Using Technology in Course Planning

The Teaching and Technology Fellowship really allowed me to think about how I want to teach for the upcoming year.  Because the school year for the courses I teach ended during the Fellowship, I focused myself on planning for the next school year. 

As some background information, I teach at a Reform synagogue, a Pre-Confirmation class made up of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students.  The structure of the curriculum is flexible and as a faculty we look for opportunities to engage students in Jewish Learning that interests them.

Teaching two courses each year allowed me to consider many different methods.  The first course I planned out was Jews in the News which was focusing more on the content creating aspect of the iPad technology.  Students would access a webquest for the instructions on their task to create a newscast each class about a current event item in Israel or an issue that effects Jewish people.  By using articles found on the internet they would produce a newscast using Tellagmi, iMovie or the green screen application.  The newscasts would be shared on the Temple webpage.

The second course focused on technology as a way of presenting and organizing class materials.  Using Jews on television to explore stereotypes of Jews, students would view select television episodes and through class discussion look for the different ways in which Jews are portrayed.  The introductory lesson, which is linked below, provides several short YouTube clips of some of the shows we would view. Students would be asked to use those clips to brainstorm some of the stereotypes that we might be exploring.

Introductory Lesson Prezi - still in progress but a GREAT start!

During each class discussion we would take notes using Popplet so that at the end of the seven-week course we would have a web of all the sterotryes discussed and examples from more than one television show for each.

Using technology to plan out the courses was in some ways easier than I had expected.  Creating a Prezi was more challenging than I had anticipated and it took me at least 3 tries to be satisfied with what I had created. This could be due to my status as a novice Prezi user.  Its a good thing I have a few more months before class starts to make improvements!

Course Reflections - Teaching and Technology Fellowship

I went into this class looking for ways to reach students; to differentiate the way information is presented, excite students about learning and grow as an educator.  Nearly three months later, I can look back at the work I have done and reflect that I really have accomplished those goals. 

The moment you even say the word iPad students change their body language in class, begin to pay attention to the instructions and start creating new ideas.  It's like giving students freedom to be themselves while learning. In only the few classes we held after getting the iPads, I could see the difference in the students.  They were eager to know what we were doing and how it would include the iPads. This excitement was rare previously but was refreshing to witness.

There is also a distinct value in exploration that the use of the iPad easily allows in the classroom.  Connect to the internet and you can find information about anything.  Students are great at using Google but not always so great at deciding which information is accurate and reliable.  Being able to research on your own helps to harbor interest in the subject and ownership of your own learning. Being able to create something interesting to you and appropriate for your level of understanding and abilities is invaluable and bringing technology into the classroom helps to make that goal a reality.

I find myself browsing through apps in the AppStore often, looking for new things and thinking about how they can be used in improve my teaching.  Not take the place of teaching as many would have you believe.  I often ask myself what purpose the app would serve; would it be for my own organization of materials, for a class presentation, to send home to families or for a student project?  Each use has its own value and there are many apps that fall into the categories I have devised. I even bought extra Cloud storage just so that I wouldn't have to get rid of anything! 

Technology in the classroom is really about so much more though.  Through this experience I have decided that a significant advantage to technology in the classroom is the way it helps to communicate what learning took place.  Technology can often provide evidence of learning which can be sent or posted to share with families.  Students who are excited about the learning opportunities they experienced are more likely to share with the adults they live with about what they learned than just report that their day was "OK".  The community can be better involved with the education of our students by witnessing student ability through these products.

To me this course was really a catalyst, a jumping off point, for changing the way I teach and the way I hope students will learn. Five classes and some CloudWork certainly does not make me an expert on anything but it points me in the right direction to improve as an educator and provide opportunities to students that are engaging and informative.  I know where to look for new ideas and how to change my thinking about topics.  For students, it is less about what you know at the end of a course and more about how you learned it.  

Wiki for Ninth Grade Israel Beth El Class

Wiki for the Ninth Grade Israel Class at Beth El

Our second project for the Technology Fellowship was the creation of a Class Wiki for our Ninth Grade Israel Class, on which we could post Webquests and assignments and the students could post finished work , as well as answer the “question of the day”.  We have enough netbooks for each student to have one in class, so they can work on the projects in class.

The Wiki can be seen at http://bethel-grade9.wikispaces.com/. It currently has two projects.  The first is webquest for Wars in Israel  in which students are asked to make a Prezi  about one aspect of one war.  There is a Prezi I made as an example on the Wiki.  The second is a Webquest to research an itinerary in Israel that is based on the itinerary the class will be using next year on their tenth grade HiBur trip to Israel.  The project is to make a popplet about one of the places on the itinerary.

Mark and Judy