EDLD+5364

 ​ **Week Five ** Here we are at week five and it is time to bring it all together, which is what the readings and video have done. The videos made me realize that today’s students have such a wide range of things to learn. The videos made me aware that they not only have to learn “The Three R’s” but they must also be educated in ways to handle the ethical issues they will have in the digital age. The videos also reminded me that video games can serve a real educational purpose if approached correctly. I believe that the opportunities for today’s students are endless if can just teach them to take advantage.  In order to take advantage of an opportunity one must apply effort. I had never really thought about the fact that we have to show the connection between effort and achievement. It seems to me that this should be an understood fact but Pitler argues that we must give our students the tools to make this connection. The reading from the Pitler book gives us examples of how a spreadsheet or data collection tool can help a student see the relationship between the amount of effort they put forth and their level of success. The selection from __Web2.0: New Tools, New Schools__ talked about the need to change the way we assess student learning, The text tells us that we need to move from an end of lesson assessment to a pattern of continuous assessment. Wikis and blogs are two Web 2.0 tools that could assist us with this shift in practice. Of course they would also allow for almost instant feedback and connection to others around the globe as well. A constant theme throughout all five weeks of this course has been that we no longer have to confine learning to within the walls of the classroom and the sooner we move outside our boundaries the better for us and our students.

**Week Four**  Now that we have learned how the brain learns, the week four videos and readings talk to us about designing our student-centered environment. I believe that overall message this week is that we need to consider the long-range skills we are teaching. Linda Darling-Hammond talks about how we should be designing schools and school systems that focus on social and emotional learning, Hammond stresses that through collaborative learning students will learn to engage others and how to handle stress. The other videos point out that students learn better if we allow them to tell us what they want to learn and use project-based learning to allow that to happen. We were shown multiple examples of teachers and even entire schools that were using project-based learning and team teaching to customize their teaching to meet the demands of the students in the class.  The readings support the lessons in the videos by giving us either factual accounts of how this worked in a large number of schools or by providing multiple examples of the way we might use technology in our classrooms to achieve our design goals. The //McREl Technology Initiative// was enough to make any teacher jealous. The report documented a large scale professional development experiment that was undertaken in several schools. The results of the study show that students gain when the teachers are trained and supported in their endeavors. Our readings also made the argument, one that I certainly agree with, that in order for technology integration to really work administration must also model technology use on a daily basis. Finally, our last reading this week tied it all up by saying that if we are going to consider the different brain networks when we teach then we must also consider them when we assess student learning. Doesn’t it make sense that if we all learn differently then shouldn’t we be given different means by which we will convey our learning? 

 **Week Three** The videos and readings for week three continue to expand on the idea that classroom instruction must be updated to meet the demands of today’s student. This week we are given numerous examples of how to accomplish the shift to a learner-centered environment. The videos from Edutopia highlighted some of the outstanding accomplishments of students that have been exposed to technology. Luis and Cameron, two featured students in the Edutopia videos, have not only expanded their own knowledge using technology but are sharing what they have learned with others. Another video, //Kansas Technology Rich Classrooms//, shows what can be accomplished in the classroom when the entire state is supportive of the endeavor. Finally, as an excellent lead in to the readings for the week, we are given 10 ways to use technology in our classroom to better engage our students.

The first paragraph of the first reading really sets up the entire week. In their article, Rose and Meyer, begin by giving us a mental picture that I believe we have all experienced. We envision ourselves as we are about to start a lesson knowing full well who will be successful with the content and who will struggle. And yet wo are not sure how we change what we do to improve the result. The rest of the article and the other readings for the week help us to understand that we can affect the outcome and, as Rose and Meyer suggest for our classroom, we are given several examples of how to allow technology to help us meet the challenge. Using the examples of Universal Design for Learning we can provide the learner with the tools they need to be successful and address each of the brain networks that we learned about in week two. The reading from the CAST Book Builder website reminds us that UDL curriculum will offer “ multiple means of representation,” “multiple means of action and expression,” and “multiple means of engagement” to our students (CAST, 2009). This week brought numerous examples of tools, from both Pitler and Solomon, along with suggestions on how to take advantage of the tools that we use everyday. This week seems to say to us that if we let it, technology will lead us and our students down a varied path of learning.

**Week Two** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The focus of week two was on the diversity of the classroom and how an instructor might adapt for that diversity. This week we watched videos from CAST which discussed the “non-traditional student” and which students might be included in that category. Today a classroom might include one or more students with learning disabilities. In today’s classroom the teacher must teach to each student in a manner that addresses the individual needs of the learner. David Rose argues that in order to meet the needs of the individual student we must connect with the different networks in the brain. The networks that Rose defines are the recognition network, the strategic network, and the affective network. Each network address a different skill set for the student, which are the what, how, and why of the learning process respectively.

The articles that we read discussed diversity based on the socioeconomic standing of a student and the effect that a technology-rich environment has on that individual. Michael Page points out that students that have access to a technology-enriched classroom have greater self-esteem that those that do not (Page, 2002). According to Pitler there are many ways to use technology to teach and engage both the student and the parent while modeling the use of the technology. (Pitler et al, 2007). Considering that an instructor can no longer use a “one-size-fits-all” approach on the classroom, there needs to be a tool to assist teachers in creating the learning goals and objectives for their students. Universal Design Learning is that tool. UDL helps instructors customize learning for individual learners all the way from setting the objectives for the lesson through to the assessment of the learning. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; msobidifontfamily: Arialmsobidifontfamily;"> **<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Week One ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arialmsobidifontfamily;">This has been a very informative week for me. I am a college instructor in the computer networking field and have never taught in public school. I have learned that the issues faced in the public school classroom are no different from the issues in the college classroom. No matter what level you teach, students are asking to be taught in a different way. Our readings covered three learning theories that could help us to achieve the shift in instructional delivery for which our students are asking.

I have always believed that we approach every situation we face with the bias of our life experiences. The first learning theory says almost the same thing. That theory is called constructivism and it states that students begin learning with what they already know about a subject.

The second theory that we learned about, connectivism, says that learning is a continuous process. I see connectivism as a big picture school of thought. As it is explained in __Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools__, “Know-how, and know-what are being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed).”

The third learning theory is the cyborg theory. Kevin Warwick presents the idea that the future of education will be changed by chips implanted and integrated into the human nervous system. This innovation would allow new knowledge to simply be downloaded into a person's brain. If this truly comes to pass, as Warwick predicts, this will have an enormous impact on our education system.

See References page for bibliographies