As we make it to the end of our Teaching with Technology course, we are asked to reflect on our group assignment.  We were asked help a teacher create a unit to incorporate technology into her classroom.  This teacher had students with varying levels of intelligence as well as various types of needs.  My group chose to create a group of lessons for 9^th grade geography.  While I was unfamiliar with the course topic, I was eager to jump into the scenario.  The possibilities of technology to integrate into an imaginary scenario are endless, but I was reminded of a warning we read about.    “One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education,” according to Dr. Martha Stone Wiske, co-director of the Educational Technology Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the education later.” Sometimes as a “techno-geek” we get so wrapped up in the cool factor of educational gadgets.  We have to remember that the content comes first.  Students are not going to learn more or better with a technology tool if the rigor of the subject is not presented.  As a technologist we have to stay away from “fads” and look at the research.  We have to find products that will fit with 21 century learners in our classrooms.

                This assignment was a group project.  Working with a group, especially one that is not face-to-face, can be challenging.  We did not always agree on the vision of our website, or the interpretation of the instructions.  However we always where professional and in the end we accomplished the goal of the assignment. I do see the need for my class to become more problem solving based and less fact driven.  James Paul Gee warns of school not changing.  “If they’re going to survive in a developed country outside of low-level service work, they’re going to have to have innovation and creativity.  And so the form of schooling that we engage in basically privileges people who know a lot of facts but can’t solve problems with them is on its last legs.”  I enjoyed using the wiki as a place to communicate and have chats.  I believe that this was an invaluable tool in our project.  I saw the need to incorporate more group and collaborative lessons in my curriculum.   Again James Paul gee states, the next generation of schools will be “schools to solve problems, but not just to solve problems, but to be able to do it collaboratively so that you can work in a group where the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group.”  I intend on finding more collaborative lesson and allowing my students to use web 2.0 tools to collaborate together. 

Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology. Retrieved from http://www.mff.org/pubs/ME161.pdf.

    Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading With Games

 Citation: Edutopia.org (nd). Big thinkers: James Paul Gee on grading with games. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-james-gee-video

What an interesting topic in our videos this week.  We discussed video games in the classroom.  Really it described using virtual things and places to teach students.  Students can try out jobs, experiment, create, make mistakes, and solve real world problems in a virtual world at the fraction of the cost and without any lasting effects to the environment.  If the student does not like something or it does not work the student just presses a re-do button.   Many schools have gone to virtual dissections in biology classes or virtual experiments.   What a thought to get kids excited about what they are learning.  James Paul Gee talked about how a child would come across a chemistry problem in a game and then pick up a chemistry book to learn the vocabulary and how to apply it in the game.  This would make the learning very personal for each child.  Helping students internalize the learning.

                James Paul Gee also mentioned that schools are belittling teachers and their creativity, by moving to scripted curriculum.  I feel this in my own district.  Teachers are so afraid to leave the district curriculum and find material that might be better suited for their students.  In some departments the teachers have to get every handout approved by their AP before they can make copies and present it to the class.  They are no longer being treated like experts in their own field.

Week 4
    Collaborative learning was the topic of most of this week’s readings and discussions.  This is such a great topic for schools to rethink the way that most of us teach.  Many teachers are so focused on their content that they do not know what is going on in the other classrooms.  Collaborative learning allows students to focus on their strengths and learn from others on how to improve in areas they are weak.  Technology is a great way to incorporate collaborative learning.  There are so many ways that students can collaborate with their peers.   Most students are already familiar with web 2.0 tools that will help with collaboration.  Teachers don’t even have to have students in the same class work together.  In fact students can collaborate and work with students around the world.  As I reflected on these facts I think about my own learning.  The students in my own class I have not meet.  We are working together on projects and we have never been in the same room.  Technology is so great!  But as Ringstaff, C and Kelley, L (2002) write, "Simply putting computers in schools does not mean effective technology integration has occurred. Teachers must see the connection between new hardware and software and their educational applications in the classroom. Furthermore, professional development efforts will be undermined if the computers or infrastructure are not adequately supported."  Plopping computers and technology in a room is not going to increase test scores or create better students.  Teachers do need training on how to use these products to enhance their learning.  I do agree with that, but too many times teachers use that as an excuse.  Many times teachers wait to have others give them lessons or activities to use to incoperate technology.  We have to be proactive and explore for ourselves.  Is that not what we want from our students?  We have too many instant resources to use to find lessons, activities, and ideas on ways we can use the technology we are given.  Don’t wait for somebody to train you, for Pete sake, Google it and find out yourself!

CAST UDL Lesson Builder

I thought the CAST lesson builder was a good template to follow.  Creating a goal was a challenge for me.  I wanted to create a goal that I thought all students could achieve, jet achieve the rigor of the curriculum.  My assessment was a group project which allowed students to create a PowerPoint in which pictures as well a text could be used to help show mastery of the goal.  In my 15 years of teaching I don’t think I had ever heard of Recognition, Strategic, and Affective Networks.  These are the what, how, and why of learning.  Designing a lesson to incorporate all these networks stretched my abilities.  It made me wonder how I could better plan my lessons at school to incorporate these three brain networks.  Teachers and myself should always use multiple ways of explain the information given to students.  Teachers should always be aware of ways to differentiate learning for all students.  For example if a teacher wants her students to identify the main idea of a passage.  Some students could write this out, others would feel more comfortable typing the main idea, and still others would want to draw the main idea.  All three ways show mastery of the goal of students identifying the main idea, but let’s students with different abilities use their strengths to reach the goal.  

Check out my UDL lesson below:

 

Title:	Regions of the United States
Author:	Denise Shaffer
Subject:	Social Studies
Grade Level(s):	9-12
Duration:	3 (50 min) days
Unit Description	This lesson allows students to research the physical, political, economic and social characteristics of particular regions in North America.
Lesson Description for Day	Create a Group PowerPoint of one US region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards).
State Standards	TEKS:  WG.3B Describe the physical processes that affect the environments of regions, including weather, tectonic forces, erosion, and soil-building processes. WG.4A Explain how elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean currents, position on a continent, and mountain barriers influence temperature, precipitation, and distribution of climate regions. WG. 8A Compare ways that humans depend on, adapt to, and modify the physical environment, including the influences of culture and technology. WG.9A Identify physical and/or human factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and religion that constitute a region. WG.9B Describe different types of regions, including formal, functional, and perceptual regions. WG.16A Describe distinctive cultural patterns and landscapes associated with different places in Texas, the United States, and other regions of the world and how these patterns influenced the processes of innovation and diffusion. WG.22A Design and draw appropriate graphics such as maps, diagrams, tables, and graphs to communicate geographic features, distributions, and relationships.
Goals
Unit Goals:	Physical, political, social, and economic patterns identify regions where an interdependent relationship forms between people and the environment and changes with adaptations and the effect of natural hazards.
Lesson Goals:	Students, as a group of 4, will create a PowerPoint of one US region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards).
Methods
Anticipatory Set	Anticipatory Set: Distribute a blank outline map of North America to students (paired). Students fill in as many physical characteristics as they can on the map. Encourage students to include major rivers, mountains, plains, vegetation, and climate characteristics. Students compare their outline with a physical map of North America. Lead a discussion by asking students to list places where their families would like to visit in the U.S. while on a vacation. Write these places on the board. Randomly select students to identify the name of the region, state or city and location of these places on a map of the U.S. How does physical geography play a role in the uniqueness of these places? How does human geography (culture) play a role in the uniqueness of these places? Recognition Network
Introduce and Model New Knowledge:	Students will view the eBook on Regions of the US and take notes using the KWHL chart in MS Word and posting it to Edmodo.com  Strategic Network
Provide Guided Practice:	Explain to students that they are to create a brochure that displays a vacation site, information about the site, and the location of the site.  Using the locations and questions from the "Vacation Spots" worksheet. Group students into four. Assign a role to each member of the group: Student One – the recorder (responsible for writing, drawing and organizing the brochure) Student Two – responsible for gathering information about the site’s location by region and state Student Three – responsible for the first two questions; their answers should be displayed in the brochure. Student Four – responsible for answering the last two questions; their answers should be displayed in the brochure. 4.       Give students time to create brochure in MS word or MS publisher.  Allow students to research using the internet. Provide each group a list of possible vacation sites. (Use the Handout: U.S. Vacation Sites if desired.) Students use the information available to match the family with the region, climate, and season that best fits their family scenarios request. Each group must answer all the questions in relation to their family. Using Google maps and Google earth students find their vacation spots. Each group prints and displays the brochure activity on the wall in preparation for a gallery walk. Recognition Learning Affective Learning
Provide Independent Practice:	Students take turn discuss their brochure with other students, explaining the key questions to others in the classroom.  Students take notes on the other groups brochures.
Wrap-Up:	Students participate in a gallery walk and collect information about the different vacation spots and information about the locations provided by the groups. When students are finished, they return to their computers Each student selects a vacation spot that he/she would like to visit and explains why to the other students on Edmodo.com. Then discuss with other classmates the following questions on Edmodo.com. What U.S. regions were not included in the family vacations? Why?
Assessment:
Formative/Ongoing Assessment:	Read students blogs and review their KWHL charts for areas that need to be retaught.
Summative/End of Lesson Assessment:	Students remain with the same group. Assign to each group one of the U.S. regions and one of the Canadian regions. Each group member is assigned the following duty: Research the physical characteristics (major landforms, rivers, and mountains) Research the climate, vegetation and natural disasters Research and locate major cities, economic activities and demographics (population) Research the history of the region, major ethnic groups and other cultural characteristics. Create a PowerPoint of one US or Canadian region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards)
Materials	blank outline map of North America chalkboard, whiteboard or interactive board internet access and/or the library map of North America or the U.S. map, physical map of North America found in textbook or other available sources student atlases textbooks  Worksheet Vacation Spots for group brochure Rubric for group Summative Assessment