Week Two Assignment Part 2.4 5370

Week 2 Assignment, Part 2.4: Reflections on Course-Embedded Assignments for EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology

Self-Assessment

During our course EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology, our cohort became good friends. The creation of a wiki together and the delegation of tasks amongst us over miles and miles of Texas were new for me. Our group scenario team included Julia Wilson, Lynne Bullock, Vicki Fruge and myself. Our team leader was Julia who is a current 5th grade science teacher. She was great at leading our group and coming up with snazzy ideas to “wow” our fictional classroom teacher in the scenario. She also had oodles of material available readily for the rest of the group to use in creating our UDL (Universal Design for Learning) lessons. We chose to create lessons surrounding a unit of earth science that covered weathering, erosion, earthquakes and the rock cycle.

Prior to this course, I had never heard of the UDL approach to teaching or the CAST organization. Although I realized teachers today had many students with varying abilities in their classrooms, I began to understand how enormous the expectations are for teachers and how important the appropriate use of the technology in the classroom has become.

Reflecting together about our experience making an electronic book was helpful to the others because we each had a slightly different perspective on how we would create our books. We each had to contribute to make our Rockin’ site function, but we were able to delegate according to strengths and preferences. In addition, I had only created one wiki prior to this assignment. I learned many new things about the Google wiki, as opposed to the Wiki space’s wiki I had already formed.

Learn as a Learner

As this was my first experience with the UDL, I found the organization interesting. Applied Special Technology (CAST) advances individualized goals through a variety of media and individualized curriculum embedded with flexible supports (Rose & Meyer, 2002). In my UDL lesson, students completed a lab and then they were to create a Photo Story of the lab following a rubric. They could do the minimum requirements or they could expand of the rubric to do a longer and more elaborate Photo Story. “Specific, criterion-referenced rubrics let students know exactly what is expected of them” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 30). In creating the Photo Story, students engage in higher-level thinking. In the book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors state, “the most engaging learning comes from having the student create the presentation or movie themselves as a part of the learning process” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 104). This progression of expectations based on the student’s interest and motivation is an idea I had not contemplated recently.

To approach this assignment, I utilized the energy and availability of my children. I wanted to create a Photo story myself to see if this was a feasible assignment that the students could accomplish. We think our Photo story turned out great and was fun to make. To assess my work, I submitted my Photo story, UDL lesson and electronic book to the Google site, and let my colleagues review and analyze it.

My interaction with my fellow students was crucial for the success of my assignment and the whole Google site. We created a sub - Skype group from Cohort 13. We also had one video call during the time of the course. The discussion board mainly dealt with our readings for the week, but the web conferences are usually the place to go to get clarification on what is expected of the master’s students in the Lamar program.

Lifelong Learning Skills

Reflecting of what I have gained about learning, I would first have to say the realization of the large expectations on teachers to provide diversified teaching to each student still shocks me. With my own seven children, each with their strengths and weaknesses, it challenges me mentally to keep up with who is doing what and who is asking for what. I cannot imagine doing that with a class of twenty-five or more. The second thing I gained is the understanding of how productive a wiki can be in the classroom setting. Allowing students to upload documents and creations to a group wiki is a great way to diversify teaching and allow for student creativity.

My collaboration with my cohort colleagues will be a positive memory and encourage me in my future learning to seek out online communication to stay up-to-date on what is going on in my coursework or field.

Thinking on future activities, I am interested in finding more online book programs such as the UDL one that allows for the creation of electronic books. I believe some students I know would benefit from this approach to reading.

Works Cited

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from CAST: http://www.cast.org/teaching everystudent/ideas/tes/