ISTE+Standard+2

=**2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments**=

====Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers: ====

====a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. ====

====b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. ====

====c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. ====

====d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. ====

=MEDT 7464 Designing Technology Enhanced Instruction=

Annotation: This is a professional development plan to instruct teachers how to integrate Edmodo in their classroom. Edmodo is a social networking tool designed specifically for educators to use with their students. Edmodo allows teachers to password protect their content where only students and teachers can view it. Edmodo utilizes blog space for communication among teachers and students.

Reflection: I have been really excited about the possibilities that Edmodo has to offer educators. I have exposed my collaborative regular teachers to Edmodo's social networking and virtual classroom capabilities. I was so excited that I came up with a professional development plan to instruct teachers on its capabilities and train them how to utilize Edmodo's virtual tools in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Edmodo has so many contemporary tools embedded in one environment. Calendars, blogs, social networks, quiz creation tools, and a virtual gradebook are all features that one would find in Edmodo. Teachers can help students that struggle with organization by posting assignments to the discussion area or to the calendar. Edmodo even has custom notification features that will email you or even text your phone when a message from the instructor is posted. The best part about Edmodo is that it is secure through a class password and the teacher has the ability to restrict any user that abuses the blog area. The students that I have used Edmodo with have been very excited with an educational tool that has a lot of similarities to that of Facebook.

=MEDT 6401 Instructional Technology= This is a unit plan for a lesson on the 3 branches of government.

Annotation: This is a unit plan for a lesson on the 3 branches of government. My unit plan utilizes a few tools to help students with organization. Trackstar is one of these tools that can help students organize their sources and annotations.

Reflection: My unit plan for government will be very beneficial in my government collaborative class. I think that allowing students to utilized web-based technology to complete assignments will motivate them to achieve at a high level. Having students present their ideas in a Powerpoint presentation to their peers is an effective way for students to learn. The student researcher is learning through their research by summarizing and sharing their findings and the audience or other students are engaged through peer interaction. I always tell my students that many times they can learn more from each other than they can from a teacher. Many times unmotivated students will become engaged in a task if they know that their reputation or credibility may be on the line. The unmotivated student may not care what the teacher thinks but more often times than not, they do care what their peers think about them.

My collaborative partner and I are currently implementing this lesson and many students have commented on coolness of the technology tools I have shown them. Edmodo seems to be a pretty popular tool for them. They really have not noticed how they are benefitting from Edmodo’s features because it just reminds them so much of the interactive nature of Facebook. Edmodo is allowing students to help guide each other on the presentation project outside of the classroom. When I showed all of my students Trackstar to originally help my special education students with organizing and summarizing their sources many of the regular education students immediately saw the benefits of using Trackstar. What I had intended as an accommodation for the special education students ended up also assisting the regular education students as well. I have never seen so many students exciting about doing a presentation before we introduced the civil liberties project to this group of high school seniors. The technology that we are introducing them to is making a huge impact.

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