Learning with Laptops in Middle School

Laptops have impacted instructional planning and delivery and the ways in which my students are leaning more than I had imagined.  This is my second year of teaching in a one-to-one laptop program in a Grade 6 integrated Language Arts and Social Studies block class.  For the past two years we have used the Lenovo ThinkPads, and next year we will make the switch to Mac.  It’s been a journey filled with trail and error coupled with successes and failures.  As the journey continues, my students are finding and utilizing innovative ways to enhance their learning through the use of technology.  In reflecting back over the last two years, five categories emerge that deserve consideration when implementing a successful laptop program.

Classroom / Laptop Management – The physical arrangement of the classroom is important.  My classroom has small groups of desks arranged so that each one has a clear view of the projection screen.  Desks that can be moved and reconfigured easily for different types of cooperative activities work well.  It would be worthwhile to consider an arrangement that allows for a view of most laptop screens from any vantage point within the classroom.  Our students are required to charge their laptops at home during the evening, so that they come to school with fully charged batteries.  Sometimes a students forget to charge their machines and sometimes they use the battery power before they arrive in class.  It’s important to have easy access to power outlets, and depending upon your own teaching space, perhaps several extension cords at the ready.  In the fall, we have a “laptop boot camp” in which students are instructed in the care and use of their computers as well as an introduction to digital citizenship which continues throughout the course of the year.  This full-on “tech seminar” sets the stage for our students and makes expectations clear from the start.

Digital Toolbox – Our students were born into the digital age and come to us quite tech savvy.  Nonetheless, skills vary and it is important not to assume that all students quickly grasp new digital tools and applications as they are presented to them.   In order to support students in garnering new technical skills, in addition to “mini-lessons” around the use of digital tools with demonstrations, our tech facilitator also created a blog which archives a multitude of short tech demos.  This serves as an important resource for our students.  As students add to their digital toolboxes, they are empowered with choices that allow freedom and variety in showcasing their learning.  Recently, our tech facilitator compiled a list of the digital tools and the ways in which they are being used by students.

Structured Class Period - My students are greeted with a projected agenda and warm-up each day.  The agenda serves as a prompt to help students transition from one segment of the class period to the next.  The warm-up consists of language activities that relate to grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary.  Following the warm-up, students move into the activities for the day.  The majority of each class period requires students to use their laptops, so they know that as soon as they come in, they are to get our their laptops and begin the warm-up without being instructed to do so.  When, during the course of the 90 minute period, instructions need to be given, students are directed to adjust their laptops to a “listening position”, which means closed at a 45 degree angle.  This type of structure has worked well for my students.  They realize that their laptop is an important educational tool and that is what it is to be used for during class time.  In most cases, students rise to meet this expectation.  In a few cases, students make poor decisions regarding the use of their laptops.  Our school has a disciplinary plan of action outlined in our Acceptable Use Agreement, that students and parents read and sign at the beginning of each school year.

Recently, there has been a lot of attention given to “tech breaks”.  A tech break allows students a few minutes of free time during an instructional period to check their text messages, or see who has posted on Facebook, or try to make it to the next level of an online game.  While this is a new idea for me, we tried it out in class this week.  I was surprised at how quickly students returned to the instructional task, which was peer editing a short story using Google Docs, at the end of the break.

www.4teachers.org

Student Engagement – Providing learning activities that engage students and motivate them to take charge of their learning is the goal of good teachers everywhere.  Educational experiences that require high levels of thinking, collaboration, and problem solving while, at the same time giving students the freedom to make their own choices and decisions as it relates to their learning, are changing the traditional classroom.  Technology has a prominent place in these types of project-based and challenged-based learningclassrooms.  The ownership that comes with collaborative, creative projects which are based upon students’ own ideas is a great motivator.  This year my students were charged with creating public service announcements which highlighted the skills associated with kindness and being constructive community members.  With an authentic audience, composed of the entire sixth grade of our middle school, the engagement was full-on from start to finish.

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Students as Teachers - Docendo discimus, “through teaching we learn” and “students as teachers” is a concept that is gaining momentum.  Collectively, my students have a lot of technical experience.  I have embraced this in our one-to-one program and it has paid off.  Students are encouraged to share their knowledge and expertise with their classmates.  This not only helps those students who require the technical support, but also gives those “techies”, who assume the role of teacher, self-confidence.  It’s a fact.  When it comes to technology, many of my students know more than me.  Creating an environment where students can feel safe taking the lead is so important.  Gone are the days of teacher-centered classrooms.  Effective 21st century teachers have evolved into facilitators of learning and members of a dynamic collaborative team.

Laptops are educational tools and have the capacity to greatly enhance the learning opportunities of our students.  However, the key to the success of any academic program is the effectiveness of the learning activities that are offered.  Structuring learning opportunities that engage students in real-world situations that require problem solving, innovation, and collaboration in a setting that encourages student choice and risk taking should be the goal of all good teachers.  Educational environments are changing.  Technology is an added benefit.

Connectivism and Global Collaboration in Education

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Connectivism, introduced in the mid 2000′s, is an idea based on the premise that knowledge exits within systems and is acquired by individuals who interact collaboratively within activities related to that knowledge.  Whether you view connectivism as a learning theory or a “pedagogical view”, the movement has significant connections to behaviorism, congnitivism, and constructivism.  Marcy Perkins Discroll, in her book, Psychology of Learning for Instruction, defines learning as “a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world.”   Connectivism embodies this definition within it’s core principles.

According to Wikipedia, the eight core principles of connectivisim are:

• Learning and knowledge rest in differences of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human technology.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continuous learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a necessary skill.
• Knowledge that is current is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process.

Connectivism is not really a new idea, but new technology has given us ways to “connect” or “interact” faster and more easily.  Approaches to teaching and learning are changing as a result.  Project-based learning and challenged-based learning are two examples.  Another example, the Flat Classroom, founded by Vicky Davis and Julie Lindsay, springs from a constructivist approach in which the key component is “lowering the wall” of the classroom through technology so that students are joined virtually to create a more expansive, collaborative learning environment.  

From a social studies teacher’s perspective, the benefits of this type of global collaboration for my students are immediately evident:

• Authenticity of learning – activities are engaging and real-world
• Abundance of sources – almost limitless human resources including primary sources
• Interaction within a global community – the world becomes smaller
• Access – opportunity to explore and learn about different cultures first hand

The following infographic, in my opinion, is a good representation of the concept.  The words active, relevant, real-world, effective, hands-on, networked, innovative, personal, and transformative are all apt descriptors.  An additional word could be added to the “openly networked” heading to read:  “connected learning environments link learning in home, school, community, and the world.”

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My first project for Course 1 of CoETaIL is a collaborative blog unit that focuses on culture and digital citizenship.  It begins as a collaborative class activity and then expands into collaboration on a larger scale.  The “tweet” of it’s description would be:  ”a project that allows student teams opportunities for research, creativity, and collaboration with students from around the world.”  This will be our first project-based activity in the next school year and I’m excited to implement this new unit.  Due to its relevance, I’m reposting the unit plan here.

A final thought about connectivisim and global collaboration leads me back to the Education Week article, The Classroom Is Obsolete:  It’s Time For Something New.  According to the author, Prakash Nair, it is an established scientific fact that the current model of the classroom is obsolete.   The author goes on to state the following elements that successful learning environments must have in order to prepare students for success in the 21st century:

• Personalized
• Safe and Secure
• Inquiry-Based
• Student-Directed
• Collaborative
• Interdisciplinary
• Rigorous and hands-on
• Embodying a culture of excellence and high expectations
• Environmentally conscious
• Connections to local community and businesses
• Globally networked
• Setting the stage for life-long learning

I feel lucky to be able to work in an educational environment that is moving in this direction.  A one-to-one laptop environment has availed numerous opportunities and resources to my students that were not as readily available before.  They are “connected” to the world in an instant.  Some teachers worry that technology will make their jobs obsolete.  I disagree.  In good schools, teachers are working carefully to engineer effective and appropriate learning opportunities that incorporate many of the 21st century educational elements listed above.  ”Change is good.”  Though cliché,  this is a true statement.  Unfortunately, change is often hindered by lack of financial resources including those earmarked for technology and professional development.  Nonetheless, as Nair points out, good teachers are putting forth their best efforts everyday to overcome the “limitations” of the traditional classroom-based schools.  Empowering our students to connect, interact, and collaborate is empowering them for success.

Some Thoughts on Reverse Instruction and Game-Based Learning

http://edudemic.com/2011/12/15-flipped-classrooms/

According to K. Walsh, in Is Reverse Instruction Education Technology’s Perfect Storm?, “reverse instruction is the idea of having students consume learning content (i.e. ‘the lecture’) outside of the classroom, usually as homework, thereby freeing up valuable face-to-face classroom time to reinforce materials and work on assigned work (work that may have been homework in the traditional classroom).”

Teachers are finding a lot of success with this approach.  Recently, at a “Try It On Monday Workshop” at ASIJ, our middle school technology facilitator, who also happens to be a math teacher, presented what he has been doing with reverse education in his math classes.  He is finding great success in preparing YouTube videos and vodcasts for students to view at home and then practice the skill that was introduced before coming to class.  This frees up class time so that students can participate in other more engaging, authentic activities that require them to draw on several skills which they have learned and apply these to situations which require higher levels of thinking; resulting in a greater level of understanding.  I’ve embedded his presentation below as it contains some great information on the benefits of the “flipped classroom” and what we all need to get started.

This is a compelling movement and, the benefits are clear to me, especially in a class with very discrete skill level outcomes, such as math.  I also believe that it can be effective within an integrated humanities class.  For instance, there are four core required novels in our 6th grade Language Arts/Social Studies block class.  For each novel, there is contextual information about the novel that we teach prior to beginning the reading, which gives students a leg up in terms of comprehension.  Each of these “front-loading” activities take at least one class period.  We could easily create a YouTube video or vodcast of this information so that students could view it at home.  Additionally, they would have a reference source which they could continue to review as necessary throughout the novel study.

We also spend a fair amount of each class time on grammar, vocabulary, and geography skill development and review.  These exercises could be taught via YouTube or vodcasts as well, and could be completed at home, again freeing class time for more collaborative, authentic and engaging learning activities such as game-based learning and project-based learning.

There is a question that I have regarding reverse instruction:  How does it fit into current research and the debate over homework and the amount of time spent on it?  My students have a lengthy bus commute each day to and from school.  By the time they are home and have dinner, they usually work on homework and then go to bed.  This comes after a full-on day of instruction and, for most, after school sports and other co-curricular activities.  Reverse instruction is best suited, obviously, for older students.  Still, we should always consider the time commitment in the home activities that we assign and insure that our students have adequate time to turn off and just be kids.

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Game-based Learning is not a new concept.  GBL, before the digital age, was any activity that was used to focus and motivate learners during lessons.  Now, GBL or DGBL (Digital Game-based Learning) is a learning approach that incorporates the use of computer games, serious games, commercial off -the-shelf computer games, and simulations to engage students in higher levels of thinking. Games engage students in ways that other approaches to learning cannot.  Serious games are presenting students with authentic situations.  These simulations require students to employ higher levels of thinking to create and generate solutions to real world problems.  Genuine learning takes place when students are engaged and motivated.

I have used many “game-like” activities with my students over the years; from bell-game question races to full blown simulations.  Interact is a great company offering simulations that cover a wide variety of curriculum areas.  In the past, my students have become crew members of a Spanish galleon and residents of a British colony in the New World.  Currently, I like to use a Jeopardy format to review for assessments.  Jeopardy Labs allows you to create a Jeopardy game template with content of your choosing, and its free.  Whether it be a simple review game, or a three-week simulation unit, my students have always been highly engaged in these types of activities.

We modified our curriculum over the course of this school year and are now teaching a non-fiction reading unit which dovetails with a  persuasive writing unit around the topic of refugees.  The UNHCR has released a simulation called Passages which “is designed to help create awareness, arouse emotions and encourage participants to take action on the behalf of refugees.”  This simulation, which could also be categorized as PBL, can be tailored to fit any age group and it connects perfectly with our current units.  The simulation requires students to:

• discover the concrete problems which confront refugees
• feel the psychological anguish caused by separation and flight
• see what forces people into refugee situations and the train of events that brings them to refugee camps and beyond
• think about possible solutions to refugee problems, particularly with regards to integration within the country of asylum and repatriation to the country of origin

This simulation, along with other GBL activities, require chunks of classroom time to be most effective.  A flexible time-table is always beneficial.  Both reverse instruction and GBL deserve a chance in the 21st-century school experience.  Perhaps scheduling issues will be more easily resolved with time budgeted through the flipped classroom. 

Curriculum and Assessment in Project and Challenge-Based Learning

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The Buck Institute of Education defines project-based learning as:

a standards-focused systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

Projects-based learning  is similar to inquiry-based or experiential learning in some ways; however, PBL focuses heavily on standards and the evaluation of student learning.

Wikipedia defines challenge-based learning as:

a pedagogic approach for K12 education pioneered by education staff at Apple, Inc. that has its roots in problem-based learning and the work of John Dewey.

Challenge-based learning consists of five components:

1. The Big Idea
2. Essential Questions
3. The Challenge
4. Guiding Questions and Activities
5. Guiding Resources
6. Solutions, Implementations, and Reflections

Both PBL and CBL are standards focused and embrace authentic learning with real world connections.  Both approaches require students to use questioning, collaboration, creativity, and problem solving – all of the higher order thinking skills.  In considering implementation, two main issues surface immediately for me as a teacher:

1. How can this fit within an existing mapped-curriculum?
2. How can I adequately and fairly assess my students?
   

In considering the first, while this presents a challenge for teachers in schools which are curriculum-driven, both PBL and CBL can be utilized effectively to cover multiple areas of a mapped curriculum in an integrated format.  In my 6th grade language arts / social studies classes, we constantly integrate language arts and social studies outcomes within the units that we teach.  The incorporation of more PBL and/or CBL learning experiences would, in my opinion, improve our program.  Nonetheless, we do follow a mapped-curriculum and “coverage” always seems to become an issue.  

Seymour Papert , in his Edutopia article, Project-Based Learning, suggests that, in order for PBL, to be most effective, schools need to rethink the concept of “curriculum”, at least in terms of content coverage and time frames.  He believes in an approach that allows students to learn what they need to know and when they need it.   Nonetheless, even with an “out of the box” curriculum approach such as this, schools still need a way to document, at the very least, which standards are being taught in which years and in which areas.  

Coming from an elementary background, integration has always been the norm for me.  Often times, without it, it would be impossible to teach all of the mapped-curriculum.  Considering this, clearly there is a place for PBL and/or CBL even in schools which are curriculum-driven.  We don’t have to throw out our curriculum to incorporate PBL and CBL types of activities, but a standards-based curriculum map geared more toward process than content along with a similar reporting system should be considered in regarding innovations for 21st century learning in our schools.

Regarding assessment, group grading has always been a bit of a conundrum for me.  Since PBL and CBL are primarily group learning activities, questions regarding the assessment of individual students arise.  It is currently the policy of my team not to issue group grades.  In other words, we refrain from giving the same grade to all individuals in a group.  We do, however, give students individual grades for our “Approaches To Learning”, which includes the stem, “works effectively with others.”  As it stands now, their performance in a group, whether it be stellar or marginal, is not considered when determining their overall academic letter grade for the semester.

We have had many discussions regarding this at our team level and as a division.  Our collective stance seems, still, to be forming.  In good conscience, even if there are real-world implications, it is unfair to give a student who works hard and does their part, and more, a poor grade on a group activity as a result of the performance of others, and vice versa.  Are their ways to get around this?  Certainly there are.  First it is not important that every single activity receive an academic grade.  Our teachers believe that the “Approaches To Learning” marks are just as important as the semester letter grade.

According to Papert, with PBL, we should be assessing, not curricular content, but how kids are “using knowledge”.  Realistically, we still have to assess the “right and wrong” answer type of content.   Teachers can do this through anecdotal records kept for each individual throughout a PBL unit.  Additionally, checklists and rubrics can be created and applied to the individual performances of group members and to the integrated content of the activity.  There are numerous other ways to collect individual data which require a fair amount of thought and ingenuity, but the learning payoffs would make it well worth the effort.

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With the added benefit of technology, the possibility for the exploration and incorporation of project-based learning is even greater.  PBL and CBL allow students to collaborate locally and globally  while engaging in the highest levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy:  applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.  Issues regarding curriculum and assessment become secondary when considering the learning implications associated with these types of authentic endeavors.

SAMR and the Integration of Tech Standards

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How can teachers and schools ensure that students are meeting technology standards in their school within an integrated model?

Last Saturday’s CoETaIL meeting focused on tech standards and included a great discussion regarding the SAMR and TPACK models,  both effective tools in helping teachers with tech integration.   The SAMR model, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, is designed to “help teachers develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences which will lead to high levels of  achievement for students.”  The model consists of four levels:

1.  Substitution: technology replaces a tool without a significant change in the activity

2. Augmentation: technology replaces another tool with a  significant increase in functionality

3. Modification: technology enables the redesign of significant segments of a learning activity

4. Redefinition: technology allows for the creation of new tasks and learning experiences that would otherwise be inconceivable

The first two levels of the model are considered to be enhancement, while levels 3 and 4 represent transformation.

The integration of tech standards is most definitely a process.  As a classroom teacher, I am finding the SAMR useful in helping me to determine the level of tech integration within the learning activities of the units that I teach.  While my goal is to move upward on the model from enhancement to transformation, some of the current tech integration within my units would still be categorized as  level 1, substitution.  To help me get a better grip on how tech standards are being integrated into my existing units, I have identified a learning activity for each level of the model.

Level 1:  Substitution

Our 6th grade Language Arts / Social Studies curriculum has a focus on vocabulary and grammar skills.  Each day we begin the class with a short activity focusing on these two areas.  We have scanned these exercises from printed material and have made them available to students in digital format.  Students access and complete the activities using their laptops.

Level 2:  Augmentation

Students consistently use their laptops to compose text for different types of assignments.  The advantage of having features such as spelling and grammar check has availed additional options for the students as they complete their writing tasks.

Level 3:  Modification

Students have just finished a persuasive essay writing unit using Google Docs to complete their compositions which required multiple drafts and substantial revisions.  The sharing feature of Google Docs allowed me to give them instant feedback and provided opportunities for peer editing during school and while at home.  Google Docs significantly modified the unit by giving students important feedback before their actual writing conferences with me.  In some cases, writing conferences were accomplished via the comments made within the shared document.

Level 4:  Redefinition

Each December, all 6th graders visit Sensoji temple as part of their study of Japanese culture. In the past, the activity consisted of students working in groups to collect information regarding the cultural features of the temple and surround shops.  Afterwards, students shared their information in their groups and all worked individually to create postcards of the  different cultural features.  The postcards were then placed in the student’s physical portfolio.

The integration of technology into this learning activity has radically redefined it.  Now, with the use of digital cameras, smart phones, and video editing software, students chronicle their visit in photographs and video, in addition to collecting the information about the temple’s cultural features.  Afterwards, they share information and collaborate to incorporate still photos, video footage, text, voice, and music to create a persuasive travel video about Sensoji temple and Japan.  These videos were published to SchoolTube and also on the student’s Edublog digital portfolio.  These changes not only moved the activity to the top of the model, it also allowed for the integration of many more skills, including those within media literacy and our school’s tech standards, into this project-based activity.

My team is finding the use of the SAMR model in the planning of our units quite valuable.  Dr. Puentedura offers these guiding questions as teachers reflect on existing units and plan for the integration of technology.

• Is the technology being used appropriate for working on all levels of the model, or is it limiting?
• Is technology being utilized to reach all levels of the model?
• Is the technology well-suited for the activity, or are there other possibilities that would either fit the task better, or allow for opportunities to reach all levels of the SAMR model?

I feel lucky to work in an environment that encourages tech integration.  Another key factor in the success of this process, or any other, is providing adequate professional development for teachers and support in terms of time and equipment.  Only through careful, thoughtful planning can schools continue to move towards transformation.

Tech Standards: Who Should Be Teaching Them Anyway?

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) works to ensure that technology is an integral part of the classroom experience, and also

“strives to ensure that technology improves learning and teaching to help more students achieve their full potential.”

Drawing from the ISTE‘s Educational Technology Standards for Students, The National Statements of Learning for Information and Communication Technologies from MCEETYA – Australia; and the ICT Student Expectations – Queensland Department of Education, my school’s Technology and Media Group drafted an Educational Technology Expectations document which identify

“the knowledge, understanding, ways of working, and skills that we expect students will develop from Nursery to Grade 12 as Educational Technologies are embedded in teaching and learning.”   

The ETE’s are described through five main organizers :  inquiring, creating, communicating, operating, and ethically using educational technology.  Keep in mind that this is in draft form only.

As teachers, we often struggle with time constraints when trying to make sure we have proper “coverage” of the detailed curricula that we are required to teach.  A key point that should be made straight away is that this document is not intended to be a technology curriculum.  It is a set of expectations designed for use within existing units. In our school, many innovative approaches to learning which incorporate technology already exist; therefore, there are benefits in the documentation of these innovations at each grade level.  These ETE’s will:

1. create common language around technology and media literacy
2. insure articulation from grade level to grade level
3. assist teachers when developing, refining, and mapping units of study

Technology is a tool for learning.  While some discrete tech skills may need direct teaching, these ETE’s should be embedded within units as part of a mapped curriculum rather than in a 45-minute special “computer” class.  The Edutopia article, Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?:  The Reasons Are Many,  drives home this point.  Effective tech integration needs to occur across the curriculum in “ways that research shows deepen and enhance the learning process.”  Even though we sometimes need to instruct students in the operation of equipment and the use of applications, the ultimate goal of technology in education is a deeper and wider understanding of the concepts that we are currently teaching.

In looking back over this year, it’s evident to me that we’ve covered many of these ETE’s in the units that my students have completed.  For example, my LASS students recently created Book Broadcasts as part of an independent reading program.  Using MovieMaker, students were required to create a short movie about their book with the intended audience being potential readers.  They were to cover the main characters, the problem in the story, and their personal recommendation.  They either created their own content or used Creative Commons to find images and music for their broadcasts.  Once we published these to SchoolTube, students then created QR codes which they placed on the physical book.  For e-books on our library Kindles, we created a Google document which we shared with our librarian.  This code, when read by a free app on  a smart phone, will lead potential readers to the student’s video and will provide them with helpful information in deciding whether or not to read the book.  This learning activity covers 3 of the 5 organizers in our ETE’s:

1. Creating -  design and create digital products for personal, class, or community use
2. Communicating - incorporate online communication tools into real work situations
3. Ethically using -  adhere to codes of practice and apply strategies to conform to intellectual property and copyright laws including identifying and acknowledging the owner/creator of digital sources and citing references

These tech standards, or ETE’s, are already integrated into the learning activities within each of our units.  The document itself will serve to be a very important resource for teachers as we continue to explore ways of organically incorporating technology as an enrichment tool for student learning.

Graphic Reference :  http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx

CoETaIL Course 3 Project and Reflection

For the final project of CoETaIL Course 3, I had the amazing opportunity to work with three outstanding teachers during the EARCOAS weekend workshop featuring Andrew Churches and our very own, Kim Cofino.  Diana was in my collaborative group representing Shekou International School in China, as were Sean and Alex, both in Japan, representing Makuhari International School and Yokohama International School respectively.  Over the course of two days, we collaborated on a multimedia project which integrates media literacy skills and social studies content and focuses on this essential question:

How can we use language and digital media to persuade an audience?

The project was developed to follow a persuasive writing unit in Writer’s Workshop.  In our UbD plan, we have included the ISTE NETS Standards as well as elements of effective visual media.  The teacher-created exemplar is a Google Presentation entitled, You Wouldn’t Want toBe a Samurai.  During the implementation of the project, students will work in collaborative teams to decide on a position and then plan accordingly to create a multi-media presentation that convinces their audience of the position they have chosen.  The form the end product takes will be the students’ choice provided it enables them to meet the expectations set forth in the rubric.

It’s hard to believe that this cohort has now finished the 3rd course in the 5-course program.  Reflecting back over the first three courses, now that we’re over the halfway mark, I’m amazed at all that I’ve learned.  While the challenges remain for me, I’m becoming more and more confident and I’m quite pleased with all of the new technical skills that I’ve acquired, especially with MacBook Pro, as well as all of the new educational applications that I’ve walked away with and have begun to implement with my students.  I was a beginner for sure at the start of Course 1.  I’d rate myself as “early intermediate” at this point. Thanks to Kim and Frank for their outstanding facilitation and for continuing to help build my confidence as well as my knowledge and skill level.  Perhaps you can teach an “old dog new tricks.”

The middle school facilitator of technology sent out a survey today regarding the use of web-based tech tools in the classroom.  I was very pleased to say that out of the 15 applications listed, I have used 12 with my students this year and was able to include a few more that were not on the list.  That’s exciting and is evidence of a significant shift for me.   My team has been very supportive from the start and the conversations that have been generated as a result of my CoETaIL involvement continue with my colleagues.  We have recently added important curriculum regarding visual literacy to our 6th grade program and are continually experimenting with and finding new tools and approaches to facilitate our units.

I welcome the challenges of the next course and look forward to the continued learning and collaboration of the cohort.  Have a great spring break everyone!