Digital Blog Post #G

Chapter 10 is about promoting success for ALL students through technology.  Every individual is unique and therefore they all have different ways of learning successfully.  To be able to make sure that a teacher is meeting the needs of every single one, he or she can use differentiated instruction (DI) for teaching.  Differentiated instruction is an instructional approach in which teachers create different educational experiences as ways to meet the learning needs of individual students.  For example, if I was giving my students a book to read and then have them in return turn in an assignment to present their understanding of the book, I would give them the option of writing a book report, do a powerpoint presentation, act out a scene, or create a song.  This would give every student an option in which they can use a skill they succeed in.  Here is a link to a very informational website that defines DI an UDL and gives links to tools to help a teacher in a classroom.

Universal design for learning (UDL) is the application of universal design principles to educational settings.  Universal design for learning accommodates students with broader needs yet not reducing opportunities for other students in the classroom.  There are three principles to this method which are multiple means of representations, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement.  A teachers goal is to have students successfully meet these principles because this means that they have successfully understood the lesson.  For example, in the classroom there may be a student who is suffers with severe dyslexia, instead of just writing out the math problems with numbers I could use physical objects or picture to help understand the lesson.

Assistive technology are amazing tools that enable great learning experiences to students that suffer from physical and/or mental disabilities.  There is a great diversity in the type of students with disabilities in school.  Some of these disabilities may include visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive, language, etc.  Technology assists teachers to help these students learn.  For example, when teaching reading/language arts to my student who suffers with severe dyslexia, I can use a computer software that reads out the words in large text to help him learn and cope with his disability.





References

Ally, Learning. Student with Dyslexia Blossoms with Assistive Technology. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKrgxeXDtjk

Differentiated Instruction & UDL. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.21things4teachers.net/21-things/di-and-udl/

Gomez, M. (2017, February 23). Dyslexic?. Created with Prezi. www.prezi.com

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies, 2nd Edition. Boston, MA; Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #F

Chapter 8 consists of ideas on communicating and collaborating with social media.  In my opinion, social media has taken over a huge chunk of the technology world.  Children begin learning about the internet and social media as early as five years old, and as they grow eventually end up sharing ideas, pictures, videos, rumors, etc on the world wide web through these resources.  A successful teacher should learn to uses these programs as educational resources to help them teach his or her students.  Children can access social media at any given point throughout the day, why not use it to our advantage.  If I allow my future students to conduct research projects for a particular subject or topic on Facebook, for example, it will allow for during and beyond the school day learning.

Photo credit to Leonid Mamchenkov from Flickr

Today's lifestyles are completely different from what they were 15 years ago.  Students are learning with different methods to get their education as well as parents and guardians to get reports on their children's progress.  We all love being informed of things going on in the world, as well as knowing more than once a quarter during parent-teacher conferences how their children are doing in school.  It is confirmed that every 9 in 10 adults are engaged in some sort of internet communication service.  Using email and text messaging to often speak with parents about students' progress can be very helpful.  This allows the teacher to express her thoughts on the student and get assistance from the parents when needed.  Here is a link to a website that talks about using email-based text messaging to effectively communicate with parents and students.

There are other available methods to communicate with parents that can be seen more efficient than individually emailing or texting each parent, which is to create a website or blog to reach out to multiple people at once.  For the most part, most students are usually at the same level and learning as a group and creating a blog or website to primarily inform the parents of what is happening in the classroom can be sufficient.  A website can include due dates for exams, help for homework assignments, and a schedule of school events.  On the other hand, a blog can be created to be more personal about ideas or thoughts that can be or are being used to educate the students.  Websites and blogs are also a great idea to share among other teacher or professionals.  I plan to create my own website for my future students and parents to access.  This is an amazing technology tool to keep everyone on the same page and always informed.

Resources

Gomez, M. (2017, February 17). Communication. Created with ToonDoo. www.toondoo.com

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post E

Chapter 7 talks about finding ways to explore problem solving using different softwares, apps and games.  Ill-structured problems is term used for real world problems that require in depth thought and investigation for a solution.  These problems are difficult to teach students to solve because they will come with time and will vary throughout his or her future career.  As a teacher, what we can do is introduce them to softwares, apps, or games that can help in finding a solution quicker and most effective, although many self skills will be needed to think throughly.  Here is a video that defines ill structured problems to better understand the excitement they can bring along with the work required to solve.

It is very true that using educational video games can be concerning and if or not the student will receive the education he or she needs.  It is also true that 21st century kids love playing video games.  It is smart to combine education with video games because it will entertain kids along with teaching them.  I believe using digital video games for learning does work to trick students into learning.  Without realizing students can be solving math problems to open the door to the next level or as seen in one of the video in the module, evolving elements together to create molecules to learn chemistry.  Here is a website that offers online video games that can be downloaded on cellular devices for easy access to education.

ITS or intelligent tutoring systems are powerful new software programs that promote inquiry learning through computer responses to students actions.  These programs sound very intriguing.  Using a computer based software to evaluate students responses allows the student to receive immediate feedback.  A computer is faster and more efficient in providing results to further education.  The program will recognize what material is being struggled with by the student to keep on giving him or her similar problems, otherwise the program will move on to new material.  A tutoring system like this can be extremely helpful for a classroom with multiple struggling students.

Resources 

Gomez, M. (2017, February 10). One. Created with Gliffy. www.gliffy.com

How To Solve Ill-Defined Problems - Jon Kolko. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1jrnMnO-dY

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA:Pearson Education, Inc.

Molecualar Jig Games. (2017). "Games | The Science Game Center". Web. Retrieved 11 Feb. 2017, from www.sciencegamecenter.org/games