Final Lesson Plan

My choice of subject matter/focus for this lesson plan was influenced by my own interest in journalism and love of news radio, as well as my desire to present a lesson that was dynamic and fun for students.

It may be difficult for students to complete their first script in one night but I think this is a good way to expose them to the need to meet deadlines which is a definitive feature of the career of news reporting. They will not be scored on the writing until they have had the chance to do an initial broadcast, receive feedback from class, and revise/rerecord their broadcast.

Radio News Lesson Plan on Prezi

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Course Reflection

Educational Technology
Course Reflection

a. Coming into this course, what was your level of tech skill? Did you find it easy to adapt to the ways we used technology in this class? What was difficult for you? What was easy?
I feel that my level of tech skill was average for a person of my age but probably below that of some of the twenty-somethings in the class. Therefore, it became difficult for me, at times, if a series of instructions were given that involved something unfamiliar. One example of this was adding tabs at the top of the page to change windows more readily. This is something which I have actually done but frequently forget to do because I usually don't manage a great number of windows simoltaniously.

b. What have been your favorite parts of the class? What was your favorite activity?
Everything we've done, so far, was interesting and potentially very useful. I regret not having been here on the days we used PrezE. I had a lot of fun making the Xtranormal videos. I ended up using the software to make an invitation to my husband's 40th birthday party that has gotten rave reviews, so far.

c. Do you think you can easily incorporate your tech knowledge and skills into your role as a teacher? Out of all the tools we learned about this quarter, which one do you see using the most frequently as a teacher?
I hope that I will make a lot of use of MERLOT and PrezE but it was good to learn about GoogleDocs and GoogleForms.

d. What do you want to know MORE about in Ed Tech? What are you still curious about? Will you be able to explore these ideas on your own?
I hope that I will be able to explore many of the resources shown to us in class on my own. What is often the case is that I get distracted too much at home by family/kids and do not explore all of the amazing resources the internet has to offer.

e. Do you think your level of tech skill/knowledge has increased this quarter? If so, how? Are you a more confident web user?
I has increased drastically, along with my confidence. From what I've heard out of class, I believe that most of my classmates agree that we wish other classes were structured in this manner and that there were another Educational Technologies class available that continues where this one leaves off. Since teachers are required to accumulate so many PD hours every six years for certification renewal, I imagine (as I'm sure others would) that this class could be part of a series available to local educators.
Since you demonstrate the skill and then have students immediately put it into practice, you could easily dispense with the textbook unless you are required to have a print reference available.

MERLOT

This site allows educators and others to build a variety of classroom materials in all of the following formats; "e-portfolio, lesson plans, pedagogical analysis, student reflection, online course, tutorial, presentation, community website, etc." free of charge by logging on at:
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
The user of this site employs Content Builder software to develop materials. They are licenced through Creative Commons and made public through MERLOT. One of the best sources I found for English Education material was:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
This site is linked by thousands of schools and universities and has received nearly 80 awards. It links a huge array of writing and grammatical resources. Open source material such as that offered by MERLOT opens a world of tools and resources to teachers. The internet has already expanded teachers' available resources far beyond their textbook and local library but this site provides the ability to be part of a lesson plan creation community.

Importance of Shakespeare

Importance of Shakespeare
by: lesleysaeed

Creative Commons

Educators benefit from using creative commons because it offers a wealth of material that is free and legal to use, avoiding copyright infringement. Their goal is "universal access to research, education, and culture." Copywrite infringement lawsuits against teachers are not extremely common, due to the "fair use" exemption of the Copyright Act which allows for limited use of copywrited materials for purposes other than commercial profit such as for; news reporting, research, parody scholarship and teaching. However, in these days when students easily use a computer to copy and paste work that is not their own, it is important to teach students that pledgerism is not acceptable by modeling this value. Creative Commons provides a resource for sharing educational materials without disregarding this important value. Visit Creative Commons through this link: http://creativecommons.org/

An Online Presence

I performed a Pipl search on myself this week and found that the site simply pools information already available in various public records. It is uncomfortable to see all of this content, including; phone number, current and previous addresses including aerial views, next-of-kin, and associated photos made available so easily, however, it wasn't as bad as I had expected when we were shown the in-class sample by our instructor. For one thing, I had no photos associated with my name, so that was a relief. Sponsors listed on the sidebars claim of offers access to school, criminal and financial records but I guess this is just to information that would already be listed elsewhere such as schools attended, not as specific as grades received. I think there are privacy laws protecting most of our information from view but it is still uncomfortable to know that websites such as this are now part of everyone's "online presence."

Ohio DL Schools

Students in our Educational Technology class have been investigating Distance Learning and were asked the two following questions regarding five of the popular online learning services available in Ohio(Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, Ohio Virtual Academy, Ohio Connections Academy,Virtual Community School of Ohio, and Virtual Schoolhouse: Which of the five DL options would you pick for your child? why? I would selectOhio Connections Academy (OCA) which is accredited by NCACS and AdvanceED. Their site says that they are the only statewide Ohio eSchool rated Excellent in 2010 by the ODE whose School Year Report Card has shown OCE to add more than a year of academic growth. They also claim to be the "only Ohio virtual school to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)"from 2006-2008. An eSchool needs to have excellent technology (using Connexus®) and their website is most impressive in this regard. It was the most comprehensive of the sites we evaluated and the lesson samples displayed there were the strongest, including clear steps for the student, the learning facilitator at home, and enrichment including Teachlet® Tutorials. Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) might also seem a good choice in that their site lists among accreditations that they are the "top-performing statewide e-school in Ohio for the fifth year in a row" and that ODE designated them Effective in their 2010-2011 grade card. However, I felt that the sample lesson plans exhibited at the OCA website contained more helpful detail and overall better design. Their OVHA site is also laid out in a user-friendly manner and they offer an advanced, 24/7, customer and tech-support. I simply prefered the quality of the sample lessons offered at OCA. Electronic Classroom of Tommorrow (ECOT) would be my third choice. They claim to be the largest eSchool based in Ohio and the "first online charter school in the nation to graduate students." They are accredited by aAdvanceED and the North Central Association (NCA), and are members of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education. Their technology (IQity®) used for delivery seems to be from a well-established provider, however, I the layout of the site seemed weaker than the other two and didn't inclue sample lessons at all. -which of the five DL options would you NOT pick for your child? Why? Two eSchools that I would probably not select are those that seem to be run to meet needs in one area of Ohio: Virtual Community of Ohio (VCO), is run by Reynoldsburg schools but much of their website seems nonfunctional. It has a link to a Annual Report and a Report Card but neither were active and I could find no other information on accreditation. When I went to their site and tried to launch the sample lessons on "Biomagnification and Mercury" and "Solving for the X-intercept" neither would launch. Attemping to view the textbook samples, I received the message 404: Not Found. Virtual School House (VSH) said that it was developed to serve special education needs. It has a brick and morter school located in Cleveland but their website appears not to be kept up-to-date. For instance, the 5th grade page still wishes students a Happy New Year. I also found no infomation on accreditation and links for curriculum showed state benchmark/indicators but did not have lesson plan samples.

The following links to a list of Pros and Cons to Distance/Online learning that was generated by students in the Educational Technology course in which I'm currently enrolled: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fw6TLEznMNtbLPg0mIeKG9ATyxsNaCml3cw_8giscYQ/edit# Personally, I feel that the younger the student, the less effective online learning can be. College students are likely to reap the maximum benifits it has to offer but for grade school, middle and high school students, DL is very often not a satisfactory choice. The social component of a traditional classroom, with a teacher present to nurture children's emotional development, is something that computers can't match. Although use of online learning games may motivate even the youngest learner, the satisfaction of winning a game can never match the value to children of personal affermation from adults. In addition to the time spent with parents, young people need time each day to enteract with a variety of positive role models from their community. Many of the advantages to DL come with matching disadvantages. For instance, while DL might foster academic autonomy and time-management in one child, another child may be unable to develop these traits due to personal differences and learning style-preference, and therefore, be unable to succeed in a DL environment. From interacting with other human beings, young people learn a variety of skills, beyond academics, that contribute to their future success. In order to become responsible adults, capable of effective communication, collaboration, confilict mediation and confidence,children must enteract with a variety of adults and peers on a daily basis.

Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson presents his interesting perspective on the current state of our American educational system. 1. Do schools in the United States systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students? If yes, why does that happen? If no, how do you counter the argument of Sir Ken Robinson that schools do undermine the development of creativity in students? I was very curious about his thesis here because one always hears that, in terms of creativity, at least, American students excel when compared with students in nations like China (that far surpass us in acquisition of pure academic content). I was very interested to hear his views on how America's school system inhibits creativity and, although he makes some compelling points, I'm not fully convenced that we're that weak, based simply on our outcomes in terms of innovations, R & D and new technologies. I do agree with him that our school system, is based on ideas of intellect that originated during the European Enlightenment and that the system itself is built on the industrial model. I'm not sure that these are defects, in and of themselves. Grouping students, by age, for instance, seems to have come about through necessity because there are many other social issues that will emerge when we start to group students by their ability in various subjects. In the one-room schoolhouse we had all ages studying together, with the teacher individualizing lessons by ability. Ultimately, I think that technology becomes our answer when it comes to differentiating the curriculum. 2. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the curiosity/creativity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum? A student-centered approach to teaching has been growing in popularity because teachers recognize the value of allowing students choices within their learning that provide them opportunities to explore their interests,express themselves with creative responses, and make discoveries. As a part of this, students are most engaged when they are finding solutions to problems that they have identified. 3. Can a teacher's actions increase the creativity of students? If so, what would be those actions? All of the above conditions can be established. By presenting students with learning options and by creating a student-centered learning environment in which students identify questions/problems and develop solutions, teachers are increasing student creativity. 4. What would help you become more creative? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process? I would love for schools to offer better access (convenient, affordable) to meaningful inservices. This class has opened my eyes to the creative teaching options available through technology. If teachers were regularly exposed to and trained in the use of new technology and online resources, our students' satisfaction, involvement in their education, and academic success would rapidly improve.

My QR code

Visually Impaired AT JAWS

Being blind or visually impaired limits an individual’s ability to learn from any visual stimuli presented in the classroom.  In the traditional classroom it interferes with a student’s access to books, presentations, notes written on the board, and visual prompts from teachers while giving classroom instruction.  In today’s classroom it also limits students’ ability to access digital media that are used to share ideas.  Visually impaired students had the further challenging of note taking from visual prompts and of communicating with teachers who cannot read braille writing.  

JAWS is an adaptive, screen reading  technology that is helpful to students, though it is a software that was initially offered by Freedom Scientific to enable visually impaired people to function effectively in their workplace.  JAWS Professional is currently priced at $1,095 and is compatible with Lotus Symphony, Microsoft® Office Suite, Firefox™, Corel®, Internet Explorer,™ WordPerfect, Adobe® Acrobat Reader, MSN Messenger®.  Standard JAWS is priced at $895.

PAC Mate is another AT that is makes convenience PDA accessible to blind and low vision users

Sources

http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

While exploring TED talks today I discovered a video that I found interesting titled "The Birth of a Word." I thought that it would relate to my content area because it was found under the catigory Literature & Language.  From the title, I assumed that it would be about etimology.  Back when I taught 11th grade British Literature I used to teach a lesson about the evolution of the English language as it was originally formed from the languages of England's invaders during the Dark Ages. Although it turned out not to be something I would likely use in a high school English classroom, it presented some fascinating research.
This talk, given by MIT researcher Deb Roy, showed his team's 2 year study of his own family teaching his newborn son to speak. Using video recorders, placed in the ceiling thoughout his home, the researchers recorded every waking moment in his family's life.They learned how many attempts are required for a child's to acquire a single word; for a word to evolve from "ga-ga" to "water," for instance.  His team also learned that caregivers, probably subconsciously, simplify their use of a word to meet the immediate level of an infant's language development. 
Roy's team's research extended to mapping language use in broadcasting and in social media where they draw connections betwen programs and the recorded discussions of viewers.  Their technology creates fascinating graphical depictions of the connections between television broadcasts and related conversations in social media.  These charts will help researchers, and probably broadcasters, learn how and why people react to television programming.  This TED talk is available at:
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/deb-roy-the-birth-of-a-word

One educational technology article which came out in the past month that I found interesting is available at: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/04/is-reverse-instruction-education-technologys-perfect-storm/
It is titled "Is Reverse Instruction Technology's Perfect Storm." I have been interested in learning more about the process of "flipping the classroom" since viewing the 60 Minutes piece on Khan Academy.  To define its advantages,"“reverse instruction” is the idea of having students consume learning content (i.e. ‘the lecture’) outside of the classroom, usually as homework, thereby freeing up valuable face-to-face classroom time to reinforce materials and work on assigned work (work that may have been homework in the traditional classroom)."
The author suggests that the educational technology movement has suffered some setbacks because of problematic implementation, i.e. purchasing Smartboards for every classroom in some schools, while failing to train teachers to use them.  Because "reversed instruction" doesn't require a great initial, financial committment and teachers will be able to adapt it at their own rate of readiness, the author called it "the superman instructional technology idea that we’ve been waiting for"

Google Forms Assessment

The following is a short test that I created using Google Forms.  It asseses student understanding of a learning unit over Assessing Credibility which is drawn from the lesson plans available at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Information Management System (IMS) website.  It is intended for 11th grade English

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dHdaMXNYU0lxYThsT0lLM3paTE1wNGc6MQ" width="760" height="1679" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

Here is a link to a lesson plan which I will be likely to use in the future for English classes. I located it through the ODE Information Management System website link for lesson plans. 
 Lesson Plan: Credibility of Sources - Grade 11
  http://dnet01.ode.state.oh.us/IMS.ItemDetails/LessonDetail.aspx?id=0907f84c80532c74
This lesson plan teaches students what credibility means and how to assess the credibility of information and sources found in various media.  In one activity students view clips of the same news story as covered by two different news stations and compare the information and opinions presented in each. The students are taught to apply standards for evaluating sources using a rubric called Rubric for Discriminating Viewers.
I really like this lesson plan because there is a superabundance of information available through television, the internet and other media and students need to be able to use critical thinking skills to sort through it and determine what is most/least trustworthy.

In Ed Tech class today we learned how to use the photoediting website Picknik.  This is a picture that I altered for the assignment.

Blog Feedback

This is the spot for Ed Tech classmates to provide feedback on my blog as it is today.

Class Introduction,

This is a little presentation to share with students at the beginning of the year:  Class Introduction

Three blogs I like and why I think they're great

Three blogs that I found which were of great interest to me were:
http://edublogs.org/"Edublogs" which I liked because it provides guidelines for setting up a blog site for students and allows the sharing of many resources in my content area with features like "curriculum corner." However, it has a subscription cost that allows it to opperate without advertisements and provide enhanced security.
http://webenglishteacher.com/ is another great resource in that it has a sidebar with about 23 English topics such as; ESL, mythology, Shakespeare, vocabulary.
The Innovative Educator has a round up of the popular blogs on the site for that week.
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/07/whats-popular-this-week-on-innovative_23.html
The author has a book posted called "Teaching Generation Text" and a video posted on the subject of using cell phones in the classroom.

Picture of Lesley Saeed