Standard 2

Ava Long

Technology in the Classroom

Taskstream Signature Assignment

December 3, 2013

• Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
• Meaning: Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf).

1. How your understandings of the standards changed based on your experiences:
• Designing Lessons: You know, it is funny how in just a short five months a human’s thinking and feelings can change so much and can contribute it to a small classroom with only four peers and an interesting teacher. I am extremely stubborn, so when it came to designing lessons based in the idea of developing them around digital-age learning I was slightly dumbfounded because I really had no idea what that meant. When I first sat down to design lesson plans that had to include implantation of technology I had no clue what I was doing. Our world is so driven by technological devices around us all the time that this sounds funny, but my husband even jokes that I do not know how to web search on Google. Who does not know how to do that in today’s world? Especially someone who is going to be a teacher and surely will be utilizing everything that the world-wide web has to offer. Me. J I brought in the drafts of my lesson plans to my teacher and he commended me on my depth, ideas, and details, but I was missing the idea of the class we were enrolled in: Technology in the Classroom. The component of technology was not an easy concept for me to accept into my lessons because of how paper-book-pencil minded I am. After we sat down together and went over section by section and discussed where I could easily turn a paper-based project into a Prezi presentation where the students would possibly be more engaged and definitely in the middle of designing and developing digital-age learning experiences. I really had to be open-minded and understanding of the idea that students nowadays need to be learning and applying their learning in a way they feel most comfortable even though I do not. I see young two-olds holding and playing with Iphones and I get upset that the parents are just using these as a mechanism to keep their child quiet or entertained, but having my own baby recently it has come crystal clear that it is almost impossible to keep the world technology out of their hands. I am still against my child having their own cell phone or tablet at the age of five, but as I was designing lessons I kept in mind that there are so many students that do and this is how they learn. The digital-age learning experience is not something that is a brand-new concept…it is the way of teaching and learning nowadays, and I have got to get with the program.  
• Teaching Lessons: As for teaching lessons regarding this specific standard it was after a long and elaborate deliberation with my teacher that I came back with two lesson plans to teach that did in fact revolve more around and implement more technology into the classroom and learning the lesson at hand. It is so vital that students learn in an environment in which they are most comfortable. This is how I understand the importance of teaching lessons that incorporate the widely available technological resources to aide in students’ learning of content. In order to design a lesson and teach it to students in their own language teachers need to be knowledgeable not only in the content, but what way is going to be easiest for students to grasp, retain, and apply what they have learned to the outside world. Since students are coming into classrooms already aware of the unbelievable amount of apps and websites that are out their for both pleasure and education, then it only makes sense to build on this knowledge and use it to the teacher and students’ advantage. I learned through “teaching” the lesson to my peers and my teacher is to keep in mind how the students want to learn and go with that. Because engagement is so vital to students learning and wanting to sit through lessons, then if technology makes that part easier, I am behind it all the way. It has to be about maximizing the students’ learning and through using the available resources to teach the content, I understand that I can succeed at doing this more so than if I were just to hand out construction paper, markers, and glue.
• Assessing Student (Peer) Artifacts: It never occurred to me how important a peer’s opinion was until I was open-minded enough to hear it. In my experience with this class and building lessons that revolved so heavily around technology I discovered that my peers’ opinions and advice helped me understand immensely so much that I never did before. From the drafting of my lessons to presenting them, my peers offered up a wealth of knowledge that only improved and added to what base ideas I had started with and their advice and suggestions made them that much better. I had a more difficult time building a digital-age lesson and assessment pairing than I originally thought. To create an assessment that had to use technology was not just about transferring the idea of bubble sheets to a computer; it had to be more extensive than that. My lessons went through a few different assessment attachments before I found one that was agreed upon by the whole class. It seems that my peers saw more technology-use available in places of the lesson that I had not and without those connections I would not have ended up with the final drafts I have today. I do believe that peers’ opinions, advice, and suggestions act as a reflection of you (as the teacher) and it is imperative for me to take heed of what they say, agree or agree to disagree, and build a classroom or lesson plans based on a strong foundation of collaborations.
2. What you learned about preparation and teaching from your peers:
• Lessons: I know how important preparation and organization are for my classroom to be successful and to completely benefit my students’ learning environment, but still to this day I tend to procrastinate. If there is one thing I have learned in my time in this program with me peers it is that my preparation and teaching has to be prepared beforehand. I will not have days upon days to procrastinate planning and lesson building. Especially if I am to take on the task of building a strong technological-based classroom. Another important piece of my “teaching toolbox” has been how super important modeling is for my students. In preparing my lessons before I took this class this semester I had never thought about having classroom examples or of modeling every little part of the lesson, but I quickly realized once my peers were up presenting their lessons that I did not understand what they were talking about until they modeled it themselves. I must understand that these are the frustrations my very own students will face. I say this knowing that I am not 100% fluent in using and implementing technology resources and tools into lessons because I am not comfortable with doing it myself, but then people say to me, “Learn with the students.” This would work (even though I would feel better just knowing how and what exactly I am teaching) if my students were in older grades, like 6^th, 7^th, or 8^th for example, but I intend on teaching 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th. So, it is important that I do what it takes to learn how to teach lessons incorporating the technology resources beforehand, so that students’ learning does not suffer.   
• Feedback: Feedback is so crucial to my own reflection of what I do and who I am as an educator. It is said that reflecting on what you do from day to day as a teacher is what makes you better tomorrow. I think that looking in the mirror and seeing yourself and the classroom is how you learn what you are doing right, what can you improve on, and what to do to better the students’ learning environment. Feedback should help develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes for both teacher and student. The teacher needs to give feedback to the students to let them know how they are doing academically, what they are doing right, what they can improve on, and to answer any questions the students may be having in regards to the content. The teachers need feedback from their peers, colleagues, collaborators, administration, parents, and student even for them to learn where all these parties stand in regards to how they are teaching and areas they can improve on. I would not have improved as a future educator if I did not have the collaboration with my peers and teachers regarding my lessons. I welcome any and all feedback because I know how imperative it is to me becoming a well-rounded teacher and fellow collaborator.  
3. How your experiences might impact your future teaching experiences. My experiences in learning how to better my understanding how build a digital-age learning environment, lessons, and assessments is something I appreciate and will never take for granted. I understand how funny or naive I must have sounded in front of my peers when I asked what they obscene questions in regards to technology, but I was genuinely confused, frustrated, or lost when it came to discovering all that the technology world has to offer educators in the way of building a truly effective and beneficial classroom based in digital-age learning environment. I could not even believe what the world-wide web had to offer in the way of worksheets, activities, lesson plan ideas, and assessments. I mean, you could literally find anything on the Internet, not to mention the available community of educators that are available to communicate with! Blogs, forums, social media, articles…the possibilities are absolutely endless. This class really opened my eyes up these endless possibilities and more. I am so grateful for my peers and my teacher for listening and answering my what seemed ridiculous questions in regards to technology.