Selection & Integration Final

It is mid December and to most people that means the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations. Last minute shopping, wrapping presents, holiday baking, and planning family get-togethers. Those things will not even make my radar until after Thursday of this week. That is when I will be done with another semester of classes as I work towards my master's degree. Our final for Selection and integration is a culmination of all the work we have done this semester. We looked at 21st Century Skills, UDL, GRR, TIM, and some other TLAs (Three Letter Acronym). Our project is to create a unit lesson that incorporates all of these strategies. This is a little hard for me to think in terms of units and lessons as I have been removed from the classroom for so long. While I plan teacher inservices and do some lessons with students, it is not the same as when I did that every day. I am amazed at how fast I have gotten out of that mode. Linked to this post is the Google Doc that I have created for this assignment. I felt that this was the best way to complete this task, as it required quite a bit of writing and that would be a bit much to post on my blog.

As of 2:15 pm on this fine day of December 15, 2011, I have completed my final assignment for Selection and Integration. It feels good to get it done, but I am now ready for a nap. Oh yeah ... one more semester to go.

UDL Helping Learners Learn

The first time I heard of UDL was in the Spring of 2011. At first I thought they were talking about UL (Underwriters Laboratories) This is the group that safety tests many items in the US. That is why you often so the label that I have on the right side of my introduction. Boy was I wrong. While UL is a very worthwhile group providing a very beneficial service, it is not the topic of this blog post. This post is discussing Universal Design for Learners.

You have probably heard of things being ADA compliant, or compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is why there are cutouts at curbs, handicapped parking, requirements for elevators in buildings, closed caption, and many more requirements to make things accessible for the handicapped. UDL is very similar to the ADA. Although it is not a requirement, it is growing in popularity as education continues to educate all students, regardless of their physical or mental differences.

As UDL grows in use throughout the country, so does the ease of integrating it into your classroom instruction. Living in these technologically booming times, there are a number of resources available to instructors to assist in creating a UDL classroom. One such device is the iPad. In this post, I will look at a number of apps that can be used to help teachers be more UDL compliant.

App	Price	Description
AudioNote Lite	Free	AudioNote Lite is an app that can support a broad range of students who need to record audio of what is spoken in the classroom but who also need to create visuals to understand and interpret what is being said. So this app has the ability to take notes, record audio, draw and highlight important information in the notes.
DAF Assistant	$12.99	DAF Assistant can be used by people who stutter to control their speech fluency, slow down speech rate, increase confidence level, and develop good speaking habits. It is known fact that people with stuttering problem usually speak better when do it together with another speaker. This, so called "chorus effect", causes significant increase in speech fluency. Delayed auditory feedback and Frequency-shifting Auditory Feedback simulate chorus effect by changing your own voice.
Decible	$0.99	Decible is an app that can measure the volume in your classroom. If you have students who are sensitive to noise, use this tool to measure the room sounds and as a reminder to other students just how loud things are getting. Very useful for students with Asperger's Syndrome or Autism.
Expressive	$25.99	Expressive is an entry to mid level, easy to use, and powerful app that allows children and adults with a speech impairment or a communication disorder to express their wants and needs through the use of pictures. It does not matter if an individual is having difficulty communicating due to autism, apraxia, stroke or any other communication disorder, Expressive will give that person the ability to express themselves through the use of pictured images and corresponding audio..
Grace	$37.99	Grace is a non-speaking, simple picture exchange system developed for people with Autism to communicate their needs independently. Users can select pictures to form a semantic sentence which they can then share, by tilting the iPhone or iPod touch to create a full screen view, and pointing at each card to hear the listener read each word. The cards are large enough on iPad not to need the full screen view. With practice, the user learns to attempt their own vocalisations with the pictures serving as a back-up or prompt. The goal of the Grace App is to encourage independent social interaction with the user taking control of what they want to say.
iCommunicate	$49.99	iCommunicate lets you design visual schedules, storyboards, communication boards, routines, flash cards, choice boards, speech cards, and more. It is customizable to your needs. For use with nonverbal students to aid in their communication.
iMean	$4.99	iMean is an app that is dedicated to text and the subtleties of expression and immense developmental potential that using text and formulating thoughts offers many people on the autistic spectrum.
iSign	$4.99	iSign is an ANIMATED phrase book of 800 American Sign Language (ASL) gestures. Each of the gestures is modeled with a 3D character and completely animated. The vantage point for each sign was chosen so that the user can see the details of the hand positions. These are the ASL signs, not finger spellings.
iSpeak Spanish	$1.99	iSpeak Spanish is an app that helps teachers work with the non English speakers in their classroom. In Iowa we have a growing number of Hispanic students. This app does not make a teacher a fluent speaker of Spanish, but it helps those who do not speak any.
iSpeech	Free	iSpeech is an app that allows the user to type in text and listen. iSpeech converts text to speech with the best sounding voices anywhere. Simply enter any text and iSpeech will instantly read the words.
iTranslate	Free	iTranslate is the first real Universal Translator. Have students who do not speak English or are not fluent in the language. iTranslate can assist a teacher in communicating with these students. Although not all languages are available, more are being added all the time.
Prologuo2go	$189.99	Proloquo2Go provides a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices (CURRENTLY AMERICAN, BRITISH and INDIAN ENGLISH ONLY), high resolution up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, advanced word prediction, full expandability and extreme ease of use.
UDLinks	Free	UDLinks is an app is for teachers and parents to search for content specific online teaching resources aligned with Universal Design for Learning. Users can complete a "Class Profile" narrowing the resources by content, grade level and topic. When prompted, questions in the profile tool narrow the search further by asking questions aligned with UDL. In the resources section of the app, teachers can search for lesson plans, multimedia, practice, games, tutorials or by topic and unique search terms. As users navigate the resources, they can save as favorites, share and view on their mobile device. The app also has a section for Universal Design for Learning linking teachers and parents with resources shared directly on the CAST website.
YesNo HD	$3.99	YesNo HD was designed with one purpose in mind - To provide an easy to use, affordable way for a nonverbal student with autism and motor planning issues to communicate with those around them. The App includes customizable buttons with text and pictures.

This is a short list of possible applications to help techers create UDL lessons and UDL classrooms. Each app has a number of different uses and non are perfect for every situation. UDLinks would be a great starting point as it is going to aid teachers in using tools they may not know exist.

Hopefully this post has given you a little insight into the world of UDL. If interested in learning more, please visit the Center for Applied Special Technology website for more information.

I have a Facebook account, I have Twitter, Diigo, Flickr, Blogspot, Edmodo, LinkedIn, and about any other social media site you can think of. The issue questions becomes, how do I make them work together. I know there are lots of neat ways to set one up to post to the other and to use RSS to get lots more done, but that can be a bit of a pain. Yesterday I was introduced to IFTTT (If This Then That). For those of you who remember what BASIC programming was, then an IF THEN statement should be familiar to you. It is also used in the study of logic. This however is a website that allows you to do some pretty cool things all from one site.

I set one up for the school that will (hopefully) feed our Activities calendar to our twitter account, and if we had a Facebook Fan Page, then I could send it there too. For personal use, I have it send a tweet from me when I create a new blog post (this will be the first one, so I hope it works), when the ITEC fan page on Facebook has a post, it goes to my twitter, and when itec_ia tweets, I retweet it.

What is really cool about the site is the recipe book. People are sharing their IF THENs so that you do not have to recreate the wheel. I know that I am not on the bleeding edge, but I like to think that I am a little ahead of the average bear when it comes to new technologies. By the number of recipes that are already on the site, I feel like I am out of the loop on this.

I hope that some of you find this site interesting and useful. If not, then I am sorry I wasted your time. But for me, the sky is the limit as I think of new ways to use ifttt.

Until next time, Happy Days!

I love Facebook. If for no other reason than it allows me to keep in contact with people from my past without really having to have a conversation with them. My daughter has been begging my wife and me for permission to open a Facebook account for two years now. We have been adamant about denying this request based on her age. As a fifth grader we feel it is important to fight for her childhood. As more and more of her friends are getting on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, it is getting harder and harder to maintain our position. It seems that today's children are more in touch with having online lives. They would just as soon e-mail or post on a friend's wall, then talk to them in school. Given this modern method of communication, it is important that students, parents, and teachers are all on the same page when it comes to understanding what that means and how they should best go about living their online lives.

Using the Common Sense Media curriculum, I am working to develop a plan that combines teacher training, student courses, and parent info packets to create a complete curriculum that best instructs our students about their online lives. Keeping them safe is the number one concern, but teaching them proper etiquette and cyber citizenry are also important in the lessons.

Teacher training can be viewed here.
Student curriculum can be viewed here.
Parent information can be viewed here.

Why Textbook Companies Are Dying

I will start this entry out with a disclaimer that most of what I am going to write is pure conjecture. I have little to no evidence to support what I feel is true. Having said that, I will still be happy to express my opinion.

I do not think that textbook companies live under rocks. They are aware of the changes that are occurring to their industry. This is evident as some of them have attempted to get into the Student Information System (SIS) business or into the e-book realm. But overall, I think they have a slightly inflated opinion of themselves.

This blog entry has been stewing around in my head for a year or so. I see textbooks as an outdated idea. Why should we limit ourselves to one source of information for a class? Why use a textbook when there are almost limitless resources available to us on the web? Why spend ridiculous amounts of money on an textbooks that all too often are so limited in scope?

We recently went with a specific textbook companies literature series. Part of the package included online curriculum that would help to integrate technology into the class. During the presentation I was impressed by the publishing companies attempt to be relevant to a 21st Century school setting. This online component was a major selling point and one of the main reasons we went with this particular series. My thoughts were that we had found a publishing company that understood the fact that textbooks are becoming obsolete and that by providing an online component they could remain current and effective.

Now we are one quarter into the school year and I am hearing that many of the online features do not work with our systems. Upon calling the company for support I was asked why we do not use IE as our default browser. This is where I should have realized that Publishing companies are dinosaurs and we should run while we could. I informed them that we are a mac platform and that IE has not been developed for the Mac since 2003. The support reps response floored me. HE asked "Why would you use Macs?" Really, that is your question? He then did a little research and said it was a specific java update that was causing the problem. I told him that because we are Mac, that update did not apply to us. He then said that an older version of Safari was shown to work with the software. So he expects me to downgrade my current software set so that we can run his web based curriculum.

So this is where I am at. I have no need for a company that

1. Is so full of itself that it feels it can dictate to me which computer platform we should use, not just to run their software, but because they feel it is better.
   
2. Wants me to actually downgrade my browsers to best utilize the curriculum they offer.
3. Blames other software companies for "breaking" their product.
   
4. Refuses to write web based software to HTML or XHTML standards so that it can be used on most browsers.

This is why these companies will eventually die. They live in 1950, when they were able to dictate what the curriculum was and how it was taught, because you needed their textbooks and teacher resources. Well it is 2011, there is this little thing now called the "Internet" perhaps they have heard of it. Rumor has it that you can research almost any topic and find resources for almost every course. There are even people out there that have done a lot of research and are willing to share lesson plans and full curriculum. I would suggest that publishers figure out.

21st Century Classroom

Teachers today are are hoping to turn their classrooms into 21st Century centers of learning. How does one know when that goal has been achieved? In our Selection and Integration course we are looking at our own lessons (or those of another teacher if we do not teach) and using a walk through form developed by Shawn Holloway Principal at Manson Northwest Webster High School.


Characteristics of Core Instruction: The following topics and items were taken from Iowa Core Curriculum sessions and reflect the Characteristics of Effective Instruction outlined by the Iowa Core.

Course/Classroom Being Analyzed: High School Social Studies (American Government)

Student-Centered Classroom

• Students at center of learning, teacher facilitating process
• Cooperative or collaborative learning taking place
• Teacher leading students to the answer not giving it out
• Students have choices
• Students are engaged in challenging work
• Teacher questions and probes
• Not visible during walkthrough
  

This instructor did an excellent job of making the students responsible for the learning. They class was broken into table groups, given the current event of Occupy Wall Street and asked what constitutional amendments were they utilizing. As groups were having difficulty, the instructor did not just give them answers but rather asked questions that guided the students to finding the answers. This was a great practical application of constitutional studies for the students.

Teaching for Understanding:

• Problem or project based learning
• Hands on, minds on
• Students think and demonstrate understanding
• Visual learning (conceptual models, graphic organizers, webs, etc.)
• Factual knowledge is transferred to usable knowledge
• Students involved in designing, problem solving, decision making, and investigating
• Summarize targeted concepts and skills
• Multiple means of presenting information
• Not visible during walkthrough

While there was no hands on activity and the only means of presenting the info was orally to the rest of the class, the students did have to look deeper into the Constitutional Amendments and really apply their meanings to this current event.

Assessment for Learning

• Formative assessment is used as a tool to adjust teaching
• Essential concept and skill is clear and evident to the students
• Teacher provides criteria of quality work
• Teacher provides examples of both high and low quality work
• Self or peer assessment is evident
• A collaborative classroom environment
• Assessment for learning takes place DURING instruction
• Variety of feeback to students (web, tapes, oral, written, video, etc)
• Not visible during walkthrough

This is one area that was not demonstrated during the walkthrough. I believe these criteria are met at other times with this instructor, this particular lesson was a little lacking in this area.

Teaching for Learner Differences

• Plans for variance in learning
• Assesses the interests and needs of individual students
• Learning goals are clearly stated
• Flexible grouping (supplemental and intensive)
• Engages students in self reflection, collaboration, and learning choices
• Works in variety of settings (large group, small group, individual)
• Engages students in self reflection
• Not visible during walkthrough

The instructor did a nice job of wrapping up the lesson by asking students to think about whether they agreed with the OWS movement or not, but then to consider that even if they were opposed to it, was the protest constitutionally protected? He further went on to point out that disagreement was not a bad thing, and asked students to reflect on their thoughts and return tomorrow with ways to counter the protest that are also constitutionally protected.

Overall, this template gives a very good 30,000 foot view of how a class is doing in terms of 21st century education. In the 25 minutes that I was there and the brief interview I had after the class with the instructor, it is clear that he is willing to keep working on lessons and getting the classes to that full 21st century level. As a "classically" trained teacher, he reminded me of how hard this transition from sage on the stage to guide on the side is. I think that a little bit of training for all staff in the desired method of instruction would be a great thing. Then when an administrator comes through the class and shows the teacher what they are looking for, the teacher can understand and show the evaluator how they meet that criteria.

TPACK

I have a confession to make. I have a bit of an intellectual crush on Punya Mishra. Iwas

introduced to the TPACK materials a little over a year ago when I attended a Community of Practice at Prairie Lakes AEA. We were working on technology integration f

or out district and Dianne Jackson asked if I had read any of the TPACK info. Up to that point, I had not.

Dr. Mishra is a professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at the college of education at Michigan State University. The focus of his current research is TPACK or Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge.

TPACK is a framework to understand and describe the kinds of knowledge needed by a teacher for effective pedagogical practice in a technology enhanced learning environment. Reading his materials and getting to go to a workshop run by him have focused my energies in how best to do my job. I was fortunate to be able to see Dr. Mishra again at ITEC this year. Punya was a featured spe

aker at ITEC and had multiple sessions that were designed to cover different areas of his research. I was not able to attend all of them, but I was able to catch a few and will definitely watch the rest when they become available on iTunes.

The concept behind TPACK is summed up in this Venn Diagram. There are teachers who have vast amounts of knowledge on their topic, yet they lack the skill to be able to "teach" that to anyone. There are those who have the best pedagogical skills known but

have no content knowledge. And there are those who have skills and content, but lack technological skills to be an effective 21st century educator. It is the goal of Dr. Mishra and TPACK to offer assistance in the joining of all three areas.

Dr. Mishra spoke at 5 sessions, the topics ranged from an introduction to TPACK to creativity to taking TPACK to the next level. Not being able to go to all of his sessions was a bitter pill to swallow, but alas my duties to the board were better served in my proper place, the Vendor Hall. All in all, the research and the opportunity to see Punya in person have energized me to work harder at making my school district a more technology friendly place. I can best describe Dr. Mishra in four words "he just gets it!" I would recommend that if you ever get the opportunity to see him speak or attend one of his workshops, that you jump at the chance. Read his research and the research on his research. You will be very glad you did.

TIM

No I am not talking about Tim the Enchanter from Monte Python.

I am talking about the "Technology Integration Matrix". This tool from the University of Souther Florida, illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students.The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix.

For one of my graduate courses, we were to find 5 lessons that integrate technology, then we were to evaluate them using the following criteria

• Identify the cell on the TIM into which it would be classified.
• Explain why it was classified in that cell. What attributes make this a good fit.
• Explain how this would fit into your world of teaching/learning. How would/could you use it in your classroom.

Then we were to take it up a notch (or as Emeril would say BAM!)

• The Characteristics are not in any sequence, so how would you take it to another characteristic
• The Technology IS in sequence so how will it be moved to the right?

So here is an example of one that I did.

Title: Digital Storytelling
Objective: Identifying major characters from history or literature
Apps Needed: SonicPics Lite (Free)
Age Group: High School
Subject: Social Studies or Literature
TIM Cell: Active-Adaption

Description:

In this lesson, the students will be given iPads to use during classtime. They are to choose three literary or historical figures and using the internet, they are to find pictures of these figures. Saving a picture from the iPad web browser is accomplished by pressing the image on the iPad and holding your finger in place until the option menu pops up. The student can then select "Save Image". The image is stored in photos in the "Saved Photos" album. The student will then import the images into SonicPics and record their explanation for selecting these people. To finish the project, they share the video by emailing it to the instructor, using the built in email capabilities of SonicPics.

Outcomes:

• Students will be able to identify key figures in history or literature.
• Students will articulate and defend their choices for historical figures.
• Students will utilize the SonicPics App to record their explanation for choosing their historical figures
  
• Students will earn how to use an iPad Application
  

The next part of the assignment was to move the lesson into a different cell on the matrix. So BAM! To move the project to the "Active-Infusion" cell, students would be allowed to choose the application that best works for them. If they want to use iMovie on the iPad and create a movie instead of the SonicPic, then they can discuss relative figures in history using that application. Giving them the choice to decide what works best for them, is letting technology work for them.

The complete list is here in this google doc. I am also attaching a walk through that I created about a year and a half ago that I was planning on using to evaluate instruction in the district. That template is available here.

ITEC 2011

Another ITEC Conference has come and gone. This conference saw many records set. We had the largest single day attendance of Any ITEC Conference (almost 1100 attendees on Monday). We had the largest attendance total for any ITEC conference. We had the most vendors to date (103) and we had (and this is purely conjecture) the fewest complaints ever.

Twitter was abuzz with a multitude of posts using the #itec11 hashtag. I am not sure what the trending had our hashtag at, but it had to be pretty darn high. Twitter was a great way for participants who were not able to make it to the conference to get in on the action.

Also new this year, EduVision broadcast the keynote and it is available here.

For the past three years, WCTV (Webster City Television) has taped the Keynotes and the vast majority of sessions. They then edit and post them on iTunes. As they get them done, they are made available for free through the iTunes store. These students do an incredible job and we cannot thank them enough. I also like to think that they have a great time providing this service for the conference too.

The three day conference is the culmination of more than a years worth of work by the board. We are already making plans for the 2013 conference. (location TBD) I am fortunate to work with some great people on the ITEC board. Many people seem to forget that ITEC is a completely volunteer board made up of educators from across the state. It is NOT just Technology Directors. We have classroom teachers, a College Professor, AEA employees, and we even have a superintendent. Each person contributes something unique to the board.

Thank you to all the the vendors, the presenters, the workshop hosts, the IEC and their staff for the wonderful job they did, and of course the attendees, without whom this woudl all be for naught.