Technology Integration (2024)

Being able to understand and apply educational technology research is an important part of being a technology facilitator. Throughout your program, you read a variety of research articles and have access to many sources of research. As educational technology is constantly changing, you should complete the program with the ability and desire to find new research about current and emerging technologies in the schools and apply that to your own teaching and help other teachers apply it to their teaching. This will help you keep up to date with best practices and use technology most effectively to improve student learning.

Use and apply major research findings and trends related to the use of technology in education to support integration throughout the curriculum.

Engage in ongoing planning of lesson sequences that effectively integrate technology resources and are consistent with current best practices and major research findings for integrating the learning of subject matter and student technology standards.
TF-II.B
TF-III.A
TF-III.E
TF-IV.C

I conducted a lot of research and wrote a paper in ED 670 about math interventions for below grade level students. The purpose behind this research paper isto better understand and find a solution to the problem that there are too manystudents who are below grade level in math. This paper briefly reviews theimpact of poverty and culture on learning, the process of learning, technologyconnected with learning, and positive reinforcement. An intervention using technology programs isproposed. The discussion focuses on whystudents living in poverty and from a different cultural background can havedifficulty learning in a traditional American public school setting. This conversation is important, because itinvokes issues crucial to our understanding of low performing students andquestions what can be done to help fix this problem. Unfortunately there is not much that I can do to help a student's family with financial matters, but I can implement using technology as part of an intervention plan to help low achieving students make significant academic gains. Technology is proven to help low achieving students improve academically, especially students who do not have access to technology at home.

The problem I researched is whythere is such a high number of below grade level math students and how to help get them become successful more successful in math. Thistopic is important, because I teach math to elementary school children and Iwould like to find out which program would be the most beneficial to use for anintervention for below grade level third grade students. In the past my school has used Fastt Math withour students. Last year and this year,we were encouraged to use our computer lab time for First In Math, instead of FasttMath. Both programs are still availableto our school and I wanted to see if one is more effective for third gradestudents. The program that proves to bethe most effective, based on student growth of math facts, math grades, andnumber sense assessments, will be used as an intervention in the future to helpbelow grade level math students increase their mathematical knowledge. In this research, the question beingevaluated is, what is the best way tohelp below grade level math students improve their math knowledge and scores? I conducted research and now I am conducting a below grade level math intervention at the end of each school day using the program First In Math. I am able to use and apply major research findings and trends related to the beneficial use of technology to support low achieving students in education and to support integration of technology interventions throughout the curriculum. I will continue to plan lesson sequences that effectively integrate technology resources and are consistent with current best practices and major research findings for integrating the learning of subject matter and student technology standards.

Integration of technology into the curriculum has the most direct impact on student learning. You should have a firm grasp of how to plan lessons that use technology effectively to improve student learning.

· Engage in ongoing planning of lesson sequences that integrate technology with district, state, and national content and technology standards.

· Engage in ongoing planning of developmentally appropriate lesson sequences and curriculum units that integrate technology.

Engage in ongoing planning of lesson sequences that use methods and strategies for teaching concepts and skills that support most of the following: integration of technology productivity tools, technology communication skills, research tools, multimedia elements, multimedia authoring tools, and distance learning tools and systems.

TF-II.A
TF-II.C
TF-III.A
TF-III.C
TF-III.E

Being a technology facilitator requires the ability to use technology resources, find new resources, and find ways to acquire new resources that are compatible with the standards used in your school.

· Identify and locate technology resources for your classroom and your school and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability based on district and state standards.

· Demonstrate an awareness of grant-writing/fundraising opportunities to obtain technology resources for your school.

TF-II.C

Technology Funding Paper

I wrote a funding paper in ET680 Role of the Technology Leader, which includes three different technology grants that are specific to the needs of Talbott Springs Elementary School. It took a lot of time to find grants that would meet the needs of my school and that my school had a good chance of obtaining. The grant application process looks like it will be very time consuming, but if we can establish a technology team that would work on this together, we might be able to get some new technology for our school. The funding paper allowed me to analyze what the technology needs are at my school and the best ways of getting them. This paper shows that I was able to find grant opportunities to obtain technology resources for my school. I was able to analyze specific grants to determine if my school met the criteria for each grant, our chances of receiving funding for each grant, and if it met the needs for my school. The technology that would be most useful to write a grant for at this time is iPads or tablets.

Obtaining iPads or tablets for our school would help to improve the instruction of students in many ways. An iPad or tablet has the capability of downloading academic applications, which students could greatly benefit from. Our school has a significant number of students who are below grade level in reading and math. There are free applications available to iPad and tablet users, designed specifically to improve elementary aged student growth in the areas of reading, math, spelling, health, social studies, and science. There are applications that focus on sight words, spelling, letter identification, counting, math facts, number sense, read aloud stories, BrainPOP videos and quizzes, PBS videos, and many more amazing academic opportunities to relearn objectives taught in class. There are also many websites that have academic practice and games that would be beneficial.

In our school day, there are about 15 minutes in the morning and the afternoon where below grade level students could be using these applications. They could plug in headphones to the iPads or tablets to keep themselves focused and engaged, as well as limiting the distractions that the noises from the programs may cause to other students in the classroom. The students would be having fun playing academic games that are on their academic level with a focus that they could benefit from. If a student used an application or a game for 30 minutes every day, that would be 150 minutes (or 2.5 hours) a week, which would add up to 10 hours a month. Imagine in just one month how much progress a student could gain by independently engaging themselves in academic applications or games on the iPads or tablets that are focusing on a specific academic weakness for each child.
While focusing on improving student writing abilities, the iPads or tablets would be an excellent tool to use. Students could use programs such as Pixie to write, illustrate, and record themselves reading their own stories. This would help the students to improve their fluency and expression in reading, as well as helping the students visualize their story details coming to life. Using Pixie to illustrate their writing would also help motivate the students to add detailed descriptions to their work. This research was helpful, because now I have a good start to choosing and applying for a grant in the near future.

Some of the specific state standards that students would be able to meet while working with iPads or tablets are:

Reading:
Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. (CCSS 3.RL.2)
Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. (CCSS 3.RI.2)
Decode multisyllable words. (CCSS 3RF.3.c)
Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words. (CCSS 3RF3.d)

Math:
Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide. (CCSS 3.OA.5)
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (CCSS 3.OA.7)

Currently my school has a computer lab sign up sheet that is monitored by our technology teacher. The current procedure is for a teacher to email our technology teacher and she will post your name on the computer lab schedule. Hardly anyone does this, because the calendar does not often get updated.

If our school had a calendar that showed all of the available technology that our school has and a way to sign up for it ourselves, the teachers would be using technology much more often in their classrooms. There are many different ways of how technology can help students improve academically. There are a lot of academic games for students to use to accelerate their learning. In addition to educational games, there are tools for students to use, which would allow them to create an open-ended project to show what they know. This would solidify the knowledge that they learned. The students could then present their project to the rest of the class to help reinforce the objectives being taught. Many teachers at our school struggle to get students with short attention spans to stay engaged and to reach the wide range of academic needs of their students. Due to the graphics, sounds, and colors, the hands on approach of using technology in the classroom could have a strong positive impact on students who have short attention spans.

There are many different websites that can be used to help teachers cover a large range of objectives. Every student in my school has an account on www.Firstinmath.com, which has a large variety different math skills that can be practiced and tracked through games, where students can earn virtual stickers. It would be beneficial for the students to get more time during the school day to access all that this website has to offer. It has fun interactive games that are very engaging for students, while they are learning to solve addition and subtraction word problems (MSC 6.C.1.c), identify and apply the concept of inverse operations to multiplication and division (MSC 6.C.1.j) and read, write, and represent fractions as parts of a set using symbols, words, and models (MSC 6.A.2.b). There are many other amazing websites to help students with math such as www.multiplication.com, which allows students to become fluent with multiplication facts with fun interactive games. There are also websites such as, www.starfall.com that can help students become better readers. Students can conduct research online using child friendly search engines such as, www.kidrex.org to create a PowerPoint presentation or a podcast using GarageBand.

Our school needs to embrace all of the technology that we have to help accelerate academic student growth. Creating an online interactive calendar is a very important issue to fix with an somewhat easy solution. I told our technology teacher about my plan and she is excited to try it. We will need to train our staff on how to use and check the technology sign up calendar for it to be successful. I look forward to helping my school complete this task.

Managing a classroom that uses technology can be a challenge. You should have a variety of strategies for managing the technology itself as well managing students in a technology-rich learning environment.

Use methods and classroom management strategies for teaching technology concepts and skills in individual, small group, classroom, and/or lab settings.

Develop and implement a variety of strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.

TF-II.A
TF-II.D
TF-II.E
TF-III.D

Our group created a stand-alone PowerPoint/VBA project for students to use during math class. The project we have created uses an interactive PowerPoint to support students as they review basic division and long division. This student-directed, self-paced activity, titled “Division Adventures,” takes the learner through an amusem*nt park and presents math problem solving scenarios. The “choose your own adventure” format of the PowerPoint offers numerous paths for the student to follow, as well as an engaging opportunity for students to apply their knowledge of mathematics. The students begin by solving basic division problems, and as the PowerPoint advances, the problems become more challenging. Using VBA script, we have designed the activity so that the students are unable to advance to the next slide unless they select the correct answer.

This project will be engaging for the learner, much more so than doing division problems on a worksheet or from a textbook. The interactive nature of the PowerPoint, presenting choices and unique paths at every turn, will make the learning experience exciting for the student. The review videos will serve as helpful tutorials for the students to reference if they get confused. Another way that this activity surpasses paper and pencil division is that the PowerPoint gives the student instant feedback to let them know whether or not he or she has answered a problem correctly. If the assignment was done on a worksheet, the students would not know how they did until their teacher graded their work and gave it back to them the next day. This technology-rich review activity also helps the teacher with grading, because the students’ scores will appear on their computer screens automatically. The project also includes VBA scripts that allows students to print out their results. The teacher can record them and use those scores as a grade.

The scenarios in our PowerPoint present division using real life situations that may arise in an amusem*nt park. The ability to apply math in a realistic context is a powerful connection for students to understand. The interactive PowerPoint/VBA format that we created goes beyond the typical worksheet or textbook because it allows the students to work at their own pace, get immediate feedback, use their time efficiently, make connections to real life scenarios, stay engaged, and get motivated about learning math.

As a technology facilitator, you must understand the importance of both teachers and students behaving legally and ethically and providing a safe and healthy environment for student learning with technology. This includes having an understanding of current issues, such as copyright laws and cyberbullying, as well as finding ways to be connected to emerging issues.

• Enforce legal and ethical standards among your students regarding the use of technology and information.
• Develop lessons embedded into your curriculum that teach responsible and copyright-compliant use of images, music, video, and other digital resources in varying formats.
• Enforce classroom procedures that guide safe and healthy use of technology and that comply with legal and professional responsibilities.
• Create school-wide policies and procedures that promote safe and healthy use of technology, including physical and emotional safety.
• Create classroom and school-wide policies and procedures that ensure equitable access to technology resources for all students and teachers.

TF-VI.A
TF-VI.D
TF-VI.E

Currently my school has a computer lab sign up sheet that is monitored by our technology teacher. The current procedure is for a teacher to email our technology teacher and she will post your name on the computer lab schedule. Hardly anyone does this, because the calendar does not often get updated.

I know that if our school had a calendar that showed all of the available technology that our school has and a way to sign up for it ourselves, the teachers would be using technology much more often in their classrooms. There are many different ways of how technology can help students improve academically. There are a lot of academic games for students to use to accelerate their learning. In addition to educational games, there are tools for students to use, which would allow them to create an open-ended project to show what they know. This would solidify the knowledge that they learned. The students could then present their project to the rest of the class to help reinforce the objectives being taught. Many teachers at our school struggle to get students with short attention spans to stay engaged and to reach the wide range of academic needs of their students. Due to the graphics, sounds, and colors, the hands on approach of using technology in the classroom could have a strong positive impact on students who have short attention spans.

I created policies and procedures for the technology sign up calendar to enforce classroom procedures that guide safe and healthy use of technology and that comply with legal and professional responsibilities. The school-wide policies and procedures also promote safe and healthy use of technology, including physical and emotional safety of teachers. The policies and procedures I created ensure equitable access to technology resources for all students and teachers. These policies and procedures enforce legal and ethical standards among teachers regarding the use of technology and information. Although these policies and procedures are geared towards the faculty and not the students, they are still able to meet the requirements for this standard.

Procedures and Policies For Reserving Technology At Talbott Springs Elementary School

The first step that needs to take place is for the technology teachers and myself to work together to create a Technology Calendar page on the TSES Wikispace. On this page would be a list of all of the pieces of technology that are available to be reserved including: Stationary Computer Lab, Ruth’s Computer Lab (one of our technology teachers has her own classroom set up as a computer lab using laptops), Macbook mobile computer lab, Netbook mobile computer lab, clickers, and smart board. Each technology item, when clicked, would go to another Wikispace page with a calendar. The technology calendar will have time slots that match our school schedule, so that teachers can reserve a technology item for a specific timeframe.

Before teachers may begin using the technology sign up system on the Wikispace, the technology teachers and I will need to show the staff how to access and use it during part of a staff meeting. This way we can be guaranteed that most of our staff members will be present to hear the information. The technology teachers and I would create a screencast reminder of how to sign up using the online technology calendar. This will be a permanent reminder for a teacher if he or she were to forget how to reserve technology. This video would be stored with the rest of the helpful directions that our technology teacher creates in our technology folder in CLC.

Teacher Procedures To Reserve Technology

1. To reserve technology online go to http://tsescollaboration.hcpss.wikispaces.net

2. Click on the Technology Calendar page on the right side of the screen. (This part is not on our school wiki yet, but hopefully I can help make this change happen.)

3. Click on the technology tool that you would like to reserve.

4. Type your name into the time slot on the day that you would like to use the technology and click save.

5. If you are reserving technology, besides using a computer lab, go to the media specialist or media assistant to get it and return it as soon as you are done.

Administrative Procedures To Maintain The Technology Calendars:

1. Each month I will add a new calendar to the Talbott Springs Wikispace for each piece of technology.

2. The same calendar will be posted each month with the computer lab blocked off during the times that technology classes are taking place in the lab, as well as the times that teachers are assigned to be in the lab to use First In Math.

3. I will look on the TSES calendar for scheduled events that will take place in the computer lab, such as the Science MSA and vision and hearing screenings. These event days will be blocked off during the month, so that teachers know that they are not available at that time.

Procedure To Report A Technical Error or Problem

1. If there is an error on the schedule that you notice, please email Jessica Friedheim so that it cannot only get fixed for this month, but for all future months as well.

2. If the calendar will not let you save your reserve time, please email Ruth Walker so that she can fix it.

3. If you signed up for a piece of technology and go back and someone else erased your name and put their name in your time slot, email Ruth Walker. Ruth will check the history of the page and get an administrator involved.

Policies

Be Courteous
There will not be a limit on the number of times that you may reserve a piece of technology. However, remember not to reserve something so often that others may miss an opportunity to use it in their classrooms. Try your best to be a team player and share.

Overuse
If a teacher is not giving other teachers a fair chance to use certain pieces of technology by reserving it too often, an administrator may need to get involved.

Sign Up Window
Teachers will have access to reserve technology online for two calendar months at a time. There will be the calendar for the current month and the following month at all times. Each month a new calendar will be posted for teachers to access.


Our school needs to embrace all of the technology that we have to help accelerate academic student growth. Creating an online interactive calendar is a very important issue to fix with an somewhat easy solution. I told our technology teacher about my plan and she is excited to try it. We will need to train our staff on how to use and check the technology sign up calendar for it to be successful. I created school-wide policies and procedures as well as a time when administration may need to get involved if staff members are not allowing equitable access to technology resources for all students and teachers. I look forward to helping my school complete this task.

Technology can be a powerful tool for affirming cultural diversity. As a technology facilitator, you should be mindful of the variety of technologies that increase global understanding and affirm cultural diversity.

Facilitate students’ use of technology that addresses their social needs and cultural identity and promotes their interaction with the global community.

Select and apply current and emerging technology resources to affirm diversity and address cultural and languages differences.

TF-VI.B
TF-VI.C

(See Video Above)
I worked with a group to create a project that focused around understanding idioms and figurative meaning. We created a lesson plan to describe how this would fit into our daily instruction as well as a rubric that would be used to grade the student's project. The video, "Idioms Are a Piece of Cake" will be shown in the classroom to help students gain a better understanding of idioms. The students will then be assigned to work as a group to select an idiom of their choice and act out both the literal and figurative meaning on video. The group will be shown how to edit the video clips using iMovie to create a project that they will share with the rest of the class. Students will get a checklist, rubric, and an evaluation form to assist them in their completion of this project that combines technology with the curriculum.

Idioms and figurative language are often difficult for students who are from a different cultural background to understand. Many of the students at my school are English Language Learners (ELL) who do not speak English as their main language. Many students speak a different language when they are at home with their families, and the literal translation of idioms can be confusing. This activity will help ELL students, as well as others, get a better understanding of figurative language, such as idioms.

My school is very diverse and the students come from many different cultural backgrounds. There are students who attend our school who are from countries all over the world. Many have very different cultural experiences as well as cultural and language differences. Since our population is very diverse and we have students who are from all over the world attending our school A lot of students speak a different language when they are at home. This lesson will help bridge the gap of global cultural diversity and language barriors in the classroom, by teaching the meaning of many common figurative phrases. Once students understand what the real meaning is behind figurative language, they will be excited to use it in the global community. Students will get a burned copy of the skit they create, which they can take home and share with their parents. This allows the students to share the information they learn with their families and help the community gain a better understanding of figurative language that is common in our area.

My school participated in a program this year where students get to learn about the culture in Kenya through technology and music. Students watch video documentaries on the computer about the culture in Kenya, as well as learn Kenyan songs, games, and dances. Students learn how to make a backpack out of cloth and they get to see just how different life is in Kenya compared to life in The United States of America.

Tim Gregory came to our school and for two whole days taught our students Kenyan songs and interpreted the words into English. Below are portions of the videos that Tim Gregory filmed himself of his experiences in Kenya over the many years he has traveled there. There is a huge message that comes along with the ability to share experiences through technology, which is that the Kenyan people do not have all of the technology that we have here and they seem much happier than many American children. They dance and sing for hours as well as compete with each other playing games with sticks that develops coordination. At the end of the program the third grade students helped Tim Gregory lead an assembly for the rest of the school. After the program was over, Tim Gregory offered that teachers can join www.Kenyaconnect.org to become penpals with a class in Kenya. He also encouraged schools to create fundraisers to obtain money that can be donated to Kenya Connect to help obtain water stations, better schools, as well as school supplies for the Kenyan people. My third grade team of teachers partnered with our music teacher to write a grant to allow our students to experience this amazing event. Below are segments of one of the videos our students watched to better affirm diversity and address cultural and languages differences.

Technology can facilitate the needs of special needs students through adaptive and assistive technology and differentiated instruction. As a technology facilitator, you should understand these tools, use them in your classroom as needed, and be able to work with other teachers to use these tools as needed.

Select and apply appropriate technology resources for differentiated instruction to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.

Use technology and technology-related methods and strategies that support the needs of diverse learners including adaptive and assistive technology

TF-II.A
TF-III.B
TF-VI.B

Well-designed instruction and learning environments are a key factor in student learning. You should have a strong grasp of instructional design principles for a technology-rich environment.

Plan and implement technology-based learning activities that include an understanding of specific instructional design principles.

TF-II.F

This division project was created based on instructional design principles. My group and I created a storyboard laying out everything that would be in the project before starting. There are review videos within this project to help the student remember how to complete a division problem, if a student is having difficulty. There are multimedia elements in this PowerPoint including videos, photographs, clip art, and an interactive score keeper.

Our group followed the DDD-E process, Decide, Design, Develop, and Evaluate, in order to create a project that can be successfully implemented in a fourth grade classroom. Knowing that planning is an important factor in creating a successful product, our group started out in the Decide phase. We brainstormed many ideas that focused on intermediate skills, student topics of interest, and the curriculum. After careful consideration of all the ideas, we decided to make a stand-alone PowerPoint activity in which students review division in a fun way. We decided to include problems with varying degrees of difficulty, review slides, as well as provide students with the freedom to make choices within the math adventure. The latter was inspired by a series of children’s books titled “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. In our original plan, the adventure would begin with the student deciding whether he or she wanted to go to an amusem*nt park, the beach, or camping.

After deciding on a topic for our project and a platform for presentation, we made a rough draft, using paper and pencil, outlining the basic storyboard. In this Design phase, we made sample questions and worked through the blueprint of our plan. After exploring the amusem*nt park idea, we came to the conclusion that, during the the time allotted, our original idea was overly ambitious. We determined that the amusem*nt park idea had sufficient opportunity for division scenarios and offered students of this age an engaging context for applying content skills. Our group also found images and videos to enhance the interactivity and appearance of the PowerPoint. We discovered images that fall under a creative commons licence, allowing us to use them with attribution. In order to use the videos in our presentation, we requested permission to use the videos via email. We received permission to use one of the videos, and are awaiting a response for the other. During the following class period we used bulletin board paper and index cards to map out our project, determine a sequence for the presentation, as well as the location of our review slides within the show. We wrote in many details to outline what would be on each slide, which included the math problem, images, and buttons. Arrows were added to illustrate the path different buttons would take the user.

The Development phase was the culmination of our hard work and planning. This phase of the DDD-E model was made much easier because we had already mapped out the project on the storyboard and knew the chronology of the slides. After reviewing our interactive project idea and its place in a division unit, we developed a lesson plan to guide a teacher in using this project with children. The PowerPoint slides were constructed and scripted according to the storyboard and we inserted images and videos where it was appropriate.

Evaluation occurred through every step. The group evaluated the original brainstorming ideas and how each might play out. We asked ourselves many questions such as, “Do the slides look inviting,” “Are the slides in logical order,” and “Do we have enough review slides and are they appropriate and easily comprehensible?” As we created the interactive presentation in PowerPoint, we frequently evaluated the accuracy of our scripts by frequently checking buttons and features. Along the way, we evaluated the content, aesthetics, and efficiency of the project. At the conclusion of our project, the group completed formal evaluations to record reflections on the process and individual contributions to the project.

Maryland State Curriculum Standard: Students will divide whole numbers and use up to a 3-digit dividend by a 1-digit divisor and whole numbers with no remainders (0 - 999) (4.6.C.1.d).

Howard County Objective: Students will be able to divide a two- or three-digit number by a one-digit divisor with remainders (4.6.C.1.d) and students will be able to interpret the remainder for a given situation.

ISTE Technology Standard: The students will be able to collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions (4.c). The students will use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues (1.c). The students will be able to identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation (4.a).