Reflections on EDLD 5301 Week 2 Learning:
From the lecture, I learned that there are four elements to an effective purpose for a research project. The first element is to clearly state what you will do or look at. Second, the purpose must be focused on a specific issue or topic. The purpose should also be reasonable or feasible. Finally, the purpose must be ethical and follow FERPA laws and a code of ethics.
From the lecture, and also from the interviews, I learned that researchers should choose topics that they are interested in so that they maintain motivation and focus. In the interview with Dr. Kirk Lewis, he stressed the importance of making sure that the research is for a practical, rather than theoretical, purpose and that educators can use the information gained to improve the learning of their students.
From the Dana text, I learned that there are nine passions that drive the researcher’s wonderings and questions about practice. They include staff development, curriculum development, individual teacher(s), individual student(s), school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice. There were also cautions against choosing a topic that you already know the answer to, and topics focused on controlling others’ behaviors. “If you find your wonderings beginning to focus on controlling or changing teacher behavior, try reframing them in ways that help you understand teacher behavior and allow you to discover what you can do as an administrator with those new understandings” (Dana 2009).
In all of the assignments, we were encouraged to think about the schools’ stakeholders and who will benefit, potentially, from the information gained from the study.
Reference
Dana, Nancy Fichtman. Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators, 2009. Print.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Action Research Project Proposal
This week, we learned about action research or administrative inquiry and how it differs from traditional educational research. Administrative inquiry begins with asking a question, collecting data to help answer the question, analyzing the data along with any relevant literature, making school improvements based upon the findings, and sharing what has been learned with others (Dana 2009). The main difference between administrative inquiry and traditional research is that in administrative inquiry the practitioner is involved in the process, rather than just a technician who implements a prescribed curriculum. As a result of what I have learned and what I expect to learn in this class, I will be able to conduct my own research during the internship phase of this program.
I have chosen to study the effect of technology integration on second language acquisition. I would like to know whether the use of technology can assist in speeding the process of second language acquisition. Furthermore, I would like to know specifically what kinds of software and equipment may be effective, and for what type of learner, and how to integrate the technology.
As an instructor for Texas A&M Extension Service, I occasionally have international students in our Fire Officer Development program. These students register for the courses with the understanding that they will need to have a good grasp of the English language in order to be successful in the course. However, public school children are expected to learn a new language at the same time that they are learning the same essential skills that other students are learning in the content areas.
When I think of our students who are not native English speakers, I am reminded of Marc Prensky’s article on digital immigrants. According to Prensky, our students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach (2001). Prensky was referring to the fact that our students have grown up speaking the language of technology (digital natives), and that teachers are digital immigrants, who struggle to “catch up”. In the same way that digital immigrants struggle, our non-English speakers can’t understand what the natives are saying. Can technology be used to speed up language acquisition? In the same way that the development of computer games has been used to teach engineering students, can language acquisition software engage students and help them to learn English faster?
If a positive relationship between the use of technology and accelerated language acquisition can be determined, then curriculum can be developed to take advantage of the technology, assisting students to acclimate to gain confidence, improve English proficiency, retain information, and master the content better. As a result, English Language learners will have more success in the standardized testing scores should improve.
References
Dana, Nancy Fichtman. Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators, 2009. Print.
Prensky, M.. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9. 5, Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.
I have chosen to study the effect of technology integration on second language acquisition. I would like to know whether the use of technology can assist in speeding the process of second language acquisition. Furthermore, I would like to know specifically what kinds of software and equipment may be effective, and for what type of learner, and how to integrate the technology.
As an instructor for Texas A&M Extension Service, I occasionally have international students in our Fire Officer Development program. These students register for the courses with the understanding that they will need to have a good grasp of the English language in order to be successful in the course. However, public school children are expected to learn a new language at the same time that they are learning the same essential skills that other students are learning in the content areas.
When I think of our students who are not native English speakers, I am reminded of Marc Prensky’s article on digital immigrants. According to Prensky, our students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach (2001). Prensky was referring to the fact that our students have grown up speaking the language of technology (digital natives), and that teachers are digital immigrants, who struggle to “catch up”. In the same way that digital immigrants struggle, our non-English speakers can’t understand what the natives are saying. Can technology be used to speed up language acquisition? In the same way that the development of computer games has been used to teach engineering students, can language acquisition software engage students and help them to learn English faster?
If a positive relationship between the use of technology and accelerated language acquisition can be determined, then curriculum can be developed to take advantage of the technology, assisting students to acclimate to gain confidence, improve English proficiency, retain information, and master the content better. As a result, English Language learners will have more success in the standardized testing scores should improve.
References
Dana, Nancy Fichtman. Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators, 2009. Print.
Prensky, M.. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9. 5, Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.
How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs
Blogging can be used for reading and writing, conversations around topics, communicating with a larger audience or sharing examples from learning portfolios. It can be an effective venue for networked learning. Reading and commenting to one another creates a dialogue that requires persuasive writing and critical thinking. Blogging is a conversation. Comments in a blog should encourage further discussion and be connected to the subject matter. Comments can have a variety of ideas: sharing additional links or resources, making a connection with a new idea, sharing a new perspective or even challenging or debating a topic. Blogging is great opportunity to teach about digital citizenship. Blogs are a tremendous tool for getting students, teachers, and parents involved in educational discussion and inquiry. They provide a simple straightforward platform that promotes involvement and higher level thinking. Students that may be shy in the classroom often open up in the blogging environment. Blogs have the ability to be utilized for multiple purposes. From introductory thinking, to complicated research, a blog has both usefulness and purpose. Blogs can immerse the reader with ideas, interact with an audience, and inspire people to change.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
EDLD 5306 Concepts of Educational Technology Reflections
Course Reflections
Before I began the course, I was not sure if the program would be a good fit for me because I am not a public school teacher. Because I was allowed into the program, I assumed that the assignments would not necessarily be centered around public school activities. I had hoped to learn about new software and equipment and the Web 2.0 tools that I had been hearing about. As I began to review the syllabus and course materials, I was a bit overwhelmed. Most of the terms and school acronyms were unfamiliar to me. I thought right away that I would have to enlist the help of my wife, a public school teacher, and her school friends just to understand the terminology. I hoped that after completing this first course that I would have a better understanding of how technology is used in public schools and how I could use this new knowledge to benefit my adult students in the fire academy. After completing the course, I feel more comfortable with the terminology, and can converse with colleagues about subjects such as TEKS, Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, ISTE, and NETS – all of which were completely foreign to me before taking the course. To some extent, the course did fulfill some of my expectations. I was thrilled to add some technology tools to my toolbox, i.e., creating blogs, wikis and word clouds.
I was already familiar with online environments from my experience as an instructor with the fire academy. We use a blended learning environment with Moodle online weekly assignments and bi-monthly hands-on skills classes. The Epic courseware that Lamar uses has given me some ideas about course design that I can use to make our Moodle courses more user friendly and effective. After the first two weeks, I realized that each week’s materials and assignments followed a standard format and that, for the most part, I could anticipate the types of assignments and the amount of time that I would need to spend to complete them. The coursework itself, in spite of being geared toward public schools, is helping me to prepare more engaging activities for my own students. For example, I plan to introduce wikis to help make the fire academy assignments more interactive between the students. In my experience with just this one class, I can already see how interacting with my classmates will help me to learn more than just from the course material itself.
Although the outcomes that I had expected prior to beginning the course were not fully realized, I do feel that the outcomes were aligned with the course goals as described in Ms. Borel’s introductory message. I do understand how the TEKS provide a framework for integrating technology into curriculum, and how the components of the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology help to create a shared vision for improving student achievement. From the lectures and readings, I have a better grasp of the challenges that educators face as we work to create learning experiences for students that prepare them for living and working in the 21st century. Having almost completed this course, I understand that the outcomes I had expected to achieve will be realized throughout the course of the entire program. There is simply a lot of material that I have not been exposed to that I am sure we will cover along the way.
For the most part, I was successful with completing all of the assignments. Initially, I found it difficult to navigate the courseware in order to find the most up-to-date instructions for the assignments. I learned very quickly that it is important to read the announcements because there could be changes to assignments and/or due dates. For example, I missed participating in a web conference because the date was changed, and I did not read the announcement until the day that the web conference was originally scheduled. Also, I found that the “To Do List” published in the courseware did not reflect all of the required assignments. An example is that web conferences are not listed in the “To Do List”. It would be more helpful if all required work was listed in one place, but I now know how important it is to check announcements, read any overviews provided, and participate in all web conferences, if possible. Participation in web conferences was, and will continue to be, difficult because of my obligations with the fire department. As an executive staff member of the city, I am required to be present at all city council meetings. As an emergency responder, it is often difficult to adhere to structured schedules. I will make every attempt to read any conference reflections from other students’ blog posts if I am unable to participate in a conference.
I learned that while adept at many technology tasks, I am really a digital immigrant. The technology skills that my students have naturally are skills that I have had to learn and develop. The idea of using a telephone to look up information and collaborate with others, as well as to communicate verbally, was completely foreign to me in my youth. For today’s students who have grown up with cell phones and computers, this is a natural progression that requires little more than learning a few new button clicks. I realize that in order to be an effective educator, I must embrace the students’ electronic “buddies” and use them as educational tools, rather than ban them from the classroom. I also realize that I can be a technology leader and not have all of the answers. I can learn from my students, and I need to constantly stay current on the latest technologies and their classroom applications. I will do this by subscribing to technology journals, attending workshops and conferences such as service center training and TCEA, and observing other teachers and instructional technologists as opportunities arise.
Before I began the course, I was not sure if the program would be a good fit for me because I am not a public school teacher. Because I was allowed into the program, I assumed that the assignments would not necessarily be centered around public school activities. I had hoped to learn about new software and equipment and the Web 2.0 tools that I had been hearing about. As I began to review the syllabus and course materials, I was a bit overwhelmed. Most of the terms and school acronyms were unfamiliar to me. I thought right away that I would have to enlist the help of my wife, a public school teacher, and her school friends just to understand the terminology. I hoped that after completing this first course that I would have a better understanding of how technology is used in public schools and how I could use this new knowledge to benefit my adult students in the fire academy. After completing the course, I feel more comfortable with the terminology, and can converse with colleagues about subjects such as TEKS, Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, ISTE, and NETS – all of which were completely foreign to me before taking the course. To some extent, the course did fulfill some of my expectations. I was thrilled to add some technology tools to my toolbox, i.e., creating blogs, wikis and word clouds.
I was already familiar with online environments from my experience as an instructor with the fire academy. We use a blended learning environment with Moodle online weekly assignments and bi-monthly hands-on skills classes. The Epic courseware that Lamar uses has given me some ideas about course design that I can use to make our Moodle courses more user friendly and effective. After the first two weeks, I realized that each week’s materials and assignments followed a standard format and that, for the most part, I could anticipate the types of assignments and the amount of time that I would need to spend to complete them. The coursework itself, in spite of being geared toward public schools, is helping me to prepare more engaging activities for my own students. For example, I plan to introduce wikis to help make the fire academy assignments more interactive between the students. In my experience with just this one class, I can already see how interacting with my classmates will help me to learn more than just from the course material itself.
Although the outcomes that I had expected prior to beginning the course were not fully realized, I do feel that the outcomes were aligned with the course goals as described in Ms. Borel’s introductory message. I do understand how the TEKS provide a framework for integrating technology into curriculum, and how the components of the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology help to create a shared vision for improving student achievement. From the lectures and readings, I have a better grasp of the challenges that educators face as we work to create learning experiences for students that prepare them for living and working in the 21st century. Having almost completed this course, I understand that the outcomes I had expected to achieve will be realized throughout the course of the entire program. There is simply a lot of material that I have not been exposed to that I am sure we will cover along the way.
For the most part, I was successful with completing all of the assignments. Initially, I found it difficult to navigate the courseware in order to find the most up-to-date instructions for the assignments. I learned very quickly that it is important to read the announcements because there could be changes to assignments and/or due dates. For example, I missed participating in a web conference because the date was changed, and I did not read the announcement until the day that the web conference was originally scheduled. Also, I found that the “To Do List” published in the courseware did not reflect all of the required assignments. An example is that web conferences are not listed in the “To Do List”. It would be more helpful if all required work was listed in one place, but I now know how important it is to check announcements, read any overviews provided, and participate in all web conferences, if possible. Participation in web conferences was, and will continue to be, difficult because of my obligations with the fire department. As an executive staff member of the city, I am required to be present at all city council meetings. As an emergency responder, it is often difficult to adhere to structured schedules. I will make every attempt to read any conference reflections from other students’ blog posts if I am unable to participate in a conference.
I learned that while adept at many technology tasks, I am really a digital immigrant. The technology skills that my students have naturally are skills that I have had to learn and develop. The idea of using a telephone to look up information and collaborate with others, as well as to communicate verbally, was completely foreign to me in my youth. For today’s students who have grown up with cell phones and computers, this is a natural progression that requires little more than learning a few new button clicks. I realize that in order to be an effective educator, I must embrace the students’ electronic “buddies” and use them as educational tools, rather than ban them from the classroom. I also realize that I can be a technology leader and not have all of the answers. I can learn from my students, and I need to constantly stay current on the latest technologies and their classroom applications. I will do this by subscribing to technology journals, attending workshops and conferences such as service center training and TCEA, and observing other teachers and instructional technologists as opportunities arise.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
National Educational Technology Plan
The National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) executive summary describes the plan as being driven by two clear goals. They are to raise the proportion of college graduates from the current 41% to 60% by the year 2020, and to close the achievement gap so that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers.
The plan urges our education system to be clear about the outcomes we seek; collaborate to redesign structures and processes for effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility; to continually monitor and measure our performance, and to hold ourselves accountable for progress and results every step of the way.
The NETP presents goals and recommendations in five essential areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan stresses the importance of the development of standards and assessments that measure 21st-century competencies and expertise in all content areas, and the use of data to drive continuous improvement. The plan further urges states and local public education institutions to act now to ensure equitable access to learning experiences for all students, especially low-income, minority students, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners.
I found that Temple’s District Technology plan provides strategies that address the same goals and recommendations outlined in the NETP.
My concern is that, except for the areas requiring verification for E-Rate funding, technology competencies for teachers are not evaluated routinely, and student mastery of the technology TEKS are not routinely tested at all grade levels. In order for this to happen, there would have to be a mandate, which likely could not be funded in the near future.
The plan urges our education system to be clear about the outcomes we seek; collaborate to redesign structures and processes for effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility; to continually monitor and measure our performance, and to hold ourselves accountable for progress and results every step of the way.
The NETP presents goals and recommendations in five essential areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan stresses the importance of the development of standards and assessments that measure 21st-century competencies and expertise in all content areas, and the use of data to drive continuous improvement. The plan further urges states and local public education institutions to act now to ensure equitable access to learning experiences for all students, especially low-income, minority students, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners.
I found that Temple’s District Technology plan provides strategies that address the same goals and recommendations outlined in the NETP.
My concern is that, except for the areas requiring verification for E-Rate funding, technology competencies for teachers are not evaluated routinely, and student mastery of the technology TEKS are not routinely tested at all grade levels. In order for this to happen, there would have to be a mandate, which likely could not be funded in the near future.
Web Conference Reflection
I learned a lot from the most recent web conference and enjoyed meeting and interacting with my fellow students. In this week’s conference I actually got my web cam and sound to work. It is interesting to use this technology to communicate and share ideas. I am still adjusting to the time delay in the audio and video during the conference. The ability to type questions helps a lot when there are so many people on the conference at the same time. It was comforting to learn that I was not the only non-public school teacher in the program.
Ms. Borel again made note of the importance of reading the weekly overviews as they contain the most up to date information on the week’s assignments. She explained in some detail the expectations of the internship program. I know that there are 150 hours of the internship program that are course-based and embedded in the program. I will need an additional 150 hours of field based activities to complete my internship. I specifically asked about my internship since I am not a public school teacher. Ms. Borel assured me we would find an appropriate mentor for my internship. I have since found a district instructional technologist at Temple Independent School District that has agreed to be my mentor. I will complete the mentor letter and agreement next week.
We went over the requirements to have a GMAIL account to set up our blogs. I did email my GMAIL address to Ms. Borel and Sarah. It was also emphasized that I need to purchase my Tk20 account.
I am looking forward to learning more about blogging and other technology tools to enhance my ability to reach my students.
I look forward to the next web conference. I think it is important to have the personal interaction with the instructor and my fellow students.
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