Toni Greer
Lincoln School
Springfield, Illinois
Reflections on What I Learned in C & I 335
Throughout this course, Curriculum and Instruction 335, I have attained and developed many new and interesting skills. I have also been introduced to many ideas of which I need to practice in order to improve and perfect. Some of these areas would include the skills needed to use current tools associated with technology, communication, and multimedia. In addition, I am now aware of issues related to legalities, special needs, and ethics surrounding computer use in the classroom. Because of the new teaching methods and tools available to teachers, I am interested in learning about assessment activities which will help effectively evaluate student progress and growth.I feel comfortable using several technological tools to manipulate and generate data. Because of this class, I am able to create web pages using Claris Home Page 3.0, on which I can publish information for others. This is a program I would be able to teach to students, as well. I have had much practice in its use, and therefore, would have the confidence to use it effectively for and with my students. Fetch is another tool which I have directly learned about through this class. However, I am not very comfortable with it, mainly because I use Claris Home Page to upload and download my web pages. I did not have much success with Fetch when first introduced, and as a result, resorted to other means of publishing web pages. If ever I am going to use it in the future, I would need to have further instruction.
The methods used for communication purposes are the tools which are most beneficial and helpful to me. I am able to use e-mail, the Web Board, list serves, and the Internet. E-mail is a tool which I have used continually since I started teaching at Lincoln School. We use it for such purposes as announcing meeting dates and times, asking for materials which are needed for upcoming projects, getting information on new and interesting materials just discovered, and much, much more. I feel comfortable using e-mail with my students, and have done small projects with them in the past. I am planning to develop these projects into ideas that would go much further to expose them to the many functions and capabilities of this medium. Using the Web Board was a new experience for me this summer. Posting ideas and responding to others is quite necessary to have available when participating in an on-line class such as this. It is a great way to hold discussions with "distant" fellow classmates who share the same concerns and ideas. I found the daily office hours, in which we could "chat," were very helpful to use to clarify questions and gain understanding of assignments. List serves can be a very worthwhile means of getting valuable information quickly. I found that in the 48 hours in which I was a subscriber, loads of information came pouring in, offering advice and suggestions to those in need. Such a variety of information was offered, it was obvious to me that list serves are a most beneficial resource. I will be locating some before school begins to discover those geared at my subject and grade level concerns. The Internet is one of the largest resources available to communicate information to others. I feel that I have become better at "surfing" and can use the Internet to effectively acquire data and knowledge. Narrowing down a search is still a skill to be refined on my part. I need to master this skill a little better before allowing my students to do large searches. For now, I will continue to bookmark sites which narrow their paths to direct their search for information. As we get more efficient with the search engines and such, students will be allowed to browse for helpful sites also. Because CU-SeeMee is such a wonderful method of communicating with others, I would like to become more familiar with its uses and attributes. As of yet I would not be able to use it in my classroom because of my lack of knowledge and comfort level with this tool. I am aware of the capabilities for exciting and stimulating learning opportunities. I definitely want to "tap" into this resource.
Over the course of this class, I have been able to become more acquainted with the multimedia tools such as HyperStudio and Power Point. Because it is "user-friendly," HyperStudio is included as part of my Final Project. I will be instructing students on how to make a presentation of their researched information with this program. In the past, my purposes for using HyperStudio were personal. I intend upon integrating this multimedia tool into my curriculum on a more regular basis for student presentations, as I do feel comfortable with it. Power Point is another helpful medium to use for the displaying of information. I am not as knowledgeable with this program, so I am not accustomed to using it. On Family Night, the team of teachers I work with use this as our presentation device, and it is very impressive to parents. However, I was not the one responsible for creating and organizing the information. This year I am going to try to be more involved with the "makings" of this presentation to understand it better. At this time I would not be able to appropriately teach this to my students. With more practice on my part, I would like to use it in the classroom.
Important issues that I have become more aware of relate to legalities, special needs, and computer ethics. The activity in which we read several articles relating to critically reading the Web brought forth several ideas for validating web-based information with students. I intend to utilize the CARs checklist which outlines the methods to use to test for Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support. Other issues which were brought to my attention were the legal and ethical ramifications of copyright, piracy, censorship, and fraud. I will model for the students the appropriate manner in which to address each of these areas. In addition, plagiarism will be discussed with students-and the correct methods of note-taking and summarizing. In the assignment activity to follow, we researched our District's Acceptable Use Policy where I became more knowledgeable of the guidelines which are in place for proper educational usage. Students are asked to provide a signature indicating their acceptance of these rules, and a classroom management plan enforces it. Using Bobby to check pages for accessibility was a most interesting activity. I learned several techniques for creating web pages that disabled persons would be able to access more easily. This was a valuable experience and I hope to introduce this idea to my students. This concept needs to be brought to their attention, so they may better appreciate each others' differences and need for modifications. I definitely feel better equipped to handle the issues relating to legalities and special needs because of this class.
Evaluation is an area of concern for me. I hope to learn additional assessment techniques which allow for current instructional methods which include the use of technology. Our school uses rubrics to assess student work. I would like to become more familiar with tools such as portfolios-both in paper form and electronic form. I have tried keeping files of students' work showing the progress over the course of the school year, however, I was overwhelmed by the demands of keeping the files "up-to-date" and would soon tire out. I would like suggestions on how to be more effective with this method. I want to learn about various methods of keeping electronic portfolios and then "burning" the information onto a CD. What a super way to keep all the magnificent presentations and assignments with you, to then use in the future. One could continually refine and develop these projects, always having them in one place! Checklists are another way to assess student performance. However, I feel that this is more of a way of determining if students have achieved certain goals, rather than evaluating them in order to assign a percentage or letter grade. Is this all right?? Discovering research designs in which information concerning my classroom of students can be collected in order to compare to other groups also sounds interesting to me. I would like to be made aware of any new and appropriate methods of evaluating students. As students and teaching methods are changing, so should our evaluation techniques.
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