Pablo
Vazquez
EDU697:
Capstone: A Project Approach
Professor
Keith Pressey
December
8, 2013
This activity will
cover Program Learning Outcome 3 to “Design learning opportunities that apply
technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all
learners”.
A human, amongst all
creatures on Earth, possesses a unique characteristic. We as a species are able
to reason, learn in complex ways and store knowledge unlike any other species
and this is certainly do to the millions of years of evolution our brains have
endured. This has led researchers like Howard Gardner, the renowned developmental
psychologist conclude that humans have Multiple Intelligences which are nine
different kinds of intellect that reflect different ways of interacting with
the world. When it comes to education, it is something that must be taken
seriously into account, as we become aware that with these unique
intelligences, we also get students with their own unique learning styles which
would require differentiated instruction to accommodate their needs. With the
rising inclusion of technology in academic instruction, it even more possible
now to make these accommodations through innovative technological methods that
appeal to all forms of multiple intelligences. In this paper, I will write
about my own personal experience, learning in prior courses, and the Week Two
Discussion. I will briefly discuss and support my understanding of the
importance of designing to support the needs of all learners and additionally,
select and redesign a prior MATLT activity to demonstrate my attainment of
Program Learning Outcome 3 to “design learning opportunities that apply
technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all
learners”. The redesign will demonstrate the use of instructional design
principles I chose and finally, I will also include a discussion of the design
and implementation challenges I experienced during the redesign and how they
were overcome.
During the last few years, we have begun to see a
paradigm shift in our systems of education. We have begun to realize that our
education was in need of an overhaul and that the traditional classroom which
was designed for a past industrial era has forever change. We are now able to
see that the “one size fits all” model of education no longer fits our modern
classrooms. Now we must take into
account that students learn as individuals in different ways, and what might
work for a single student, might not work for another. This new movement in
education has led to innovations in academic instruction, and even more; the
ever-evolving advancements in technology are now being used to take education
further. Technological breakthroughs like Web 2.0, Wiki’s, Learning Management
Systems, Blackboards and other kinds of educational software have enhanced the
experience of learning to a point where students are now immersed in their
education through these tools that facilitate learning.
While
I have not had any direct experience in a classroom, but I have been able to
put into context all the things that I have learned throughout the MATLT
through my wife who served in New York City as a kindergarten school teacher
for five years. One of the most intriguing things about her work was that she
was constantly in search of ways of teaching students at an individual level.
This was due to the fact that many of them hailed from different cultural
backgrounds and spoke different languages. Her school was a bilingual school;
in my opinion this was the type of school were the consideration of multiple
intelligences, the need for technology and instructional designs that accommodate
the individual learner are needed the most. From what I have learned in these
courses and hearing my wife’s experiences in education; it is easy to see that
indeed learners are not all identical to one another when it comes to being
educated. They acquire knowledge in various different ways and will learn
better when engaged through two or more of the identified intelligences.
In
my research and our courses here in the MATLT program we have discussed many
methods for creating instruction that accommodates the individual needs of
students as learners. One of the methods that I found very effective was the
Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This method allows the educator to
differentiate instruction in order to meet all the needs of the learners. The
three principles of the UDL methods as explained by Strangman, & Meyer
(2003) are to (1) support recognition learning, provide multiple, flexible
methods of presentation; (2) support strategic learning, provide multiple,
flexible methods of expression and apprenticeship; and finally, (3) to support
affective learning, provide multiple and flexible options for engagement.
Furthermore, Patricia Kelly Ralabate, EdD, from the National Education
Association, explains that “UDL implementation provides the opportunity for all
students to access, participate in, and progress in the general-education
curriculum by reducing barriers to instruction (Ralabate, 2011)”. Combining
this with method with technology is an excellent way to enhance the learning
experiences of learners by appealing to their creativeness through
differentiated instruction.
I
have chosen to revise an activity I previously designed for my EDU649:
Technologies for Teaching & Learning course. The activity consisted of a
class covering a history Lesson project focusing on the influential people
throughout the past centuries that have been discussed by the class during the
school year. The students were tasked with integrating the use of modern
technology and social communication into the subject of World History, and
particularly the study of historical figures. In this project they have been
asked review information from throughout the course of the class. They would
then choose a single historical figure from ancient history to recent history
(preferably from the Late Greek Bronze Age to the Cold War). After choosing
their respective historical figure, the students will be given a three days
period starting Wednesday, to compile and study the life, the times and the
accomplishments of the historical person they have chosen. The students would
then commence a week long project in which they would be utilizing the school’s
social network web page (similar to Facebook or Twitter) in which they will be
creating the profiles and taking the roles of their chosen historical figures.
They will be updating their statuses at least three times a day (during said
week) in chronological order and in context to the historical events that took
place during their lives, both directly through their actions or indirectly as
historical circumstances. The students would also be uploading at least one
image (photos or art) demonstrating the events as well as a clear but brief
explanation of what the images represent. Also they will be providing at least
one link to a scholarly article on the web that refers directly to the
historical event that they are posting about. To ensure that all students
participate and their work is seen by their peers, all students are required to
respond in to the postings of their fellow classmates in character with their
respective historical figures. Finally, they would conclude the Historical
People’s Social Networking Project by writing an essay paper, on what they have
learned from their experience following their historical person’s lives, as
well as their contributions to history and how their actions still impact us in
in modern day times.
They
original project itself is very supportive of the use of technology and it
brings in elements of education that promote different learning styles like active
learning and collaborative learning and also follow the Principles of the UDL
method. Still, from what I have learned in further courses there are some
revisions that understand would make the project more practical and easily
accommodate different learning styles. Therefore, one of the first changes that
I would implement is the addition of a support page online in which the
students would be able to ask the instructor questions, collaborate with their
peers and acquire information and research vital for their work. This would be
my “The Leaders of History Blog” (http://pavazq9183.edublogs.org/)
which I also created for a previous class. There, they would be able to seek
out information in the archives and develop discussion. There they will also
find instructions, tips and suggestions on how to go about the project. This
will help students find ways in which they can approach their work, giving them
different options of engagement as required by the Principles of the UDL model.
A
second revision I would do on this project consists of changing the final assessment
method of the project. During the in the MATLT program, particularly after
taking the EDU649: Technologies for Teaching & Learning course, I began to
further explore other types of technologies like Jing, Present.Me, VoiceThread, Snap!, and Glogster. I
began to appreciate how these technologies provided the users different options
and methods of presenting work. Not only would using these technological tools
provide students with a higher level of engagement in their work, but it would
also appeal to their multiple intelligences (Bodily/Kinesthetic, Linguistic, Intrapersonal,
and Interpersonal as an example). In this case I would ask the students to
choose from one of the tech tools I have mentioned before and create their
final presentation with one of these; be it by filming a five minute long video
of themselves using YouTube;
Recording their findings on VoiceThread,
or simply making a short PowerPoint
presentation and using Jing and Screencast to explaining the
accomplishments of their historical figures as well as the importance of their
role in history and how their legacy still affects our society in modern day.
One
of my main concerns with revising this project was that it would perhaps end up
relying too much on technology; something that I think would defeat the purpose
of learning the content by creating a distraction. The activity was
technologically heavy as it is and adding even more elements of technology, I
fear, would derail the students from what we are trying to achieve. Still,
after analyzing the project as a whole, I have realized that the purpose of
technology in this activity is indeed to educate. The students will be engaged
in active learning by researching their historical figures and all the
information surrounding them, they will be posting their findings in the form
of “social updates”, and as a collaborative elements to the project; other
students will be responding to their postings in context to what they are
referring to in history. The final presentation will only help add to the level
of engagement the students will have to the project by giving them a vast
amount of choices in which to present their work. This also in fact is
complemented and aligned with the UDL principle of providing multiple and
flexible options for engagement.
In
conclusion, it is without a doubt that as an educator, one of our most
important jobs is being able to designing and implementing effective instruction.
As we have mentioned before, the traditional classroom is being replaced by a
more progressive form of education that recognizes the students as individuals
with learning needs. Also, as technological innovations in education keep evolving
at a rapid pace; it evident that the paradigm is indeed shifting and that we as
educators are now tasked with creating the right kind of instruction for the
classroom of the 21st century. In this paper, I have written about
my own personal experience, learning in prior courses, and the Week Two
Discussion. I briefly discussed and supported my understanding of the
importance of designing to support the needs of all learners and additionally,
selected and redesigned a prior MATLT activity to demonstrate my attainment of
Program Learning Outcome 3 to “design learning opportunities that apply
technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all
learners”. The redesign demonstrated the use of instructional design principles
I chose and finally, I will included a discussion of the design and
implementation challenges I experienced during the redesign and how they were
overcome.
Resources
Hall,
T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and
implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on
Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved on December 8, 2013 from http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/DI_UDL.1.14.11.pdf
Koch,
C. (1996). Interview with Howard Gardner; CIO Magazine. Retrieved on December
8, 2013 from http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/031596_qa_content.html
Ralabate,
P.K. (2011) Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students;The ASHA Leader. Retrieved on December
9, 2013 from http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2011/110830/Universal-Design-for-Learning--Meeting-the-Needs-of-All-Students/
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