Blog 6

What state and national standards should be considered in your scope and sequence? 

In my personal scope and sequence, the state and national standards that should be included are the 4th grade social studies core standards. I also need to include the Utah technology standards for 3-5 grades and the ITSE standards for students. In addition to those standards, I am looking at the ELA and the Math standards. I want to integrate them into my lessons as much as possible. It was interesting, because I actually wasn't really thinking about how to incorporate Math into Social Studies, but I mentioned what I was doing with my 4th grade team today and one of them suggested that I look at the math standards and see which of those standards I'd be able to include. I won't be able to include every ELA and Math standard. I'm not completely sure that I'll be able to include every technology standard either. I feel that because I am focusing on Social Studies and I've created the Global Objective and Essential Questions with Social Studies in mind, I will only be including the ELA, Math, and Technology standards that will help my students obtain the objective and answer the questions.

How will you model digital ethics and responsibility, and how will those skills be incorporated into your scope and sequence?

In my opinion, I think that digital ethics and responsibility should be a different scope and sequence. It feels like a different topic all together. That's not to say that I wouldn't remind students of their digital responsibilities whenever we're going to use technology. So, let me put this a little more bluntly because that's how I roll. ;) I would teach digital ethics and responsibilities as separate lessons, then I would remind students of those lessons before using technology during Social Studies. I really liked the Netsmartz website that we looked at in class. I think that I could use that to help me teach digital ethics and responsibilities.

Blog 5

How can technology be woven throughout the scope and sequence of a course?

I've really enjoyed the refresher course on Backwards Design. It's so easy to fall into the trap of just accepting what the teachers before you have done. By using the Backwards Design model I feel that the overall global question, and the key questions for each Unit, can really guide a teacher in deciding what technologies to include in each of his/her lessons.

Teachers need to have a good idea of where they're going in order to choose the right technology to help them get there. They also need to have a good idea of what technology would be best for each lesson. Sometimes technology isn't necessary and could actually hurt the lesson.

How can both general pedagogical and content-specific technologies be utilized effectively throughout a course?

One way that both pedagogical and content-specific technologies could be utilized would be through a flipped classroom. I also think that just creating videos for the students to watch to review what they've learned is a good way. Or having the students create the videos!

Really, it all depends on the teacher. The technology can be utilized if the teacher is willing to give up some control and let the class be more student-led.

Honestly, I feel that I'm still learning about this. I'm just starting to seriously weave technology through this scope and sequence for our class. I use technology everyday, but not with such purpose.

Blog 4

What is the difference between technology in education and educational technology?

Technology in Education

Educational Technology

*When teachers use tools to supplement what they are already teaching. *Leans more toward standardization in that the teacher tells the students which program to use and how to use it. The teacher sets up specific parameters and only allows the students to work within those parameters. For example, the teacher may want to supplement a lesson with a math game that is found on the internet. Rather than letting a student that understands the concept continue on and learn something new, that student must continue to practice what they are already proficient at, because that is what the rest of the class is doing. *According to Disrupting Class technology in education is basically what teachers have been doing ever since the big push to put computers in schools. *Teacher-centered. For example, when a teacher creates a podcast to review the lecture for the day.

*When technology replaces what the teacher was teaching. *Leans more toward modularity. For example, rather than the teacher focusing on teaching a lesson in one particular way, the students could be using educational technology which could teach in several different formats that could fit the child’s needs. It has a better capability of slowing down or speeding up the lessons according to the child’s readiness. *The author of Disrupting Class argues that one of the best forms of educational technology would be online learning. This is essentially going to school online. *Student-centered. For example, when a student creates a podcast based on an article they wrote.

What is TPACK and how does it help us better understand the role and impact of technology?

TPACK is when pedagogy, content, and technology come together. I'm totally stealing a page out of Michelle's book and using an image that I found online because I feel that it explains TPACK perfectly for me. :)

Pedagogy, content, and technology are all essential elements for TPACK. To me having TPACK is what educational technology is. On the other hand, technology in education is when pedagogy or content are missing. The teacher is trying to incorporate technology into his/her curriculum, but they are skipping key ingredients.

I really liked the Venn Diagram that we created in class that listed several tools that we use with pedagogy, content, and technology. When it came to actually bringing all of these elements together the tools were very student-centered, such as blogging, webquests, podcasting, flipped classroom, etc.