digital portfolios

I can see how digital portfolios are a very visual way to keep a collection of student's work over time, showing progress. I keep "math portfolios" in my classroom which tracks students work through units. I can see making these digital in order to share them with the parents of students without having to let the actual original work leave the classroom.

This task may become cumbersome though, I would have to figure out a way to make it the student's responsibility to create the digital portfolio. Maybe as a review before the summative exam the student could reflect (with a verbal or written journal entry) on their progress towards mastering the required targets.  The could chose the work that shows their growth to upload (such as a pre-test, a formative assessment (quiz or other work), and their assessment readiness test (ART))

ISTE standards

The ISTE standards (teacher or student) are hardly ever mentioned in the professional development of teachers. I find all of them to be increasingly important as our society continues down the technological path. I personally find the first standard, "facilitate and inspire student creativity" to be the most intriguing to me as a teacher because it compliments the mathematical practice standards.  It is asking students to engage in creative thinking to solve real world issues with collaboration. The technology just becomes a tool to help in this process. I am working to revamp my lesson plans to include technology as much as possible. Student access is always an issue.

The ISTE standards for students are written for students to work through a problem solving plan, with the end result being presentation. The standards can not really stand alone on their own. I would lean more towards the creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making standard as the one I would emphasis the most because once again, it flows with the CCSS math practice standards. I am writing lessons that present the students with an open ended problem with limited information. The will work together (using technology collaborative tools) to problem solve, research, and share solutions to the problems.

Device choice

I would not give expensive iPads to every student. The upkeep and monitoring the devices are way too cumbersome and time consuming. I would rather see districts set up a purchase plan for good but inexpensive technology for families. The students could work off the payment by working at the school, tutoring, attending tutoring or any other ideas that can be generated. The devices could be collected and updated at summer and picked up by students when done. After graduation, the computers would then be given to the students to take to college, etc.

OER

I would suggest to the teacher that they supplement  their curriculum with OER and use it as another resource. There is not currently a fully functional program that would meet all the CCSS and differentiates instruction. Going totally OER would require you to basically write a curriculum yourself using a variety of resources which includes web pages and online textbooks, etc.

Social media

I do not see any benefit to using social media in the classroom. There are so many other tools to be used that facebook and tweeting can be replaced with in a better supervised realm.

Maybe for a club or sport page or curriculum page but web pages could do the same thing, except for the editing by others which brings up even more issues.

Reading 1 response

I still have to edit on paper instead of on screen and I also find etextbooks to be harder to use, I like flipping through psages to search.  i am transitioning. I have an Edmodo page where I post teaching materials for my students.

DI need to be flexible and willing to admit we don't and cannot know it all! We need time to create and to build NI curriculum.

very valid to this day. curriculum takes too long to change. read The Sabertooth Curriculum book. As NI become educators things will have changed from their generation to the next also.  Education needs to become more dynamic and fluid.

Poststem1

I could see this as a way to keep track of where my students are in their progress

Quick way to hit many students at once

Tech issues and appropriate usage and language , students and parents who do not have technology available

Being such a small school, I think I could get a school blog going

All the paper reminders and copies made, also parent newsletters and information papers