Teaching+with+Technology+-+Week+4

Professional Development What a week this has been, I have learned much about teaching with technology. This week has summed up all a teacher is expected and required to use technology in the classroom. Chapter 5 in Solomon and Schrum's book, Web 2.0 new tools, new schools, talks about the new methods school districts must utilize in order to enhance communication, teaching, and learning. Professional development is essential to reach educational goals started out by the past president Bill Clinton. Back in 2005, the federal government researched and developed the National Educational Technology Plan. This plan provided a guide for schools to follow seven major steps and recommendations for the implementation of technology in U.S. classrooms. The steps read as follows: 1. strengthen leadership; 2. consider innovative budgeting; 3. improve teacher training; 4. support e-learning and virtual schools; 5. encourage broadband access; 6. move toward digital content; and 7. integrate data systems (U.S. Department of Education, 2004, n.p.). As a starting point, school districts are faced with dealing with hesitation of using technology. I strongly agree but must face the challenged brought about in 21st century. Teachers can start to get the feel by having much staff development with web 2.0 tools. For example, Blogging is a tool that is used to promote teachers' comfort level of understanding technology. Blogs help us with communication and thinking. They use interactive discussions which in turn provide teachers with different ideas that can be refined, developed or expanded. Another popular tool is the wiki. Wikis allow teacher to work collaboratively in creating a plan, a goal or to discuss a new activity and the steps to get it started. Teachers can learn how to use this powerful tool in the classroom by visiting the following link: []. Overall, teachers must first practice these tools and create comfort before offering the students the opportunity to use these tools to create meaningful and authentic learning activities. Chapter 7: UDL to Accurately Assess Student Progress

As we have read over and over again, students are all different; therefore, they do not learn the same way. As teachers, we must teach the child in the proper way that they will gain the most academic success possible. In Chapter 7 reading for this week, I learned about the many barriers to accurate assessment that students are faced with day after day in school everywhere. I also learned how to overcome those barriers by providing student with UDL strategies. I read about the four extraneous factors that should be removed in order increase students understanding of important content. Factor 1 - We have learned that students have individual differences which affects their ways of learning through recognition, strategic, or/and affective networks. Testing method should be redesigned instead of providing the same test for every student. Factor 2 - Media also adds to student's failure. Some objectives require the use of different media to demonstrate the skill more specific, thus allowing mastery. For example, using Kidspiration to show visual maps that help students better understand. Factor 3 - Teachers have always been careful to make sure that students don't cheat; therefore, they don't allow much support during the student's learning process. Teachers are allowed to provide support such as calculators, spell check, and speech to text. These are simple tools which allow the teacher to scaffold the child's learning and create adequate and accurate academic success. Factor 4 - Traditional methods of teaching include testing at the end of the lesson or unit. Teachers should provide more meaningful ways to assess students understanding of skills. Teachers should use multiple, flexible, on-going assessment throughout the year. Such recommendations suggest that teachers given were alternative assessment such as portfolios or self-assessment journals. These ways of assessing students allows a more comprehensive picture of the student’s performance. All these factors can be avoided and help increase assessment accuracy by using UDL framework to improve the assessment process. The UDL uses technology to facilitate teachers on using flexibility in presentation, expression, strategic support, and engagement. Most important, teachers will become more familiar with flexibility for the benefit of students being able to become successful in every assessment they encounter.