Dream It Essay

By Benjamin Ayres

Introduction

Photo credit: Benjamin Ayres

Context

I work in a military community that has a good deal of funding and support when it comes to the infrastructure. We have 80 teachers at our school and 15 administration and office staff. We have 800 students that go to our school from our Sure Start program to 5th grade. Our children are air force which means all of their parents have jobs. It also means that every two to four years they leave and transfer to another base which means our student population is always changing. I teach at an elementary school that was built in the 1940’s after the war. The building itself is the oldest on the island and we currently have plans to have a new “21st century school” constructed within the next 5 years. We have monthly faculty meetings where important decisions are discussed and shared with the faculty. We have continuous school improvement (CSI) goals which pertain to goals our school set for itself after reflecting on student Terra Nova scores from the previous years. Our goals are related to writing and problem solving. Nearly a third of our teachers are military spouses which means they too transition in and out of our school.

My job is to support teachers in the use of technology and in help integrate the technology into the curriculum. In trying to give technical support I provide professional development to teachers through graduate level classes, Peer Learning Groups, and individual workshops. Many times I feel as though I get pulled in many different directions but my love and my passion for my job lies in the integration of technology into the classrooms. I also get assigned random jobs from administration that helps to assist in the daily operation of the school, maintain the school web page, and provide support during assemblies.

I still have a few classrooms that I have not worked with and that isolate themselves in their own classrooms. These classes never get involved despite whatever motivators I might pursue. I have tried advocating many different innovative technologies like prezi, google drive, class dojo, smartboards, videos etc. I have also tried gaining teacher understanding, interest, and buy in by having a section in the daily bulletin. I’ve created posters, and technology units that all teachers and classes can participate in. I feel as though I am always advocating teaching solutions through technology but many teachers are comfortable with what they have always done and don’t try to look for new solutions.

Currently, training at our school happens after school hours. I have 5 minute tech times at most of our meetings. These tech minutes are usually concerning essential technical knowledge directed by administration. I have tried peer learning groups, but the attrition rate made it unproductive. I had some success with just in time situations as once a teacher realizes the potential of certain products they start to explore it more in depth. The only professional development that I have had any success was when I had 17 teachers complete an after school technology in education class in which graduate credit was given. In summation, I love my job and I love the teachers and students that I work with but I still feel I am not reaching everyone.

Photo credit: Benjamin Ayres

Technology

In determining what technology would best solve my problem I began thinking about all the various technologies out there and if any could possibly solve the problem of finding sufficient time during the work day/week to provide quality professional development to teachers. CCTV was one avenue that I thought about I could stream video across the school. Unfortunately, I could only have one lesson at a time and I would have to play it on a loop in order for everyone to be able to watch it in their own time. I also thought about trying to just post videos to youtube.com or teachertube.com but then I thought there wasn’t any way to post lessons, give feedback or assess how well the end user understood the lesson.

Another technology that I thought about was our intranet Sharepoint server. It would be able to host files, videos, and you would be able to have discussions. Unfortunately, that technology is very difficult to use and it is not very attractive. From a technical standpoint I would have to create everything from scratch. Pages, discussions, folders for storage for each teacher, workflows if I wanted automated emails, and a system for grading. This would take a long time to set up. After looking at and assessing some of the technologies in the market I felt that only a learning management systems would be able to give me the flexibility and organization that I would need to solve my problem. So I decided to research some learning management systems.

Edmodo was the first learning management system technology that I looked into using as a solution. Edmodo provides for many of the same things that Schoology provides including file storage, quizzes, and tests, attaching google drive, it even has a badge system as well for extra motivation. However certain aspects of the platform made it less then ideal for use in a professional development circumstance. First of all, organizing the folders in the platform was difficult you could not put folders inside other folders which makes organizing very difficult. It also makes you auto arrange all your folders so if you have a lot of files and folders you would have to search to try to find it.

Google classroom is a new platform that is another potential technology for supporting this problem. It is directly connected to google drive and all of teachers and students at our school have google accounts. The streamlined use of google classroom to google apps is a nice feature. The platform is very linear however as most of the work is done in the stream and assignments, calendars, grades are all done inside drive. This makes for a very clunky system and too many platforms to jump between. This is a new technology that has potential but as I explored its interface I realized that it lacked a lot of the options that other platforms have to offer.

The platform I decided on was Schoology. It is easy to use and it is attractive. Schoology provides a platform in which to post video’s, articles, take quizzes/ tests, and it has a place for having discussions. The discussion forums are the most robust of any other learning platform as it allows for numerous ways to communicate. It is totally web based. There is a calendar to keep all the assignments organized. There is a feature to attach custom rubrics to assignments to assist with grading. Teachers can even attach apps to their classes like google drive and badgeville. Badgeville is a badge system where gamification can be implemented. Teachers can choose to receive updates whenever new content is created and it can host as many pupils as needed. Schoology also allows for uploading of assignments on its app on iphone or ipad. This platform is used all over the states in education and has won multiple awards for innovation in education so i feel comfortable relying on it in a professional setting. It even has a place that I can survey teachers to see how their technology integration has improved over the course of the lesson. In all I feel as though schoology was the best choice in learning platforms. I will also be using google forms inside of Schoology as my assessment tool as it provides for a easy to use interface and provides data analysis in a very clean and understandable format.

Photo credit: Benjamin Ayres

Total TPACK

In this scenario, the areas of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge integrate with each other very well in order to create the ideal learning environment. Combining the technology of Schoology with the pedagogy of a flipped classroom creates a perfect combination for storing documents, giving out assignments, and tracking progress in a flexible online environment. At the same time Schoology is also able to manage projects that may be happening in the classroom environment as well.

When reflecting on how the technology of Schoology and content of learning various technologies and technology concepts are connected I can also see a lot of benefits to this combination. Schoology will be able to host many of the videos, step by steps, and handouts about each technology. It will also provide the opportunity for teachers to learn to navigate and learn within the same environment that they are being taught. Teachers will be able to access peer learning networks inside Schoology to get ideas on how to use this technology and other technologies even more effectively. Schoology is the perfect way to learn about the other various technologies.

Finally, using the pedagogy of flipped classrooms to learn about the content of various technologies and concepts conforms nicely to the layout of the learning process for the following reasons. When teachers start using this technology in the classrooms with students it is essential for them to be able to have the support that flipped classrooms provide. All the foundational knowledge of operation can be learned on their own time schedule during the workday and then the more complex tasks of implementing it can be done in the classroom with the help of an expert. This is the ideal situation to be in when implementing new technologies in the classroom.

Photo credit: Cindy Ayres

Photo credit: Jeanadette Ayres

References

I would like to see teachers being able to learn how to use technologies that are meaningful and important to their practice. Teachers will set personal technology goals and transform their teaching environments in order to deliver the best learning environment possible. Teachers will being able to access materials and implement technology in their class to improve student learning. Teachers will be able to understand and use the technology to enhance the learning process. Technology will be used to address their content and pedagogical approach so the technology has added value and not just done to use technology.

The students technological knowledge will be transformed in the process as well. Students will start using different technologies in various educational aspects as teachers learn and develop their CSI skills in problem solving and writing. Ultimately, once teachers are experts at using technology they will be able to use technology in unique ways to innovate inside the learning environment. Both the teacher and student will be able to learn and choose their own technologies to use to fit each lesson. Teachers will be surveyed at the end of this process using Schoology’s survey function using the DODEA districts technology assessment criteria to see how much each teacher has progressed during the program.Students will be assess during the quarterly CSI assessment.

Photo credit: Benjamin Ayres

Photo credit: Benjamin Ayres

Content

The content that the teachers will be able to understand are the various technologies that lend itself to effective teaching and educational technology concepts. They will also learn the relationship between technology, pedagogy, and content (TPACK) (Koehler, n.d.) . At the end of the year teachers will be able to learn technology skills in their own time and be able to ask questions and then implement their learning during the school day. The teachers will be able to critically assess technology, realize its potential purposes in education, and then implement it in the classroom in innovative ways.

Some problems teachers might have in learning these concepts are that many teachers are still in the beginning phase of using technology. As the cognitive theorist Willingham proposes (Willingham, 2009) “One can’t become an expert in any field in less than ten years”(p139). As some teachers may be completely new to using any type of software they may not be able to complete complex projects that incorporate various forms of multimedia and various software. Another problem that may arise while using these various technologies including Schoology is the understanding of the TPACK model and it's role in education. Many teachers use technology for the sake of using technology and forget content and pedagogy. Some teachers may just continue to deny to use technology.

Pedagogy

In determining a pedagogical approach I considered a few different options. I first considered direct instruction as I have had a little success with it in the past. This is my least favorite form of instruction though because it lacks interaction. Another reason I didn't choose direct instruction is because the only times we could meet together would be split up at the morning and in the afternoon. Another aspect is if I were to apply for graduate credit for a particular technology lesson we would have to meet face to face every day in order to meet the class time requirements. It would not be convenient at all for the teachers so I choose against this type of pedagogy.

Another approach I looked at was a blended classroom. This would give me the ability to be flexible with assignments and teachers could learn wherever and whenever they wanted. The reason I decided this would not be the best approach is because as a trainer I know when it comes to complex technical problems many people need hands on experience and online training and basic reteaching will not be able to give them the answers to all their questions. Lastly I would still run into the before and after the school day meeting times. Teachers need more than just reinforcement of a basic lesson, they need a deep understanding of the subject. So this was not the answer either.

A flipped classroom seems best suited for my problem. Having a flexible online learning management system in combination with hands on project based learning during the school day will give me the best balance for my content. Using the flipped classroom model, I will be able to post foundational knowledge using videos, tutorials, and discussions for teachers to be able to access when they are able to. I chose this option because time is a very valuable commodity for most teachers. Flipped learning provides flexibility as well as hands on learning. It provides flexibility with the real-world deep understanding needed to enact a real change in our school environment.

Evaluation

In order to measure the impact that integrating this technology will have on the teachers and students at my school I will be assessing the teachers through informal observations, pre and post class surveys, and by comparing the number of teachers participating in professional development this year vs previous years. I will also be analyzing student data for each class using local continuous school improvement (CSI) scores to see if it increased student scores in struggling subjects. In the teacher survey I will be asking questions pertaining to understanding the dynamic of developing the teachers roles in using technology in the classroom. What is my current level of technology integration? How did you like the format of the class? What elements of the class did you feel were the most successful? What was unsuccessful? Would you take another class in the future?

I would also be observing classrooms in order to truly grasp the depth of technology integration. Routinely asking what is going on in the classroom and then asking if I can observe or assist seems to be the best way to do informal observations. During this process I would be looking for certain indicators of successful technology integration. What is the content? What is the pedagogy being employed? What technology is in the classroom? Is it obvious that the teacher looked for a tool as a solution to a problem or was technology used superfluously? What were the reasons the teacher is using the technology? Are students using the technology? Are they benefiting from the technology usage or is it more of a distraction? These are all questions that I will be asking myself as I observe. Finally, is there anything that I can do to assist in this process.

In summation, I know this endeavor will be successful if by the end of the year I have the following transformations in teacher and student interaction. I will see if teachers achieve their personal technology goals using a pre and post survey in Schoology. I will also observe to see if teachers transformed their teaching environments in order to deliver the best learning environment possible. Teachers will be able to access materials and knowledge at their own convenience. Teachers will be able to understand and use the technology to enhance the learning process. Technology will be used as necessary and at different levels depending on the confidence of the teacher. Students technological and their complete learning knowledge will be transformed into 21st century learners that can collaborate, create, and critically think using technology. Students will start using different technologies in various educational aspects as teachers learn and develop their skills. Teachers will eventually be experts at using technology they will be able to use technology in unique ways to innovate the learning environment being able to learn and choose their own technologies to teach students.

References

Edmodo v Moodle v Schoology. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://wazmac.com/discussion/edmodo-v-moodle-schoology/

Made With Play: Game-Based Learning Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/made-with-play-game-based-learning-resources

Project-Based Learning Research Review: Evidence-Based Components of Success. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-evidence-based-components

TPACK.ORG. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://www.tpack.org/

Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don't students like school?: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.