NETS I
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:
a. | promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness. |
b. | engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. |
c. | promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. |
d. | model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments. |
Classroom newsletter
As professionals in the education arena, teachers must communicate with their students, parents, administrators and their colleagues about the learning and happenings going on in the classroom. Using Microsoft Word, I created an exiting and visually pleasing newsletter to share with my students and their parents. Included in this newsletter are ways teachers incorporate technology in the classroom, interesting technological articles, and useful websites for both teachers and students. The newsletter format has custom use of bullets to organize ideas and/or lists, scanning student art work, adding a variety of interesting clip art, and creative text format to make the newsletter look interesting, colorful and creative. The newsletter is also designed to address our English language learners by having it published in both English and Spanish. My newsletter is used as a creative tool to update my students and their parents about what we are learning and doing in our classroom, and I can host it virtually to promote collaboration. Furthermore, the use of this newsletter models technological experiences, supports creativity, and engages student learning.
Blog
Teacher education requires future teachers to move into the digital age with technology in the classroom using NETS-T, a technology framework for teachers to incorporate in their classroom. Creating an educational blog, a website that is frequently updated with commentary, descriptions and material such as pictures and videos, will document and share insights and ideas with students and other teachers. I used Google’s free blog website, Blogger.com to create my blog. Available on my blog are my educational reflections on educational technology and class assignments. My interests are listed, embedded, posted within the blog and hyperlinked, a click-able reference to a document that the reader can directly follow, to help make information easily accessible. My class assignments are posted or embedded either as a blog post or a page. Each blog posting provide the reader with my insights, references and research available within the blog. I am modelling collaborative knowledge to students with the use of the blog. Students can see how my collaborative efforts with other teachers within my network, an interconnected group of teachers and educational specialists online, to create lesson plans, how I obtain information from various sources and as well as the amount of information and research I have available to them through the blog, a virtual world. Showing students the possibilities of collaboration through modeling my use of collaboration on the blog. I engage students through my blog by encouraging and sometimes requiring commenting on each blog and also by the use of GoogleForms, a web-based data gathering tool that allows the student to answer specific questions to help students reflect on any particular blog post or page.
Nets II
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:
a. | design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. |
b. | develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. |
c. | customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. |
d. | provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. |
Excel
As an educator being current and up to date with technology is imperative, students, children, nowadays are using technology better than ever, they are motivated by new shiny technology. Through the use of Microsoft Excel, a speadsheet application and online video tutorials I was able to create a crossword puzzle. When creating the crossword puzzle I chose words that would be motivating and understanding for students. I put in clues, formatted the cells and added a condition to the first letter of each word in the cell. The condition for the first letter was a formula that would let the user know if the first letter typed in is correct. By knowing if users or students get the first letter correct they are assessing their own learning as they go in a technology-enriched learning environment of Microsoft Excel. Students are actively learning and assessing their own progress with Excel. I created the Excel crossword through watching online video tutorials, I can use that learning experience and show my students the tutorials and they can use those digital tools and resources to create their own Excel crossword.
Google forms
Knowing and understanding new technologies is very advantageous for educators. Through use of Google forms, a survey and assessment tool in Google Docs, I was able to create an online assessment of my Prezi presentation assignment, and collect the results on the accompanying spreadsheet. Forms are used online to obtain data and store that data online, a form can use text fields, checkboxes, radio-buttons, submit buttons to obtain data from the user and then save them to an online source. Google forms is a free online source for HTML forms. Following a presentation I created a Google form to assess the knowledge of my audience. The form contained a multiple choice question and text field inputs. There was also a hyperlink to everyone who filled out the forms’ answers. Using Google forms and creating a form I help to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments that are aligned with the content. The content being the presentation, and the formative and summative assessments are the answers that were filled out in the form and viewed through the hyperlink.
NETS III
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers:
a. | demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. |
b. | collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. |
c. | communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. |
d. | model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning. |
PREZI
Keeping pace of technology for teaching and learning is a daunting task. I used Prezi, an online option for non-traditional presentations with zooming animation, to create a digital presentation that contains pictures, links, and videos to help better define my topic. In my digital presentation I chose pictures and videos online that were relevant to my topic. Each picture and video were apart of a relevant slide and help to define the topic of the specific slide. Using the Prezi presentation form, I was able to communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a digital-age format. Through the use of an online tool I can present information to students. I was also able to model effective use of a digital tool to help students learn new material.
INSPIRATION
Organizing your thoughts and notes is a great reference point for studying or conveying knowledge. Using the software program inspiration, I was able to create a mind map of the NETS standards for teachers. I listed the five standards and what and how each artifacts were linked up to each standard. Each artifact was connected to two sub-standards. With available resources online and the program I matched up visuals to each standard and each artifact. I used Google image search to find relevant images of each artifact and standard. The software program is very easy to use, point and click where I want text or images to be, link up standards and artifacts with available arrow visuals. Using the software inspiration to create a mind map, helps to show that I am fluent in technology systems and able to transfer my knowledge on NETS-T to new technologies. Using inspiration software I will also be able to communicate relevant ideas and information to students and parents who are more visual learners.
NETS IV
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
a. | advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. |
b. | address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. |
c. | promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information. |
d. | develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. |
Diigo
The internet has created a unique opportunity for teachers to network and obtain information on education from all over the world. Using the website Diigo, I was able to bookmark and share websites that pertain to my interests and specialties. Diigo is an Internet resource that lets the user bookmark any website, tag them, applying keywords to the book mark to help describe what the website is about, and share them amongst your peers. The keywords also help people who are interested or specialize in the same area to find them. Diigo gives you the ability to follow other professionals who share your interests and specialties, when you follow another professional you are able to view what they bookmark and add to your list of group of bookmarks. I was able to create a group where I put all my bookmarked sites on special education technology, people who are interested in that topic can join the group, add to the group and search through all the websites that I as well as others have found on technology for special education and comment on the usefulness of the website. Through creating the group on special education and following people who share the same interests as me I was able to create a collaborative digital learning network with my peers. We share websites with each other on special education technologies, strategies and research.
CyberSafety Google Site
Collaboration through the Internet is a powerful resource, people from different regions can work on a common goal. Using Google sites, I along with my peers created a wiki website on Cyber Safety. A wiki is a collaborative website created by more than one individual, which allows colleagues to help and add to the website. Each one of the group was assigned a particular topic on Cybersafety, there were six total topics; cyber predators;cyberbullying; identity safety; inappropriate content;piracy and plagiarism; and social networks. We researched our topic and created a page on the website, I worked on inappropriate content. The page was hyperlink from the homepage, which we all collaborated on. On our page we defined our topic, why it is a safety concern and gave three tips for parents and teachers as well as three tips for students on what they can do to protect themselves. Each page also had links to resources and references we used to create our wiki. With the collaborative site, I promoted and modeled digital etiquette amongst my peers, practiced responsible social interactions through Google sites by helping out my peers and working together on a common goal. Engaged with colleagues through digital aged communication such as emails and collaboration tools such as creating a Google site. Not only was the wiki website a collaborative effort, the content on the site helped to model, teach safe, legal and ethical use of the Internet. The website’s content was on Cybersafety with links to resources available on the topic and tips available to adults and students.
NETS V
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. Teachers:
a. | participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. |
b. | exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others. |
c. | evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning. |
d. | contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community. |
PLN
As an educator I like to be up to date on current research on special education strategies and technology. Through various outlets on the Internet I created a Special Education PLN. A personal learning network (PLN) is a group of people connecting and interacting about with similar interests. I discuss and share knowledge with my peers through the use of Diigo, Twitter and digital discussion forums such as The Educator’s PLN. As a special education teacher my PLN consists of other special education teachers, advocacy groups, people involved with special needs students and parents of special needs children that I have met and follow on Twitter, Diigo and Educator’s PLN forums. By following other special education teachers on Twitter and Diigo, I can stay current on special education strategies and technologies that my PLN tweets about or bookmarks. I can also stay current by reading forum posts and watching online videos from Educator’s PLN forum. Being a part of Twitter, Diigo and Educator’s PLN I am participating in a global learning community, exploring creative various teaching strategies and applications of technology for student learning. With the participation of those technologies and community building I am able to exhibit how to infuse technology in my learning, I am able to help my peers learn from what I tweet, bookmark and post on Twitter, Diigo, and Educator’s PLN.
EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS
Being up to date on on current research and technology in the classroom can come from a more traditional method, such as educational journals, but with a digital twist. When I became a member of ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education), I was able to read their publications and articles on technology in the classroom in a digitized online format. One of their publications was Learning and Leading with Technology, this publication has many articles on technology in the classroom, I read, summarized and actively thought about the articles on Twitter, Internet usage, augmented reality and the future of technology in the classroom. By actively reflecting on the article and strategies I tried to imagine how I would use it in my classroom. I posted my reflection on the article on my blog to share and gain insight from others within my network. Becoming a member of ISTE and reading as well as reflecting on articles on technology in the classroom will help keep me a life long learner. I am up to date on current research and practice, i make regular and effective use of digital journal articles to help support student learning.