The Google Site that houses all of my objects for the "Managing Technology Integration in Schools" module is embedded below and accessible here.
Sunday 11 May 2014
Tuesday 6 May 2014
Blogging Review
"To what degree you met each of the criteria and then propose a final numerical grade."
Due to my work schedule and other matters, the biggest difficulty I have had has been posting early in the week. In the Edtech 503 course, there was a stipulation that posts were done by Thursday so that commenting could be done over the weekend; this put a strain on me but it did have the effect of getting posts commented on! So, Timeliness has been my biggest struggle: at least one was late. That being said, the majority were posted on the day they were asked for.
With regard to content and readings/resources; I read all of the book. I had the book purchased some time ago by the school library so I had started reading it before the course. One thing I didn't do was refer only to the content in the book. In reading other student's posts and looking at their course objects, some felt like a regurgitation of Roblyer and Doering's ideas. For me, a blog is about my experience and what I took away from the process; I hope that comes across in my writing. Sure, I referred to other work to back up my ideas and thoughts - part of my reason for doing this MET course is so that I can back up what I say, and my ideas, with research and evidence. I'd say full marks for these.
Responses to other's posts. Define substantial! I find when I read my peer's posts that I agree, disagree, and have questions either way. Instead of flatly disagreeing, I prefer to ask questions like "what if...", "have you seen this?" I have wanted to continue those conversations but those I have posted to have not responded unfortunately! I'm pretty sure I have done a few fairly deep responses to people - perhaps I should have kept a record of them! Full marks ?!
Due to my work schedule and other matters, the biggest difficulty I have had has been posting early in the week. In the Edtech 503 course, there was a stipulation that posts were done by Thursday so that commenting could be done over the weekend; this put a strain on me but it did have the effect of getting posts commented on! So, Timeliness has been my biggest struggle: at least one was late. That being said, the majority were posted on the day they were asked for.
With regard to content and readings/resources; I read all of the book. I had the book purchased some time ago by the school library so I had started reading it before the course. One thing I didn't do was refer only to the content in the book. In reading other student's posts and looking at their course objects, some felt like a regurgitation of Roblyer and Doering's ideas. For me, a blog is about my experience and what I took away from the process; I hope that comes across in my writing. Sure, I referred to other work to back up my ideas and thoughts - part of my reason for doing this MET course is so that I can back up what I say, and my ideas, with research and evidence. I'd say full marks for these.
Responses to other's posts. Define substantial! I find when I read my peer's posts that I agree, disagree, and have questions either way. Instead of flatly disagreeing, I prefer to ask questions like "what if...", "have you seen this?" I have wanted to continue those conversations but those I have posted to have not responded unfortunately! I'm pretty sure I have done a few fairly deep responses to people - perhaps I should have kept a record of them! Full marks ?!
541 Course Reflection
What I have learned and how has theory guided my work?
I have been using technology in my classrooms for a long time; 15 years ago I was using Flash 3 to develop engaging websites and HTML, databases and Perl to develop self-marking, multiple choice tests. Over the last 10 years I have found some very good uses for technology with my students, but on occasion I have had to stop and question what I was doing and why I was doing it.
The main thing I will take away from this course is that Relative Advantage must be considered before the introduction of technology. The questions I have posed for myself in the past were about Relative Advantage but I didn't have a name for it back then! I knew what I was trying to do wasn't achieving what I wanted so I had to reassess the purpose of using the tech.
Unfortunately, in the past, I had already introduced the tech to my students before they and I realised that it wasn't achieving the intended goal.
Through a combination of "design with the end in mind" instructional design principles and a thorough consideration of Relative Advantage, I intend to do a better job for my students and not waste their or my time in future!
Roblyer and Doering emphasise the Tech-Pack model throughout their book, giving worked examples of how teachers have assessed themselves in the project they are working on; I enjoyed reading these and allowed me to apply the examples to my own work and that of the teachers I coach.
How the course work demonstrates mastery of the AECT standards?
Much of the course has allowed me to demonstrate use of computer based technology, media utilisation and technology integration, message and instructional systems design. Each of the objects are referred to in my blog and the labels identify each.
How you have grown professionally? How your own teaching practice or thoughts about teaching have been impacted by what you have learned or accomplished in this course? What will you do differently as an educator as a result of this course?
Through my own practice, working with other teachers, my students, the course, my PLN, etc., I do my best to give students choice. This course has brought me into contact with more options and possibilities to offer my students the choice I am trying to provide. As I mentioned above, I am more thoughtful about precisely why I want the students to use a technology and I will not force the "round peg" into a "square hole".
The Stem Cells Webquest activity I developed allowed me to design with the end in sight. I take more time now to consider what it is I want my students to get out of the task I set. In this regard, the learning objective and assessment criteria need to be more explicitly communicated to my students and I have been doing this via rubrics. In my role as a tech coach I have already been expressing this need to my colleagues and modelling the techniques.
While I was initially worried about the Language Arts, PE, Art, Music and MFL lesson activities I developed, the process allowed me to view content form the perspective of my colleagues in other departments. Doing these activities gave me a mechanism to provide more choice for my students as I was applying different strategies and tech to my science based content. From a broader perspective, I was reminded that there is a lot of crossover between the content students are expected to know for the various subjects they learn - the MFL lesson aimed at the environment has a lot of crossover with Biology but obviously from a different angle; PE, Biology and Psychology are similar in this regard. I hope to make connections with the other departments to build more rounded projects that have links across all the content students must learn.
Roblyer, M. D. & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
I have been using technology in my classrooms for a long time; 15 years ago I was using Flash 3 to develop engaging websites and HTML, databases and Perl to develop self-marking, multiple choice tests. Over the last 10 years I have found some very good uses for technology with my students, but on occasion I have had to stop and question what I was doing and why I was doing it.
The main thing I will take away from this course is that Relative Advantage must be considered before the introduction of technology. The questions I have posed for myself in the past were about Relative Advantage but I didn't have a name for it back then! I knew what I was trying to do wasn't achieving what I wanted so I had to reassess the purpose of using the tech.
Unfortunately, in the past, I had already introduced the tech to my students before they and I realised that it wasn't achieving the intended goal.
Through a combination of "design with the end in mind" instructional design principles and a thorough consideration of Relative Advantage, I intend to do a better job for my students and not waste their or my time in future!
Roblyer and Doering emphasise the Tech-Pack model throughout their book, giving worked examples of how teachers have assessed themselves in the project they are working on; I enjoyed reading these and allowed me to apply the examples to my own work and that of the teachers I coach.
How the course work demonstrates mastery of the AECT standards?
Much of the course has allowed me to demonstrate use of computer based technology, media utilisation and technology integration, message and instructional systems design. Each of the objects are referred to in my blog and the labels identify each.
How you have grown professionally? How your own teaching practice or thoughts about teaching have been impacted by what you have learned or accomplished in this course? What will you do differently as an educator as a result of this course?
Through my own practice, working with other teachers, my students, the course, my PLN, etc., I do my best to give students choice. This course has brought me into contact with more options and possibilities to offer my students the choice I am trying to provide. As I mentioned above, I am more thoughtful about precisely why I want the students to use a technology and I will not force the "round peg" into a "square hole".
The Stem Cells Webquest activity I developed allowed me to design with the end in sight. I take more time now to consider what it is I want my students to get out of the task I set. In this regard, the learning objective and assessment criteria need to be more explicitly communicated to my students and I have been doing this via rubrics. In my role as a tech coach I have already been expressing this need to my colleagues and modelling the techniques.
While I was initially worried about the Language Arts, PE, Art, Music and MFL lesson activities I developed, the process allowed me to view content form the perspective of my colleagues in other departments. Doing these activities gave me a mechanism to provide more choice for my students as I was applying different strategies and tech to my science based content. From a broader perspective, I was reminded that there is a lot of crossover between the content students are expected to know for the various subjects they learn - the MFL lesson aimed at the environment has a lot of crossover with Biology but obviously from a different angle; PE, Biology and Psychology are similar in this regard. I hope to make connections with the other departments to build more rounded projects that have links across all the content students must learn.
Roblyer, M. D. & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Friday 2 May 2014
Assistive Technologies in Biology
ASsistive Technologies in Biology
Students with Cognitive Difficulties
Apps such as Designmate’s Heart and Blood Circulation bring multimedia content, images, videos, screen readers, audio, quizzes with feedback, and key term glossaries together into one place. Students with cognitive processing difficulties can use the various media to enable them to access the biological content.
e-Bug is a digital learning environment that is animated and fun to navigate. Microbes are everywhere in the site and there are some very nice activities to do in and out of class. Quizzes and Games make this a great site for students with knowledge retention issues. The site is differentiated by the UK key stages; the earlier contact can be accessed by older students in order to help scaffold their knowledge.
Websites can be blocked, monitored for time, even keywords can be "turned off" during set times each day. If needed, you can set certain sites for time spent and add them to sets to block or unblock. Individuals that struggle to maintain concentration
Readers can control the text-to-speech in the books that MeeGenius is available for. The control offers students with processing disorders the chance to access the text at their own rate.
Students with Physical Difficulties
The virtual microscope benefits individuals with an array of difficulties. The site reads the the instructions and has a large image of a microscope that is easy to see. The instructions link with arrows and highlights to draw attention to the microscope. Individuals with limited movement but can access a mouse can learn to use the microscope.
Carolina’s digital microscopes have LED screens attached to the top of the device enabling the user to see the image of the slide without having to stand over the microscope; idea for wheelchair bound students. The microscope can be hooked up to a screen or projector to provide even larger viewing for those students who have trouble seeing the detail on the LED screen.
Google Voice allows students with motor skills impairments to access the search functionality of Google on a Chrome browser to enter search queries. The translation is remarkably accurate and is very fast.
Speak-It is a Chrome extension that reads multiple languages in male and female voices. German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, etc.
This extension can be used for visually impaired individuals from these international backgrounds.
This extension could also be used to give Gifted and Talented language students listening tasks from native language web articles.
Students with Sensory Difficulties
Chromevox was developed by Google to provide accessibility tools native on the Chrome OS. It has a screen reader that can read single letters up to full paragraphs and is ideal for individuals with visual impairment. The speech can be altered in pitch and speed making the voice easier to listen to - lower pitch sounds older while higher sounds younger - the listener can choose the voice type they associate best with.
For unimpaired individuals that want to listen but can do so at a faster rate of speech, speeding up the speech can be achieved with this extension.
The page contains several links for webpage accessibility for the visually impaired. The page has been assessed at the highest level of high contrast colours.
Daltonize is an extension that enhances colour contrast on webpages in order to allow colour blind individuals (tritanope, deuteranope and protanope) to tell the difference in colours. In the Biology class, this extension can also be used to simulate what colour blind individuals perceive; teachers can use the extension to develop material that use colours that work to generate the best contrast.
At-Risk Students
Careers
The ASPIRES site brings students into contact with careers in science. The lessons and activities are designed to give students the opportunity to see the possibilities beyond their immediate situation and motivate them to lift themselves out of their situation. The site has 11 case study lessons that help students take on the role of scientists.
Videos/TV shows and YouTube: Brainiac Science Abuse
There is much in science that cannot be replicated in the laboratory. Some Biology can be a bit “boring” and boredom can lead to misbehaviour by those students who, for whatever reason, are unable to focus in class. Targeted use of exciting media like Brainiac and Richard Hammond’s Miracles of Nature will help to allow troubled/at risk students focus and access the curriculum.
The N-Squad site by RICE university has a module on Alcohol and its effects on the body. This digital animated narrative can be used to engage students from lower socio-economic backgrounds that tend to resort to alcohol abuse. The site educates the learner enabling them to make informed choices in their real life. Alcohol, nicotine and other drugs are embedded in the National Curriculum for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. While they are considered pastoral issues, the Biology teachers address the “mechanics” of the drugs in the Biology class.
The Nobel prize site provides games and animations that students can use and play to follow in the footsteps of the Nobel Prize winners of the past. Some schools will not permit blood in the classroom which can make the topic of blood, which is potentially very interesting, rather boring. Interesting and engaging games such as those offered by NobelPrize.org may be just what the bored and distracted student needs to stay on task.
Zondle and IAmLearning
Zondle and IAmLearning are games platforms with Gamification and Games As Rewards mechanics built into them. Science and Biology lend themselves to the types of questions that are available in these platform and “At Risk” students may find these mechanics engaging, allowing them to access the curriculum in a fun way. Students may not realise they are learning while they play and the quizzes record and report to the teachers the students progress avoiding the need for stressful summative tests.
Gifted and Talented Students
Speak-It is a Chrome extension that reads multiple languages in male and female voices. German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, etc.
This extension could be used to give Gifted and Talented language students listening tasks from native language web articles. It could also be used to assist students in their learning in a second language medium as the voices mimic stereotypical accents well for the language; assisting in the pronunciation of the written word.
This website provides engaging and challenging biology content including simulations, and videos, and online lab activities. Students with strong independent learning skills can access content from Stem Cells to Pharmacogenomics - the activities extend the classroom and allow G+T students take their studies to a university standard thus enhancing their breadth of knowledge at A-Level.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)