Wrapping things up

Looking back on my experiences in CEP 811, I have a lot to be proud of. Eight weeks is such a short period of time to accomplish all I have. There are plenty of things to be proud of, but I know that my accomplishments are merely building blocks upon which even greater teaching will be built upon.
The WebQuest and StAIR projects were clearly the most labor intensive, but I learned a lot of lessons during the process. Both projects encourage student exploration which is awesome. However, engaging exploration without boundaries can render your lesson largely ineffective and in some cases even put your kids in a dangerous situation. Building the WebQuest taught me that restricting internet research to a chosen list of sites can really help to focus students. The StAIR taught me to try to predict problem areas with content and create mechanisms that will provide extra assistance to students. A teacher can never think too far ahead, especially using when using technology.
Educational application of Web 2.0 has been the biggest eye opener for me. While WebQuests and StAIR’s are very powerful tech tools, they take a very long time to create. I see Web 2.0 as a digital update to classic analog classroom activity. It takes very little effort to move student notebooks from spiral notebooks to a blog format, but there are very real benefits on top of that ease.
I will take advantage of wiki’s and Google Doc’s for collaboration. I will use jing to provide dynamic feedback to my students on projects so that I do not need to use valuable class time. I will use Web 2.0 to expand my classroom beyond the classroom walls and beyond school hours. Really, there is so much that I want to do with Web 2.0… but I need to implement these tools in a logical manner.
The philosophical difference between my tech approach now after taking CEP 811 is that I start with an educational need and then think of the tools that will help me to address it. I’ve always used technology to enhance learning, never to use technology just to use it. However, using the “problem solving” philosophy allows me to maximize my instruction.
A new goal of mine going forward is to keep building upon the work that I’ve already started. I want to make my StAIR and WebQuest better than they already are and I want to continue to make new ones. As a lifelong learner I cannot be satisfied with my teaching, I must continually improve it.

Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experiences (say it five times fast!)

After reading the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document, I am very happy with the progress that the State of Michigan is making in the way of establishing educational technology standards.
My task for my CEP 811 course was to identify one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience (according to the guidelines), and discuss how I would incorporate that technology into my own teaching. While I believe that I will eventually use most of these strategies in some shape or form as I develop my craft, there are definitely some tools that I could implement tomorrow and some that would take time to implement. For example, while I would be more than able to technically support a conference with an expert (I would have no problem setting up the conference hardware/software) I do not necessarily have a contact that I would consider an expert at this point in time. In addition, I would love to take part in a collaborative lesson with a teacher/class on the other side of the world but I need to establish a relationship with that teacher before that reality is even fathomable. Thus, the strategies I must focus on in the short term are those technologies that I need not rely on any outside influences to establish in my classroom, but have the potential to expand into a global collaborative community so that eventually we’ll be able to tap into those resources.
What I want to do most is to have my students establish their own personal blogs, serving as a digital journal for class participation. I believe the blog to a diverse communication tool because it can be used by itself for students to reflect on their thoughts, or use it as the response element in tandem with another online instructional method.
For example, I recently completed designing a WebQuest that assigned each student a member of congress to profile. Students explored both the House and Senate websites in addition to votesmart.org. Instead of writing a traditional paper in Word and then submitting it to the teacher, students create a visually attractive blog post in the style of a political blogger. If I had each student set up their own RSS reader pages, I could have students easily comment on eachother’s blogs; establishing discussion and feedback loops.
I really like utilizing these tools in a inner-connected manner like this. I think it improves the lesson itself because the different tools each add their own pedagogical advantage and it models web 2.0 use for students with real interactions. I would also say that if the teacher was able to establish a community of active bloggers within their classroom population, it would be a good building block from which to branch out and plug into a more global learning community. Opening up the doors to some of the learning opportunities that I mentioned would be difficult initially.

Integrating Computer-Based Instructional Objects.

When creating computer-based instructional objects the structure of your activity needs to replace hands on guidance from the teacher if you want students to use it independently. So in order to accomplish this I believe you must use some form of scaffolding to allow students to progress their learning in increments. In addition, you need to be able to engage student interest without being there to enforce it.

In order to accomplish these goals, teachers must think about what makes them effective with in-person instruction and script those lessons in great detail. Stand alone instruction should have clear expectations and give clear feedback to student responses. Students should be given access to additional instruction if they need additional help with a subject but should not be required to cover a subject to redundancy if they already understand it.

This is why teachers must learn to predict where students will have trouble, and design outlets for clarification. Teachers must use their knowledge of multiple intelligences and learning types and integrate those concepts into computer-based designs so that the student has a customized learning experience.

Here are some great Social Studies WebQuests that I've discovered:

Jamestown Online Adventure

I really like this WebQuest because it has a strong visual and hands on element with the adventure flash game. Engagement with this activity should be strong because of the game. Students use their prior knowledge of the real Jamestown colony to establish their own colony. Students must decide where they will build their colony, how they will interact with native people, and what food they will produce.
At the end of the the activity students are given an evaluation of their choices, once again by making historical connections to the original colony.

Abraham Lincoln:
Crooked Man or Just a Crooked Bow Tie?

This WebQuest is extremely well organized and is very informative. Students are asked to write a gossip article about Abraham Lincoln. The activity serves as a great biographical exploration of the 16th President. I like how the author defines the roles and responsibility of the reporters in great detail. They also restrict the resource articles to just a handful of select articles. This will help students to avoid being overwhelmed from swimming through 20 plus articles. Students will be more likely to achieve the desired results because the WebQuest is well structured and serves as a great stand alone tool because of it.