Module 7 / 8

Of everything you learned, what do you think will have the biggest impact on student learning?

I think the most important issue is getting teachers on board with using the available and up coming technology in classrooms. The future for our students is changing so fast it is unrecognizable to us. We cannnot fathom what technology will allow in a few years, let alone when our curent students are the adults in charge. We need to be able to teach skill adaptability and forward thinking to our students. This demands that we as teachers become as technolgically adept as possible now. And we must work to keep abreast of changes and potential changes so we can use them with the students, to help them see applications. In addition, we need to be aware of our students' knowledge, which often surpasses our own, and use them as peer tutors, to carry us all forward into the 21st century.

Module 6

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

when assigning roles, the teacher has the opportuity to assign a role that meets the best skills of special learners.

when creating a series of assignments that lead to a finished product, the teacher has the opportunity to creat support documents that will help students identify the information they are seeking.

when creating assignments, the teacher has the opportunity to provide a rubric to help students identify the level of performance or completeness of their work.

when creating groups, the teacher has the opportunity to create groups with a variety of strengths to help students develop skills of cooperative production.

Module 5

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

This process is a combination of content and technology so the assessment needs to be done in such a way that both academic content and technology skills are assessed. I like the rubric for allowing the students to self monitor and or self score their work. Checklists allow students to know in advance if they are meeting the criteria. With these projects, the academic content is then imbedded in the actual work being created and presented. Many things are still necessary content to learn, but more and more, we need to teach students how to be learners, how to be users of skills to create new products, how to learn new technology so they can apply those skills to new assignments. Assessment needs to be designed to truly assess the material being taught. It takes considerable thought to create assessments that measure production projects.

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

The work taught and assigned must appear in some way relevant to the students to increase their engagement. At this time, many students are still interested and there are several in the class with less experience. Assessment is based on product. What did the student create and how did the student get there? How was the group dynamic used to increase learning? Did students meet timelines? Was each student show progress in skills?

Module 3

This module has helped me think about the impact of the Internet on my students' learning in the following ways . . .

Students are acquiring knowledge of and skills with internet resources in a variety of ways. Not all of what students are learning is ethical. As teachers, we need to be good models of internet use, and we need to instruct our students and our peers in ways of legal use of the internet.

In addition, as we design internet and other highly technological activities, we need to ensure that our students continue to acquire necessary people skills to work interactively and collaboratively in person. Group learning and collaborative projects can help students acquire both sets of technology skills and people skills. We need to learn new ways and change the ways we access learning. Our students are producing new types of products, and our accessments need to keep pace with the changing demands of learning and the future responsibilities and demands that will be placed on our students.

Module 2

This module has helped me think about using formative assessments in the followiong ways:

formative assessments can show greater depth of understanding and application than than a M/C or T/F or fill in the blank "test." Formative assessments can be quick, can be designed to meet the specific needs of individual students (need for alternate response formats), can be demonstrative, oral or artistic. Formative assessments can also be useful to extend for horizontal enrichment for those children who need greater engagement. Or it can be useful for the student who is only capable of partial participation. Formative assessment is extremely useful when looking at the contribution of several students to a group project. Formative assessment requires in depth thought during the development of the unit, so the assessment really evaluates what is intended to be learned.

Module I

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

In my classroom, this will change the way we instruct. As a self contained classroom for shildren with severe and profound disabilities, we work first on life skills, but foremost is communication. Self expression of wants, needs and idea is the critical skill for all my students. While we prefer speech, we also wowrk on simple sign or push button "talkers." How much better to have our children also able to increase their communication with the tools of the real world. We will be concentrating on teaching communication with all the computer related tools available.

As a senior teacher in our building, I frequently interact with all the other teachers who work with us. We have too many teachers who resist change, and this is not good for our students. If I can encourge or help any other teacher become more comfortble with use of technology in instruction, this will be worthwhile. As the elementary children of today complete school, technology skills will be essential to work, social life, and day to day living. I know how frequently I use technology for communication, research, sharing with my far-flung family. Why would I ever have wondered if this was useful for my students.