Technology Integration Plan

Link to a Screencastify of my "model" eBook that I will be using to teach skills to the class. 

Purpose, Format and Main Goals of the Plan

            One of my goals from my needs assessment was that I wanted my students to be active designers of technology, not just passive users. Learning technology by design will allow for this creativity and freedom. By allowing the students freedom to design their own nonfiction text, they will be active users of technology. It is important to use tech that “supports students’ learning, participation and deep comprehension” and not to use is in a way in which students are passive observers (Pollock, 2016, p. 41). The students will be expressing their expertise using multiple modes of representation and designing them in a way to teach others. 

           Another goal that I had was to integrate the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TCPK) model (Mishra and Koehler, 2006). In order to do that, I would need to integrate the ISTE standards. For this unit, there are multiple ISTE standards that would apply but I chose two to focus on. I want students to work towards being Knowledge Constructors and Creative Communicators. As their teacher, to be faithful to the TCPK model, it will be my job to support them in their individual research by being knowledgeable in their scientific content, my instruction, and the technology tools that they are using. With this balance, I will be scaffolding students to conduct their own research and design their findings in their own way. 

Content Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation

 of different aspects of a topic.

ISTE:

ISTE.3. Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to 

construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. 

3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or 

     other resources. 

ISTE.6. Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a    variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

 6c: Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations. 

Technology-Integration: What are the tech tools? How will you integrate and assess them?

Equity/Assistive Technology: 

The goal is that students with IEPs, students that are low-income, and minority students are all an expert in a topic and share their expertise with other. In order to do this, some students may require assistive technology. Students that need the support will have headphones and a microphone to allow them to access the online text and write their eBook. Some other forms of assistive technology that can be used to support students are Thinking Maps, highlighting tools, word prediction, etc. 

Research: 

Students will begin by just using eBooks. Our school has access to MyOn, Epic, World Book,True Flix, and many more online programs. 

Creation of eBook 

Mishra and Koehler (2006), described that, “learning technology by design affords students the opportunity to transcend the passive learner role and to take control of their learning” (p. 1035). In my opinion, Google Slides provides more opportunity for students to design each page however it best suits their teaching goal for their eBook. 

Teacher Use of Technology

I will be using Google Classroom to share necessary information with my authors. I will share articles, the rubric, and other expectations through Google Classroom. We will have a Google Slideshow as a class that we will work on so I can model some of the tools that they can access. I also utilized ForAllRubrics in order to make the rubric for their final eBook. 

Justification of design/Assessment Choices

               I chose to have my students create an eBook rather than a paper book because it will allow for multimodality which is so crucial as a 21st century skill. Dalton (2012) discusses how multimodality has changed how we communicate. We now have an interactive experience when we communicate using text, images, videos, and more. “We live in a multimodal world where being an effective communicator involves composing with media” (p. 336). The eBooks will allow students to express their knowledge using text, images, videos, graphics, and more. This project also lends itself to equality and Universal Design for Learning through these multimodalities. 

        For the final assessment, students will each open their Chromebook to their eBook. We will have a gallery walk around the room so the students can read their peers’ finished products. After they finish reading, they will write on a sticky note one thing that they think their peer did well on by referencing the rubric. They will leave the note for the author to read. After this, I will also have my rubric and will be evaluating all of the books. I will take into consideration the peer feedback, as well.

References

Dalton, B. (2012). Multimodal Composition and The Common Core State Standards. The Reading Teacher, 66(4), 333-339.

ISTE Standards for Students. (2017). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.iste.org/ standards/standards/standards-for-students

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers college record, 1017-1048.

Pollock, M. (2016). Smart Tech Use for Equity. The Education Digest, 81(8), 39-41.

Inquiry and Technology

Where do you want to go today? Inquiry-based learning and technology integration is a theoretical article exploring the benefits and drawbacks of inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The article found and described positive results of inquiry-based learning and technology integration in two different programs. The programs included over 100 7-15 year old urban students. The Extra Edge was a five week summer reading program for students struggling in English language arts. The second program was an after school inquiry program. It was a collaboration between a university and local social services agency. The conclusion of this article offers advice for the implementation of the programs described. Owens, Hester, and Teale (2002) explained that in inquiry-based learning, students select a topic of interest to research, they produce questions about the topic, gather and synthesize research findings, and at the very end they do something with their findings. Technology is used in all parts of inquiry-based learning.

Technology supports students in inquiry based learning environments not only to help them gather resources and in research but also in their final product. It was found that, “different forms of technology created a ‘polished finish’ to the projects that, for the students, generated an unexpected sense of pride in their work and impressed the audience” (Owens et al., 2002, p. 622). The projects found that struggling and unmotivated students were successful and motivated when allowed to choose their own topic, within a theme, and use technology to explore it.

Some of the important advice that Owens et al. (2002) provided for teachers interested in incorporating inquiry-based learning with technology was to model enthusiasm for inquiry, be careful about students getting off track while surfing the web, and to read all online articles with a critical eye. They also recommended keeping a close eye on websites that students are visiting, promote mulitmodal research with text, images and videos, and lastly to not be intimidated by the project.

This article connects very closely to my own action research question because I am researching inquiry-based learning within a theme, as well. I have been researching how inquiry-based learning can motivate and increase engagement in science and math. The findings of this article reveal more evidence that inquiry-based learning is an effective pedagogy to increase engagement.

I am excited to incorporate technology into my action research project. My students will be conducting research for our class garden. Since my students have one-to-one Chromebooks, they can utilize technology throughout their research to collect resources, track data on their plants, and present their findings. I also plan to use technology from a researcher's perspective to conduct surveys with my students for qualitative data. Digital surveys using Google Forms will allow me to organize the findings efficiently and allow students to remain anonymous.

References

Owens, R. F., Hester, J. L., & Teale, W. H. (2002). Where do you want to go today?

Inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The Reading Teacher, 55(7), 616-625