Perfect Fit-- Technology and Differentiation

For the past few weeks I have been learning how to use the content management system, Moodle, to plan lessons in the different subject areas. Although it has been overwhelming at times planning lessons in a new way, it has also been very rewarding to see the opportunites that digital teaching has for all the students in the classroom. Digital teaching lends itself very well to differentiation and the possibilities on how it can be used to promote and to extend learning are endless. For each lesson in ELA that is planned in Moodle there is a section specified for differentiation. During today's lesson the students were expected to read a memoir and to create jot notes based on specified sections of the text. In order to ensure that all students met success during the activity, an option was given to listen to the memoir while tracking text. Students were then asked to create jot notes based on the information that they heard. I was particularly impressed with a student who was usually off task because reading was difficult for him. He suffered from low academic self esteem and was usually a class distraction because he was unable to complete his work independently. This option to listen to the memoir and then to create the jot notes allowed him to succeed at the task independently. His technological skills also helped him because he quickly discovered how splitting the screen could allow him to write his jot notes and to have access to the sound recording where he could replay sections of text. After the activity, he was very proud of his product and he commented numerous times how a teacher didn't have to remind him to get back to work. His academic self esteem increased today and it was due to digital learning.

Delivering Authentic Curriculum without Technology... Is it Possible???

I have been unpacking outcomes in the ELA curriculum and I am interested in how many times that technology and multimedia are mentioned in either the outcomes or the indicators. Using multimedia literacies is an expectation by the Department of Learning; it is not a choice. Because of the prevalence of technology in the curriculum,it makes me wonder how authentic curriculum can be delivered without extensive access to technology? I am extremely fortunate that I am part of a 1:1 computing classroom and have access to technology whenever it is required. Technology is a tool in our classroom and is used to enhance the lesson plan. Multimedia literacy skills are taught when there is a need and are based on a specific task or assignment that is, in turn, based on the particular subject outcomes. Multimedia literacy skills are never taught in isolation. Yet, if I was in a traditional classroom how could I manage to cover all the expected outcomes requiring multimedia when I am relegated to only a few hours a week in a computer lab? In a traditional classroom I also would not have time to teach and have the students practice the necessary skills to create a multimedia presentation or to compose texts and graphic representations. (CC5.2 indicator "h") Using multimedia literacies effectively in the classroom is extremely time consuming and definitely requires extensive access to technology like a 1:1 computing classroom allows.

Collaboration.... the possibilities!!

We are into the second week at school and I am starting to understand the tremendous possibilities that come with teaching in a 1:1 computing classroom. I am able to work with teachers and classrooms that I wouldn't have considered when teaching in a traditional classroom setting. For example, a partnership has been created with a grade 12 biology classroom that is in a community an hour away. We are working on a science unit focusing on plants where our grade 12 buddies will help us learn about the processes of photosynthesis and transpiration. The grade 12 buddies and their teacher are taking the role of "plant experts" and I am excited that my students will have a direct link for questions and to possibly delve deeper into a question through an inquiry approach. Multiple intelligences were used as a way of pairing grade 12 students with grade 5 students. I am particularly interested in observing the personal relationship that is established between the students. Will pairing the students based on their multiple intelligences help the students make a connection because they share common traits? I can already tell that we are going to learn a lot through this buddy experience and I can't wait for the students to be able to Skype each other and to begin building their relationships!!

MI in the Digital Classroom

It has been a very busy two weeks in the classroom. Along with technology and response to intervention strategies, a major focus this year is using multiple intelligences as a way for students to recognize their learning strengths and their preferred learning styles. Because of the age group of the students, I decided to use the idea of "learning smarts". After a brief introduction of the eight "learning smarts", the students completed an online multiple intelligence inventory where their top three multiple intelligence strengths were identified.
http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
The students were asked to reflect on their strengths in our classroom wiki and I was interested in the number of students who were surprised with the results. For example, students who thought they were people smart were actually self smart. This revelation made their need to work alone legitimized and took the pressure off of always feeling the need to be social. Using technology in the classroom is often collaborative and the students who were people smart immediately recognized their proclivity for working in groups and using technology as a tool for collaboration. Self smart students also recognized how technology could be used as an individual, reflective tool and were commenting on how they enjoy the ability to work on their own online journal. After recognizing their three top learning smarts, the students created bookmarks where the smarts were colour coded and then affixed to the table at each student's home station. The idea is to make it easy to make flexible groupings based on the students'learning smarts. For example, sometimes students will work in learning smart alike groups and sometimes in mixed learning smart groups depending on the activity.

First Day...Letting Go!

This has been the first time in many years that I have been nervous to start the first day of school. Not having students preassigned to tables or lockers was a bit unnerving and not knowing how students would react to the less structured environment also was a tad worrisome. However, the students adapted very well to the new environment. Response to Intervention (RTI) is also a school focus and I found the effort I made to de-clutter my classroom and to create an organized environment really suited the one to one computing environment. The students really liked the idea of sitting at tables and choosing where they sat based on their own individual needs. I was concerned that the groupings the students chose would not work because of the distraction of sitting with friends. This, however, was not the case. The students were very engaged in what we were doing and staying on task was not an issue. I was also very impressed with the speed the students were able to unpack their supplies and get ready to learn. Students have their own cubby where they keep their supplies. Not having desks has also alleviated the problem of students having easy access to a myriad of handy distractions. The students were very excited to be assigned their netbooks and all of the students were able to log on quite easily. To save time it really helped to have the computers pre-assigned to the students. It was also handy to have their usernames on hand for easy access for those students who forgot over the summer.
Planning for a one to one computing classroom is the area that I feel the most overwhelmed. Because of my lack of experience planning online I naively thought that I would be encorporating technology into my lessons slowly. However, I have quickly come to realize that in order to effectively and to authentically create a one to one computing classroom that I need organize my lessons online. This has meant for me learning to use a wikispace as the hub of my online classroom and learning to create lessons in Moodle. Organization and creating easy to follow pathways for students is key for a successful one to one computing classroom.

Setting up an Authentic Learning Environment

School starts in a week and I have been busy rearranging my room to accomodate a 1:1 digital learning environment. After meeting with our division's learning consultants and doing some online research, it becomes apparent that desks in rows will not work since working with technology is all about collaboration. After extensive internet searches, I did not happen upon a site that showed me the perfect 1:1 classroom set up. I realize that the perfect classroom does not exist; however, I was hoping to see a few models from elementary school classrooms from which I could glean ideas. Alas, I could not find that model. What I did find were computer classrooms (mainly at the college level) that were designed for collaboration. There were no desks in sight, only tables arranged in pods. The TEAL studio model became the model I followed. For more info., see Kirk Kezema's blog entitled "Out of Snooping Around comes TEALs Classroom Set Up Approach." (June 29, 2010) Thus, began my hunt for tables that would be conducive for learning pods. This was no easy task in a school where trapezoid tables and kidney tables are at a premium. I did manage to finagle the tables that I needed and arranged them in pods. Because one of my main goals this year is to teach using Gardner's multiple intelligences, I also wanted a table for each of the intelligences. In that way, students are free to move to different tables based on the subject and the intelligence that he or she wants to use. Flexibility and choice for students being key ingredients.

The Beginning of the Journey

WOW! It has been an exciting day. I received news that my classroom has been chosen as the one who will receive one to one computing. I have been teaching for over 18 years; however, I still feel like a rookie. There have been so many changes in education over the past few years. Gone are the days when the "one size fits all" strategy works in the classroom. The students we are teaching are extremely techno literate which makes me a bit trepidacious to embark on the journey of incorporating technology on such a high level. I have been reading the book: Brain Based Teaching in the Digital Age by Marilee Sprenger and what struck me is how the brains of students today are wired differently for technology. Technology for them is what a pencil is for me. In order to be an effective teacher in the 21st century one must "know the language, the programs and your students better. Knowing their world means being familiar with cyberspace, text messaging." (Sprenger 2010) This means that I'm going to have to let go of many of my previous teaching methods and to rewire my own thinking in the way that technology, as a tool, can be used throughout the subject areas. When I was first approached to be part of the digital literacy project my first thought was "will I have a paperless classroom." Is it possible/realistic to go paperless? How beneficial/detrimental is a paperless classroom to students' learning? So many questions. At this point I need to relax and realize that heading to a paperless classroom happens in baby steps and not all at once. As Gail Gregory once said during one of her online presentations, "The way you eat an elephant is not all at once but by one bite at a time."