Using rubrics is one of the great ways to assess any type of content. Rubrics allow you to weight different areas of the content as you see fit while allowing students the knowledge of what you are looking for and to the extent they need to complete the work. I use rubric most commonly on laboratory reports. This way the students get an idea about what I am looking for. Another area where I like to use rubrics is for any type of project. I choose to use them here for the same reason. I completely support using rubrics in assessing digital content. When completing a project the students can use it like a checklist to cross off tasks as they complete them. I feel that this is the most transparent way to communicate a grade to a student. The key to using a rubric correctly is to make it available to student before or at the start of the assignment. This just provides more clarity and less surprises for students work with.
To summarize what I understand this principle to be is, “allowing all students to learn any way they want or are able to.” This is a great principle to get behind, in fact text book manufacturers are getting behind this principle when they are selling texts to school. Two years ago I was on a committee to decide what text we would like to purchase for the county. The competing companies were showing off all of their extra perks to buying their texts and many of them were going into the digital realm. They now offer pdf versions of the text but then allow for narrated versions to accompany the text. The laboratory exercises are also digitized and virtual so students can complete them at home. This is fantastic in terms of differentiation of material and allowing students to learn at their own pace. Now I need to be skeptical. Ultimately, as educators, we need to prepare students for the next step. I feel that there needs to be delivery of information to go along with the ability to have students learn at their own pace. Employers are not going to allows their employees to complete assignments at their leisure. This is not preparing students to work within timeframes, but teaching them that they can do what they want, when they want to do it. In my opinion this is not logical and is a disservice to students. I am all for meeting the needs of learners, however, within reason. All students need to learn in an unhindered way as importantly as they need to be pushed. There needs to be compromise on both ends to make this truly universal.
Bloom’s is always a great tool for designing lessons. With everything turning to the digital world I feel that it is about time that Bloom does the same. This is a great way to see how the taxonomy of learning and understanding can be shifted into the digital realm to include student collaborating. Overall, I do not see a huge change in how Bloom’ s is described it just now seems like it fits more online activities that students can participate in.
When I read through this portion of the module I could help but be skeptical. There are so many hurdles that would need to be overcome in order to meet the requirements set forth by this plan. Lets take my Honors Chemistry class. There are 34 students in this class so from the start I would need 34 computers to ensure that students are being assessed on their ability. Then, I need a place to store the computer and the bandwidth to support the streaming video and podcasts that are part of 21st century learning. Now that this is happening I will need to simultaneously provide oversight on each student surfing the internet while replying to specific questions from students and steering the collaboration in the right direction. Finally, near the end of the block the students need to be informally assessed to see what misconceptions are out there to ensure that they are corrected the next day. Does this sound functional with a class of 34? The plan sounds great, I would have loved to learn this way. But, there are fundamental flaws that need to be fixed in the system. In the end students need to gain knowledge in the subject area. How they do it is still up for debate and there is no doubt in my mind that technology will always be a big part of it. Sooner or later there will be a realization that we need to fix the logistal bugs in the system before we advance.
This tool is an easy to use presentation application. I am surprised by how simple this application is to use in terms of adding presentations and editing them. I would use this tool as an assigned long term project. Students could choose a topic at the beginning of a unit and then have the link submitted upon completion of the unit. This would allow student creative freedom as to what should be uploaded and what they should discuss. Furthermore, students can then respond to other students presentations. I think this would be great for the student who is terrified of standing in front of a class to give a presentation.
I hope I was organized for this module. There were so many individual assignments that needed to be completed it was extremely difficult to keep track of everything. I liked most of the technologies and I feel like I put together some good uses for them. ie- Twitter can be used as a continuous feed to keep parents and absent students up to date with the class. Skype was a pleasant surprise. I never knew that you could upload picts and docs while in a conversation. That is so great for collaboration. There were technologies that I really do not see myself using like GoodReads. Based on my curriculum, we do not have tons of time for pleasure reading in my class so I feel that this could be better utilized in a lit or language arts class. Diigo is another example of something that I would not use. This is not because I did not like it, but for the reason that I already use delicious. They are basically the same service however, Diigo has more tools. I am not about to go back and research all my bookmarks, a major issue with continuously evolving technology.
This is a great site for any class. I would use this as an incentives program. Students could read books off of my “incentives” list and submit book reports on the material. The students would have to relate the selected book to the classwork. I could then use the credit received to supplement missed points on exams or laboratory experiments.
I have actually used iGoogle in my classes last year. I try to keep informed with current events and articles that I can use in my classes to give the students authentic examples of how chemistry is used in reality. I like to use this application as a way to keep a constant news feed for my classes. I like to watch particular blog posts using Google Reader, where we can simply browse the headlines in the feed. An example of this would be looking for introductory videos from 60 Second Science. Once Reader displays the topic I can just click and go to the video to start off a class discussion. If I were to ever use Twitter in my classroom I would be able to incorporate that into the classroom procedures as well. Ultimately, iGoogle is a great way to save time and focus class attention efficiently. Not to mention there is a countdown gadget that you can use to countdown the days of school left.
I am very much in favor of these standards. Being a science teacher I am always working with inquiry based learning styles within the classroom. I feel that science is a subject that easily lends it’s hand to this type of learning and by implementing these standards the learning style is continued throughout multiple content areas. Furthermore, these standards have a great outcome anticipated for them. They are attempting inspire digital responsibilities that students should adhere to. Responsibility in the digital realm is always a positive feature for every student to learn and follow.
This was an extremely challenging module. I think the main challenge was with the amount of work that was required. I spent many hours trying to familiarize myself with the new technology to the point where I was proficient enough to provide explanations and tutorials on how to control the programs. Utilizing this type of technology in everyday lessons requires an immense amount of planning with regards to what objectives you are trying to meet, what materials you are using to accomplish these objectives, and how to organize the presentation of the information. All these factors need to come together to have a successful screencast, photostory, or iMovie. This would be a growing process that would ongoing until all units had digital resources to contribute to the lesson.
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