Embedded+Course+Reflections

=__EDLD 5306 Embedded Course Reflection - Week 1 Assignment 1.3 EDLD 5388__=

The purpose of the course EDLD 5306 was to equip us to be technology leaders in our districts by making us aware of the Texas Long Range Plan, of the current research about the students we serve:21st century learners, and to educate us on the current issues school districts face as we use emerging technologies with our students. Another purpose of this course was to require us to begin collaborating with our colleagues on issues relating to technology integration into the K-12 setting. These objectives have given me a foundation to build upon as I begin my role as a true educational technology leader and have made me better informed as I serve on technology committees and campus educational improvement committees.

One part of this assignment was to create a wiki and collaborate with a team of educators to conduct an online meeting. Setting up the wiki was not difficult. Getting all members to collaborate was! Only two other members actively added comments on the wiki. Time was a factor. When I created this professional wiki and asked several colleagues to join, most everyone was positive but several had the same responses:They were swamped with work loads and didn’t have the time to learn something new right now.The few that did participate were the ones who have been introduced to wikis and have used them previously so they didn’t feel threatened or overwhelmed with using it. Comments that members added about the timeline and agenda were positive and we were able to share ideas and fine tune agenda items. I would like to try this again with some colleagues but I feel that it needs to take the place of something else they are doing.For example, I suggested to our principal that instead of meeting face-to-face as a campus educational improvement committee to come up with our campus plan, that we meet online in a wiki environment to develop the document. It is one year later since I've brought up the idea to my principal and he hasn't taken me up on the idea yet. But, I have initiated a professional learning community with one of my colleagues, Misty Maxwell, and we are facilitating the group through a wiki and my principal is a member of it, so...baby steps!

A challenge for the future is how to maintain collaboration via the wiki. I think there should at least be one facilitator of the wiki that continues to generate topics and interest in collaborating with the wiki created. All of us get so busy with our daily work issues that I see this getting put on the back burner and not resumed if someone is not periodically continuing to lead others in collaborating in this style.

=__EDLD 5333 Embedded Course Reflection - Week 1 Assignment 1.4 EDLD 5388__=

This course introduced us to looking at AYP data by pulling up district reports on how our students are performing on the state test. We also had to determine what our campus needs were and to target areas needing improvement. We then had to create a staff development agenda that would address these needs to achieve the ultiimate goal: student achievement!

I realized with this course that our campus has not been successful in creating a shared vision that includes ALL stakeholders especially all campus faculty. I was a member of our CEIC group, but as a librarian, I have not been made aware of how our sub populations are doing on the state test and what our campus goals are in raising those scores. I think the core teachers are aware of this, but all faculty needs to be included in this so that we can all work together so that students are successful. Targeting the weak areas and providing staff development training for teachers in working on those targeted areas is so important and is not happening on our campus. I can see the real need for this and will work to interject these ideas into the campus groups I'm involved with.

This course helped me realize the broader picture of student achievement and the importance of pulling together as a campus and targeting specific goals to raise student achievement. My goal will be to get involved with the decision making more at the campus level and not wait to be included. Now that I'm better informed, I can ask the questions of my administrator that pertain to how our sub populations are doing and what specific areas we need to work on.

**__Course-Embedded Reflection EDLD 5362__:**

In this course we were asked to complete a variety of tasks starting with an interview of teachers on our campus on how the Internet has changed their teaching practices and learning in general.The responses from teachers were not what I expected.They were much more positive than I anticipated.Veteran teachers on my campus were more excited than worried about how the Internet has changed teaching and learning.Before doing this survey, I had the impression that our veteran teachers felt threatened by the idea of integrating technology into their practices but I found out that “feeling threatened” was too harsh…they for the most part felt like technology had enhanced their teaching and administrative duties.

From there, we explored and compared two networks that we could use with students to give them a collaborative experience.I reported on Diigo and Ning.After learning about these, I went on to implement 2 different Nings with classes at my middle school.Ning has since ended their “free” account offering and that’s disappointing because teachers will want to use Ning next school year and we may have to find other free networks to use.Both teachers I worked with using Nings were excited about trying it and giving students a “social network” experience while keeping them safe online and keeping it totally “private” to outside users.

This course also allowed us to explore our district SIS (student information system) and we also learned what a model classroom or learning environment could be like in educating our digital natives.All of these experiences in this course helped us examine what our current climate is in our district and how we could “marry” that with what 21st century students need to become proficient in their learning acquisition skills.Truly, our students must be life-long learners and be able to interact with information digitally for the rest of their lives.

As I seek to assist our district in transforming our instructional practices, I will need to stay in close contact and dialog with our technology department to make sure things we try will be supported by our infrastructure and I will need to stay in close contact with the building principal to make sure what I’m assisting with is in line with our campus goals and vision.The item that is puzzling me from this course is the question of how a small district can provide the technology integration support needed when they can’t fund more than a part-time technologist to serve five campuses?

**__Course-Embedded Reflection EDLD 5364__:**

In this course, “Teaching With Technology”, we formed collaborative groups to design a unit that would include activities, software and hardware that would be accessible to all learners especially those with special needs.We learned about assistive devices and websites that would help students have a level playing field and access to the curriculum.We explored and used the CAST website and UDL site.We developed an ebook and collaborated online via Google Docs to brainstorm, plan and deliver this unit.We posted our final project on a Google site that we all had access and responsibility to upload content to.

Being the parent of a special education student, I was aware of some assistive devices but had not been introduced to the CAST website or the UDL concepts prior to this course.When I produced my ebook, I immediately thought that this resource tool would be so helpful to our special populations (Special Ed., ESL, MTA, etc.) as well as to any struggling learner and I shared these sites and information to my campus teachers while I was taking the course.I did not hear any feedback yet so I plan to follow up and share these with teachers face-to-face.

As I work helping teachers use technology, I will also make sure that the teachers and administrators that are in charge of making decisions understand how important it is for us to make sure we are making the curriculum accessible for EVERYONE.I will do this by sharing information about resources I find with them and the teachers they work with.One question that puzzles me as an outcome of taking this course is why does it seem that our special populations need the most help with making the curriculum accessible yet receives the least amount of funds to do so with?