Agenda

Agenda for Online Meeting: 21st Century Teaching and Learning


 * Purpose:** To improve technology use and integration in our middle school classrooms.


 * Objective: ** Educator Preparation and Development


 * Grade Levels:** 7th and 8th


 * Facilitator: ** Mona Lincoln

Linda Petersen, 8th Grade Social Studies Debbie Eneix, 7th Grade Social Studies Debbie Wozniak, 8th Grade Science Keith Collins, 7th Grade Science Gordon See, 7th and 8th Grade ELA Martha Cummings, 7th Grade ELA Larry Houston, SpEd Amanda Redmon, 8th Grade Desktop Publishing, Krimmel Intermediate Jo Elda Cadena, 8th Grade Desktop Publishing, Wunderlich Intermediate
 * Community Members: **


 * Questions for formulate activities and ideas: **

__Is the professional development in place helping us become more knowledgeable about the technological products we currently have?__ No. It seems that professional technology development is "hit and miss". Most of us are not truly aware of technology that is currently available and its practical use in the classroom. We have a technology specialist assigned to our campus. I think we could use her more for professional development.

Linda: (Mona - tell me if I'm not supposed to post here, or if I'm "doing it wrong". Should we be posting here or on the discussion page? ) I don't entirely agree with the assessment above. First - I think this will be an unpopular view, but I think the district is doing a lot to set up lessons and training for core curriculum classes, but I don't always think teachers are taking advantage of all of it. For instance - the StarBoard Level II and III classes go way beyond simply learning how to use StarBoard, to how to use it in new ways to create distance lessons involving multiple classrooms, student-created products, etc. I think teachers need to take a more self-directed role in finding the sessions. I've tried to encourage teachers to attend those sessions, but some have tended to think, "Oh, I know how to use use it; what else are they going to teach me?" Where I think our district falls down is (1.) in publicizing how the upper-level sessions will help teachers come up with new uses for the technology they possess and, more importantly, (2.) **in getting teachers together in staff development time for the specific purpose of giving them //time to work together// to come up with new applications and lessons to use the technology in transformative ways**. The time factor is the one that kills a lot of great ideas. The TL2s were recently assigned to read a couple articles on the TL2 blog that I think pointed out the direction the district wants teachers to go, but unless the information is disseminated to the rest of the staff, and the staff is given time to collaborate on it, it won't go far. Here are a couple links:

http://www.bjpconsulting.com/literacy_uses.html http://www.bjpconsulting.com/adaptive_uses.html http://www.bjpconsulting.com/transforming_uses.html

Linda you are fine, this is where we communicate. I agree with you on teachers needing to take a more self-directed role in finding sessions. However, I think first they need to see the big picture, the "vision", as to where we are needing to be and why. I had a difficult time when I was a TL2 for my 3rd grade team in getting everyone on board. I did not find the monthly meetings very helpful. It was interesting to see what others were doing, however there was no success in bringing these ideas to our campus. There was no interest. I have to say as well that when I was a TL2 I was not informed of the "Vision" so therefore had a difficult time involving my team members. Understand where we are going is the key. I believe this weakness lies at the administration level. The second point you made is exactly the purpose of this wiki. Perhaps getting started in some areas where students are working together to solve real-world problems with real-world technology tools will spur on the learning for our educators. -Mona

I agree w/ you completely, Mona. I'm hoping these couple of short articles I linked above and the website (Best educational wikis) I send you and my department a couple weeks ago will help people see the possibilities for using wikis in their classes. I also agree that teachers need to see the vision to see the possibilities! - Linda

Amanda: I think we fall short on our professional development opportunities. We have so much technology here at Krimmel that is going unused. In my classroom alone, I have a Starboard, Document Camera, and eInstruction that I do not use because I don't need those items for my classroom. However, I see many teachers around campus that are only using their starboard for a projection screen, if at all. I don't think the problem is that we weren't taught how to use the equipment, but how to use it in our classes. I think that is where we fall short - knowing the best ways to use the technology fwith our students. __What are some ideas for improving professional development?__ Provide more time for intensive training. One hour sessions are not enough time for many of us to absorb concepts, techniques, and practical use. As mentioned above, if a content area department, say social studies, came up with a specific activity using technology, we could have Debbie Wayland come in to help integrate the technology into the lesson plan. Something I have in mind would be a webquests. She could also come to the classrooms and model with the students how this could work.

"WebQuests are online, interactive modules that allow students to be involved in inquiry-oriented learning. Students interact and work together, each group member carries out a specific, meaningful role. It involves cooperative and collaborative learning, authentic rescources and active application of researched knowledge, and the construction of a solution to an open-ended problem." (Kundu and Bain, 2006) Essentially, they are structured Internet research exercises that lead students to create some kind of educational product. The resources are embedded in the webquests document itself.

Mona, I think these are a great idea; I've been to a couple district-provided sessions on this, though, but they are too generic/theoretical - they don't get content-specific with a diverse group of all grade levels and content areas. I'd like to see content & grade-level specific technology sessions, where the presenters already have a classroom-tested "sample" product to use as a model. Maybe that's asking too much, but so much of our tech training seems, "You can adapt this idea from the elementary school, but we don't have a middle school example." (I think that's where high-stakes testing takes its toll on ed-tech in the classroom.) - Linda

Linda, I went to those same sessions as well. I am of the same opinion of their use. If you get a chance to visit the websites below and the ones in part 3 of the activities I would love to hear from you on what you thought of these sites. By the way, I enjoyed reading those articles. They are much in line with the articles on adapting our teaching in learning into the 21st Century. Thanks for sharing with me. -Mona

Amanda: As an elective teacher, I would like more professional development geared to my needs. I can't tell you how many hours I have spent in professional development classes that are geard to core content areas.

__With the tools that we currently have in place, what are some ways we can increase student engagement through the use of technology in all content areas?__ The use of e-instruction should be expanded. I found a great website that list a number of already made webquests for middle school level Social Studies. An activity we could do at the "meeting" is investigate the various webquests and choose one for each grade level. Here is the link for those of you that may be interested in investigating now. Social Studies: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/sswq.htm ELA: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/lawq.htm Math: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/mathwq.htm Science: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/sciwq.htm

From Jan - OK, I admit, I'm a cynic when it comes to "pre-made" lessons. However, I just checked out the webquests on the Social Studies link and found 2 that are really good for Texas History. We've already passed those topics this year, but they will definitely be on my agenda for next year.

Jan, I am excited to hear that you found something you could use! You will have to let me know how it goes. -Mona

Linda: I love this page. This finally gives me some of the info I need. Did have a problem with some of the US History webquest links - apparently they've been moved off the home district's server - "file not found" for Gettysburg, Abe Lincoln and a couple others. Still - I looked at the Nathaniel Bacon one; it has some ideas that I could use for my classes. The Bill of Rights one looked fascinating, and kids would really love the WebQuest format and the newsprogram/panel product.

__What are some of the barriers we might encounter?__ Setting up e-instruction programs is very time consuming. Another barrier involves discipline issues with students. Many times teachers resort to the old and familiar because students behave poorly when using e-instruction or other technology. One of the areas I see as a barrier is not being able to use **Open Source Software** in the classroom. There are free tools out on the web that many teachers do not know about. "In these days of tightened belts accelerated global competition, and growing need to equip both educators and students with the skills they need to innovate, more and more districst are exploring the opne source option. Essentially, **open source software** differs from commercially developed, or closed source, software in that the application's source code is publicly distributed and available for modification by users." "The skills students develop in using open source applications at school will free them of a dependency on often expensive commercial software programs." (Guhlin, 2007). For instance instead of the expense of placing Photoshop on a number of computer an alternative districts could use a program such as the GNU Image Manipulation.

There is an Interesting article that I read in an eSchool News publication about a free online learning tool called JASON Science by National Geographic. http://eschoolnews.p2ionline.com/Flip/sitebase/data/editions/131445/img/large/2177670.htm An added feature is that there are free webinars to help teachers gain an in-depth understanding on how to use the materials, help teachers put together lesson plans, and there is a help desk that is monitored 24/7. What we have here is built in professional development. This is another activity we could look into for our " online meeting". Is this something that the students are blocked from? If so, what steps do we need to take to get this opened up for teachers and students to have access. If not, we could discuss how we could handle the professional development, setting up the time, arranging for the hours to be documented for earned PD hours, etc. Please check out the website for Jason Science. http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx

__What are some solutions to those barriers?__ Common planning time to collaborate on these programs would encourage more use of e-instruction. I don't know the solution to dealing with discipline problems while trying to integrate technology. Any ideas out there in Wiki Land?

Linda: I'd love to have a content-level partner with whom I could collaborate on doing more w/ eInstruction. That's definitely an underused tool. I'm hoping the district will approve wikis next year for student use, so I can set up small, independent and group study "stations" using ABC-CLIO's history research database.


 * Activities and ideas for first online professional learning community: **


 * Purpose:** To integrate technology in the curriculum where students are involved in an inquiry-oriented learning activity.
 * Outcome:** Each content area and grade level will come away with one webquest to use in their curriculum.
 * Time:** 90 minutes

> Social Studies: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/sswq.htm > ELA: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/lawq.htm > Math: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/mathwq.htm > Science: http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/webquests/sciwq.htm, http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx > SpEd: choose from the above content area where you want to focus > DTP: not too many to choose from; can choose to evaluate this site and revise or work together to search for other sites. It may be that we could work together and develop our own webquest. I know Amanda has developed a webquest on Computer Ethics. I have found a site that that looks interesting but needs revision to fit our TA TEKS. I am very interested in taking this on to meet the needs for our advertising unit. http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/Harris/cyvertise/index.html
 * 1) Community members create a shared vision.(10 min)
 * 2) Community members will visit two websites. (30 minutes)
 * The first website for gaining information on what a webquest is consisted of (seven standard sections) and how to evaluate webquests. http://www.thwt.org/webqueststhinkquests.html#Select
 * The second website, WebQuest.org., to bookmark as a reference tool for finding quality webquest. http://www.webquest.org/
 * 1) Community members will break out into groups of content areas and grade levels to investigate the specific learning activity, webquests . Each content area will post to their perspective wiki page ideas and feedback of their findings when investigating the webquests. (New pages will be set up for each content area.) Members may research the site below or search for their other webquests. Science will also investigate JASON. (40 min)
 * 1) Navigate back to main wiki page (First Online PLC Meeting: Integrating Technology for Learning) and share with others.(10 min)