EDLD+5364+Teaching+with+Technology+Week+5

=**Project Team Reflection - Week 5 - Assignment Part 2**=

=__**Week 5 - Assignment Part 1 - Week's Reflection**__= This week the videos and reading was about bringing to fruition the possibilities that all of the web tools have to offer. I particularly like Sasha Barab�s comment that we can no longer look at our students as ignorant and they are there as vessels for us to get smart enough to take a test. We need to put down our textbooks and become involved in their world. The reason students act up and act out a lot of time is they must be bored and need the stimulus of a real education. Until we reach the saturation point of professional development with teachers, then we will continue to lose students at an alarming rate. Just pure knowledge of fact does not translate to every day problem solving and interaction with life. Our students today are exposed to information, feedback and socialization on a scale not known to us just 60 shorts months ago. When Howard Gardner stated that we need judicious elders to guide students he was right and that quality is needed now more than ever as students learn ethics and discernment in the world of "information overload." However; we must not harness the ability of a learner to learn, explore or try new things, ask questions or be harnessed out of fear of what they will learn.

Our articles and videos give us insight into what we know, it is up to us to put this useful information into practice and show others how it should be/could be done. More than anything I take with it from this week�s lesson is that we must harness the energy ourselves, grow with it, expand upon it and not be afraid of what we will learn either.

Edutopia.org(nd). //Big thinkesr:// Howard Gardner on digital youth. Retrieved on March 22, 2011 from @http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-howard-gardner-video

Edutopia.org (nd). Big thinkers: Sasha Barab on new media engagement. Retrieved on March 22, 2011 from []

=**__ Personal Course Reflection: Week 5 - Assignment Part 3 __**= = = I have a new found respect for Google Docs, Google Chat, Skype, Google Sites and all the other tools we used in this course. When the course first started I though gee this would be a great course, I know technology, and I do, however I learned how to use it in a much different way.

When we started the course I honestly thought as the name implies, Teaching with Technology, we would be learning new methodologies, strategies and put all the interactive tools to work. What I did not realize is that even though I am not a subject content expert there is much to be learned by working collaboratively.

My fears of working in a team across different boundaries were soon put to rest and as I worked with concrete thinkers and we used Skype and the Share view to look at different things, discuss what should be and how it should be. We used Google Docs to write, re-write and work on documents that need to be implemented. I have played around with Google Docs but in this class I �learned� the real meaning of shared space and collaborative work. We typed, corrected, proof read, changed and discussed as we laid open the project as to how it should be taught. I honestly believe that by using Skype and putting a face with the name was quite beneficial as it gave us true interaction. One would see a frown and say what is it that you don�t like or think we need to change here and the dialogue continues as though you are at a roundtable in the same city discussing a subject you are all familiar with.

Google Sites played an important role in our learning, organizing and collaboration along with Wiki�s and Blogs. The confidence this gives one from hands on perspective is much greater than just �playing� around with the tools. To actually pull together a project, set timelines, work against a clock, meet at specified times in a colligative manner gives new meaning to the tools as a whole. The enrichment and understanding of how this could be used in classroom across any discipline by actually doing it here in our class makes teaching someone else about the tools a lot similar.

My hands on experience with the book builder and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) has solidified my determination to help other teachers use the tools. Even though I will not teach a course using these tools, I have the knowledge and background in what a teacher has to do and I believe I can help them better prepare to use the tools available and having to cross walk the tasks to mandated standards helps me to understand how they should and will have to use the tool.

This course was labor intensive for me only in the respect that I do not teach in the arena and designing class with various types of assessment. Without the help of my teammates, it would have been an even bigger hurdle to cross. It is hard for me to fathom a teacher with so many varying components to teach and the expectation that UDL should be used, quite honestly, mind boggling. One of the videos pointed out that teaching was not a 'sexy job' anymore and it really isn't cool to be a 'teacher' and we need to correct that. I couldn't agree more. Maybe with the help of Web 2.0 tools the tide will turn.

References: Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). //Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. // Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Ch. 6. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from []

Edutopia.org (nd). //Big thinkers: James Paul Gee on grading with games. // Retrieved on March 23, 2011 from [] .

Pilter, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malinowski, K (2007). //Using technology with classroom instruction that works. // Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development