home


 * Hi everyone, **
 * I think it might help if we all write in a different color or at least initial what you have added. It will help us with this week's application because you have to document what you contribute. **


 * Brianna **


 * **Technology Resources**
 * **What is it and how do I use it?**
 * **Provide a description of a specific technology that supports 21st century skills. Include the basic knowledge and steps necessary to begin using this technology.**


 * **Replacement Ideas**
 * **How might this resource replace outdated elements and/or provide a more engaging and motivating learning experience?**
 * **Provide an explanation of the kinds of outmoded practices this technology might replace.**


 * **Research**
 * **What are the documented uses and benefits of this resource?**
 * **Post a link to at least on one article, essay, or web-based paper that provides classroom examples, best practices, or research about the use of this technology. Include a brief one-paragraph summary of the information contained in the article, essay, or web-based paper.**
 * Brianna a technology resource I have found to be very beneficial in my classroom has been the promethean board(smart board) **
 * Brianna a technology resource I have found to be very beneficial in my classroom has been the promethean board(smart board) **


 * In recent __research__ of technology usage of teachers in my school district educators looking to provide students with immediate feedback for assessing skills would benefit from using Study Island, GOAS, High Points, and USA Test Prep. After taking an assessment, students can view reports that show instructional strengths and needs. The sites' reports also allow teachers to identify each student's strengths and weaknesses, and communicate goals, intentions, and outcomes to parents and students. **

Sabrina, I loved USA Test Prep! I had a long term sub job teaching high school math, and we utilized this site for the proficiency class. Very reliable and effective! I'm afraid I have never heard of Study Island or GOAS. Could you elaborate on these for me? Brianna
 * Sabrina **


 * Besides a smart board,some __technology resources__ that can be used to enhance lessons are**
 * · Cognitive Tutor ([|www.carnegielearning.com]) **
 * · USA Test Prep ([|www.usatestprep.com]) **
 * · School Express ([|www.schoolexpress.com]) **
 * · Carnegie Learning ([|www.carnegielearning.com]) **
 * · Agile Mind ([|www.agilemind.com]) **
 * · First in Math ([]) **
 * · Many Things.org ([]) **
 * · High Points Learning ([]) **
 * · Illuminations ([]) **
 * · Brain Pop ([]) **
 * · Compass Learning ([]) **
 * · Read 180 ([]) **
 * · Accelerated Reader ( []) ** Does your school implement AR as a requirement? Mine does and I see how it can be beneficial, but many of the students do not take it seriously. If it is not monitored correctly, students do theirselves a disservice by reading books that are not at their level in order to get a quick set of points. Brianna
 * · Prentice Hall Examview ([]) **

These resources can

provide a more engaging and motivating learning experience by focusing on a students ability to do the following


 * Demonstrate creatively and innovation
 * Communicate and collaborate
 * Conduct research and use information
 * Think critically, solve problems, and make decisions
 * Exhibit leadership for safe digital citizenship
 * Use technology effectively, productively, and ethically

As stated by Atlanta Public School learning technology director Andrea Waters-Winston “When effectively integrated into the curriculum, technology becomes a tool or resource that allows our students to demonstrate several higher-order thinking skills,”

Sabrina

** Sebie **

**Technologies and How to Use Them** . ** First of all technology resources must be integrated into teaching the curriculum because of the moving trends of the 21st century. Whereas examining each curriculum area in light of critical review questions people are more likely to examine potential connections. **

** Replacement Ideas for Outdated Lesson Planning and Assessment is the Curriculum Mapping. **

**Mapping the Big Picture is a grand way to integrate curriculum and assessment for grades k-12 (Jacobs, 1997).**


 * 1) ** A good technological vehicle to use is the Curriculum Mapping software which is a 21st century means for generating ideas and reviewing current practice. This technology too must be integrated into the teaching of curriculum. **


 * groups of teachers examine maps for discrete specific purposes with the goal if improving it.
 * it is a modern way of segregating modern technologies from classroom planning.
 * it allows for the basic elements of curriculum (a)content (b) skills and (c) assessment to be aligned for coherency and revised for timeliness.
 * Strategically attacked assessment engages staff in their own personal growth.
 * Organizes and focuses the entire team and brings them to a joint resolve.
 * Starts the assessment with the Backward Design with the opportunity to upgrade skills and proficiencies.
 * Forces educators to focus and confront the work assignments that re required of our learners.
 * Breathes life into the curriculum and allows educators to zoom into each element with a simultaneous ability to view it at a wider angle.
 * Allows educators to differentiate instruction to match needs so students advancing to the decades of the 21st century.


 * There is a need for formal, collective, systematic review of upgrading the curriculum. Assessment used to measure performance as an evidence of learning reflecting progress or regress. Assessment type is a form of the product or performance selected to demonstrate student learning (Hayes-Jacobs 1997). **

**Research**

> > Jan 3, 2011 **...** The //curriculum// connections page gives a run down of the concepts that **...** Carl Anderson wrote a chapter about online mind //mapping// tools. **...** > www.freetech4teachers.com/2011_01_03_archive.htmlwww.rubicon.com Atlas **Curriculum Mapping** by Rubicon Web
 * ==[|Free Technology for Teachers: Monday, January 3, 2011]==
 * based, no software to install.[|Web-Based **Curriculum**]


 * ==[|Free Technology for Teachers: Thursday, January 6, 2011]==


 * Jan 6, 2011 **...** Scribble //Maps// is a fun and useful application for drawing and typing **...** Across the //Curriculum// and or the official Google Earth help pages. **...**
 * www.freetech4teachers.com/2011_01_06_archive.html


 * America - Census Data by Zip Code · Audio Slideshow - We **...**


 * www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/what-2-learn-create-and-play.html


 * **http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/**

Monina-

First let me say, that I THOUGHT I was technological....but boy was fooled!!! :) I use the minimum technology in music because the majority of our practices are hands-on. However, I've done some research! ;)

I use my SmartBoard religously. In the county where I am employed, teachers use websites tat help with online assessment that provides instant feedback and help. These sites include: Study Island, OAS (Georgia's Online Assessment System), First In Math. They also use the following research methods: netTrekker and World Book Encyclopedia online. They also have access to a Georgia virtual school: Moodle I think it is so cool when school districts utilize sites like this. Where I went to college, that particular school district used Angel, and I was so excited that I was going to be a part of a collaborative network of teachers. However, I ended up getting hired in a completely different district where nothing like this available.... yet. Do you use the Moodle frequently? If so, do you have any positive/negative suggestions or comments that you could fill me in on. I'd really like to present something like to my principle since I teach in such a rural community. Brianna

Kathy Cox, State Superintendant of School for the State of Georgia from 2002-2010 shared technology goals for the State of Georgia. The State of Georiga Department of Education Technology Goals for 2007-2012 are: (Cox 2008)


 * 1.Increase broad-based community support for Georgia‘s vision to infuse 21st Century technology skills into the Georgia curriculum. ||
 * 2. Increase educators’ proficiency to use technology effectively in classrooms and administrative offices. ||
 * 3. Increase effective instructional uses of technology in order to incorporate 21st Century technology and thinking skills into the Georgia curriculum. ||
 * 4. Increase effective administrative uses of technology to monitor student achievement and to manage business operations in school systems. ||
 * 5. Increase the capacity of school systems to provide the high-quality system support necessary to realize effective technology use, especially in the areas of administrative support for effective instructional technology use; professional development; technical support for hardware, software, network infrastructure, technology planning, and program evaluation. ||
 * 6. Achieve and/or maintain equitable access to high-quality technology programs for all students. ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">7. Increase access for students, educators, parents, school board representatives, and other community members to technology resources that can enhance student learning. ||

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The recent expansion in information and communication technologies, including desktop and laptop computers, handheld devices, cell phones, portable video players, and the Internet, has changed our society as we know it. Within the last decade, our lives have altered effectively to advocate that children growing up today call for a innovative and more challenging intellectual skill set in order to be successful in a universal setting. Consequently, authorities propose that students‘educational experiences be converted to better prepare them for the future (Cox 2008).

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I believe that Technology Resources are any means available to teachers and students which utilize technology and can be integrated into both teaching and learning. Technology Resources are a collection of devices, programs and Internet websites one can use as an updated method of teaching and/or learning. These resources will be varied by school to school, classroom to classroom based upon their ability to access such resources. There are many places one can turn to as they are looking for specific technology resources that support 21st century learning. Within Chapter 2, “Upgrading the Curriculum: 21st Century Assessment Types and Skills,” Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs discusses a wide variety of resources available to us as teachers as we are looking to to replace a dated assessment or skill with one that is more contemporary. Furthermore, websites such as Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools provide resources for teachers as they look to get rid of the 19th and 20th century resources that we have been using and work our way into the 21st century. One specific technology available both in terms of teaching and learning in the 21st century is a laptop lab. This is a resource that the majority of school districts are moving towards, opposed to the computer labs of the past. Computers are one of the most user-friendly pieces of technology that an individual can begin using without much training or guidance, and they are available for both students and teachers alike. If you are using laptop labs with your students, initially you will need to teach them information like how to turn it off/on, how to handle the computer and how to navigate their way around the computer. From a teacher perspective, one key piece of knowledge an individual using a laptop lab for the purpose of 21st century education must have is how to hook the computer up to the Internet in order to access the resources available via the World Wide Web. While more often than not these laptops are connected to a wireless network within the building, if for some reason it were to lose it's connection and go offline, one would need to have the knowledge to reconnect it. Once a computer is hooked up to the Internet, one can easily navigate throughout the web and search for various items that are available to them at their finger tips. Such resources available to teachers include blogs, web-cams, streamed movies and educational websites to guide their teaching. Students will also have access to the same materials which will allow them to connect with other students around the world, access learning resources to enhance what they have learned in the classroom along with being able to use resources such as a Flip Camera to complete work in a manner that is current and up to date with the times. If one has access to a computer the possibilities are endless. While some school districts may have a limit put on them in terms of the technology resources they do have available to them, for example Flip Cameras and Web Cameras, they should not let that fact stand in the way of advancing towards a 21st century curriculum.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Replacement Ideas <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In the video entitled Upgrading The Curriculum Jay Grover speaks of the different activities his students do with their wireless laptop lab. One aspect he spoke of in terms of replacing outdated elements related to assessments was the use of Clickers which provide a quick snapshot of student learning. <span style="background-color: #1fbaf9; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Clickers are so cool! I used these during my Undergrad studies. I had classes were we took quizzes and tests on the clickers or had to answer a question when we got in the room and that is how the teacher recorded attendence. -Brianna <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Additionally there are programs such as Study Island that allow students to practice the skills that have been taught in the classroom which replaces such outdated activities as students completing worksheets. These laptop labs also allow students to complete assessments in a more current manner using podcats or videos versus giving an oral report or using semantic maps which can be found online versus vocabulary cards as explained by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs in the same video. Furthermore, these laptop labs can transport students around the world. Gone are the days of having to read about something to learn about it. Now, thanks to webcams and videoconferencing students can immerse themselves in a particular area, whether it be a foreign country or a local attraction, students are transported to these places and can get first hand experiences opposed to being limited only by what they can learn in a book. As we are reminded in “Upgrading the Curriculum: 21st Century Assessment Types and Skills,” “As individuals, we bring the possibilities and limits of our personal knowledge and skill base to instructional approaches in the classroom (Hale, 2010, p. 24). In order to be the best for our students, as teachers it is important that we make the pledge. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0097ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology Resources <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">It is important as teachers to update the curriculum to fit the needs of our current learners. We are required to prepare students for technology and jobs that have yet to be invented. Therefore, it is a necessity for us to integrate technology into students’ daily lives and learning. It is also imperative for us to understand that using a computer for an outdated lesson or activity is not considered “updating the curriculum”. We need to learn how to give up lessons and strategies that are no longer current with today’s society in order to properly prepare our students for life outside of school. <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some 21st century technologies that we can begin to incorporate into our classrooms are laptops, clickers, flipcams, computer software, ipods, ipads, etc. All of our students are coming into our classrooms already knowing how to use these certain technologies. Therefore, if we can utilize them as successful classroom tools, our students will only become more engaged in the content. Content as described by Jacobs (2010) is the “knowledge we wish to impart and investigate within the time available” (p. 30). <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Jacobs, H. H. (Ed.). (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Curriculum 21 : Essential education for a changing world by Jacobs, H.H. Copyright 2009 by Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Reprinted by permission of Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development via the Copyright Clearance Center. <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Replacement Ideas

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">Some items that I would like to replace outdated curriculum with is the plethora of software and websites readily available for teachers via computers. For example, the use of Google and Google Docs would allow formative assessments in the classroom to become web based, quick, and easier than ever. Creating a “form” on Google Docs allows the students to type in a web address, answer however many questions necessary in multiple choice, free response, drop down, etc. form. Then, the student responses are automatically filtered and displayed into a spreadsheet for easy viewing access and sent to the teacher’s email. <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0097ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">﻿ <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">I really enjoyed [] because it allows you to narrate any sort of uploadable document. For example, I immediately thought of this as a tool for ELL students or simply for a listening center. It would be incredibly easy to upload book, poems, or any sort of personal reader and have it narrated by the teacher or another student. The text then becomes a narration that the student can follow along with. <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[] was also really intriguing. This is a newsletter/publishing site where you can create presentations, invitations, and newsletters online. I thought this would be a useful tool for a couple of reasons. First, I thought of parental involvement. A class newsletter could easily be published to the web and updated weekly. Parents with web access could view it and stay updated with class activities. For older students, it would be a great classroom tool for students to find homework assignments, readings, and documents. <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Research ** <span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">Being a 21st century learner is impeccable for living in today’s society; however, being a 21st

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">century teacher is still controversial. Many people are still dependent on utilizing the skills that have worked for hundreds of years; whereas, other teachers are concerned with integrating today’s technologies with today’s classroom instruction. I really enjoyed reading the article entitled, “How Do You Define 21st Century Learning?” located at []. Eleven educators share their ideas about 21st century teaching and whether they find it beneficial.

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I also found another wiki truly worth looking into. Kristin Hokanson keeps a wiki entitled “The Connected Classroom”. It can be accessed at http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/Classroom. Here she describes what 21st century skills actually are in the classroom, but she also provides videos and links to other blogs and sites that demonstrate what 21st century skills look like in the classroom.

<span style="background-color: #00b2ff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Brianna