Using Technology to Meet the Needs of All Learners

Editor's Notes

• #2: Science teacher. 20 years experience at both middle and high school. Advocate of technology. Obviously the kids like it, but why else should we use it?
• #3: In the classroom probably the most important of these is learning style
• #6: Personally, I feel many kids are kinesthetic learners; think about young children….they get all a lot of information through their senses…they crawl, they taste things, they interact with their environment. They can get distracted by activity around them
• #7: Here’s another take on how people with different learning styles would interpret information
• #8: All come with unique needs
• #9: One of the ways we meet learner needs is through differentiated instruction
• #12: Students make a movie to explain energy flow -discuss plot, write script, conduct filming, edit film
• #16: -Cognitive skills: knowledge, comprehension and critical thinking of a particular topic -most classrooms emphasize knowledge and understanding -we want kids up at the creative level -they need all lower-order skills to create -true understanding or ownership is the ability to transfer information to a new situation -if you can create, you have transferred the information
• #17: Another way of looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy Going higher in the taxonomy means more higher order thinking skills being utilized
• #19: We need to be cognizant of the fact that we are preparing kids for jobs that haven’t even been created yet.
• #20: .. We have to train our kids to compete in a global market!
• #21: Partnership for 21 st Century Skills: Developed in 2002 . National organization that advocates for 21 st century readiness for all students. Created because there is a gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces. Our schools must align classroom environments with real world environments Students need core subjects and skills for 21 st century
• #22: we’ve seen technology can be used to increase critical thinking and creativity
• #23: A lot of this is coming from the business world. Don Tapscott is a businessman, author and consultant who specializes in business strategy. He’s authored a number of books that discuss the application of technology in business and society. Tapscott calls this Networked Intelligence…another version of skills necessary for the 21 st century. Notice the emphasis on “collective knowledge structures.” He’s saying that in order to function intelligently in the 21 st Century that we’re going to need to share information with others AND rely on others for information.
• #24: In order for this to work we’re going to need to adhere to the following principles.
• #25: Must collaborate to prepare students for 21 st century and an age of networked intelligence Classrooms must be more open Must share information with others Work with others to enhance the learning occurring in our classrooms
• #26: So what’s so important about collaboration? If a team is performing better doesn’t it make sense that more learning is going to occur at the individual’s level?
• #27: This goes back to Tapscott’s idea of networked intelligence; we are going to have to share information in the 21 st century in order to be successful. If everyone has the same viewpoint
• #28: Why does it work? Enter
• #29: George Bernard Shaw put it another way
• #30: How does collaboration work? Enter It works through compromise.
• #31: So how do we get there? How do we push our kids to develop 21 st century skills in a collaborative environment while at the same time differentiating for learning styles and the other factors that make our classrooms so diverse? We’ve talked about learning styles, the importance of differentiation, 21 st Century Skills, Networked Intelligence, and the essential role of collaboration. How does all this fit in with education and how can we make it happen?
• #32: Free, so you don’t need additional hardware or software. Highest level of Bloom’s
• #33: Picture came from a blog of a medical doctor in a small village of a third world country. They were making the point that they could stay in remote villages and be effective through collaborating with other in an online environment
• #34: Does this graphic remind you of one I showed earlier? The number of Web 2.0 tools can be overwhelming; pick a few to start. I look to see if they are free and if I can get student accounts without email addresses
• #35: There’s a lot out there, more than any one person could know with more and more applications developed and released daily
• #36: How do we get from this room to a place where students are creating, Where their learning styles are met? Where learning is differentiated for them? Where they learn 21 st century skills like collaboration?
• #39: Really a combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”
• #40: Very simple
• #41: I gave no training to my students; just told them the program
• #42: The sample comes from a group of 5 th graders in Great Britain. Publish to the world; imagine how powerful that is!
• #46: If you’re thinking this, you probably aren’t alone
• #48: We’ve all heard of wikipedia; how many don’t allow it? Steve Jobs has called Wikipedia one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world. Check the accuracy. The power is that it is a collaboratively written report
• #54: In a classroom or meeting the most outspoken get heard. But what about that quiet person next to you? allow quiet students to show off their talents in a way where they feel comfortable. Now all of a sudden they are part of the conversation and part of the decision-making process. How powerful is that? EVERYONE is participating, thinking, communicating, and collaborating! I had a student last year who rarely said anything in class but was quite vocal on the wiki. It gave me an insight into her thinking that I would never have been able to tap into without the wiki.
• #55: What level of Bloom’s?
• #56: Any language arts teachers? Do students currently keep portfolios? This is easy; parents can see the work; students have a product at the end of the year or the end of their school career. Many colleges are actually requiring e-portfolios
• #57: Is collaboration a 21 st Century skill?
• #59: 2006 I took part in a 2 week professional development institute---free to the district and myself—that compared conservation issues and land use management issues between Texas and Montana. I developed several friendships, including one with a teacher from Montana (Connie Mogan). Connie and I developed a collaborative project for our students.
• #60: You can see from this google map image how different our two areas of the country are. Connie teaches in a rural K-12 school where the closest WalMart is 200 miles away. She’s the only science educator and she had 8 7 th graders the year we did this project. Tall grass prairie ecosystem
• #61: Arcola Intermediate School, on the other hand, has over 400 students in the 7 th grade class alone and the 2 nd largest shopping center in the nation and just a few minutes away Deciduous forest ecosystem
• #64: A forb is a wildflower or grass; basically a perennial non-woody plant
• #68: 50 educators this year; 100 next year. Run by Discovery Education. 1 week in Silver Spring, MD with phenomenal speakers and workshops. Pulled together 50 educators across the nation to give us an opportunity to learn more about STEM provided the kind of experience that leads to generating collaborative projects. Everyone in the group actually developed a collaborative project with at least one other teacher
• #77: Non-profit global network that enables teachers and students to use the internet to collaborate on learning projects
• #78: “ My Identify, your Identity” This project involves students in researching the elements that form their identities, such as traditions, famous landmarks, clothing, food, and other things that make up their culture
• #79: List of current projects The site is searchable by subject matter, grade level, and language
• #83: Project geared for middle schoolers; other projects geared for high schoolers Only 16 schools will be accepted; sign ups are going on now
• #85: Have parents sign a letter at the beginning of the year explaining the wiki. Allow them to be readers so they can see what their child is doing
• #86: ISTE: International Society for Technology and Education (in Philadelphia next year)
• #91: Lots of ideas, tutorials, etc. This power point is posted there