Project Description: The plan that I will like to implement is to shift the classroom from a teacher -led instructional model to a student-led/centered model of learning. The Project will be a Tech Class during Freshman Seminar, 45 minutes period Tuesday and Thursday. This is a mandatory class.
Goals and Objectives: Ultimately, the desire is for students to take more ownership over their learning. To do so, there is a recognition that the instructional approach has to take into account a higher level of student engagement and has to lead toward student independence.
Shift all digital student and teacher work to Google Apps
Content is assessable on and off-site
Content does not disappear
Documents can be shared with teachers, coaches, advisors
Comments/ feedback can be made in the moment and so students can get quicker feed back and can be linked to other resources.
Maintained a sense of authentic audience
An archived of resources can be maintained
For Students: The purpose of this class is to introduce you to the basic skills, tools and attitudes you will need to be an effective user of technology along the way we hope to answer these essential questions.
Essential Questions:
● In what ways can technology enhance expression and communication? In what ways might technology hinder it?
● What are the pros and cons of technological progress? How does technological change/ influence peoples lives?
● What tech skills will we need to work effectively in a 21st c. work environment?
● What are appropriate uses of technology in an school/business setting? What are the most effective uses?
When:
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:45- 3:35 pm
Taught by Freshman Seminar Teachers
Implementation Plan/Time Line: 1st Semester for All Incoming Freshman
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 1 - School Infrastructure 1
● Define and describe digital citizenship
● Describe and explain how the network works and what do we want them to do with it?
● Define ethical use of digital technology; apply definition by providing three examples from school and home life
● Describe ticketing system/support and use for three different types of support
Week 2 - School Infrastructure 2
● Describe file size and its impact on the uploading and downloading of files; upload document
● Describe file management and demonstrate how to use it.
Week 3 - Google Apps 1
● Create a gmail account and send the teacher an email to confirm your account
● Describe the differences between email written to a friend and to a teacher; write an email to each using the appropriate conventions
● Manage email by creating folders (family/friend, school/research)
● Set up a google calendar with a personal schedule and a school schedule for this class for the remainder of the semester; create an alarm for the next class and send the teacher an invitation to attend the next class
Week 4 - Google Apps 2
● Describe the advantages of using Google Docs
● Name, organize, and share three Google Docs according to conventions
● Collaborate with classmates on Google Doc.
Week 5:
Hardware, Software and Human Skills Inventory:
● Tech support/infrastructure
Make tech support more transparent.
Institute a MOUSE squad - students trained to help support tech needs in school.
Allow a select group of teachers to have admin rights on computers to do their own support when necessary and convenient
Require teachers to make tech requests via an online form or process so that support resources can be data tracked, assessed and adjusted accordingly.
Install a steady state like application or scripts that will automate the reinstallation/restoration of the client OS on desktops and/or laptops. This will both make the problems associated with disk corruption/fragmentation less likely and force students/faculty into the Google Apps environment to save their work. (speak with tech person)
Include a varied group of faculty members to get differing viewpoints on the needs and expectations for technology (i.e. not just the techie members of the faculty).
1. Purchase/procure teacher laptops. The school respects that teachers should not be expected to put their own personal equipment at risk in the school environment. Further, it can build capital for accountability in regards to digital participation.
2. Purchase/procure more media creation tools for student use:
In order to address the desire to increase student engagement and differentiate approaches to learning, purchase/procure more media creation tools for student use. In conjunction with open-ended problem-based learning projects, student choice through access to a menu of digital tools to solve such problems will allow for more independent work that is both student-centered and, to some degree, student initiated. It will also create the opportunity for a variety of publishing methods that align better with different learning styles and comfort levels. Since the school uses a rubric-based assessment model, a variety of approaches to solving a common problem can be assessed consistently across students. (Podcast, showme, iBook)
3. Pilot the use of Kindles in multiple classrooms as part of an action research project. Multiple teachers, independently of each other, mentioned the benefits they observed associated with the use of Kindles by resistant readers (students and family members).
There is a need for investment in professional development around tech skills, differentiated instruction and problem- based learning.
Professional development:
There are four issues around PD:
i.Not enough PD for the number of tech initiatives from the local to the district level.
ii.Too much time not built-in to the school day is necessary to practice/build comfort with new technologies
iii.No differentiation of PD for teachers, so PD most often addresses the needs of the least savvy and experienced teachers thereby losing the interest and investment of the teachers who already have background knowledge or are quicker to pick up the information.
iv.PD does not often address the pedagogical implementation of the tool in the classroom with concrete models/examples/scenarios. It often revolves around the minutia of how the tool work rather than how to use the tool for specific instructional goals (how to put it into practice)
To begin to address the needs above, at our school PD are scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays. Mondays therefore will be designated as Technology and we will have teachers work through the week-by week plans before teaching it. The long-term plan is to connect technology to pedagogy for example using khan academy, GLOBE (Bronx River Data).
Students each have a server based individual account with which they can choose to login to any client on the network. This allows students to store files in an individualized permissions protected space and allows them to customize their environment as necessary. This also allows for some basic tracking of student network/account use.
There is also a Google Apps installation at the school, which is primarily used by faculty to share docs, email, etc. Students have accounts as well.
Concerns:
Need to have internet policy for the following streaming of music, watching movies, downloading
Need to have policy surrounding proper usage of hardware: charges, handling it with care (keyboards)
PD Plan: As mentioned before, some teachers already have background knowledge and so professional development on Mondays will be centered on teachers working together (collaboration) to support each other. We would also have our technology consultant be part of the PDs to provide additional support.
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