About Me:

Hi, my name is Maisee Moua and I'm currently attaining my licensure in Secondary English/Language Arts. This section on EDU 383 is about my journey in learning technology for K - 12 education.

EDU 383 Group Project - Team Approach

This is the link to my group project and team approach.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DPa-NjqJTukB3Se2kO8gY5-choA_ZalRmgKlYUKLDvM/edit

Week 4: Spreadsheets and Podcasting

Standard 4 Instructional Strategies: A teacher must understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage student development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Brief Description of Evidence Provided

Spreadsheets:

          Spreadsheets are commonly used in a Mathematics classroom. However, it is a very useful tool that could be utilized in all content areas. Spreadsheets are capable of creating data, collecting information and transforming it into bars and graphs, understanding numbers and formulas and so forth. In addition to this, spreadsheets would be a great tool to use in a(n) English/Language Arts class.

            As a future ELA teacher, I would use spreadsheets in a classroom to help inventory books and novels. Moreover, I think it is also a great idea to use spreadsheets to help students with vocabulary words. Furthermore, I would utilize spreadsheets to collect information from texts read in class and try some compare and contrast with it. There are so many ways an ELA teacher could use spreadsheets to help her or him with classroom lessons and activities. Students will gain much knowledge and life-long skills from this experience.

            Spreadsheets being used today are more advanced compared to what it was when it first came out. Because spreadsheets are commonly used for school, work and other purposes, it is a good idea for teachers or educators understand how this tool works. By being familiar with spreadsheets, teachers could utilize it as a great tool to help students gain a new skill. For example, students may use spreadsheets in Math class, but if they were to use it for other learning targets in an ELA class, students will be more fluent with this tool and further help them in the future. 

Podcasting:

           Podcasting is a great tool to utilize in a classroom setting. As a future secondary ELA teacher, I could see this tool as being helpful with my lessons or activities. First of all, I think it would be a fun tool to introduce young learners, especially young adults, to help them in an ELA class. Podcasting takes good practice to understand its useful as well as knowing how to explain its application. So a teacher using podcasting as a way of learning in a classroom should be familiar with it in order to deliver a learned skill that is beneficial to students.

            In an ELA classroom, I could use podcasting in many ways to help my students. For instance, students could use it to record their voices when reading texts or literature. Moreover, because screenplay is a big part of what I want to teach also, I think it would be a good idea to have students practice recording their voices as a particular character or be animated. Furthermore, I could utilize podcasting as a tool for students to practice language. I work with many ELLs, and one of their biggest challenges is correct pronunciation of the English language. Students would be able to use podcasting in many ways to help them in my ELA classroom.

            On the other hand, it would be a good idea to put instructions on hard copied paper, too. Some students could follow through with verbal instructions, but some students understand instructions better if they could visually see step-by-step directions. In addition to this, creating a rubric for the purpose of using podcasting in an ELA is a must. Students should always know what they are learning and why it is important to learn it. In other words, students should understand the rationale behind a lesson or activity.

            Overall, I believe using podcasting as a classroom tool to help students build knowledge and gain skills is a great idea. Students growing up in this generation are familiar with this term and maybe use it on a daily basis, and if they were to be able to use it for a learning purpose, it would be a fun way for students to learn. Students would be able to express the art of literature creatively in so many ways.   

Reflection on How the Evidence Demonstrates My Competence in Meeting the Standards

Week 3: Internet and Databases

Standard 3 Diverse Learners: A teacher must understand how students differ in their approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to students with diverse backgrounds and exceptionalities.

Brief Description of Evidence Provided

            Teaching and learning about the Internet and databases in a classroom setting is a valuable tool to both the teacher and students. The Internet offers an opportunity to communicate with accessible sources that provides the needed information to successfully complete a learning topic in class. The databases provide the means to make this happen. Both the Internet and databases, when used to guide students in class to learn about something is a helpful tool.

            Incorporating the use of Internet in class lessons should be used with clarity of expectations from young learners. The Internet is a very useful tool and students will gain more knowledge afterwards. However, the teacher, as a guide, must be very clear of what he or she expect from students so that the Internet is used with a proper and educational purpose. A teacher must create instructional information to steer students of what they should do and look for as well as create a rubric. When using the Internet to help complete an assignment, students should keep a written journal of their daily application of Internet information.

            Moreover, the Internet allows students to communicate in a variety of way. Many young people, and even adults, can express better through communicating with others electronically. For example, many people use blogs and emails to send and receive messages, thoughts, emotions, opinions or ideas. Another example is that, some people just express themselves more openly when there are not too many individuals in front of them or looking at them. Also, the Internet makes it easy for teachers and students to connect with other people learning about the same topic.

            As a future English/Language Arts teacher, I plan to use the Internet to help my students access reliable history and information on certain topics. In many schools, it is unfortunate that not many can afford the right field trips to stimulate students’ learning progress and process. For instance, if I am teaching my students about Native American literature and linking it to our Minnesota history, it would be impossible to travel to the many places that were once the land of Indigenous peoples. However, we could use the Internet to help students gather more information and visually see these locations historically and present. Students will be able to understand more when they read something on text and then, take a remote journey to experience what Native Americans may have been through to understand why their literature is written and structured the way it is.

            The Internet has its pros and cons. It is a valuable source and tool within a classroom setting, but at the same time, young people and learners must always be monitored and guided when using it. The Internet can also be a dangerous place for students to enter. When a teacher uses the Internet as a tool to assist in a lesson or activity, the teacher must always direct students of what they need to do. Teachers should monitor chat sessions, blogs, e-mails, recent Websites visited and so forth as daily as possible. Keeping it a safe environment and the well-being of students should always be a teacher’s priority, also.

Reflection on How the Evidence Demonstrates My Competence in Meeting the Standards

Week 2: Connecting Technology with Learning

Standard 3 Diverse Learners: A teacher must understand how students differ in their approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to students with diverse backgrounds and exceptionalities.

Brief Description of Evidence Provided

Explain how assessing student learning from a behaviorist perspective might differ from that of a cognitive psychologists.

            A behaviorist’s perspective of learning focuses on external and observable behaviors. Behaviorists look at the observable behaviors and how the outer environment might change ones behavior. Also, they state how behavior is supported through reinforcement or by exercising a concept to encourage the desired behavior. Moreover, behaviorists believe that learning comes in a sequential, structured way. Learners gain more knowledge with bits of information at a time, but should learn in a specific order.

            On the other hand, cognitive psychologists look at internal and mental actions that cannot be seen or observed openly. Their view of learning focuses on how knowledge is changed internally. Cognitive theorists believe this changed knowledge is transformed into an understanding more in depth from prior knowledge and learners are not born with “blank slates.” They also view learning as a step-by-step instruction guided by an adult. Learners would need to rearrange their thoughts and accommodate to new ideas to help them understand new information or knowledge.    

Create a one-page summary that describes the major contribution of these theorists toward an understanding of how students learn: Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotzky. Insert a graphic that supports your discussion of this topic.

            Lev Vygotzky’s contribution to help us understand how students or young people learn was that they learn first, from prior knowledge and information they already have stored in their minds. Building bits and pieces of small information at a time, young learners are guided by adults or educators in a step-by-step instructional way to build deeper meanings to the information they just received. Vygotzky’s idea supports a student’s opportunity at developing more knowledge and skills to engage in different activities.

            Jean Piaget’s contribution to students’ learning process has helped us understand that these young people come with prior knowledge of certain concepts. Teachers and adults should use the knowledge these young children already have and build on top of it. This process would give students the opportunity to use what they already know and engage in the activity. When students start thinking, they would apply the new information they just learned to prior knowledge and make better understanding of what is being taught. Piaget calls this the “assimilation and accommodation” process.

            Jerome Bruner’s contribution to understanding how students learn has assisted us to know that young learners need to be questioned and challenged about something to fully comprehend. Bruner’s “scaffolding” process tells us that teachers or adults need to guide young learners with tools and skills and provide these in a structural way to help increase student understanding. Moreover, students need to be engaged and give them an opportunity to make decisions so students are constantly thinking with new ideas and information.

Reflection on How the Evidence Demonstrates My Competence in Meeting the Standards

Week 1: Technology Pedogogical Content Knowledge (TPCK)

Standard 2, student learning. A teacher must understand how students learn and develop and must provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development.


Brief Description of Evidence Provided

TPCK (Standard 2H)

        The world we live in today has evolved and changed to a whole different world from what we could remember through history. Many creations have been developed for easier access of a variety of sources. Sometimes these inventions worked, sometimes it did not. However, many creators continue to expand what is known in the 21^st century as “technology”. Technology was invented help people and our world as a whole, in some sense, to gain access, move forward and faster at reaching our goals, reaching our solutions.

         Technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives. It is what helps us gain easier access to the things we want to have and want to do. In this case, technology becomes a part of our lives. It is important that we learn how to utilize technology and incorporate it into the things we learn and use every day so that we are getting the best results of the sources we need. In addition to this, young people and children growing up in this time of rising technology need to learn how to use these different types of technology in order to help them develop strong skills in the 21^st century.

         The use of technology is something we do naturally everyday already. We turn the knob at the sink and water runs, we press the power button on a remote and the TV turns on, we get onto the computer and at the tips of our fingers, we are retrieving the information we want and so forth. So how do we use technology to help us in the most effective way? Many could argue there are more than one or few little ways to do this, but I will focus on integrating technology with young people’s education.

          First of all, when students are in school, they are learning about specific contents and topics. A teacher teaching a content area or subject must be fluent and a master at what he or she is teaching in order to deliver effectiveness of student learning. When students do not understand something, the teacher has to be able to guide students with different strategies to help them reach the learning target(s) of the lesson. When the teacher is able to do this and students build strategies, skills, and gain the knowledge they needed, in other words, reached the learning objectives and targets, then the teacher has completed his or her job. Students are gaining new knowledge and skills; they are thinking critically about what is being taught and reflecting. The teacher is assessing all of these before and after the lesson. This procedure or structure is called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

PCK helps a teacher teach towards the content area he or she aims for. However, depending on the teacher’s teaching style, we are unsure if students are receiving differentiated instructions, or did they really hit all or most of the learning targets? To ensure this, we want to make sure young people, students are making connections; that they feel relevant to what is being presented to them and vice – versa. This is where technology comes in. Of course, the use of pencil, paper and even accessing the internet is a part of technology. Yet, we want to make this as inclusive as possible, so, this process becomes technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK).

TPCK means to teach with technology. We are integrating technology into the content subject areas and curriculum materials to make sure students are receiving the most of their learning experience. Teachers need to understand that we live in a world where technology rules and whether we were born into the rise of it or not, the students in our classrooms are. They are familiar with it. Technology becomes natural to them, so TPCK is a standard make sure technology is inclusive in students’ learning experience in the 21^st century.

Reflection on How the Evidence Demonstrates My Competence in Meeting the Standards

Websites for Resources with English/Language Arts

1. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Purdue Online Writing Lab is an essential website to help students with APA format, MLA format, writing instructions, critical theories, references, works-cited and everything else a student may need support in when completing a research or essay. Its useful information is a great tool for all young and college students.

2. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/summary.htm

The Norton Anthology of English Literature online website is a great place to start with students about early literary texts. It has summaries of different literary texts written in certain time periods with connections to help both teachers and students understand better.

3. Your local public library: http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/leisurerecreation/countylibraries/hourslocations/galaxie.htm

Your local library is one of the most important resources to both teachers and students. Librarians are full of knowledge with a huge variety of texts, so take advantage of them. They are there to help you. Public libraries offer teachers the newest novels and books young adults are interested in. Also, they have support materials to help students gain more knowledge of the world of written language through different types of literature.

4. http://www.ncte.org/

This is the Website of National Council of Teachers of English. This is a very resourceful area for English teachers to find information on what is new and happening in the English subject. On the Website, they provide access to resources and ideas for English teachers. It is also a community within itself, where an English teacher could sign up as a member and receive more tools and materials to help in a classroom.