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Final Reflection Paper “How I helped my teacher/client to meet the six ISTE standards.”
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I. Technology Operations and Concepts
A. The teacher/client can now demonstrate introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to technology. Through the PowerPoint project, she learned how to use technology to make her classroom presentations and lectures more interesting for students, while providing the visuals that will help students learn better. By making a homepage, she learned the basics of web design and now plans on using the web page to provide out-of-class support for her students. She also will integrate the websites that I evaluated for her as well as the web-based lesson plan into her regular classroom program. These activities demonstrate that she is comfortable using the world wide web. The excel spreadsheet is another way she plans to make her life easier by using technology. All of these projects illuminate my teacher’s introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to technology.
B. The teacher will demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging technologies. She plans to take technology workshops offered by her local library to keep improving the way she uses technology in her classroom. She will continue to explore the programs she currently knows, hoping to expand her knowledge.
II. Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences
A. The teacher has designed developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners. Since she has students in her class that have disabilities, my teacher has adapted her technology lessons to be more individualized so that each student can participate and interact to their individual level of ability. Furthermore, since the technology based lessons are more individualized, all students are able to work according to their abilities. In addition, she evaluates all of her lessons to ensure that they are appropriate for her tenth graders.
B. The teacher can apply current research on teaching and learning with technology when planning learning environments and experiences. When she started this project to learn about integrating technology into the classroom, she went to the library and consulted several education-based journals to read the latest information concerning the use of technology to enhance learning. She then applied those findings when she was planning the lessons.
C. The teacher can identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability. By doing the web evaluations with my teacher, I taught her how to assess technology resources. Together, we evaluated the sights according to their accuracy, suitability, ease of use, and appropriateness for the objectives of the lesson plan. She has clearly accomplished this objective.
D. The teacher can plan for the management of technology resources within the context of learning activities. She has learned how to use technology within one class period, which is what she often has to do since she must sign up for the computer lab in advance. Furthermore, she has learned to evaluate all of her lessons that incorporate technology to ask: does this facilitate learning? If it does not, she will reassess the activity. Furthermore, she will only plan class sessions around technology that she is comfortable with, and that is easy to use with a large group of students. She will not use a technology with her students until she is fully comfortable using it.
E. The teacher can plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment. In order to manage student learning in the computer lab, the teacher constantly circulates the class to ensure that students are using the computers appropriately and that they are learning what they are supposed to be learning. Furthermore, she begins each technology session with clearly stated objectives and tasks for students to complete. This way, students know exactly what they are supposed to learn in the lab will stay on task better.
III. Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum
A. The teacher has learned to facilitate technology-enhanced experiences that address content standards and student technology standards. The teacher is currently working on expanding her knowledge and use of this criterion. She is aware of the content standards as well as the student technology standards. However, since she does not have access to all of the technology facilities that one would need in order to fully comply with the student technology standards, she is doing the best she can with her school’s limited facilities. Furthermore, since technology is fairly new to her school, the main importance is still focuses on having students meet the content standards.
B. The teacher can use technology to support learner-centered strategies that address the diverse needs of students. Since she has students in her class that have disabilities, my teacher has adapted her technology lessons to be more individualized so that each student can participate and interact to their individual level of ability. Furthermore, since the technology based lessons are more individualized, all students are able to work according to their abilities. In addition, she evaluates all of her lessons to ensure that they are appropriate for her tenth graders.
C. The teacher has not yet applied technology to develop students’ higher order skills and creativity. The teacher plans to do this once students become more comfortable with the computers and as the school builds its software programs that allow student creativity. So far, she is using technology for basic applications, such as web searching and using online tools. Since she teaches English, her instruction naturally allows for a large amount of student creativity. However, she is not specifically using the technology to develop the students’ higher order skills and creativity.
D. The teacher can manage students learning activities in a technology-enhanced environment. She has learned how to use technology within one class period, which is what she often has to do since she must sign up for the computer lab in advance. Furthermore, she has learned to evaluate all of her lessons that incorporate technology to ask: does this facilitate learning? If it does not, she will reassess the activity. Furthermore, she will only plan class sessions around technology that she is comfortable with, and that is easy to use with a large group of students. She will not use a technology with her students until she is fully comfortable using it.
IV. Assessment and Evaluation
A. The teacher did not learn to apply technology in assessing student learning of subject matter using a variety of assessment techniques. She did not learn this because I have no idea what this means or how one would use technology to assess students.
B. The teacher did not learn to use technology resources to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning. She did not learn this because it is not very applicable to her field of interest at this time. In the future, if it matters to her, she will learn it then.
C. The teacher applied multiple methods of evaluation to determine students’ appropriate use of technology resources for learning, communication and productivity. She always tries to use multiple methods of evaluation to assess her students, particularly with the advent of technology in the classroom. Since computer-based learning tends to be more individualized, she is aware that she will continually need to develop new methods for evaluating students individually. Furthermore, since her main method of assessment is through portfolio projects, she will primarily grade students according to their level of improvement relative to themselves.
V. Productivity and Professional Practice
A. My teacher can use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning. She has discovered the amazing world of online lesson plans. Furthermore, in her increased use of the web for educational purposes, she has discovered a network of teachers online that help each other to create more diverse lessons.
B. My teacher will continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning. One interesting thing my teacher learned was how useful the web can be for helping her students with ADHD and learning disabilities. Since most technology, particularly the web, require continual participation and a high level of interaction, it is much more productive for some of her students to use the internet in their studies.
C. My teacher can apply technology to increase productivity. She is more productive now due to the excel spreadsheet, which minimizes the amount of time she spends tallying student grades. Furthermore, by posting homework assignments on her web page, she has helped students to become more productive.
D. My teacher can use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents and the larger community in order to nurture students learning. The main way she has reached this goal is through online networking among her colleagues, as well as a class webpage that allows parents to keep up with what is going on in the class. Furthermore, if parents are too busy to call her or meet with her, she encourages them to e-mail her.
VI. Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues
A. The teacher has modeled and taught legal and ethical practices related to technology use. Since she is highly opposed to plagiarism, as she taught students computer use, she also taught about siting sources and not stealing information from the web. However, she does feel like she needs a course in the more technical aspects of the legal practices associated with technology.
B. The teacher has applied technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities. By using more individualized lessons with technology, students are allowed to explore the web and find articles that they are comfortable using. Furthermore, since the web itself is very diverse, students are constantly encountering diversity.
C. The teacher can identify and use technology resources that affirm diversity. She can do this, although she does not really know what it means. The web is often faceless, and she thinks it is a good tool for focusing on the content of work, rather than what race produced it. The web is almost a “raceless” entity.
D. The teacher promotes a safe and healthy use of technology resources. She encourages students to use computers for solely educational purposes. She does not permit them to enter chat rooms or other areas of the web that are questionable. Furthermore, she does not permit students to give out any of their information over the web.
E. My teacher facilitates equitable access to technology resources for all students. She does this by encouraging students who do not have computers at home to come in in the mornings and afternoons to use the computer lab.
*revised 7-18-01*