Week+2+Overview

Week 2 Overview

This week our "to-do list" considered of 5 lesson videos, 4 reading assignments, placing a quote on the discussion board and also responding to two other discussion posts, creating a new wiki page summarizing Week 2's lesson, and brainstorming with my team members for our group project.

The readings discussed technology strategies that positively impact student learning, the diversity of learners, Universal Design for Learning, and the importance of setting learning objectives using technology before a unit or lesson. In //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, // Pitler talks about using different technology strategies such as Microsoft Word, Inspiration, and Kidspiration to create objectives for the lesson set by the teachers but also allows students to talk about prior knowledge and create their own personal goals. He also gave a variety of websites that teachers can use to generate rubrics and surveys for the students to fill out, blogs that students and teachers can use as a way of communicating, and the importance of e-mail communications with students and parents. The other 3 readings talk about the relationship between regular technology use in the classroom and students (especially non-traditional) higher self-esteem and achievement scores on local, state, and national assessment tests.

Universal Design for Learners or UDL uses technology's power to reach and include all students regardless of their aptitudes. It allows teachers to customize criteria for student accomplishment, teaching methods, and student expression while being able to evaluate what the student is learning. Brain research states that there are three tasks: recognition task helps us identify, categorize, and gather facts or the "what" of learning, strategic task helps plan, perform, organize, and express our ideas or the "how" of learning, and affective task helps with engagement, motivation and challenge or the "why" of learning. Based on the countless studies and research it has been shown that technology does have a positive effect of students’ self-esteem and achievement. The non-traditional groups (learning disabilities, English as a second language, emotional and behavioral problem, low-economical status, etc.) have the largest positive outcome with the use of classroom technology.