BLOG #2 Instructional Strategy Selection

BLOG #2

Instructional Strategy Selection

I selected cooperative learning as the strategy I will use to implement with the non-technology and technology assignment because it seemed like the best fit to my project. Cooperative learning will provide employees at MSUE a chance to interact in small groups on the internet through Adobe Connect and in face to face meetings. It will give them a chance to interact with each other to share knowledge and to increase support of each other through this network.

Members of the group will get a chance to teach and network with each other on things that the group members can apply to their jobs or new materials. The group will help each other solve problems, learn new work procedures, share what each one is doing in their local counties, and experience professional development together.

In the course book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors state that cooperative learning teams build trust, camaraderie and teamwork and can also be used for planning. The staff I work with will be writing renewal grants to fund the work they do. This team will offer each other support and knowledge during the grant writing period.

This type of learning is not new. Corporate teams work to solve big problems by combining knowledge, talent and skills and can not do it alone. An example are the efforts of the group Stand Up 2 Cancer. They raise money to give to collaborative cancer research experts to work together to cure cancer. So an expert on the east coast works with an expert on the west coast. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America are a recipient of this group. Teams do great work each day and it is important that students everywhere learn team building skills.

Bibliography:

“Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works (Paperback)” by Howard Pitler (Author), Elizabeth R. Hubbell (Author), Matt Kuhn (Author), and Kim Malenoski (Author). ISBN: 1416605703

Stand Up To Cancer website: February 6, 2011;

http://www.standup2cancer.org/blog_su2c/2011/01/heros_luminaries_and_visionari.php

#1 Blog Theory of Action

Here is my theory of action model at the top of this blog. The theory of action is very simple - do your action or teach your lesson and then just reflect on how  it went and  collect data and analyze it to see what change can be made.  When the data is used to create a positive change and presented to others  this is educational scholarship.  Jeffery Glanz, the author of Action Research:  An Educational Leader's Guide to School Improvement presents this form of evaluation  in an easy to use  and understand manner and makes evaluation easy for the participants.  

I will use the theory of action as I supervise staff at my job.  I will use an internet survey to collect data about using technology for meetings and then hold a meeting using both technology and non-technology and do a post survey to reflect what the staff think.  They will provide reflection, I will collect the data and make any needed changes.  This can be done at each meeting and will give it closure at the end.  Sharing the data with them will be a great way to begin the next meeting.

Michigan State University Extension, 4-H Youth Development uses a similar action research that is called the Experiential Learning Model.  This is a do, reflect, apply model.  The youth do whatever it is they are learning about and then they analyze how it went and what they learned and this model goes a step farther and the leader discusses how they can apply this to life.  They might talk about it like this....we did this fundraisers so now I know how to hold a fund raiser for my band and I can use this when I am older and have a garage sale for example.

The reflective model has been used with the 4-H Peer Mentoring project.  Youth practiced reflection after every meeting to discuss how their mentoring went for the day.  Questions were written on a beach ball asking things like - how did the day go, what did you like, what did you not like, what do you wish we could do the next time.  It created a lot of feedback to make changes and improvements to the club program.  When kids get involved with this practice of evaluation, the feedback from youth to elp make whatever it is being evaluated more successful.  When the kids can be involved in this process it empowers them and builds their self esteem.  

Bibliography:  Designing Age Appropriate Learning Experiences, 2-6-2011 at  http://web1.msue.msu.edu/4h/downloads/4-HClubDevelopmentGuide-AppendixC.pdf 

Glanz,Jeffery:  Action Research:  An Educational Leader's Guide to School Improvement:  Chapter 1, pages 1 to 34  

Blog Post # 3 Comparing Standards, My Preparation and EDU 590

I really cannot compare my undergraduate preparation with the professional standards for teaching as my undergraduate work is in organizational management or maybe it is because it have been 7 years since I got my undergrad. The one topic taught was effective internet searches. But even now I feel I need an upgrade in that area.

My work is what I can really compare to the standards and course objectives. My employer has been preparing to use technology for educational purposes for a long while. Last year the organization I work for held it first ever on line conference where all sessions were accessed through Adobe Connect classrooms. Our program director has been blogging for communicating with employees. Many online professional development opportunities are being offered now. I still see resistance to using technology especially for meetings. People still want to be with people too. The non-verbal communication is a valuable resource that can not be detected on internet meetings.

The EDU 590 instructor is addressing some of the Professional Standard for Michigan Teachers especially the competencies related to technology. It would be extremely tough to address all the standards in a eight week course. Most of the course objectives relate to technology. I am thankful there are guidelines for what teachers teach otherwise who knows what kind of education students would get.

                        COMPARISON CHART

7th Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers to....	UNDER-       GRADUATE      PREPARATION	Objectives of      Educational      Technology      EDU 590
SUBJECT MATTER KNOWLEDGE	Does not compare	The instructor is competent in this knowledge area
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND ASSESSMENT	I have taken other online classes before	This is an online instructional class and student will assess other students work in this class
CURRICULAR AND PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE	Does not compare
EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS	Is similar	We will learn in a variety of learning environments, on- line, book, internet
RESPONSIBILITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS TO THE SCHOOL, CLASSROOM, AND STUDENT	Can not compare	This class is teaching us the importance of using technology with students and employees
RESPONSIBILITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS TO COMMUNITY	Does not compare	Students and employees are members of our communities, in the class we will complete a group project, emphasis on plagiarism knowledge
TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS	My undergraduate did not teach any of these subjects, I have been self taught.	The course requires use of blogs, internet classroom, You Tube, effective internet searches

Bibliography:

The Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers; accessed on 1-24-2011 at

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/SBE_approved_PSMT_May_13_2008+coverpg_258601_7.doc

EDU 590 Course Objectives; found at https://blackboard.cmich.edu

Blog #4 Technology Plan Comparison

Blog #4 Technology Plan Comparison

by Linda Stemen

590 Edu Jan, 2011

Bring the world to students through the use of technology.

The National Technology Plan is the motivation for writing the states and school district technology plans. It directs what should be in the other plans. It is the directive from the National Educational system to the rest of the educational systems in the country. The plan also states they can do to help make this happen in our county like fund the development of technology in schools and support organizations to help support teachers who will use the technology. To me it sounded like a big speech from the President.

The Michigan Educational Technology Plan is a little bit different as it defines its goals and how the state will achieve these. Their goals are teaching for learning, leadership, professional learning, school and community liaisons, and data informational management. It gives performance indicators, goals, strategies and action steps. It too says it will help to provide funding to help this happen.

The Oscoda Area School Technology plan is written by the Iosco Regional Educational Service Agency and defines the technology plan for their school. The word should is used a lot in their plan which made me a little bit nervous. The plan was almost saying to me that we should do this if we can... Their plan shows their software, hardware and three year budget for technology and a narrative as to where the money will come from. They had a detailed flow chart of their plan of action, implementation time lines and some great colorful graphics. It also includes a set of the educational technology standards for students and an acceptable use policy. It covers a lot of the fine details the district has to have in place.

Bibliography

Oscoda Area Schools Technology Plan. Web. 22 January 2011.  http://www.oscodaschools.org/pdf/Oscoda%20Area%20Schools%20Tech%20Plan%202008-2011.pdf

National Education Technology Plan 2010 U.S> Department of Education. Web. 24 January 2010 file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Masters%20Degree/National%20Ed%20Tech%20Plan.htm

Michigan department of Education Technology Plan. Web. 24 January 2011. http://techplan.org/STP%202010%20Final.pdf

Picture from images at Google.com

BLOG # 5: Educating the Millennium Generation

Educating the millenniums means teachers and schools better get on board – the key board that is. If you are not up to date with computer technology a teacher is not in compliance with meeting technology expectations and standards set forth by the Michigan Educational Technology standards. These standards set people scrambling to play catch up with modern technology.

The challenges technology creates are many. One of all the biggest challenge is - can schools afford the technology? I am sure the affluent communities have no problem funding technology and the poor under-served school districts will fall behind. Somehow it has to be done. Grant are available through the Michigan Department of Education to help struggling schools pay for technology improvements. Each child should have their own lap top that is networked to the whole class and to a projector unit. Actually it might be kind of fun and make learning a little bit easier. I can see it now as the teacher says, “the first student who finds a page on the tree frog will get 5 points.” Talk about engaging. Students will hurry to see if they can be the first one to find a resource about tree frogs.

Another challenge using technology with students is the teacher and the students being aware of all the laws and acceptable use policies that abound in connection to technology. Safety, security and privacy is the number one belief in the criteria for developing Oscoda Area School technology plan. So if a child violates the acceptable use policy and they can't use computers anymore at school....where does this get them – behind of course.

With the use of computers I think children could work at their own rate and move ahead and not have to wait for the whole class to catch up. The brightest students could move forward and also study other things that might interest them.

Is there a generation gap with students and technology? Why do some move way ahead and others lag behind in technology? These are more of the challenges that we face today with the increasing speed of technology. The opportunities are out there. It is just a matter of time to make global learning come to life through technology.

Bibliography

Oscoda Area Schools Technology Plan. Web. 22 January 2011.  http://www.oscodaschools.org/pdf/Oscoda%20Area%20Schools%20Tech%20Plan%202008-2011.pdf

Cartoon Image from educational technology search at images at Google.com

Wikiality

Wikipedia The Speedia

 Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for speed.

When I was searching for the wiki entry's I was amazed to find that there are so many different Wiki applications. There is Wikinews, Wikiquotes, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wikebooks, Wikiversity, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and Meta-Wiki. I goggled Wiki and found out that it the Hawaiian word for speed. Wikipedia's founder was at an airport in Honolulu and was told to take the Wiki Wiki Shuttle to the next gate.¹   I was surprised to find out that Wikipedia has a need for photo submissions and that there is a spot for project coordination.

I selected option B to select three education related Wikipedia articles and compare them to an encyclopedia. What I found was encyclopedias may be a thing of the past. The local library had one set - the World Book Encyclopedia. This source did not produced any matches on my subjects neither did the online version of Britannica.

Wikipedia offers so much for students today. An internet search can lead one to lots of other learning, by accident – that is how I found one of my wiki articles. When I do a search it always lead to other things – so students may learn more. The Internet and Wikipedia may be the only search option for students who live great distances away from their library, or as I learned unexpectedly, from a library that doesn't keep very good evening hours when parents can take a child to the library(some in our area closed at 5 or 6 p.m. and had limited Saturday hours). Searching on the internet is faster and easier and it can be done in the comfort of ones home too. With the crazy schedules families are leading today it just works out better.

Colbert's satire on using Wikipedia was very funny and using humor is a great way to get a message across. His point was very clear that not all the information on this site is true and can change at any given minute. Teachers will just have to set clear directions and expectations of using internet searches.

Another issue of families today is money. The rising costs of education these days, schools are making cuts big time and usually at the expense of the student. E-books or open-source books can make a huge financial difference. The companies getting in on this now will be the leaders in this field of economic development. The ability of teachers being able to pick and choose the chapters they need make a lot of sense instead of having huge expensive books where only part ever gets read. And now with technology, chapters can be scanned in and read without purchasing the book. There probably is a little bit of a fear going into the open-source book production but two of the country's largest states, Texas and California have made new laws to allow the implementation of these books to start. Here we go into the age of the Internet.

Photo take from the internet on 1-22-2011 from:

http://www.placesidratherbe.com/images/Hawaii/Hawaii%20Beach%20wih%20Palm%20Trees.jpg

¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

"The Increased Need For Academic Integrity In The Digital Age"

 “The Increased Need For Academic Integrity In The Digital Age”

At first I was skeptical about the assignment from my Professor to plagiarize a 1000 words essay assignment from the Educational Technology on line course at Central Michigan University.  It was very easy to do.   Find the information, cut, paste, and save into a “My Documents” file.    The hardest part was to have it make sense for anyone who reads it.  Writing the essay did help me to learn a lot about plagiarism which I am guessing is the main purpose behind the assignment as well as the right time to teach about it as I become a student researcher.  The first time I scored a 62% and I know the software did not catch everything.  I did write about two paragraphs and did not get a chance to run it through a second time as of this writing.

One of the things I did learn through my research on plagiarism is how teachers are reacting to the increase.  It is forcing them to develop new lessons to prove knowledge gained by students, to show they know how to write, find research, cite sources, and draw their own conclusions based on what they know.  Many teachers are changing the way they are teaching and requiring term papers.  Students are doing more writing in the classroom to avoid the temptations to cheat.  It is always interesting to see how one issue leads to new needs.

The rise of plagiarism seems to have already created jobs for computer programmers to create easy to use software to find copied work.  I am wondering if the need to policing writing will lead to creating even more jobs in the future.  It is the computer age and this is part of computer work.

The increased computer internet usage and the popularity of the topic it is going to continue to be a huge topic and copying will more easily be caught with the development of internet tools.  It is a sad thing to see when someone is caught cheating.  Cheating is almost always frowned upon in society.  More frequently we are hearing about famous authors being accused of plagiarism, song writers stealing words and music from other writers and musicians, people taking parts of other curriculum's and not giving the original writers credit, artists using the style of famous painters and computer programmers stealing the groups work from college projects.  The list goes on and probably will continue because people do it with the hopes of not getting caught and in the hopes of big success and money making.

The more plagiarism is debated the more reasons will surface about why people plagiarize.  All in all it is not the right thing to do.  The knowledge about how to cite another person’s work is out there no matter what the reason is for using the work.  Could it be we are dealing with a shift in cultural values of our society?  Students from cultures which have a more collective sense of identity, for example, may have a difficult time understanding the distinctions some cultures draw between individual and public property.[1]

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[1]   Educational Tips on Plagiarism Prevention                                                                >ttp://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_educational_tips_on_plagiarism_prevention.html retrieved on January 15, 2011.

Cartoon Image Source Page:  http://freeware4review.blogspot.com.com/2010/08/free-anti-plagiarism-checkers-for-your-html    retrieved on January 15, 2011.