EED 509 Module 1

Part I - Essential Question
    21st Century Teaching and Learning, in my opinion, relies heavily on a teacher's ability and willingness to adapt to a fluid learning environment. The Digital Revolution, as mentioned in chapter one of Teaching Models: Designing Instruction for 21st Century Learners, has changed the way that teachers must approach instruction. This necessary change is due in part to the product yield that is changing long-held assumptions about the world. Although the amount and quality of the information available to the general population are increasing exponentially, the amount of poor quality and unreliable information available are also increasing. This leaves a substantial need for educators to support our students in locating and using reliable resources as well as developing the critical thinking skills needed for students to perform these tasks independently. The Digital Revolution has changed the way that teachers much approach instruction by also encompassing the faster and more sustained change of pace of technology innovations. New technologies are being developed at a rate that teachers can not hope to contend with so we are left with the job of preparing our students for truths that will not change: the 4Cs and 3Rs. In order to also prepare our students for the new technologies, teachers can make an impact by focusing on the five major trends of 21st Century education: digital technologies, access to information, globalization, equity, and accountability. 

       Teachers in the 21st century are no longer simply teachers - they are educational designers. As educational designers, we are now responsible for following the five phases of the instructional design process: design, development, implementation, evaluation, and management, in order to develop our students' fluency of the major trends of the 21st Century. This means using systematic processes, such as the ADDIE model on page 33 of the text, to purposefully approach instructional planning in order to identify instructional challenges, address broadening repertoires of instructional tools, broaden our content understanding, and experience a more rewarding practice overall. Educational designers also use models like the TPACK framework to evaluate their technological pedagogical content knowledge. While the TPACK model is simply a mental framework used to visualize the complexity of a teacher's various domains of knowledge, its frequent use is imperative to an educator being self-aware of their level of preparation and areas in which they require more professional development or training. In addition, the TPACK model can be used in relation to determining high-quality tools to use with our students. Tools, in this sense, include any instructional models, instructional strategies, and technologies used to further our students' knowledge. The three primary goals for using such tools is that the tools are engaging for the students, effective in their designated task, and efficient to use. High-quality tools are those that are enduring through the various developments in technology, powerful in their application and use, practical for use with students, flexible enough to use across domains, and dependable in their ability to perform.

        Knowing that teachers have evolved into educational designers in order to adapt to the digital age, we must also expect to see a shift in the way our students learn and view their world. 21st Century learners are growing up in a digital age that causes them to be more culturally and linguistically diverse. These students are also highly individualized and are more commonly identified to have various exceptionalities. 21st Century learners not only need the traditional 3Rs, but also technology literacy in order to thrive in their ever-changing world. Thus far, reforms have been launched by two main professional organizations: the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Both of these organizations have comprised their own frameworks, shown in the graphics below, of what they think 21st Century learners need to be able to express the knowledge, attitude, habits, and skills needed to develop technological competence.Educational designers must take these frameworks into account during their planning in order to create lessons suitable for the needs of these learners. The focus of 21st Century teaching and learning has shifted from, "What do I not know and I do I come to know it?" to "How do I work together with others to discover my world and what can we use to really discover it?" 

National Educational Technology Standards for Students
Partnership for 21st Century Skills 

Part II - Evernote Strategy
      Using Evernote made an impact on my learning in that I was able to organize my notes and thoughts into a forum available on my phone and my computer. I typically use a journal and colored pens and pencils to organize my notes and while I did miss the ability to freely form anything on a page such as what I am able to do in my journal, it was much less cumbersome to only need my phone to take notes. Using Evernote allowed me to insert links, such as on Module 1 part 4 so that I could instantly return to the source of the information to continue working or re-read an important part. This was so much easier and more efficient than writing down the links or saving them among the many bookmarks in my internet browser. I was also able to take pictures of the material I was studying and annotate on them in the app. This was much faster and easier than my typical method of paraphrasing something in my journal or taking a picture of the material and eventually printing it out for my journal. I have always been a very organized person so I do not think that Evernote helped me tremendously in this area. While Evernote does have an easy format to use and become familiar with, I find that I absorb more information when physically writing, doodling, and annotating in a notebook. 
Module 1 Part 1
Module 1 Part 2
Module 1 Part 4

Module 1 Part 3













       Evernote offers a simple and easily used forum for students to use to begin notetaking. I think This would be an easy app for my third graders to use and would be a good option to give them throughout the day. I have found that some of my students, like myself, prefer to use physical journals with pens and pencils as a way to store information. However, I have also found many of my students very engaged in digital annotation tools and think this would be an excellent way to keep them engaged during the day. My students have become accustomed to me giving them the option of how to store their notes and I think this would be an excellent way to continue that variety. For instance, I could allow my students to document text evidence from one of our weekly readings using either their physical notebooks or a digital notebook on Evernote. I also think this would be a good introduction to a platform like this since my students are growing up in an age in which higher levels of education and many occupations use similar applications.

Part III  21st Century Tool Review

       Visuwords is a constantly evolving, digital word web that can be used in any content area. Users type in a word into the search bar at the top of the screen and Visuwords creates a web of related words, phrases, and topics. I mainly use this tool to deepen my third graders' understanding of key vocabulary words or to introduce a new topic. For instance, last week I introduced the folktale/fable genre to my students. At the very beginning of the lesson, they individually accessed the Visuwords site and searched the word "folktale". I have included a screenshot of what comes up after searching folktale. Each circle can be hovered over to show a definition or explanation as to how it is related to the searched term. After spending a few minutes exploring, I asked the students to start discussing what they thought a folktale was. Using visuwords allowed them to connect to and explore more areas of the term than I would have been able to do alone. The website's format is also highly engaging in that you can move the web and customize exactly what you want to appear on your web. The technical knowledge needed to use this website is not so extensive that it takes away from the experience the first few times you use it. While turning the URL address into a QR code for students to scan is always a quick solution, the name of this website is not daunting for students to search in their browser. The website itself is not difficult to navigate as long as students have a basic understanding of how to use a search bar and use the mouse to hover over topics.


References:
Kilbane, C. R., & Milman, N. B. (2014). Teaching models: designing instruction for 21st century learners. Boston: Pearson.
Standards for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from http://www.ncte.org/governance/21stcenturyframework
Courses of Study: Technical Education. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2018, from https://alex.state.al.us/standardAll.php?subject=TC2&summary=1
Framework for 21st Century Learning [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2018, from http://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/using-the-tpack-image/
ISTE NETSS Framework [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2018, from https://dtowntechchat.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/6095/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

EED 509 Module 2 Inquiry Based Learning Model Tool Review

Image
The Inquiry model of instructional design allows our students to build their own knowledge and understanding through engaging, student-led activities. Teachers give students the opportunity to explore, question, explain, and extend their world and education into new places. For more on the Inquiry model of instructional design, see my Smore presentation:  The Inquiry Model: A Process-Oriented Instructional Model. Documentation is an important aspect of inquiry-based learning because our students need to be able to express their findings in a way that is easily communicable to others. This not only will increase their understanding of the content because it requires explanation but it also allows them to experience meaningful communication of ideas that is critical in our society.  Educreations is a digital tool used to capture, share, and replay information. This program is an app for Apple devices and requires little technological knowledge in order to use. The ba...
Read more

What is 21st Century Teaching and Learning?

Image
I used to think that the term "21st Century Teaching and Learning" meant using technology. It meant that my students were somehow using a computer or tablet to do something. That something could have simply been using the calculator app instead of the actual calculator that was sitting, abandoned, in a closet. I thought that because that's what many teachers thought it was when I was in school. The "21st Century skills" movement came about when I was in middle/high school and I can honestly remember teachers being heavily praised for making us take tests on the computer or using an app instead of a calculator. I am not saying that to disrespect any of my teachers because they were just doing what they were taught. It was only later that this trend in education developed into something truly beneficial for students, teachers, and our society. In my opinion, 21st Century Teaching and Learning is the process of teaching students life skills they will need in our...
Read more

AMSTI Preservice Training - Science

I completed AMSTI Year 1 science preservice training for the fourth grade the week of January 30th through February 3rd, 2017, with Mrs. Tara Hood. We started training Monday morning by dissecting the Next Generation Science Standards as well as the practice standards for fourth grade. I found it beneficial that Mrs. Hood took the time during the week to also point out when and where we were addressing the practice standards because it helped me to visualize them as activities and processes instead of simply a list of abstract skills. This has also helped me in planning my STEM challenge for my practicum class in that I can more easily implement these skills in multiple ways now having seen them both in AMSTI training and in class with Dr. Troncale. In addition, we spent time Monday morning discussing the science journals we would be using throughout the week. We were provided with composition books to use and Mrs. Hood modeled for us how to set up multiple features within the notebo...
Read more