Lauren's+Tech+Portfolio

=**Lauren Bell's Technology Portfolio**=


 * __Artifacts__**

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

//[|7. Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling]//

8. [|My Flickr Personal Use Project]

9.
 * __Reflection: How Did I Do on My Learning Goals__**

__ 1. Goal: __ Focus on “facilitating” the learning on the Smartboard instead of “leading” it. There is no reason my students can’t lead Smartboard activities or concept explanations.
 * // Artifact: Basketball Review Game (Artifact 1) //
 * // Reflection: A //

This was a goal I worked on every day in my school. Because at my school it is mandatory to use my Smartboard every day, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only one using it. My goal focused on student centered approaches. I think my Basketball Review Game really demonstrates mastery of this goal because with this game, I am no longer in control. If you don't have Notebook Software on your computer, this game will not open (see pic below). Basically, student groups will pick certain basketballs and once clicking a basketball a review question will pop up. Groups receive points based upon how many "baskets" they get correct. By having students lead the game, they are in control of their own learning.

__ 2. Goal: __ To research multiple digital tools that could enhance the creativity in my classroom. I am in the process of using Donor Choose to get video cameras for my classroom. This would allow students to take material we are learning, create fun skits, raps, performances etc and be able to see them the next period!
 * //Artifact: DV Lesson, Idea Share (Artifact 3 and Artifact 2)//
 * //Reflection: A//

I am very happy with my work towards this goal because I was able to get a handheld video camera for my classroom. My students have already recorded one PSA (Public Service Announcement) to raise awareness on worldwide domestic violence and are planning do so again this Wednesday with our lesson on human trafficking. The DV lesson went particularly well because we learned the facts of domestic violence first and then students used the facts to create their own PSA. Students have loved seeing their work the next day and it adds another layer of importance and meaning to the work they are doing. I am looking forward to using the cameras for curriculum content as well (so far we have only been able to use it for Global Classroom lessons that are not strictly aligned to New York State Standards). I also loved using my Free Rice Website in class. This allows students to have control over their own learning and also have control over how much of a difference they can make in the world (the more questions you get right the more families you can feed via grains of rice). They loved the competition and didn't need me to "monitor" everything.

__ 3. Goal: __ To speak with (and convince) my administration about okaying a twitter account or a website so I can more closely work with students and parents
 * //Artifact: Twitter Pic (Artifact 6)//
 * //Reflection: A-//

Unfortunately my school was very against the idea of having teachers communicate with students outside school walls. It was my goal all year to explain the benefits of Twitter and even found a teacher who "protected" her account so others could not see it outside her class (see Artifact above). Again, my principal was not to be persuaded. I even tried to provide evidence ([|50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom]) of how I was going to use it in the classroom but to no avail. When I realized there was no possible way I was going to achieve my goal, I started working towards another way I could have contact with my students via the school email address. The previous rule was that it was only for parents to email you, not students. I sat down with administration and convinced them to let me give the email out to students. In this day and age our students are on the web more than they watch TV. By using email to ask about their grade, homework questions, quiz studying etc. students can always reach me regardless of time or place. This has definitely helped many students in my class. When they know they are not going to come to school they can email me and ask for the notes and worksheets. My rule for this is that students have to reach out to me, I will not go the other way. It is their responsibility to ask for what they missed. I have also let my students know that emailing me is a privilege that can be taken away. This email is not to be used for spam, jokes, or inappropriate messages. So although I never did get my Twitter account I was able to get some line of contact with my students via my school email address.

__ 4. Goal: __ Have students sign up for a date and on that date they will bring in a digital story/video ( I can convert it using clipdj so we don’t have to use the internet) and lead a discussion around it. This will enable students have a student centered activity as well.
 * //Artifact: [|Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling (Artifact 7)]//
 * //Reflection: B//

I have yet to implement this goal into my curriculum for a variety of reasons//.// First and foremost, because of Regents. My school, because it is a charter school, focuses very heavily on the Regents. If my lessons are not directly aligned with the curriculum (New York State) I do not get them approved. Once Regents are done, I will have a lot more leeway. I found a great website from a conference (The International Conference on Digital Story Telling) in Valencia, Spain this March. This website has given me a lot of great ideas to implement in late June. For example, one of the digital stories for history is called Standing Up for Democracy in Burma. This story traces the history of Burma and discusses how people in the country fight for democracy day in and day out. The student who created this story used photos, text, and voice to create the video. Because it looks relatively low tech, this would be a perfect example for my students and I would help them format the stories so we could watch them later. Because I have yet to embark on this project, I could not give myself higher than a B. Once completing the project, I feel like I could give myself a higher grade.

__5. Goal: (Personal Use Project)__ Get comfortable with Flickr by documenting my own life in hopes that it will be easy enough that I could use it educationally with my students.
 * //Artifact: [|My Flickr (Artifact 8)]//
 * //Reflection: A-//

I have gotten increasingly more comfortable with Flickr as the semester wore on (see journal[| My Flickr Personal Use Project].) I could definitely see using this in the classroom even if my students didn't have access to a camera phone or digital camera. The site makes it very easy to upload photos from online as well. Therefore, my students could create a photo montage of pictures from Google if they didn't have access to their own technology. I would love to see my students in the future take some content we are learning (such as ancient Greece or the Mongol Empire) and using Flickr, create a montage. Now that I confidently can navigate their website, I will definitely assign something like this for future classes. Unfortunately, I will not be able to implement Flickr this year.


 * __Reflection: Course Objectives__**

// Who am I as a technology user? // If I have learned anything this semester it is that there is always more to be learned. I think a great example of this is the Copyright Poster (Artifact 10). There are things I never knew about that as a teacher I should definitely know. Another great example is all the idea shares. It was remarkable to see how much my classmates knew about different websites and how they could be implemented in the classroom.

I am also someone who is open to failing and trying again. With technology there are always going to be days where it fails or is implemented incorrectly. After one screw up, many teachers would "swear off" the technology and be too afraid to be vulnerable in front of their students again. As I technology user, I have come to realize I am fallible and I am not afraid to let my students know this. I think they appreciate that I am very honest with them and sometimes my technology ideas do flop. It's the whole "let's give it a try" that keeps them engaged and interested.

// How can technology improve teaching and learning? //

Throughout this course I have realized that technology needs to be utilized as much as possible. Technology has greatly impacted and improved my teaching specifically in the realm of Smartboard products (Tech Lesson and Basketball Review Game Artifact). By utilizing the Smartboard my students are consistently engaged in my lessons. We blow pictures up to look at the tiniest details that I never knew were even there. We create graphic organizers organically by grabbing text, pictures, and graphs from different slides and throwing it into one. Students are constantly raising their hands to do the Review Games and want to lead discussion using pictures, text, and other graphics from the board.

Technology also improves learning by playing into different learning styles. Not every student is going to be a traditional auditory learner. By using technology I can reach many different types of students who learn in a myriad of ways such as Visual learners (Youtube clips), and Kinesthetic learners (using the Smartboard).

//What digital skills must students develop to succeed in school and beyond//?

In order to be successful in school students must develop many digital skills. The first skill students need to learn is how to research. This is a broad skill that includes knowing the difference between a credible source and an unsubstantiated source and further, knowing how to cite sources appropriately. With Internet search engines producing thousands of hits in a matter of seconds, students must understand how to decipher and critically evaluate what information is substantiated and what is not. A second skill they must learn is sharpening their visualization skills. With technology, it is not just reading a source and underlining the meaning. Now students must decipher, interpret, and detect patterns that emerge in videos, pictures, graphs, as well as text. Thirdly, students must learn how to collaborate. The digital world allows students to work with others via sites like Googledocs or even with other technologies such as Neo2s [1]. While collaboration happened before the digital world took off, now the possibilities are endless. Students from all over the world can work together to make a final product. For example, students from California can get a Chinese perspective on traditional schooling. The final skill students need to master is typing. In a world where most of our work is done via computers, students need to familiarize themselves with programs such as Word and how to type and create assignments, letters, emails, posters, etc.

[1] Neo2s allow student to send KeyWords (word processing) data from their Neo2 to the teacher’s computer wirelessly through “beaming.” Allows teachers to monitor student progress much more efficiently


 * __Steps Moving Forward: Thoughts and Goals for the Future__**

My first goal for the future is to make sure that I implement technology into 80 percent of my lessons. It is essential that I not forget that technology does make lessons more engaging and allows me to meet students on their level. Whenever I have used technology it has always kept my students interested. It could be as simple as doing matching on the Smartboard but it still makes learning tactile which many students need because they are not all auditory learning.

My second goal for the future is to convince my administration (or my next school) to let me use some sort of communication website with my students outside of school such as Twitter or Facebook or even a simple website. Although, this was a goal I had for this semester I didn't make much headway and I would like to keep pursuing this goal until I have success. I believe so much good can be done and if I cannot convince this administration I will definitely try to convince my next using more data.