EDU 697 Week 1 Discussion

Step 1: Research
Summarize the article in one paragraph, including an overview of the topic, key concepts, findings and recommendations. Include the APA formatted reference information.

The peer-reviewed journal I found through the ERIC database was all about incorporating the iPad into the classroom to promote literacy and enhance students’ academic experience. Hutchison, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford (2012) made the important point in this article that digital technology should be used to enhance academic goals and support students’ learning. This study focused on a fourth grade teacher who was exploring the use of iPads in her classroom in order to help teach print-based literacy skills. The study found that the iPads offered great applications and strategies for the students such as digital, interactive books, which allowed for differentiation and individual support for the learners. Hutchison, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford (2012) explained that digital, interactive books using the iPad, required students to understand new literacies, but provided them with great affordances. These affordances or advantages included supporting individual readers’ text comprehension and possibly engaging struggling readers. Other applications used through the iPad to help teach literacy that were explained in this article were Doodle Buddy and Popplet. Both applications received positive feedback from the students and helped with their comprehension skills. Some of the advantages found regarding these apps were that students were not confined to a specific layout, they did not limit students like a worksheet may have, they helped with visualizing, encouraged rereading of the text, and allowed for digital literacy skills to be learned. One recommendation from Hutchison, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford (2012) was to carefully consider when to incorporate the iPads into instruction and student activities to ensure that they are enhancing the learning experience, rather than simply acting as an “add-on” to the lesson.

In a second paragraph, using an example from your profession or another educational environment, what insights or ideas from your peer reviewed article can guide the use of technology to support learner achievement?

I really enjoyed reading this article, and felt I connected with the points made by the authors and the findings of the study. I absolutely agree with the main points made by Hutchison, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford (2012) that digital technology should be incorporated into the classroom to enhance academic goals and promote student learning. I will continuously remind myself of this point made by the authors as I strive to integrate technology into my classroom on a more regular basis. I think this will be helpful for me professionally because in my district, and especially at my school, there has been such a push to incorporate more technology because the community wants to “keep up” with what’s new in education. I think with such a push coming from the district and our parent community, it can be easy to simply “throw” technology into a lesson just for the sake of it, but this is obviously not beneficial for the students. As mentioned in the article, I will carefully considered when to incorporate the iPad into my instruction and student activities, by researching applications and strategies that will address specific academic goals set forth by the lesson. As proved in this article there are many wonderful benefits offered by the integration of iPads in the classroom, and in order for my students to reap those benefits, I will always consider whether the applications and strategies I would like to incorporate are meaningful and truly allow for my students’ academic experience to be enhanced.

Reference:

Hutchison, A, Beschorner, B, & Schmidt-Crawford, D. (2012). Exploring the use of the

iPad for literacy learning. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=47fabfb4-a413-4423-a1a8-35bf52dd17e1%40sessionmgr198&vid=6&hid=128.

EDU 697 Introduction

 Hi Dr. Pressey and Classmates,

My name is Lisa Carbone.  I am 29 years old and am an elementary school teacher at the Poway Unified School District in San Diego, CA.  I love the school at which I work, and am continuously inspired by my colleagues and administrators.  I was hired in my district four years ago as a second grade teacher, and absolutely love this age range and the curriculum.

One of my professional goals has been to improve upon my ability to integrate meaningful technology into my classroom on a regular basis through my instruction and student activities. The MATLT program I have participated in over the last year has exceeded my expectations in providing me with the support needed to achieve this goal. 

Our school district has been promoting the integration of technology into classrooms over the last several years, however, I feel that not enough support, guidance, and collaboration has been provided in order for all teachers to truly be able to do this. Through the MATLT program, I have been provided with that support, guidance, and collaboration as well as hands-on experience with meaningful technology tools such as blogs, wikis, jing, winzip, and non-linear powerpoints to better achieve meaningful technology integration into my classroom. 

I have been influenced by so much in this program, but one piece of technology I have used regularly because of what I have learned from my courses is jing. This is a tool that I have used frequently this year with my students to demonstrate how to use programs, websites, and how to complete assignments. My next goal would be to eventually have my second graders use jing as a presentation tool. With jing, I originally struggled with navigating, capturing images, and recording, however, with trial and error, and simply "exploring" this tool I was able to overcome my initial challenges. I also found watching youtube videos on jing to be very helpful.  Sometimes keeping my info to five minutes could be a challenge, but it helped me to become more concise and clear with my words. 

This experience sharpened my knowledge with teaching and learning with technology because it helped me to overcome my "fear" of exploring a technology tool that was unknown to me. By familiarizing myself with a tool like jing, I proved that I am very capable of learning how to navigate and integrate new technology into my classroom, and it inspired me to continue learning about new technology tools and familiarizing myself with other programs as well. 

I love Mark Twain's quote, "I have never let my school interfere with my education". To me this quote represents that although school today is rooted in many traditions that came from hundreds of years ago, educators and students need to be proactive when it comes to the educational experience to ensure that all learners' strengths and needs are being met. For educators, this may mean adjusting certain traditions in order to reach the wide variety of learners in their classroom and prepare them as 21st Century students.

TWITTER

https://twitter.com/

My twitter name is @MRESTeacher

Blog Creation Process

I actually created this blog back in 2010 when I was working on my prerequisite courses for my teaching credential program. What I have learned from creating this blog many years ago, is that the process for creating it, and publishing posts was user friendly and simple. It is also so easy to come back months or even years later, and pick back up where you left off, which I think is an advantage of blogging. I would say one of the challenges of creating and having a blog, at least for me, is keeping up with it. I think it can be easy to not publish posts on a regular basis, which can defeat the purpose for many people of even having a blog in the first place.

Instructional Technology

I believe that instructional technology must be meaningful and should be integrated to enhance the learning experience for students. Often times I think that with the great "push" for technology integration in education today, some teachers simply incorporate technology such as iPads, into their classroom just so they can say they have done so. I think this is something all educators need to be mindful of because as I have mentioned, in order for instructional technology to further engage students, and truly enhance their learning experience, it needs to be integrated in a thoughtful and meaningful way. I think in order to ensure that educators are able to do this for their students, there will need to be continuous training, guidance, and opportunities for them to collaborate with their fellow educators.

All About Me- EDU 671

My name is Lisa Carbone. I'm 28 years old and have been teaching second grade in San Diego at the Poway Unified School District for the last three years. I love my job very much, and am excited to further my education by completing my MATLT through Ashford University. My goal is to continue to grow into a stronger educator with each school year, and to continually improve my curriculum to keep my students engaged and excited about learning.

Even just from my first year of teaching to my third year, I have noticed a push for greater integration of technology into the classroom. I enjoy technology and definitely see a place for it in the classroom, but I would say I am fairly technologically literate, so I am excited to continue learning from the various courses that make up my MATLT.

I began this blog 4 years ago for a course while I was getting my teaching credential, and never really continued on with it. I actually forgot about it until I was required to blog for my last course. It was great to read posts that I published several years ago, and I'm excited to continue working on it now. The only thing I am struggling with is changing the title of my blog, since I created it four years ago. I will work on changing the title.

Blogging as a Learning Tool

I realized by visiting www.blogger.com that I had an existing blog from about five years ago. As part of one of my prerequisites for my teaching credential program, I took a course where we were required to set up and blog to share with our classmates. It was neat to see and review the posts I had created several years ago. Some of the topics I blogged about were interactive classrooms and ELL students. I definitely believe that a blog can be a great platform for creating a hands-on learning activity. I believe that a blog can be an effective learning tool in creating space for students to "convene" and share ideas outside of the four walls of their classroom. At my school several of the upper-grade classes have a classroom blog. Through the classroom blog teachers and students can post in a place where they feel safe and comfortable to share information and their views on a specific area of the curriculum they may be focusing on at the time. Students and teachers are able to comment on the posts, helping to further student learning beyond the classroom.

A con of blogging could be that they can require maintenance and a lot of up keep in order to keep them organized, up to date, and active. Without putting in time and blogging and posting on a regular basis, then the blog will not be as effective as it could be. Also, technology is ever changing, so just when you feel comfortable with blogging or a certain format that you may be using, you may have to be ready to adapt and make changes.

Pros of blogging include that you have a platform to instantly share information and views with others. Also, a pro of blogging is being able to reach a specific group of people. Like I mentioned, some teachers have set up blog specifically for their classrooms. Reaching a specific group of people is a pro because as the teacher or student posting, you are aware of exactly who your audience is. It also allows people to feel safe and comfortable, which makes them more likely to take risks with their learning.

An Inclusive Classroom

I believe that it is extremely important for all teachers to create an inclusive learning environment for their students, especially when it comes to English Language Learners. For ELL students, going to a school where they will be learning in a language that is not their native tongue must not only be extremely challenging, but very intimidating as well. I think that in order for these students to truly thrive and succeed in school, they must not be exposed to a segregated learning environment, but rather an inclusive learning environment, which allows for a sense of equity throughout the classroom.

In the textbook, “Learning to Teach Everyone’s Children”, Carl Grant and Maureen Gillette describe one teacher’s (Mr. Rice’s) classroom. I really enjoyed the description of Mr. Rice’s third period class because it allowed me to actually visual an inclusive classroom and see what it would look like to have a variety of students from different backgrounds working together to complement each others’ strengths. For example, Mr. Rice may pair a student who has great verbal and speaking skills with an English learner student who may lack these skills. I think this is a great idea because it not only allows students to work together and collaborate in small groups, but it also gives students like the English Language Learners the opportunity to work and learn in a less intimidating, less stressful one-on-one environment.

Grant and Gillette make an excellent point when they explain how segregated classrooms create an underclass of students, which leaves these students feeling like they do not measure up to or fit in with the rest of their peers. It is inevitable that with segregated education and classrooms one group will feel inferior to the other, which is why an inclusive educational environment is so important. Feelings of inferiority can really limit students not only in education, but also in life in general.




Gillette, Maureen, Grant, Carl. “Learning to Teach Everyone’s Children” Equity, Empowerment, and Education That Is Multicultural. Thomson Wadsworth, a part of the Thomson Corporation: 2006

Additive Bilingualism

I know that for students in the United States, English is extremely important in order thrive in our schools, which is why I had always thought of ESL programs as a positive for students who were not English speakers, however, in chapter 7 of the text, "Affirming Diversity", by Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode, ESL is described as being focused on the need to acquire English, which made me look at this differently.

The need to acquire English can often times turn into the need to replace a native language with English, which could end up being a disadvantage for students who originally spoke there native language. Though I feel it is important for ESL students to learn English, I also believe it is important for them not to abandon there native language. Not only is there native language a part of their identity and culture, but also being bilingual can be extremely advantageous for the future of these students especially when it comes to college and joining the work force.

The text states that research found that parents of higher achieving children preferred a native-language environment to a greater extent than the parents of the lower achieving children. This illustrates another positive of not abandoning one’s native language, which is higher achievement in school. ESL students need to understand that their native language and being bilingual is an asset, which they should be proud of. The authors explain additive bilingualism, which I believe is a better way to perceive ESL students learning English. Additive bilingualism is adding a new language rather than subtracting an existing one. I realize that there are a great amount of English Learners in schools today, and as a future teacher, I agree with Nieto and Bode when they say that the responsibility of teaching language-minority students needs to be shared by all teachers rather than just falling on the teachers who are trained to provide bilingual education and ESL services.

Bode, Patty, Nieto, Sonia. “Affirming Diversity” The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. Fifth Edition. Pearson Education Incorporation : 2008

English Language Learners

I have chosen to write about the topic of English Language Learners for the next couple of weeks because I feel like this is a topic that is extremely prevalent in California schools today, and as a future teacher I believe I must be aware of the fact that for some students in my class, English may not be their first language.

Who are English Language Learners? In the article, “English Learners in California Schools”, Christopher Jepsen and Shelley de Alth describe English learners as students who speak another language other than English at home. The authors go on to explain how English learner students make up one-third of the student population of California Elementary schools, and one-quarter of all California students, kindergarten through twelfth grade.

I was aware that there was a large portion of English learner students in California schools today, but these statistics really put it into perspective for me, and made me realize that as a teacher, encountering English learner students is something one can definitely count on. One of my fears/concerns when it comes to teaching English learners is that I will not be prepared enough to give them all the help, attention, and resources they need in order from them to thrive in an academic setting. I believe observing teachers who have English Language Learners in their class and hopefully being able to work with these students during my time in the credential program will help to better prepare me for this when I am a teacher.

Jepsen, Christopher, & de Alth, Shelley. (2005). English Learners in California School. 10. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_405CJR.pdf

My Life

My technological experiences began in second grade when computers became more common in schools and in homes. I would type on Microsoft Word for school and play computer games. By middle school I was using computers almost everyday for school work and for entertainment/communication. Some reasons why I feel I am competent when it comes to computers includes: I am able to use the internet and search on websites effectively, I am able to create power points, I am very familiar with using Word, I can create excel spread sheets, and I am able to communicate with others through the internet. I feel like I am some what quick at picking up emerging technologies, especially if I am shown how to do so, but at the same time, there are times when I find technology overwhelming and intimidating.

My educational experiences started about six years ago when I worked as a gymnastic camp coach. I was also an intern at the Sacramento Children's Home in the Crisis Nursery for a year, where I assisted the infant and toddler teachers. I was an intern to an Elementary School Counselor in Northern California where I was able to learn from the counselor and work closely with students and teachers. Most recently, I worked as an early intervention, ABA tutor for children with Autism. Right now I am completing the prerequisites for the credential program, and I will be starting the Multiple Subject Credential Program this Fall.

From EDU 422 I hope to get a better overall understanding of computers and technologies. I also hope to become more confidant and comfortable with creating and using a variety of technological applications. I want to become very familiar with creating blogs because one day when I am a teacher I would like to have a class blog where my students and I could go to. I also would like to become familiar with wikis and RSS feeds because at this point know very little about them. I hope to be able to walk away with helpful ideas and skills that I can bring to my classroom.