Journal Post # 11

Chapter #11: Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection

Photo credit to Ken Whytock on Flickr

Focus Question #2: How can teachers and students use digital portfolios as tool for learning?

One of the most important parts of the educational process is to have the objective information needed to make a realistic assessment of its effectiveness. How much have the students learned? What skills did they develop? How effective were the instructional strategies, teaching methods as well as the technological procedures used for teachers? Where did they fail? As a teacher, what do I have to change to help  develop the capabilities of each student fully? What are the learning style, preferences and strengths of each of them? We need a realistic feedback to make the changes and improvements necessary to raise teaching-learning process to a higher quality level.

 In this sense, the digital portfolios are an effective way to assess teachers’ and students’ accomplishments. For teachers it is an individually prepared and personalized collection of their work, educational approach, philosophy about education, achievements, goals and expectations. For students it is a computer-based collection of their performance over time.

In my opinion, this tool not only shows students progress, but also increases their engagement; promotes a continuing conversation about learning between teachers, parents, and students; and extends academic lessons beyond school walls. It also offers an opportunity for students to showcase skills and kinds of intelligence that often are not measured on standardized tests and at the same time each of them has the chance to show their creativity and their own personal stamp.

One of the most important ingredients in a portfolio is the student’s reflection on their work. Student reflections help teachers discover and observe what the students are really experiencing, thinking about, questioning, wondering about, trying, and attaining. Therefore, a portfolio provides a more comprehensive view of each student’s learning. As students consistently gather and reflect on their work, educators develop a clear picture of the learning that is taking place and are better able to identify areas that need attention.

Tech Tool Link:  SurveyMonkey

This website offers the possibility to create templates for different surveys, compute the information, analyze the results and send them to wherever we need. This could be a useful resource to involve students in preassessment process and a way for teachers to determine what they know, what skills they have, what they would like to learn and what they think about important academic topics. In this way  teachers could make better decisions about the topics they will teach as well as the methods, procedures, resources and evaluative techniques they will used.   

Summary and Personal Connection: 

For me, a person who come from an underdeveloped country, where teachers still store the information in files, not exactly digital, and these at the same time on shelves made ​​of different materials, the word portfolio evoked the image of a huge folder full of papers, difficult to transport and in constant danger of being eaten by moths. That is why I appreciate so much the great possibilities offered by tools such as digital portfolios for both teacher and students.

I am delighted to know that I can count on these technological resources that support active roles by students in the learning assessment process and enrich their learning. While the paper is static, the digital format has the ability to be updated, improved and enriched constantly, so it is more interactive. In addition, the digital portfolio can identify me as a competent professional and become the key that will open for me new and better employment opportunities.

Photo credit to nathangibbs on Flickr

Reference:

- Maloy, R.W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards. S.A.,&Woolf, B. P. (2011). Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection. Transforming Learning with New Technologies (pp. 310-313). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.  

Journal Post # 10

Chapter 10: Promoting Success for All Students through Technology

Focus Question # 1: What are differentiated instruction (DI) and universal design for learning (UDL)?

     Just as no two fingerprints are alike, neither are two students. Each comes with their own experiences, culture, background, abilities, learning style; some even have some kind of disability. Obviously, there are many factors that make each student different and therefore unique. Regardless of these differences, each has the right to learn, to develop their skills and potentials fully. Therefore, it is up to us, the educators, to meet this challenge imprinting our teaching with the flexibility, variety and creativity necessary to reach every student and meet their individual needs. It is precisely here where differentiated instruction (DI) comes to play its role. It means that teachers proactively plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they will show what they have learned in order to increase the likelihood that each student will learn as much as he or she can, as efficiently as possible. To accomplish this, learning activities may be differentiated on the basis of students' readiness for learning the specific content or skill, their interests or their preferred ways of learning. In a differentiated classroom, students experience learning in many configurations –working in small groups (with peers having similar or different readiness, interests, or learning preferences), with a partner, individually, and as a whole group.

     Closely linked to this approach is the concept of Universal Design for Learning. The central practical premise of UDL is that a curriculum should include alternatives to make it accessible and appropriate for individuals with different backgrounds, learning styles, abilities, and disabilities in widely varied learning contexts. This reflects the need to accommodate differences, creating learning experiences that suit the learner and maximize his or her ability to progress. UDL provides a framework that helps teachers differentiate their instruction through carefully articulated goals and individualized material, methods, technology strategies, and assessments. In short, this means access to quality and effective education for all.

Tech Tool Link: The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

      This is an interactive website that provides information, ideas, lesson plans, activities, case stories, books, videos intended to assist teachers to find effective ways to implement UDL in the classroom. By the way, I found it very practical some of the books on this site, especially for ELL students, because it offers the readers the opportunity to interact with content and other resources to obtain more explanations, illustrations, examples and exercises that allow them to get a full understanding of the story. There are also useful links to other websites, articles, and books about UDL.

Summary and Connection:

     Finishing reading this chapter I started to think about the huge amount of doors that the technology applied to education open to us. Just one of these is the possibility to make real the differentiated instruction. Truly, all these resources allow us to plan our classes in a more realistic and flexible manner to meet our students’ needs.

     In summer, I took the course: Diversity for Educators and in one of the assignments I had the opportunity to know about the sad story of Billy Pagoni, a young man here in Naples diagnosed with autism who finished high school and wanted to continue studying to become a baker, but no school could offer him a course that meets his needs. Billy implored on a video posted on Facebook. “I want to be a baker. I am a great student. I never miss a day of school. I get A’s on my report card. Please, can you help me go to college? I am an American. I am autistic.” The article about him was published on Fox News.com and it includes comments made by his mother. One of them says: “While universities currently offer specialized programs for blind, deaf, ESL and high-functioning Asperger’s students, there are little to no options for more severely autistic children.” Obviously, we all have to continue fighting for the principles advocated by UDL do not remain at the theoretical level, but rather to make education truly accessible for everyone.

References:

-Crees, A. (2012, April 6). Young man with autism appeals to Obama | Fox News. Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/06/young-man-with-autism-appeals-to-obama/

-Photo credit to LShave on Flickr


-Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2011). Promoting Success for All Students through Technology. Transforming learning with new technologies (pp. 277-279). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.