Throughout my journey in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program, I learned to think critically about how, when, and why we should use technology in the classroom. The courses I took within the program, helped me grow as an educator and helped me feel prepared to begin practicing using educational technology with more purpose. Below, you will find samples of the work I completed while in the program and how they connect to the 21st century classroom. The pieces I chose for my showcase fall into two different sections: "Rethinking the Learning Experience" and "Rethinking Educational Tools". These pieces fit well within these two titles as they show some of the ways I had the opportunity to rethink how students can learn and ways I can re-purpose technological tools to support my students' learning. I am proud of the items of this showcase as they contributed to my experience and growth as a 21st century educator.
Showcase of Work
Rethinking the Learning Experience
This project enlightened me to the idea that, as an educator, I will often find that everyday technology is not designed to fit in an educational setting. I am now fully aware that makers of today’s technology did not have the slightest intention that their product would be used for teachers to teach their students. This is where the idea of re-purposing must come into play. I learned that by using technology that is already invented such as computers and tablets, educators can disregard their original intentions and give them a new purpose for their existence, a purpose to help students learn in the classroom. In this activity, I was able to re-purpose some materials to create a dance floor arrow pad to help support a lesson plan I designed on electricity. Click here for the entire lesson plan.
In this activity, I learned it's important to give individual students more of what they need to help them learn best. For this reason, I was able to design a classroom where students are allowed to discover from each other by exploring technology, asking their own questions, and by guiding their own instruction. This design I created using SketchUp, fulfills the personalized learning theory in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. In addition, learning activities are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated. Click on the arrows of the above slide show to see my classroom design!
In this project, I had to think about what does it mean to rethink and reinvent everything about teaching? To answer this question, I had the opportunity to research a solution on how to prepare people to be successful with teaching and learning in the 21st century classroom. The solution to this question is presented with my fellow peers through this mashup. Click here to view our white paper.
In the 21st century world, it is important to have the "right" kind of education that allows us to develop the skills that are complimentary to technology. High I.Q. won't be as important as having the passion and curiosity needed to not just find a job, but to invent, reinvent, learn and relearn for a lifetime. In this Prezi presentation, I demonstrate how we bring passion and curiosity to our work place as educators as well as show how we use different technologies to instill passion and curiosity in our students. Click on the PDF version above to view the presentation.
Rethinking Educational Tools
While doing this project, I learned that teachers should specifically think about whether or not their students are using technology to help them find information, solve problems, express themselves, and communicate with others. In this project, I designed a 21st century lesson plan that integrates a digital tool, called Cacoo, that fulfills the above elements and supports student learning. Click here to see the entire lesson plan.
In this piece of work, I was given the opportunity to research a specific learning need that I was personally interested which was also relevant to my professional life. Furthermore, I was able to identify a technology that could serve students that have this learning need. I chose to research attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This disorder is one that I encounter daily as I currently have 4 students with ADHD in my classroom this year. In my research, I encountered valuable information as well as an amazing tool called, Natural Reader which is designed to help struggling readers who have a hard time focusing or interpreting text. Click here to read my white paper that discusses my experience.
As I worked on this task, I was reminded that YouTube can be used as a powerful learning tool for educators, especially with visual learners. I was also reminded that you can use the website for videos on multiple topics ranging from step-by-step instructions on how to perform a task to videos on the Revolutionary War. I quickly learned that any teacher can attempt to explain certain topics to their classroom. However, a picture can be worth a thousand words. For this project I had the opportunity to be the student. This video contains me learning how to tie a Windsor neck tie. I was able to master the skill by simply using YouTube as my only educational tool.
This activity was intended to give me the experience of what it's like teaching students online. I was able to create my own 5th grade unit on sentence fluency using a platform of my choice, Google Classroom. Through this experience, I became quite familiar with the necessary elements of an online environment. I discovered it was an amazing teaching tool that supports 21st century learning. I used to create single various lessons within my unit that promoted using collaboration and communication between my students. With this tool, I feel that all students can become engaged through the technology and learn in ways that would be impossible without the tool. Below you will find links to my creations in lesson 1 of my unit.
Lesson #1 Screenshot
Sentence Fluency YouYube video
Sentence Fluency Prezi Presentation
Sentence Fluency Assignment #1
Lesson #1 Rubric