Module 9 Wrap Up

What were my take aways from this course?

I should start with what some of my take aways weren't. I already firmly believed that blended and online instruction could be just as effective and more engaging that a traditional classroom. I have seen it before, and firmly believe it. The course did do a great job of providing justification to my feelings. My biggest take away was the resources, and strategies for running a blended classroom environment. I really like seeing what my peers did/thought about topics. I also enjoyed the concrete evidence provided in how to run this sort of environment. Rubrics were clearly laid out, and the class was ran just as we would run a class. It was an awesome experience, that every teacher in a 1:1 school should experience.

Digital Citizenship

What is your opinion of using social media such as Facebook and Twitter for educational purposes with older students? Federal law states that individuals must be at least thirteen in order to have an account. In your reflection, consider the viewpoints of other stakeholders.

My opinion as to the use of social media in the school changes with the weather. I feel that social media can be a very powerful tool, but it also only takes one person to stir up a whole mess of problems. Students of today have such a platform to be hear, without the opportunity to filter or retracted many things. Now, in not having a firm opinion I do think it should just be blocked. Students simply use their cell phones or go around firewalls to post of social media. In my opinion it is not worth the effort to be punitive in policing the problem, so embrace the issue.

In embracing social media in the classroom, teachers should practice and teach positive ways to use social media. Such thing as developing projects around social media, using it as a resource for learning, or a communication tool. I feel that giving rights to kids, and expecting them to model appropriate behavior can empower the student.

As a high school teacher, my students are all legal to use social media. I have tried to use twitter as a reflection piece on exiting the classroom. Students are required to tweet about where they are at in the design process throughout their project. I've developed a distance cooperation project where student communicate through facebook. My goal is to show students how social media can be used as a positive. Just as businesses use social media as a marketing tool.

What tool would you like to use in the future?

Personally and professionally I have started to you Evernote and several apps and programs that easily integrate with evernote. I really started getting into using it as a collaborative tool on a tech committee that I am a part of at school. That doesn't answer the question of what I would like to use in the future. It is evernote with my students. 

My classes have kept an engineers notebook for PLTW courses over the past years. I would like to use evernote for this next year. I feel that it will allow students to collaborate better, be more organizes, more efficient, and allow the be more engaged. I want to find which apps are most applicable for integration with evernote. I am really excited for the upcoming school year, and how this will change my classroom.

Unit 6: Authentic Assessment and Feedback

Which concepts from the course seem most applicable?

Of the information shared in the course so far, what do you believe will be most applicable in your professional situation?
Which concepts will be harder for you to incorporate?

The Blog Question posted in this unit is a loaded question. First, I feel that all of the concepts we explored are essential and all work together. So to ask which is the most important, is to ask what is the most essential part of a car. If you take away the tires, or just the engine, or just the body you don't quite have car to get you real far. 

I think the driving force for effective teaching in my classroom is the Authentic Assessment. True authentic assessment will better engage the students. The rigor, relevance, and critical thinking required will handle the engagement of the students. Also authentic assessment requires valuable feedback. And authentic assessments  can easily harness many of tech. tools that we have explored, much easier than traditional teaching.