502 Course Reflection

EDTECH 502: The Internet for Educators focused on two main skill sets.  The first, and most significant, was using HTML5 and CSS3 to design websites in Adobe Dreamweaver.  I came into the course with some prior experience using earlier versions of HTML, but most of my efforts were very utilitarian with minimal styling and I had no experience with CSS or Dreamweaver.  As a result, the pages I built in this course are much more attractive and show a greater degree of sophistication than my prior efforts.  While I'm not ready to compete with professional web designers (by a long shot), I can build a basic website and make it look reasonably attractive.

The other main aspect of this course was an introduction to various models of web-based lessons including jigsaws, WebQuests, and virtual field trips among others.  In some cases, I've seen or used lessons with similar structures elsewhere, but had not made much use of the Internet within these lessons.  Creating web-based lessons following these structures required me to become much more familiar with the Internet resources available in my content area.

One of the most powerful aspects of web-based activities I saw throughout the course was the opportunity for differentiation.  I teach a 9th grade physical science course which every student must take, meaning I see a wide variety of students in my classroom.  The range of reading levels poses a particular challenge as I have students able to read at a college level who find our textbook (written at roughly a 7th grade level) overly simple while other students read at an elementary level and find the same textbook incomprehensibly difficult.  When working on many of the projects for this course, I was able to find worthwhile resources at a variety of reading levels, giving me an opportunity to provide all of my students with appropriate texts as well as tools to scaffold struggling readers toward more challenging options.  This realization of how easy it is to differentiate a web-based lesson has me working on adapting many of the assignments I typically use the textbook for.

My ability to build basic web pages will make it possible for me to present differentiated resources, whether as links to other web sites or as content I've written myself, in a well-organized format with a reasonably professional appearance and an engaging task.  This approach will be much more straightforward than attempting to copy and distribute appropriately articles or other texts at a variety of reading levels.

Web Quest

This project was my introduction to the WebQuest as developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March.  The goal of a WebQuest is to use Internet resources to engage students in a higher-order thinking activity with a strong inquiry component.  In my building, we have been striving to increase our use of inquiry and to find more opportunities to challenge our students with critical thinking and other high-level tasks, so a WebQuest should be an excellent fit in my classroom.

As I considered topics, I decided to incorporate an engineering task into the WebQuest.  We are working on some curriculum revisions to increase the presence of engineering in our 9th grade science courses, and one of the challenges is finding ways to ensure the science content is integrated into the engineering projects.  The research and writing components common to many WebQuests provide an excellent platform for students to explore the relationship between physical science topics and the product students design and build.  I picked one of the projects we are considering which I am most excited about, a task where students build a vehicle that will protect an egg in a head-on collision, and built a WebQuest around it.

In the Virtual Field Trip project, my first experience designing a site with multiple web pages, I spent very little time planning before I dove in and paid for that mistake by spending more time than necessary on later stages of the project.  I learned from those mistakes and, this time, tried to front-load more of the effort.  I typed out the majority of my text in Word, then sketched a basic outline for each page on a whiteboard.  This allowed me to determine in advance which tags I would need and ensure the structure of each page would be consistent across the site.  I then built the start page into Dreamweaver and wrote the majority of the CSS before beginning any of the other pages.  By front-loading my efforts with intentional planning, I spent significantly less time overall on the CSS for this page than the Virtual Field Trip, driving home the importance of planning ahead on a complex project.

Egg Crash WebQuest

501 Course Reflection

This course, titled Introduction to Educational Technology, was designed to provide a basic overview of the field, including how to understand rising trends, how to evaluate an institution's use of technology, and how to analyze key issues within the field.  This course also gave me a foundation of the skills which will be required moving forward in the MET program, including screencasting, principles of effective academic presentations, and research techniques.

This course has also provided me some valuable insights.  This course required the use of several tools I was already familiar with and showed me, very directly and concretely, how they can be effectively applied in an educational setting.  For example, I have seen a few colleagues use social networks as a tool for communicating with their students.  In this course, we used Google+ for not only communication, but for active collaboration with our peers.  This experience has given me a new perspective; the changes to how social networks are used in this course compared to my prior experience are simple, but have added a powerful element to the course.  I am now energized to reexamine other familiar technologies to consider how I could use them more effectively in my classroom.

At the start of this course, I was skeptical about the likelihood of building a community in an online course.  This semester was my first experience taking any courses online and I've spoken to a number of people who found their experience with online coursework to be very impersonal and, as a result, have been very hesitant to participate in efforts to offer online courses in the district where I teach.  The structure of this course provided a framework for interaction that was a stark contrast to what I'd been lead to expect.  The requirement to post assignments to a Google+ community, the use of small groups, and the clear expectations for participation are strategies that could easily be adapted to other online courses and have me much more interested in offering an online component to the courses I teach.

 I expect that, over the next few semesters, I will continue to see technology and my classroom in a new light.  These perspectives, and the important skills that come with them, will continue to improve my classroom practice and allow me to be a more valuable asset to my district as we increase our integration of technology.

School Evaluation Summary

My district has contracted an outside consulting company to evaluate our level of technology integration this winter.  Among the staff, we've had a lot of conversation about what this evaluation will be, how it fits into the district's long-term plans, and what kind of scores we think we will get.  In spite of all the conversation, most staff have a fairly vague idea of what the evaluators will be looking for.  While I don't know what rubric the evaluators will be using, it was very enlightening to work through evaluating a school.  I feel like I have a much better idea of what the evaluators are likely to look for and can make a much more informed estimation of what the results of our evaluation may be.

I was pleased to see training and support are both included in the evaluation.  As I worked through evaluating a school, I was struck by how many subsections were indirectly affected by the training and resources available to teachers.  Workshops and support staff are not as easy a public relations sell as a new computer lab or a set of tablets for student use, but if the teachers don't know how to use the technology, it won't be used effectively or consistently.


I was also pleased to see student use is given significant weight in the evaluation rubric.  Technology should be used to improve student learning and to help students develop the skills they will need beyond high school, yet all too often this is ignored in technology purchases.  For example, a few years ago it was a significant point of pride for schools to have interactive whiteboards in their classrooms, in spite of the fact that they are typically used by teachers to enhance traditional lectures.  While such use has value, to use something as an example of technology integration, students, and not just teachers, must have true access to the technology.

Please note a pseudonym has been used for the school in these documents.

School Evaluation Summary

School Evaluation Survey

Virtual Field Trip

This project was my first introduction to the virtual field trip model.  In addition, it was my first foray into using a variety of multimedia in my websites.  For this project, I went beyond the links and images I'd used previously, and incorporated audio, video, a Java widget, and an interactive simulation.

Working on this project made it clear to me the importance of clear planning when building a web site as opposed to a single, stand alone web page.  In my previous projects for this course, I did very little advance thinking and would simply put my content into Dreamweaver with very little thought behind the tags I used.  Often, as I worked on the CSS, I realized a different tag would work better for a certain element, but it was simple to make the change.

I started this project in a very similar way and built the skeleton of all five pages before working on the styling of the site.  Once I began the CSS, I changed some tags as usual, but quickly realized keeping track of those changes across five different pages was tricky.  I believe my poor planning significantly increased the time I needed for this project.  This experience was not a bad thing; I am now much more aware of the importance of careful planning when putting together a website and will take a more deliberate approach on future projects.

Virtual Field Trip

Technology Use Planning Overview

What is Technology Use Planning?

In any kind of organization, technology must be implemented with purpose.  A technology use plan should set out what technology will be used within the organization and how that technology will be used.  It provides members of the organization with a roadmap for the future of technology within the organization and ensures that any purchases or other changes will be a step toward a larger goal.

The National Education Technology Plan

The National Education Technology Plan 2010 (NETP) sets out a series of audacious goals for the role of technology in American schools.  The purpose of the plan is twofold.  First, it seeks to provide a roadmap in increase the proportion of college graduates from 41% of the population to 60% by 2020.  Second, it seeks to close the achievement gap and ensure that all students leave the public school system prepared for college and careers.

Many of the recommendations of the NETP will result in dramatic changes to the traditional classroom.  Those involved with technology planning at a more local level need to account for these trends in their work. 

The NETP also provides a model for the proper focus of a technology plan in a school.  Too often, technology in education is treated as an end in itself by administrators and policymakers, particularly as the school choice movement gains momentum and technology in a school can serve as a draw for students.  The NETP strives to tie each recommendation to expected outcomes and student achievement.  Since the goal of schools is to give students the skills and knowledge to prepare them for college or employment, a similar focus should be at the center of any technology plan.

What the NETP Misses

Among the ambitious proposals of the NETP are to group students based on ability and prior knowledge rather than age, to base advancement on achievement of outcomes rather than “seat time”, and to offer more opportunities for students to take courses online.  I am concerned that these proposals in particular ignore the importance of social interactions in education.  Students need a chance to interact with peers at a similar level of development and maturity and those who are separated from their age group, either as a result of being accelerated or as a result of being held back, often face significant social challenges and develop behavioral issues.

This does not mean removing the traditional age-grouped structure is bound to fail, particularly if it truly ceases to be the norm, but some attention must be paid to how to ensure students have the opportunity for the social interactions very central to a typical school.  When students spend their day in classrooms and hallways filled with their peers, the interactions necessary to their social development happen naturally and consistently.  If age-level groups disappear, will extra curricular activities need to be expanded, will students organically find their peers outside of school, or is the need for age-level interaction overblown?  These questions need to be considered as part of these dramatic changes.

Short-Term or Long Term?

John See of the Minnesota Department of Education, in his article on what an effective technology use plan should look like, emphasized that a plan should focus on the short-term; he suggests that even a one year plan may be too long.  His argument is that technology changes rapidly, so planning for use five years out is unrealistic and likely to chain an organization to outdated technology.

I certainly agree that a technology plan should include flexibility, particularly when it comes to specific hardware.  To neglect to develop a long-term plan, however, is to ignore many of the realities of a school district.  For example, many districts fund significant technology purchases either through grants or a technology levy approved by voters.  In either case, a specific, long-term proposal is most likely to gain traction.  Even aside from the public relations challenges, many of the processes take significant time. 

For example, my district is currently pursuing a grant to build fabrication laboratories (FABLABs) in our high schools and, once the grant organization makes a decision on the award, it will have been at least six months since our initial steps to pursue this opportunity.  The organization requires a three-year plan and will spread the funding over the same time period.  Even without the requirements of the grant organization, it will take several years to remodel an appropriate space, train the teachers involved, and develop curriculum.  We are also considering questions of how to cover the cost of materials, maintenance, and the other long-term expenses of a FABLAB once the grant has ended.  While decisions about specific equipment will not be made until it is time to make purchases, we need a long-term plan to effectively implement a FABLAB.

Application or Hardware?

See also argues that the most effective technology plans begin with how the technology will be applied rather than the specifics of the quantities and hardware. He makes the very valid point that using application as the starting point ensures the planning committee will be ready to explain to school boards, grant organizations, voters, and stakeholders why the technology is needed.  In addition, school districts have an ethical obligation to use funds responsibly and focusing on the desired outcomes will help technology committees to meet that obligation.

However, See is again neglecting the realities of a public school.  For example, he suggests debates such as Apple vs. PC are irrelevant and districts should adopt, on a case-by-case basis, the platform best suited to the particular use and explicitly argues against standardization.  While every computer in the building certainly does not need to be identical, standardization provides a means for districts to use their resources more efficiently. When there is a single operating system in the district, it becomes very easy to automate processes such as regular back-ups and system updates.  It also allows a very limited number of technology staff to provide support services and troubleshooting.

Purchasing standardized, flexible hardware can also allow a district to get more use out of technology.  For example, my building offers courses in video production, computer-aided drafting (CAD), and robotics.  The ideal computer lab for each course is slightly different, but, since we only offer a few sections of each, computer labs specialized for those courses would spend much of the day either unused or used for more basic purposes.  Instead, we have a single computer lab shared among those three courses.  The lab may not be ideal for any of the courses, but it is flexible enough to work well for all of them.  The space is not only used every period of the day, but also every day after school by either the video production club or the robotics team.  By pooling resources and building a flexible space, we have been able to spend funds on cameras, software, and other tools rather than on computers that would be underused.

My Experience

This fall, my district began using a program called MasteryConnect.  It is a web-based application that allows teachers to upload multiple choice or rubric-based assessments and tie each question to a specific state standard.  After completing an assessment, students place their bubble sheet in front of a webcam and instantly see a score, including which questions they got wrong.  Student scores can be viewed either by assessment or by standard.  Finally, the software integrates with Infinite Campus, our student records system, to allow the easy import of rosters into MasteryConnect and the easy export of scores into the Infinite Campus gradebook.

The Good

As I have watched the implementation of MasteryConnect, there are several things my district has done very well.  First, the introduction of MasteryConnect happened to coincide with the first year we have had a district-wide technology integration specialist.  While his role is to oversee the integration of a wide variety of technology into our classrooms, not just this one tool, he has helped provide a smooth rollout.  He has developed help documents specific to our district, focusing on the tasks we need to perform and the other software we are using in concert with MasteryConnect, and provided more individualized assistance to teachers using this tool in their classrooms.

The district has also sought to develop experts in each building.  Over the summer, teachers from each department within the high schools participated in intensive training on MasteryConnect.  When teachers returned in August, every teacher had someone just down the hall they could go to with questions about the new software.

Finally, the district tied this new software purchase to initiatives already in place to increase student achievement.  Over the past several years, we have sought to increase our use of formative assessment and to provide students with frequent, immediate feedback on their progress.  Many teachers have struggled with how to make these initiatives manageable since it becomes very easy to drown in piles of papers to grade.  MasteryConnect was presented to us as a tool we could use to perform formative assessments.  In addition, this software makes it possible for students to see how they did almost as soon as they finish for truly immediate feedback.  This is a case where technology has been used to meet a real need and truly improve the productivity of teachers and the learning of students.

The Less Good

The rollout of MasteryConnect has not been perfect, though a number of district staff are continually reevaluating the system and seeking solutions to the problems as they appear.  To begin with, classroom lighting has become a surprising challenge.  Many teachers have found the lights in their classroom cause too much glare to properly scan bubble sheets with this software.  In my classroom, I have found how to adjust the lighting to easily scan bubble sheets, but others have had to build makeshift shades out of folders or have given up on the system entirely. 

One of the very appealing aspects of MasteryConnect has been its ability to communicate with our student records system, Infinite Campus.  It turns out, a third party script is being used to facilitate this communication and, as a result, there have been bugs where students who join a class partway through the term (a very frequent occurrence for us) may not appear for several weeks and some teachers' accounts on MasteryConnect are periodically unlinked from the district, removing our access to paid features.  A trouble ticket will usually fix these problems within a few hours, but it is a frustrating hassle.  As the new kid on the block, I would have expected MasteryConenct to be writing their own scripts to sync with established systems like Infinite Campus and they may very well be moving in that direction. 

Both of these issues, and the others that have arisen around MasteryConnect, are minor and will improve with time.  The problem is many teachers are either uncomfortable with technology or are too busy to troubleshoot.  As a result, these bugs are enough that many are making limited or no use of MasteryConnect.  It may have been better to have a select group of teachers willing and able to work around the early problems pilot the system for a trimester, or even a full year.  This would have given the district a chance to iron out the hassles and headaches with people less likely to be turned off by them, then have a smoother rollout to the entire district.

Final Thoughts

The best technology use plans serve a number of different purposes.  They help sell the need for technology to the parties providing funds and resources, they provide teachers and administrators with guidance on how to use new technology, and they determine the resources that will be available for a smooth rollout of new tools.  Meeting each of these needs is challenging, but technology committees must rise to the task to ensure technology is not only used, but used effectively in schools.

Sources 

See, J.  (1992, May 8).  Developing effective technology plans.  Retrieved from http://www.nctp.com/html/john_see.cfm

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2010). National education technology plan 2010. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010-execsumm.pdf

 

EdTech Home Page

This project was to build a website that could serve as my personal educational technology home page using a CSS template.  The page includes a brief introduction to me and some relevant links.  As I progress through the program, I will be able to link to the artifacts I produce during my coursework.  Ideally, when I apply for educational technology positions, I can provide a link to my home page and this blog to provide evidence of the kinds skills and expertise I've gained.

When I started the project, I assumed that using a template would be a fairly trivial task where I would simply download one I liked, then dump in my content.  It turned out to be much more involved than I anticipated and, in the process, I learned a few new tricks.  Part of what made using a template challenging is, when browsing through the suggested libraries, I couldn't find anything I was completely happy with; I ended up downloading one that was close, then doing a lot of digging around "under the hood" to get it just the way I wanted.

I started by replacing the included banner image with a photo of my own then changed the background, using a transparent image made in Adobe Fireworks to add some texture, a trick I figured out after looking at some other templates.  Next, after removing some sections I didn't have a use for, this template had the main content arranged in a single column.  After looking at the code in some other templates and CSS resources, I found a way to make two columns with an additional aside for my contact links.  Finally, I added a few other images and made some tweaks to the layout.

EdTech Home Page

Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

VoiceThread Presentation
Google Doc Presentation

The digital divide has been at the forefront of my mind during my educational technology coursework, so I have been looking forward to this assignment.  I knew going in that the digital divide is an issue in my district, since I have had many students who self-report that they do not have access to a computer or Internet connection at home, so I was eager to dig into some of the data surrounding the digital divide as well as to explore possible solutions.

In the articles I read while working on this, most of the steps I found to address the digital divide would need to occur at a district or government level rather than in the classroom.  I am glad to have a deeper understanding of the systemic approaches since some are already being discussed in my district and others are likely to arrive in the near future, especially given that our demographic trends suggest we will have a growing number of students on the wrong side of the digital divide.  More and more, I am convinced that to get the full benefits of a 1:1 device or BYOD program, the district must also take steps to ensure more households have access to broadband.

I would like to learn more about what individual teachers can do at the classroom level to address the digital divide and plan to explore that through future coursework, professional learning communities, and independent reading.  I tend to avoid requiring the use of technology in assignments students will complete outside of the classroom to prevent putting students without a home computer at a disadvantage, but this limits what I can have my students do.  There must be better ways to approach this problem and, until a broadband connection is as ubiquitous as electricity, teachers need to keep seeking out those better ways.

Mobile Learning Activity

The technical skill this project focused on was building a web page using a fluid grid template, making it easy to view a page on a variety of devices, including desktop computers, tablets, and smart phones.  The goal was to design a page to be used as part of an activity that goes beyond the walls of a traditional classroom.

Each spring, amusement parks throughout the United States host physics days when the park fills with high school physics students applying what they've learned about mechanics, conservation of energy, and other physics topics to the rides.  In my area, the typical destination is Valley Fair in Shakopee, Minnesota.  Unfortunately, most of the physics day activities I've seen simply involve having students complete problems about the various rides, largely due to the limited measurements which can be made with most high school lab equipment and the logistical challenges of getting the equipment into students' hands while at the park.

This project struck me as an excellent opportunity to explore how smartphones could be used to overcome the challenges associated with having students make direct measurements at an amusement park. When the majority of students are carrying a smartphone capable of making and recording measurements, the teacher doesn't have to spend the majority of the day checking out sextants and stopwatches to students.  In addition, a variety of apps for both Android and iOS allow students to make very direct measurements of speed and acceleration, opening up new possibilities for the kinds of analysis students can perform on a ride.  As a result, the m-learning page I wrote can not only serve as a reference for students as they explore the amusement park, but a gateway for completing the project almost entirely on a smartphone.

Valley Fair Physics Day Mobile Learning

Jigsaw Activity

This project, like many in the 502 course, focused on two main skills.  First, in the area of web design, I learned how to include and format tables using HTML and CSS.  Second, this project introduced me to Elliot Aronson's jigsaw model and how to incorporate Internet resources into that model.

While I hadn't looked at Aronson's specific model prior to this project, I have used jigsaw activities with my students, so was already familiar with the basic model.  When I've done jigsaws, I have primarily have students rely primarily on the textbook, which means my struggling readers who have a reading level several grades below the textbook contribute very little to their expert groups.  By shifting these activities online, I can give my students access to a much wider array of resources at a range of reading levels, allowing those who struggle with reading to play a more active role in the research.

In this project, I also spent some time considering how to have students record and store the information.  Currently, each of my 9th grade students maintains a science notebook, which provides a very natural place for students to copy and complete a table which summarizes the information from the activity.  Within a few years, my district will likely begin implementing a 1-to-1 device program and a paper notebook may make much less sense.  I did some very brief research on digital alternatives to the style of science notebook I use and created a simple Google Document which students can copy to their own account to complete.  I  only scratched the surface when it comes to options for taking an interactive notebook into the digital realm and will definitely be exploring this in more depth.  

Friction Jigsaw Activity

Tech Trends

The 2013 Horizon Report was an overall interesting read.  The focus on providing examples of how each technology is currently being used along with links for additional reading make the document a very practical tool for educators interested in staying ahead of trends in technology.  I will definitely be reading future reports.

For this assignment, I chose to focus on 3D printing.  My district is currently pursuing a STEM initiative which includes plans to build a fabrication laboratory, or FabLab, in each of our high schools.  I have no experience with the technology and very limited background knowledge, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity to begin developing a deeper understanding of how this technology could be integrated into science classrooms.

While the Horizon Report focuses on 3D printing, most of the articles I was able to find included discussion of other fabrication or rapid prototyping technology.  While 3D printers seem to be the flagship devices, they are most often purchased as part of a larger FabLab, so it is difficult to isolate the discussion of 3D printers from other, related technologies.

It was difficult to find articles which focused specifically on the use of fabrication technology in education, let alone science education.  I suspect this is because FabLabs are in their infancy, especially in the field of education.  There are a fairly limited number of schools which have purchased the technology at this point and, when I've spoken to educators using FabLabs, they are putting their energies into learning how to effectively use this technology with students largely through trial and error and do not yet feel they have the background to produce papers or presentations on the topic.  The limited number of school FabLabs also means educational researchers have limited options for subjects in their studies.  With time, this lack of research should gradually be remedied.  In the meantime, the lack of hard data on the use of this technology will probably contribute to the long timeline for widespread adoption within education predicted by the New Media Consortium.

Tech Trends

Interactive Concept Web

The core skill this project was meant to teach was creating and manipulating images in Adobe Fireworks, then using that image in a webpage.  In particular, we were tasked with embedding several links within a single image on a webpage.

This project happened to fall while I was covering the electromagnetic spectrum in both the courses I teach.  Since this topic divides very easily into subtopics, it seemed a natural subject for this project.  As it turns out, this page was a helpful resource to some of my students.  The textbook for my 9th grade course is written at a higher reading level than some of my students are ready for, so many struggle with an assignment I give to read about each subtype of electromagnetic wave and identify some of the applications.  When writing the text for this website, I tried to focus on applications for each wave type while keeping the sentence structure and vocabulary simpler than in the textbook.  As a result, students who had trouble using the book to complete the assignment were able to finish using this webpage.  In addition, my more advanced students who wanted to learn more hand a launching pad to find more detailed information.

My experience with this assignment shows some of the value in learning to design a basic webpage as a teacher.  By building a website, I was able to make differentiated readings accessible to any student who needed or wanted it without causing embarrassment that would come with handing struggling students a paper article.  My district uses Blackboard as a learning management system, where I could certainly post the same text and links I put on the website, but something about leaving Blackboard to visit an external website with some basic design lead my students to treat the content with more authority than they would an uploaded document.  I am now considering what other topics it may be worth my time to write and design a simple website for my students.

Interactive Concept Web

Plagiarism Scavenger Hunt

In this project, I built a page to lead students through a scavenger hunt on a topic related to copyright and fair use.  In the process, I explored several key areas of knowledge and skill.  First, I went in with a limited, patchwork understanding of the topic.  Before I could build a website and activity for students, I needed to understand principles of copyright and fair use.  I spent a fair amount of time reading up on these principles to be sure I understood these topics.  As a result of the deeper, more complete understanding of fair use I gained, I have been able to use images, videos, and other copyrighted material appropriately in the other projects I've completed as part of this program.  I've also gone back to revise many of the materials I use in my classroom to better conform to fair use principles.

Second, this was my first introduction to the use of an online scavenger hunt lesson.  This structure could easily be adapted to a wide variety of topics.  I currently have several lessons I use in my classroom that follow a similar structure, but rely on articles or textbooks.  These lessons could benefit from being converted into online scavenger hunts since many of my students prefer to read from a screen rather than paper and the Internet makes it simple to find resources at a wide variety of reading levels, which would make it much easier for me to differentiate and scaffold lessons for both my struggling readings and my most advanced students.

For the project, I ended up selecting the topic of plagiarism, since that is the topic I deal with the most with my students.  In particular, I have my 9th grade students complete a research project on different energy sources and many of my students copy text and images from websites without attribution or believe that by copying a paragraph, then changing one or two words, they have adequately put the text into their own words.  I hope to use the scavenger hunt with my students as part of the project to help them understand how to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism Scavenger Hunt

EDTECH Research

Every year, when I teach electric circuits and Kirchoff's Laws, my students struggle through the labs.  Setting up involved circuits is time-consuming and takes a lot of attention to detail.  When my students are doing these labs, I am on my feet more than usual, trouble-shooting poor connections and re-teaching each group how to use the multimeter they did just fine with yesterday.  As a result, these labs have much less content than I would like to include and I find those days exhausting.  For certain pieces, I don't even attempt a lab and just tell the students what would happen, then have them do problems.

One alternative I've been considering is to have students use a circuit-building simulation to expedite the process.  Like most science teachers, I tend to assume that a real-world, hands-on activity is better than anything a computer can do, but the draw of simply dragging a cursor to connect circuit elements rather than connecting alligator clips and praying that nothing in the rat's nest of wires most students manage to produce comes loose is too much to resist.

This assignment seemed like an excellent opportunity to read some of the research on using simulations to teach science.  I set out partly to reassure myself that simulations can be effective teaching tools and partly to find out what is currently known about how to make the best use of simulations.  What are simulations good at teaching?  What makes a good simulation vs. a bad one?  After reading several papers on the topic, I feel like I have some ideas for how to design effective activities with a simulation and the confidence that simulations can serve an important role in science classrooms.

Research in Educational Technology

Web Accessibility Page

In this assignment, I explored principles of web accessibility.  While my project focused on alternative input devices for those with physical disabilities, the assignment also included an introduction to other accessibility issues, particularly for those with colorblindness or visual impairments.  The page was required to meet the guidelines set out by section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.  In addition to reading the sets of guidelines, I used Cynthia Says and WAVE to check my page for compliance and used a screen reader to check the structure of my page.  As a result, I developed an understanding of web accessibility well beyond the particular topics covered by my page.

The principles of web accessibility will certainly be important when I build web pages for use in my classroom, but the application of these principles goes well beyond my web design efforts.  When I select web sites for use in my classroom, I need to look for the same kind of accessibility I worked on providing to ensure that all of my students will be able to use the tools I point them to.  Not only do I have some background in what makes a website accessible, I have some knowledge of the tools some students may be using to access the web, whether they are visually or physically impaired, and can plan web-based lessons to work seamlessly with these tools when needed.

Web Accessibility Hotlinks Page

Netiquette Page

Netiquette refers to the rules of etiquette for online contexts.  In this project, I explored many of the common rules of netiquette to design and write a page I could use to introduce to my students to behavioral expectations for online work.  I put the expectations in the language of the "Titan Way", the Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) framework used in my school so that when I share the page with students, the language will be consistent with other behavioral expectations  within the school.

Most of the rules of netiquette I ran across were already familiar to me from my own use of the Internet, so most of the time I spent writing the content was used to reframe these rules within the Titan Way.  This project also started me thinking about how best to introduce the topic to students.  In a traditional classroom, I typically send a portion of the first class period reviewing the syllabus and going over my expectations for the students.  In an online or blended environment, it may be easier to take the time for a discussion of the expectations where my netiquette page serves as a starting point, rather than a static set of rules.

In terms of technical skills, this website was my second webpage created using an original CSS document and my first use of an aside box.

Netiquette Page

RSS in Education

I started this project already familiar with RSS since I have been using it for personal purposes for a long time.  Reading an RSS feed is a part of my daily ritual in the same way that reading the paper was for my parents.  I think of RSS, when I think of it at all, as a useful, but mundane tool that life would be slightly less convenient without.

This is a very limiting perspective.  I've fallen into a rut where RSS is no more exciting or engaging than my morning mug of tea.  This assignment required me to set aside my familiarity with RSS to think about how I could use it differently to enhance my classroom.  In particular, I revisited a science news assignment I've seen many teachers do where students are asked to clip a science article from a newspaper and write a response.  Assignments like this have fallen out of favor as the number of students who get a newspaper at home has plummeted.  RSS offers a way to resurrect and improve the science news assignment.

Bringing a science news assignment into the digital realm actually offers quite a few advantages.  RSS makes it extremely easy to get articles from a wide variety of sources, raising the odds that a student can find something that will interest them.  In addition, when stories are clipped from a newspaper and a hand-written page turned into the teacher, only the student who found the article is likely to read it.  By sharing articles on a discussion forum, the entire class has the opportunity to read and respond to what another student has found.

Armed with a fresh view of RSS, I will be examining some of my other classroom practices to see how not only RSS, but other technological tools that seem unremarkable at first glance, could be used to engage my students more effectively.

EdTech502 Project Page

This web page, which is used to link to all of the major projects I completed in EdTech 502: The Internet for Educators, represents my first foray into the use of CSS.  A major component of EdTech 502 is learning HTML5 and CSS.  I entered the course with some basic, prior experience using HTML, but had always done my styling directly within the HTML code.  Having styled a web page both ways, I can easily see the benefits of CSS.  It certainly is much more straight forward to write a few lines of code in the style sheet which will then apply to all items with the <p> tag than to include a string of modifiers each time you use a <p> tag.  CSS also makes it much easier to experiment with layout elements and to change your mind; there is no need to seek out each individual <h1> tag to make a change.

EdTech 502 Project Page

Elements of EdTech

If you asked me a few days ago to define educational technology, I would have answered “using computers and stuff to teach better.” I expect most of us working “in the trenches” of education would use similarly simplistic definitions. In this assignment, I took the time to truly study and evaluate a much richer definition of the field. The AECT article used as a basis for this task reminded me of how complex a task it truly is to “use computers and stuff to teach better.”  Some aspects of the definition, such as ethical concerns, would not have crossed my mind a few days ago.

The complexity of the AECT's definition does not just impact my understanding of what the field is since educational technology does not exist on a purely theoretical level.  Whenever I make a choice to use (or not use) technology in my classroom, I am putting my understanding of educational technology into practice.  The complete definition of educational technology can provide a source of guidance as to how to make my use of technology as effective as possible.

By analyzing in a scholarly way which elements of the AECT's definition I find most important and attempting to explain why, I thought in much more depth than I have in the past about what is most important to me when using technology in my classroom.  This provided an opportunity to begin shaping my philosophy of educational technology.  I am sure this philosophy will continue to be refined as I progress through the program and I consider a growing array of issues and challenges within the field.

Elements of Educational Technology

Welcome!

I teach physical science and physics at Tartan High School in Oakdale, Minnesota.  As of this posting, I am a few days away from starting my sixth year in the classroom.  Outside of the classroom, I am an avid runner training to run the Twin Cities Marathon in a few weeks.

This blog will serve as my learning log as I pursue a Master of Educational Technology through Boise State University.  I will use this space to present artifacts and other documentation of my growth throughout the program.  Posts will be tied to standards from the AECT.

In the video below, I've described my goals for the M.E.T. program and beyond.