Best Hopes - Worst Fears

Scenario:
Imagine a situation in which every teacher, staff member and administrator has access to technology (phone, email, Internet, presentation software, video, database tools, digital cameras, etc.) on a daily basis as an integrated tool for teaching, learning and productivity. How would this change your classroom environment? Please post a comment expressing both your best hopes and worst fears.

About this activity: Research shows that it is essential to provide adults with an opportunity to express their fears and hopes. While doing this exercise, it is possible to link the set of fears to the set of hopes. For example, a common fear is the “loss of social skills” and a common hope is the “opportunity for increased communication.” It is essential to validate people’s fears. Once the list of fears and hopes is generated, it can be used as a reference to make sure that the fears are minimized and the hopes are maximized.
A. November, Jan. 2000

Questions...

Please use this space to post questions you have for Level II. Also, take a look to see if someone else has the same question. :)

Always backup your work...

Just a friendly reminder that you should always backup your work. Specific to Level II work, I highly recommend that you backup anything that you submit to CTAP 9 Online and the blog.

You can backup work digitally and/or hard copy... Whatever you are most comfortable with.

For example, you might write and save your comments for the blog in a Word document and then paste the comments from the Word document to the blog. Then you have your work on your computer as well as on the blog.

“...protecting your valuable files against accidental data loss grows ever more important in our new digital age”

Scheduling in Outlook Web Access (OWA)

When you are ready to schedule your observation, please schedule through OWA (http://mail.nmusd.us/). This will allow you to see my availability.

Here are directions on how to do that:
-In Calendar, on the toolbar, click New to create a new appointment
-Please make the Subject of the appointment "Level II Observation- Your Name"
-In the Location field, put your school and where I will meet you
-In the Start Time and End Time lists, select the appropriate dates and times.
-Invite me by putting "lmcgann" in the Required field
-Then click on Availability to see if I am available
-If I am "busy", try another time and check the availability for that
-In the message body, type any message you want to accompany your meeting request, and then click Send.

Thanks for using the efficiency feature!

PS- Just a friendly reminder that the lesson must be you and your students using technology. That is you providing instruction and the students practicing what you have taught them. The use of technology must include the Internet.

CTAP 120- Activity 1a

What are the primary factors you consider when deciding upon using a given technology as an instructional tool?

Do you find that your inclusion or exclusion of a given technology is more of a result of your knowledge of what is available, or more a result of your experience with a given application?

Do you find that the availability of a given technology hinders its use at your site or that many educators at your site do not see realistic ways to integrate technology in their students' learning and exploration?

CTAP 120- Activity 2b

At this point, you should have reviewed student technology use guidelines forwarded by both a national foundation project and a state content effort. However, you are the sole expert when it comes to true understanding of your students' capabilities. Reflecting upon the guidelines you have reviewed in the last two activities, what do you believe your students should be able to do with technology at the grade and ability levels you see in your classroom everyday?

CTAP 201- Activity 1a

Post a brief assessment of the standards you read in Lesson 1. How can the Internet help you accomplish these standards?
The link to ACRL on CTAP9 Online is bad. Please use the link below instead.
American Library Association (ALA) - Info Lit Standards

CTAP 205/210- Activity 4b

After exploring the different assessment tools in your coursework, briefly describe the assessment strategies you will use to:
-Assess your students' prerequisite knowledge before teaching the lesson.
-Monitor your students' progress during the lesson.
-Evaluate your students' proficiency with the content standards in the culminating activity.
Please note: This description will be added to you lesson in Lesson Plan Builder. (From the Lesson Plan Builder's Table of Contents, click on Assessment.)

Webliography

Throughout your Level II coursework you will review online resources. Webliography is a way to share the websites you find valuable with your colleagues. Also, if you already know of other great student technology sites that offer teachers tools to help students envision and use technology, share those as well. It is through this type of online sharing that our community of educators blossoms.

Please make sure that all of your webliography entries include the following:
-Title
-Web Address
-Appropriate Grade Level(s)
-Description
*The web address must be a hyperlink so others can click on it and view the website. To learn how to do this, go to Blogger Help.

Here is an example of a webliography:
Fun Brain
http://www.funbrain.com/
Grades K-8
This is website with lots of great (and free) educational games for math and language arts! Also, quizlab allows teachers to assign quizzes that students take and then the results are sent via e-mail to the teacher.