EDUC 7726 Week 13 : Leadership in Action: Putting it all Together

Teaching, Learning and Assessing with Technology

The  assignment for EDUC 7726 Week 13: Leadership in Action: Putting it all Together. We were to return to the beginning of this class with a recap of student learning outcomes for the IT&DML program. There were two options to chose from to show how or what we learned connects to or how we can implement or future plan with what we learned. I chose Option 2: Planning.

In addressing Option 2: PLANNING (a.k.a. forward thinking, outlook, projections, opportunities). I decided to use Storify as my technology tool to tell a story of how Teaching, Learning and Assessing with Technology could be implemented into "Designing a STEM School Program" (my Independent project for this course). 

The urban neighborhood school that I currently work in is attempting to become a STEM based theme school. My intent is to become an integral player in the designing of our STEM Program as well as a leader in STEM for our school. My Storify highlights some work that I did in this course as well as reference some of my classmates work. I felt by trying to plan and develop a STEM Program I could use the many resources, materials, and knowledge that I learned through the IT&DML Program. Please click on the link to view my Storify. 

EDUC 7724 Week 12 AT Post-Secondary Education - Discussion Director

As this weeks discussion director for EDUC 7724 the topic of readings and discussion was AT and its place in post secondary education.  Our readings consisted of the article,  The Efficacy of Assistive Technology on Reading by Floyd and Judge which brought us through a study conducted with 6 students identified with LD. Also included in our readings was Chapter 9 - Assistive Technology for Transition to the Adult World of Assistive Technology for All Students (Beard, Carpenter, and Johnson) which talked about why AT should be included in transition planning, its role in post secondary education, as well as its use in employment. Lastly, we read Chapter 8 of Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities -Transition to the Adult World, talks about anchoring instruction. The focus was independent learning & living, and the demand for technology literacy in the 21st Century workplace.  

based on the readings I decided to had my classmates respond to: "What do educational service providers need to know in order to provide effective assistive technology services to students with learning disabilities at the post secondary level? “ (Assistive Technology for Post secondary Students with Learning Disabilities)

So for  the first prompt of the week I requested that they imagine being a student with a disability requesting the need to use a particular AT device in order to succeed in your  post secondary/college life.  The responses were well thought-out, both descriptive in the disability and the AT device needed/used. Many responses were written to their Alma mater's and they investigated the websites by these colleges/universities to determine how to approach that institution with a request for AT use. I appreciated all the work and thought that was put into the prompt responses. It might have even been difficult for some to craft their writing from the perspective/position of a students with a disability.  

My request for Prompt #2 of the week, I wanted my classmates to tweet something they took away from the readings this week. I thought i would bring us back to using a digital tool we were comfortable with but probably had not used in a few weeks. Tweets included:

• AT in post-sec. ed requires transitional prep that starts from age 14. Students must become self advocates.
• AT can provide access to opportunity and advancement in life. #itdml
• LD students must advocate for themselves in college and in the real world. We must teach that skill.#AssistiveTechnology
• "Use of Assistive Technology on the rise for college students, who must learn to self advocate:"https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7u9qK3qfjeKak5PTlRVUHlCdlU/edit …
• Self-advocacy by high school students with disabilities is a step towards taking control of their future. #AssistiveTechnololgy
• AT devices help disabled students accomplish their goals and dreams in college and beyond. #itdml
• Assistive technology design should consider gender and culture - perspective needs. 
•  In college, Students must document their special needs and communicate them appropriately, in order to receive AT support #itdml

Thanks for the responses and the experience to be discussion director for EDUC 7724. 

EDUC7726 Week 12 Independent Project

This week for EDUC 7726 my classmates and I met face to face to present our independent projects for this course. The various topics and issues presented by my classmates was nothing less than impressive. While listening to each others project presentations we were required to reflect upon our learning throughout the IT & DML program.  What came to mind first was were the beginning two Monday nights of the program when we were faced with the challenge of learning what was then a somewhat unfamiliar world of technology and digital media literacy. I couldn't help but think "what a long way we've come !"

Having said that I will now summarize my independent project and provide the link to both the presentation and the my live binder project. The subject of my project was "Starting up a STEM based School Program". Its purpose is to provide educators and administrators with the guidelines, process and qualifications  begin implementation of a K - 8 STEM school. The content of my live binder includes an outline for an Action Plan, a STEM Curriculum,  and STEM Resources. It also illustrates how technology and digital literacy are built in to a STEM Education Program. My project will explain the elements of STEM, as well as its relevance, importance and benefits to the future teaching and learning of students in our nation. Project Based Learning will be explained and its role in STEM Education. The human as well as the technical resources needed for a successful STEM Program will also be outline.  For a look at my Prezi Presentation and Live Binder please click the on the links.

EDUC7726 Week 10 - Soapbox Hangout

Week 10 - Soapbox Hang-out

This week's assignment in EDUC 7726 - Teaching, Learning and Assessing in the Digital Era, we were given a list of topics to discuss that we had not necessarily touched upon in depth through-out the course. We were to chose one of interest or another topic of our liking and present as a soapbox performance, so to speak. I found this assignment to be of my liking and it was a way for my classmates and I to learn more about various areas of Teaching, Learning, and Assessing in the Digital Era. As usual everyone's topic was engaging, informative and filled with useful knowledge & resources.  

My topic was, "If students have the information at their fingertips, what are the right questions to ask?". My thinking on this was to research and discuss what types of questions should be be asked in informal assessments as well in formal assessments. I began by discussing questioning in terms of teaching and learning and then went into some interesting facts about teacher questioning. 

I read a lot of articles by Will Richardson, parent, educator, speaker, author, and 12 year blogger at weblogg-ed. Richardson, a critic of standardized testing and pro-project based learning educator has a lot to say about the state of our teaching and learning and how educators need to adjust their thinking in terms of unlearning. He discusses the 3 things teachers need to unlearn and they are: Delivery, Competition, and Assessment. 

I then gave examples of good questioning in the content areas of both math and language arts. I included and briefly discussed the relevance of teachers knowing the questioning taxonomies such as Bloom's. Also included was a more modern day version of Bloom's Taxonomy and within the pyramid the technology that can support those higher level thinking questions.

Overall this was a great assignment and an enlightening experience for me as I learned more about questioning in teaching and learning as well as so much more information from the other soapbox presentations. For a glimpse at my powerpoint presentaion click here.

EDUC7722 Week 7 Prompt #1 Assisstive Technology

For this week’s topic in Assistive Technology, our  discussion director had us focus Chapter 7 of Bryant and Bryant “Integrating Assistive Technology into Instruction”.  More specifically we were to delve into one of the software programs mentioned in the chapter and give feedback as to what the program does or how it is is used, and the pros and cons of using it in the classroom. I was interested to research a program that involved math and I decided on one that actually supported both math and science.

Efofex is a company which started in 1989, as a group of mathematics and science teachers wanting to computerise their work. They began designing software based on teachers' needs rather than a programmer's specification. The result was software for secondary math and science that closely matched teachers' expectations, all the while working with the mission to make the job easy for teachers and students. What I found most interesting about this product/software is its emPower program geared towards Special Needs Students. The company states that “Many students with physical disabilities find mathematics and science extremely difficult to write. The equations and graphics are too difficult to construct with standard tools. Our products are designed to make mathematics and science teacher's jobs easier but many students with special needs have found that they also provide the assistance they need. This serendipitous result has made the lives of many students much easier.” (Efofex)

Efofex provides students with Special Needs registration codes, for free, as long as documentation is provided in the form of a letter, on school (or equivalent institution) letterhead, that states that the student attends the school and suffers from a disability that makes mathematics and science materials difficult to produce. They do NOT need to know the nature of the disability - they just need the school to certify its existence. Students are then provided with a 10 year, personal use licence that allows them to install the software wherever they need it: at school, at home, wherever - providing it is only the student using the software. However, there is a cost for its use for non-special needs students.

     

The software available includes downloads for math -  FX Draw FX Equation FX Graph FX Stat and for science - FX Chem FXChemStruct FX Equation. All of which serve as tools and visual representations of skills and concepts related to both of those content areas. It can be downloaded via Windows or on a Mac computer. Support is offered through the sites support blog and if the need arises additional support regarding any other issues can always be sent to info@efofex.com. The site also posts a newsletter and provides video tutorials.

Any reviews that I found on this particular software were  contained on the website therefore the feedback was very positive. I also found this software listed in a variety of educator’s Blogs in a list of suggested supportive math/science materials. In my opinion the graphics were very clear, it appears easy to use especially in FX Draw and FX equation where you type an equation and the program puts the information in the appropriate place. As far as science is concerned FXChemStruct allows the teacher or students to easily construct chemical structures that are often difficult to draw. Although geared towards higher level math and science I can definitely see the benefits of using this program in the classroom for not only special needs students but also regular ed students, thereby embedding this into the classroom as a tool for ALL to use would prevent the singling out of those students in need.   

Images: http://www.efofex.com/images/fxt7.gif

http://dumatika.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/fxdraw.jpg

EDUC Week 8 Formative Assessment

This week in EDUC 7726 class our concentration was based on formative assessment versus summative assessment but with more concentration on the former type of testing. We researched and read about the importance of assessing students formally at the beginning middle and end of a lesson in order to drive and inform instruction. I believe that formally assessing students not only depends upon meaningful questions but also effective feedback.  I think teachers can assess all day long but what is vital is the planning what you want the students to know and using guided questioning throughout the lesson to inform how well the students are actually understanding  the skill or concept. 

We also researched how to best embed technology into our lessons to formally assess. And there is a plethora of tools, and software available for teachers to effectively and efficiently assess their students as well as engage and make the learning or assessing fun. As one the many parts of this week's focus on formative assessment we were to discuss and plan how to use technology in the classroom to formally assess. I chose to plan and discuss a math lesson on time and how technology could be integrated into the lesson in order to assess.

                                           https://fun.shooloo.org/attachments/grade_3.png

Click here for a summary of how I would use technology to assess in a grade 3 lesson on time with an objective and focus on achieving the following common following Common Core State Standard:

EDUC7726 Week 7

This week in EDUC 7726 we we required to worked in groups for assignment on Assessment and Technology. I had the pleasure of working with +Joseph Depalma, +Nancy Atterberry , and +Joan Robinson  as a group to represent through a Prezi Presentation our research or what we learned about Assessment and Technology.  We began with a google hang-out and planned on reading the required resources as well as others we had already searched and read. The next part of our plan was to assign each member of the group a topic/question pertaining to Assessment and Technology, so as we read we could focus on learning about that particular aspect of it. Then we set up a google document to share and document any notes about what we learned throughout the week from our readings. 

Our next step was to meet as a group in another google hang-out and begin our presentation. As this was the first time for most of us in creating a presentation in Prezi, we were learned by doing. We chose a template and began inputting out information and notes. Although a bit disjointed at first we talked each other through how we wanted to present our information with positive, relevant, and respectful feedback. We worked long and hard on our presentation and spent time editing until we felt it was in good standing. I truly enjoyed working with everyone of my team members, I learned more about assessment and technology not only from my research but also from that of my teammates. 

Finally, I was glad to have worked in Prezi so now I know how to use this tool in the future and can teach others how to use it.  Hope you enjoy our presentation and learn from it as well. Please follow this link to Assessment and Technology.