Digital Technology for Teaching & Learning

Generally speaking, the Engaging e-Learning Course (Fall 2018)  was basically around three major assignments: Genius Hour project, Unit Design assignment and team discussions and reflections. Through these assignments, educators created engaging learning experiences by demonstrating and integrating digital tools to motivate and enhance a student's learning process. The Genius Hour project consisted of an on-going reflection journal from a skill or project we were interested to learn on our own. This activity encouraged the engagement of e-learning because it embraced the practice of online research, the use of media tools and communication skills by visiting others' genius hour projects. The Unit Design objective was to demonstrate the engagement of e-learning into different components of an unit design.  Throughout the unit, engaging lessons were planned to encourage 21st-century learning features. Some of the planned activities included onli...

One of the activities, that I enjoyed working within the Engaging e-learning (Fall/2018) course, was the creation of assessments for the unit design assignment. The main reasons were: exploring Google Forms side and learning how to create assessments and rubrics. I  am posting two students self-assessments as one of the artifacts for this course: teamwork rubric and an opinion writing rubric. Both assessments were created on Google Forms and with the intention of being graded by the students. In the multiple choice teamwork rubric, students evaluate how well they have been collaborating with each other on a common goal. The descriptors include how they did their work for the team, how they helped the team, if they listened to other ideas from their teammates, if they shared ideas with their team, and if they treated their teammates with respect. The scale rate offers three options: still learning, sometimes and almost always. Here is a...

I was introduced to the concept of the Feedback Quadrant during the Engaging e-Learning course (Fall/2018). As its name indicates, the purpose of this tool is to provide concrete feedback in four major areas:                                              Positive Comments       Things that Surprised you                                                 Questions   Suggestions for Change During this course, the Feedback Quadrant was used to review a classmate's unit project. The design of this tool was easy to follow not only for the reviewer but also for the person who receives it.  I found that this format of providing feedback is very practical because you can fill it up the quadrants by listing the ideas on...

Week 7: Genius Hour Reflection December 9, 2018 I used to think that the art of typing consisted of moving your fingers fast through the keyboard.  I always wondered how people found the right letters without looking at the keys. In my years of high school and college, I got in the habit of typing with two fingers and with my eyes on the letters instead of looking at the screen and consequently, making mistakes all over the place. It was for me faster to write on paper than to use a typing machine. With the influence of technology in my life, typing is a skill that I use a lot and I believe it is a skill that everyone must learn.  I am glad I chose to learn typing as my Genius Hour project because after 7 weeks of dedication and practice I would say that it is a worthy task.  I learned the importance of keeping my fingers on the home row as a reference for locating the rest of the letters. Together with this, even now my eyes are...

Week 6: It's Showtime November 27, 2018 On this week, I have been practicing my typing skills in an additional online resource and I completed my typing practice course on  RATATYPE . I tried another online resource that it has helped me improve my typing skills: 10fastfingers !   10fastfingers is a website that through different modalities encourages improved typing speed with short practices. It also allows online interactions among practitioners. I worked on the Typing Test Session that gives you a random group of words to be typed in a minute. Here is a sample of an exercise: And here is the result chart of the practice above: I  enjoyed practicing in 10fastfingers as well because its activities, with real words, not only help me focus on the adequate mechanical use of the keyboard but also on the content of my typing. I would continue using it for the practice of my accuracy. I will be worried abou...

Week 5: We are Learners. We Strive. November 21, 2018 The following DIP Chart exemplifies the stages I have gone through with my Genius Hour Project: Learning Typing At this point in my genius hour project in learning to type, I would say that I am getting better in tapping letter keys correctly.  As the practice advances, the exercises become harder, especially with the inclusion of numbers and punctuation marks practices. As an example, you can see it on the snipped image below: These kinds of exercises require more than one practice. It may take more time for me to develop the agility in my typing skills but it is part of my learning process.  I enjoy seeing my progress.  Improving my typing skills is a challenge but it makes me happy.

Week 4: Expect the Mutiny November 13, 2018 I feel that my daily practice in typing has helped me achieve the goal of learning the home row keys while I am getting more confidence in my typing skills. Something that makes me feel good is that I am getting more accuracy on my typing. Now I know where the letters are on the keyboard and started using the home row keys to learn each finger ’s position . Additionally, I have been working on the index, middle, ring and pinky’s finger exercises. Here is the record of the completion activities from the RARATYPE for this week: One tip that I have learned is that the typing posture is very important. Sitting properly while I type has helped me keep my mind and hands focused on practicing typing in the correct way. When my body is leaning towards the monitor, with my back straight and my hands on the keyboard, my concentration increases a nd my miscues are less.  Here is some information obtained from the RARATYPE website ...

Week 3: Elevator Pitch November 8, 2018 This week it was time in class for sharing and highlighting where we were in the process. There was a pair-share activity in which we explained why our topic is worthwhile and meaningful to us and how we will be sharing it in the future.

Week 2: Routines October 30, 2018 I started my research on googling: “typing best practices” and I was so excited to see many websites available that could help me improve my typing skills. After surfing to a couple website links, I found the article How to Learn Typing very helpful for beginners in typing. In fact, it provides information about the basic of touch typing such as finger position, home row position fingers, ways to remember key rows, useful free websites and software and thirty-day lessons for beginners. Here are some of the visual aids taken from the article: I n theory, I learned that each hand, left or right, is in charge of a particular set of letters on the keyboard. Fingers have designated letters. Learning typing starts knowing the home row keys that are the row of keys on the computer keyboard your fingers rest on when not typing. For example, on the standard QWERTY United States keyboard, the home row keys for your left-hand are A, S, D, and...

Week 1: Discovery and Education October 23, 2018 "If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you."  -Steve Jobs One of the skills that I would like to learn for my personal and professional life is to type using both hands and looking at the screen instead of the keyboard, learn home row, and be able to do it with some speed and efficiency.  I would like to set some initial goals for this skill: Look on internet for suggested best practices to learn this skill; Learn letter placement on the keyboard and corresponding finger placement over specific keys; Once the keys are learned, begin to practice typing for accuracy; Once the accuracy is good, begin to practice timing of words per minute. I feel very excited working on this project as it is a skill I will continually use as well as something I have always wanted to master.  This skill will be a part of enhancing my search and work i...

Hello All,          My name is Clara Prosiliakos, I have been working in the Cicero Public School District 99 since 2002. I worked as a first-grade teacher for 9 years and currently, I am a bilingual reading interventionist. I decided to take technology courses because I, as a teacher, would like to integrate more technology tools into my instruction. I believe that students are interested in technology so if they can use the tools they love, they stay engaged and their learning process is more meaningful and fun.         My favorite tech tool is the Microsoft Office software (Word 2016, Excel, PP, Publisher). I would like to take advantage of all it offers for two main reasons. First, I want to apply them in my instruction and second, I would like to guide my students to use them in a more creative and efficient way to develop critical thinking skills. Currently, the school district is trying to incorporate tech in our student...

Generally speaking the Managing Educational Technology Services course developed a variety of concepts that increased my knowledge regarding the technology implications in the classroom. Those concepts were: other flexible learning spaces, ISTE standards for educators, readiness assessment tool, the federal laws: CIPA, FERPA & IDEA and the impact of the technology in ELLs. While the concepts were studied, in teams, we were developing a project that consisted in creating a proposal for school administrators regarding supporting technology in the classroom by using the topics discussed in class. At the end of the course our final project was a Slides presentation  regarding digital citizenship for parents. I liked the way the final project is going to educate parents about the use of technology in schools today. Moreover, our project intends to offer an overview of tech concepts and rights that can be deeply discussed in future workshops throughout the school year. For the ex...

Here is a presentation of the organizational readiness assessment report. For the realization of this assignment, it was used as a readiness assessment tool regarding the ISTE standard for educators  together with the observation of four elementary grades (two 2nd & two 3rd grades). The observation purpose was focused on measuring teacher's tech practices in the classroom. As a result, it was found that in this particular case, teachers are including technology in their daily tasks, some with more intensity than others. As a matter of fact, teachers demonstrated a great level of implementation for standard 7, Analyst. The sample shows how teachers are familiar with Schoology and Google Suites for tracking student's progress and planning their lessons. On the other hand, data also shows that the implementation of the standard 3, Citizen, is  not fully implemented due to the lack of knowledge and resources on how to encourage the concepts of digital citizenship. G...

ISTE Standards for Educators Assessment Tool The creation of this tool was based on the seven (7) ISTE standards for educators described by the ISTE . These standards describe how teachers should approach technology in the classroom. The ISTE standards consider educator's tech roles as a learner, leader, citizen, collaborator, designer, facilitator and analyst. For each standard, a variety of descriptors were written for identifying the levels of educator's tech practices in the classroom.  Along with this, a rating scale was provided to score each standard. The scale goes from one reflecting it has never been implemented to five which means it is regularly implemented. I believe this readiness assessment tool covers all the ISTE standards for educators and should provide data for reflecting where we stand in terms of integrating technology in the classroom. It also helps us move forward in the school and to create an action plan towards improving the implementation ...

I would like to begin by saying I liked the way the 21st Century Educational Leadership course was focused reflecting on what can make schools succeed in the digital era. The resources and assigned activities for this course helped me analyze where the district I work with, Cicero District 99,  is in terms of integrating technology in the classroom. One can say that the district is heading toward a digital learning environment but there are areas that need to be addressed such as the verification of the fulfillment of school policy regarding the use of the technology in school matters. I would also say that the assignments helped me act and think as an school administrator for the 21st century. I learned that it is essential for school administrators to have vision for digital transformation and influence school stakeholders through innovate teaching and learning. One way that can help this happen is to provide professional development focused on assisting teachers to un...

This artifact is a 60 second video that intended to tell what Columbus West school is known for: One family Love of learning S.T.E.A.M  visionaries Parent Involvement Students-centered driven principles Tech tools practitioners I chose this artifact because I wanted to tell the story of Columbus West School. The development of this artifact had helped to have a closer view of what identifies Columbus West as a community institution. I realized how much Columbus West is active with the community.  It holds sport, academic, social services and parents activities that embrace positive learning environments. Therefore, t here are many reasons why the Cicero community should be very proud to have schools like Columbus West, a story that needs to be told. A challenge for me was the length of the video. The frame time, 60 seconds, was not enough to cover all about what Columbus West is. Another challenge for me was to find the right application to build the ...

One of the artifacts I would like to share on this blog is the Walk-Through Tool based on the H.E.A.T. tenets. For more information check the H.E.A.T. framework link at Classroom Walkthrough With H.E.A.T.       (Links to an external site ). I primarily chose this artifact because it taught me the 21st Century components that must be present  in today's classroom, in my opinion. Some of the features I recommend this tool for are: Purpose: Higher order thinking, Engaged learning, Authentic connections & Technology uses. Easy guide to follow and score. Adjustability to be implemented in all school subjects matters. I did not see any challenge in adapting the H.E.A.T. observation form. As I said before it is a simple and straightforward tool  to follow. The way I would like to use this instrument in my teaching is: Sharing it with the my Professional Learning Community (PLC) team. Using it in peer observation lessons Reflectin...

      I would like to start by saying that this course of Assessing and Improving Students Achievement with Technology had offered me the chance to not only to use technology for assessing students, it had also provided me the tools for using assessments to enhance students' learning experiences. All the assignments, class discussions and the resources aimed at the reflection of why assessments are important in the class for both students and teachers. I would like to highlight the following assignments: the creation of a formative assessment using two different digital tools, and students self-assessment plan.         In reference to the design a formative assessment, I had the opportunity to design and compare Google Form and Socrative digital tools. For the creation of this assessment, I took what Dr. Anabel Jense spoke about on her video,   Asking Powerful Questions in the Class,  in regard to how to ...

The 4th-grade students will create a digital historical fiction book report by using screencasting. An online rubric tool is available for helping students know the expectations of the project. I am including this assignment as an artifact because it is a great example for demonstrating that through this tech-based project, students will be able to develop learning skills such as tech digital skills, keep on topic, summarize important events, and evolve oral media presentations. In reference to the project, the teacher will provide a list of books for students for their screencasting presentations. Students will be responsible for following a study guide that will be revised periodically by the teacher with the purpose of providing feedback and support students’ screencasting projects. Students also will share with their peers, twice a week, regarding how their projects are progressing and getting suggestions from their peers on how they can enhance their screencasting presentatio...

      Genius Hour Reflection       The Genius Hour idea was a new concept for me and after going over the USF resources, I can say that the Genius Hour refers to a student-centered learning trend that not only allows students to explore their own initiatives but build confidence, creativity and knowledge in any subject.  On True for Teachers podcast, A.J. Juliani recommends that teachers must guide the process of getting into the genius hour task by asking students to define what they want to learn and what they are going to make. Along with this, students should explain why and how they can get to the desired learning goal. I like the concept of the Genius Hour for the reason that students learn on their own motivations and they need to be able to identify and apply different strategies to answer their own questions. The Genius Hour also embraces the development of learning skills for the 21st century that is the 4C’s: Critical Thinking, Comm...

      T here are many concepts that I am taking away from this course. The class discussions, the studied resources and the assignments helped me reflect on my teaching practices and try new pedagogy paths by integrating technology into my lessons and curriculum to reach all my students.        The class discussion regarding differentiation helped to clarify that differentiation means: to deliver instruction according to student’s needs and learning styles. Now I pay more attention to how I can provide alternative avenues for students to succeed at school and ensures that each student has access to the curriculum independently of his/her learning abilities.       For example, students who struggle with writing skills use Flipgrid to videotape their understanding from readings. Also, students who are shy expressing their thoughts in person use forum rooms on Schoology or Padlet. I envision recording passages from rea...

Field Trip Grants from the Civil War Trust – Initial Proposal  5th Grade Columbus West Rationale: The Civil War Unit study is part of the 5th-grade social studies curriculum. Having a field trip to the Civil War Museum in Kenosha, WI, will expand Columbus West 5th grade student’s knowledge regarding the Civil War by reflecting on the Civil War artifacts and sources available in the Civil War Museum. Students also will reinforce critical thinking skills of the 21st century such as asking questions, gathering data and drawing conclusions. Going to the Civil War Museum, the school promotes reflection on how historical events have marked us as a nation and how we can innovate ways to make society better. Moreover, this field trip will provide learning experiences to students that would be difficult to obtain on their own . Learning Goals: · Describe causes and effects of the historical events that led to the Civil War. · Describe roles and influences of individuals and inte...