EDLD+5364+E-portfolio

Course Embedded Assignment Reflection: Our scenario project provided us the opportunity to plan a Universal Design for Learning lesson to incorporate technology to meet the needs of diverse learners. I would not have known about the CAST website or the book builder had it not been for this lesson. I have some limited experience with students with hearing impairment due to the placement of the Auditory Impaired program at our school a few years ago. I have become friends with some of the A.I. teachers and in the process have learned that hearing impaired students have language deficits. However, prior to this scenario-based project, I did not know that a site such as Described and Captioned Media Program existed. I used DCMP to find a streaming video that was appropriate for our learning scenario. I was also happy to be able to pass this information along to our A.I. teachers at my school. Some of them had used DCMP previously but had forgotten about it, others were using it, while still others had never heard of it. Our campus special education coordinator emailed me back to tell me she was going to pass on the information to her district A.I. coordinator. I hope, in this way, information I gained from this course and this project will benefit teachers on my campus who work with hearing impaired students every day. While I felt the readings and videos were useful, I’m not sure outside of this project I would create many of my own eBooks on CAST book builder. It is very time-consuming and most teachers I know are stretched already, that includes me. I might search looking for books that fit content areas currently being taught but I would have to have a lot of time on my hands to create my own. Most of the weeks’ assignments were very reasonable and obtainable; however, I felt that week 3 was difficult. I found myself wishing that the readings had been split between either the week before and/or the week after so that it was not so much. That said, I did enjoy reading specifically about using technology with special needs students. I knew of some technology options available for use with my students but there were others I was not aware of and would like to research more. “Students with learning challenges are now able to have access to podcasts, learning materials and videos, and at times that suit their individual schedules. Additionally, the multimodality of these tools allows students to learn in ways that best meet their learning styles.” (Solomon & Schrum, 2007) I did not know about using podcasts with students with special needs and I would like to find out more about this. Our text also mentions podcasts for parents of special need students. I would like to find these as well and forward the relevant ones on to the parents of my students. As a learner, I realized that I tend to take information I am given and do more research to find even more information. That is how I came across the DCMP website. I was originally searching for free captioning software because many of the videos I came across did not offer closed captioning. I found DCMP Caption it Yourself ( National Association of the Deaf, 2009) which describes the process and several tools for captioning videos that one creates themselves. From finding that link, I went to their main website and learned of the captioned media for download. I applied for a membership explaining that I am a graduate student studying a scenario with a hearing impaired student. I was granted a membership and only after that did I remember that I now have a hearing impaired student coming to my classroom part of the day. He has only been coming in for a short time now. I hope to be able to use this resource with him as well. He is in Kindergarten so I fear the resources for him on this site will be limited. Also as a learner, I return to the rubric and the assignment description to see if I have met the criteria for each assignment. I learned the hard way in my previous course to be careful when reading through the assignment and to double-check before I submit to make sure I have met all the requirements. I feel this project has increased my belief in the strength of wikis for collaboration. The group I was working with this time was scattered across all parts of Texas and even the west coast. I find the discussion boards an interesting way to learn the thoughts and opinions of others in the course. I prefer the format of finding a quote that is meaningful to you because we can assert our own thoughts and opinions and hear those of our classmates. I think it is sometimes helpful to hear that someone in another district and/or another city not only has the same issues as we do but feels the same about how we might solve it. I still find it challenging to find technology that will work for and with my younger students with special needs. After learning about Quest Atlantis or as it is now known Atlantis Remixed, I searched for free online problem-solving games for kids. I found a site that I will actually be able to use with at least one of my current students. I found a site called The Problem Site which has multiple problem-solving games and “brainbusters” for older students; however, upon perusing their site, I also found a link to their Junior site. It currently only has a few games but they are in the process of developing more. I am planning to use the Spell It game with my student who really likes letters but is in the process of learning English. I hope to be able to find more similar games and websites with further research. I hope to be able to use more of the information I obtained in this course in future teaching situations. Although I can use some of the things I learned, such as those mentioned above, with my current students. I would like to be moved into an inclusion classroom or resource classroom again so that I can use more of what I have learned. For example, I was very excited to read the process for setting up a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet for students to use to graph their effort and achievement. I would have liked to have had this information in previous years when I taught resource students. As our text states, “When a student makes a connection between academic success with factors outside of his or her control – things like heredity, gender, or race—it’s easy to develop a defeatist attitude.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) Many of my students felt it was out of their control; that they were just born that way. I feel it would have been helpful for them to see that they could control their achievement and it was not outside their control. As Pitler states, “By looking at the chart, students can clearly see the relation between their efforts and the grades they earned on their tests.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) This type of chart might have helped those students see that a little more time spent studying on their part could change their achievement and this could have carried on with them to middle school. This is something I would like to be able to use with future students.

National Association of the Deaf. (2009). //Caption it Yourself//. Retrieved from Described and Captioned Media Program: http://www.dcmp.org/ciy/ Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works.// Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). //web 2.0 new tools, new schools.// Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Twitchell, D. (2001). //The Problem Site: Junior Edition//. Retrieved from The Problem Site: http://www.theproblemsite.com/junior/default.asp

Week 5: This week's videos were informative and enlightening. I find it interesting that James Paul Gee refers to many of our schools as "test prep academies doing skill and drill" and he goes on to say that "we have deprofessionalized teachers, we've allowed a bunch of textbooks and tests and politicians and schools of education to supervise them and do curriculum for them in ways that take away their professional responsibilities to build their own curriculum and to think strategically about how learning works in their classroom..." I believe he is correct and very honest about some of the issues in our schools these days. I have wondered for years why people are selected to run a state or national department of education when they have never taught in a classroom. Why are these the people making decisions for how teachers should teach? I feel if teachers are given some freedom to be creative again and use more of the tools available to them that United States students would not lag behind those in other countries in math and science. I believe Mr. Gee to be correct in saying that it will take the U.S. getting scared about other countries excelling above ours for change to come. I just hope it is sooner rather than later.

[]

Week 4: Our reading this week from the online book, Teaching Every Student states "Although using the same assessment tools and procedures for all learners might //seem // to be a fair and equal approach, in reality, this approach yields inaccurate results for many students. (...) Thus, students' ability or inability to work with particular media and methods may confound evaluation of their knowledge and skills." As a Special Education teacher, this is how I have felt for years about standardized testing. Even modified versions of the test were not appropriate for every student and if there's a student who falls between criteria for different versions of the test, they are required to take the higher level tests. Even multiple accommodations cannot always equal the field for these students. I have felt for a very long time that portfolio assessments would be a much more fair way of assessing these students. Unfortunately, teachers don't have any say in it. Having to assess students with severe cognitive and physical disabilities also seems unfair to me. I did appreciate all the resources provided in this weeks other readings. I found things I would like to share with coworkers in hopes that they might be able to use them to find new ways to integrate technology to help all their students learn.

[]

Week 3: Much of this week's readings and video focused on using the tools students are already using. This reiterates what we have said in past courses. Utilize the tools the students are already accustomed to and we, as teachers, will engage and motivate them more easily. I found the video profiles very interesting this week. From Luis, the son of immigrants, who was so interested in technology that he would stay late several days a week to work on projects to help elementary students and projects for his community. I liked the project that his team was working on to help catalog the trees in town and note what shape the trees were in. I also enjoyed the video of Cameron who was extremely interested in using and even teaching others about technology. He altered his garage to be able to use green screen technology. Cameron and Luis both taught their teachers about uses of technology. I think as a teacher, we need to be open to learning from the digital natives and not shut them down simply because they are younger than us. We are also reminded through our reading to plan carefully for use of technology in lessons. It should not simply be tossed in to show we're using it but planned for so that students get the most benefit. Week 2: This week we focused on setting objectives to create more meaningful instruction for teachers and students. A lot of good strategies were given for helping students set their own learning goals. I liked the idea of using Kidspiration or Inspiration for students to set their individual learning goals. The CAST website also has an online book "Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning" by David H. Rose & Anne Meyer (ASCD, 2002). The book offers information on how students learn and how teachers can use technology to better reach students of all abilities. They introduce the Universal Design for Learning, a framework for differentiated instruction. We also read studies that indicate the use of technology increases learning and self-esteem of students in low-socioeconomic environments. The research of the impact of technology on student achievement was somewhat mixed but did indicate gains especially in math. I think anything that increases student motivation will help impact student achievement because if students are more motivated to learn, they will learn more and do better. Likewise, if students set goals for learning prior to using technology such as computer assisted learning programs, it seems the results would also show improvement in understanding. I was surprised to find our textbook, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, easy to read and not as dull as I thought it might be.

Week 1: This week we focused on three main learning theories: constructivism, connectivism and Cyborg learning theory. While all three theories have their strengths, I also believe all three are interlocking theories. Constructivism, based on the work of Piaget Vygotsky, states that humans by nature connect new information with prior knowledge to make meaning and create personal understanding. Connectivism seems very similar in that connections are made with prior knowledge to make meaning; however, technology plays a larger part in connectivism. According to George Siemens (2004) who developed the connectivism theory, technology is rewiring our brains and learning can be better supported with the use of technology. The Cyborg learning theory sees technology and humans connected and working symbiotically to create understanding. As I stated previously, I believe all three theories have their strengths but having worked with students with special needs, constructivism is often difficult for these students. They do not often have the same experiences as their peers from which to draw information to build upon and if they have had the same experience, it may not have held the same meaning for them. Most of the students that I have worked with are very concrete and do not understand abstract concepts. This is where technology can close some of those gaps. Introducing or reintroducing information that may be common knowledge to other students helps them make some of the same connections. Adaptive or assistive technology can also go a long way in closing the gaps for special needs students.