I. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Classroom Newsletter

Using Microsoft Word innovatively--along with Apple’s Photo Booth application, and the graphics editing program Adobe PhotoShop--I  generated a class newsletter for students.  For initial visual impact, I used the “table” function to create a five-row newspaper-style masthead, adding WordArt lettering, two separate horizontal line images, and hiding the table borders on the final product.  To stay with the newspaper theme, I used the “format” function to ensure that the text would be grouped into two columns, separated by a vertical line.   The three articles included in this short newsletter were set off using contrasting color headlines and drop-caps in a decorative font for the first word of each article.  Finally, I added appropriate graphic images, including clipart with the text wrapped around the image.  This newsletter showed how a word processing program can be used creatively for more than just standard assignments because by taking advantage of some underutilized features in Word, I was able to model inventiveness, demonstrating to students that making a polished and interesting product does not require exotic software or equipment. Modelling the newsletter after a printed newspaper also provides an opportunity to engage students in a debate about the future of print journalism and the best ways to provide information to consumers in the 21st century.  

Classroom Blog

Using Blogger, a Google web-based blog creation tool, I created a blog, a personal Internet journal.   I used my blog to display ongoing commentary and discussions on various web-based projects as evidence of my ability to integrate technology into my educational work.  In creating my blog, I created a URL address with my name in order to make it easily accessible for other students and I formatted my site using background images, spacing tools, and text coloring and formatting to make my blog easy to follow as well as aesthetically pleasing.  Using HTML code, I embedded various examples of my educational projects and assignments, such as my presentation about the NETS-S Profile for Students created through a web based tool called Prezi, onto my blog.  I also created tabbed pages and posts with personal reflections on education related articles as well as links to the articles in order to engage fellow classmates and my professor in my reflections.  Once I was able to see the benefits of receiving input from others on my blog, I created a new site to use with one of my classes during the current school year.  I have been able to encourage them to write reflectively in response to questions posted on the class blog (which also brings me greater knowledge of who they are) and will continue using this blog and blog postings as virtual environments to engage students in collaborative knowledge construction on a range of educational issues.

II. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning

Digital Mind Map

In preparation for my credential application, I analyzed the five NETS-T standards and planned out a group of artifacts for submission to the CCTC (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing) using a mind map.  I began by examining several popular web-based applications, seeking a free and easy-to-use tool, and eventually chose Popplet.  Working on a digital “bulletin board,” I was able to create a different box for each NETS-T Standard, control the color and size of the boxes, and add relevant text from the standards themselves.  Once the relevant section of each standard was added to describe a specific artifact, I was able to change the font and add graphic images.  The completed mind map can be viewed in its entirety, exported as a JPEG or PDF file, or saved and printed.   The Popplet platform also allows for selecting boxes on the map in a desired order so that each box can then be viewed consecutively as a pleasing presentation.  By learning a computer-based way to create graphic organizers--like mind maps, timelines, or storyboards--I was able to utilize a proven pedagogical tool while adapting it to the current technological context.  This digital design tool will allow me to upgrade the quality and flexibility of the teaching aids I create for my students and help me develop a more technologically-enriched learning environment in my classroom.

Prezi Presentation with Assessment

Learning to use Microsoft Powerpoint six years ago improved the way I delivered course content to my students.  While taking ED 422, I was introduced to a nonlinear cloud-based presentation software called Prezi, which, like Popplet, allows users to work digitally on a large virtual canvas, so that all of the text, graphics, and videos are visible simultaneously.  There are none of the “slides” familiar to Powerpoint users; information is grouped in “frames,” but a linear presentation can be created by constructing a specific path between the individually framed groups.   I began by designing a backdrop for my frames composed of the text “”#1historyfan” (a self-characterization I use in e-mail addresses) imported as a PDF file. Then I added sixteen collections of text content, pictures, and videos to describe four sample lessons I could use in my high school classroom that would address the NETS-S Technology Profile for Students. Once satisfied with the layout of the frames, I created a path between frames to achieve a polished presentation.  Finally, I designed an assessment form using Google Docs (a Web-based office suite) intended to glean feedback from viewers of the Prezi presentation and embedded both of these on my ED 422 class blog online.  Teaching myself to create a personalized presentation digitally at Prezi.com has helped me develop a wider repetoire of ways to communicate with students as I continiually strive to address their diverse learning abilities and strategies.  Because I now have the ability to use online response forms with easily accessible results, I can provide my students with even more varied assessments and use the resulting data to inform my teaching practice.

III. Model Digital Age Work and Learning

iMovie Public Service Announcement

Today’s students are accustomed to watching fast-paced video segments, so in order to become more fluent in technology systems, I worked to create a one-minute video “commercial” encouraging students to further their education at Cal State San Marcos.  Starting with Apple’s iMovie program and video footage provided by my instructor, I chose appropriate short clips and placed them in an order designed to convey the message and added relevant researched facts about the university as text on certain clips.  I used an iPad to record my daughter and I on campus and included some of this footage.   Once I had added interesting effects and transitions to the video clips, along with a title slide and scrolling end credits, I used the editing feature of iMovie to drag and drop music from the computer’s library into the presentation.  Because we live in a digital age, educators must learn to practice their craft in a constantly changing, highly technological environment to effectively communicate with students who have a visual and computer-based mindset.  Knowing how to make movie presentations will make me a more effective communicator as well as a more informed teacher when I assign or allow students to create their movies to complete an assignment.

Diigo Digital Bookmarking Library

When most of my research and information came from printed sources, saving important passages, articles or chapters involved dog-eared or torn out pages, photocopying, and numberless manila file folders.  With the vast quantity of information now available on the Internet, this system is even more impractical and wasteful, so rather than adding a new file drawer of pages copied from websites, I have started using Diigo, a free social bookmarking website which also facilitates research and sharing of information.  With my account at Diigo, which stands for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff,”  I can bookmark any useful web page (site, online article, blog post, image, etc.), highlight sections of the page, and reference the saved pages in my library by labeling them.  I started by downloading the Diigo toolbar to my computer so that during my online research I could easily click to bookmark a page.  The software then provided a drop-down text box where I entered a description of the page and several “tags”--descriptive labels that would help me find the marked page again--which for this project included “tech tools,” and “ed422” (the class the research was for).  Once I had my own small library of sources, I used Diigo.com to search for sites that others had previously marked--a huge time-saving feature--and joined a group of history teachers on the site for future collaborative chats and access to new information found by group members.   Using Diigo will definitely help me to effectively organise all the great resources I am personally finding online and will enable me to do Internet research more efficiently because I can access sites and pages that other educators have already marked and annotated.  Not only has Diigo added a wider dimension to my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and provided me with a new opportunity to collaborate with co-educators, but also a way to model the use of digital tools when I organize and share a group of resources with my students for their analysis and evaluation.

IV.  Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Internet Safety Collaborative Website

As a parent and a teacher I have a great responsibility to teach and model safe, professional  practices as I navigate through our digital culture.  The gravity of this situation was apparent to me as I completed an assignment to contribute a section to a collaboratively-created website dedicated to the appropriate use of and potential hazards of the Internet.  Although the Internet can be a wonderfully useful tool for research and sharing of knowledge, like any powerful force, it must also be used responsibly and ethically; the website will be an effective way to communicate this message.  My group used a free website creation tool geared to “non-techies” called Weebly to launch our own CyberSafety Website.  First, a designated person in the group opened an Weebly account and created a site, before using e-mail to invite the rest of the group to collaborate.  Once we all had accounts and could access the group website, we divided the content--covering cyber predators, social-networking, and cyberbullying--chose a site-wide theme (for consistency of design in the individual pages), and began to work on our pages.  I chose the topic “Piracy and Plagiarism” and found it quite easy both to use the drop-and-drag widget system at Weebly and to access lots of clear information about these serious issues.   Working on this website was beneficial because creating the webpage required and reinforced computer skills learned earlier in ED 422 and I was pleased to find the process went smoothly, showing that I really had progressed in my technological growth.  It also provided a timely reminder of how important it is, morally, to respect copyrights and intellectual property created by others, especially when the very sophistication of our computer tools makes it so easy to access and copy information we may then be tempted to take credit for.

Adaptive Technology Research Assignment

Seeking to gain an improved understanding of the difficulties faced by individuals with disabilities that interfere with their ability to speak, I researched adaptive technology tools for communication and accessibility.  For me, this first involved significant study to define the terms used in this discussion, including Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and “input device”, before I could continue with the rest of the assignment.  After defining major terms, I identified one low-tech and one high-tech tool for communication, plus one hardware and one software application for accessibility, and then discussed how each of the four tools would be used in the classroom.  I chose to focus on communication boards, handheld communication devices, the head mouse, and speech recognition software.  Finally, I used Diigo.com bookmarking and research site to access and tag the information I used for this project, joining a class group so that I could contribute my findings.  Completing this assignment helped me to gain a greater understanding of the difficulties faced by special-needs individuals and will help me be more knowledgeable about how to help all levels of learners in my classroom by using learner-centered strategies.  Even though I currently am not a special education teacher, I do have students with IEPs each year and now I know more about using digital tools to bring them equitable access to information.

V.  Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Personal Learning Network (PLN) Assignment

Becoming a lifelong learner through development of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an appropriate way to keep up with new developments in life whether these be private or professional.  While in the past a PLN was limited by geography or the inability to communicate easily with a large number of people, twenty-first century technology now allows me to benefit from local as well as global contacts in my PLN.  In order to expand my PLN, I used several digital tools and gained access to opinions and information from all over the English-speaking world.  I used Twitter--a social messaging service that can be described as a cross between blogging and instant messaging--and Diigo to search online for other history teachers and teachers who are implementing Web 2.0 tools in class; now I “follow” these people and can see messages, articles, and websites what they have posted or bookmarked.  Using TweetChat, a site for virtual gatherings on Twitter, I participated in a real-time discussion for new teachers (#ntchat) organized in a question and answer format. Finally, I joined Social Studies Chat, a digital discussion forum, where I found a powerpoint about the flipped classroom and a blog post regarding exciting activities for the first day of school.  Through these activities I have gained familiarity with digital tools that expand my PLN to a potentially global scale as well as providing me with new, creative strategies for using technology to improve student learning.   In the role of History department chair, I’ve also been able to develop the technology skills of other teachers, introducing individuals in my local PLN to the new resources that now form my expanded, Internet-based PLN.  

L&L Journal Article Reflections

As I member of ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) I have digital access to the monthly journal, Learning & Leading with Technology, and many articles detailing how various classroom teachers are creating technologically-rich learning environments for their students.  I have read articles on the flipped classroom concept, how educators can use Twitter to expand their PLNs, the viability of computer labs, and using iPads to improve first graders’ reading skills.  After reading each article I created an original response to what I read and posted this response as an entry on my professional development blog.   Once I located each article in the journal’s digital edition online, I read and reread them until I could provide a summary of the author’s main ideas.  Following the summary, I created two questions based on my response to the article which could be answered by the information it contained.  Lastly, I used a website called Citation Machine to generate the correct citation for the article before posting the entire response on my blog.  Writing a summary and questions to go with each article has caused me evaluate and reflect on each author’s position and practice and to think about either whether or not I agree with their thesis or how I would use the technology they discuss in my own teaching practice.  Learning that other teachers are not afraid to have a Twitter account, or use iPads with students as young as first grade has definitely encouraged me to be bolder in considering which digital tools are appropriate for my own classroom; with school now starting I’ve already been able to implement some of what I’ve learned.