Universal Design

I really like the concept of universal design after learning so much about it through my urban planning classes. It always makes me think back to that common phrase that teachers always use, "If you have a question, ask; it's likely that someone else in the class has the same question." While a teacher answers a question for just one student, all the other students benefit as they too learn the answer or hear it again to strengthen the lesson.
My favorite examples of universal design in the real world are the sidewalk ramp, the supermarket doors that open for you, and closed captions. Although I am not the intended user, riding my bike as a kid was much easier, pushing that cart in and out of the store would be really hard, and when I lived at home with my sister sleeping in the room next door who "couldn't sleep with my damn TV on so loud!" I could still 'see' what Conan O'Brien was saying as I watched TV in bed.

Now as a teacher, I see universal design everywhere. I actually see this as opposed to differentiation but with the same intention: create a learning environment for all students. Rather than creating 12 different adaptations for all of my IEP students, I find myself combining them all into one super adaption that all students can have access to. Yes, Jennifer may be the only student in the room that really depends on the closed captions on the videos we watch in class, but there are other students that retaining more information as they both hear and see the information. Yu Rim and Yun Jin may be the only ESL students in the class, but using the "Early English Adapted" version of the workbook for the whole class benefits everyone as the work is the same and includes additional vocabulary words and English skills.

Universal design is important to me, but universal access to technology is a problem in my classroom. We simply do not have the funding or tools to incorporate technology into everyday instruction. I do not have a projector to do lessons with powerpoint; I rely on the good 'ol chalkboard and my lectures and have the kids check pictures and maps in their books during discussions. Having slideshows with visuals and narration would benefit all students, but at this time, it is not possible. We occassionally go to the computer lab for lessons, such as my webquest, to do reports, or to participate in moodle courses that I have created. These tools were created with universal design in mind and have multiple media to entice all learners, but like I said, the entire school shares 55 computers.

I always have students that want to type their work rather than hand-write; I would love to have access to the technology to allow all students to use technology as all students would benefit, but we can't always do this. Many students do use computers at home, but the digital divide is apparent in my district. We have created a "homework hotline online" where students can see the homework for all their classes that day with links to resources. This is meant to help parents and those students that lack organizational skills and do not write assignments down in a planner. Now parents can have easy access to see what is due the following day. We also now publish our gradebooks online so that with a user ID and password, any parent or student can access and print itemized grades for each class. The assignment, grade, and date are all listed so that if a student is missing work, the exact assignments are listed for them.

These two uses of technology were created to help our lower-achieving students find more success at school. Many more students are benfitting. Many students are checking the homework hotline online to find out homework assignments if they miss a day of school. Parents are calling to ask if their child finally handed in the assignment they saw the night before listed as "missing" on the gradebook. With universal access, many students are taking advantage of this service and the positive effects on grades can be seen. But there is a problem.
There are many students that need these extra tools to help them improve their grades and stay on top of their homework assignments. These students belong to our subgroups, especially low socio-economic status subgroup. These students are less likely to have computers at home and are even less likely to have quick if any access to the internet where these tools are accessed. While there are many students benefitting from these 2 technologies, the "universal" access is not exactly universal. Universal design can help a large number of students, but in the case of our experiment, attention must be given to issues such as personal access. The intentions are there, but we need to keep striving towards equity in the inclusion of technology.

Back to the 20 Things everyone should know

It took me a while to figure out where my original post was and I was nervous that it did not get posted, but it was just archived. After this little struggle, I see that I may not have mastered the standards. Although I still believe my original ideas that the list of 20 things would be very helpful to educators, they are not all necessary. After viewing the standards listed, I see that they go hand in hand with the 20 things that all teachers should know. I know that standards are the basis of education today, but these technology standards seem very subjective.
Standard 1 is funny to me. I especially like "1C. Uses appropriate terminology related to computers and technology in written and oral communications." Do I fail this when I tell my lower students to move their "pointer" instead of "cursor" or do not correct students that call the "backspace" "erase?"
Overall, the first standard has good intentions, but a teacher that uses basic software and has some, but limited knowledge of "publishing" meets this standard, but someone that has, lets say, a masters in CTER, will be much more competent in all of these standards. So, what is "competent?"
The basic problem that I have with standards in all areas is that they are meant to ensure equity and raise everyone to the same high standard, but this is not possible. How can we meet "No Child Left Behind" standards when many of our students come to us with reading levels at the the second and third grade level? How can we meet these Illinois Technology Standards, such as 1E, when a school does not have digital cameras, scanners, and video equipment? These are great goals, but to claim that Illinois educators all meet these standards is false and to hold them to these standards currently would create a majority of declared "incompetent" teachers.
Rather than trying to apply standards to technology for educators, a different system must be developed. Rewriting these standards into more of a rubric will allow teachers and districts to evaluate technology knowledge and use. Breaking these down into more defined areas will allow teachers to assess themselves and acknowledge the areas in which improvement must be made. This is needed for standards 5-9. Recognizing specifics will allow teachers to seek the knowledge they need to improve in these areas, otherwise the technology standards will be misused, much like other state standards.
"Wait, remember that time we went to the library for research? OK, I meet 9B," "Standard 7J..., go to google.com, they have everything you need," "I need to meet standard 5... oh, 5C, I printed out the students' grades once, and 5A, I know about those fancy features in Microsoft Word; I'm not going to use them, but I know about them."
I feel that these technology standards are not being met and only with advanced degree programs, such as CTER, will educators be able to meet a majority of these standards. It would be difficult to address all of these standards in a regular teacher education undergraduate program, but if these standards are to be applied, why are they not? These standards set the bar very high, which is good, but we must consider them "goals" rather than standards unless all Illinois teachers are held to them. Also, much of the language used in the standards should be changed so that exact expectations are listed to show competency.
I am happy that there is nobody standing over my shoulder watching to make sure I am "competent" at all the standards listed on this website, but I also am glad to see that the CTER program and especially this class addresses so many of these standards. Although it may be impossible to master all these standards, I feel that after the completion of this program, I'll at least feel and be competent in many of the areas listed.

"Responsible Use"

(I don't know why, but this post only saved as "draft" and did not post last week)
I'm nervous just to post this blog. I am an irresponsible technology user. I am guilty of downloading music for personal use. I would try to jusify that there was some educational purpose, but there was not. This is why I decided against adding music to my digital story; I don't even own CDs anymore and I no longer have illegal music (since I got a new computer). I am also guilty of taping shows and clips from TV and not getting permission to show them in class (the one time I did wasn't worth all the work, and I have decided if I got permission once, they won't change their minds in the future for other things as well). I also have viewed bootleg movies and tv shows. I have copied TIME articles to use in my social studies classes, although it is easier now that I am a paying customer, I can just print them right off the computer, but this is allowed.
In my mind, any technology that can assist my students should be open to them; education is more important than copyrights. 99% of the time I follow all the rules, but my students and the education they receive in my class comes first.

Digital Stories

Just by definition, I don't think that my personal digital stories can be very useful at this time in teaching. I'm excited with a few ideas for the digital story that we are to do for this class, but I see them as more of a venue for humor and creativity, not an educational resource. The fact that they are personal does not allow them to be a part of my classroom teaching social studies. I watched a few example stories on the website. I really liked "A Dog's Tale" by David. It was right up my alley. I liked the funny approach and how he inserted sound clips (like Nelson from the Simpsons). I was thinking of making a digital story about my dog before seeing this one; it would be a hard act to follow. I really liked how it was goofy, but it did have the heart-felt message that the dog, although at first did not like his life, truly is loved by his owner and has a happy life. Many of the others, such as "Hot Irons" by Kathy is a little too emotional for me. Maybe I am just a typical insensitive guy, but I appreciate humor and less serious content over the emotional tales that look deep into people's relationships. I think that it was a good digital story, and my mom would have cried if she watched it, but it's just not my thing. It's hard to relate to these kinds of stories, but the use of pictures, music, and the way the narration flows is excellent!
This is going to be my hardest assignment. I do not know what to do for this digital story. I'm going to have to be really creative in presenting something personal and serious in a goofy manner or I'm going to have to actually find a serious topic. I will be working on this during all of my free time. It's too bad I'm not more interesting, ha.
I do love the site that has the digital stories from holocaust survivors and japanese americans that had to go through the WWII internment camps. This is an amazing tool! Teaching social studies, we try to rely on primary documents, but this is a primary source that would blow the students away. This is not a crappy WWII movie or reading a novel written by someone who experienced this; this is their story, right in front of the viewer. Digital storytelling in this sense is the most useful tool I can see for teaching history of the recent past and for the future. My personal accounts are useless for my students, but having this resource accessible on the internet, showing them actual personal accounts in an interesting and technologically advanced way will really connect to them. I can't wait to use these and other digital stories in my new curriculum for next year!

Digital Natives

I really liked these readings for this week. Although I may not be a digital native, I feel that I may be considered "biligual" in this area; I'm not too far off from the experiences of some of these kids. Videogames, computers, and other technologies were always a part of my life and the internet jumped into my life by 7th grade, instant messaging and cell phones were common for me by the time I was 16.

Because of this, I find it easier to understand that kids do not have the "skills" that teachers are looking for. Yes, the student may not be able to write, but have you tried putting him or her on a keyboard? A student may not give the best speech in front of the class but may give a great powerpoint presentation with speech. Other students may not raise their hands in class, but put them in a chatroom and they will take the floor. Those abbreviations and mispellings may not be proper English, but the message is very clear to all of their peers, often with less effort.

I do feel that I can handle these Digital Natives. I am currently tackling some of these problems listed above in my classes. I do have students that cannot write; they can, but we can't read it. These are the students that can type 65 words per minute. I can send some of them down to the lab. Most students are scared to speak alone, but if you allow them to make a power point or other technological presentation, they can speak just fine.

I am currently using moodle for a book in my reading class. The kids have mastered the program, are using it in class in place of written journals, discussions, and papers, are using it socially and educationally from home, and the grades for the first time are all at "A" level. They are even reading the book that goes along with the moodle course I created so that they can participate in their "online community" or reading class. Within the moodle course, they may not use proper English, but they are communicating to one another quickly and efficiently and making strong connections to the material and one another. I may not know all the lingo right away, but they feel that I'm "ok" since I do give the technology a chance and do know more that most teachers, and teach me.

So, should we learn their language, or should they learn ours? This reminds me of ESL and bilingual education. I think that we need to address both the traditional along with the new digital. As we have seen in the past, it is not going to go away. Sometimes you have to give in to the students and earn their respect before you can win them over and get them to give you a chance to teach the traditional stuff.

Web based Media

Ok, I played with this list of web-based media and am very upset. I found so many cool things on the list that I ended up staying up WAY too late playing with them. First of all, the weblog tools are all cool. Through this course, I have gotten some experience with blogger and edublogs. I have accounts for both and see the many benefits. Blogger allows people to post whatever they would like, and as long as you have an account, you can post comments for others. I may actually use one of these blog tools for students to post their writing activity for my webquest. I am still debating with myself whether this will be easy for 7th grade students to use, especially since email is blocked from school and is a requirement for most, if not all, to create a blog. I have also thought of creating a blog and giving the password to all students to post in one class blog, but I feel that a wiki would be better for this.
The wiki tools all seem very similar to me. I do not have as much experience with these, but I see how I can use them for projects. Just getting it started and giving a short overview to students will allow them to use it properly, but after using moodle with my reading class, I have realized that there are a lot students that need additional assistance with these multi-step web applications.
The "social bookmarking" tools may be great resources, but I have already seen the strange and innappropriate uses just from a quick trial of a few from a CTER course over the summer. I feel that these may be better for an older audience and will get some students involved in these communities outside of a class use. I have tried to materialize educational uses for sites such as myspace, but feel that at this time, it is too controversial, especially at the middle school level.
Podcasting is awesome. I really think that this is the future of media sharing. Just like the first days of napster, I see podcasting already changing the music industry and changing the way that audio and video are shared and promoted. A fellow CTER student has shown how podcasting with itunes can have educational uses and is... used by students. Just as something educational can be misused for social purposes (school email, PDAs, the computer lab, ie games) something like ipods or computer media software, meant for entertainment purposes can be used for educational purposes. Chris from CTER records SAT and ACT test tips and podcasts them; although originally meant for his students to use, he has seen 100s of students all over the world making use of his podcasts. You can also learn foreign languages through itunes. Distance and independent learning are sneaking in on these forms of media sharing.
The "multimedia tools" section of the list can have good educational purpose, especially in sharing pictures and videos, but it was the collaboration and communication tools that really impressed me. It did take me a long time to understand the trailfire.com website. Once I finally got how it worked, I was amazed. This would be a great tool. Especially for my webquest. I found a lot of good sources and documents for students to check, but the usable content was so deep in the sites that they would be lost or bored before getting to the important parts. Using trailfire to actually "tag" important parts and include short facts or directions or questions for students to consider would make these sites useful for my audience. My horrible textbook has websources as well, but the benefits of using them are few and far between. tagging good or important parts would make this tool useful again. I could also think of some hilarious uses for this as well.
Archive.org is my new addiction. This is the coolest concept ever. Although I cannot use it for this webquest, I am already looking into using it for other aspects of my classes. You can search a website, not as it is today, but as it was at specific dates in the recent past. I was amazed to look at web pages my friends had created, but have been lost along with all the content after forgetting to renew the contract. I saw pictures that we thought had been lost forever. I also see the cool opportunities to look at sites such as cnn.com and other news sources from the past. We can actually look at modern history as it was reported as "news" just a few years ago. I looked at september 11, 2001 coverage as it unfolded on cnn.com. As this archive continues to grow and time passes, this tool will prove to be very valuable to history teachers. Even just for the nostalgia of seeing how simple the internet was just a few years ago, the uiuc site, google, yahoo, this site is a lot of fun.
Although I did not create many sources, I am glad I had the opportunity to view this list and play with all the different media sources out there that I had no idea existed. I do look forward to working in the future to including these in my current webquest and many other lessons and projects. I think it will be easy for others to get excited and addicted to tools like these as I have.

Blended Learning

I still feel that the term "blended learning" is fairly generic. In the simplest terms, it is inevitable that a teacher will use a blended learning model. Any inclusion of technology paired with traditional learning creates blended learning. This is very apparent in special education and inclusion. Many technologies are included within the lessons, although for individual education plans for individual students, but can be beneficial to all students. The second reading suggests that face to face meetings combined with e-learning will be beneficial for University Students. The only way I see distance learning, as in this model, working for K-12 students would be for homeschooled children. A perfect model would be for elearning and e-classrooms that would allow for students to also meet in a classroom with other homeschooled students at regular intervals. Other than in special circumstances, I do not see this model working in the United States Public school system.
With the definition of blended learning in the first reading, the inclusion of technology is something that all teachers should strive for. In my room, "chalk and talk" occurs, but it is not the only way material is presented. Websites, video, and even the inclusion of moodle as a means of in-class e-learning are also a part of my regular teaching in addition to partner, group, and class discussions and projects. The most important fact I read is that blended learning is not new. The addition of any new technologies can allow for a new, successful blend in teaching and learning styles. Blended learning will continue to evolve and is going to always be something for us to strive for.