Final Reflection---CEDO 525

            This class has actually given me a refresher course in teaching best practices.  Sometimes I feel like we spend too much time with other work in education (i.e. staff development days that hold no meaning), that we forget to talk about what really is “best practice” in education.  By taking a hard look, and a reflective look, at the important instructional strategies listed by the class text, I have been able to re-examine what I do as a librarian and a teacher.  I am eager to change some of my practices and perhaps even help other staff members take a reflective look at their practice through the lens of these strategies.  I think the class text would make a great all-staff book study.

            One thing this class has solidified for me is the desire to try Readers’ Notebooks on a blogging platform, I like the feedback possibilities and the ease blogs bring to reinforcing effort and providing recognition.  However, I need to explore how to make this easy to manage for teachers, meaning I need to learn more about RSS.  A summer project!  :)

            I love how this class focused on best teaching practices and how to incorporate technology to support these practices, rather than focusing on technology first.  That is such an important lesson.  Technology is something that should not be used just for the sake of using it, just because it is the latest cool thing.  Technology needs to support student learning and teaching best practice.

Reflecting on Identifying, Practicing, and Hypothesizing

Identifying Similarities and Differences:  Identifying similarities and differences involves higher level thinking and can lead to deeper learning for students.  I think it would be a great way to work with vocabulary in the content areas; however, I think it is easy for teachers to overlook this kind of activity because of….you guessed it…TIME.  Technology can definitely be used with this kind of instructional strategy.  This strategy would work perfectly with a SMARTboard, and would. in fact, capitalize on a SMARTboard’s interactive capabilities rather than just using the interactive whiteboard as a glorified projector.  Teachers could create a file where students could move vocab words into certain categories, or teachers could group vocab words together and students could guess the categories the teacher is trying to create.  Whatever the activity, this instructional strategy is very important and can help teachers take their lessons and their students’ learning to the next level.

Homework and Practice: I am interested to see what the future of homework and practice truly looks like. Will classrooms go with the flipped approach?  Will all students get technology tools to take home to even the technological playing field?  Will learning truly become anywhere, anytime learning?  Our school currently issues netbooks to students for the school year at the 6^th and 7^th grade level.  This practice holds a lot of possibility and has been a boon for many students and families.  It has also raised a lot of questions in terms of maintenance and repairs and, more importantly, in terms of what constitutes good homework.  Having this technology should allow teachers to create and assign more meaningful homework and practice.  I also read an article recently denouncing the premise of flipping a classroom, arguing that we really should be questioning if just taking the traditional lecture and homework, lecture and homework approach and flipping it really adds value.  The author argued that simply taking the lecture out of the classroom doesn’t necessarily make more a classroom or teacher any better if the assignment and assessments weren’t meaningful and engaging.

Generating and Testing Hypotheses:  This is probably one of my weakest instructional strategies, but could easily be added to my teaching with a little thought and effort.  Having students generate hypotheses about the unit or the lesson ahead and writing about what they predict and why will help promote student learning.  It will also add purpose to their learning (and perhaps will help them become better hypotheses-makers in the class in which they are most accustomed to making hypotheses, science J).  Technology could easily help play a role in the incorporation of this strategy, through things like blog writing and tools that can be used for bell ringer activities (like Lino.it or Wallwisher).  I will definitely have to make incorporating this instructional strategy more of a goal next year.

Reflecting on Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort

Cooperative Learning:

I have always used some form of cooperative learning in my classrooms, and after reading this chapter and taking the classes I am currently taking, I feel like I have some new tools to try with cooperative learning.  Clearly, things like Google Docs are awesome for cooperative learning; being able to view revision history can help to ensure that all group members are contributing.  There are also many other technologies that can help facilitate cooperative learning, things like wikis, blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools.

One thing I will try as a result of what I have learned is to use a rubric specifically for the groupwork; a rubric like this can help students be reflective, can help keep them focused on being productive group members, and gives them a tool to self-assess and peer-assess.  I think for setting clear expectations for learners in terms of groupwork can only improve the cooperative learning experience for all.  

I also liked the suggestion to use cooperative learning for a variety of purposes and with a variety of group combinations.  There is a chance I will be teaching a 2 hour reading/writing block next year, and I think that having base groups for the whole semester would be a great thing.  These groups could be used for “morning meeting” type activities, home groups for jigsaw activities, revising and editing, etc.  These base groups wouldn’t be used for everything, though, and I think that is important.  These base groups could give the students a sense of security, a “home base” in class and perhaps be a place to encourage reflection.

Reinforcing Effort:

In my school, teachers are required to give students standard effort and conduct comments on their report cards, in addition to a grade and individualized comments.  It is interesting to see how different students and parents react to them; some view the effort and conduct comments as even more important than grades, and some skim right over them.  As we review our grading practices, we have been brainstorming a rubric for effort, and I was interested to see one right in the chapter.  Another thing to bring to the discussion!

This section also makes me think of an article I read about praise and how it is impacting our students’ willingness – or unwillingness – to try.  Students who were praised for outcomes, like grades, become less and less likely to try things they found difficult, whereas students who were praised for their effort were more likely to attempt new things, attempt more difficult things, and be willing to fail in order to learn something new.  I think there is an important lesson in this for both parents and teachers.  We need to create learners who are willing to try new things and who are willing to risk mistakes in order to achieve greater learning and greater success.

Institutions Vs. Collaboration

Change is hard.  That is what I am feeling after watching Clay Shirky’s TED talk on institutions vs. collaborations.  Being part of an institution, it is difficult to imagine (or at least, it is difficult to WANT to imagine) a future where institutions have changed so drastically.  However, if I am honest, my job role is already undergoing this change…library media specialists must embrace their changing role or say goodbye to their jobs.  The institution of the school library no longer looks the same as it did as recently as five years ago; librarians who are embracing more collaborative environments and technologies are not only revitalizing their library spaces and programs, but also leading the change to this collaborative model for their schools.

The institution of school is also already changing, as evidenced by virtual schools and blended learning models.  Although I don’t believe the institution of school could ever completely go away, some of the constructs and constraints of the current model could definitely evolve by using a more collaborative model.  For instance, by using online and blended learning models, the four walls of the classroom can disappear or be used more infrequently.  This could mean significant cost savings.  Also, the model of the traditional school year and of same-age classrooms could become more flexible.  Another example could be the informational resources used: traditional textbooks could be replaced with free or low-cost internet-based resources.  With the abundance of quality primary and secondary sources available online and the collaborative efforts of educator and field professionals sharing knowledge, information, and best practices, traditional textbooks would become obsolete.

Tools like Flickr, Twitter, and Wikipedia prove how powerful the volunteer effort of collaboration can be, overcoming many institutional constraints.  It is difficult to imagine the institutions going away, but it is definitely exciting to see the possibilities that a more collaborative model can bring.  I can only hope that I (and other educators) have the energy to keep up with the changes that this model might mean for our classrooms, our schools, and our careers.

Comparison of Online Mapping Tools

Looking at online mapping tools was interesting.  There are definitely more available than I knew about.  We use Inspiration in our school, but definitely not to the degree it could be used.  It seems very easy to forget about it in the day-to-day workings in a classroom.  

I like all three of the online tools I examined (bubbl.us, MindMeister, and Exploratree),  I was prepared to like Exploratree the least, because at first glance, it seemed the least collaborative.  However, this is not the case; like the other tools, it can be used collaboratively and can even be posted for feedback and review.  Exploratree might be the best to use for collaborative purposes in education because of the fact that it is free.

It will be interesting to see if I would use these in a classroom; I have always been a “make-it-myself” kind of teacher.  I feel that with the collaborative possibilities of Google Docs, I still could make my own mind maps or graphic organizers and share these with students just as easily as using most of these tools.

	bubbl.us	MindMeister	exploratree
Creator/ Company/ Organization	bubbl.us	Meister Labs	Futurelab
Ease of Use	easy to learn clear getting started and help guides	extensive online help tutorials available	clear help guides video tutorials available
Features	can embed on other websites can choose to share as a collaborative or read only doc clean interface app for Google Chrome Facebook page provides many usage tips	change history is saved change history can be played back mobile apps for Apple and Android devices stored online all users access same doc clean interface Geistesblitz Widgets lets you add ideas to a default map from anywhere connects with Twitter offline mode connects with Google Docs Facebook page provides ideas for use	developed with school and classroom learning in mind pre-made or create-your-own templates can be printed out or filled out on website can be revealed in a sequence to help guide thinking process can comment on other’s guides or submit your own for comments
Number/ Types of Organizers	create-your-own, no pre-existing templates	Over 35 templates in categories such as education, business, entertainment, life, technology, etc.	Over 25 templates
Collaborative Possibilities	share through email or direct link can collaborate with other bubbl.us users	share through email or direct link real-time collaboration with color-coded changes live chat features	share through email or direct link
Cost	with 50% educational discount, it is $3 / month or $29 / year	3 free maps Personal:$4.99 / month Academic pricing: http://www.mindmeister.com/academic	Free
Drawbacks	Collaborators have to bubbl.us users Cost prohibitive to use in a whole class setting	Cost prohibitive to use in a whole class or school setting	not as connected to other collaborative web tools or social media sites