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We have all been affected by this recent pandemic. Connecting with our students has definitely been a struggle for some. I am so glad to have opportunities like the whiteboard in Zoom that can help show your students how to interact. Check out this YouTube link to get a step by step of how to incorporate it.

https://youtu.be/T1F5sBMWZyk

Blog 10

It’s difficult not to post about the international pandemic. However, the current state of affairs directly impacts education and educational technology. The majority of school districts across the nation are practicing distance learning; access to technology is integral in doing so.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, assured the public that the state is doing all it can to accommodate more than 6 million distance learners. He is concerned with accessibility.

I have 146 students and everybody doesn’t have internet access. This is an educational barrier. The lesson and content gets lost due to lack of accessibility. 

Thurmond’s goal is to ensure access to all students. He stated that virtual support circles, webinars, and hotlines were created to field parents’ questions about content. Plus, 70,000 students in California will receive tablets to ensure their learning.  What about the millions of others? 

I’ve concluded that all good educators want to eliminate barriers, but lack of technology isn’t something that can be 100% eliminated. When students are in my presence I know what technology and resources are available because they are provided on campus. I find that since going exclusively online I’ve turned into a computer technician on Best Buy’s Geek Squad! I spend more time trying to explain troubleshooting and connectivity than answering questions about the content and lesson. However, as a good educator I still do all I can to eliminate those barriers. 

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Animoto.com 

I found a great article in Twitter from @WeAreTeachers about how students can use everyday activities to learn at home.  While official school work is important, everyday activities can be taught at home and count as learning.  Such activities include:  cooking, meal planning, budgeting, checking the weather, building with Legos, playing card games and board games, doing puzzles, imagination play, listening to music, reading, coloring, drawing, painting, writing letters, cleaning, and taking a walk.  Most of these include math, science, ELA, PE, and other subjects learned on school.  The great thing about these activities is that students are learning important activities that they can use as they grow to help them in the real world.  Education is so important and finding fun ways for students to learn with everyday activities is great.  They can do official school work that will help them with their activities and build that learning by having fun!

https://www.weareteachers.com/everyday-activities-that-count-as-learning/

One of the best learning resources I have found since becoming a teacher is BrainPOP.  It was founded in 1999 as a creative way to explain difficult concepts to students.  BrainPOP has short videos about topics to help students understand how things work, what things do, or about certain people and events in history.  All subjects are included in BrainPOP.  Students get to watch the video and can then take a quiz on what they learned.  There is feedback for students after the quiz.  Teachers can also see what the students have learned from the video.  Fun games, vocabulary, and worksheets are also provided for students and teachers.  

https://www.brainpop.com

Technology can be used to support assessment in many different ways; such as to track student progress over time. However, perhaps even more compelling, edtech can also be used to aid formative assessment; helping to boost engagement, identify knowledge gaps, and support further/deeper learning.

Here are just some of the ways that edtech can be used to aid learning and assessment in the classroom:

Increase flexibility

Cloud-based learning provides increased flexibility, with pupils able to access and complete online assessments at a time that best suits their individual learning style and needs. All they need is an internet ready device and a web-based or virtual environment. With personalised learning shown to motivate students into becoming investors in their own education, this approach is becoming increasingly popular here in the UK.

Improve feedback

Cloud-based edtech such as ClassFlow, allows teachers to assess student comprehension in the moment of learning, with real-time assessments and instant polling. By immediately identifying and addressing any gaps in knowledge, educators can then tailor their lessons to the real needs of each pupil.

Research into supported assessment has also highlighted some potentially interesting insights for further development. One such example involves the use of automated feedback to help students with written assignments. Learners received comparisons with their peers’ work, with the technology highlighting the similarities and differences and visually representing these side by side. Early studies have shown that students were able to identify overlapping and missing core concepts.

Recognise and cater for differences

As everyone learns a little differently, teachers have long strived to meet the needs of all their pupils; painstakingly setting and photocopying different assessments for different students depending on their abilities. Technology designed for the classroom makes this process a whole lot easier.

There is a vast range of apps available to help teachers to assess pupils depending on their personal interests, abilities, and goals. For example, the ClassDojo mobile app can be used to record student behaviour and achievements in context.

ClassFlow can also be used to increase engagement and improve learning by setting different questions for different pupils (or groups of pupils), depending on their ability, learning style, or project. By assessing students in a manner appropriate to them, pupils are less likely to become frustrated and disengaged, and more likely to succeed.

Understand the importance of emotion

Every teacher knows that emotion has a huge impact on the overall learning experience, but understanding the varying emotional needs of pupils can prove difficult. One way that technology is being used to help teachers consider the emotional impact of their learning activities, assessments and teaching methods is Subtle Stone – a handheld tool designed to let students privately communicate their emotional state directly to the teacher.

Consolidate learning

Audio and video tools can be used by students to create podcasts and presentations; reviewing their learning that term. In doing this, not only will pupils consolidate their learning in a medium that is familiar to them, but they will also produce a valuable learning resource for other students.

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2020 has taught us that educational technology is an integral part of education. During this pandemic, many educators and students have been faced with a learning curve. The adjust ment has been quite rough, but many team members of educational technology teams across the globe are making the transition as smooth as possible.

https://www.utdallas.edu/news/faculty-staff/elearning-covid-19-2020/

Kahoot!

Each of us has been affected by the Covid19 pandemic. Teachers and students across the nation had to make the adjustment of working online. Through this course I have been given the opportunity to learn about different technology platforms that can enhance my classroom experience. This week we were introduced to interactive whiteboards. I thought it was befitting to find this article on how well this teacher adjusted to working online.

https://twitter.com/UofStFrancis/status/1250057488063488000

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This week I read an article for teachers by Emily Tate from EdSurge that explains how teachers need to relax, be flexible, and forgive themselves during virtual learning while navigating through the Pandemic.  The first advice given in the article is for teachers to decide where you will host your content. Is it a class website, Google Classroom, or the school’s learning management system? Whatever it is, she says, try to pick just one place to house the content, as consistency is critical during a time already filled with confusion. The next thing she said is to consider building in professional development. Teachers may not be properly trained and equipped to use the tools and carry out the tasks that are being asked of them.  Tate also makes it a point to remind teachers that “You don’t need to be perfect.”  More important than the content teachers are putting out for their students is the heart and passion that they put into it.  Record a video from your phone because the students are going to see you and love that.  The last thing she talks about is to be nimble, and make changes along the way. Again, don’t expect perfection. Try your best, do what you can and be willing to evolve. Ask your students how it’s going for them, and incorporate their feedback.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-03-19-with-weeks-of-e-learning-ahead-be-flexible-and-forget-perfection?utm_content=bufferd5aa3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=EdSurgeBuffer

A tool that many teachers are using today to help their students is ScreenCastify.  They are using Screencastify to easily record, edit, and share videos.  Teachers make learning more personal in their blended and flipped classrooms by recording full and/or bite-sized lessons, assignment solutions and explanations, and by getting verbal student feedback.  Screencastify helps make student voices heard and thinking visible through activities such as speech and language practice, comprehension and reflection exercises, and interactive slide presentations.  Such a fun tool to help teachers and students during virtual learning and in the classroom when we return to the regular classroom.

https://www.screencastify.com/

I found a great article from the Teaching Channel on Twitter about 3 practices to use for your virtual classroom.  The first is to create meaningful tasks.  Meaningful and complex tasks provide opportunities for students to flex important muscles such as critical thinking. Meaningful tasks designed to scaffold the creation of student products can push students deeper in their knowledge and thinking.  The second practice is to align tech tools to 21st century skills.  Virtual learning requires us to leverage technology like never before, but we must be careful that technology is being used intentionally as a tool to build student skills, rather than the tools driving instruction.  The third practice is to explicitly teach and assess the skills.  In order to fully develop these skills they must be explicitly taught.  What this means is that they must be scaffolded and assessed with the same commitment as standards-based content.  Use teacher and students models, student reflection, and teacher feedback.

https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/teach-virtual-classroom   

A great educational technology tool to use for students is Thinglink.  ThingLink is an award-winning education technology platform that makes it easy to augment images, videos, and virtual tours with additional information and links.Teachers can easily create visual learning materials and virtual tours, empower students to work on projects and assignments using text, voice, photos, and video.

https://www.thinglink.com/