Tech Tool Review

National and State Technology Standards

The purpose of the National Education Technology Plan is to help equip all students to be able to help facilitate our country’s development as a global competitor. Through this plan, the government wants to increase student graduation rates. It affects teachers in that they will be rewarded on how their students perform and more training will be required. Teachers will need to be flexible and willing to collaborate with higher education, businesses and organization in order to aide in student learning. Students will be affected in that it will open them up to more opportunity by gaining the necessary skills for today’s economy. Everyday people will be affected in that taxes could increase to offset the cost of implementation.

The main assumptions under which the National Education Technology Plan are outlined below:

·         “Many of the failings of our education system stem from our failure to engage the hearts and minds of students.”

·         “What students need to learn and what we know about how they learn have changed, and therefore the learning experiences we provide should change.”

·         “How we assess learning focuses too much on what has been learned after the fact and not enough on improving learning in the moment.”

·         “We miss a huge opportunity to improve our entire education system when we gather student-learning data in silos and fail to integrate the information and make it broadly available to decision-makers at all levels of our education system—individual educators, schools, districts, states, and the federal government.”

·         “Learning depends on effective teaching, and we need to focus on extended teams of connected educators with different roles who collaborate within schools and across time and distance and who use technology resources and tools to augment human talent.”

·         “Effective teaching is an outcome of preparing and continually training teachers and leaders to guide the type of learning we want in our schools.”

·         “Making engaging learning experiences and resources available to all learners anytime and anywhere requires state-of-the-art infrastructure, which includes technology, people, and processes that ensure continuous access.”

·         “Education can learn much from such industries as business and entertainment about leveraging technology to continuously improve learning outcomes while increasing the productivity of our education system at all levels.”

·         “Just as in health, energy, and defense, the federal government has an important role to play in funding and coordinating some of the R&D challenges associated with leveraging technology to ensure the maximum opportunity to learn.”

“The plan also assumes that with technology we can provide engaging and powerful learning content, resources, and experiences and assessment systems that measure student learning in more complete, authentic, and meaningful ways. With technology-based learning and assessment systems, we can improve student learning and generate data that can be used to continuously improve the education system at all levels. With technology, we can execute collaborative teaching strategies combined with professional learning strategies that better prepare and enhance educators' competencies and expertise over the course of their careers. With technology, we can redesign and implement processes to produce better outcomes while achieving ever higher levels of productivity and efficiency across the education system.”

With the implementation of this plan, administrators, educators or even students might have concerns about these assumptions. Administrators might be concerned about the budget they will be given to implement the plan. Educators might be challenged with handing over precious classroom time to businesses and organizations. They may also have difficulty with the additional training that will be required as well as the competition it could create between staff. Students might feel overwhelmed by what is expected of them.

Below is list of the five goals for our educational system. They are directly quoted from the NETP. Technology will help to support the growth of these competencies through the increased accessibility of technology for more people and by utilizing it to measure academic learning. It will be used to create teams of professional educators that funnel support to one another with the goal of creating lifelong learners. Additionally, it will be used to manage resources efficiently.

“1.0 Learning: Engage and Empower”

“2.0 Assessment: Measure What Matters”

“3.0 Teaching: Prepare and Connect”

“4.0 Infrastructure: Access and Enable”

“5.0 Productivity: Redesign and Transform”

As I read The State of Ohio's Educational Technology Plan's "purpose and mission" (page 6), I believe it aligns with the National Education Technology Plan in that both work to utilize businesses, agencies and other resources that can be made accessible for improving the technological skills of students. Both plans purpose to make technology more easily available. The two plans are not aligned in that Ohio’s plan is flexible so that it can be adapted as technology changes. Ohio’s plan also seeks public input.

As I read Ohio’ s State Educational Technology Plan outlined on page 8, I believe this outline aligns with the "model of learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas" proposed by the National Education Technology Plan in that it gives specifics on how it is going to meet those goals. It narrows in and identifies the strategies it will use to accomplish the goals at the State level. The areas where the two plans are perhaps not aligned are the difference in emphasis on assessment. The NETP strongly focuses on assessment to help drive instruction, however the OSETP puts a focus on data collection to determine educator’s professional development. OSETP makes mention of “short-cycle student assessments.”

                As I read Ohio’s State Educational Technology Plan's "measurements of success" (page 16), I see the amount of funding necessary to support this plan and the time it will take for educators to get trained as  barriers to seeing the fulfilling of this plan. I also see the collaboration between the educational system and outside agencies as being a challenge. I think it would be difficult to get everyone on the same page. Not every professional is a teacher. It might be hard for teachers to have outside professionals coming into the classroom without having experience with children or a background of child development. Another barrier in reaching the "measurements of success" in the state of Ohio is regulating the data tracking system for both students and teachers.

ORC Lesson Plan

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/examining-plot-conflict-through-802.html?tab=2#tabs

I had a very difficult time with trying to get the screenshots embedded into this post. I don't know if it had to do with the computer I was working on or if it was just me. I completed everything in the assignment but this part. It was odd...I could take a screen shot and paste it into a Word document, but I couldn't get it to embed into the post. When I clicked the picture icon in the Compose mode, and then selected URL, I got a message that said the picture couldn't be found. It suggested it could be an internal password problem. 
       This standards-based lesson is written for grades 3-5, however I am focusing on using it with fifth graders. Students will be expected to make predictions using the pictures in the stories, identify what the four types of conflicts are, relate what is happening in the plot to their life, talk about the conflicts with classmates according to teacher grouping, use a graphic organizer to identify variables that influenced the conflicts in the story and write an essay that compares a conflict they had in their own life with one that the character had in the story they read.
         Below are the Common Core standards that this lesson is designed to meet. This lesson is divided into six sections, requiring 50 minutes of teaching time for each one. I am focusing on the first section for this assignment. Within this section, students work collaboratively to develop a definition of plot conflict and write it in their notebooks. After the teacher reads a passage, students will summarize what they heard and then identify the kind of plot conflict the passage exemplified by writing their reflections in their notebooks.

OH.CC.RL.5.		Reading Standards for Literature
		Key Ideas and Details
RL.5.2.		Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
		Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RL.5.7.		Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
RL.5.10.		By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
OH.CC.RF.5.		Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
		Fluency
RF.5.4.		Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
RF.5.4(a)		Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
RF.5.4(c)		Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
OH.CC.W.5.		Writing Standards
		Text Types and Purposes
W.5.2.		Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
W.5.2(b)		Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.
W.5.3.		Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
W.5.3(c)		Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to manage the sequence of events.
		Production and Distribution of Writing
W.5.4.		Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
		Research to Build and Present Knowledge
W.5.9.		Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
W.5.9(a)		Apply grade 5 reading standards to literature (e.g., ''Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or a drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., how characters interact]'').
OH.CC.SL.5.		Speaking and Listening Standards
		Comprehension and Collaboration
SL.5.1.		Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.5.1(a)		Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
SL.5.1(b)		Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.
SL.5.1(c)		Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.
OH.CC.L.5.		Language Standards
		Conventions of Standard English
L.5.1.		Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.5.1(d)		Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.
		Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.5.4.		Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.5.4(a)		Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
L.5.6.		Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships (e.g., however, although, nevertheless, similarly, moreover, in addition).

            I would use this lesson in small reading groups to help my students understand plot conflict. I wouldn’t expect them to have a problem with it as long as I use solid examples of each kind of plot conflict. I think my students would do well with making personal connections to the characters in the story because I would have already made this a strategy that we incorporate every time we read to help us understand the text better. 

Pinterest in the Classroom

 Below are my responses to the questions for this assignment.

1.      What did you learn from the Pinterest activity? I found that Pinterest has the potential to take up a lot of my time!

2. How do you believe you will utilize Pinterest as a teacher?  There are so many creative ideas that teachers can use to make their teaching engaging and meaningful. I can see myself using Pinterest as a tool to help enrich learning for  my students.

  

3. What are the strengths of Pinterest? Pinterest is presented in a very organized fashion and easy to use.

4.What are some of the challenges of Pinterest? Pinterest can be addicting and very time-consuming.

5.What comments, questions, thoughts, opinions, and/or feedback do you have about Pinterest? I am looking forward to using Pinterest not only for teaching, but for other areas of life. For example, planning vacations, home and cooking. This experience has been refreshing and encouraging, especially during this time of the school year when students and teachers have cabin fever and are anticipating Spring Break.