Implimentation Plan by Ben Hoffman
After spending this past week learning about new technologies I can use in my classroom as well as the benefits that they can have, I am really excited to start implimenting them. My main goal is to start using a moodle page as a home base for students to use in my classroom. One thing that I am trying to keep in mind as I come up with these new ideas is that I need to keep a balance between getting started on all of these cool ideas I have in my head and getting in too deep. I think I will start by creating my moodle page where students can go to get resources they need like notes, worksheets, and videos they can watch. I hope to also have a place where students can add their comments and reflections on the videos they are assigned to watch on the topics in my class. I would also like to start getting my students familiar with some cool tools like wiffitti and wordle that can also help out with communication between student and teacher. If I give my students a place to easily post questions and comments on the internet through text messaging, I think that it will be easier for students to ask questions without the stress that goes along with asking questions in class.
I have several reasons for making these changes. My first reason is that most students are very familiar with using technology and would enjoy using that technology as part of school. One of the articles I we read as part of the Web 2.0 class was on 21st century skills. The article was called, "Transforming the Classroom for Collaborative Learning in the 21st Century." The author of this article explained that students are already using skills like communication and collaboration at home and by doing using technology to do these same things at school will engage them in learning. My second reason is that I think this will be a good way of keeping me organized, and my third reason for doing this is that I think it will cut down on the amount of paper I use in my class which will save my school money and help the environment.
I don't believe that implimenting these strategies will change my current practices by too much and my daily classroom activities aren't going to change all that much. Because I only have access to 1 computer during class time, the use of technology during class time will be limited to what I can SHOW students as opposed to what students can DO with technology.
Student use of these technologies will probably have to come before and after school as homework assignments. My hope is that this isn't going to add to the amount of work that students do, but take the place of the traditional worksheets and notes that students complete outside of class time
. One thing that I will have to manage myself in implimenting these new technologies is that I need to stay diligent in maintaining and organizing my class moodle site. This shouldn't add to the amount of work I have to do, but take the place of the time I usually spend correcting the more traditional homework assignments. I plan on having a moodle website up and running by the time that students arrive this next school year. This way, students will get into the routine of using it right away and won't know any different. I've tried out some of my great classroom ideas before halfway into the semester and found that it's difficult to break up the routines that students get into. In addition to my classroom moodle webpage, I would like to try resources like wiffitti as an introduction to my class with students posting their initial thoughts, questions and expectations of the class.
There are a few roadblocks that I can see coming my way when I begin using these technologies in my class. The first one is that I can see some students complaining that they don't have access to a computer or internet and can't get those assignments done for me. To help them out, I will help them find a time and place that works for them when they have access to a computer at school. We have computers available before and after school for students and I will probably have a computer that can be available for students to work on at times during class. Hopefully this will solve the problem of computer access. Another potential roadblock is that some students like to fight change
. Even though traditional classes and curriculum can be boring to students, they are used to it and may not want to change to using more technology even if it is a change for the better. To overcome this problem, I know that I just need to be patient and diligent in demonstrating the importance of using technology in my classroom. I also need to be aware of the reasoning behind my purpose of using each technology piece in my classes. High school students are very aware and will know if I am simply using technology for the purpose of using technology and I need to have purpose behind my uses.
There are several ways that I will be able to tell whether or not my technology plan is successful. The first indicator will be whether or not students are engaged and see the purpose behind what I am doing. This will be fairly easy for me to see because high school students will be brutally honest in their feelings of what we are doing in class. There are other resources on the internet that I would like to take advantage as well to help me out with this process. Online polling websites such as zoomerang and survey monkey would be a tool that not only could help me recieve student feedback, but would be a good use of technology and save me the time of compilling data as well. I feel that I develop a strong enough relationship with my students that they aren't afraid to tell me how they feel about something and whether or not it is working for them. At the same time, I know that I probably won't get all of my students on board feeling that using technology in my classroom is the best thing since sliced bread, but my hope is that the majority of my students appreciate it and see the benefits. Another way I can tell whether or not my implimentation is successful is by the amount of time it takes me to manage and use the technologies in my classroom. One way that online webtools can save me time is by doing some of my classroom assessments online. I know that moodle has a lot of student assessment tools that I would like to take advantage of such as online tests and quizzes and student self assessments on projects. I am looking forward to seeing the potential that these tools offer.
Are these things saving me time, or creating additional work for me as the teacher? I am planning on it taking a while before it saves me time, but hopefully after the first semester of my school year I will be able to see whether or not a classroom moodle page and other technology pieces are adding to my classes in a positive way. Overall, I am really excited to get starting in implimenting new technologies in my classroom and see how it impacts my classes and students.
