Chapter 6

Technology tools encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths by offering them opportunities to build awareness of the skills and attitudes of accomplished scholars.  Technology such as blogs offer students a space to reflect over time about what they are learning.  ProfilerPRO, which we used in our class, is an online survey tool that allows teachers to identify learning interests, strengths, and weaknesses.  ProfilerPRO can be adapted to meet each persons individual needs.

To get students minds ready for a project, it is important to know the students' prior knowledge.  You could use a Know-Wonder-Learn (KWL) activity to get to know students better, and to discover their prior knowledge of a topic.  The teacher should encourage students to explore and think together when beginning a new topic.

It is important to teach fundamentals before launching a project.  The fundamentals include knowing what prior knowledge is necessary.  It is important for teachers to set the stage for independent inquiry.  The teacher could do this by using the K-W-L activity to tell  what they know, wonder, and learned.  The teacher should also share the assessment rubric with students to guide them to achievement.

To prepare students for using technology in a project, the teacher must plan effective ways to get the students ready for using technology.  The teacher should set up a technology playground for students to learn how to use technology from each other.  It is also important that the teacher taps into the student expertise.  Students can sometimes help each other more than a teacher can help them.  The teacher can then introduce project-management tools and demonstrate process to the students. Use your technology specialist if you need help.

To promote inquiry and deep learning, the teacher needs to guide students to choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan in action.  When brainstorming ideas, students will be able to combine information through several context areas (social studies, science, math).  Guide students toward skilled questioning by imagining what practitioners or experts might ask.

These topics from chapter six will help us with our project by allowing us to think about what is important, and how to effectively incorporate technology to give the students a positive learning experience.

Collaborative Concept Map

Reflection 6, Chapter 6

1. ProfilerPRO, blogs and SurveyMonkey ae a few tools that can help kids be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. We used the ProfilerPRO at the beginning of class to see what we knew about technology for this class. We wwill also do it at the end to see what we have learned from this class. This will show use where ore strengths are and help us reflect on what we might need to still work on. When we use the blogs (as we are now) others see our work and can comment on what we have said and what we are doing. This gives us feedback that can help us make corrections or give us new ideas of where to go with a project or how to tackle a problem with our project. 2. Using a K W L is a great way to get the students ready for a project. In seeing what they might not know about a subject may help them get interested enough to go above and beyond the research that will be necessary in learning about what they don't know. I whole heartedly agree with "giving the idea time to settle in their imaginations". Talk about the project for at least a few minutes every day and answer any questions they may have but let them figure out what to do or how to do it in their own way. I know I find it more intriguing to hear about a subject or project a little at a time. It makes my interest in it go way up. Teachers could also bring in any elements that might be included in the project for the students to see, feel or smell. Maybe a finished project from another class could bring the interest level up and get students engaged enough to want to learn more and do the project to the best of their ability. 3. We must teach fundamentals first in order to get the srudents ot the place in thelearning that is essential for doing a project. We can't just tell the students to do a project on microbes as a life form (like in the book) and expect all of the students to know what that means. By teaching them what a microbe is we give them the prior knowledge needed in order to do the project as it is intended. We need to build up the information to the project so they are ready to dig in and do the project and learn with the project the things that are in the Wonder prtion of their K W L. 4. "Learning to use technology or an application for a project can be a rich problem-solving experience." By setting up a tchnology playground, the students can explore on their own and teach others. Setting up computer stations with at least one tool they will use in the project for them to get use to that tool and the technology. Students can help others when they need help with this also. Some students tend to thrive when they are asked to help others. They feel useful and important. Using a project management tool such as a journal or a log can help students track their progressand be a source for reflections. Modle the tools yourself. Modeling for the students is the best way to teach them how to do something. If yo are not comfortable with modeling it, ask a specialist to come into the classroom and teach the students about the tool. 5. Guiding student to more skilled questions and deeper research can promote inquiry and deep learning. Instead of doing reports, the students can do research on the best place to live or the best company to buy something from. Ask them to propose a solution to landfills filling up fast instead of doing a report on landfills. Using hypothetical questions make students use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options. What if questions like what if the price of gas was the same as it was in China? Using should questions makes students decide on a moral or practical decision. Using why questions helps the students understand cause and effect. All of these help students dig deeperr in their projects. If the project is one to help make something better like "How can we keep landfills from filling up too soon?", the students may be helping their future by finding ways to keep the landfills low. This helps them, their kids and the rest of the world. 6. These concepts relate to our projects in that we are learning the technology in class first before we use them in our project. We need to get the students interested in the projects and make sure they have some prior knowledge about the project. If they do not, we need to get them to that point with short, easy lessons that will help them and everyone. In our podcast we asked the students to take a survey about our topic, to see what information needed to be taught more or less. If a topic is too easy and the students know everything about it they will be bored and uninterested in doing the project. In my opinion, there has to be at least one element in a project that will have the students asking questions and wondering more about that project.

Chapter 5

Beginning a Technology based project takes a lot of planning on the teachers half, but it is well worth it if you plan right since students’ gain a better understand of the information through inquiry, collaboration, and research.  Some things to consider before starting the project include; resources, supplies, and tools that will be needed to aid students with the project, consider important milestones and deadlines to help students become effective managers of their own time, and team planning to support students as they go about many activities that the project involves.

When doing a project with Technology, it is important for the teacher and the students to have good management.  The book discussed the teacher’s management needs for tools and strategies.  These needs include: tools to be used to communicate with the students about the project, tools to communicate milestones or events to students, tools to notify students when there are changes, a method for getting resources to students, a system for managing work products, structures to support productive learning for students to be engaged in a variety of learning tasks at one time, and assessment tools.

Students on the other hand must form management tools and strategies when it comes to: systems and tools that help manage time and flow of work, systems to help manage materials and control of work, collaboration tools, methods for seeking assistance, ways to get and use feedback on their work, and ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole. 

It is important for the teacher to think about different technology applications that can be given to students to help them on a project.  Some of these applications may be web-based applications; which include blogs.  The teacher should focus on finding things on the Web to support projects. This can be done through project wiki which will link a blog to your class to share the project with others.  The teacher can use ClustrMap to show Web visits from people around the world, RSS feeds so students are aware of project updates, links with multimedia, Skype to communicate, and links to a class Flickr site with project pictures. 

This is beneficial to our project and topic because weather is a tricky thing to teach through a long period of time.  For the teacher, it will be important for us to know seasons, and plan the best time for students to communicate with students around the world.  This is important when making sure those seasons will be opposite (summer there, winter here).  It is also important to be able to adjust the lesson when needed; for example, a hurricane is headed towards the Pacific coast.  You change the lesson from that week to teach students how to track the hurricane and study the effects it could have if it reaches land. 

Reflection 5, Chapter 5

1. Items that should be considered before starting a project are: do you intend to use technology? If so you need to make sure you have computers, projectors, cameras, or anything that the project will require the students to use. Will your students need experts to answer their questions. If so, set up a Q and A session at school and invite anyone that you know that would be able to answer the questions. Like you could invite a cook to speak if you are doing a project about cooking or recipes. If the expert can't come to the school, set up a video chat for the students. You could also have the students write or type out their questions and email or even Facebook the person.If you are working as a collaborative team, make sure everyone is involved with their strengths and weaknesses. 2.The teachers management needs are tools for communicating, tools for making events and changes visible to the students, ways to get resources to the students, systems for managing products from the project, productive learning environment, and assessment tools and strategies. With out any of these, a project can fall apart. The teacher must accommodate for anything that may come up in the classroom. The students needs are somewhat the same: tools that help them manage their time and flow of work, systems that help them manage materials and control work drafts, collaboration tools, tools to help them seek assistance, ways to get feedback, ways to use feedback, and ways to see how parts add up to a whole. If we don't teach them to manage their time and work, they might take to long or not enough time on a project. They need to know that doing only parts of the project is not acceptable and they need to use all the time possible. We always need to show them and teach them that collaboration is a great way to do a project and a great way to get to know others. They will need collaboration skills in the real world. Asking for assistance or help is a must. We have to make sure the students know we will help them or they can find help through others in the building or outside the building. Getting feedback on a project is crucial I think because we need to know what parts need tweeking but also what parts have been do very well. 3.Using a wiki is an application you can use in a project. students create pages of content to share by just using a browser, format text, add web links, or build new pages. Students can work on this together from anywhere. The wiki marks exactly who has done what, which is good for the teacher to make sure that all students are participating. I liked this when we did our map and pen-pals a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know we could do that before this class. A blog is a good technology to use in a project. Again I had never done one of these before and am kind-of liking it. It is great to share ideas, chat or just post project information too. 4. The ideas in this chapter I see use using in our project are the blog. Any information we can get from the internet will be used such as web pages that connect to weather. Janice Alff

Chapter 4 Reflection

Project design takes a lot of consideration and planning on behalf of the teacher; and sometimes the project design still does not turn out as planned.  It is important to think about the potential pitfalls you may face with project design, and know what makes a project design good.  First, if a project is busy and long, and only reaches small learning aims, it is best not to waste your time or your students time with the project.  Second, you do not want a project that has students researching and simply presenting information on a slide show.  A good project should focus on reaching significant learning outcomes with the aid of technology if it enhances the project.  Third, don’t just teach from a thematic unit plan since the work is not interdisciplinary or collaborative.  You want a project that is structured differently and combines elements of each subject.  Fourth, don’t make your project overly scripted with tons of steps.  You want steps that will lead to good outcomes and steps that lead to the objectives of the lesson.  Good projects should be loosely designed with multiple learning paths, aid students in constructing meaning, be centered on a driving question, be realistic and cross multiple disciplines, it should involve the community and people outside of schools, it show tap rich data, be structured for students to learn from each other through inquiry, involve 21^st century skills, and have students learn by doing.

                Project ideas may come from anywhere, especially from good books.   Some good places to look include educational books, project plans developed by and for other teachers, news stories, contemporary issues, student’s questions or interests, a classroom irritant put to educational use, or a mash of great ideas and new tools.  It is often found that good projects will lead you to a new project idea.

                The most difficult project you design may be your first project because it is new and you don’t know what to expect.  When designing a project, you should first consider the school calendar, curriculum sequence, student readiness, and student interests.  Then you may begin to make a framework.  Note all learning objectives for core subjects and disciplines.  Decide which 21^st century skills you want to address.  Start planning your project and all the things that must go into it.  At this time you can write a project sketch, which Is a brief account of your project.  Share these sketches with your colleagues to discuss hard questions and ways to make the project better. 

                This chapter helped with the project we are designing in Educational Technology because it made you think about different steps you should take.  It also told me what the pitfalls and aspects of a project design may be.  This made me realize that many of the ideas that I had for our project were not deep enough for students, and it would be “cookie cutter work”.

Reflection 4, Chapter 4

1. Some potential pitfalls of project design are if the project is to long, but short on the learning aspect of the project. The project may be a hit with the students but if they are not learning enough doing the project then what use is it? Technology layered over traditional practice--we need to make sure the project will reach a specific learning outcome. As the book states, "Having students research a topic on the internet and then present it in a electronic slideshow is not a quality project-it is just a dressed up version of a research report." Pg. 61. Trivial thematic units--Make sure to have many different projects for one theme. One project for one theme can be dull. Look at the big picture with your theme and try to connect it to many subjects in your classroom. Overly scripted with many, many steps--This sounds boring. To many steps lead kids to become bored with the project and they will not finish it or poorly finish it. Kids need precise steps but short and few steps. They will learn more because they stay interested and more engaged. 2. The features of a good project include letting the students interests play a role in the projects. If they are interested in the project they are much more likely to stay with it and finish the project with as much enthusiasim as they can. Make sure they want to ask questions about the topic. Asking questions makes the project more interesting, if the questions are something that no one has thought of before. 3. Where do project ideas come from? They can come from anywhere and from anyone. Teachers may have projects from their schooling or from projects they have used in the past in their classrooms. Ideas can also come from other teachers. You can get ideas from the news, contemporary issues, student questions and interest, or even a classroom problem that needs to be solved. The students can research how to solve the problem. Ideas can also come from former projects that you give a new twist to. 4. The steps to design a project are to decide on the skills you want to address, identify the learning dispostitions you want to foster, establish how you will evaluate understanding of the skills, plan the theme or challenge of the project, and how will you get the students excited and interestedin the project. Try to think of every possible advantage and disadvantage for and about the project that might come up with the students during the project. 5. I think the concepts of this chapter that relate to my project are making sure the students are interested in the project. If we were in a classroom teaching doing a project eith the students, I would listen to their interests and hope to come up with one or two that everyone agrees on. I think the weather is an interesting topic for my project and I hope to engage all students in the topic. Having the penpals to work with will help students see that the weather is different in different parts of the world at differernt times. Some students may not realize this if they have never been outside their town or state. I hope to get information and project ideas from other teachers. Other teachers can be they biggest resource for us.