover new knowledge and no longer used for just teaching information.
The fifth standard is Digital Citizenship. Using this standard students will have an understanding of ethical and legal behaviors pertaining to technology. The students may be assigned to develop a PowerPoint presentation of do's and don'ts when using technology. Different groups could research and present on rules of various kinds of media.
The third standard is Research and Information Fluency. When using this standard students are planning ways to figure out answers to questions. They use several media tools to locate, organize and evaluate information. This standard could be accomplished through use of handheld survey devices. The class answers questions and then uses the data collected to graph, investigate and present on the given topic.

Technology Integration at Ascension Christian Elementary
    What are some barriers problems that we face when trying to integrate technology at ACE? Sharing 30 iPads between 200 students is a challenge. We are very grateful for the technology that we have. With a little effort and planning we can make this situation work. Teachers can use a center concept when working on projects. The devices may only be needed 4 or 5 students at a time while the rest of the class is working on a different aspect of the project. This technique would free up the iPads for use in multiple other classrooms. Another solution would be to let students bring the personal devices. This solution in itself could create other issues to be addressed but again, worth the effort. There are filtered search engines that we can and should use if internet safety is a concern. www.safesearchweb.com/google.html
www.ajkids.com
www.net-nanny-software.com
If you are using student email as a form of communication www.epals.com and gaggle.net are kid-safe tools that you might implement.
    Teacher training can be another barrier to implementing technology in our classrooms. I think it would be valuable to share with each other when we do find ways to use technology. We can create a collaborative workspace online that could be used to upload ideas. If we all found an article or a helpful lesson planning website for professional development we could post or share through email. EdTechTalk.com is a collaborative site where teachers share resources and other valuable tools they are using in their classrooms. I think we do a fantastic job overall implementing technology in our classrooms. It is vital that we continue to stretch and reach beyond our comfort zone. The kids are using technology and we should too.

Copyright and Fair Use
What do you know about copyright and fair use as it pertains to education? We are a non-profit school so most of what we do and use will fall under fair use. If you are questioning use of copyright material you need to have some resources you can go to to find the answers. www.copyright.gov, www.pbs.org/teachers/copyright and http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280d.shtml need to be saved in a favorites folder for quick access. Students need to be aware of copyright restrictions, not only for educational purposes, but general digital citizenship. In order to teach it we have to first educate ourselves on the issue. There are four guidelines to consider when using copyright material.

1. The purpose and character of the use of copyrighted work
   

•Transformative quality - Is the new work the same as the copyrighted work, or have you transformed the original work, using it in a new and different way?
•Commercial or noncommercial - Will you make money from the new work, or is it intended for nonprofit, educational, or personal purposes? Commercial uses can still be fair uses, but courts are more likely to find fair use where the use is for noncommercial purposes.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work. A particular use is more likely to be considered fair when the copied work is factual rather than creative.
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. How much of the copyrighted work did you use in the new work? Copying nearly all of the original work, or copying its "heart," may weigh against fair use. But "how much is too much" depends on the purpose of the second use. Parodies, for example, may need to make extensive use of an original work to get the point across.2
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

This factor applies even if the original is given away for free. If you use the copied work in a way that substitutes for the original in the market that will weigh against fair use. Uses of copyrighted material that serve a different audience or purpose are more likely to be considered fair. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2014)
Here are a couple of examples to bring this home. As an educator, you cannot make copies of consumable workbooks for regular distribution. The school would need to purchase a book for each student. Even though the copies are for educational purpose and you are not making a profit, it changes the value in which was intended for the copyright holder. Another example would be including a copyright photo on your class website. It is only fair if you also include a link back to the original source. Our jobs of integrating technology would be most difficult without fair use. 

References

Commom Core Initiative. (2014). Grade 3 >> Measurement and Data. Retrieved from Common Core State Standards Initiative: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/3/MD/

Electronic Frontier Foundation. (2014). Fair Use Frequently Ask Questions. Retrieved from Teaching Copyright: http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/fair-use-faq

Gary R. Morrison, D. L. (2010). Intergrating Computer Technology into the Classroom, Skills for the 21st Century, 4th edition. Boston: Pearson.

M.D. Roblyer, A. H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, 6th Edition. In A. H. M.D. Roblyer, Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, 6th Edition (p. 14). Boston: Pearson.

 

Wiki

I created a Wiki  for an online course I took in Spring 2014 through the University of Phoenix.  This course is designed to prepare educators to integrate technology for engaging and effective P-12 student learning across the content areas.  I learned to incorporate technology-based instructional strategies into student-centered learning, using the National Educational Technology Standards and fair use guidelines.  Digital tools and resources, software applications, and assessment were also covered.

Lesson Plan - Grams and Kilograms

This is a iNtegrating Technology for inQuiry lesson.  It combines Common Core State Standards and National Educational Technology Standards for Students(NETS-S). In this lesson I am teaching students about grams and kilograms.  

NTeQ Lesson - Grams and kilograms