Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
3/9/11 Web Conference Reflection
I attended the 5352 Web Conference with Cindy Cummings tonight. Over 35 students attended the conference and most students asked questions. There was a brief period of off topic comments about schools and locations, but most of the conference dealt with course topics, TK20, or the internship portfolio. All questions about the internship portfolio and 20 page paper required by the last class were referred to Dr. Rucker. We were all advised not to start the Week 4 project early because the over view was not yet posted. However, many students are planning trips over Spring Break and will be out of town or the country and have no choice. I really wish this class had been better planned to take Spring Break into account. Until now, all of my classes have been very well organized with a valid syllabus and assignment directions. This is the first course out of 10 so far that has ever had a weekly overview that conflicted with or modified the syllabus and assignment directions. Many students find this lack of consistency frustrating. Another source of frustration is the requirement to purchase TK20 in addition to the fees involved with ILD and PDAS training. Overall, many questions were answered in a timely manner during our one hour conference. I was glad to know that other students are experiencing the same questions and challenges with this course as I am.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
5352 Week 2 STaR Chart Presentation
Texas STaR Chart Presentation for New Braunfels High School for years 2007-2010
Texas s ta r chart
View more presentations from bgoethe.
5352 Week 2 Purpose for this Blog
I created this blog as part of the Action Research class to collect my thoughts on integrating technology into my high school. In particular, I will focus on iPads, iPods, and LCD overhead projectors. Over this summer, my school purchased and installed LCD projectors and new teacher computers for every classroom. We have an educational foundation that provides grants to teachers for a class set of iPods. Next year we will open a new 9th grade center that is supposed to have iPads for every student. However, this was decided before the current budget cuts currently impacting my district. This blog is my way of keeping my research into these areas collected in one place for easy access.
5253 Week 2 Blog Posting #3
5352 Week 2 Blog Posting #3
The National Educational Technology Plan focuses on five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The Obama Administrative has set two primary educational goals to be achieved before 2020. First, the number of college graduates holding a two or four year degree should be increased to 60% of the population. The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students from all backgrounds will graduate from high school and be prepared to succeed in college or a career. These goals will be hard to achieve in an era of budget cuts. Focus must be placed on finding cost-effective methods of improving learning and increasing graduation rates.
The learning aspect of the report focuses on replacing one-size-fits all education with personalized learning using state-of-the-art technology to motivate and inspire all students. Today’s students are use to 24/7 access to information and multimedia content. They participate is social networks where they share ideas with people all over the world to collaborate and learn new things. The challenge for education is to incorporate this technology from student’s daily lives into the classroom. We have to create student centered lessons that challenge them to take control of their learning based on a core set of standards. The lessons should be individualized and tailored to the individual needs and interests of the students. The report stresses that learning must become individualized, personalized, and differentiated.
Teaching and professional development also needs to change to take advantage of improvements in technology. Today’s teachers need 24/7 internet connections in their classrooms and data analysis tools to identify areas where students need more learning opportunities. Connection replaces teaching in isolation. Classrooms must be fully connected to content, resources, and systems to allow teachers to become facilitators for student directed learning. Another important area of professional development mentioned in this report is the idea of teacher online learning communities to share ideas. Teachers.tv is a collection of multimedia resources for teachers with content specific and general teaching topics and strategies. I had no idea this resource existed before reading this report.
Overall, this report is very similar to the other two reports we read for this week. However, I do think the Obama Administration has set two very difficult goals to achieve during a recession where education budgets are being slashed. It is very hard to increase the use of technology when schools cannot afford to purchase it. My opinion is that this is a great idea that may fail due to a lack of funding.
Citation:
National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology by the U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf
The National Educational Technology Plan focuses on five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The Obama Administrative has set two primary educational goals to be achieved before 2020. First, the number of college graduates holding a two or four year degree should be increased to 60% of the population. The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students from all backgrounds will graduate from high school and be prepared to succeed in college or a career. These goals will be hard to achieve in an era of budget cuts. Focus must be placed on finding cost-effective methods of improving learning and increasing graduation rates.
The learning aspect of the report focuses on replacing one-size-fits all education with personalized learning using state-of-the-art technology to motivate and inspire all students. Today’s students are use to 24/7 access to information and multimedia content. They participate is social networks where they share ideas with people all over the world to collaborate and learn new things. The challenge for education is to incorporate this technology from student’s daily lives into the classroom. We have to create student centered lessons that challenge them to take control of their learning based on a core set of standards. The lessons should be individualized and tailored to the individual needs and interests of the students. The report stresses that learning must become individualized, personalized, and differentiated.
Teaching and professional development also needs to change to take advantage of improvements in technology. Today’s teachers need 24/7 internet connections in their classrooms and data analysis tools to identify areas where students need more learning opportunities. Connection replaces teaching in isolation. Classrooms must be fully connected to content, resources, and systems to allow teachers to become facilitators for student directed learning. Another important area of professional development mentioned in this report is the idea of teacher online learning communities to share ideas. Teachers.tv is a collection of multimedia resources for teachers with content specific and general teaching topics and strategies. I had no idea this resource existed before reading this report.
Overall, this report is very similar to the other two reports we read for this week. However, I do think the Obama Administration has set two very difficult goals to achieve during a recession where education budgets are being slashed. It is very hard to increase the use of technology when schools cannot afford to purchase it. My opinion is that this is a great idea that may fail due to a lack of funding.
Citation:
National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology by the U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf
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