This is my blog for my Educational Technology program at Boise State University
Category Archives: Standard 4: Management
Candidates demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions to plan, organize, coordinate, and supervise instructional technology by applying principles of project, resource, delivery system, and information management.
Really Simple Syndication or RSS is a way of turning the internet around: instead of you navigating to your favorite websites they send new content to you. The analogy of going to a Redbox to rent a movie vs. ordering one on Netflix is fitting, except RSS has no limit on how many websites you can subscribe to.
I plan on using RSS to help share content with other teachers I collaborate with. As the only physics teacher at the high school where I work, I have a lot of emails and file sharing back and forth with other physics teachers. This could be a way of sharing websites in an organized fashion.
My students could use RSS feeds to do research for group projects and to stay updated on developments in the sciences. With all of the recent developments in particle physics I have many students and friends interested in finding more quality information on physics. I could develop a folder of physics websites to share with those who are curious.
My RSS folder for education has some resources on education in general, and some specific to math and physics education. The RSS fits the AECT standard of 4.2 Resource Management.
I enjoyed gathering data to use for the school evaluation summary. The process gave me the opportunity to talk with our building tech coordinators and with teachers about how they use technology in their curriculum.
Our school has a lot of the infrastructure and hardware required to have a possible classification in the Integrated or Intelligent categories. But there is little school or district wide consensus on grade level appropriate technology objectives. This gives teachers little guidance on what they should be doing with the technology available to them, and what they can expect their students to already know how to do. The result is a scattered approach to introducing technology into the curriculum, with most teachers working alone at the task.
One factor about the school’s demographics that may contribute to this lack of technology integration is the experience level of the teachers. In our school’s accreditation information, where I looked to get information on the school’s demographics, the high experience level of the teachers was played up as being a benefit to the school environment. And I agree that experienced teachers are incredible valuable in schools. But being experienced can go hand in hand with having less experience with new technology. Especially since I found that our district has no systematic, formal technology training process. Teachers who do not seek out training, whether formal or informal, will most likely feel less comfortable with new technology, and with implementing tech use in their classrooms. This is where I made my final recommendation in the technology evaluation; that the school could significantly increase its technology rating by giving more formal training, or setting up collaboration that focusses on technology use.
This artifact meets the AECT standard #4: Management in the fact that it required me to analyze how technology was being used and to identify ways to plan for the future. The project also relates to standard #5: Evaluation in the sense that I had to collect data and interpret it to evaluate my school’s technology maturity.
Technology Maturity Model Benchmarks Survey and Evaluation:
Really Simple Syndication or RSS is a way of turning the internet around: instead of
you navigating to your favorite websites they send new content to you. The analogy of going to a Redbox to rent a movie vs. ordering one on Netflix is fitting, except RSS has no limit on how many websites you can subscribe to.
I plan on using RSS to help share content with other teachers I collaborate with. As the only physics teacher at the high school where I work, I have a lot of emails and file sharing back and forth with other physics teachers. This could be a way of sharing websites in an organized fashion.
My students could use RSS feeds to do research for group projects and to stay updated on developments in the sciences. With all of the recent developments in particle physics I have many students and friends interested in finding more quality information on physics. I could develop a folder of physics websites to share with those who are curious.
My RSS folder for education has some resources on education in general, and some specific to math and physics education. The RSS fits the AECT standard of 4.4 Information Management.
Team Alpha’a Digital Inequality Assignment turned out to be a beautiful professional looking presentation:
Our group collaborated well to bring this project together. We started by organizing a google hangout to plan our project and discuss who would do what job. We then used google docs and a shared google drive folder to put our presentation together. Throughout the two weeks we stayed in close contact through email. I found the collaboration process to be as much of a learning experience as our project topic. This project has helped me to visualize what online collaborative learning can “look like” in my own future classrooms, and how to make learning more social even with students who are each at their own computers in separate parts of the world.
We addressed the problem of the digital divide and digital inequality in our presentation. The digital divide is about access to technology while digital inequality is about know how when using technology. Before doing this project I had not really thought about digital inequality; it seemed that giving access to computers was what was important to close the gap between haves and have nots. But as soon as I read about digital inequality I saw the obvious issue that if a technology user does not know what the technology can be used for or have the skills to execute this higher level type of use then they are at a considerable disadvantage. The people who fit into this group are forming a digital underclass in our society. Giving them reliable access to computers and the internet is important, but it is also important to give them the know how to use them.
Most families at my school are from have reliable access to home computers and the internet. Many students at my school have smart phones that are nicer than mine. It is common practice to expect students to have internet access for homework and projects, and also to know how to navigate the web to be able to complete research. In the course of this project I have realized that the small group of students at my school who make up our digital underclass are at more of a disadvantage than those who are at schools of lower socio economic status. Teachers at low SES schools know that they need to give students time to work in computer labs and some guidance in how to use technology when assigning projects. Students at my higher SES school do not get as much in school computer time since so many students have access at home; teachers just don’t think to include it in their class time.
This assignment addressed several AECT standards. Standard 2.4, Integrated Technologies, relates to using several different forms of media in producing materials. Our final presentation started as a google presentation document, then was moved to powerpoint to be narrated, and was ultimately presented as a youtube video. Standard 3.2, Diffusion of Innovations, 3.4, Policies and Regulations, and Standard 4.2 Resource Management, related to our group’s planning of how to distribute money and resources to close the digital divide and reduce digital inequality. We had a rich discussion as we planned our project on how we could use the computers that were already available to the public more efficiently, the development of computer courses, how to efficiently staff computer labs with IT interns and graduates of the computer courses, and how to measure the results of our program.
Setting up my learning log was a learning experience. Each step in the set up
I was overwhelmed with my Learning Log AND with an abundance of squash from my garden that weekend.
seemed simple enough, but I was reminded that importing files and posting links is not always a seamless process. There were several glitches along the way that took me a long time to iron out, and made me remember how important it is to give myself plenty of time when working with new tech tools.
Creating and continuing to add to my learning log will align with the AECT Standards 2 Development and 4.4 Information Management. Standard 2 involves developing course materials using a variety of media including print, video, and computer based technologies. As of writing this reflection, I have already made my introduction video,worked with RSS feeds (a computer based technology) and done many written reflections in my learning log. Standard 4.4 relates to how to share these resources once they have been created. Each time I create a video, RSS feed, etc, I must then post it to my learning log, share it with my instructor, and in a discussion forum with my class. This requires the development of digital file management skills that will be useful in my future teaching.
you navigating to your favorite websites they send new content to you. The analogy of going to a Redbox to rent a movie vs. ordering one on Netflix is fitting, except RSS has no limit on how many websites you can subscribe to.
lindsaydurningdavis 