Technology Tools for Assessment and Evaluation

The article first talks about NETS T standards and how they should be incorporated into curriculum. The authors of this article say it after demonstrating competency of those skills they are truly ready to integrate technology not the K-12 classroom. After conducting interviews on students, it was learned that students are not making the need connections between general method courses and the skills they learned in IT. It is then found that many students are confusing what should be clear terms and that the confusion of these terms is what is preventing students to effectively link IT and course curriculum. It is then understood that until terms like, assessment and evaluation are understood to its fullest, we can then link these major concepts to technology.

I totally agree with the authors of this article. Technology can be used in a variety or purposes and can be a very useful tool if employed correctly. Technology can be used in numerous ways for assessment and evaluation purposes, but they wont be effective tools if the reasons for using are not understood. One must know what assessment and eval7ation means before they can actually measure these two things. I think having technology classes as a part of our required courses to obtain our teaching certificates is a very good idea. These courses help us link the information were learning in our methods class with our new technology skills.

The I-Generation—From Toddlers to Teenagers

Jane Healy strongly encourages educators to really look at the reasons for having high technology in their classrooms. Healy feels that where teachers use technology such as a computer, teachers will see faster and higher results with the traditional way of "good teachers, small classes, and a challenging curriculum." From Healy's view she feels that teachers rely highly on technology in their classrooms but that the students aren’t learning and truly benefiting from these programs. She argues for example, that in some cases, who is really doing the thinking, the programmers or the child? She also argues that young children should not be introduced to the computer until they are much older, because they can ultimately be damaging to the child. During the conversation between Carol Tell and Jane Healy, Healy continues to rant on about why technology and computer use in the classroom should be limited.

I feel that although Healy made a few good points, she is being unreasonable about the use of technology in the classroom. I think that Healy is just having a hard time to accept that today’s generations are tech savvy and that today’s learning process has evolved. I think yes textbooks and good curriculum shouldn't be thrown out or overlooked, but I also don’t think we should disregard the computer and other high tech product use in our classrooms. I think in order to avoid a lot of Healy's concern we as teachers need to take one simple step, and that is just too critically analyze and examine the software and programs we use in our classrooms. As teachers we are educated enough to tell which software programs are garbage and which can be beneficial to our students learning. With this sorting process we can then guarantee that our money and our students time using these programs is not going to waste.

Oregon Trail Article

The Oregon Trail game is one that many students are familiar with. I myself remember using the CD-ROM game to teach me about the pioneers life and experiences on the Oregon Trail. And today teachers continue to use this game for educational purposes. The game combines many skills used in the daily classroom; reading, math, geography, history and science. The numerous choices you have throughout the course of the game alter your journey as you try to reach Oregon's territory. However Bill Bigelow, the author of the article says after experiencing the game for himself, “as much as the game teaches, it mis-teaches more.”
We can not assume, as teachers, that the content the game provides is accurately portraying the actual event in history. Although it is a fun way to learn history, the things the game teaches children are not accurate and we are misleading students. For example, Bigelow says that although you have the choice to be a female or male in the game, both genders in the simulation act as males, giving students an inaccurate account of women's role during the journey. I think that in some aspects this game can be beneficial but overall it should not be used in the classroom. Because the game is biased on so many levels, students are getting a “partial education.” Not learning every aspect of the Oregon Trail experience is cheating students of their education. I think if teachers really feel the need to use this particular CD-ROM to teach this historical event, then they should think about discussing the inaccuracies of the game as a class, so that students know that this is not a 100% accurate simulation of the pioneers experience on the Oregon Trail.

Digital Edge Project

The digital edge project is an online library that highlights a collection of articles, videos, and podcasts created and posted by certified teachers.

The lesson I picked is called "Baby Signs for Pre-K Children." This lesson comes from a Pre-K Special Education teacher from Florida. This teacher created a lesson that incorporated the use of Babysigns, a program that "uses gestures that preverbal babies use to communicate wants and needs," in hopes to stimulate her non-verbal students to use words/gestures to communicate. For each student she concentrated on their individuals needs and her desired outcomes based off of their IEP goals.
To get started she assessed each student to see which words and gestrues they already knew, and which words/gestures she wanted them to learn. For each gesture/action she demonstrated them by the use of a videotape shots. To get the students familarized with the process of the videotaping she videotaped them for a few days doing various activities. Many of her students have some kind of verbal delay, so she she used these tactics with many students. Each of her two nonverbal students had a targeted vocabulary checklist for each language lesson. She compared the checklists after every lesson to evalutate the effectivness of these lessons and students progress. After a year of using these lessons with the two students she was very impressed with their progress. These modifications and new teaching strategies she implemented proved to increase these students vocbulary and their what was a very limited forms of communication.

I really liked this lesson because it was simple and fun. This teacher reflected on the videotaping aspect and said her students loved interacting with the videotaps and loved beging recorded and watching themselves on tv. This lesson make learning vocabulary fun because its and interactive process. From the article it didnt seem like it took too much prep time, however, preparing for the lesson seemed to be the most important part of this lesson. Assessing students current vocabulary and where you want them to be when they are done with the lessons was a very crucial aspect of this language learning process. I think i would liek to try this lesson in my classroom, however, the teacher who initially implemented this lesson said when she did these lessons it took her entire attention. This means using a startegy like this in a classroom is only realistic if you have at least one para educator with you, like this teacher did. If a lesson is going to take your entire attention you need to ensure that your other students are in good hands with another qualfied professional.

Mitchel Resnick: Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age

The focus of this article is taking advantage of new technologies and using them in a more productive and meaningful way to create a "learning revolution" in education. Mitchel Resnick the author of this article states that the problem holding back this revolution is the approaches teaching and learning have remotely changed.

Resnick encourages computer users to change the way they view and use computers. To not look at computers as a tool to view and obtain information but tool to help create things of importance. He explains, touching upon Jean Piaget's theory that learning is an interactive process "in which people construct new understandings of the world around
them through active exploration, experimentation, discussion, and reflection." Therefore to take full adavantage of technoloy, computer users should not just use computers as a tool to access information but a tool in which they can create things and express themselves. Another reason Resnick states that attributes to the nonoccurence of this "learning revelution" is the fact computers users remain non-fluet with modern day technology. Resnick hints to the fact that the majority of users only become familiar with the computer tools they use, and even then are not fluent in the usage of teh tool/application. Resnick emphasizes the fact that it is not only important to know how to use the computer and other technologies, but how to use them to create things of significance.

Towards the end of the article Resnick introduces the idea of Computer Clubhouses; a technology center that gives people access to new technology such as the computer. The purpose of these clubhouses is to experiment with this new learning approach and let students "learn to express themselves and gain confidence in themselves as learners." This type of environment is said to be beneficial because it “strickes a balance between freedom and structure in learning process."

Resnick then ends with re-emphasizing the fact that we all should be digitally fluent, because we are now living in the digital age, where technology and learning is not only done in schools but outside in the communities, workplaces, and homes.

I thought this was a very interesting article. I agreed with much of what Mitchel said. I really liked the idea of digital fluency. I think it IS very important that todays society becomes not just familiar with computers in away to complete simple daily tasks but a way to express and create. That statement makes a lot of sense, because not only will digital fluency help you in education and the learning process but will help you succeed in other places like the workplace too. I also liked the concept of learning being a lifelong experience. People seem to have stuck in their heads that the only learnign going on is in the schools. Well the truth is we are constantly learning and you just dont stop once you are out of school. I have never heard of Computer Clubhouses before but I think it is a great concept. I think its fantastic that Intel helped create these club houses because it allows people who may not be able to afford or access a computer a change to be apart of this "digital age." I also think this type of center will allow students to naturally improve and become advance in their computer skills by just the mere interaction with a computer. Resnick had some very good ideas and I think that these ideas are not unrealistic. Introducing technology into the lives of our youth and encouraging them to be digitally fluet will be beneficial to all in the long run.