National and State Technology Standards

1.                              As you read the Introduction to the National Education Technology Plan, what did you determine to be the purpose of the National Education Technology Plan? How does it affect teachers and students, people like you and me? (feel free to be critical if you like).

            When I read the introduction I felt as if I was reading the same speeches and promises that our government wants to change because we are lacking as a country in education to our children P-20.  The focus now is on technology because it has changed the world, education, communication; it is now the focus.  We are beyond being wowed by new textbooks, tools and hands on media we now can literally see the vastness of space and oceans through SmartBoards, SmartPhones and computers the fit in the palm of our hands yet we still aren’t meeting basic goals consistently as a nation; why?  Why do we think that because we have instant knowledge at the tips of our fingers that is going to solve our education needs?  I am a huge fan of implementing technology in our classrooms however when we remain more focused on assessments, data collections, and pie charts than making sure a child can read his grandmother’s cursive handwritten note we will always fail.  We get bombarded as parents by teachers, fellow parents and media that we need to limit our children’s “screen time” and yet in these initiatives our government is wanting to make it so our kids never unplug, go outside and experience in real life what a changing leaf looks like or jump in a creek to do field studies because we can now pull it up on our computers.  The teachers I talk to K-12 are so bogged down with reports, assessment, hours inputting into the computer and more that they are not engaging with our children as much because they are so worried about not getting their work done.  How can we say that we are effectively implementing technology in our kindergarten classrooms by showing kids where to have a book read to them and call it implementation?  I watch our kids crave to stare at the computer and have something read to them instead of being introduced to meaningful and engaging activities.  We wait until our kids are in Middle school and above to really open the doors to technology freely.  Classes are offered for a price that most cannot afford in Still Motion, Animatronics, computer programming and more however these are the “engaging and empowering strategies for innovation” that I believe we should be introducing along with reading, writing, and math in kindergarten.  So to answer what I think the purpose of this plan is to provide more data collection for the government so they have a means to personally track our children into early adulthood and predict their likely paths even before our children figure out their passions based on number trends, its going to push out the “experienced” teachers to bring in Digital Natives that are ready to eliminate books, paperwork and move to computers and our children are going to be a new breed of strategist that will excel in deductive reasoning and use technology to replace most human interactive experiences.  If we don’t find a way to improve the love of learning for our children no amount of technology is going to save us. 

2. As you read the Introduction to the National Education Technology Plan (NETP), what were the main assumptions under which the plan was developed?  (you may copy and paste the main assumptions, and then answer the question below in your own words). What are some concerns administrators, educators, or even students might have with these assumptions?

The plan is based on the following assumptions:

• Many of the failings of our education system stem from our failure to engage the hearts and minds of students.
• What students need to learn and what we know about how they learn have changed, and therefore the learning experiences we provide should change.
• How we assess learning focuses too much on what has been learned after the fact and not enough on improving learning in the moment.
• We miss a huge opportunity to improve our entire education system when we gather student-learning data in silos and fail to integrate the information and make it broadly available to decision-makers at all levels of our education system—individual educators, schools, districts, states, and the federal government.
• Learning depends on effective teaching, and we need to focus on extended teams of connected educators with different roles who collaborate within schools and across time and distance and who use technology resources and tools to augment human talent.
• Effective teaching is an outcome of preparing and continually training teachers and leaders to guide the type of learning we want in our schools.
• Making engaging learning experiences and resources available to all learners anytime and anywhere requires state-of-the-art infrastructure, which includes technology, people, and processes that ensure continuous access.
• Education can learn much from such industries as business and entertainment about leveraging technology to continuously improve learning outcomes while increasing the productivity of our education system at all levels.
• Just as in health, energy, and defense, the federal government has an important role to play in funding and coordinating some of the R&D challenges associated with leveraging technology to ensure the maximum opportunity to learn.

The plan also assumes that with technology we can provide engaging and powerful learning content, resources, and experiences and assessment systems that measure student learning in more complete, authentic, and meaningful ways. With technology-based learning and assessment systems, we can improve student learning and generate data that can be used to continuously improve the education system at all levels. With technology, we can execute collaborative teaching strategies combined with professional learning strategies that better prepare and enhance educators’ competencies and expertise over the course of their careers. With technology, we can redesign and implement processes to produce better outcomes while achieving ever higher levels of productivity and efficiency across the education system.

I think the main concern after reading this is the government is saying our teachers are failing our students which for me means that everyone above the teachers must be failing as well.  When I read the first assumption I agreed with that statement and I believe the reason why is not because we don’t use technology to engage our kids we have removed the permissions of our teachers to fully engage with our students.  We are not able to hug our students for fear of being accused of being sexually inappropriate, or discipline in a manner that students respect teachers.  Our world has not changed so much to say that students did not get violated in the 1970’s or that teachers could spank a child even earlier (and I would not want that for any child) however teachers were respected and obeyed.  If my mom came into my classroom and volunteered she was respected by the students as an educator and also loved as a mom.  We have stripped our teachers of being empowered because we now have to cater and react to all parents wishes, desires and dictates for their children.  It is not just educating children today it is teaching them how to be respectful socially giving human beings because parents don’t have the time to do it themselves.  If we want engaging learning experiences quit threatening to take away related arts programs, field trips and real life experiences for children that connect their minds and hearts to principles and lessons.  An interactive computer screen cannot give a child the experience of catching a crayfish in a cool stream wearing boots and manipulating tools and water flow.  Now we can take pictures and videos of our children and use technology and apps to further the experience however there is not enough time in the day nor desire in a child or teacher to make all of that happen yet that is what we are demanding today.  These demands aren’t just coming from parents but administrators, districts, superintendents, and government; we make unrealistic expectations look easy and obtainable yet set up thousands of teachers and children to fail by such standards. 

3.                  As you read the Executive Summary, the NETP presents a model of learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas. (You may copy and paste the areas directly from the document and then answer the question below in your own words).

Goals and Recommendations

To transform education in America, we must turn ideas into action. The NETP presents five goals that address the key components of this plan—learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity—along with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders in our education system for achieving these goals.

What are the “21st century competencies” - see the section titled “what and how people need to learn”- listed in the summary? How will technology support the growth of these competencies?

My question is where is the money going to come from to support these competencies?  I am all for 3D printing, modeling and having our students use tools that doctors, artists, cartoonists, writers and so forth use; but our schools are broke.  In our district our Administrators and Principles are always trying to figure out how to buy copy paper and basic supplies for administrative purposes so trying to add on real life technology outside of computers in school, I just don’t see it happening.  The other vehicle that could get our students to these places are field trips and project based learning and again in our school district (our school first hand) all field trips are cancelled because there isn’t money or our teachers don’t have time to plan it.  To acquire 21^st century competencies we need to be creative in our paths to opening the doors to access these competencies for our teachers and students.  My son is now in the sixth grade and I cannot remember that last field trip that he took to a business or community center to enrich his learning in any subject; it saddens me deeply.  My hopes as a future Professional Educator is to know the time is required for training, openness of mind to new techniques, passion to give my students every chance in life that they work for and to create an environment of learning that students cannot wait to walk into my doors.  Technology can certainly provide the passion, drive, and empowerment of learning for our students however we have to be realistic of cost and what it truly is we want to accomplish for our student.

4.                  As you read The State of Ohio's Educational Technology Plan's "purpose and mission" (page 6), how do you believe it aligns with the National Education Technology Plan? In which respects are the two plans perhaps not aligned?  Why?

I think that both parties are seeing 21^st Century tools as means of connecting students and teachers with the outside world agencies, businesses and creating this partnership to bring in real world thinking to all levels of education.  I just keep asking myself why everyone acts as if this is new thinking just because we have more technology and avenues to get the information to our students don’t mean we have compiled a plan to make it financially happen.  I am a stakeholder as a parent, future teacher and student and yet I find in most classes I am taking technology fails and we keep reverting back to good old fashion hands on experiences.  I cannot wait to get into a classroom to truly give me the experience of teaching and finding out what age group is my true fit.  If we want to teach our children about anatomy in elementary school why aren’t we brining in doctors to talk to them, use realistic models or videos instead of cartoon ones using our Smartboard and calling that implantation of a technology plan?  I think that Ohio’s plan calls for more partnership with “stakeholder, organization and affiliates” where the NETP feels like a military lockdown and regiment of our government dictating policy to gather information to profile our country.  The more I read that more I desire to teach and learn with children in the midst of my negativity toward how the education system looks from my seat presently. 

5.                  As you read Ohio’s State Educational Technology Plan outlined on page 8, how do you believe this outline aligns with the "model of learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas" proposed by the National Education Technology Plan?  In which areas are the two plans perhaps not aligned?  Why?

I believe that the states that have bought into the Race to the Top program for Federal funding and adoption of Common Core are trying to keep up with the NETP and seriously struggling due to the demands of assessments and keeping up with training on curriculum changes and technology that aren’t truly being passed down to our children/students at this point in the time line.  I think we are fantastic as creating goals, new policies and creating charts as to what the needs and demands for successful careers as time marches on however if we can’t find a means to truly identify how our students learn best and how to motivate them to want and desire to learn we have just spent the last five years creating great charts and expectation.  Why can’t we seem to address or truly assess how children learn best or accept that children learn best through play; of course self control and subject learning and the foundations of literacy, science, social studies and mathematics are vital but why do we think a computer test is going to determine how we teach our students?  We need to access each school surrounds and how we can incorporate our environments to benefit learning and not be seen as distraction.   We have an unlimited supply of information and ways to collaborate with schools, teachers and businesses who are making this all work; if we are truly unified in our goals why are we taking advantage of unification of successes and making sure we don’t have failing schools, failing students or failing teachers?

6.                  As you read Ohio’s State Educational Technology Plan's "measurements of success" (page 16), what barriers do you see to fulfilling this plan? Provide four reasons why it may not be possible to reach these "measurements of success" in the state of Ohio.

            One of the biggest barriers I see in fulfilling this plan in the State of Ohio  is how many people are we going to have to dedicate to obtain and maintain all of these reporting measures?  The more we open hybrid teaching to all levels of students how is the State of Ohio going to have the school, parent and online educator collaborate a students achievements and mastery of skills?  Second, when are we as parents going to get educated on the online courses for our children?  It isn’t something that is promoted or discussed in elementary school and to me that is when our children are most pliable and open to all information and teachings.  Third, training, training and more training for our teachers to be able to be proficient in integrating technology into curriculum; are we going to have more teacher and professional days and substitutes for our classrooms?  Again, I often think why we continue to be so focused on technology when our graduation rates are what continue to be of concern; if our students aren’t learning the basics of literacy how does anything else matter?  If we can’t teach our students to be successful problem solvers starting in preschool what means of technology is going to be there for them as they are in high school?  I’m still quite confused about this measuring tool as its dated 2009 and again our implantations time line ends in 2014….how have we met any of these goals? When I look at my child’s education in a strong school district and I ask how our district has implemented any of these goals and have not one answer I worry. 

ORC Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is focused on ages 2-5 (PreK-K children).  The main subject is Reading and Language Arts and is able to incorporate Alphabet Knowledge, Environmental Print, and Vocabulary Enrichment as well as Mathematics in graphing and calculations.   It enables the children to be introduced to environmental print and letter recognition through everyday signs and labeling in the classroom and use of pictures.  Children will be able to identify that letters create words and the use of pictures can assist them with figuring out the meaning of the words shown to them.  This lesson plan is written for the older end of the age range and also provides beginning knowledge for graphing and collecting data.

Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency for Early Childhood

Word Recognition

5.

Identify own name in print.

6.

Recognize and name some upper and lower case letters in addition to those in first name.

7.

Recognize that words are made up of letters (e.g., c-a-t).

Acquisition of Vocabulary for Early Childhood

Contextual Understanding

2.

Recognize and demonstrate an understanding of environmental print (e.g., STOP on a stop sign).

Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood

Concepts of Print

1.

Understand that print has meaning by demonstrating the functions of print through play activities (e.g., orders from a menu in pretend play).

2.

Hold books right side up, know that people read pages from front to back, top to bottom and read words from left to right.

3.

Begin to distinguish print from pictures.

Comprehension Strategies

4.

Begin to visualize, represent, and sequence an understanding of text through a variety of media and play.

6.

Connect information or ideas in text to prior knowledge and experience (e.g., "I have a new puppy at home too.").

This activity starts with a question for the students to utilize their name cards to answer the question of Have you been to __________?  I would probably take a picture of our downtown Graeter's sign and print the picture and laminate it and place it in the blank.  The children first of all have to be able to find their name card, look at the question (which I as their teacher would be reading the question aloud as they came in the door) and then be able to place their name under the yes or no category on the pocket chart.  This activity also engages the students in reading the question with teachers assistance if necessary and also tallying up how many students answered yes and how many answered no.  It also gives the teacher the ability to bring in the concept of greater than and less than and which has the greater response.  I am also able to open up the topic of conversation about did they read the word on the sign or how did they know it was Graeter's.  I can also use the graphic organizer and logo/labels included with the plan and have them sort a pile of picture files and be able to focus on a letter and sort pictures by having the letter or not.  Literacy and math concepts are able to be introduced and taught with ease and enjoyment.

http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview?LPid=5605

What I love about this lesson plan is that it can be tailored to meet the needs of a variety age of children.  A two year old obviously will not understand how to spell their name or be able to read a question and answer it by placing their name card under a category however they can use picture files to gain knowledge of literacy and understanding that print has meaning.  I will use this for three and four year old children and up and might not use the logo labels given in the lesson but take pictures of the school signs and signs around the school area.  I also will use the graphic organizer concepts to make picture files based on the books read in smaller groups as well as have them in a reading center for them to look at and interact or sort them as they choose.  Maybe they will come up with stories about the pictures and talk to one another about them.  A definite challenge especially for the younger children would be reading the morning question or even identifying letters in their name if they have not been introduced to that area yet.  I would have this type of lesson in its detail for when I know they are comfortable getting their own name card and could understand the "morning question" greeting activity.

Also, if I had Graeter's as my question some children may not have ever gone there or seen this logo so I may want to be aware and ask if there are children having problems if they have had ice cream before to have them included in the activity.  I think this activity will challenge students to be aware of their settings, labels and give them the confidence of when reading books that pictures are a great tool to help them in figuring out print.  There are so many great non-fiction books that we can incorporate into our libraries for children to explore and learn.

Pinterest in the Classroom

I have been using Pinterest since it came out using it mostly for recipes, crafting ideas and some lesson plan ideas since I have been in school. There is a lot of pins out there and what I really learned from this activity is how outdated a lot of the information and links can be and even obsolete. I learned to do more than just pin the picture and verify that the information accessible.

I know that I will continue to use Pinterest to gain ideas for themes in lesson planning and ideas of how other teachers are getting their students involved in active learning. I also hope to be able to connect with other teachers in different content areas to gain inspiration and stay connected to one another.

One of the biggest strengths that I view Pinterest having is that if you can think of it there is probably a pin or boards to match. It is another means of social media of sharing ideas and concepts with people across the world.

Like any other social media resource the bogging down of more notifications, emails and surveys comes however for me the benefits of collaboration can be worth it. Another challenge I have faced are the changes and updates that seem to be made weekly (I know they aren't that fast) and keeping up with how it functions. The search features have changed so much from its inception however that is the name of the game with social media. I also find that I often forget to refer back to all the ideas that I have pinned because I am busy with other tasks.

Overall I am glad that Pinterest was created and allows for sharing of ideas of all types. Again, if you can think of it; there is a pin out there for you to view. It can be a total drainage of time looking for ideas and you can easily spend hours without even realizing it; so time management should also be considered. I do like the messaging feature however there have been times that I forgot what means of messaging I was connecting with someone.

Khan/Koller Review

     I have had the Khan Academy app on my phone and iPad for quite some time and have used it with students that I mentor at our elementary school.  It was something I used a couple of years ago and honestly haven’t revisited it until now and wow a lot of forward progress and many more tools to access.  I will be having my son experiment with the math modules and see what he thinks and possibly reintroduce this again to my students that I work with this year.  I believe that any tool that we can provide our children/students to continue to engage them in learning and enjoying it is a huge benefit.  When I work with my son or others at our school I do run into the situations where how I was taught a method does not align with today’s methods; so I say if they don’t align yet our students are getting the concepts and showing their work, I would as a teacher give them the credit and recognition on learning another method of problem solving.  Khan Academy does align with Common Core and does provide links to educating parents on what that means and how the lessons align with public education. 

            I think we are living the future of online education now and will continue to move faster and faster into this world.  How amazing it would be to truly provide best practices of educating our children (all our children) and worry less about how well they perform on an OAA test or have our teachers worry less about the security of their jobs and pay based on test scores but focus on learning.  Not just focusing on learning but how each child learns and truly customize their education.  I would never have imagined that today we would have the choice to have our children enrolled in an online school and that is in less than 25 years; the next ten are truly going to wow a lot of us and scare the rest.  My hope as I get into the classroom is to blend the two worlds and styles of teaching to ensure creative minds of the future.

As I started to explore Coursera.org I obviously searched the subject of Teaching and Education and saw some interesting courses that I may get more serious about taking.  However I think what I loved from the TedTalk was Daphine Koller talking about being a life learner; so I would love to learn more about Neuroscience and how the brain works and believe it or not it was there.  If I am reading CSCC Prior Learning Assessment that it is possible to receive credit for Coursera courses with the presentation of a portfolio demonstrating the knowledge acquired to receive credit for the given course.  You will need to meet with your advisor to work out the details of what needs to be presented into the portfolio however it is possible.  What I do like about what I have reviewed is the ability to move around based on my base knowledge of the subject.  Without being able to access a syllabus and dive deeper into the content of the class from a quick view I am a bit more intimidated by the University name and known professors.  This should excite and motivate me and I know that the level of effort shouldn’t change because of a school name however it did cross my mind.  Not having enough confidence in myself could cause me to doubt if I could handle a course offered by a Professor from Harvard. 

            This is the first that I have heard of MOOC and I am excited for many reasons.  I have worked with open software and freeware before yet never linked it to education.  I think for it to be the wave of the future we have to stop thinking that education is best mass produced and that we must educate the same across the world.  Clearly we are already overcoming these perceptions however I cannot imagine the lives we can touch by being more open to these concepts.  I was amazed by the numbers of how education costs have increased 559% since 1985; what does that say about us and costs continue to rise.  I have no idea how it will be possible for my 11 year old son to attend college at this rate.  I hope that I brave this new way of education and try it out personally and see how it works.  I know that my husband during his courses was able to provide four major portfolios in lieu of several classes showing that his life application of work gained him the knowledge he would have received in school.  It was a lot of documentation, video taping and work however he is a licensed therapist today and was able to accomplish that task sooner because of Prior Learning Assessments.