Presentation on RCampus
View more presentations from John Courage.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Enhancing AP Learning with RCampus
Over the recent weeks I have been exploring new and emerging technologies. Among the most exciting technologies emerging for educators are the web based Learning Management Systems. These new systems offer tools that enable classroom teachers and entire schools to bring together many of the tasks teachers and students engage in on a daily basis into a comprehensive technology based collaborative learning environment.
Within such an environment you can do all your school-related work from building personal and group websites to managing your courses, eportfolios, academic communities, and much more.
I have put together a PowerPoint presentation to introduce one such Learning management System named RCampus to my Social Studies department leaders for their consideration. Please view the program and let me know what you think.
John Courage
Within such an environment you can do all your school-related work from building personal and group websites to managing your courses, eportfolios, academic communities, and much more.
I have put together a PowerPoint presentation to introduce one such Learning management System named RCampus to my Social Studies department leaders for their consideration. Please view the program and let me know what you think.
John Courage
Sunday, October 24, 2010
UDL/DI A Daunting Challenge
I have just completed an application on Managing the UDL/DI Classroom and realized, as I put it all together, that I have discovered, with the help of some of my Walden University classmates, a variety of new and useful technology tools to employ in teaching my Special Needs students. Now, I am faced with the challenge of implementing the plans I have laid out. The most difficult part will be trying to do this mid-stream so to speak.
As a full time Special Ed. teacher, making the time to continue the necessary research, identify the most effective tools I find, practice using them enough to be capable of instructing my students on how to use them, and then doing the actual instruction using the tools, and then knowing it will all have to be tweaked along the way, all appears to be a daunting challenge at this time.
I will probably just take one or two of the programs and tools I have found at a time, and try them out, so that by the end of this school year I will have a handle on which ones work and which don't, and what I may need to do to make them work, so that I may more fully implement a complete UDL/DI instructional plan next school year.
John C.
As a full time Special Ed. teacher, making the time to continue the necessary research, identify the most effective tools I find, practice using them enough to be capable of instructing my students on how to use them, and then doing the actual instruction using the tools, and then knowing it will all have to be tweaked along the way, all appears to be a daunting challenge at this time.
I will probably just take one or two of the programs and tools I have found at a time, and try them out, so that by the end of this school year I will have a handle on which ones work and which don't, and what I may need to do to make them work, so that I may more fully implement a complete UDL/DI instructional plan next school year.
John C.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way to examine what we can do today in school to serve the needs of all of our students, with the objective of helping educators fully engage every student in the learning process.
UDL has come about after many years extensive research into what happens in the human brain as people learn. This research has led to the development of methods, materials and technologies that help address the learning capabilities of students across the spectrum.
To learn more about Universal Design for Learning please listen to the following podcast.
UDL has come about after many years extensive research into what happens in the human brain as people learn. This research has led to the development of methods, materials and technologies that help address the learning capabilities of students across the spectrum.
To learn more about Universal Design for Learning please listen to the following podcast.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
GAME Plan Success
In my GAME Plan, as I amended it along the way, I wanted to develop my abilities to promote student reflections, using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process, and to advocate, model and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology. After learning more about UDL, I decided to add one more goal to my GAME plan, that was customizing and personalizing learning activities, to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities, using digital tools and resources.
As I reflect back on the past 7 weeks, I recognize that I attained many of my GAME Plan's objectives, and I successfully incorporated them in to the Problem Based Learning project I developed. Having my students employ concept mapping, wiki and voice thread tools met my first objective of using collaborative tools to spur conceptual understanding, thinking, and creativity. By incorporating several of these same tools, and including mentoring, and providing individualized assistance within my plans, I believe I adequately achieved the objectives of Universal Design for Learning, by recognizing and supporting diverse learning styles, and abilities to use digital tools. I also included in my lessons a requirement for students to cite and give appropriate references for their Internet sources which addresses the standard of ethical use of digital information.
These objectives, and the GAME Plan that I developed which encompassed them, has given me a greater insight into the possibilities digital technology offers me as a teacher, and enhanced my abilities to design future learning opportunities for my students. I plan to employ many of these ISTE/NETS Teacher and Students standards in my classroom, when the fall semester begins. I feel that I have been successful in meeting the course objectives, and look forward to continuing to develop my teaching abilities and knowledge of technology.
John C.
As I reflect back on the past 7 weeks, I recognize that I attained many of my GAME Plan's objectives, and I successfully incorporated them in to the Problem Based Learning project I developed. Having my students employ concept mapping, wiki and voice thread tools met my first objective of using collaborative tools to spur conceptual understanding, thinking, and creativity. By incorporating several of these same tools, and including mentoring, and providing individualized assistance within my plans, I believe I adequately achieved the objectives of Universal Design for Learning, by recognizing and supporting diverse learning styles, and abilities to use digital tools. I also included in my lessons a requirement for students to cite and give appropriate references for their Internet sources which addresses the standard of ethical use of digital information.
These objectives, and the GAME Plan that I developed which encompassed them, has given me a greater insight into the possibilities digital technology offers me as a teacher, and enhanced my abilities to design future learning opportunities for my students. I plan to employ many of these ISTE/NETS Teacher and Students standards in my classroom, when the fall semester begins. I feel that I have been successful in meeting the course objectives, and look forward to continuing to develop my teaching abilities and knowledge of technology.
John C.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Using a GAME Plan with students
As we have learned, within a GAME Plan, we set Goals, take Action, Monitor our actions, and Evaluate and extend our accomplishments. This is very useful and effective model for us as teachers to introduce to our students especially as it relates to teaching and learning about technology.
The six core elements within the ISTE's National Educational Standards for Students (NETS-S) include:
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
In attaining these standards students are expected to demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology; use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively; apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information; demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
This is a tall order for students, and teachers entrusted with helping students attain these standards. The expectations for teachers is very demanding, when one considers the NETS-T for teachers. As teachers, we are expected to use all of our knowledge and teaching abilities to help our students successfully learn, be creative, and innovative within a digital world; and we need to learn all that we can about the technology that can expand and encourage learning, and pass that on to our students in an effective way. Also we are expected to keep up with new technologies, and model the use of technology, in ways that inspire honesty and integrity, in this digital world.
So as the saying goes about Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astair, we have to do everything that we expect students to do, but we just have to do it backwards.
For teachers and students having a GAME Plan will enable each group to move toward mutually beneficial outcomes.
For us as teachers the GAME Plan is an extension of what we have been doing for years (at least we have if we want to survive in the classroom), with the addition of new teaching tools through hardware, software and new sources of information.
For students the view may be quite different. Although students today are very adept at using technology, and to many it seems to be a natural extension of themselves, students do not see the educational or learning value of technology. To them technology is a toy, a way to have fun.
To use technology wisely, as a tool for learning, students will need to develop their GAME Plans, as we have been doing. The need to set goals related to the use of technology, which can help them attain learning success. Students need to take positive action, and make appropriate decisions, on what technology to employ, and how to use it effectively. They need to understand that self monitoring, and evaluating their actions and accomplishments, are requirements to assure a successful learning process.
What I plan to do in the coming school year is to introduce my students to the GAME planning process. To help them establish their own game plan when it comes to using technology in various courses, to teach them how to monitor their activities, learn to evaluate what they accomplish, and make adjustments along the way, to help them achieve the best outcomes.
Whenever I am going to present a lesson in which I plan to recommend or require the use of technology, I am going to present my GAME plan for that lesson or project, and then I am going to give them time to develop their own GAME plan. As motivation for them to address their plans seriously, I will make it an element of the grade they can achieve.
The six core elements within the ISTE's National Educational Standards for Students (NETS-S) include:
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
In attaining these standards students are expected to demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology; use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively; apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information; demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
This is a tall order for students, and teachers entrusted with helping students attain these standards. The expectations for teachers is very demanding, when one considers the NETS-T for teachers. As teachers, we are expected to use all of our knowledge and teaching abilities to help our students successfully learn, be creative, and innovative within a digital world; and we need to learn all that we can about the technology that can expand and encourage learning, and pass that on to our students in an effective way. Also we are expected to keep up with new technologies, and model the use of technology, in ways that inspire honesty and integrity, in this digital world.
So as the saying goes about Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astair, we have to do everything that we expect students to do, but we just have to do it backwards.
For teachers and students having a GAME Plan will enable each group to move toward mutually beneficial outcomes.
For us as teachers the GAME Plan is an extension of what we have been doing for years (at least we have if we want to survive in the classroom), with the addition of new teaching tools through hardware, software and new sources of information.
For students the view may be quite different. Although students today are very adept at using technology, and to many it seems to be a natural extension of themselves, students do not see the educational or learning value of technology. To them technology is a toy, a way to have fun.
To use technology wisely, as a tool for learning, students will need to develop their GAME Plans, as we have been doing. The need to set goals related to the use of technology, which can help them attain learning success. Students need to take positive action, and make appropriate decisions, on what technology to employ, and how to use it effectively. They need to understand that self monitoring, and evaluating their actions and accomplishments, are requirements to assure a successful learning process.
What I plan to do in the coming school year is to introduce my students to the GAME planning process. To help them establish their own game plan when it comes to using technology in various courses, to teach them how to monitor their activities, learn to evaluate what they accomplish, and make adjustments along the way, to help them achieve the best outcomes.
Whenever I am going to present a lesson in which I plan to recommend or require the use of technology, I am going to present my GAME plan for that lesson or project, and then I am going to give them time to develop their own GAME plan. As motivation for them to address their plans seriously, I will make it an element of the grade they can achieve.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
One Size Fits All Technology?
In working with Special Needs students one becomes acutely aware of their different abilities and needs. As I explore the digital technology tools available for educational uses, I see the advantages and disadvantages of each tool to each student I work with.
It is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. I look at the picture on the box (a picture of my students) and then I look at all the pieces of technology, in many shapes and sizes, and I am trying to match the pieces to my students. Some tech tools are very similar in design and function, and fit well with my students, while others are very unique and may meet some of the special needs of a few students.
As I have said before there is no one size fits all.
Since one of the goals in my GAME Plan is to 'customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.' I feel compelled to find a basic format to work from. I have therefore decided to sign up for PBworks, and make it the wiki program I will employ when school resumes in the fall. I have read some good comments about it and have explored it and it seems to be a very versatile program, one that has the functionality and flexibility to meet my students needs.
I am planning on preparing my new PBworks wiki for the next semester, by developing guidelines for use (including guideline on how to cite sources and not violate copy write laws,) accessing appropriate sites, and links to other digital tools the students can access. I am also going to integrate some lesson plans into the wiki for the opening of the next school year.
John C.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I Wish I Had A Magic Wand
The end of a school year is often for me, and I would think for most educators, a time for reflection. That is what I have been doing mostly. Reflecting on how I presented many of my lessons this year, and how I can improve them by incorporating useful technology into them next year.
I wish I had a magic wand so that I could transfer, and translate much of my lesson materials into a digital format. Unfortunately I don't even have a scanner in my room, with which I could capture much of what I have on paper. Nor do I have the time, unless I want to take it all home and work on it during the summer. I am dedicated, but my family is not a dedicated as I am. I don't think that is what they have in mind for our summer vacation.
I have become increasingly anxious and excited about the potential opportunities to improve my students learning opportunities through increased use of technology next year. I have written into my Outlook task list for the summer, to set aside significant time to practice with all the tech programs I want my students to have available next year. A teacher needs to model and in this case demonstrate the best practices of technology, so I plan on being well versed in many of the tech programs and tools we have been introduced to by the beginning of school.
I wish I had a magic wand so that I could transfer, and translate much of my lesson materials into a digital format. Unfortunately I don't even have a scanner in my room, with which I could capture much of what I have on paper. Nor do I have the time, unless I want to take it all home and work on it during the summer. I am dedicated, but my family is not a dedicated as I am. I don't think that is what they have in mind for our summer vacation.
I have become increasingly anxious and excited about the potential opportunities to improve my students learning opportunities through increased use of technology next year. I have written into my Outlook task list for the summer, to set aside significant time to practice with all the tech programs I want my students to have available next year. A teacher needs to model and in this case demonstrate the best practices of technology, so I plan on being well versed in many of the tech programs and tools we have been introduced to by the beginning of school.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Universal Design for Learning & my GAME Plan
When originally exploring NETS-T indicators to learn about and develop for my students, I chose 1.c - promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes; and 4.a - advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
Some of the steps I have taken to reach my goal of becoming more knowledgeable and sharing my knowledge with my students have been to review the video lessons from the class, to read the assigned text and to reach beyond these elements and to explore some of the additional readings and sites on our course supplemental recommended materials lists. I felt I learned a lot about UDL from the CAST.ORG website and their links to videos from UDL advocates, and wested.org, which provided a wealth of ideas for enhancing current academic material through multimedia and digital technology.
After reading Chapter 6 and learning more about UDL, I have decided to add one more indicator to my game plan that is from Standard 2. c - customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
One particular activity that I have undertaken, has been the introduction of keyboarding skills utilizing our classroom computers for many of my special needs students with lower cognitive abilities. I think it will reinforce language and reading skills and will help some of them develop their fine motor skills.
I am now searching for some good web based typing tutorial programs that very low level and emergent readers may be successful with.
Some of the steps I have taken to reach my goal of becoming more knowledgeable and sharing my knowledge with my students have been to review the video lessons from the class, to read the assigned text and to reach beyond these elements and to explore some of the additional readings and sites on our course supplemental recommended materials lists. I felt I learned a lot about UDL from the CAST.ORG website and their links to videos from UDL advocates, and wested.org, which provided a wealth of ideas for enhancing current academic material through multimedia and digital technology.
After reading Chapter 6 and learning more about UDL, I have decided to add one more indicator to my game plan that is from Standard 2. c - customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
One particular activity that I have undertaken, has been the introduction of keyboarding skills utilizing our classroom computers for many of my special needs students with lower cognitive abilities. I think it will reinforce language and reading skills and will help some of them develop their fine motor skills.
I am now searching for some good web based typing tutorial programs that very low level and emergent readers may be successful with.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Thinking Planning and Creating
As part of my GAME plan I blogged about last week, I said I want to develop my abilities to promote student reflections using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process (NETS-T indicator 1.c)
To achieve this I plan to require my students use the bubbl.us concept mapping tool in the formative stage of all research projects, whether written or online. I have used bubbl and have had some of my former AP students use bubble and Kidspiration (when our district paid for a school subscription.)
Bubbl is a good program for creative idea generating, and then linking ideas together in a cohesive manner. I have been playing with it to plan my science lessons on Energy and Magnetism, and using it reminded me to explore the library for additional material, and to search the net for some video clips to supplement our reading and experiment material.
Has anyone found another good, free concept mapping program out there?
To achieve this I plan to require my students use the bubbl.us concept mapping tool in the formative stage of all research projects, whether written or online. I have used bubbl and have had some of my former AP students use bubble and Kidspiration (when our district paid for a school subscription.)
Bubbl is a good program for creative idea generating, and then linking ideas together in a cohesive manner. I have been playing with it to plan my science lessons on Energy and Magnetism, and using it reminded me to explore the library for additional material, and to search the net for some video clips to supplement our reading and experiment material.
Has anyone found another good, free concept mapping program out there?
Sunday, May 16, 2010
NETS-T GAME PLAN
I believe Technology is an intricate part of our present and future educational process. That being said, I need to provide some background information before addressing the NETS-T indicators because I think it is relative to my situation and to many teachers' circumstances.
I work in an inner city school district in which 90 % of the schools qualify as Title 1 schools. Over 95 % of our students are minority students and over 90 % of them live at or below the poverty level.
Within our community there is a great digital divide. Most of our student's households do not own a computer or have Internet access. The access is only available through the public library system or at school. Many of our schools, my own included, have limited computer/online availability, which means our students have limited availability.
I have no disagreements or hesitation with the standards laid out in the 2008 NETS-T guidelines. I think the standards are laudable, and that every teacher should strive to achieve compliance with them. My experience has been and remains, that the implementation of the steps necessary to meet the indicators continue to be the main problem we have to address.
My high school does not have a lot of the technology necessary to implement many of the standards and indicators. For example we have no smart boards in our school. We do not have enough classroom projectors to display digital materials with. The only class rooms that have sufficient computer technology for daily use are the computer labs which are used to teach the technology classes. We do have a library with computers, but that is available on a first come first served basis, and many time the library is closed to classes for testing purposes. We have received this year two mobile laptop computer carts with 24 computers per cart, but these are still limited assets considering we have over 1800 students in our school.
Now all that being said, I recognize that there is much I can do to advance my own technology capabilities.
As part of my GAME plan I want to develop my abilities to promote student reflections using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process (NETS-T indicator 1.c) and advocate, model and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology...(NETS-T 4.a).
To achieve the goal of indicator 1.c, I plan to require my students to use more concept mapping and graphic organizing tools in the early stages of their research and project development. To accomplish my goal of indicator 4.a, I will demonstrate how to determine the validity of websites and the information they present, respect copyright laws and demonstrate how to correctly site and acknowledge the authorship of material used in research and presentations and provide references.
I will establish revolving student teams to review other students citations and references to enable students to develop their sense of responsibility and to insure compliance.
I work in an inner city school district in which 90 % of the schools qualify as Title 1 schools. Over 95 % of our students are minority students and over 90 % of them live at or below the poverty level.
Within our community there is a great digital divide. Most of our student's households do not own a computer or have Internet access. The access is only available through the public library system or at school. Many of our schools, my own included, have limited computer/online availability, which means our students have limited availability.
I have no disagreements or hesitation with the standards laid out in the 2008 NETS-T guidelines. I think the standards are laudable, and that every teacher should strive to achieve compliance with them. My experience has been and remains, that the implementation of the steps necessary to meet the indicators continue to be the main problem we have to address.
My high school does not have a lot of the technology necessary to implement many of the standards and indicators. For example we have no smart boards in our school. We do not have enough classroom projectors to display digital materials with. The only class rooms that have sufficient computer technology for daily use are the computer labs which are used to teach the technology classes. We do have a library with computers, but that is available on a first come first served basis, and many time the library is closed to classes for testing purposes. We have received this year two mobile laptop computer carts with 24 computers per cart, but these are still limited assets considering we have over 1800 students in our school.
Now all that being said, I recognize that there is much I can do to advance my own technology capabilities.
As part of my GAME plan I want to develop my abilities to promote student reflections using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process (NETS-T indicator 1.c) and advocate, model and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology...(NETS-T 4.a).
To achieve the goal of indicator 1.c, I plan to require my students to use more concept mapping and graphic organizing tools in the early stages of their research and project development. To accomplish my goal of indicator 4.a, I will demonstrate how to determine the validity of websites and the information they present, respect copyright laws and demonstrate how to correctly site and acknowledge the authorship of material used in research and presentations and provide references.
I will establish revolving student teams to review other students citations and references to enable students to develop their sense of responsibility and to insure compliance.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Things are looking up!
Technology is such a wonderful yet frustrating resource.
Today I looked in the mirror, so to speak, at a small objective I had to meet and was dissappointed in what I saw, so through the wonder of technology, with its unlimited permutations, I have been able to reconfigure my objective into a thing of beauty.
Now I am much happier with what I see in the mirror of my work.
Tomorrow however is another day and technology as is its wont may come back to bite me in my behind.
PS You can now follow my blog on Google Reader.
Today I looked in the mirror, so to speak, at a small objective I had to meet and was dissappointed in what I saw, so through the wonder of technology, with its unlimited permutations, I have been able to reconfigure my objective into a thing of beauty.
Now I am much happier with what I see in the mirror of my work.
Tomorrow however is another day and technology as is its wont may come back to bite me in my behind.
PS You can now follow my blog on Google Reader.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Endings and Beginnings
It is the beginning of May and I'm nearing the end of another school year. While winding down my teaching I am revving up my learning for another summer. One thing that is obvious to me at this time is that learning is a lifelong experience.
I am excited about expanding my knowledge of how to implement technology in my classroom, and I hope to learn from others about their expectations and experiences.
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