Online Exercise #5

• Think about your classroom. In your mind, where do you see the technology in that room? (Think of all the possible technologies—computers, LCD projectors, handhelds, laptop carts, and more.) How will you set up the classroom to support students in working both with technology and with each other? Ask yourself the following questions:
  
  
  Will the kinds of technologies you have envisioned support all of your students regardless of their learning strengths and weaknesses?
  
  
  Yes, I think so. I plan to use over head projectors to get a better visual view of the assignments and topics cover in class. I also plan to use ipods and other forms of media and video to grasp the attention of every student.

• Will these technologies support your students in working together?
  
  
  I think so, for each lesson and day a certain group of students could be responsible for running and setting up the particular equipment needed for the days instruction, and once a week the lesson could be ran by these particular groups of students.a

• Will students have enough access to technologies to meet their learning needs?
  
  
  More than likely so...Jemison High is a rural school. Some students have more access than others based upon economic conditions. So naturally some students will have greater opportunities to get to computer technology and multimedia type equipment. However, every student will have at least some access to the required technology for class work.

Now think about teaching in that classroom:

• How will you know students are learning what you intend them to learn?
  
  
  It should be self-evident in the individual projects that the students will be responsible for completing as well as the bigger group projects that will be assigned.

• How will you identify their preferred learning style and differentiate instruction in the classroom for them?
  
  
  At first by observation, there will of course be trial and error to find the best learning style for any particular student. Then upon observing the students work in action evaluate the assesment rubric for each student and see where a student could be placed for better learning.
  
  
• If they are not learning what you intend, how will you address that?
  
  
  I will address that by seeing what particular parts of the assignment the student achieved highly on and what part(s) the student didn't achieve highly on and brainstorm on what ways I can change the lesson and future lesson for that particular student. Maybe make thing more visual, or more auditory.

ED 529 Assignments

http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=29251

Casey Clark

ED529

Opinion Paper #1

In the article “How To Thrive-Not Just Survive-In a One Computer Classroom, the author Glori Chaika poses one basic question. Can a teacher be successful in utilizing a single computer to integrate technology into their everyday teaching?

I believe the answer to this question is yes. I do believe that you can make any source of technology, whether you have one or many, useful and beneficial in the classroom. My area of concentration is instrumental music education. And at all grade levels, the use of a PC would be highly beneficial. However, the implementation of computer use, especially with only one computer, becomes more difficult in the higher-grade level band(s). At the senior high level, most of our class time is spent immersed in music rehearsal as we are almost always preparing for some type of performance. If it were possible to incorporate a music theory class that would complement our band rehearsal class, then time spent in groups and or one-on-one with a computer or some form of technology would be feasible. On the other hand, if I used the technology to demonstrate a particular element of the lesson/rehearsal I was working on then that would be beneficial to the rehearsal and the students when they could reference that particular element of instruction via the Internet at home.

In my particular field/band program, the use of a single computer would be more feasible at the junior high level. At this particular level I am focused on building basic concepts of music theory and other important fundamentals, and not necessarily concerned with public performance or competition. There are several forms of software that are available and could be useful in a group of this format and needing only one computer to be useful.

The author of this article suggests using small groups and make that one of several reference sources required so that there can be a rotation implemented so that everyone can get computer time, as well as time with an encyclopedia or other literary source. I agree that group work is feasible at the junior high level in reference to music education. However, at the senior high level, forming groups and getting computer time is much more difficult simply because we usually need more preparation/rehearsal time and cannot afford to loose that time.

Therefore it is my opinion that technology used in the classroom, even if the availability is small, is highly beneficial to the education of my students. However, it is beneficial in different ways as my students get older and advance through the different levels of junior and senior high band and advanced band related classes that are available and will hopefully be available in the future.

Casey Clark

ED529

February 26, 2010

Technology has always been a part of the subjects’ math and science. The calculator is a definite standard for the classrooms of both of these core subjects. The question I pose based upon the article that I read is “How can I integrate new technology (internet, games, video, etc) into my everyday teaching to enhance the quality of learning for my students?

The article is a collection of real life lessons from teachers involving games, video, group media, and other multimedia applications. I find from reading the article that students seem more enthusiastic and have more fun learning about these subjects. I remember math and science classes in school and although I love mathematics and the sciences, the particular method in which I was taught was just by pure rote memorization of facts. This teaching method is common everywhere throughout all the levels of education, and more often than not students will forget these wrote facts if they are not utilized on a frequent basis.

Project based learning, which could have any one of the aforementioned activities included in the projects, are an incredible tool for allowing the learning to be more practical, fun, engaging, and overall more memorable. I honestly remember to this day a project in eighth grade science in which we were instructed to build a tower. The design was totally up to us, but the materials were pre-determined by the teacher. This was fun, I remember that a competition was centered on this project and there were placement prizes, etc. for tower’s that held the most weight. My partner and I won because our tower held all of the weight that was readily available and then some, and did not break. I have applied the principles learned from that lesson a million times or more since I was assigned that project. So, it is my opinion that anywhere you can apply a project to support, introduce, review a particular lesson or objective, do it, and allow the student the opportunity to have fun and enjoy the learning from these self-motivated projects.

Casey Clark

ED 529

Opinion Paper #3

After reading the article “Learning with Blogs and Wiki’s,” by Bill Ferriter, I am surprised to learn the effect that blogs and wikis can have on educational practices all over the world. The author of this article offers that blogs, forums, and social interactive websites can be a great resource of inspiration, frustration, professional development, and most importantly a resource for working teachers looking for help on better educating their students.

My concern with blogs and wikis, and other interactive forum websites is the opportunity for negative comments and false information to perpetuate, as well as the forum becoming a venting ground for the negative frustrations of teachers who make more problems rather than solving them. Of course it is evident that blogs and wikis can be a great forum for professional development. And yes I have witnessed the boring and often non-enlightening professional development events that are set up by my school systems administration. With these particular ideas in mind anything that can offer a true practical application of better professional development is beneficial.

The benefits of blogs and wikis can be easily seen and shown. The author of this article also suggest that by using “rss” feeds that teachers need not worry about wasting hours of their days researching for these sites that they can be automatically refreshed in that individual teachers queue so that the blog or wiki can be viewed at any time. My only concern is the potential damage that these sites can do to a prospective teacher or a veteran teacher. I would hope that these sites will have some type of moderation so that the topic basis does not become a bashing ground for irate teachers who spend most of their time complaining rather than educating.

Online Exercise 10- Planning an Initiating/Introduction Activity

A teacher you work with has asked for your help in designing technology-related activities capitalizing on the wide variety of technology resources available in the room (assume the kind of technology you choose will be in the room).

How would you design the initiating activity(s)? How many would there be? How would you choose to integrate technology into your teaching, students’ learning, and the assessments? What technology would you choose?

How would you assist the teacher in understanding how the technology you use in the initiating activities could be used again in the guided learning and culminating performance – for instruction, learning, and assessment? What resources would you direct him/her towards?

I would try to integrate as many forms of technology possible for whatever the topic or project may be. 21st century students are tech savvy there is no doubt about it. And anything they can physically put there hands on will better improve their attention level and retention. If available, I would use some type of interactive board, just to get the kids involved, presentation software, etc.

Online Exercise 12- Productivity Tools

Think of the productivity tools discussed in class and ways you have used them. (Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software, concept mapping tools, free productivity tools) How have productivity tools helped you be more creative? More organized? More productive? How can you incorporate the learner-centered principles into your approaches for using these tools?

I have used excel quite a bit, which is common in the workplace. It helps me to keep my students organized. When your talking about 100 to 200 kids excel is a life saver, serioulsly!!! More recently I have been using Sibelius to notate my scores for my percussion students. At first use it takes a little time to get acclimated with the software, but after a while its just like any other software. It does save time on part extraction, and you can export audio to make copies of the work for your students to listen to and interpret.

Online Exercise 14- Development Tools

How can development tools help you to develop students’ higher order skills and creativity? (Development tools: Imaging/Editing Software, drawing tools, web page development tools, multimedia tools, etc.) How can these tools help students to be more productive? What makes these tools suitable for your classroom?

Wow, anything that requires the use of technology, or any project where technology can be used can more than just support higher order thinking. Something as simple as doing a google search can help you to find and figure out where and how to search for topics. Tech tools can help us to reach our students on their level.

Online Exercise 15- Communication Tools

A number of technologies have been presented this semester to help you reach outside of your immediate surroundings for personal growth and instructional purposes. How could you use these technologies to help yourself create better learning opportunities for your students? How could you use them to help yourself continue to develop as a teacher throughout your career? What are the benefits of using the communications tools? What are the dangers? How can technology help you better reach out to all of your students regardless of their race, gender or economic status?

I know that I would like to start podcasting for my students right now. I would like to start a weekly podcast assignment for my percussionists so that I could hear their practice on a certain segment. This would also help reinforce the new technology initiatives that are constantly entering the education world.

Alabama State Standard for Instrumental Ed.

Arts Education (2006)

Grade(s): 6 - 12

Instrumental Music: Level I

11.) Demonstrate appropriate care of personal instruments.

Examples: assembling a clarinet, removing moisture from a flute, applying rosin to a violin bow.

There is not much to be found on the teaching of this lesson via "ISTE," but my solution to this would be to split the band into groups with different instrumentation in each group and then each group create a powerpoint presentation or photostory of their individual instruments. This could include a brief history of each instrument, how each instrument is assembled and disassembled as well as a picture of their individual group with their names.

This will not only cover this particular state band standard, but it will also give the students exposure and implementation techniques of common software on mac or pc. This will also help all the students in your class get to know one another and also reinforce group learning which is what being in the band is all about.

My assessment for this would be a few quizzes, and direct observation

Online exercise #5

Think about your classroom. In your mind, where do you see the technology in that room? (Think of all the possible technologies—computers, LCD projectors, handhelds, laptop carts, and more.) How will you set up the classroom to support students in working both with technology and with each other? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Will the kinds of technologies you have envisioned support all of your students regardless of their learning strengths and weaknesses?

• Will these technologies support your students in working together?

• Will students have enough access to technologies to meet their learning needs?

Now think about teaching in that classroom:

• How will you know students are learning what you intend them to learn?

• How will you identify their preferred learning style and differentiate instruction in the classroom for them?
• If they are not learning what you intend, how will you address that?