Technology class

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The traditional method of teaching does not engage the mind, nor does it truly educate a student. It is fed to us with a spoon. We are given assignments with recipe-like guidelines that do not allow for the exploration of different topics we might find interesting.

Sugatra Mitra's "hole in the wall" project in India has shown a result that without any formal "education", these children in the project had managed to teach themselves how to use computers, this proved that children have great potential to learn by themselves. Thus he made a bold wish: to help build a place where children can explore and learn on their own, and teach one another-using resources from the worldwide cloud. Similar to the perspectives of Sugatra Mitra, Dr. Maria Montessori believed that no one is educated by another person. A truly educated individual continues learning because he/she is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Therefore, a classroom that is fostering children’s interest and curiosity is vital. Arthur C.Clark once said "if children have interest, then education happens". The use of innovative technology is thus inevitable in a classroom to motivate student's passion and interest in learning, students can be more proactive in their own learning experience with the help of technology and the guidance/support of a teacher. Teacher can provide students with an allotment of time each day to freely roam the internet together, researching topics of their own interests that can keep them excited about technology and teachers can show them how to find answers to pressing questions and work through problems on their own.

Although machines and technologies are important tools to use in a classroom, teachers should not be completely replaced by machines. Combine with the use of technology that can boost classroom efficiency, such as providing instant feedback, allowing both the learner and the instructor to understand where to shift direction to gain understanding. Teachers are also needed to guide and keep students on track. Teacher's role is a facilitator, guide and support in a classroom that integrate technology, and students are active driver of their educational experiences.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Troubleshooting plan

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Classroom Management App

One of the biggest management challenges for a teacher is behaviour management. Keeping students engaged, focused and respectful is a constant process. However it’s easier said than done. A teacher definitely needs an effective APP to help him/her to management classroom.

The App that I want to implement in my classroom is called Class DOJO.

Class DOJO is very helpful for teachers to gather and generate data on the behaviour of students. The behaviour information is shared in real time with the administration and parents in order to update them quickly about the progress and status of a student in class. Class Dojo provides a secure communication method for teachers to send feedback about a student's behaviours. It generates a continuous progress report on how the students are doing. The app is free of charge and also available on Android and iOS.

Application:

1.After signed up for the app, you need to configure the behaviours and skills you want to manage. As picture below, there are positive behaviours you want the children to learn such as helping others, teamwork, working hard and persistence. There are also negative behaviours you want to work with the students to change.

You could give bonus point to each positive skills by clicking on that skill box, and a window with point weight for you to fill in the points that the student eared.

You could add more skills by clicking the "+" tab, then a window would pop up for you to add more skills and give points to that skill a student is earned. The picture below is area that still needs work, so negative points are given to show how much work needs to be done for correcting this behaviour.

After choosing all the skills, you could save it. Then you could share with parents of what's happening in the classroom by inviting them. ClassDojo would help you to generate a invitation letter with a classroom entry code for inviting parents to sign up in the classroom. Students can sign up too!

Now, I come to the surface of my student names. I could see how much points each student get, and I could click on the student's name to add more point to them.

For managing a specific behaviour, for example, team work, I could create teams in the class, for student to experience what teamwork is like.

After I group the students, I would assign them some project to do in teams, such as a math problem solving project, and give points to them according to their team performance. This mechanism could greatly stimulate student's competition. They would be more engaged and focused on the tasks and earning more points.

As a teacher, I could post class story to share moments in the classroom and updates with parents. Picture below is a moment i just shared with parents, it's two groups of students are solving a math problem. Parents could even liked and comment on the activity.

If I want to inform parents about any notice and news about the classroom, I could just send message from Class DOJO instead of calling them or send text message one by one.

It's very accessible, teachers could use a smartphone, tablet or computer to give or take away points through out the school day.

The problem about this APP is that it's accessible to both parents and students, their points are publicly displayed to an entire classroom. For some students who are sensitive, they might feel uncomfortable and embarrassed about the points they get. So I would try to check with each child, and if they are ok with displaying their point, I would go ahead. If not, I would offer them an anonymous avatar and not displaying points at all.It's very important to use this tool in a careful and sensitive way that encourages social and emotional learning.

My Growth Plan

Growth Plan

Create an inclusive classroom with assistive technology

Around the world, many students are excluded from schools/classrooms because of disability, race, language, religion, gender and poverty. But every child is unique and has the right to be supported by their community to grow, learn, and develop. When children are educated regardless of their differences and backgrounds, everyone benefits. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to build up an inclusive classroom that support different learners to learn effectively, it’s the cornerstone of special education.

Using assistive technology in an inclusive classroom is essential. There are a number of benefits: it can help students to be more independent; the curriculum can be more accessible to all students; it can boost engagement among students, etc.

1.For students with physical disabilities, use mobility aids in the classroom, such as wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, canes, crutches, and orthotic devices to help enhance student’s mobility.

2. iPads can be a great assistive technology in education as well. We could install several Apps on iPad that help students learn.

Such as an App called Co:Writer, a word prediction software, which can help student with Dyslexia to eliminate and overcome barriers. As you type, Co:Writer would predict the word you are typing; it's especially helpful for some difficult words that are hard to spell; it could even predict words that are likely come next. It interpreted spelling and grammar mistakes and offers word suggestions in real time!

3. In order to allow students with disabilities to participate more effectively in educational activities, I would use automatic page-turners, book holders, claw gripper, and adapted pencil grips in the classroom.

4. Using audio players and recorders for children who struggles with writing or taking notes. An audio recorder can capture what the teacher says in class so that children could listen to it again at home. Provide many e-books that have audio files, and tablet computers come with text-to-speech software that can read aloud anything on the child's screen.

5. Some students have trouble with pacing, I would use devices like wristwatches to hourglass timers as visual aids to show them how much time is left to complete an activity. It could also help children who have difficulty transitioning from task to task to be mentally prepared to make the switch.

6.For students who have trouble with visual tracking or who need help staying focused on the page, I would use reading guides. The plastic strip can highlight one line of text while blocking out surrounding words that might be distracting. It's very easy to move down the page as the kid reads.

7. For children who have math issues, they would be given access to a basic calculator in class. A talking calculator has built-in speech output to read the numbers, symbols and operation keys aloud. It can help the child confirm that he has pressed the correct keys.

8. For presentation, I would use graphic organisers. Although it's low-tech, it can effectively help the child to organise his thoughts for a writing assignment.

With the above list of technologies is not adequate yet.There is a problem of how to apply them efficiently. In some classroom, there're plenty of technologies, but because the lack of teachers, these devices and equipment can be left unused, and just like an exhibition for students to watch. It would require the manpower to coordinate and guide students how to use them. In many traditional special education settings, students are "pulled out" for related services, like speech therapy or for other specialised instruction, I would like to bring speech therapist, reading specialists and other service providers into the inclusive classroom so that students could benefit the most in the classroom. Although classroom teachers have a range of curricular and instructional skills, educating students in an inclusive classroom requires contributions from professionals representing a wide variety of disciplines. Having services of support personnel in the inclusive classroom could meet the range of diverse student needs that may be present in a heterogeneous classroom. Therefore, in my inclusive classroom, there is not just one teacher who's responsible for all. It's an educational team, who can identify and build on an individual student's strengths and gifts to form a basis for future success.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Assessment APP

When it comes to assessment, students would always have mixed feelings about it, and regard it as a burden. Because traditional assessments are always implemented through paper tests or exams. How can we motivate students to love assessment, and better express/exhibit themselves through effective assessment?! Kahoot is definitely a great and fun assessment tool to use when students are learning in class. It can functions as a formative assessment tool. Because in classrooms, we couldn’t read effectively a student’s body language to tell whether they have understood or not, so using a formative assessment tool is helpful for teacher to keep a track of their student’s progress. Kahoot could also use for surveys to gather opinions and insight.

I chose Kahoot to use in my classroom because it cannot only assess the student during class, it could also function as a game. So that students would not felt it as a burden to perform, but rather with an excitement to play.

The first strength of Kahoot is interaction. Kahoot can realize multiple screen interactions. Teacher could design quizzes according to the lesson content before the class, and input the questions into Kahoot. Every student could connect to the teacher’s “Kahoot assessment game” through his or her mobile phone. They could compete to answer as many questions as possible to accumulate points and win the game. From Kahoot, teacher could get students’ response, accuracy rate and ranks instantly.

For example, if I want to do a math lesson formative assessment in my class. I would click the purple"Quiz" button to create a new Kahoot game. A new window with game title and description would pop up. After i fill in the title, description, I could upload a cover image to make this Kahoot standout. I chose it to be visible to everyone, so that every student could see it. After i fill out the info, I click "ok, go".

It would leads me to another window that I can add in my quiz questions: 1. Katie has 22 plums, Jessica has 7 plums, how many plums do Katie and Jessica have in total? In the option session, I would give out 4 choices, with one correct, I would tick that one, and proceed to next question.

After I input all the quiz questions, I click "Save"

Then it's published and ready to play. After I click "Play", it would appear two ways to play, either player VS player on 1:1 devices; or team VS team on shared devices. I chose team VS team so that students could form groups to play, it would foster their teamwork spirit, and it requires less devices.

I would send to each team the website to assess the game: https://kahoot.it , after they click the website, then type in the game pin: 241150, they would enter into the game surface, and choose a name for their team, and the nick names of the team members.

The game starts, with a count down of 20 seconds on the screen, team 1 has to choose one 1 out of 4 answers.

When time is up, the rank would appear instantly, showing which team has won the game. After the game, students could give ratings, feelings and comments on the game.If they are not satisfied, they could play again.

By the end of the game, the teacher would already know the progress of each team, how much do they know and what areas need to be improved. It's also very user friendly, we only need to have a tablet, computer or mobile phone to start the game. The instruction is simple and easy to follow. Only problem that could arise is that if there's internet problem, students could not access to the game effectively. I would make sure to use it in a good internet connection classroom. Otherwise, prepare several mobile phones with unlimited internet connections. Some students might feel unfamiliar with this online game and quiz and perform slow, however, with more practice, they would definitely fall in love with this game.