Week+6


 * Week 6 - Monday, June 17 - Sunday, June 23 **

**This Week's Lesson:** Looking Back and Ahead at Technology, Teaching and Technology Integration (this is the LAST lesson for this course!)

**Required Readings:** There are FOUR readings to complete this week

**Required Viewings:** none

**This Week's Assignment/What's Due:** There are TWO things due this week (including the final VoiceThread reflection project)

**Reflections on Last Week**

Hi folks - by now (Tuesday, June 18 at 9:30am) you should have received an email from me with specific feedback and a grade on your repurposed lesson plan. A couple of you got in touch with me in advance to ask for an extension on that or the TechTools 2 post. And a couple of you didn't get in touch with me in advance but still didn't turn in the assignment. But overall, I was really impressed with the lesson plans you came up with! I'll say that it made grading them a lot easier, because each of you really seem to have 'gotten into' whatever tech tool you'd chosen and really ran with it.

What is most pleasing to me an instructor, really, is that in almost every instance you were able to design at least, if not to teach, a lesson that you really wanted or needed to use in your class. I'm glad that the assignment seemed be so practical for the most of you. In terms of some general feedback:

1) a couple of you mentioned specifically that you did not follow TPCK insofar as you started with the new tech tool and built a lesson around it (whereas TPCK stresses starting with the content objectives first and having our tech choices be determined by them). I think it is completely logical and reasonable to do this 'backwards' from time to time - especially if we are not used to using technology in the classroom or do not necessarily feel very confident (either not feeling 'tech savvy' or foreseeing any number of potential behavior distractions with the new tool, etc.). To decide for yourself that you want to try a new piece of technology and then design a lesson around it makes sense when you're trying it out for the first time or trying to use it in a new way for the first time. I think what the TPCK folks are getting at is that we shouldn't subordinate content and/or effective teaching to tech tools //all the time// or have our classrooms turn into a parade of shiny new tech toys to play with. And, I think they are (rightly) putting the stress on finding a balance between content objectives, good teaching and the appropriate piece of technology, not simply using tech for its own sake. I did not get the sense from anyone's lesson plan that the tech tool was this extraneous add on, but rather that you had all really thought through how best to integrate the piece of technology in your classroom.

2) as with both tech tool posts, the choices you made for the lesson plan ranged across different 'categories' of technology: tools that allowed you to group or engage students differently (I'm thinking here of Sarah's lesson using google docs to engage students in group discussions about //Romeo and Juliet//); to tools that allowed you to manage student work and 'data' more efficiently so as to get a quick overview of their learning (I'm thinking here of Lisa Rose using an online quiz-making platform to get and organize student results in almost-real time, a couple of you used different clicker-response programs/hardware, etc.); to using your lesson to actually teach kids how to use technology explicitly or how to use it with appropriate etiquette (I'm thinking here of Lisa Schoen's lesson which was about teaching kids how to extend their knowledge of iMovie to using Photobooth, or Edward's lesson that explicitly taught kids how to draft appropriate emails); to lessons in which using the technology actually //transformed// what you would do or what the kids would do (say, with Stephanie's use of PhotoStory which changes somewhat what the kids are able to do with telling a story in Spanish, or Ashley's use of QR codes that really changes how kids would practice/review their sight words, or Melissa using Dipity to create timelines to replace the old accounting ticker paper method but then thinking of new kinds of assignments kids could do with the Dipity site). None of the ways of integrating technology into your teaching is better than the other. The only thing I would prompt you on is to try to find a balance in the ways you use technology. That is, if using a tech tool to manage student data is what comes to you naturally and makes sense to you, then challenge yourself periodically to use technology to meet a different goal. The categories I just used to organize your lesson plans are not exhaustive - I'm just trying to point out the different goals we can meet using technology. I think mixing it up is a great way to go - mostly so the students don't fall into routines or otherwise get bored with the new tech tools you're using in class.

btw - I purposefully mentioned a few projects to whet your appetite to encourage you to poke around everyone else's other projects - so much great stuff there! In fact, a couple of you mentioned specifically that the the tech you were using you got from a peer's TechTools 1 post!

3) most of you were not able to teach your lesson given the timing of the assignment, and only a couple of you mentioned student behavior in relation to introducing a new tech tool. So, just to cover my bases, I'll make this general comment but you probably already know this: when using a new tech tool or using a tech tool in a new way, part of the lesson needs to be teaching kids explicitly your expectations for //how// they are to use that tool, not just //what// you want them to produce with it. This might mean that a lesson you've done in the past with just white board, pencils and paper that took you one class period might in fact take 2 or 3, since part of the new lesson with the new tech tool is teaching kids how to use that tool appropriately. Without allowing for this extra time and being explicit about your expectations, things might get a little hairy. Even then, they might get a little hairy. But the message is not to abandon the use of this new tech tool just because student behavior was a little off that day - come back to it, re-teach it, and then re-teach it again.

And thanks so much for finding such great reading resources last week!

Looking ahead, we're in the final stretch here. You have some reading to do this week, one final discussion post due Friday with responses due Sunday. And then one last final project, which is a reflection I'm asking you to post in audio or video format as a comment to a Voicethread page I've started. Details on this assignment are linked below. In terms of time management: I don't think the technology for this final project will be too demanding, which means that I'll ask you to be extra thoughtful in the comments you make in the final reflection. There are specific prompts to help you frame these comments - and I do strongly suggest that you either script out what you want to say or at least make a bullet point outline.

As always, be in touch with any questions or concerns.

For this session I would like to have you focus on thinking about the __past //AND// future__ of technology and teaching, which is also the topic of your small group discussions this week.
 * This Week's Lesson **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Historian, edtech researcher and retired professor, Larry Cuban wrote a book in 1986, titled //Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920//(click here for a student's review of the book). He followed this up with another book in 2003, //Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom//. For access to his more recent ideas, you can subscribe to his blog,Larry Cuban on School Reform and Practice. And, in March 2013 his latest book was published, //Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice//. Cuban, among other scholars, argues that although technology continues to be integrated into the classroom (at an alarming rate, in some cases), teachers still maintain many of the same practices they did before the integration of technology. In short, the argument he has often shared is that //the tools change but teaching doesn't//, something you can read more about in this article by Mishra, Koehler and Kereuluik, if you'd like. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">However, we're in an age of unprecedented growth and change, locally and on a global scale. It's even hard to imagine what will be available one month, one year or even longer. In fact, imagine the ways in which technology did and still will change schooling and education twenty five years from now. Imagine what a "future" classroom might look like. . . //will there still be desks and/or tables and chairs? Will textbooks still be common (what about e/texts)? What tools will be utilized for learning? Will the teacher's role be any different? How about the students - what will their role(s) be? What will future technological tools include and how will they be re-purposed for educational uses and applications?//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Also, what about the role of digital citizenship and digital etiquette in the future? Throughout this course we have focused on the affordances and constraints of technological tools, so what might be affordances and constraints in the future? What types of skills and dispositions will be a necessary part of the curriculum 25 years from now (think about Davidson's text and the arguments she makes about learning, teaching and education)? Will there be more of an emphasis on digital ethics and cyber-safety? Will students and teachers continue to meet in real-time or will more hybrid and/or online options emerge (for better or worse)? Take a look at Edudemic's concept maprelated to what they say educational technology will look like in the future. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This week's readings and responding encourage you to think about where we've come from as well as imagine what the future of schooling and education.


 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Required Viewings: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">none

<span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Required Readings: (there are FIVE required readings for this week)** - you have choice for reading 1; then readings 2-4 are required for everyone)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**1.)** Blake-Plock, S. (2012). 21 things that will become obsolete in education by 2020. The Daily Riff [blog]. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**1.)** Walsh, K. (2012). 10 emerging education and instructional technologies that all educators should know about (2012). EmergingEdTech [blog].
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">CHOOSE **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">OR **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**2.)** Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920 [introduction]. New York: Teachers College Press. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">READ ALL OF THESE LISTED BELOW: **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">3.) Cuban, L. (2013) "Inside the black box of the classroom practice: Change without reform in American education." Blog post.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**4.)** Aslan, S., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2011). A trip to the past and future of educational computing: Understanding its evolution. //Contemporary Educational Technology//, 2(1), 1-17.

[NOTE - yes, this reading assignment line-up has changed since Monday, June 17. One of the articles listed to choose for reading #2 is no longer available, and the other option was really only tangentially related to this week's topic. So, I just took both of them out. That means pick one of the two articles listed by #1, and then please read the the other three - jb]


 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">This Week's Assignment/What's Due: **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1.) Read the assigned readings and post an initial 200-300 word response to the ideas captured in these texts. NOTE: As part of your discussion, you MUST include specific references to Cuban's (1986 and 2013) texts as well as the Aslan and Reigeluth (2011) piece. You should also include at least TWO follow up comments in your group's discussion. **Initial post are due Friday, June 21 and TWO follow up comments are due Sunday, June 23.**

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">2.) Read through the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">VoiceThread final project assignment and read/review any tutorials you may need, in order to become familiar with this tool (as I've already noted earlier, VoiceThread has quite a few and there are many online). Your **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">VoiceThread final reflection project post is due Thursday, June 27. **