I think we can all agree that the goal as a teacher is to prepare students for their future. If I was asked how I am accomplishing this in my classes, I would reply by applying the standards when teaching students the 21st Century Skills ("21st CS," n.d.). Here is the link for the 21st Century Skills. http://www.p21.org/ A major key is applying technology tools and applications that will work for the diverse students we teach.
Any time you build something, you need a solid foundation. I feel in teaching this is the learning theories. As teachers, we need to know how students learn and their intelligences’ before we can proceed to teach. “Education can be improved by assessment of students' intelligence profiles and designing activities accordingly” (Orey, 2011).
I have implemented two technology learning tools recently in my classes. The first was a wiki, which I learned in 6710. Here is the link. http://mrkuztechnologyclasses.wikispaces.com/ The second is an advance organizer which I learned in this class, 6711. Both have improved student learning. The wiki has aided the students when they collaborate in groups designing their projects. This has helped them to focus better as they decide what to construct. The advance organizer illustrates the overall procedure on how the project will proceed from start to finish. Both learning tools help students to focus on their learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 73). Dr. Orey states that instructional tools are what the teacher does with the technology and learning tools are what the student does with the technology (Laureate Education, Inc. 2011). It is important that these tools are prepared and organized prior to implementing in classes as learning tools. “When these types of activities go astray in the classroom, it is often due to inadequate up-front preparation” (Pitler et al., 2007, p. 141).
Two of my long-term goals are to implement two new technology learning tools in my classes. They are a Voice Thread, and a Social Learning technology tool, such as Skype, to collaborate with another school doing a similar project.
The Voice Thread will be used as an instructional strategy where students will identify similarities and differences. The Voice Thread has two different pictures of past projects and asks students to make predictions based on the similarities and differences in the pictures. I will implement this when students are collaborating in groups designing their projects. Hopefully this will improve the projects as they are designing them. Here is the link for the Voice Thread I plan on using in the near future. http://voicethread.com/share/2962328/
I am on the board of directors for a large non-profit organization. A few weeks ago we held an open meeting where over 125 people attended. One of our members was in England due to her job. We set up a laptop on a table and used Skype. I was amazed how well it worked in a large group like this. This got my wheels turning. This would be a great technology tool for Social Learning. My plan is to have students collaborate live with another school construction the same project.
What are your thoughts on my long-term goals? Has anyone used Voice Thread or Skype in their classes and what tips can you provide me with?
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program thirteen: Technology: Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
