Teaching+with+Technology+Week+3+Update

This week's focus was on designing lessons for diverse learners, both labeled and not. The readings and videos correlated very well as much of the information I read about was also covered in the videos. What stood out to me was the four guiding questions brought up as a purpose in lesson planning from the book //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works// by Pilter. These questions are: 1. What will students learn?, 2. Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning?, 3. Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning?, and 4. Which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning? The first question is something we are all familiar with as educators. The state and often the school district identify curriculum standards for each grade level and content area. Something not always considered at this stage of planning is selecting complementary technology standards with our lessons. Technology needs to be thought of as more of an integral part of a lesson, not just an afterthought for a cute way to show what is learned. The second question ties in my last statement with options for how technology can become more intregral. The key to this question is providing feedback. Technology can be a great tool for providing more immediate feedback as opposed to traditional methods where a student has often forgotten what the lesson was about when the feedback is given to them. Examples on how this can be done are using presentations, data collection tools, blogs, wikis, e-mails, or even instant messaging. The third question addresses the "how" of teaching - how will students learn the information and how will you make sure all students can learn the information. This is where differentiating curriculum and modifying to meet the needs of your students comes in to play. Even if you use the same lesson year after year, or multiple times in a day, you can't teach it the same way every time because every group of students has different needs and the purpose of teaching is to meet the needs of all the students, not just the ones who fit your comfort zone in teaching. The fourth question deals with applying learning. This area is where we have students practice what they have learned (often with homework) so the information reaches mastery. The author of this book, as well as Marzano's //Classroom Instruction that Works,// states that a new skill must be practiced on average 24 times to reach 80% mastery. If you think about all that we cover and the time in which we do so, I often wonder if mastery is ever reached. This week also featured video clips of students and how technology effects their lives. Links to these "Digital Youth Portraits" are [|www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-luis-video] and [|www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-cameron-video]. My closing is a list of "Top 10 Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom" that comes from []. After viewing this video, you may see that many teachers do these things already and it may inspire you to add a few new tricks to your own repertoire.