EDLD 5366 Week 5 Course Embedded Assignment Reflection

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Digital Graphics and Web Design class.   I am new to the Graphics and Design field and have found every bit of what I’ve learned challenging and fascinating.   I was fortunate enough to be placed in a group during our Web Design class whose members had extensive experience with web design and learned a great deal.  I had not realized that so much went into web design. Graphic design is like putting pieces of a puzzle together and having the image make a vivid impact.

The four principles of design were interesting to learn as I considered them when analyzing different designs.  I find myself analyzing advertisements that I may see on a day to day basis. The ancient manuscripts impressed me with the vivid colors and emphasis placed on the illustrations.  I have learned that Graphic Design is not just for advertising.  The concepts can be used for anything that needs a unified look or professional feel.

I had not really thought about how important branding can be or what kind of impact it would have in regards of telling the world who you are.  Branding yourself creates a lasting impression to others.  By developing your own brand, you’ll have control over people’s initial perception. I would advise anyone interested in creating a logo or brand for themselves to start with their friends.  Ask your friends to provide three adjectives describing you and go from there.  I took this route and was pleasantly surprised to find what my friends thought of me and then compared to what I had used to describe myself.  Once I had my data I could create a logo that accurately represented me as a person, teacher and learner.    

Creating the animation was a fun project.  I used Stykz software for my animation.  It was interesting to see how many open source animation programs that are available.  I can see the value in animation, teaching and learning. Teachers can use animation with students to create all sorts of creative projects.  Animation can drive imaginative exploration by students, as well as enhancing their writing and storytelling skills.  Creating stories teaches visual literacy, as well as plain old fashioned literacy, and can help students experience learning in a very different way.

I learn and retain information best when in a collaborative environment.  Bouncing ideas off of each other assists me in the learning process especially if the content is new to me.  I enjoy surrounding myself with the experts who can show me, not tell me, and can assist in the learning processes.  I also enjoy the research aspect of the learning process and will continue to improve my research skills for future projects.   

Digital technology is part of students’ everyday lives.  As technology leaders it is crucial that we continue to research and develop ways to incorporate technology into the classroom not only as a teaching tool, but to get the students involved in collaborative projects.  If the student understands the application of what they are learning, work with others for support and present the project in an effective way, I believe the student has an excellent chance to retaining the information.     



References

Alcantara, L (2009). The Art of Self-Branding.  Retrieved from http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-branding-part-one/

Reyes, J. (2010). Why Branding Yourself Is Important.  Retrieved from  http://sixrevisions.com/project-management/why-branding-yourself-is-important/

Gopin, L. (2012) 5 Innovative Animation Tools for Teachers.  Retrieved from  http://edudemic.com/2012/03/5-innovative-animation-tools-for-teachers/

EDLD5363 Week 5 Video Project Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVa7ir0YogM&feature=youtu.be

EDLD 5363 Weeks 4 Reflection

In this weeks web conference we were encouraged to continue on with adjusting our scripts, shot lists and participate in our team collaboration. Basically, re-work week 3 assignments, highlight what was changed and submit as week 4.  I feel like this week has been light as our team worked really hard in week 3.  I am looking forward to the editing piece of our project in week 5.  I really appreciate the 3 web conferences scheduled all in one week as it provides flexibility to my schedule.

EDLD 5363 Week 3 Reflection

Our web conference this week answered several questions I had regarding our upcoming project.  I learned that we are limited to 1-2 photos to use in our project and the rest will be video.  We assembled our teams to work on the video project in our discussion board.  Everything we learned in weeks 1 and 2 such as the use of Audacity and Windows Movie Maker will be demonstrated in our final project in week 5.  I have a solid team who will be demonstrating Sir Isaac Newton's 3 laws of motion. 

EDLD 5363 Week 2 Reflection

Part of our assignment  this week was to download Audacity.  Audacity is a free sofware, audio editor and recording application.  I experienced no problems during the download.  I had more difficulty downloading LAME.  LAME is a MP3 encoder that is needed to enable Audacity to export MP3 files.  Do you ever feel as if you messed up on something only to find out it worked out when you did a test run?  That was me.   I tested the download and it worked fine.  I viewed a tutorial from YouTube but was disappointed on how blurry the screen was. 

Creative Commons was another part of my assignment.  Creative Commons is a copyright tool and is best known for licensing your work.  I can see how licensing your work can be useful by sharing with others while still receiving the credit.   I create digital templates for my family photos and this tool would be beneficial to my work.  

EDLD5363 Week 1 Reflection

I am looking forward to next four weeks of my Multimedia and Video Technology class.  I was unable to attend the first scheduled web conference for week one.  I am so thankful our web conferences are recorded so I was able to have the majority of my questions answered.  I appreciated the initial self-assessment I took.  It allowed me to be aware of what I could expect to learn from this class. This is all brand new to me so I will be one of those students who will gain a lot of technology knowledge. Creating my script and video was enjoyable.  I value the feedback I received from my peers.  Please see below the link to my Personal Digital Story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGqN30r_hxA&feature=youtu.be

EDLD 5301 Week 5 Reflection

This course has been a confidence builder for me. I feel more confident in my ability to produce a data driven, research based plan.  My research class has also opened up my mind to consider other action research plans.  I like that this type of research does not stop when the last summary, presentation and reflection have been produced.  Other substantial topics can easily be spun off from the results of other action research projects.  I look forward to developing my final plan, conducting research, collecting data, and finalizing the results.  

EDLD 5301 Week 4 Reflection

Meeting with my site supervisor this week enlightened me on an important part of my research project.  The largest part of our conversation revolved around the number of students I plan to have in my group.  My site supervisor suggested I increase the number of students to allow for changes such as students moving away or for absences.  This made sense to me and I agreed if I increased my participant number that it will allow for adjustments if needed in the future.  I am now going to incorporate 3^rd grade students to my originally planned 4^th grade only group.  This change could possibly lead to other important data comparisons between the grades and/or allow for strategy research in regards to assisting a special needs 3^rd grader in meeting the goals for advancement to the 4^th grade.      

EDLD 5301 Week 3 Reflections

As I continue to work on my action research plan, I am making adjustments to narrow down and concentrate on one particular issue rather than having a broader scope to work with.  Thinking of the project as more of an intervention was helpful to initiate my brainstorming ideas.  I am anticipating that my results will show that a technology based reading fluency program will be beneficial to my Special Education students as well as possibly implementing a similar plan to the General Education population.  I have learned during this third week of my research class that an action research project is an ongoing process and can certainly lead to other substantial action research ideas.      

Action Research Plan EDLD 5301

Action Research Plan
Goal: To determine if and how technology can be used in a Special Education small group setting to increase reading fluency.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.Identify the 2-4 Special Education students involved in research.	Dawn Shinn Angelee Morales Merrill Redfern Special Education Team	August 2012	ARD documentation	Determine and create a group with similar classification grade level and academic need. Inform and obtain approval from parents.
2.Obtain group members reading fluency scores for baseline determination.	Dawn Shinn Special Education Team Merrill Redfern	September 2012	AIMSWEB data Excel spreadsheet for data collection.	Ensure that I have sufficient data before beginning student use of interventions.
3.Assign programs to group members and begin use of interventions.	Merrill Redfern Students	September – December 2012	The Six Minute Solution Program. Read Naturally Program.	Implement and monitor student’s use of Reading Fluency programs.
4.Literature Review	Merrill Redfern Angelee Morales Dawn Shinn	December 2012	Internet literature	Review current literature and data regarding use of a technology program in Sped in other districts

Action Research Plan
Goal: To determine if and how technology can be used in a Special Education small group setting to increase reading fluency.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
5.Obtain Reading fluency scores from mid-year assessments	Dawn Shinn Merrill Redfern Special Education Team	January 2013	AIMSWEB Excel Spreadsheet	Compare baseline scores to mid-year scores.
6.Continue with interventions alternating programs with the students.	Merrill Redfern Students	January - April 2013	The Six Minute Solution Program. Read Naturally Program.	Implement and monitor student’s use of Reading Fluency programs.
7.Obtain Reading fluency scores from end of year assessment.	Dawn Shinn Merrill Redfern Special Education Team	April – May 2013	AIMSWEB Excel Spreadsheet	Compare end of year scores to baseline and mid year scores.
8.Compile all completed data and research into an action research plan informal oral presentation.	Merrill Redfern Angelee Morales Dawn Shinn Special Education Team	May 2013	Baseline data Mid-year data End of year data Program intervention data	Using all data collected, analyze and determine if and at what rate reading fluency increased with and without a technology based program.

EDLD 5301 - Week 2 Reflection

After watching and listening to the videos of the three Texas school leaders who discussed their action research projects and how they used them, it helped me define the parts of the action research process in more detail. The examples provided by all the leaders helped me paint a picture of what action research would look like. The advice given by Dr. Kirk continues to influence my decisions as I look at my action research plan. That advice is to make sure your research project is practical and relevant to student learning. As I narrow down my project, conduct my research and collect data I will try to ensure the end result is beneficial to my resource students, my team and campus.

EDLD 5301 - How can Educational Leaders use blogs?

There are several ways in which Educational Leaders can use blogs. Superintendents can use them to share information with district principals, district teachers, parents, and the community. Principals can use blogs to share information with campus staff, such as informing about upcoming events, and campus news. Teachers can use them to stay in communication with their parents, students, and other teachers. Blogs provide a way for various groups to stay connected, share information and provide feedback.

EDLD 5301 Week 1 - Action Research

Action research is a process of self-reflective research in which educators and practitioners reflect systematically on their practice, placing forth informed action to bring about improvement to their practice. As I have read through our selections this week, I’ve specifically learned that action research is a continuing and ongoing process. Monitoring and updating the project based on the data collected is everlasting and consequently very informative. Maybe more importantly, I have learned what action research is not. Action research is not problem-solving in the sense in trying to find out what is wrong, but rather a quest of knowledge about how to improve upon personal strategies. Action research is not about accomplishing research about people or looking for the correct answers. It involves people working to improve upon their skills and strategies. Action research is not about learning why we do certain things the way we do, but rather how we can do things better. It is about how we can change our instruction to positively impact our students.

I'm looking forward to using action research as we begin to incorporate more technology into the resource classroom. We look forward in using the research and information we collect to monitor the positive and negative aspects of this change. As I have read in action research articles, time seems to be a major challenge. I do not think it will be any different at our campus as we incorporate our technology plan. I anticipate a struggle to find the time to not only learn how to use the technology, but manage to incorporate it into the lessons for our resource students. I look forward to the many benefits for our students using various types of technology. I know our students will be glad about the new technology and will embrace the change that it brings to our campus.

Week 5 Assignment, Part 2: Course Reflections

When I began my first class towards my Master’s degree, Concepts of Educational Technology, I was not quite sure what to expect and a little anxious about the unknown. I knew I wanted to pursue my Master’s degree in a concentration in which I would learn as well as enjoy. To be honest, I truly enjoy technology more than I have ever in the past. I set out to learn more knowledge about technology, technology assessments, and digital tools and how they can be utilized in the educational setting. As I placed myself in a position to pursue and learn all about technology satisfies two components of my vision: 1) learning all that I can so that I can help others and eventually feel confident in teaching the concepts to 21st Century learners, and 2) overcoming my fears and anxiety about technology which will build my confidence to teach others. I gained knowledge and thoroughly enjoyed creating and using the different tools such as wikis, blogs, animoto and wordle.

The experience that I gained through this course is relevant to my work as a Resource/Special Education Teacher’s Aid. Although I am a certified teacher I hold an Aide’s position that limits me on what I can achieve in preparation of lessons plans. However, I have already introduced my Lead Teacher to many of the concepts and tools that I learned in this course. My Lead Teacher is very interested in what I have introduced to her and has incorporated the tools into her lesson plans. I have collaborated with other teachers about our 21st Century Learners and the much needed changes to satisfy and be successful with student engagement. To experience more and learn additional information, I am looking forward to a Technology workshop regarding 21st Century Learners being held in my area this summer. Learning about our campus technology ratings and the Star chart gave me insight into technology areas that need to be addressed at our campus.

I do not think there were any specific outcomes that I did not achieve on completion of this course. I believe I have accomplished my expected outcome and goals of this course. I set out to learn more about technology and how I can implement my knowledge in the classroom. I value the information and experience I have gained from this course. I can see myself using the information in my current job position as well as sharing the information with fellow teachers and staff. Now that I have the information readily available and well organized, I can easily refer to the information as needed. I did experience some challenges initially and along the way of completing the course. Organizing my time to get assignments completed on time and setting up the new computer I purchased with the needed software were the challenges I faced. I look forward to future courses and feel confident in using the tools I learned from this first course.

I believe I was successful in carrying out the course assignments and meeting the required deadlines but it was not without challenges. I felt overwhelmed as I dug through the first week’s assignment. In my opinion, the first week was the toughest as the content was completely new to me. I was nervous, to say the least, about the time commitment and organization of the course. I was worried that I was not going to complete the assignment on time as I struggled with organizing the amount of work that was expected. I found it difficult finding that balance between my home life, full time work responsibilities and Master program requirements. I realized very quickly that to get through the first course and remaining courses that I would need to polish up on my time management skills. As the weeks passed, my anxiety diminished little by little. I was able to manage assignment deadlines and requirements with a little more ease. I was determined to be successful. I have a better understanding of how I can organize my time and schedule to complete assignments on time.

I have learned quite a bit from this course, about myself and my technology capabilities. I’ve learned I have underestimated my technology experience as well as the capability I possess in learning new technology concepts and tools. I have gained confidence in my ability to maneuver through technology programs with the tools I have learned and share what I have learned with others. My Lead Teacher has even commented on my confidence level when applying the technology tools I have learned with our students. She too, has applied some of the technology tools in her lesson planning. My attitude has changed with technology in that I am more accepting of new challenges rather than shy away from something I did not think I could do. It helped me to develop goals for myself throughout this course and built up the confidence as I crossed the finish line. I needed to strive to be an effective Technology Leader. I will continue and look forward to taking the steps, strive and grow towards becoming an effective Technology Leader.

Week 2 Assignment Part 4

E-Rate and the RCISD Technology Plan

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Blog Post #3 - National Educational Technology Plan

The National Education Technology Plan has two sizable goals.  These are aggressive goals and achieving them is a challenge.  The first goal is to raise the number of college graduate who hold either a two year or four year degree, and the second goal is to close our achievement gap so that all of our high school graduates are prepared for college and future careers.   Five strategies have been identified to help reach these challenging goals.  The first strategy is learning.  We must give our students the power and flexibility to take control of their own learning.  This means making a huge change from our traditional classroom teaching.  Students should be given options and different opportunities for learning, such as allowing them to work in small groups, tailoring the work to their own unique learning style, and using each student's prior experience to engage them in the process.  We also need to realize the impact our community can have as a learning resource and use them as a tool.  The second strategy is assessment.  We need to utilize technology based assessments that give us a true measure of student knowledge, and our assessments should involve higher level thinking skills.  The third strategy is teaching. Teaching should be a team activity, not individual.  Professional development should be a collaborative effort between teams, and also immediate and convenient. Online learning and 24/7 access will be used to provide learning opportunities for teachers.  Fourth strategy is Infrastructure.  Every student and teacher should be provided with the resources they need, when and where they need them.  Infrastructure is vital in allowing us to leave the traditional model of teaching behind and move forward into the future.  The fifth and final strategy is productivity.  We need to ensure that our students are making progress, and group them according to ability and skill level. We need to change and adjust our classrooms to reflect the world that we live in today.

Reference:

U.S. Department of Education. (2010).  Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. March 9, 2012,  http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010.pdf

Merrill Redfern

EDLD5311/ET8050

Blog Post #2 District Technology Plan

The administration and community of Royse City ISD place high importance on technology and the value it provides to our learning organization.  The plan focuses on integrating technology with curriculum and operations to maximize student and staff performance and increase productivity.  The components to this plan include technology integration in teaching and learning, professional development, community involvement, supporting 21^st century skills, quality personnel, technology access, a management plan for the life cycle of hardware, information and communication systems, planning, and security.

A District Technology Improvement Committee was assembled using personnel from the Technology, Curriculum and Campus administration, general education and technology teachers.  The committee uses data about computer usage from each campus, current equipment lists, technology courses offerings, and STaR Chart data to assess current conditions and prepare to meet future goals.

A comprehensive technology needs assessment is an ongoing process with RCISD.  This process includes surveys of teachers through the district data management system, students and community member, input from District Improvement in Education Team, the assessment of our Technology Advisory Committee, discussions with staff members, campus walkthroughs, monthly technology integration departmental planning meetings with teachers, inventories of current material, the evidence provided by the Texas STaR Chart, and ongoing formal technology skills testing of all 8^th grade students using an Online Assessment tool. 

 RCISD recognizes that they must provide more opportunities for professional development in the area of technology.  This year, our district has made available several professional development opportunities for technology learning, utilizing technology experts within our own staff.  The coordination of our professional development is handled by our Director of Technology. Technology integration is a priority on our campus and our classrooms. There are limited financial resources for professional development, and time is always a very limited resource.

RCISD has technology expenditure available to use to upgrade our technology status.  Our expenditures are broken up into four different budgets which are also the Key Components of the STaR chart.  They include teaching and learning, educator preparation and development, leadership, administration and support and infrastructure for technology.  Our budget is further broken down to Technology Expenditure per pupil.

Reference:
ROYSE CITY ISD Technology Plan for E-Rate Year 14,  2011 - 2014 (2010),  March 11, 2012 
http://schoolsites.schoolworld.com/schools/RoyseCity/files/filesystem/ROYSE%20CITY%20ISD%20Technology%20Plan.pdf

Merrill Redfern
EDLD5311/ET8050

Web Conference Week 2 Reflection

I attended my first web conference for EDLD 5306 on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.  I was somewhat anxious to get set up as I had purchased a new computer for my graduate studies and wanted to get familiarized with the computer and equipment.  The audio was not working properly initially (operator error) however it wasn’t long until we figured it out.  It was nice to meet others who are sharing the same technology journey as I am.  I was comforted to know that we have a diverse group from all parts of the country.  I look forward to learning from everyone.

I enjoyed hearing details about the Educational Technology Leadership graduate program.  I enjoyed hearing about Lamar’s Accreditation and Standards.  My questions regarding the Tk20 account were answered.   Discussion regarding our Internship requirements and where to find the information on our Cohort group account were understood however, I need further explanation on the 33 Technology Performance Indicators (Internship Plan/Field-based Experience Plan) and how they relate to the 38 skills across 9 Principal Competencies and 3 Domains (Principal’s Competencies Chart).