The Essential Conditions for Technology Integration

According to the introduction to "Digital-Age Literacy for Teachers" the essential conditions for effective technology integration in the classroom are: Shared Vision, Access, Skilled Educators, Professional Development, Technical Assistance, Content Standards and Curriculum Resources, Student-Centered Teaching, Assessment, Community Support, and Support Policies.

I do believe that the article "It's Magic" demonstrates these essential conditions for effective technology integration. Firstly, Mrs. Johnson, the teacher in the article is obviously an educator skilled in both teaching and the use of technology for learning. The teaching is student-centered; students are creating their own broomsticks, which is both meaningful and gives the students a chance to construct their own knowledge. The teachers obviously have access to the newest in technology. There is a shared vision and community support because it seems that schools all over North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida, and Texas are participating in some sort of consortiuum. Lastly, the Cherub program also illustrates leadership and administrative support from the entire system.

I believe that After the Bell and Beyond also demonstrates these essential conditions for effective technology integration. There is a shared vision; the entire state of Michigan passed a bill requiring students to take an online class and Missouri is embarking on a program to offer virtual classes to K-12 students. This particular teacher obviously is skilled in the use of technology to offer Podcast reviews to her students. She also obviously has access to the kinds of technology needed to have effective integration into the curriculum. Using the Podcasts as reviews for her students is an example of student-centered teaching. Lastly, community support is also evident in that teachers from all over the world are interested in supporting her use of Podcasts as well as the parents of her students.

R-Directed Thinking

What do you need to change in your thought process or learning style(s) to begin to adapt to R-Directed Thinking for the purpose of creating 21st century learning environments for students?

First of all, I thought I would describe my learning styles so you will all have an idea of how my learning styles might affect my teaching in the first place. I tend to learn best through visual and verbal presentation and hands-on learning. I do not tend to learn best through numbers or kinesthetic activities. I can remember what I hear, but I remember better those things that I read.

Next, I'd like to talk a little bit about R-directed thinking and my understanding of that type of design method. Pink's Six Senses tend to be focused on involving the right brain, rather than the left, in order to create learning in students, hence the name R-Directed Thinking. Pink's Six Senses are Design, Empathy, Meaning, Symphony, Play, and Story. Design involves creating a product that is beautiful and emotionally engaging rather than just functional. Empathy involves the ability to understand other people, to forge relationships, and to care for others. Meaning involves pursuing a purpose and spiritual fulfillment. Symphony involves piecing together parts of the puzzle and synthesizing new knowledge to see the parts as a whole. Play involves just that: laughter, humor, and lightheartedness. Lastly, Story involves creating a compelling narrative rather than inundating people with facts.

Being a librarian, and learning visually and hands-on as I do, I think I already try to create a learning environment for students using many of these senses, although I've never thought about it like that. I tend to enjoy creating products that are attractive rather than just functional, which I would also like to encourage my students to do as well. The hardest part will be getting the students to go beyond what is required to the aesthetic side of things. I think Empathy is hard to teach, in general, although I tend to be able to do this myself. I'm not sure I have any ideas on this one. I tend to lose sight of Meaning sometimes, so I will have to work on remembering that everything has a meaning beyond that of "getting a grade" and will encourage my students to remember that as well. Library work is great for Symphony; students are encouraged to see the big picture in the library rather than just little bits of the puzzle. The library is also the perfect place to create an environment for Play and Story. I don't think I will have to change anything there, except for not allowing myself to get burned out and lose sight of the fun my students can have in the library!

Response to Lauren M's What's in the News

This week I have chosen to respond to Lauren M's What's in the News questions about Podcasts. First of all, I have to agree with Lauren that this article was extremely short and could have gone into much more detail about Podcasts. I am sitting on the fence with regards to Lauren's first question. Although I think poorly done Podcasts do add to the tremendous amount of spam on the Internet, I think a well done Podcast can add a lot to both the classroom and Internet experience. I think Podcasts are a fantastic thing for the classroom; I also have to agree with Lauren that it is a great tool for students who have trouble writing papers. Podcasts are another rich and varied way to get students to think critically while using technology at the same time. However, if the project being done in the classroom is poorly directed or the students are doing one at home by themselves, I do think that Podcasts might add to the amount of Spam.

In regards to Lauren's second question about useful ways to incorporate Podcasts into the classroom, I have several ideas. I am coming from a librarian's perspective so I believe that Podcasts can be a great way for students to review and recommend books to other students. Podcasts could be used for an orientation for incoming fifth graders to a middle school or incoming freshmen to a high school. In terms of classroom use, I think a Podcast could be a valic product for a research project.

Reflection to Date

I have learned quite a bit in this class so far. The Webquest was a great experience for me. I have designed several curriculum units and tons of lesson plans, but I've never designed a project of that magnitude. I think expanding this Webquest into the final multimedia project will be a great learning experience.

It was fascinating to hear about all of the Web 2.0 tools. I see so many ways to use them if I am in a middle or high school library. However, I'm still struggling to see a way to use them in an elementary school, which is where I would ideally like to be. I just don't think that elementary schoolers have the technological know-how or cognitive skills to be able to use them to their full effectiveness.

I have had experience with blogging before, since I was in college, but this has made it easier for me to keep up to date! I've never had the discipline to really keep up a blog, so that has been a good thing for me.

There are not many things I have been struggling with, besides the issue of using Web 2.0 tools in elementary school. I would love to learn more about how to make a Podcast. I really don't know much about them at all. I would also love to learn how to make a basic webpage, because I think it is important. Other than that, I think I have had enough experience designing curriculum units and lesson plans that planning the multimedia project wwill hopefully not be too difficult for me!

Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom

This entry is supposed to be about Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, but since I will be in a library I will discuss my perspective on the usefulness of Web 2.0 tools in a library. I think that Web 2.0 tools present a great opportunity for students to share their own ideas and create spaces that are meaningful to them. However, I believe that these tools are best used with middle and high school students rather than elementary school students.

Gliffy, which we examined this week, would allow students to organize research and create charts and graphics for use in class presentations. As an on-line graphic organizer I think this is incredibly useful for both the classroom and the library. It helps students learn how to organize information as well as giving them options for doing so. However, the skills involved in this are more suited to middle and high school students than elementary.

Wikispaces are also fantastic for use in both the classroom and the library. My idea for Wikispaces was to have a place for students to review books online so other students in the school can access them. This provides so many opportunities for students and teachers to post things that are both educational and meaningful. This tool might be able to be adapted for an elementary school but, generally, the students don't have enough experience yet to be able to use one of these effectively.

I do believe that Web 2.0 tools can be very useful in classroom and library situations. However, I would love to see some that are able to be used at the elementary level. I just don't see how the tools that we have experienced would benefit the cognitive level of an elementary schooler. Does anyone have any ideas?

Increasing Student Learning Through Multimedia Projects

In Michael Simkins' text "Increasing Student Learning Through Multimedia Projects" he suggests ideas to do just that. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a basic introduction to the types and use of multimedia in the classroom, but I will be focusing on ideas from Chapters 3 and 4 today.

Chapter 3, "Making a Real-World Connection", is one of the most important things to do in a multimedia project, in my view. I am a firm believer in contructivism, meaning basically that I want my students to be guided in their learning to make their own meanings. I feel myself to be a facilitator in helping to forge student understanding. However, it is mainly the students' jobs to create their own meaning within assignments. Therefore, having a real world connection is extremely important! In order to create lasting understanding students must complete a project or assignment that is personally meaningful to them.

In Chapter 3 Simkins suggests that there are ten ways to make real-world connections in the use of multimedia projects: connecting through student interests, through student experiences, significant issues, improving the real world, relating to clients, interacting with assessors, interacting with people who know, learning adult work and life skills, creating a body of work, and creating images of the future. All of these will be beneficial to students seeking to create their own understandings. However, some are more feasible than others. It can be easy to connect through student interests or experiences while still adhering to the curriculum. For example, the school I am student teaching in has a PAL project for the fourth graders in which they do research on a topic of interest to them and then do a multimedia presentation. Students also love to think that they have a say in changing the world or debating significant issues. Relating to clients and interacting with people who know might be a little more difficult, but if you can find contacts to interact with, this is very helpful. Creating a body of work can also be beneficial because it gives students ownership of the assignment as well as pride in their work!

After considering these issues it is time to "define and plan a multimedia learning project" (Chapter 4). This particular chapter deals with the major questions to ask yourself when planning a multimedia project. Probably the most important question is "What do I need to teach?" Usually, projects need to be done in some sort of curricular framework so it is important to keep both that and your teaching goals and objectives in mind when starting a project. Some other important considerations are what kind of equipment and applications are available, what kind of project you want the students to do, how much time you need to spend on it, what resources will be needed, and probably second-most important, how will students be assessed. After all of these questions have been considered it is time to instruct the students on how to complete their projects!

From Fact to Fiction: Drawing and Writing Stories

After exploring the website http://www.teach-nology.com, I came across a Webquest that I think would be perfect to use as a collaborative project between a teacher and a librarian. Since I am studying to be a school librarian, I think I would like to try this project because it is a great mix of literature, getting students to appreciate reading, and reading and writing instruction. This particular project is called From Fact to Fiction: Drawing and Writing Stories and the basic gist of the project is that students will learn the differences between fiction and non-fiction and will use their new found skills to create a non-fiction story, which they will then transform into a fiction story. The link to this particular project is http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=111.

In more detail, the goals of the project, according to the overview are:

- Students will learn about story elements, including setting, characters, problem, solution, and ending
-Students will use a K-W-L chart to activate prior knowledge
-Students will use the Internet to gather information about a specific topic
-Students will express their stories orally
-Students will apply their knowledge of story elements through drawing
-Students will apply strategies learned in oral expression to reading and writing
-And students will record their stories in Powerpoint

The website uses a specific instructional plan with frogs and toads as the theme, but I believe this could be adapted to any element of the curriculum for 2nd or 3rd graders.

Since I will be in a library, I think this would be a fabulous opportunity to collaborate with teachers. The core teacher could do some of the reading and writing instruction, while, I, as the librarian, could introduce the students to accessing information on the web, reading the stories, and introducing them to the Powerpoint technology to record their stories. This would be a tremendous opportunity to illustrate the need for librarians in elementary schools (they are not state-mandated in Pennsylvania) and also an opportunity to illustrate that collaboration between teachers and librarians can work!

The biggest challenge I would have is probably also the biggest opportunity: collaboration. Teachers are often not keen to collaborate with the school librarian. For many schools library time is prep time for teachers; most of them are not willing to give up their prep time to work with the librarian. There are some teachers who just don't see the worth in collaboration, although that is steadily changing. Lastly, one more challenge in completing this particular project would be time constraints. This unit takes two to three weeks and time is precious for both librarians and teachers. Perhaps this project hits many standards in the curriculum, which would make it easier to justify using in my teaching.

Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants

Marc Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" and "Do They Really Think Differently" struck a chord with me this week. These articles can be found at www.marcprensky.com under Writing if you are not in my class and would like to take a look at them. I think what really struck me was that I realized that I am not quite a Digital Native but am not really a Digital Immigrant, either; this is probably due more to a lack of interest in computers and technology on my part than not being born at the right time. I consider myself to be right in the middle, just because I can do basic technological things but don't enjoy doing anything more than required with them.

Marc Prensky's statement in the first paragraph of the first part of his article, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach" is, I believe, right on the money. As I work in the middle school library, watching the students use the computers to do school work, this becomes more and more apparent to me. For many of the students, computers are the ONLY reason they come to the library. These kids already have a higher level of sophistication with technology than I think I will ever have, no matter how many courses I take to remedy that situation. However, although I agree with the fact that some middle-aged to older teachers may be Digital Immigrants, I believe that many of them are trying to remedy that situation. As I observe in the library, I find that most of the teachers bringing their classes in to use the computers are the older teachers. They are having their students create sophisticated Powerpoint presentations and are having them use computer games to learn languages. Although I understand Marc Prensky's point, I think things have moved in a very positive direction since 2001.

However, there is no doubt that students are learning in a completely different way since the advent of computers and video games. It is no longer sufficient to teach only reading, writing, math, and science, because, not only are students learning differently, careers are also requiring more technological experience. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to learn to incorporate technology and multimedia into their curriculums just as illustrated in "Increasing Student Learning Through Multimedia Projects" by Michael Simkins, et. al. Although it takes some work, it is really not as hard as many people believe.

I also found the second part of Prensky's article "Do They Really Think Differently?" intriguing. I have a degree in Psychology from Gettysburg College, so many of the things mentioned in this part of the article were familiar to me. I had concentrated mostly on social psychology and neuropsychology. Therefore, I knew that it is possible to restructure a brain. As an example not mentioned in the article, some patients have half of their brains removed, either because of injury or to prevent seizures (these patients sometimes have their brains split as well). Although it takes time, the half of the brain that is left eventually takes over for tasks that the other half would normally have done.

Students today have restructured their brains to think in a completely different way and teachers must reaccommodate to that, as much time as that will take. Students simply do not learn the same way anymore. They become bored quickly and I believe that learning to incorporate multimedia into the curriculum is one way to take care of that, as I believe Marc Prensky thinks as well.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,
This is my first night of multimedia class. Things I already KNOW about technology are:

That is a big question. I suppose it depends on what is meant by technology. When it comes to computers I can do most basic things such as using a word processing program or making a PowerPoint presentation, but, honestly, use of technology beyond this has not been required of me in many of my classes. One of the assignments in my Resources for Young Adults class was to put together a website on a specific topic. Luckily, one of the other people in my group knew html, otherwise I would have been completely lost. I think the most I have ever been asked to do technology-wise in a classroom has been a PowerPoint presentation in two of my graduate classes. When I was in high school, computers were just starting to come into the schools and I had little opportunity to use them in school work. I know something about how to work a Smartboard, I can use a digital camera to post pictures to the web, and I can use a video camera to record and then edit. In terms of communication I can use a cellphone for a variety of things such as texting and sending pictures. As you can probably tell by my response to this question, the things I know about technology are very basic so there is a lot of room for me to grow in this area.


Things I WANT TO KNOW about technology are:

There are so many things I would like to know about technology that I'm sure many of them won't even begin to be covered in this class. Since I intend to become a school librarian, I would like to know how I can integrate technology into the library in order to help create a stronger base of research and information literacy skills for students. I would also like to know about multimedia tools that I may not have heard of or had experience with that I can integrate with print resources to continue to create that strong base of information literacy skills.

Things I hope to LEARN about technology are:

There are several specific things I hope to learn about technology. Namely:

1) Familiarity with creating web pages, as school librarians are often asked to help maintain school webpages
2) Familiarity with podcasting, as many schools have begun to use these as a way to disseminate information to students and students are beginning to use them as a format for projects
3) Video conferencing: The school district I am student teaching in has video conferencing equipment that has not been tried yet.
4) Other multimedia tools that I don't know of for use in the classroom and library