Friday, August 8, 2014

E-Portfolio and Autoethnography


The past few weeks I have been working on developing an e-portfolio as well as an autoethnography project.  Here is a link to my e-portfolio and here is a link to my autoethnography project.  Both of these endevours have afforded me the opportunity to take some time for introspection.  I have reflected about what I have learned this year and how my ideas about education have changed.  

I feel as though have developed a writing voice.  That feels good.  It was frightening at first but now I am comfortable posting my thoughts and ideas on the world wide web.  I have much gratitude for my professors and colleagues at University of New Haven's Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy program who held my hand along the journey this year.  I look forward to continuing to reflect in this blog and improving my writing abilities.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Experimenting With Moovly for Content Creation

As it often goes when learning how to use new technology tools, it takes a lot of time. UNH colleague Beth Hick and I used Moovly for the first time in making our video. And although it took a few hours of playing, practicing, and revising we had fun making it. Our intent was to keep is simple yet use some of the bells and whistles offered in Moovly to make it more entertaining. 


           

Sunday, July 20, 2014

A Quick Tutorial On iMovie Trailer

This week I was given the task of creating a short tutorial on an app which students and/or adults might find useful.  The first lesson I learned is that I give too much detail when describing a process. Although I know in my head that less is often more, I don't always practice that phrase. My video is 10 minutes long.  I used a Nikon Coolpix digital camera, set on a tripod, to film the iPad screen.  I have yet to figure out how to do a screencast video on the ipad, so I resorted to what I knew about the equipment I had.  I also remembered that uploading and downloading video to Youtube takes some time.  You may view my tutorial on the iMovie trailer here.



At another time I will need to trim the video down. All I can say is that editing takes more time than I often think it will take.  The purpose of this video was to teach the technical aspects of iMovie trailer.  There is the whole aesthetic side of making video content.  This is a demonstration of the technical steps involved with iMovie trailer. Here is another video which I spent more time on the creative content.  NHPS Math Online .



The research was supported by a grant from BrainPOP.


Today I am thinking in pictures...

Images from: Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating multimedia in the K-12 classroom
Multimedia offers exciting possibilities for meeting the needs of 21st century learners. The use of multimedia instruction can significantly enhance student learning if properly designed and implemented. This paper describes the way in which the brain processes multimedia information and the principles behind effective multimedia instruction.
This research was conducted by SEG Research. The research was supported by a grant from BrainPOP.
September 2008



















Thursday, July 17, 2014

Digital Portfolio Map Draft # 2 With Reflections


After reviewing and reflecting on the maps of my colleagues and my own initial map I have reorganized the picture of what I would like to include in my digital portfolio.  As is often the case when I have more time to ponder about a task the steps to accomplish the task become clearer.

After looking at both of my maps I realized an interesting difference between the two.  On the first map I was primarily responding to the ED7730 course description in the syllabus.  I was trying to create "what the teacher wanted".  In the map above I was thinking about what I wanted to create to represent myself while keeping in mind the goals and objectives of the course.  This realization is critical as a learner.  We often state that students must own their learning.  The fact that I have been given choice in what to include in the portfolio has enabled me to understand the task at a deeper level.


Monday, July 14, 2014

What Most Schools Don't Teach







Are you sure you don't want ot go into engineering?

A Vision of Students Today

E-Portfolio Site Map first Draft


The web diagram above is an initial picture of my plan for the development of my digital or e-portfolio.  After about 7 sketches I have thought through some of the elements I think are important to include in the portfolio. As an instructional coach I hope to share some of the insights which I have gained this year with other teachers who are ready and willing to become more digitally literate.  My hope is that my e-portfolio will support the process of teaching others.  I also see the e-portfolio as a representation of who I have become as a digital citizen.  I expect that my portfolio will be an evolving, changing, project which reflects my lifelong process of growing as a digital learner.

I have not yet decided upon the platform I will choose to host my portfolio, more time and investigation is needed to make that determination.  At this time I am leaning toward WIX and I like this template.  I will make more time to refine my content and homepage design.  Please feel free to share any comments or ideas you may have with me.  Thank you!


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Educational Philosophy Revisited July 13, 2014

Photo: Francis Ledoux

A year ago I began a journey on the road to "digital literacy".  Last July I wrote the following statement of educational  philosophy...

"Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved"

                                                                 Soren Kierkegaard

This quote has resonated in my mind since I first read it in a philosophy class in college.  I am still trying to articulate the meaning I find in that statement.  Perhaps it expresses something about my educational philosophy?  Perhaps I have always wanted to change it to read: "Life is a mystery to be lived and a problem to be solved"?

I think life is all about the joy of teaching and learning.  My basic tenants of education at this point in my life are:

  • Learning is an intrapersonal experience where "intellectual discourse" may lead to knowing something or changing one's thoughts about something.
  • There must be some form of struggle with the concepts and ideas before you make them your own or understand them (Piaget's idea of equilibration)
  • Our desire to know and learn needs to be encouraged.  The role of the teacher is to tap into the student's curiosity by posing probing questions and offering adventurous experiences.  It is not an option to be uninformed.  Education is power and anyone who says "ignorance is bliss" is self oppressive.

    As a learner and teacher I have been influenced by some of the ideas of Jean Piaget, John Dewey, Rachel Carson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others.

As I reflect on my own words posted above and the learning I have experienced this year I think that my basic philosophy of education has not changed. It has, however, been drastically enhanced by what is currently called Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy at the University of New Haven.  

In my revised philosophy statement I would add Mimi Ito, Pernille Tranburg, James Paul Gee, Brene Brown, John Seeley Brown, Sherry Turkle, Daphne Koller, Sir Ken Robinson, and William Ian O'Byrne to the list of those who have influenced my ideas about education.  The type of access I have to great thinkers has expanded exponentially since I have begun my journey on the road to digital literacy.

As I continue to review and refine my educational philosophy I hope to explore more about technology in education as it relates to respect, equity and access.  As I analyze the affordances and vulnerabilities of technology I learn that we need to be thoughtful and purposeful about designing learning experiences for diverse populations.  I am keenly aware of the rate of change which is at the core of technology and look forward to continnued imersion in the multimedia aspects of the educational world.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

What Should My Digital Portfolio Include?

Image by David Mulcahy


As I begin to develop my digital portfolio my first goal I have is to reflect on who I have become as a digital citizen.  This year I have learned about many facets of instructional technology and digital media literacy in the IT&DML 6th year program at the University of New Haven in West Haven, CT.  At this point I would like to go back and review all my digital artifacts to explore the digital identity I have created over the past year.  

Midway through the program I created this graphic.

 

The first process I will undertake is to reread and reflect on the multimodal activities I have completed.  I think this process will help me reflect on the digital identity I have created.  In a sense I want to take the time to figure out who I am on the World Wide Web.

The second goal for my e-portfolio may be to frame my past work to present my future self.  In a way I may be introducing myself digitally to an audience.  I am still in the beginning stages of knowing who I want to be and who my audience should be.

The third goal for my digital portfolio may be to have a model for teachers or students.  As an instructional coach I am in a unique position to "pass the word on" about the benefits of e-portfolios.  I firmly believe that I must go through the process myself to be better able to teach others how to develop a portfolio.  As with any concept or idea I think the learner becomes a better teacher after struggling to understand the deep meaning of that concept or idea.

I look forward to this work and hope to gain insights about who I am...digitally speaking.


What is an E-Portfolio?


As a college student in 1979 in Saratoga Springs, New York, many of my friends majoring in art worked to develop their "portfolio".  Their art portfolio was housed in a rather large, perhaps a 3' by 4 ', flat, zip- up suit case with a handle on it.  The purpose of their portfolio was to hold exemplars of their best graphic art work to show to an audience.  It was a space to organize their art work and have it ready to preset for a variety of reasons.  It was cumbersome to transport and difficult to store.

Now, twenty-five years later, I am learning about a new version of the portfolio, the e-portfolio.  So what is an e-portfolio? In the words of George Lorenzo and John Ittelson in their article An Overview of E-Portfolios  ” an e-portfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts including demonstrations, resources and accomplishments, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, community, organization or institution.  This collection can be comprised of text-based, graphic, or multimedia elements archived on a Web site or other electronic media such as a CD-ROM or DVD."  

In her presentation E-Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning Dr. Helen Barret points out that e-portfolio can be associated with the terms, electronic portfolio, digital repository, workspace, and showcase.  She focuses in this presentation on why one creates an e-portfolio and the importance of the reflective process in self-regulated learning.  She notes that reflection is the "heart and soul of learning" and that the metacognitive aspect of e-portfolios is its most critical aspect.  You may refer to this page by Dr. Barret to see examples of e-portfolios using google apps at the k-12 and college levels.

There are generally three types of e-portfolios, student e-portfolios, teaching e-portfolios, and institutional e-portfolios. Each type serves a different purpose and may contain artifacts which support different goals.  One may create an e-portfolio to plan an educational program, or to document knowledge and learning, to find a job, or to evaluate performance.

The elements in an e-portfolio may vary.  Common elements are:

  • ·        Table of Contents
  • ·        Mission Statement/Goals
  • ·        Artifacts which demonstrate the purpose/goals of the e-portfolio
  • ·        Reflections/thoughts about learning
  • ·        Resume
  • ·        Select Multimedia representations


Here are some rubrics which give more detail to e-portfolio elements.




Stay tuned for future blog postings where I write about the what, how, why of my own e-portfolio development.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Reflections On Learning about Teaching, Learning, and Assessing in the Digital Era

Wordle: A Review of Learning about Teaching, Learning, and Assessing In The Digital Era

For my final reflection in the Teaching, Learning, and Assessing in the Digital Era course I decided to put technology to a test.  After much reading about concept mapping my interest in the uses of concept mapping in my own teaching/learning practice was rejuvenated.  I had several complex, deep, ideas about creating a visual which would summarize my learning and show relationships between ideas. The reality of the time frame available to complete this task lead me to an experiment with technology.  I used the free applet Wordle to create a map.  I would refer to it as a word map rather than a concept map.  

The way I "fed" information to this technology (Wordle) was to copy all of my blog entries for this class and paste them into the Wordle creator.  The illustration above is the product of my experiment. I was curious to see how Wordle would summarize my learning.  As I read about the mechanics behind Wordle I discovered that the "word map" is formed based the frequence of use of the words.  As I examine the Wordle of my blog entries it reflects a summary of the most frequent terms about which I wrote. 

Over the course of my research I found an interesting blog about how to use Wordle in classrooms: The Top Ten Ways to Use Wordle at School .   I look forward to diving deeper into the resources listed for this week on concept mapping when I have more time to explore and experiment with concept maps


Friday, June 20, 2014

Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

Image:Wikimedia Commons

This week we are asked to send a letter to a representative of a post secondary program as a student requesting auxiliary aids and services for postsecondary students with disabilities.  The Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Higher Education's Obligations Under Section 504 and Title II of the ADA
U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
Washington, D.C.
Revised September 1998

States:

A postsecondary student with a disability who is in need of auxiliary aids is obligated to provide notice of the nature of the disabling condition to the college and to assist it in identifying appropriate and effective auxiliary aids. In elementary and secondary schools, teachers and school specialists may have arranged support services for students with disabilities. However, in postsecondary schools, the students themselves must identify the need for an auxiliary aid and give adequate notice of the need. The student's notification should be provided to the appropriate representative of the college who, depending upon the nature and scope of the request, could be the school's Section 504 or ADA coordinator, an appropriate dean, a faculty advisor, or a professor. Unlike elementary or secondary schools, colleges may ask the student, in response to a request for auxiliary aids, to provide supporting diagnostic test results and professional prescriptions for auxiliary aids. A college also may obtain its own professional determination of whether specific requested auxiliary aids are necessary.

Examples of Auxiliary Aids

Some of the various types of auxiliary aids and services may include:

  • taped texts
  • notetakers
  • interpreters
  • readers
  • videotext displays
  • television enlargers
  • talking calculators
  • electronic readers
  • Braille calculators, printers, or typewriters
  • telephone handset amplifiers
  • closed caption decoders
  • open and closed captioning
  • voice synthesizers
  • specialized gym equipment
  • calculators or keyboards with large buttons
  • reaching device for library use
  • raised-line drawing kits
  • assistive listening devices
  • assistive listening systems
  • telecommunications devices for deaf persons.


It is critical to ensure that young adults can advocate for themselves as they enter post secondary learning environments.


Friday, June 6, 2014

Soapbox

Image by: whatcomteaparty

This evening my colleagues and I had a wonderful sharing on a Google + Hangout.  The format for our dialogue was entitled "Soapbox"
and here is the instructor's description:

 ASSIGNMENT: To do this, you will select a topic from ideas that we have not deeply considered and have not been chosen for project topics. A suggested list is below.
You will have 8 minutes to get on your soapbox and inform, orate, philosophize, advise, etc. on your topic based on the current state of the art, data, and research. The audience will then have up to 4 minutes to respond, question, analyze, etc. Feel free to support and augment your soapbox with relevant resources and technology.
ASSESSMENT: Two people will peer-review each presenter using the rubric below.
(Assignment and rubric developed by Laura Greenstein Ed.D)

The two hours whizzed by as we listened to each other discuss such topics as:

What teachers need to know about technology?
Too young for technology?
If students have the answers, what are the questions?
STEM to STEAM
Something surprising about CCSS resources
Assessing MOOCS
Assessing ISTE/NETS Standards
The future of teaching, learning, and assessing with technology

The soapbox format enabled all participants speak with conviction and passion. I gained more insight into the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for coaches. I gained some great tips for early learners in respect to technology. I learned that STEAM is STEM with the Arts added. One colleague shared some great strategies and data about teachers and the types of questions we ask are they open questions or closed questions. A library/media specialist shared 10 things teachers should know about technology. We had some informative discussion around Common Core curriculum, Massive Online Open Courses and the future of teaching, learning and assessing in the future and the need to give teachers time to process and align standards, curriculum and assessments.


The beauty of this assignment is that we shared multiple perspectives. We also shared the results of our investigations so this project resulted in a collaborative effort where we can all benefit from the work of each other. 

Monday, June 2, 2014

AT and Considering Families Value Systems

Do you consider cultural diversity when developing instructional plans for your students?



There should be no doubt that the success of any educational plan using assistive technology is dependant on the receptiveness of the family to the plan.  The figure above from Brotherson, M. J. Family-centered and Culturally Responsive Assistive Technology Decision Making. Infants & Young Children, 355-367 shows key steps to include when practicing a family centered approach.  

It is easy for misunderstandings to take place if all four steps above are not considered.  As teachers we work with students from many different cultures.  We need to be aware of issues such as pride, shame, taboo, gender roles, and language barriers as we work together with our families.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Assessing 21st Century Learning

This week we defined a set of 21st century skills and reviewed ways of assessing those skills.  Our instructor gave us a task of plotting some 21st century skills on a graph with Ease of Assessment on the vertical axis and Importance of Learning on the horizontal axis.
On an interactive slide in a google presentation we were able to drag and drop the skills on to a graph like the one below.


This activity heightened my awareness to the relationship between the two variables.  I spent some time really thinking about the importance of each skill.  I feel strongly that all the skills are very important.  It was difficult to prioritize them.  As I came back to the activity several times over the course of the week I challenged my own judgments.

As I reviewed  my classmates graphs it was interesting to notice that almost all of us had 3 areas that were both harder to assess and important.  Those areas were Critical Thinking, Digital Literacy and Global Understanding.  Is it surprising that the most important skills are hardest to assess?  Or is it that these skills are relatively new and we are not yet fully aware of the best and easiest ways to access them?  I found myself wanting to create some type of transparent overlay to more clearly see where we all overlap and what might be the outliers.

Here is a screenshot of my graph.


I know that I will continue to ponder about this exercise as I delve deeper into the topic.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Assistive Technology in the Classroom with "Dollars and Cents"


This week we read chapter seven in Bryant and Bryant's book Assistive Technology For People With Disabilities.  In the chapter the authors described ways of integrating asistive technology into academic instruction.  Our task was to take a look at the various software options listed and describe what they do and list some of the pros and cons of the application. I chose to review the math software called "Dollars and Cents"  The program is available on both PC and as an iPad app.  I downloaded the free app and experimented with the features.

Below is a description of the software right from the company's homepage .
Dollars and Cents Software is a great way to integrate functional activities into your math curriculum. Ideal for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism. United States and Canadian currency is included.
Counting Coins has four activities: Naming, Matching, Sorting, and Vending Machine.
In Spending Money, students shop for items and pay for them with computer cash, using the exact amount or the next-dollar approach.
In Making Change, the most advanced program, students function as store clerks, entering purchases and giving back change.
All of the programs feature clear, realistic graphics and an easy-to-navigate interface. Plus, this money talks! Personalize each program: select activities, determine which coins and bills are presented, choose U.S. or Canadian currency, and set scanning options.
Standout Features:
  • Realistic graphics
  • Age-neutral content
  • Speech supports
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Unified management system
  • Select coins and bills for each user
  • Choose between U.S. and Canadian currency
  • Access Dollars and Cents with single or two-switch scanning
Here are some Pros and Cons which I found after trying the free version.

Pros:
  • the graphics are very clear and simple
  • the voice is clear
  • for many of the activities if I selected an incorrect answer the number of possible answers would diminish so that success was guaranteed, the voice would state " try again" or "not quite" 
  • there was an increasing level of difficulty as you progress through the activities
  • there were some good sound effects
Cons:
  • the cost is high for example, 1 app is $39.99; 5 apps= $150.00 and 20 apps = $$400.00
  • the CD Rom is $99.00 or 5 for $249.00
  • The last level entitled "Vending" may be engaging due to the sound effects but I am not sure the mathematical processes are scaffolded enough to stimulate learning
  • the naming activity shows three was to name each coin, for example 
    • penny
    • 1c
    • 1 cent
Generally speaking I could see that this app can be supportive to students in the classroom.  A headset or ear buds would be needed.


References
Bryant, Diane Pedrotty., and Brian R. Bryant. Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Print.

PURPOSEFULLY USING DIGITAL FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO GUIDE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Photo by: Fancy Jantzi
All teachers know that purposeful, formative assessment is critical to maximizing student learning. We always want to check and monitor student understanding as we design and differentiate our lessons.  The use of digital tools in the process of formative assessment can save us time and energy if used properly.  I say properly because there can be a tendency to let a prescribed software scope and sequence determine how to meet a student's needs with out carefully analyzing specific assessment results and aligning the digital application to what has been taught in class.  

Let's say for example that I am teaching a unit on the Grade 2 CCSS math standard 2 MD.7 - Tell and write time from a analog and digital clocks to the nearest 5 minutes using am and pm.  I might start with a 10 question, formative assessment such as this which I assigned from a program called TenMarks. This application is currently free to teachers but if you want to use the more advanced intervention features there is a per student cost of $20.00.  One aspect of the TenMarks program which I find beneficial is that the questions are read to the student.  This feature helps us rule out that the reading ability of students is the cause for student error on a math item.

During the unit on telling time to 5 minute intervals a teacher may want to build in the use of  Socrative, a student response system, to gain live feedback on student understanding.  The teacher could also assign an open-ended performance task. The task would require the use of an iPad so it is appropriate for a class which is equipped with iPads.  The task would involve each student or teams of students to create a time stamped photo journal of their day or a part of their day. The assignment can be either an in school assignment or an at home assignment.  Students would be asked to record  7 to 10 activities over the assigned time block and post them to Padlet.  Students would note the time to the closest 5 minute interval and label the posts accordingly.

After some guided and independent practice a teacher would want to assess learning before moving on to another concept.  One way to do that could be to use a free tool called thatquiz.org .  With this tool you can create your class, assign lessons, assign formative quizzes, and receive reports on student activity.  There are several features which allow a teacher to customize the assessment environment.  Teachers can set the length of a quiz by number of questions given.  The level of difficulty for a particular skill can be changed. The assessment can be timed or untimed.  Students may or may not be given immediate feedback on their answer.  There is even a feature to allow the teacher to Tweet the assignment or quiz to all their students. The site is available in 10 languages.


There are literally hundreds of ways to incorporate technology into your formative assessment process. Some tools are better suited for specific content areas.  Here are some links which I found fun and informative to explore.



You Tube 10 minute video: "About Assessment: Reshan Richards at TEDxNYED"   Mr. Richards is the developer of Explain Everything iPad app.  Here is a tutorial which is demonstrated for college professor use but I could also envision our students using the app.


Resources:
Sophia.org
Tenmarks.com
that quiz.org
Socrative
Don't Use Kahn Academy Without Watching This First - Education Week






Sunday, May 18, 2014

Assessing with Technology



This week I had the pleasure of working with my colleagues, +Joseph Depalma+Nancy Atterberry , and +Elizabeth Hick to research and reflect on the topic of assessing with technology.  We had two Google hangouts to share ideas, discuss content, organize thoughts, and create a Prezi to demonstrate our work together.  We broke the task into parts so that each of us could work independently.  All group members were productive, respectful, flexible, and helped each other learn about the intricacies of the presentation tool Prezi.  It was a true collaborative effort and the final product is here Assessment In The Digital Era Prezi . 

The topic of assessing with technology is broad and ever changing.  There are some tools which are free and some which are costly.  There are wide scale assessment applications such as SBAC and there are classroom level applications such as Socrative which provide immediate responses.  E-portfolios have made the archiving of  student work easy.  Blogging allows a student to clarify their thinking in written form.  The multimedia aspect of technology allows for assessment to take on a whole new form which may be a better assessment of students' different learning styles.  

Although this video on Khan Academy is from 2011, (old in tech terms), it demonstrates how technology can personalize learning, provide teachers with standards mastery data, and customize the learning experience in a flipped classroom.  The benefits of using technology in teaching, learning, and assessing are varied.  The teacher/school/district does need to invest a certain amount of energy into aligning the curriculum, instruction and assessment tools.  Caution should be exerted to use an assessment because it fits the learning target, not because it is new and different.  Providing evidence of learning is no longer solely a paper based process.  As we move more into technology enhanced assessments the only constant is that there will be change!

Meeting The Needs Of Our Students With Mild Disabilities


How can we as teachers best meet the needs of students with mild disabilities?  Dave Edyburn in his article Assistive Technology and Students With Mild Disabilities suggests areas to pursue which he states will improve opportunities for our students with mild disabilities.  These are: “recognizing the contributions and limitations for enhancing performance,  reconceptualizing the forms of assistive technology, redesigning assistive technology service delivery systems, and responding to the need to document the impact and effectiveness of assistive technology.”  Each of these areas apply to system wide-efforts.  System-wide change efforts often take so much time that by the time that proposed technology can be outdated or obsolete.

I think that the most effective way to best meet the needs of our students is at the classroom level.  Collaboration time between the Special education staff and classroom teachers is a critical factor in continually evaluating and revising classroom practices to help our students.  Getting to know, at a deep level, how each student learns best is extremely  important.  

There are several learning inventory tools which can be used to help both student and teacher learn how the student learns best.  Considering Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences is also key to supporting students diverse learning styles.  Practices suggested in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) for ELL/Bilingual Learners such as :
Cooperative learning,
Explicit, targeted vocabulary development
Slower speech with clear enunciation and fewer idiomatic expressions
Visuals, demonstrations and hands-on learning
Text adaptations
Homework adaptations

can help all students in a classroom. 

Developing clear, achievable learning goals and mapping the path to achieving those goals is crucial to building success for our students with mild disabilities.  The list is of ways to create an environment which provides success for all is long.  The classroom teacher, if provided with the appropriate resources and support, holds the key to that success.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Meeting Students' Emotional Needs


I would like to reflect on the high-incidence disability area which Beard, Carpenter and Johnson referred to in Chapter 5 as emotional or behavioral disorders.  I have worked with several children in my teaching career who have been diagnosed , and sometimes not diagnosed, with emotional or behavioral disorders.  Many of our students live in conditions which include “situational stressors”.  Their home life may include violence, substance abuse, sexual abuse, poor living conditions, and generally unhealthy living conditions.  For some of our youngsters emotional health is a luxury and school is a safe place.  We, as their teachers, must support their emotional and social development.

In the Alper and Raharinirina article Assistive Technology for Individuals With Disabilities: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature the authors note “Todis (1996) found that students’ educational and social needs could only be successfully met only if the following factors were present: (a) the student’s education program was based on the family’s goals and values; (b) AT and student’s goals were linked; (c) family, student, and professionals work collaboratively;
(d )communication is ongoing; (e) equipment is replaced or modified as needed; and (f) problems were immediately resolved as soon as they arose.”

All of the readings this week underscore the importance of family involvement in the development and implementation of the IEP for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.  As a professional educator we should work for our children to ensure that the school to family connections are as strong as they can possibly be.  We need to be aware of the environment in which our children live and support them in all ways.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Assessments, Feedback and Technology


Feedback emphasizes strengths of performance and strategies for overcoming challenges. It is targeted and personalized to maximize growth.  How can technology support assessment feedback?  Here is one example.

Grant Wiggins (1998) contends that “assessments should be authentic, with feedback and opportunities for revision to improve rather than simply audit learning”.  There are many ways which technology can support assessment efforts specifically as it relates to providing feedback.  Robert Marzano in his book,  A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works, provides us with some questions to consider when planning for providing feedback.  Here are a few of them.

What knowledge will students be learning?
What will I do to ensure that students understand the rubrics?
What will I do to ensure that I provide feedback in a timely manner?
How will I engage students in the feedback process?
How will I monitor the impact of feedback on student learning?
What will I do to help students who are not responding well to feedback?
In his Seven Keys to Effective Feedback Grant Wiggens describes the need for feedback which is timely. Technology affords timely results and feedback to our students.   Several math practice sites such as That Quiz provide immediate feedback as students problem solve.  Many of the gaming programs provide instant feedback on student progress towards a goal so that corrections can be instantly made.
Video and audio recordings of work can provide very specific and transparent feedback to students as in this app. Educational App for Formative Feedback

The computer assists in archiving feedback and assessments with such applications as comments in Google docs.  Kaizena is another way to give verbal feedback to students embedded right into the google doc.  Here is a video to see how it works.  This type of feedback is authentic and is very specific to items on the student’s work itself.

Technology can also provide assessment results to teachers as they form plans.   I would suggest that this is a type of feedback...for teachers.  Teachers can easily aggregate assessment data as they create instructional plans for students. Here is a video I created demonstrating the concept. Accessing Standards Mastery Reports on NHPS Schoolnet .