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About Me
My name is Marianne Broderick and I teach Grade One in an elementary public school in Vancouver, British Columbia. During my 10 years as an elementary school teacher, I have taught at every grade level and even within the learning resources room. These experiences have taught me a lot about myself, but they have also taught me that even within one classroom with one grade, a multitude of learning needs and diverse learners exist. I believe that integrated technology within a face-to-face classroom will enhance and support student learning by providing students with additional opportunities to explore new information or new platforms to practice and share their learning. The challenge is to carefully assess student’s needs in order to purposefully integrate technology in an advantageous way. Within the context of my current classroom and school, we have limited access to technology. There is a fairly outdated computer lab with 30 computers. As well, the school has recently purchased a set of iPad minis to be shared within the school of nearly 400. Needless to say, embedding technology successfully needs to also incorporate careful scheduling so that the lab or iPad cart is available. However, these issues are not insurmountable and I am excited to find mew media or platforms to use with a Grade One class.
To date, I have had personal experiences with Learning Management Systems (LMS) through my MET course. After a quick exploration and continued use, I am now familiar and comfortable using this particular LMS. However, with the particular age group I work with, I have not created any online courses using an LMS. I am new to using Moodle or Edmodo. I have heard that these are common LMS used by teachers to deliver online course or online content. Therefore, I am hoping to develop a through understanding of how to setup and manage an online course site. I am also curious to see if these can be used with primary students or simply with older students.
Goals for ETEC565A and Classroom Practice
I want to create practical, hands on experiences with technology for my students that enhance their learning. As Palloff and Pratt note, “technological developments may be helpful in accommodating various student learning styles” (2001, p. 7). Thus, technology and various media can be introduced to account for and support the multitude of learning styles within a classroom. Technology and online learning can also require active engagement because students must actively search for and locate information, when it was once simply presented to students. Likewise, students can engage in game play to reinforce or utilize learned skills. I wish to gain a better understanding of appropriate social software or multimedia that I can adapt and use with my students so that learning can transcend the classroom. For example, parents are intertwined in a grade one’s learning success. I think that communication between teachers, students and parents are paramount in the success of a grade one student. Thus, when Chickering and Gamson contend that good practice “encourages contacts between students and faculty” (1987, p.1) I believe that this principle can and should be extended to communication between all three parties.
I would like to develop a website that incorporates blogging or a discussion component that allows for student, teacher and parent interations. I would like this to be a website that also allows students to share their work with a larger audience. In my experience, when students write for a purpose or for a larger community they can often be more motivated and enthused. Thus, they are writing or creating for a purpose. This places higher expectations on students to produce quality work as they extend the extra effort because they know that their work is being viewed by others.
Resources
At this juncture, I believe that the e-learning tool kit associated with this course will be an important resource as I begin to explore Moodle or additional LMS. I also think that peers within the program and colleagues within my own school are important resources. However, I cannot discount the importance of hands on exploration so delving in and exploring the various affordances made available within the platform will be an important learning experience.
As for multimedia or social software, I wish to explore and develop a deep bank of available resources that I can access and use with students throughout the year in our thematic units. I would also like students to actively use the new iPad minis to develop plays or videos to share aspects of their learning. Developing digital literacy at an early age is one aspect of technology that I am striving to incorporate into my classroom. The SECTIONS framework (Bates and Poole, 2003), will be an important checklist to determine whether these new resources will be an asset in the classroom as I begin to determine whether new resources and technologies are advantageous and in line with the learning goals for grade one.
Proceed to my Intro Module page to read about my first experience with Moodle.
References
Bates, A.W., & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. InA.W. Bate & G. Poole, Effective teaching with technology in higher education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Chickering, A.W., & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher EducationBulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articples/sevenprinciples1987.htm
Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (2001). Online learning in the new Millenium. In R.M. Palloff& K. Pratt. Lessons from the cyberspace classroom: The realities of online teaching (pp. 3-39). Somerset NJ: Jossey-Bass.