Course Reflection

Taking this course has definitely changed my perspective and feelings in regards to incorporating technology in instruction. I have always felt like I was somewhat technology illiterate, and I was a a bit apprehensive entering this course as I was worried I would have a difficult time completing all of the assignments. Throughout the entirety of this course, I feel like I have become so much more equipped and comfortable with the use of technology and being able to use it in the classroom. Prior to this class, I really didn't have the want to incorporate technology into any of  my future lessons, but learning how to use all of the tools that we have been introduced to has changed that.

All of the tools that we were introduced to I believe are very useful, but the two that stood out to me the most were the Prezi and the webquest. In my opinion, these tools would be the most useful in my future classroom as both of them open up opportunities to further student knowledge on a topic while also giving them more practice using technology. The prezi is a great tool as it helps to engage students and makes lecturing or feeding material more appealing. The webquest, in my opinion, is simply awesome. There are so many things that could be done with a webquest, such as allowing students to catch up on material from home if they miss class, or even giving them a chance to use an online webquest as a study guide.

The prezi and webquest are the tools that I am most excited about incorporating into my future classroom. There are so many ways that I could think of to incorporate these tools into a lesson plan. For example, I would use the prezi as a road map to follow the the path that an ingested object takes throughout the digestive system. I could use each slide of the prezi as a stop along the way throughout the digestive system, labeling the organ, adding pictures, and describing the functions. I believe this would really help to engage students in the classroom. One way that I would use a webquest would be to help increase parent involvement in their child's learning. I would create parent letters or explanations about upcoming projects that would give parents an idea of what the students will be doing in class. Webquests could also be used in my classroom as a way to give students an option to study a topic more on their own, as I could create a webquest that would be used as a study guide.

I don't believe I could convince my CT to use any of these tools at this point in the semester. She is pretty set on what is going to be going on in class for the next couple months. I think she would definitely find the tools to be interesting and useful, but once she has lessons already planned out she doesn't like to add many changes to them unless it is necessary.

Gifted Students

1) After watching these three short videos, I was surprised to learn a few things about gifted students. I had begun to learn and talk about gifted students in my Universal Design Learning class last semester and it was really eye opening. These videos, however, really helped to build on the preexisting knowledge that I had on the topic. I never realized how common this was becoming in education and now thinking back on some of my own experiences, I can't help but wonder if some of the students I came into contact with would be considered gifted. It is interesting to learn how giftedness and lower test scores can be tied together and related to a learning disability.  I have sometimes wondered how a student can express so much comprehension in class, often times far beyond how other students are comprehending, and still not show above average test scores. These videos have helped to show me what to look for when trying to identify gifted students. I have learned that it is important to try to identify these students, so they can be challenged to the greatest extent just as their classmates are. One prior belief that I had that could be proven to be false is the fact that when a student is known to have only a few good friends, I thought they would be labeled as socially challenged. I have learned that this may not always be the case, as for gifted students this is perfectly normal.

2) I can definitely use the information learned from these short videos in my future classroom. When I have my own classroom, I will make a point to try to identify students who meet the same characteristics as the ones talked about. In my future class, I will use this knew knowledge to make sure that I am challenging gifted students in a way that they are benefiting just as much from my class that all of their classmates are. I would never want a student to just float through my class feeling like they have not benefited from it, because they were not challenged or pushed to get the most out of their educational experience. In order to challenge these gifted students, I believe I could use technology as a great asset to do so. I could create webquests, interactive assignments, or other activities for them to do online that push them to explore beyond what is being covered in class.

This video shows an example of a resource that can be applied to UDL principles 6.1 Guide appropriate goal setting and 6.2 Support planning and strategy development.

The use of technology is becoming more and more important in our society today. One huge technological use is the internet and it is used across the world by millions of people. Whether it be for fun, using it for communication, or even for work, the internet plays a big part in the majority of people's lives. When it comes to the internet, you might not always be thinking about whether or not your privacy is being invaded, and whether you think so or not, there is always a risk. Privacy is the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. Luckily, there are a handful of laws that have been passed which help to protect an individuals privacy online. 

One of these laws is called CIPA. The CIPA is the Children's Internet Protection Act and it was enacted to address the concerns about children's access to obscene or harmful content over the internet. This act requires that K-12 schools and libraries in the United States use internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content as a condition for federal funding. The CIPA defines "harmful to minors" as any picture, image, graphic image file, or other visual depiction that that (1) appeals to an interest in nudity, sex or excretion (2) depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors (3) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value as to minors. Overall, this act was instilled to create a means of internet safety for minors and to have filters created to prevent them from gaining access to inappropriate sites. 

Another law that was passed relating to privacy online is called the Child's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law was created in order to protect the privacy of children online under the age of 13. COPPA was passed in order to address the rapid growth of online marketing techniques that were targeting children. The act now states that sites must require parental consent for the collection or use of any information of young website users. An example that demonstrates the requirements for this act is when an individual creates a Facebook account, and an age restriction pops up stating that users must be at least 13 years old. Though this law has been enforced, it is difficult to implement age restrictions on the internet and there is no single solution to ensuring that children do not lie about their age. Statistics show that about 7.5 million Facebook users in the U.S are under the age of 13, and about 5 million are under the age of 10. Even though Facebook can't always prevent under aged children from creating an account, they will delete their information if they learn of users who are under 13 years old. 

There are many useful resources for teachers in regards to making sure privacy laws are being taken into consideration. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to ensure that any sites, programs, or online tools are appropriate for your students. Schools already provide filters for such inappropriate sites, but teachers are offered many great sites and programs that are already student appropriate such as schoology, quizlet, book wizard, scholastic news, and many more.

Sources

• http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/COPPA
• http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/underage-facebook-members-75-million-users-age-13/story?id=13565619
• https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

Are Tests Really the Best Way to Evaluate a Student's Understanding?

A common educational belief is that having students complete a test is the best way to check for their understanding of a topic. There are multiple forms of tests such as multiple choice, short answer, matching, essay format, etc., and generally if a student gets a high score on one of these tests it is most often thought that they have a good understanding of the topic that was covered. Multiple other forms of assessment are available for teachers to give their students, but more times than not they choose to stick with test taking. In my experience, I have known many great students who have done poorly on tests and I have also known many rather poor students who do quite well on them. Why is this? Are some students just bad test takers? This has brought me to the question of are tests really the best way to evaluate a student's understanding?

My original opinion, before I actually began thinking about this question, was that tests were a very good way to test for a student's understanding. After thinking deeper about my own experiences though, I began to feel less confident in this opinion. Almost every time I was given a test in middle school or high school I was provided with a study guide to complete prior to taking the test. On these study guides were questions focusing on the main parts that would be seen on the test, and a few times I was even given the actual test as a study guide. For the most part, I would always do quite well on tests that I had taken, but thinking back now I realize something. With the exception of one class, I can't think of many occasions where I took a test and didn't forget the information just a few weeks later. With that being said, I know there were many times when I would repeatedly complete a study guide and simply memorize the answers that I had come up with. So, isn't it likely that many other students are doing the same thing? Simply focusing on what they know will be on the test? and memorizing answers? If so, are high test scores really a good way of telling if students actually understand what had been taught to them? To answer this question I will be conducting a bit of research of my own.

Some studies have also supported the fact that there are better forms of assessment than test taking, and other studies say that tests are a reliable form of assessment depending on the format of the test. According to (Bennett 2011), exams do not take into account that intelligence is a spectrum, not static. Many students who do not do well under exam conditions are branded as "less intelligent" than those who achieve higher exam results. (Bennett 2011) states that we need to cater for the spectrum of intellect represented by students rather than forcing them into uniformity and stamping out alternative expressions of intelligence and brightness. According to (Briggs et. al, 2012), far too much emphasis is placed on testing. Assessment is at the heart of education. Teachers and parents use test scores to gauge a student's academic understanding, while the community relies on these scores to judge the quality of the education system. (Briggs 2012) says these views need to change, and that testing can be reliable if it is given in the proper format. It is known that typical multiple choice and short answer tests aren't the only way, or necessarily the best way, to gauge a student's knowledge and abilities. For this reason, many states are incorporating performance based assessments into their standardized tests as measures of student understanding. These forms of assessment require students to apply what they're learning to real world tasks. These include standard based projects and assignments that require students to apply their knowledge and skills.

Overall, I have determined that test taking is not the best way to evaluate a student's understanding. Based on the articles that I have read, it appears that test taking can have just as much of a negative affect on a student in regards to their own self evaluation of their understanding as it does a positive affect. After discussing this topic with multiple educators, I believe I will try to incorporate other forms of assessment in my classroom besides just test taking.

References:

Bennett, Richard. 2011. Comprehensive Assessment Research Review. Assessment in Education, Vol. 6: 317-                          332.

Briggs, David. 2012. E-Assessment by Design: Using Multiple Choice Tests. Journal of Further and Higher                                Education. Volume 31: 53-64.

Gipps, Caroline. 2010. Developments in Educational Assessment: what makes a good test? Assessment in                             Education, Vol. 3: 283-292.

William, Dylan. 2010. Teachers Developing Assessment for Learning: Impact on Student Achievement.                                     Assessment in Education, Vol. 11: 49-65.

All About Me Part 2!

 Here is a short clip from a private helicopter ride that my fiancé and I took over Chicago. I surprised her with it the night that I proposed to her! The video does not do the view justice!

How to Use a Blog in My Future Classroom

Though I have never really worked with blogging before, I have found it to be fairly easy to get the hang of and I think it would be great to use in my future classroom. This tool could be fun and useful in many ways for students. I am going to be teaching science and I can think of a few ways already that I could get students to learn and participate and learn while blogging. Lets say that I covered a certain topic in class, but I wanted the students to dig a little deeper and further their knowledge on the topic by exploring some videos on the topic. As an assignment, I would ask the students to search for a video online relating to the topic covered in class and have them post the link in their blog. Along with the video I would ask them to state one thing that they learned from the video that relates to the class content that we did not get a chance to cover. I think students would find a great interest in doing this and it would be a fun way for them to expand their knowledge. While blogging, the students would have to read each other's blog posts and comment on a few that they found to be interesting. This whole process will give them more experience with interacting with one another and finding new information on their own.

The first couple days of trying to use this new tool was difficult, but now that I am getting the hang of it I am excited to keep using it throughout the semester.