Educational Technology Research

This week, I took a dive into some research done about educational technology. The research study that I focused on was Project Tomorrow's Speak Up report. In this report, data is collected from students, teachers, librarians, administrators, parents, and community members. These people come from both private and public schools, as well as urban, suburban, and rural areas.

The data that really struck me was located in a blog post about teacher-parent and school-parent communication. This information was based off a survey of 30,000 parents and their opinions on communicating with their child's school. Below is one piece of data that I found very interesting.

Teacher-Parent Communication Data (Source) 

This infographic provides information on the way parents would like to have their child's teacher communicate information home. It states that only one in three parents are not satisfied with the way communication home is done. I think one in three not being satisfied is too many unsatisfied parents, but I don't really find this data that surprising. As a school teacher, I see that a lot of my colleagues really lack in the area of parent communication. I am in no way perfect at it either.

When looking at the rest of the data, I do agree with e-mail being the most effective method of communication. Specifically when you work in a low income area, like I do, e-mail becomes the best way to communicate because a lot of parents do not work a traditional nine-to-five job. I don't necessarily agree with face to face meetings only being 45% effective. I think that a face to face meeting or two are needed throughout the year to really discuss a child with their parents.

Like I said earlier, I know that parent communication is something that I need to work on. This year I began using Class Dojo, and it has already been a game changer when it comes to parent communication. It combines the e-mail and text communication into one very convenient location. Also, it allows any message I send home to be translated into Spanish (or other languages). This is huge for me and my classroom because I have 14 students this year whose parents only speak and read Spanish.

This infographic also brought up school to home communication, and had very similar results. Below is the data from that portion of the research.

School-Parent Communication Data (Source)

Again, this data is also reflective of parental opinions of school communication. It shows very similar results with only one in four parents saying that they are not satisfied with the way their child's school communicates, with e-mail being the preferred method. 

I am not one that often looks at data, but after looking at this today, I feel like reading data is something all teachers should do. It really can be eye opening to what is going on in education. 

Active Learning

This week, I took a look at active learning, how it can be implemented in the classroom, and how it benefits the 21st century learner. So, what exactly is active learning. Active learning is when the "students take responsibility for their own learning and engage the material through reading, writing, talking, listening and reflecting." This means that the teacher takes a step back and becomes more of a facilitator in the activity.

Active Learning Example

I took a look at one specific example of active learning this week. In the Thinglink Illinois Project students completed many different active learning activities before they reached their final project goal. Below is a link to a brief Padlet.com overview of the activity.

Active Learning Padlet (Source) 

In this activity, students were to follow guided notes in order to research the regions of the United States. From there they created a Thinglink project about Illinois which later got included into their five page website about the regions. I feel like this activity very clearly ties into active learning. The students who completed this project were able to take responsibility for their own learning. They had to follow along with their teachers guided outlines and directions, but the way they created their projects was up to them. It is clear that the teacher is simply the facilitator in this activity. They set up what the students needed to do in the beginning, gave them the resources to be successful, and then let the students create.

When looking at their finished projects in the original blog post, it is clear that the students were successful in completing the requirements. It looks like they not only learned a lot about the regions, but also a lot about technology. I do think that teachers should keep active learning in mind when they are planning lessons. Today's students are a different type of learner. They don't respond well to a traditional lecture or note taking. When active learning is incorporated into a lesson plan, the students are more likely to be engaged and feel like what their learning is relevant to them. I think that is pretty clearly seen through this Thinglink activity.

My Experience with Active Learning 

I have a little experience with active learning myself. One of the schools I worked at previously was a one-to-one iPad school. When each student has their own technology it makes active learning a lot more attainable. For example, my fourth graders needed to learn about the explorers who discovered America. I created an assignment where my students chose an explorer, researched based on a guided notes sheet, and then created a narrated presentation about it. Below is one example of a student project.

I also have personally taken part in active learning during professional development. At the same school I was previously talking about. Our staff completed a handful of BreakOut EDU activities as training, and to practice so we could potentially them in our own classrooms. Unfortunately, I never used one in my classroom, but I hope to at some point in the future.

After learning all about active learning this week, I can not wait to get started in planning lessons and activities for my current class that allow for active learning.

Virtual Field Trips

If you have every wanted to incorporate virtual field trips into your classroom, take a look at the presentation below. I created an overview all about how to implement and use virtual field trips in your classroom!

Mapping My Digital Space

Wow! This weeks activity was very interesting and reflective. As soon as I read about it I felt inspired to begin. This week, we were to take a look at our digital space and reflect on it using the ideas of David White. White explains our digital space as a continuum between being a "visitor" and being a "resident".

Visitor

As White explains, a visitor is someone who uses the web as a tool for their life. They don't leave much of a digital trace behind. If they do it is something visible to one person or a few. The main reasons visitors use the digital space is to search, read, watch videos and shop. 

Resident

A resident, on the other hand, is a web user who uses the internet as a "network of places." These users leave a digital trace behind them, and they create for themselves a digital persona. These types of people are very active on their social medias, join in on digital discussions, and comment visibly on the web. 

My Digital Space 

Brainstorming 

When I sat down to map my digital space the first thing I did was make a list of all the websites, apps, and digital tools I use. I was actually very surprised at the amount of websites and apps I use on a daily basis. I split my list up into both personal and professional. I noticed I definitely use more a variety of digital tools in my personal life. However, there were a few that overlapped into both spaces. 

Building My Map

I began by setting up the four quadrants White describe in a digital map. One continuum on the map is "Visitor" and "Resident" as described earlier. The other is personal and professional. When I began to put blocks on my map, I decided I needed a way to distinguish between things I use more frequently than others. I decided to use size. 

My Map 

Below is my digital space map at this point in time. 

My Digital Space (personal photo)   

Reflection 

I was actually very surprised by the results of this activity. Going into it I thought I would be more of a resident than a visitor. However, my map is showing that I tend to be more of a visitor. There are apps and website I use daily, but leave zero visible trace behind. For example, Youtube. I follow and watch quite a few youtube channels daily, but I never post anything or comment on the videos. So while Youtube is a big part of my digital space I am a visitor in that sense. 

Also, I have accounts on all the typical social media websites (Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). I placed them all overlapping both the visitor and resident sides of my grid because I use them as both. Twitter, for example, I very often use, but I mostly use it as a news source. Occasionally I will retweet or post my own tweet, but mostly I just scroll through and see what others are staying. The same goes with Snapchat. Facebook and Instagram I am much more visible on in comparison to the first two. 

Another thing I found interesting is the apps that overlap between personal and professional. For example Pinterest and Instagram. I use both those apps to search for both personal and work related ideas. I like to follow other teachers on Instagram, and I have quite a few boards on Pinterest that are classroom related. 

Finally, in my professional world I don't use quite as many digital spaces. Google docs is a big one that use to collaborate with my teammates. Almost everything I create is visible and editable by others at my school. Class dojo is the only website I feel that I am 100% a resident at. I use this daily to communicate with parents. I make a visible post or two on it daily as well as send individual messages to parents. 

Overall, I found this activity very rewarding. It was really interesting to reflect on my own digital uses. I'm interested in trying this again in a year to see what has changed. 

Technology Frameworks - The Technology Integration Matrix

This week, I am going to reflect on myself as a teacher. Specifically, I'll be assessing my use of technology in the classroom through the use of The Technology Integration Matrix.

TIM tools logo
(https://tinyurl.com/ychxl36g) 

What is it? 

The Technology Integration Matrix, according to their website, allows teachers to assess how they are using technology to enhance learning. It is broken up into five different characteristic that are found in a meaningful classroom environment. These five characteristics are active, collaborative, constructive, authentic, and goal- directed. A teacher that uses this evaluation system can rate themselves in these five categories based on their level of integration. I am going to take a look at each category and rate my own classroom and how I used technology currently and in the past. 

TIM Matrix (https://tinyurl.com/y7oy8fc8) 

Active 

This category of the TIM matrix is all about the students being actively engaged in a lesson through using technology as a tool. The students shouldn't only be passively using the technology. In this category, I would place myself in adoption, or second stage of integration. In this stage, the teacher is still the main facilitator of a lesson using technology. Students are led step-by-step through projects or activities. When I use technology for projects, I have normally provided my students in the type of technology to use, a set of pre-determined websites to visit, as well as lead the students through the activity on the Mimio.

Collaborative 

This second category is all about the students working together on technology instead of on their own. I would place myself in the third level of integration, adaptation. In this category, the teacher provides times for student to work together using technology. The teacher normally chooses the tool, and the students are allowed to explore the tool with a partner. When I worked in a one-to-one iPad classroom, my students worked this way very frequently. I would give them a topic, give them a tool (iPad app), and allow them to discover and use the tool how they would like to present their topic. These activities were always one of mine and the students favorites. 

Constructive

In the third category of the TIM matrix the teacher is responsible for using technology to connect new information to prior learning. Again, I would place myself at the second level of integration, adoption. At this level, a teacher is beginning to allow the use of technology to build on knowledge. Examples would be digital graphic organizers. I have done activities with sites such as Storyboard That, or Kidspiration. 

Authentic

In this category, students are using technology to link technology to the world. At this very moment I would place myself very low on the scale in probably either the first or second level of integration. There are times when my lessons use technology and discuss the world beyond the classroom, but it not as frequent as I would like. My school is beginning a new program this year called, PenPal Schools. I believe once I am able to integrate this into my instruction I would be able to move up in this category. 

Goal Directed

In this final category, students should be using technology set their own goals and track their own learning. For this category I would place myself in the entry level of integration. My students use technology programs frequently, but they are all programs that self-track. The student do not need to do anything to monitor their learning. 

Final Reflection

After reading through the TIM matrix and evaluating myself through it's eyes, I feel like I have a long way to go when it come to technology integration. While I feel like I use technology quite a bit in my classroom, I can see now that I am the one using it, and I need to release some of that to my students. I am interested in trying some new activities, using some new tools and then coming back and reevaluating myself on the scale to see if I have grown. If you haven't already, take a look at your teaching based on the TIM matrix. It is has been really eye opening for me.