Shout out to the amazing Dr. Samantha Fecich for guest hosting this chat with my students! She was wonderful and helped encourage them to continue to grow and build their PLN while they are preservice teachers. We were lucky to have some other educators also join us and I think that made the chat even more real for my students. They also were able to experience the power of a PLN in a Twitter chat. Most of the educators who joined knew Dr. Fecich and everyone was able to grow their PLN during the chat. I was so impressed with the initiative several students have taken to learn and grow in the realm of technology since the beginning of the course. Most of the students self-reported they were not very comfortable with many of the tools I had planned to introduce them to in the course in the survey I sent out before the course began. It is amazing to watch them grow through this course and take charge of their learning. One has started listening to the Educational Duct Tape podcast after it was part of an assignment the previous week. One is planning to attend an EDCamp this summer to continue to learn. Several talked about the tools they had learned to use so far in the course and how they planned to use them when they became a classroom teacher. I am always in awe of how amazing the educator PLN is on Twitter and have made some great relationships through my chats. I will be providing my students with several chats that they can participate in after the course is over so they can continue to grow and create that amazing digital presence.
This week, the students explored the topics of accessibility as it relates to the digital divide within our country and assistive technology. These two topics are particularly timely as most of our schools are still closed and teachers and students are having to figure out how to do school online. Students were exposed to how much the digital divide in our country affects students in low social-economic communities disproportionately.
When discussing assistive technology, students were introduced to many different tools that are available for teachers to use in their classroom to reach students with disabilities. Some of these tools have also been used in help students in ways that are similar to the support they would get in the physical classroom. Students heard from current educators how Flipgrid has allowed their students to create responses to assignments, connect with classmates and build the classroom community to provide students with a safe place during this time of crisis. Other teachers talked about how they have used technology to accommodate students assignments similarly to what they would do in the classroom. Google classroom allows for the assignment of work to certain students without other students seeing who gets what work.
It was encouraging to see how each student in the course came away with something different from the same materials this week. You never know what will speak to a student and help them connect with the course material in a personal way.
Last night, my students and I engaged in our first online Twitter chat. We focused on copyright and intellectual property as these are two topics that they will have little exposure to outside of this course. As a librarian, I want to make sure they understand these two topics and how they can impact them as teachers. I was very impressed with their knowledge on the subject and their ability to keep up with what many said was their first Twitter chat. Part of my hope in introducing them to this format is they begin to see Twitter as a tool to help them connect with other educators in their field of study to learn and grow as educators. I am including the chat archive here so that they are able to find the information quickly again if they need to refresh themselves but also as an opportunity to show how much they are already learning in their first week in this course. I know that this course is stretching some of them in new ways as they navigate their first intentionally online course and grapple with the use of technology in education. They will be teaching in classrooms that will look different than what they attended during their school career and my hope is to help prepare them for this circumstance.
Dr. Sam Fecich is continuing to grow her EduMagic for preservice teachers through a podcast now. This podcast is specifically for preservice teachers with topics like Job Interview – Nailed It! and Student Teacher Letter to help preservice teachers navigate the world of education. She includes insights from her current and former students, tips she has learned through her own experience and insights from other educators.
This podcast is very easy for those who may be new to podcast to follow and are short (less than 10 minutes) so anyone can fit them into their busy schedules. As this is a brand new podcast (episode 6 just launched today) but I can’t wait to hear what exciting insights Dr. Fecich has in store for all of her listeners. I would highly recommend this podcast to any preservice or new teacher to help them grow and see the value of their voice in education.
It has been a chaotic and hectic seven weeks to try and cover everything related to educational technology in my course. I have learned so much from my students and am already starting to work on revising the course. So what went right and what went wrong?
What went right:
1) Partner tech integration lesson plans with conferences: This assignment changed a few times before and during it’s assignment. This was supposed to be an individual assignment to begin with and I first changed it to a pair assignment to provide some support for the students first tech lesson plan. I gave them time to work on it in class with the ability to bounce ideas off of me and to ask questions. Two pairs took advantage of this and they did well for their first attempt. After I graded all of the lesson plans, I asked to conference with the students to review the lesson plan with the rubric and discuss ways to strengthen their tech integration. I allowed them the opportunity to make changes and resubmit their lesson plan after our conference. This allowed students to better understand how to completely integrate technology and they all did extremely well on their second lesson plan. I look forward to reading through their final lesson plan on their exam day and to see how much they have grown this semester.
2) Blogging: This was a foreign concept to students in the course and they struggled with their first post. We discussed the mechanics of blogging in class and they began to become more confident and include more details in their posts. They have grown in their professional communication skills and I hope they will not lose this skill as it is invaluable to an educator.
3) Building a PLN: At the beginning of the course, none of the students even knew what a PLN was. After several discussions in class and a conference call with Dr. Fecich on the topic, the students were excited about building their PLN. As the semester went on, I saw them grow sharing resources on Twitter with others. They relayed what they learned in the Twitter chats they participated in and spoke about the positive impact of building their PLN while they were still in college.
4) In class work time: When I was able to give students time to work with tools in class and experience them in an environment similar to what their students would experience, it was fantastic. I was able to do this with coding and robotics and the students learned so much that day and were able to apply some of it to their tech lesson plans that were due a few days later.
What did not work:
1) Timing: seven weeks to cover everything ed tech in any form is not enough time. I would have loved to have been able to slow things down and spent more time discussing topics and allowing students the opportunity to create more with the tools in class. I have already spoken to the dean of education and we are working on a plan to make the course a three hour full semester course but it will take time.
2) So much content: I played with the content so much in this course and am still playing with what could be left out and what needs to stay. I was sad we did not have much time to spend on several topics throughout the semester but even when I approached the dean to try and figure out what we could leave out this time, there was nothing we could cut without feeling like we were not preparing the students to the best of our abilities. Unfortunately, ed tech is a topic which continues to grow and if we are only going to expose our preservice teachers to it in this one, isolated course, there is so much that will remain unexplored and they will have to muddle their way through.
3) Twitter chats on their own: Students were asked to find a Twitter chat to participate in weekly throughout the course on their own and many only participated in one or two chats in total. I feel that if they took the time to participate in more chats on a regular basis, they would become more comfortable with the format and the benefits to participating in these chats to grow as an educator.
What I am changing:
1) Pacing: I will be looking at moving some of the content from the beginning of the semester to later in the semester to help the students focus on building their PLN and learning how to write good professional communication online first. This content may cover two to three weeks in the course but is vital for students to understand the tools they have at hand and how to use them effectively.
2) Twitter chats: I am thinking about creating a Twitter chat just for our students to participate in to discuss topics relating to edtech during the course instead of asking them to find their own Twitter chats to participate in at their convenience or assigning them a specific Twitter chat to participate in. Students did not participate in multiple Twitter chats because they were allowed to choose which ones they wanted to participate in. After the first one in the second week of class, students were excited about the chats and the ability to learn from so many other educators but they did not continue to participate as they could chose which chat they wanted to participate in.
Overall, this was a learning experience for me and I will admit that it did not go a smoothly as I wanted it to. I changed my teaching style throughout the semester as I got a better feel for my students to fit their needs and changed pacing when I was able to accommodate there need to slow do the flow of information. With such a short timeframe to cover content, I was limited in what I could move around and ended up cutting some topics shorter than I had wanted to as I saw how my students were struggling. If I was able to completely redo this semester, I would probably stick to the simpler tech integration aspects and focus on a few specific tools that would give them the most bang for their buck. I hope the next time I teach this course, that it is a full semester course and I can back off on some of the content and focus more on multipurpose tools. I still want them to have the ability to work on lesson plans with tech integration and I would love to have them pair with a partner teacher to create lesson plans for a real classroom and to have the experience of how it impacts student learning.
I first heard about this book through ISTE. The title intrigued me as did the concept of the book. I was in the middle of prepping for my Technology in the Classroom course I am teaching starting this week and was already committed to another book study through ISTE so I passed on the book study for the book but, picked it up in case I could find some time to read it. I did find some time to read it and would recommend anyone who is in education to read the book. It is a quick and easy read that provides insight on how to build your career as an educator. While it is geared toward preservice teachers, I think it would beneift anyone in education at any level.
For me, I was really excited to read this book after I listened to a podcast from Teachers need Teachers where Kim Lepre interviewed Samantha Fecich to discuss her book on September 4, 2018. I stumbled across this podcast while looking for resources for my technology in the Classroom course that just started. I was so inspired when I listened to Sam Fecich talk about her passion for preservice teachers and wanting to help them be successful. She teaches a class similar to the one I am teaching and hearing about the activities she does in her course and how closely they aligned to what I was planning for my course gave me a boost of confindence that I was headed in the right direction. I knew I needed to include this podcast in my course but also that I needed to move this book to the top of my priority list to help me be a better instructor for my students.
As Samantha Fecich lays out the book using the acronym EDUMAGIC, the reader is able to focus on one section at a time and chose what areas they would like to focus on. For me, the INCONCEIVABLE! chapter is one of my favorites as it highlights how technology integration should work by allowing teachers to have students do things that were previously unthinkable. Imagine being able to have your students in a rural community talk with marine biologists and explore a reef via AR/VR before they complete a project on ocean environments. How deep would your students understanding be now rather than through the use of traditonal textbooks and videos in class with some research on ocean environments? The impact that technology can have on students engagement with the concepts they are learning is truely inconceivable when technology is thoughtfully integrated into the classroom.
While I chose not to have a textbook for my class this year, I might consider adding this book as the textbook the next time I choose to teach this class. I feel that the preservice students that I teach would benefit from this book as it is written specifically to help them navigate through this time in their career as educators. I love how Samantha Fecich continues to point out they are educators already throughout the book. She encourages preservice teachers by telling them their voice is important to the converstations about education going on around them and to start joining that converstation now by building their PLN and attending conferences. I alos love that she provides insight from students that have been in her class and are now teachers about how the information helped them in getting jobs when they graduated.
I am sad that I was not able to particpate in the book study for this book but I was already overwhelmed with other commitments at work and at home. I may try to get our education department at the college to read the book and do a book study over either the summer or the next semester or see if I can find another group that is doing a book study over this book and join. I am glad I made time to read this book before my class started as it provided me with insight and confirmation that I was on the right track with my plans for the course I am teaching now. I will be applying what I learned to my course and hope that I am able to help prepare this group of preservice teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms with confidence and feel comfortable preparing their students to be successful when they leave high school.
As the last week wrapped up the book and the slow chat ended for this book, I discovered I was torn about this experience ending. On one hand, I was glad for it to be ending so I could spend a little extra time on finishing up my planning and tweak those last few assignments for my course before it began but I was also sad because I had learned so much from this very diverse group of people. I look forward to meeting some of them hopefully at ISTE this summer during the ETCoaches playground on Tuesday of ISTE. I am thankful for all that I have learned through this experience and the connections that I have made. This book study allowed me to grow in my new roles in many ways.
First up, we discussed a virtual learning experience that has impacted us and how that experience impacted us. I chose to discuss getting my master’s degree. I went to a completely online program with outstanding professors who drove us beyond just a basic understanding of the roles a librarian plays in schools. Without those professors, I don’t think I would have felt prepared enough to even have applied for my current job as a college librarian. I had never taken an online course before I started my Master’s but had seen how online learning was beginning to enter the classroom in Texas. Many others discussed how this slow chat impacted them. For me the slow chat allowed me to see that I was not alone in wanting to give my preservice teachers not only the knowledge and skills to work with technology but the ability to be flexible in any number of situations they may be confronted with when teaching. I had also considered joining the #ISTETEN slow chat book study going on about the same time but decided against it as I did not want to overwhelm myself with information. I have read the book from that book study though and will write up my thoughts at a later date, probably after the semester is over.
Secondly, we looked at some virtual field trip opportunities and shared one that we felt was interesting. This was so amazing as there are so many great virtual field trips now for teachers to use in their classes on any number of topics they are teaching. It also allows students to experience places that are not close enough to physically visit. One teacher from Texas talked about a virtual tour of Gettysburg her students took after they had studied about the Civil War and how that experience impact them and their understanding of the topic. For me, this is a way to show how impactful technology could be when used properly. The virtual tour was not an end goal but rathe a tool to help deepen students’ understanding of a topic they may not otherwise grasp fully. Following off this topic, everyone was asked to share a virtual tour or an organization from their area they could possibly collaborate with. Again it is so amazing to see how many organizations are using this technology to get information into the hands of teachers and students to enable deeper learning on these topics.
Finally, we were all asked to reflect on one thing we plan to implement in our classroom, school or community from the book study. For me, I am adding some gaming to my class in order to help students get a better understanding of how this could be implemented in their classroom in small, manageable, baby steps. Everyone had different aspects they were taking back with them, but that is the true beauty of being part of a community of learners. We are all in different places right now and each of us and our schools, districts or communities need something different.
I hope to be able to participate in this type of chat again and am looking forward to introducing my PST to Twitter and the amazing PLN available to them their in a little more than a week. This whole experience has changed some of the assignments I was planning to do with them to address the diverse topic areas to be covered in a short amount of time. I am thankful to know that I have this amazing group of people who I can ask questions of and bounce ideas off of as I plod my way through all of this in my job.
I have gotten behind in sharing my reflection with the #ETCoaches book study and plan to get caught up in the next day or so. Week 4 looked at PBL, personalized learning, accessible instructional materials(AIMs) and digital equity.
When discussing PBL, one of the concerns was teachers becoming overwhelmed with the amount of tools available and not knowing which tools to use. Some ETCoaches use a vetted list of tools to help their teachers not feel overwhelmed while others like to remind their teachers to start with the goal and work from there. I can see the benefit of both aspects. With a set list of tools aligned to curriculum goals, teachers are less daunted by which tool would be the “right” tool to use. But I also see how this could hinder some teachers from thinking about other ways to reach a goal. If you have your end goal in mind, you can then provide teachers and students multiple ways to show their mastery of the goal. Technology is just a tool for them to be able to use to show their mastery. I prefer to identify the end goal and then brainstorm several different ways for teachers and students to be able to show their mastery. Again, the resounding advice of take it slow and don’t try to do it all at once was there. As an ETCoach, we should be guiding teachers and students on their learning journey. There is never only one way to get to a goal or to show mastery of a goal. If we can support students and teachers on their journey, I think that is the most important aspect of our job. Yes, providing them with a “tool box” to pick from may help those teachers who are reluctant to take those first steps but we should not stop there. One coach mentioned that one roadblock is PBL are supposed to be open-ended to allow students the ability to explore and promote higher level thinking but teachers do not want to give up the control.
Personalized learning is a growing movement in education and with so many online and technology tools to use, it is becoming easier for teachers to personalize each student’s learning. Baby steps was mentioned several times during this discussion as it has been in others. For me I am excited that hyperdocs have made a comeback and love all the options it allows for educators to filter students into a path where they can learn the information at their level. Being able to organize the information for students in a central location was discussed and several LMS were mentioned to help with these. Many school districts are already adding LMS to their technology suites but without buy-in from both teachers and administrators, this tool will languish and gather dust. One great tool that was discussed to help get teachers and administrators on board is the pineapple board. If you have not heard of this, it is a very cool idea. Basically, there is a chart displayed and if you are using a cool new tool or strategy and you are open to others coming to observe it in action in your class, you add your name to the day and time you will be using the tool or strategy and list what you will be doing. It is a great non threatening way to have people feel comfortable coming to your class and seeing the cool stuff you are doing and then hopefully being inspired to try it on their own or with help in their classroom.
AIMs were discussed on Valentine’s Day and there was a ton of love for them on Twitter. These are tools which allow for all learners to be able to access all of the instructional materials. We were recently able to eat access to BookShare for our fourth grade with a reading disability and it will allow her teachers to place the curriculum in her account and for her to access it and do her work without appearing to be “different” from her peers. There are so many great tools that were discussed including the “Open Dyslexia” font and “Alt text” for images. These are also important to ensure access to digital media throughout the district. As a college librarian, I also manage our Research Guides and the Library’s website through the College. I tried to ensure the information on the pages is fully accessible to all. Sometimes my hands are tied as I have limited privileges on the College’s page but I do the best I can.
Finally, digital equity was discussed. So many schools and libraries are our students only way to access computers and the internet. Students’ ability to access reliable high speed internet at those needs to be a consideration when teachers are assigning outside of school work. The district I left in Texas as adding towers to the Elementary campuses to relay to wireless signal and then checking out routers to students on campuses with 1:1 computer access for the students to be able to take home and use. Yes, this was a huge undertaking and no the district did not “have to” do this but when families cannot afford to provide access to the tools necessary for students to be able to be successful in school, the district needs to look for innovative solutions. One of the ETCoaches, mentioned their district fitted all of the school buses with WiFi and parked them in neighborhoods over night so students would have internet access not only on their way to and from school but also at night to be able to complete their school work. As the digital divide continues to grow in this country, ,schools and libraries will have to find partnerships to work together for students to be successful. The college library I work in, has over 50 computers available for student use while the library is open. We also have both WiFi and network connected computers and students have WiFi access in the cafeteria, the classroom buildings and their dorms.
Overall, remember that technology is a tool not the end goal and students’ learning always comes first. Don’t just jump in to add some new technology tool because you feel like you need to, consider how it will help students achieve their learning goal and go from there. Being creative not only in how tools are used in the classroom but also in solutions to provide equitable access to all students to all resources is key. When introducing teachers to technology: training, time and baby steps seem to be the most common pieces of advice given. This week’s conversation covered so many varied topics and approaches to them. It was good to see others who struggle with the same topics as I do and those who know there is an issue in their school or district and are trying to work with everyone to put workable solutions into place.
Gamification and digital citizenship, oh my! As a reference librarian, digital citizenship is something I feel strongly about. We work with students on a regular basis discussing how to find “good” information and build their digital literacy skills. I know digital citizenship, in all of it’s complexity, is key for my preservice Ts to understand from multiple angles which is why I plan to address this area multiple times throughout the semester. I want to show them how this is not just a one time lesson and that it is something they need to expose their students to throughout the whole year. It is vitally important that they understand how, as students, they need to take control of their digital footprint and begin to cultivate the profile they want others to see. The first few weeks of the course will focus on this side of digital citizenship for them. They will be building a digital portfolio, participating in Twitter PLN discussions and growing their PLN. I will also be showing my students how to use the various databases available to them through the library to find resources and work on their digital literacy skills. During the second half of the semester, they will continue to work on the previous skills I have taught them but also begin to create a digital citizenship lesson plan for their future classroom. I am hoping they will incorporate some of the additional technology skills they will be learning throughout the semester within this lesson plan. I plan to emphasize that this topic is not a one and done lesson plan but a longer plan that may take many class meetings to cover all the necessary topics of digital citizenship.
Gamification is another one of those huge topics I wish I had more time to explore with my preservice teachers but due to the constraints of time in the class we won’t. I am looking for ways to incorporate aspects of gamification within the class to be able to give them a better sense of how it could work in a classroom environment. Several people recommended @mrmatera and his book Explore like a pirateto me. I have this book and am slowly working my way through it so expect more coming from me on this topic. Currently I plan to incorporate some Kahoot quizzes and a Breakout as part of my classroom instruction for this course but may add some other gamification aspects as well. I will keep you updated throughout the course to let you know how things are going. Gamification can be a tricky area for many educators, especially when they think in the strict must use technology aspect. Educators have been gamifying their classrooms long before computers came around and many of us were exposed to it before it was ever called gamification. Think about the times you played “Around the World” or “Jeopardy” to review before a test, or junior high kids favorite “Trashket ball”. These are ways to gamify your classroom on a low/no tech budget. Just remember that “Gamification is applying the most motivational techniques of games to non-game settings, like classrooms.” (Matera, 2015, p.9) As with starting anything new in your classroom, baby steps are key. Pick one aspect of gamification to add as a layer in your classroom and then go from there. I have not decided how I will incorporate this in my course this year so I will let you know what happens as it gets closer to time to start the course. (It is a half semester course so we start right after Spring Break for the students).
So, what did I get out of this weeks chat? I have a bunch of ideas and questions floating around in my mind. I love the ideas of gamification and I want to incorporate it more in my course but, I have no idea how to even get started outside of what I already have. Thankfully, one of our student workers is an avid gamer and told me she would help me figure out how to incorporate whichever aspect of gamification I decided on for this year. I play board games with the family and that is my extent of gaming knowledge.
Digital Citizenship is a necessary topic to cover with all ages but it is especially important to involve parents and the community in these conversations. Let parents know what they need to help out with at home. Explain what cyber bullying is to them, what it can look like and how to help their child if they feel they are suffering from this. Who to contact for more information and help are also important information for parents to have. I really liked the resources that were shared not only to teach about digital citizenship but also resources to help with students who may be experiencing difficult times and their parents get help for their children. These are always valuable to have and to place in highly visible areas at school and on websites.
Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a Pirate. San Diego, CA: David Burgess Consulting.
I started the ISTE Edtech Coaches Network book study this past week. I hoping to grow as an Instructional Technologist at the college where I work but to also gain a better understanding of what preservice teachers need to know about technology before they enter the classroom in one of my roles as a professor teaching Technology in the Classroom for our education department. The slow chat format is a new format for me and I am enjoying it as it allows me time to think on what others are sharing and absorb it before I respond back. The responses to question four this week really provided a window into what Edtech Coaches in schools are saying they see as an area preservice teachers need help with in regards to technology.
They brought up valid points about new teachers needing a deeper understanding of the “why” of technology use in the classroom. This is something that I feel strongly about and why I plan to focus on pedagogy at the beginning of the class before we jump into the types of technology that available for use in the classroom. I feel we do a disservice to preservice teachers if we do not teach them to look at how and why they are integrating technology in the classroom. This cannot be taught in isolation of the single technology class that most education majors get but needs to be incorporated into all of the classes they take throughout their time in college. Students should be expected to rationalize the technology they place in their lesson plans in any class they take. We need to provide them with multiple opportunities to practice these skills throughout their preservice experience so they are second nature by the time they are in front of students in their own classroom.
Digital citizenship was also brought up as an area to be addressed by teacher educator programs. I plan to address this issues from multiple points. Firstly, preservice teachers need to address their own digital citizenship understanding and their digital footprint. They need to learn how to harness what is online about them to their advantage and be able to take control of what is out there about them as a person and future educator. My students will be creating a blog that will turned into their digital portfolio to showcase not only what they are learning in my class but also what they are doing in other classes. I hope they will use it to be able to show future employers what they are capable of doing in the classroom. Secondly, my students will have to create a digital citizenship lesson plan for their final project that integrates various forms of technology in a meaningful manner and then present these to the class.
Digital literacy was another topic mentioned as an area that may be missing in college preparatory programs for future educators. As a college librarian, I can say that everyone would benefit from some digital literacy education. As a reference librarian, this is a topic we see all of our students struggle with when they are asked to conduct research for their classes. They believe they can just go to Google and find whatever they need for their assignments. Unfortunately, we can only do so much to help students with this as we only see them when their teacher schedules a library instruction with us. We do provide a three hour credit course on this topic but students are not required to take it, so many do not. This is something that we can all work on together to strengthen this skill in everyone as it is an important life skill for every person.
This week’s book study has provided some affirmation for me as to my approach to the class I will be teaching later in the semester. I am evolving my syllabus slightly to reflect suggestions provided through this slow chat. I am still working on assignments for the class and those will also be created taking into account what I learn through this book study and slow chat. I am looking forward to further discussions with the group as we dive into the first two chapters this week.
Books and Technology 