Chapter 7 discusses software for teacher tasks. Much of the software mentioned in this chapter I currently use. I use several Microsoft Office applications to prepare for my lectures and lab. I use PowerPoint to prepare lecture presentations, Word to write lab and lecture worksheets, quizzes, and exams, and Excel to evaluate student teacher evaluation scores. I also use software from my textbook company to prepare exams. The assignments for this week required me to prepare materials in a format I have never used: Google Docs, Forms, and Slides. I found all three very easy to use. I used Google Docs to prepare lecture notes for the first topic of my lesson on hemostasis. When I prepare for lectures, I usually just hand write notes on to a printout of my PowerPoint. This was the first time I typed out notes for student use. Making my notes and lecture sides available in Google Doc and Slides allows the students to make them their own by adding images and videos they find useful. With their changes available to other students it enhances the learning experience for all. Being able to make changes and discuss them with their peers gets them involved in the learning process and promotes active learning. The teacher can also benefit from the group learning environment of the Google format. Students can sometimes put things in simpler terms than the teacher and also come up with great mnemonic devices. Sharing them in the Google format allows them to be available to future classes. Using Google to share documents would be very beneficial for collaboration among students in my online classes. It gives them a space that makes working on projects when they can't meet face to face a breeze. Google Docs and slides were very easy to use; it was just like using the Word and PowerPoint programs in Microsoft Office. Google Forms was very user friendly. I like how it shows you the statistics of the question answers. Google Forms would be a great way to determine the knowledge base of my students before I start class. I found the Google applications very easy to use and look forward to implementing them in my future classes, especially my online classes where the students do not have face-to-face contact with one another. Please check out my Google Docs and Slides. Also, please take my technology background survey. I look forward to your input. Please share any ideas you have on how to make them better. You will find the links below. Use the Contact section of my Blog page to send me your email and I will add you as a collaborator on my documents.
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Chapter 4 Question 2: Students with special needs include both those who have disabilities and those who are gifted. Technology can provide solutions to help meet the unique needs of both groups. However, schools typically have limited budgets for technology. Considering that the needs of all students should be met, what do you think the best allocation of limited technology dollars should be to meet these students’ needs? Give examples to support your views.
If an educational institution does not have the funds for the most advanced assistive technology, they can work with what they have. Microsoft and Apple software have built in software to aid those with disabilities. Microsoft’s Windows has an application called the Ease of Access Center. It comes with Windows and does not cost anything extra. The Ease of Access Center lets the teacher tailor the computer to each individual student’s needs. Those with hearing, visual, and dexterity problems can utilize the same computer, the teacher just needs to change the settings between students. Gifted students could use the same computer as those with disabilities. If a school has iPads, kindles, or other types of tablets, free educational apps may be accessed. The Center on Accessible Instructional Materials contains resources and technology assistance for educators, parents, students, publishers, and others involved in education and educational resources. This website, www.aem.cast.org , provides the standards for implementation of universal and design technology solutions for all learners. From there I learned about Open Educational Resources (OERs). OERs are teaching, learning, and research materials of all mediums that may be accessed at no cost with limited or no restrictions. One website offering OERs is www.edutopia.org . This website offers free digital material designed to aid in teaching to all types of learners. A limited budget does not mean an institution cannot aid all students in reaching and surpassing their potential. The internet is an abundant source of free educational programs and technologies, we just need to know where to look. Schools can also use technology, such as Windows, which they already possess. Organizations such as the Center for Implementing Technology in Education, the Center for Applied Technology, the University of Washington DO-IT project, and the organizations mentioned previously, provide teachers and educational facilities information to use the resources they have to the best of their abilities. Chapter 5 Question 3: What is the most significant opportunity presented by technology integration? What role does training play in effectively integrating computers in the classroom? Technology integration into the classroom presents opportunities for both students and teachers. Technology such as the internet tears down classroom walls. Students are no longer isolated to the classroom; they can interact with students across the globe. The internet provides access to the entire world’s knowledge as well as a variety of multimedia tools. Technology also allows the teacher to tailor instruction to each individual student’s needs. Integrating technology in the classroom provides teachers support for administrative tasks such as lesson planning, as well as opportunities for interacting with peers. The greatest opportunity integration of technology provides is the enhancement and customization of instruction. Technology is beneficial for the teacher and student. However, technology is only useful if it is integrated properly. Training of teachers so they are competent is key to successful integration of computers in the classroom. In order for teachers to model technology skills for their students they need to be properly trained. Training also provides teachers with the skills to choose the appropriate software, control the interaction of the hardware, troubleshoot minor problems, and make adjustments for their students’ needs. Not only do teachers need to be able to control and make use of technology to make the classroom run smoothly, they may be called upon to participate in school wide technology decisions. Computer competency is key to a smooth integration of technology in the classroom, and training ensures that competency. However, it is important to remember that changes in technology occur all the time so teachers must constantly undergo training to keep up and stay competent. Chapter 6 Question 1: After considering the various types of digital technologies presented in this chapter, what three pieces of equipment do you think you would most want for your future or current classroom? Explain why you selected these three and how you would use them for teaching and learning. The three pieces of equipment I would like to incorporate into my current classroom are graphic tablets, electronic whiteboards, and clickers. The graphic tablets would be great for hematology and body fluids, which have a heavy visual component. In those two courses my students use the microscopes a great deal and I review cell types and urine sediment using PowerPoint or an antiquated laser disc. The graphic tablet would allow for more interaction when reviewing cell and sediment images. I could point out cell features and then label them. If a student had a question he or she could come point out the exact feature the question was about, instead of me pointing to several spots before I figure it out. The next technology I would like to implement would be an electronic whiteboard. I use PowerPoint but also like to write on the chalkboard or dry erase board. I would like the ability to save what I write on the board for future reference. If the whiteboard and what was pulled up on the computer screen could be projected at the same time, that would be even more ideal. Finally, I like the idea of implementing clickers in the classroom. Instant feedback after covering a topic would be very beneficial to me and my students. I would know after presenting a topic if I made my point clear enough or if I need to review some more. I stop to see if anyone has questions periodically while lecturing and all I get are blank stares in return. If I ask questions about topics I just covered, count it as a quiz grade, and let my students respond with the clicker, I would get feedback instead of blank stares. The clicker quizzes would give me idea of their understanding of the material. Many of the digital technologies listed in chapter six I actually already have access to, but have not used them to their fullest potential. I look forward to putting those technologies to better use in the future. This weeks reflection focuses on standards and their effectiveness, learning styles and their influence on learning, and lesson planning. Having no experience in secondary education I found some of the following questions a bit challenging. I drew on my own experience as a medical laboratory scientist and as an instructor in a medical laboratory science program at a university.
Chapter 1 Question 1: Standards have altered teacher preparation programs and curriculum requirements in schools. The intention behind standardization is to ensure equivalent and consistent instruction and to provide measurable outcomes. Do you believe that the implementation of standards identified by national, state, and curriculum organizations has accomplished their intent? Explain why or why not. I personally believe the Common Core Standards developed by the 48 states and the District of Columbia are a wonderful idea. They ensure that no matter what state a student lives in, he or she is taught the same basic math and English skills. I do not have much experience with Common Core Standards. I do not teach grade school, but teach at the university level. I also have had no instruction in education methods or practices. My only experience with Common Core Standards is from my 6-year-old son who just completed kindergarten in the public school system. He made great strides this past year in his reading ability which leads me to believe the standards are working. His Kindergarten reading assessment scores greatly increased. According to the website www.corestandards.org, most states implemented Common Core Standards in the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic years. More time is needed to see if the standards are providing the desired outcomes. I do have experience when it comes to standards implemented in the field of medical laboratory science (MLS). I am a certified medical laboratory scientist and teach in an accredited MLS program. In order to ensure quality laboratory results are reported in every lab in every state and every country, standards were developed. There are standards educational facilities must meet and standards clinical laboratories must meet. This ensures that all MLS students are taught the same information and all laboratories treat patient samples with the same quality procedures. The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS) is an “international agency for accreditation and approval of educational programs in the clinical laboratory science and related health professions.” In order to be accredited each educational facility must meet a set of standards. Every educational facility must meet the same standards, which ensures no matter where a student matriculates they receive the same quality of education. NAACLS makes sure each educational program is properly preparing MLS students to pass the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification (ASCP BOC) exam, and prepares them to be meaningful additions to the laboratory workforce. For more information on NAACLS and ASCP please visit www.ascp.org and www.naacls.org. Not only do educational programs have standards to meet, but clinical laboratories have standards to meet as well. The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) provides a list of standards labs must meet in order to be accredited. The College of American Pathologists (CAP), incorporates the CLSI standards in their own accreditation check lists they give clinical laboratories. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare (JCAHO) is another organization that uses standards in order to give laboratories accreditation. For more information on accreditation please visit www.clsi.org, www.cap.org, or www.jointcommission.org. The goal of the lab is helping physicians diagnose and treat patients, and the use of standards in the clinical laboratory is essential to ensuring quality patient care. Standards ensure MLS students are prepared and have the necessary skills to provide quality patient care by turning out quality lab results. Standards are essential in ensuring hospitals and other facilities have laboratories that are adhering to all the necessary guidelines required to ensure patient safety. Standards have been used for many years in the clinical lab with great success. Just ask anyone who had a lab test save their life. Chapter 2 Question 2: Different students have different learning styles and their learning styles influence their learning. As a teacher, you should understand your students learning styles when preparing for the classes. Discuss your understanding on different learning styles and its influence on learning. Learning styles are the conditions under which a student learns the best. The three main learning styles are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. A student is able to learn under any of the three conditions; however, he or she learns best under one. In other words, he or she has a dominant learning style. According to www.vark-learn.com, there is a fourth condition, read/write. VARK stands for visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. I took the VARK questionnaire in order to discover my learning style. I have a multimodal learning style, with a predominance in the kinesthetic and visual areas; however, I scored pretty closely in all four learning styles. Once I evaluated my study habits I found the VARK questionnaire to be very accurate. Some multimodal learners utilize all styles equally while others tend to use just one style. I think it is important to consider the learning styles of one’s students. As teachers we should do everything we can to aid in the learning of the material we present to our students. Teaching to the different learning styles is one way to enhance the learning process of our students. In my classes I use a variety of methods to try and cover all four learning styles. For the visual learners I incorporate videos, charts, tables, and utilize PowerPoints during lecture. I also have the students make posters to review test material. To enhance the learning process of aural learners I lecture and ask questions during class. To tackle the read/write learning style I assign readings in the textbook and writing assignments that summarize important topics. Finally, I cover the kinesthetic learning style by incorporating case studies. Medical laboratory science has a laboratory component, which would be a kinesthetic learning condition. I started off my teaching career just lecturing; it’s how I thought it was best to learn. Once I began teaching to all four learning styles I noticed a difference in my students. They were excited about learning. I have noticed I myself have become more familiar with the material as I prepared to teach to all four learning styles. From personal experience I see how addressing all four learning styles while preparing for your classes is very beneficial to the students and instructor. Chapter 3 Question 3: This chapter introduces to you that lesson planning was an outgrowth of your instructional design. The DID section helped you see the overall organization of your instructional unit, and this lesson plan section helped you address what you would do to achieve the unit on an instructional day-to-day basis. Now identify, describe and use the most common steps in lesson planning. A Lesson plan is essentially a guide for each day of activity in the classroom. Planning a lesson includes four main steps: readying the learners, identifying the target objectives, preparing the lesson, and checking for success. I will use my senior hematology class as an example. Readying the learners includes a review of the learner characteristics to see if they have the needed entry skills listed in the unit design. I teach a junior level hematology class and a senior hematology class. In the first portion of senior hematology I cover some of the junior material. An example of readying the learners would be to give the seniors a pretest, which covers junior material, to see what they retained. The pretest lets me, the instructor, know if they have the needed entry skills. The results of the pretest lets me know how in depth I need to go into the junior material. I could actual give a pretest on each daily topic instead of a pretest before the entire course. After I know the entry skills needed and the entry skills the learners actually possess I need to identify the target objectives for that day’s lesson. The first day in hematology I cover basic red blood cell structure and function. I would pull the objectives from my unit design that covered that topic. I would also reference the Board of Certification (BOC) standards that the objectives are based upon. Now I need to prepare my lesson on red blood cell structure and function. There are three main components to prepare a lesson: prepare the classroom, summarize the plan using the pedagogical cycle steps, and identify and list required technology and materials needed. To prepare the classroom, which is the learning environment, I need to describe what is needed to create the physical learning environment. I need to know what is needed to support my teaching and learning strategies. I would check and see if the classroom was conducive to learning by checking the temperature, seating arrangements, etc. Now it is time to summarize the lesson plan using the pedagogical cycle. The pedagogical cycle allows me to carry out my lesson in terms of the teaching and learning strategies I outlined in the DID procedure. I need to prepare my lesson on red blood cell structure and function; I need to make sure my objectives are covered. Next I would bridge prior knowledge with a brief review of what was covered in junior hematology, followed by introducing new knowledge of the subject matter. Now it is time for an activity to reinforce the new and prior knowledge and to show how they relate. I may have the students diagram the red cell structure or diagram the process of oxygen delivery. Once the activity is done I will review the day’s lesson and assign homework. The review and homework provide practice of the material covered. I have prepared the classroom and summarized the lesson plan, now it is time to identify and list the required technology and materials. If I am lecturing using PowerPoint I need to make sure there is a projector and computer. If I am incorporating any hands on activities I need to make a list of the materials and make sure I have them. Now that my lesson is planned with a list of activities and material needed, it is time to check for success. I need to plan my summative feedback that will be used by identifying specific assessment strategies that will be used to measure the success of the lesson. Referring back to my lesson on red blood cell structure and function, I would give a quiz on that material at the next class meeting. The quiz lets me know if the lesson was successful and gives the students themselves an idea of how well they know the material. The quiz lets me know if remediation is needed and if I need to make any changes to the lesson plan. My name is Anna and I am enrolled in the Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) PhD program at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). This is only my second semester in the program. I took IT 636, Instructional System Design, the spring 2016 semester. This was my first online class to ever take. I have already learned a lot from just that one course and am looking forward to future classes. I have been teaching at USM for almost 9 years; however, I did not start out in education or with thoughts of ever teaching. I obtained my B.S. in biology from USM in 2002, still unsure what I wanted to do. The fall of 2003 I began work on my M.S. in medical laboratory science at, and completed the program in June of 2006. I worked at Marion General Hospital in the lab for maybe 6 months. I did not like the night shift so I took a job at Hattiesburg Clinic’s main lab. After almost a year of working for Hattiesburg Clinic I received a call from my former instructor. They needed an Instructor. I had never thought about teaching, but was ready for a change and decided I would give it a try. I fell in love with teaching! I have had bad semesters and good semesters, but the good outweigh the bad. Since I have no background in education I wanted to pursue my PhD in an area that would provide me with information that would help me become a better teacher. My department just started a fully online program so ITD was a perfect fit. I do not have a lot of experience with technology software. Do not ask me about HTML or use tech terminology, I will not know what you are talking about! I began using PowerPoint in high school and use it in my lectures and labs, so I am very familiar with it. I am also familiar with Word, PDF, Publisher, and Excel. I have written many a paper with Word, converted files to PDF, made flyers with Publisher, and grade spreadsheets with Excel. Everything I know about those programs I learned through trial and error. I know enough about them to get by and would love to know more about short cuts, etc. I have never used Access or Concept Mapping. I created my first website for IT 636 using WIX. I found I can spend hours just deciding on a theme! I have always been a little scared of technology but willing to try new things; however, I have found the more I use it the smaller that fear becomes. When it comes to electronic communications I am a pro with email. I have been using email since AOL was first invented. I also love to embed You-tube video clips into my lecture and lab PowerPoints. I have heard of podcasts, blogs, and Wikis but have never used them. My teaching philosophy has changed many times since my first semester teaching. I began as an old school teacher. I lectured and expected the students to write down everything I said. That’s how I learned so I expected everyone else to learn that way. Over the past eight years I have learned that not everyone processes new information the same way. Some students like to just listen and take notes while others need to be actively involved in the learning process. I have used PowerPoints since my first semester in order to present my lecture information. I teach hematology, which requires the use of images, and PowerPoint is a great format for presenting pictures. I have used You-tube for many years now as well. I also use Blackboard to post all assignments, syllabi, PowerPoints, etc. The past few years I have begun using active learning in my classes, and have had both positive and negative responses. The first semester I relied on in class activities without lecturing much and the students loved it. The second semester I did the same thing and that class hated it. I finally found a happy medium. I lecture, review case studies, and ask the class questions the majority of the time. The class period before the exam I use activities to review the material. Last fall, 2015, my classes responded really well. I plan on applying what I learn in the ITD program at USM to enhance my face-to-face classes as well as add a variety of learning activities to my online classes. |
AuthorAnna K. Swann, M.S., MLS (ASCP)CM Blog Roll
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