Discussion Posts

D1: Introduction Post

Name: Autumn McDonnel

Home Town: Marshall, MN

Program of Study: English Education with minors in SPED, E-Learning, and Creative Writing...this course is a requirement for my E-Learning minor, but nonetheless, I'm looking forward to how I can better incorporate digital resources into my future lesson plans, and especially because teaching without technology is nearly impossible nowadays. I want to maximize my potential as a teacher with technology as an aide!

Favorite Elementary or Secondary School Memory: When my favorite high school teacher, Mr. Smith, and the entire English department at my high school awarded me with the English Department Student of the Year Award during my senior year of high school!

Dream Vacation: I really want to visit Spain! I've studied and taken Spanish classes for 10 years; I'm ready to put my Spanish-speaking skills to good use!

D2: Technology Woes

- After reviewing the supplied YouTube pages, what common traits do they share? Explain why you think that is relevant to this week's discussion.
- Which of the supplied YouTube pages do you think is the most useful for you personally? Why?
- Based on the article from The Conversation, identify what you believe is the most prevalent problem facing teachers as they adopt more technological tools and resources into their classrooms.
- Explain why you believe that problem is more prevalent than others and how you might look to solve it.

One common trait I found between the tutorial-walkthrough YouTube videos is that they all thoroughly explained what they found useful with their preferred programs, and they gave a good walk-through and introduction of the Excel and Filmora 11 programs. Another common trait I found was that they included timestamps embedded into their descriptions and videos so people know exactly what minute and second to go to if they have one specific issue with either Excel or Filmora 11. However, one common trait I found between all four of the YouTube pages is that they're dedicated to tutorials and helping people learn from their experiences. I think everyone needs a guide to look at sometimes, and it's nice to know that someone has a shared interest as you, whether you're the helper or the helped. It's simply a nice toss-up situation, and it's comforting to know that there are tutorials out there for everyone - even teachers, who are expected to know everything. The most useful YouTube page for me is the New EdTech Classroom. I don't plan to ever work with Excel (when would I ever use Excel as an English teacher?), and I'm not planning to teach elementary kids so I don't think my high schoolers' parents would enjoy childish gimmicks and handouts (well, you never know), and the Filmora 11 video was more interesting to me than anything (well, actually, I guess if I ever want my students to reenact a scene from a book we're reading we could use Filmora 11), but New EdTech Classroom overall. He has videos of all sorts of things - classroom online games to play, programs like Nearpod and tips for Google programs, and even hacks for learning management systems. This page just seems like an overall good place to start if I had any questions regarding games, programs, and LMS. It would be my go-to, at least. He just gained a new subscriber!

After reading The Conversation, I think that student distractions are the most prevalent problem teachers face as they adopt more technological tools and resources into their classrooms. There are - without a doubt - a lot of factors that exist regarding this specific issue overall, but being a student myself, I understand first-hand the distractions I endure simply with my MacBook, which is a literal requirement for all colleges nowadays. I need my laptop, but man...even when I'm doing my work I get distracted. According to The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, "In a 2015 survey of college students in 26 different states, undergraduates reported using their digital devices for non-classroom purposes an average of 11.7 times per day in class, accounting for an average of 21% of class time...92% of college students reported using their phones to send text messages during class" (https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/technology-and-student-distraction). But, what about primary-aged kids who are given cell phones at the ripe age of 6? Or elementary kids who sneak their iPods to school so they can SnapChat their besties? Or high schoolers who text their friends from across the room about Mr. Albert's boring lecture on the Civil War? According to Jordan Baker, "Twice as many students were highly distracted when doing school work remotely compared with when they were using their computers in the classroom, which years 7, 11 and 12 the most affected" (https://www.smh.com.au/national/twice-as-many-students-distracted-at-home-as-at-school-new-data-shows-20200410-p54iu7.html). When I know I'm getting too distracted with my technology at hand - literally - I turn on my Do Not Disturb badge on my Apple Watch, MacBook, and iPhone. Sometimes I take it one step ahead by turning off my phone completely during test time so absolutely no texts are received on my watch and laptop. Students in the K-12 setting could simply put their phone in their bookbag so their eyes aren't so drawn to them all the time (well, that's if the school allows bookbags in class). Cell phone 'garages' are another great idea - keeping the phones away from the kids' reach (preferably by the teacher's desk), but in case of emergency, they know they can grab their phone and answer a call if need be. (More tips here: https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/decreasing-digital-distractions/).

D3: Planning

Based on the theories and frameworks presented at the beginning of this course, how might teachers review integrating new technologies to replace their current practices.
- This should be a step-by-step process.
- You may choose to use a technology that has been implemented in this classroom, or keep it generic in nature.
- Be specific with your references to SAMR, TPACK, etc.

For the sake of this post, I’ll focus on the technology Dr. Pirlet has implemented in all of our E-Learning classes: Google. We use Google Docs and Google Slides on a regular basis, so it’s a technology that we’re most familiar with (at least for Pirlet’s classes). Google is also often used in elementary school classrooms, and I’ve seen it implemented in several high schools (though mine used Schoology and Microsoft OneDrive). Nonetheless, any sort of technology implemented in the classroom has a rhyme and reason.

Teachers might review integrating new technologies to replace their current practices by shifting from pencil-paper procedures to cloud-based online procedures. Technology allows for efficiency. It takes less time to put your thoughts on a Google Doc than it does on pencil-paper. Being an English education major, it takes me roughly half an hour to write an essay using my laptop than it does with my mechanical pencil and notebook paper (though, nowadays I use a Rocketbook, which is a new technology using polyester composite because I’m trying to save the environment one paper at a time, which also means that I cannot rip out these pages and turn in unlike a normal notebook). If I were to handwrite an essay, it would take me hours, and I’d lose my train of thought with no time, and I’d endure hand fatigue.

Much like increasing efficiency, technology also allows for a group’s hands-on approach. In simpler terms, if a teacher is assigning a group project, allowing students to use an online technology like Google Slides allows for groups to work on a project at the same time, but on different devices. The project is less likely to be ruined by rain, unlike a poster board. Students can also work on the slides in their own time and are not required to miss work or sports practice to get together as a group to work together. They can work independently, but together simultaneously.

There are plenty of benefits of teachers shifting away from strictly pencil-paper procedures and implementing cloud-based procedures, like Google Drive and Google Classroom. We’ve even read articles about how teachers can individualize content on Google Classroom for students and groups.

The SAMR model goes along with this concept of individualizing, or personalizing, concept by creating a coexisting relationship between remote and blended learning and newly integrated classroom technology. The analysis I mentioned above (handwriting and group work) can be correlated to the SAMR model regarding substitution, or technology acting as a direct substitute with no functional change. Substitution enhances the work regarding efficiency, and most likely quality, though the quality would relate to the augmentation portion of the SAMR model, which allows technology to act as a direct substitute with functional change. These enhancement practices correlate to writing an essay, for example.

The transformation processes, modification and redefinition, are also prevalent, and my example of group work helps prove this point of allowing groups to work independently but together to finish the common goal: a complete project. Modification allows for significant task redesign, while redefinition allows the creation of new tasks which were considered once impossible, or inconceivable (cue Vizzini from The Princess Bride circa 1987).

To sum up my thoughts, technology ultimately enhances the efficiency and quality of work, as well as allowing for the usage of creativity that students may have once had to suppress. Google Slides can be designed into a color scheme that can describe the student as an individual, different amongst their peers, or allow students as a whole understand a story’s themes, plot, etc. (again, I’m in the mindset of English/language arts). There are many more benefits we may look into in regard to teachers implementing technology in their classrooms. My correlation to the SAMR model is one of many.

My point is: technology can greatly enhance the learning process for students and may even be an easier approach for teachers in regard to assigning work and grading. Implementation may be difficult for the older generation of teachers still in the field, but it’s not impossible. We may choose to start slowly for these teachers, and possibly even newer teachers who aren’t familiar with these technologies. Training is a start and the source of all learning for these teachers. I’m sure the SAMR model would be the source of their learning too, much like their students. It’s really a full circle kind of ordeal. From training, teachers can slowly integrate technology into their classroom. Maybe some assignments will be pencil-paper, while others can be cloud-based. I suggest starting slowly because it could not only be a difficult transition for teachers, but students as well; and, especially if they’re also unfamiliar with these technologies, as they’ve obviously probably never used them in their classrooms previously.

There is hope for the future of education, and technology is at the center of it all. Integration can be slow for some classrooms, but I think the transition and implementation should be thought of highly – especially in regard to the SAMR model.

D4: Website Share Out

Your website portfolio's shortened URL.
Possible areas of focus that you would like your classmates to offer suggestions to
- Identify the item in need of attention and how to find it.
Reflect on what you believe is the hardest part of creating effective digital learning experiences.
- Using supplied texts to support your views.
Identify the digital tool that you feel is your strongest creation.
- Explain why you feel it is the strongest.

I think one area to focus on would be my ISTE standards. I'm not fond of explaining why I chose the standard and how it correlates to my tools, so I really just type up whatever. To find the standards, click on the ELRN 450 tab in the top right corner and click whichever tool you're interested in from the pages below. The standards should be before each tool and should have a drop-down arrow to read how I believe I met my standards.

I think the hardest part of creating effective digital learning experiences is simply making up a lesson without actually presenting it to a class to see how well the lesson works. For example, tool 2 (learning management systems) was difficult for me because I didn't know what I wanted to put in there, and if the assignments were doable, meaning if they were too easy, too difficult, etc. Setting up the LMS wasn't too difficult; it was simply just trying to incorporate assignments and quizzes. I suppose this was difficult for me because I'm not actively teaching right now, and I'm sure once I do become a teacher it may come easier to me in terms of curriculum and what to do and when to do it, etc.

I think my strongest tool was tool 8 (grab bag tool). It was the strongest for me because I was free to do whatever I wanted. My only issue was finding something to make, but once I found a website to use it didn't take me long to come up with the assignment I wanted to create. I ended up finding a storytelling website (Storybird) where I was able to publish my own poem and create my own classroom for imaginary students to publish theirs. Since publishing my poem, I've received a couple of positive comments from random people in the Storybird community. I found some issues overall with the website (one mainly being that if you have a membership, you're able to do a LOT more than what was available to those with a free trial). I figured this may be an issue if I actually chose to incorporate it into my own curriculum and how my students would be able to take the advantage of this website to their benefit. I definitely think this tool made me open my eyes to the possibilities of other websites that aren't mentioned in this class. It was simply nice to do something of my own without having strict requirements to meet.

Page updated

Report abuse