Where am I in the project?

I have been regretting that I registered for EDIT 7500. This is not a difficult course, but I just don’t have a clear understanding of classroom teaching because I don’t have any practical experience. I am taking this course to learn to help teachers with technology in case I become a technology coordinator, but the ride has not been smooth in the class. I am afraid that I may not be the right fit for K-12 learning environment. Maybe I should consider working for higher education instead of K-12 school environment. I am a little nervous after looking at the three examples in WebCT.

I am only half way done with my lesson planning but I am even more worried about implementing the project. I don’t know any teachers here in Atlanta. Most importantly, I don’t know what students learn in each grade.

It is a shame that I didn’t plan this early in the semester...

In the next two weeks, I will have to find a way to implement my lesson.

What are the barriers of implementing 1 to 1 computing?

I think the barriers of implementing 1 to 1 computing are lack of budget, lack of teacher training, lack of quality hardware and software and lack of support staff.

When I volunteered at an elementary school in Fulton County, I was informed that one technology coordinator is responsible for the whole school from fixing printers to helping teachers. I heard Forsyth County allows two technology coordinators, one responsible for hardware and the other for helping teachers.

I am not a teacher, but I don’t feel like our public school system is ready to support 1 to 1 computing.

What did you takeaway from our digital citizenship night?

While I was preparing my “cyberbullying” presentation, I learned that cyberbullying is only when minors (child/teens) are involved. When adult is involved, it’s considered cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Also, I realized that teens can hurt others feeling without a serious intention, but the consequences can be serious.

From “copyright” presentation, I learned that as long as it is recorded or written somewhere it is considered copyrighted. Even a 4th grade student’s writing on paper is considered copyrighted.

From “internet filtering” presentation, I learned that combination of “Weighted phrase filter” and “Exception site list” is a good way to use. I have no reason to filter my internet usage now since my children are very young, but I think I should planning on using filtering program in a couple of years. The first video reminded me that if parents don’t monitor the children carefully, they are free to expose anywhere they want on internet which is very scary... I am also worried about peer pressure when my children grow up.

Overall, it was a fun learning experience.

Which resource from my Resource Collection will I use the most?

I think I will use the lunchboxlessons.com the most when planning the details of my lesson. The lunch box site provides creative and innovative lessons for teachers. The site also offers separate pages to parents and students. From short videos to lesson plans, this site embraces various types of subjects with technology.
There are many other sites which I will use for games and making digital zoo book, but I plan to structure my lesson based on lunchboxlessons.com.

What small change might I make to my project to increase creativity?

October 5, 2008

This is a hard question. I get nervous whenever I hear the word “creative” because I am very weak in creativeness. I maybe can change the animal zoo book assignment to a digital zoo book using Kidpix, PowerPoint or Scrapblog. Other than that, I cannot think of anything...

I think it is that time of the semester when people are busy catching up with classes, and I am no exception.

Where am I now in my project?

What are my thoughts? Where am I now?

I have decided to make a Webquest for this project. I am glad that I still have a Quest Garden account because it easily guides you when making Webquests.

Here is my introduction for the students.
You have a mission! You are working at the Imagination Zoo in Atlanta, Georgia. There are animals waiting for homes in the zoo. It will be your job to classify animals into mammals, reptiles, amphibians, aves (birds), and fish, and find separate habitats for the animals so they can live harmoniously in the zoo.

Here is a rough lesson plan.
The learning goals of this lesson will be:
1. Students will gain basic knowledge to name the animals.
2. Students will learn differences of each category such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, aves (birds), and fish.
3. Students will learn to place animals into the right categories.
4. Students will work within a group to make an animal zoo book and presentation.

Teacher will show animal pictures and real animal videos to deliver the concept of animal classification. Students will focus on animals’ skin, fur, and reproduction style. Then, students will work with groups of three people to classify animal pictures from the basket to the animal zoo book. After your animal zoo adventure, each team will make a group presentation in front of the class, and will be asked to give feedback to other groups.

The diagram Dr. Moore has shown to the class explains well on how this individual project is supposed to be.

PBL, Backwards Design, ISTE, and LoTi should intertwine together to make a successful 7500 Project.

I am still struggling with LoTi level 4 for my age group.

LoTi, My project, and ME

LoTi stands for Levels of Teaching Innovation. It was first developed in 1994 to measure the usage of technology in the classroom. It is divided into levels 0 to 6.

LoTi 0 – Non-use
LoTi 1 – Awareness
LoTi 2 – Exploration
LoTi 3 – Infusion
LoTi 4a – Integration: Mechanical
LoTi 4b – Integration: Routine
LoTi 5 – Exploration
LoTi 6 - Refinement

When I took the LoTi survey last week, my results were between the 30s and 50s, low-level to mid-level ranges. That sounds about right.

Most of my webpage examples seem to be Level 2 - Exploration. Since my target audiences are K-2nd grades, my focus is on content understanding in a teacher-centered learning environment. The class briefly talked about the limitation of using technology in lower grades. In the next couple of weeks, my job is to figure out a way to move up one LoTi level of the individual project. I want to discover a way to enhance process skills and inductive thinking skills in my project. It would be even better if I can use some kind of collaboration work in the project.

During the group discussion, I had a difficult time communicating with the group members. Although I have two years of school working experience, I did not work as a classroom teacher, and that was four years ago. Also, I am not very familiar with the education system in the US because I did not grow up in the States. I am learning something new in every class, but I feel bad for not contributing more during the group discussion.

I want to be a little more courageous and come out of my comfort zone in technology usage-wise and personality-wise.

Initial Project Ideas

This is the first blog I am creating ever. I am excited to be part of the booming blogging community and I hope I can somewhat provide education content for other users to read.
My focus on this blog will be EDIT 7500, implementing technology in a K-12 learning environment.

This week’s class assignment was to find 10 web pages that will help me design and develop an integration project. I plan to do my project on teaching K-2nd grade students on how to classify animals such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, aves (birds), and fish.

In a traditional classroom, a teacher would lecture in front of the classroom, and explain different types of animals by showing some pictures. However, in this integration project, I want to design a lesson by using videos, interactive games, and maybe webquests.

While I was looking for 10 web pages, I was impressed by all the amazing technology resources out there for FREE. Technology can motivate learners to learn more than just visually these days. I hope to do more research on this topic as the semester goes, and hope to design a project that can be used in a real classroom setting.