Chapter 11 is about how technology is used to evaluate and assess the learning happening in the classroom. Reflection is described as a process of self-assessment in which a learner examines past actions to identify what to maintain or change to continue to grow. I am personally a person who needs to see my strengths, weaknesses, skills, etc on a graph or document, this is where a portfolio can come in. A digital teaching portfolio is a collection of educational and professional materials stored in an electronic format. This is a very clever way to use technology to document and graph the growths of a teacher's work. It can also include pictures, videos, audios, PowerPoints, and other types of multimedia to enhance strengths and experiences.
Democratic schools and classrooms is a very intriguing movement. Democratic schools and classrooms are places where students and teachers together make substantive decisions about important aspects of educational operations, from the academic curriculum to school climate and rules. This can be confused to where the students are in control of what happens in the classroom. On the contrary, teachers and adults are always in control. This is a good idea to implement in schools. Just like a business, feedback and opinions from consumers help the business grow. Students are the ones learning and if they have a chance to come up with an idea or mention a method in which they learn the best, this can be of great help to the effectiveness of the school. Here is a video on democracy in a classroom. In my future classroom, I plan to have short discussions quarterly to get the students opinion of how they feel about certain teaching methods I am using or by passing out short surveys to anonymously receive feedback.
So far in my education, I have not had the ability to use a student participation system such as the clicker. Teachers have mentioned it and how they have PowerPoints ready to be used for such a system but the school does not have the funds to provide it. It attracted my attention to want to use it to learn so I can only assume my future students would love it. These "clickers" which are like a smaller sized television remote allow students to be actively involved in the lesson. Instead of the teacher standing at the front of the classroom, reading off the projector and pointing to the board, students will be answering questions such as true or false within the PowerPoint. It can also give immediate results so the students and teacher knows how much they are learning during the lesson. Here is a link to an article about how current research supports the use of clickers to enhance learning in students.
References
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MS: Pearson Education, Inc.
Martyn, Margaret. Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach. 1 January 2007. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2007/1/clickers-in-the-classroom-an-active-learning-approach
Sprouts. Democratic School Education. 23 March 2016. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUx1pArrO4
Chapter 4 is about designing lessons and developing curriculum with technology. Learning assessments that can occur before, during and after teaching a lesson is a tool I will be using in my future classrooms. I plan to look deeper into how or which technology method will work best to give me, as a teacher, the best evaluation on the student's knowledge, understanding, and performance. I have been given online surveys before a starting a college course and then after to see my growth in that particular course. I do not get to see the results, although I know personally how much I have grown through my own evaluation. I assume teachers are advised how much growth is being seen in the students to help them redo or keep the lesson plans they are using. Using technology for these assessments makes it so much easier on teachers to receive a percentage or graph to show the results. Here is a video that supports learning assessments before, during, and after assignments.
Another thing I can definitely see myself using in my future lesson planning, is using technology in lesson planning. A teacher I recently observed talked to me about a website he and many other teachers at that school trusted and used in their classrooms. They would review lesson plans provided and personalize it to their liking and use it in there classroom. Lesson plan templates can also be found on the web to give an outline or guide to educators. Here is a link to a website that can get teachers started on lesson plans.
Lastly, is being able to meet educational standards in the lesson plans. As we all know and the textbook highlights, there is so much more to teach than there is time to teach it and national curriculum standards narrow the "what to teach" question. Even at that there is plenty of work for the teacher to get done. Teachers have the freedom to decide on exactly how to teach the academic content along with choosing what to focus on in the lessons.
References
MsEmilyFlood. Assessing Learning with Technology. 10 November 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs-9qDR__sw
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MS: Person Educaiton, Inc.
Trackstar. Retreived from http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/;jsessionid=B2588F1514F67A69308D0A28F51D35B2
In chapter 9 we talk about how we can express creativity with multimedia technologies. Multimedia means "the presentation of material using both words and pictures". There are many great forms of technology being used in the classroom such as a smart board, laptops for students to work on, digital projectors and screens, etc. In my educational experience, many of my teachers which I have greatly enjoyed have used Powerpoints to assist their teaching. Then again there have been teachers who use this type of multimedia but fail to interest the students, along with teaching efficiently. I definitely plan to implement Powerpoints in my future classrooms. A teacher should take his or her time into making these presentation because they can make or break a lesson. A Powerpoint can be short or long and can include text, pictures, charts, graphs, audio, video and animation. This is really an all-in-one technology teaching resource.
Prezi is also another amazing tool to use for teaching. Prezi's are more interactive and playful than Powerpoints. In a Prezi key points can be emphasized by zooming into a particular part of the presentation, along with supporting details. Teachers can allow students to make changes in a Prezi and add information that they may find interesting. This is another technology tool that I will use in my future classroom to engage student in learning. Here is a video of a teach whom has assigned students to create a Prezi on various subjects and the students are enjoying it.
YouTube has come to be the biggest video hosting and sharing website. YouTube even offers a channel teachers and students can search titled "education" which locates appropriate classroom videos. This channel through YouTube gives teachers a tool to further enhance the learning process through technology students are already familiar and comfortable with using. There are millions of people whom have already uploaded videos onto YouTube about pretty much anything you can think of and if not, anybody has the liberty to upload their own YouTube video onto the site to share. I can see myself using this resource in a project for students in the future. Here is a link to a website which explains some benefits of using YouTube in the classroom.
References
Cann, AJ. (2017, March 3). The Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Eddwards, Sharon A., and Woold, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies, 2nd Edition. Boston, MA; Pearson Educaiton, Inc.
Olmeda, Gabriel. (2017, March 2). Using Prezi in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNMgjWSSFG8
