Module 6 Blog

This module has helped me thinking about self-directed learners and the role of differentiation in the following ways:

It is so interesting to study about how different teachers teach and how different students/learners learn. It really makes you think about how you teach and how you yourself learned concepts in the past and how you continually learn daily. We should all concentrate on teaching to all learning styles. I know so many teachers who just lecture. How awful that must be for visual and kinesthetic learners.

It also really hits home because I remember when my daughter was having difficulties in first grade with some things. I took her to WVU and had her tested and the results were that she was an auditory learner. I then began reading things to her and having her read aloud to her herself and that pretty much solved the problem. It is important to remember that you cannot rely on students' self assessment of their learning styles. Just like we need to differentiate teaching styles to different learners, we need to teach to all types of learners! It is so interesting to find out what type of learner we are. There are many ways to do this. We do it at my school in our Links advisee/advisor groups. Kids really get into it.

This module has helped me think about student-centered assessment in the following ways:

Students should be a major part of the assessment from beginning to end. They should be involved in the development of the units too! Students may be a part of the pre-project assessment by helping designing the project itself and the pre-assessment device whether it is a checklist or survey. Then they should be part of the ongoing formative assessment by journal writing; teacher or peer observation; blogging; participation in a class wiki; and interviewing. Students may help prepare these assessments also. For example, they could help write the interview questions like what I think I should know by now in doing this project. Summative assessments could include a multimedia presentation; completed individual or class journal; ending project such as a poster, play, brochure, etc.; or something like a video. Students could help decide what type of summative assessment would be appropriate for the type of project being done. This all, of course, would be done under the teacher's watchful eye.

How can technology be used most effectively to support and assess student learning?

Technology is a great way to support and assess student learning. It can be used effectively to support and assess student learning, but it should not be used as the only way to assess learning. Using wikis and blogs is a great way to do formative assessment. I love having my students email me their assignments so they do not have to print out their assignments. They need to learn how to do attachments and communicate effectively through email. The computer is not the only way that technology can be used to assess student learning. For example, a document camera could be used to show the final product of a project in which a brochure was created. Digital projectors and smart boards or mobis could be used for students to share their multimedia presentations. Responders can be used to assess throughout and at the end of assignments. Students and teachers together can use the Internet sites to create online surveys or surveys in which they can respond using text messaging on their cell phones. Technology, computers, and the Internet together provide us with ample means of formative and summative assessment tools.

Module 3 Blog

I can remember when students were preparing research papers and would carry around folders full of copied magazine and newspaper articles and they would lose them and they would leave them everywhere. This is one big way in which the Internet has effected their learning. All jokes aside, I think the Internet has just opened up the entire world to our students. It has made multicultural learning so much easier. Teachers should have no excuses for not doing multicultural education. I am always trying to make my students become more organized. Webtops are great for this and so is email. They just need to use them as they are intended. That brings me to another point. Sometimes they learn too much or about things that you weren't expecting. That is why we need to teach Internet safety. Communication is one of the most important 21st Century Skills. We need to use the Internet but not just the Internet to teach this skill. I think sometimes the Internet has made learning a little impersonal. We just need to find a happy medium in using the Internet in for learning in education.

Module 2 Assessment Timeline Blog

This module has helped me think about using standards, CFQ's, and formative assessments in the following ways:

I have really thought alot about the 21st Century Skills and the Power Standards. This needs shared with all teachers so they can use them. Unless you take classes like these, you never know about this kind of stuff!

The curriculum framing questions are great for all forms of formative assessments like journal entries, blogs, wikis, interview questions, surveys, and checklists. It is a great tool to help teachers assess students, students assess students, and students to assess themselves throughout the project. It could also be used by parents to ask their students what they are learning and how they are staying on task with their project.

The formative assessment part has really helped me think about the way I assess students now as opposed to how I could and should assess their work. Students need to help create these tools before the project begins and they can also help prepare the formative assessments to be used along the way. I believe, however, that the teacher should be involved to help guide them. Another idea is to invite parents to join the blog!

Module 1

This module has made me think about my role as an instructional designer in the following ways:

I have learned that we should be at least creating some project-based units for our classes, and that we should be using formative and summative assessments for these units. We should all be creating wikis and blogs to which our students may post. One thing that I think we should all include in our lesson plans as well as our unit plans is power standards. One important piece of information is that we should consider content first and then incorporate technology. One thing that I also learned is that there are endless amounts of resources (links) online that we can either use as is or adapt to fit our curriculum.

As an addendum, I would like to add that we all need to make our lessons become more student centered. Students should help create the assessments as well as assess the final product using some form of summative assessment. Assessments should be ongoing as well as varied methods should be used including: rubrics, games, presentations, and portfolios.