Showcase
The great Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky, composed the imaginative "Pictures at an Exhibition" in 1874 to showcase his gift for piano composition. His novel creation features a suite of settings, based on a series of evocative paintings. A recurring promenade theme plays between each carefully selected artwork and ties the extended work together.
This showcase includes glimpses of my creations for the Master of Arts In Educational Technology at Michigan State University. I have organized my gallery into three spaces. The first hall features the theme "Creativity". The focus of the second hall is "Leadership." The final steps on this journey through my showcase gallery feature creations and compositions based on a "Growth Mindset." The recurring theme that serves as the promenade in this online exhibition is the integration and application of technology in my personal practice as a professional educator.
Creativity
Photo credit: Jeremystatton.com
"Every Child is an artist. The problem is staying an artist when you are grown up."
- Pablo Picasso -
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'The process of innovation requires both mind and senses. According to Immanual Kant (from The Critique Of Pure Reason), “The intellect can intuit nothing, the senses can think nothing. Only through their union can knowledge arise." (Root-Bernstein 306). This is pure synthesis, combining ways of feeling and ways of knowing. Experience, enriched through intertwined feeling and knowing, fosters greater appreciation and understanding. I like to think of bridges as a metaphor for connecting prior experiences to uncharted beginnings. For me, thinking about the process of innovation has provided a bridge, a deepening appreciation of alternative paths to reach students though creativity in instructional planning. This section of the showcase displays examples of creative uses of technology in educational applications. The examples below feature website creation skills, and movie creation skills using two different creation tools.
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(To View the Individual Artifacts, Click on the Images Below)
IPhoto Credit: LiveScience
This website, "Portals," was constructed as a resource for Physics teachers who are seeking creative, integrated, and technological avenues to engage learners. Universal Design For Instruction is a theme that resonates well with this approach, bridging academic disciplines, enlivening and individualizing student learning. The use of poetry and other art forms reaches into the diverse contexts of student experience, enriching and expanding the learning process for each student. This website also includes a set of resources to support and guide any teacher who is looking for a creative, challenging, and exciting adventure in the classroom. The site is interactive, complete with a blog for the community of learners that will frequent this site. For the sake of our students, we must first model how growth and transformation occurs in a community of learners.
Photo Credit: Michgan State University
IPhoto Credit: Creative Commons
The availability and access to information using online resources proved to be an enriching experience in the creation of this artifact. The purpose for the video was to demonstrate how online resources could be used by a novice gardener to start a new rose garden. The sequential planning of the video was based on online research. The snapshots of the MSU roses were taken using a Canon digital Camera. The video that is included in this post was taken by a JVC digital video camera. The film and audio tracks were edited using Camtasia software. The audio portions were edited using Audacity and Camtasia software.
This video "For Believers and Dreamers" was created using Animoto software. The purpose for the video was twofold. One goal was to learn how to use the Animoto software to create an instructional video that could be utilized by my students to revisit the progress of the space age. A second goal was to celebrate the public forum that my Physical Science students had recently created. Photos from the forum were recorded by students using iPad technology. The background music track, (Fanfare for the Common Man), was uploaded to Animoto. The images for the first segment of the video were all provided by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.
Leadership
Photo Credit: Impogroup.com
"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be"
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Technology leaders today require a vision for empowering and sustaining change. Simultaneously these emerging leaders must embrace an enduring commitment to a historical passion for learning. Forged within a dynamic and systemic whirlwind of advancement in traditional structures and delivery systems, today's leaders will be primary agents of innovation, employing new tools in emerging classroom contexts. Technology leaders will be challenged to actively participate in ongoing research, to build community relationships, to mentor new leaders, to demonstrate creativity, and to practice a persistent commitment to flexibility. Risk and potential failure on the road to success define the dynamic environment of technology leadership today. The tools for communication and the emerging roles to be played by teachers as leaders will facilitate the process of transformation. Leaders will demonstrate how technology can be used to inform and support the culture of change. The samples of my commitment to leadership posted below were influenced by my experiences in the required coursework for the Master of Educational Technology degree at Michigan State University.
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Photo Credit: Creative Commons
IPhoto credit: Wikitext.org
Photo Credit: uxpin.com
This showcase entry features my fist attempt to use Doodly software to prepare an inspirational message to share about leadership in education. The video is based on a recent book written by Eric C. Sheninger and Thomas Murray. The work of preparation for the video required a significant investment of time to synthesize the main themes in the book and to present the themes by taking full advantage of the presentation options in the Doodly software.
Mentoring of peers in my professional context is a goal that I set for myself to extend and share what I learned about Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) with my peers. To prepare for the "real-time" peer leadership experience, I received guidelines for effective mentoring. I practiced these mentoring skills in a lab environment where reflection and supportive instruction were key elements to bolster my learning experience.
Participation and contribution to research is an important role in technology leadership. How learning is processed is a cognitive concern. Jean Piaget offers a cognitivist perspective. To practice research skills, a designed lab study provided a limited opportunity to observe cognitive development stages with live subjects. The parameters for the study were prepared in advance by a team of two researchers. As one of the researcher in this study, I recorded and evaluated the data attained in the study.
As a veteran Physics teacher, I am interested in how my choices for pedagogy might influence my students to consider STEM careers. As I researched teacher preparation reform, I was inspired by the leaders who are promoting changes to instruction at the high school and collegiate level. As a researcher, I also participate in a leadership role by contributing a review of literature that adds to the discussion.
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Growth Mindset
IPhoto Credit: Larry Ferlaszzo- Edublogs
"Becoming is better than being"
- Carol Dweck -
Growth is the abiding construct and theme that ties together all of my experiences as a student in the Master of Educational Technology degree program at MSU. Throughout the learning sequence, I have acted in the roles of receiver and provider. In the role of receiver, I studied a diverse and stimulating variety of opportunities to enrich my understanding of emerging technologies and structures. Through a blended learning experience, I encountered new technologies and ideas that stretched my pre-existing toolkit for instruction. Considering and writing about the issues and innovations that define today's educational community, I also become a provider. In this portfolio and in blog posts, I am reaching out to share my thoughts and responses concerning contemporary themes in education. I am learning the powerful application of Carol Dweck's 'Not Yet," as I respond to the evolution of technology in instructional innovation, assessment, classroom design, 21st century initiatives, internationalism, remixing, and conceptual change. The examples posted in this section of my showcase demonstrate my personal commitment to lifelong learning, and my desire to share my growth in this promenade with my peers.
IPhoto Credit:ils.westportps.org
As one of the creators for this website, I shared an example of how technology and the maker movement can shape learning experiences. The website is designed as a space for teachers who are engaging in a growth mindset, exploring instructional resources, and implementing innovative technologies in curriculum development.
Photo Credit: practices.learningaccelerator.org
I designed a blended classroom student experience that affords non-structured time for outside of class assignments and frees classroom time for labs and individualized tutoring. I created this six week Chemistry unit as a prototype for future blended learning classes. The blended classroom preparation took advantage of several tools: Edpuzzle, Camtasia, and Screencastify and the MacBook Pro video and audio recording system. Each day of the unit includes a page that describes the in class (IC) and out of class (OC) activities. Students accessed the daily assignment pages at their Google Classroom site. The Google Classroom site was also used for submitting completed assignments and for feedback.
Photo Credit: Picpedia.org
I created an online tool that can be used in the designing of formative assessments. The online Assessment Design Checklist (ADC) includes a set of generic design questions that are research-based. The ADC also includes suggested samples for evidence that support the questions that have been addressed in the planning of the formative assessment. The ADC is a result of multiple revisions and peer feedback. The complete ADC can be shared with teachers who are seeking good models for formative assessments.
Photo Credit: Eduweek.org
"Early in my teaching experience, my students might have regarded my role as a primary provider for new knowledge. The students of today carry a new mindset, where vast resources are available though the click of a hand held device. This is an excellent summary for my blog post on "growth mindset." The post is rich with quotations of reformers. I composed this blog post to synthesize some of the incredibly challenging comments shared by Will Richardson, Mizuko Ito, and Carol Dweck. The design for the post was to stimulate interest in educational reform by providing powerful examples of successful reformers.
Photo Credit: Alamy.com
I created this blog post to introduce a conversation about change. “No old road leads to new destinations! Change begins when one realizes that it is unwise to pour a new wine into an old wine skin. If you change your mind, you have to change your actions too!” (Israelmore Ayivor, African Author). In the blog post, I chose to present several examples of new growth and new approaches to learning, I hoped to challenge traditional thinking by presenting examples of innovative technology use in the changing field of education. To summarize, I wrote the following words: "The new wrinkles are the technological tools that remove barriers to growth at all levels. Students are choosing divergent pathways in the 21st century classroom, yet they are all playing in the same space, connected by commonalities in expanding technological innovations. New wrinkles and growth, those words summarize well my experience as a well-seasoned teacher.
Photo Credit: Creative commons images
I created this blog post to review some new and productive physical settings for alternative schools, and old schools that are altering their learning spaces. As I have been growing in my understanding of the power of technology to transform learning environments, I found the reading both stimulating and challenging. As I continue to grow as a professional teacher, I am deeply interested in an open setting where "The STEM agenda is paired with an artistic usage of technological tools." So, I chose to post the video and my response to introduce a conversation about space, culture and the changing traditional boundaries.
Photo Credit: Gerry Images
I created the blog on this website to share an interesting discussion about assessment with my professional associates. This topic is of specific interest to me, as I am concerned about student retention and transfer. I have been growing in my understanding of standards based grading either through my personal experiences or through reading and research. At a modeling workshop for Physics teachers, I met several experienced teachers who had abandoned the traditional practice of giving grades. In my blog post, I wrote about my struggles with grading and mastery. In this post I shared what I have learned about standards based grading.
Photo Credit: kissclipart.com
"Perhaps the simplest explanation for the digital divide is that Internet access is costly, and those with more income are more likely to be able to afford it." This phrase inspired my blog post about the digital divide. As educational technologies transform the landscape for learning, will there be equitable access for all students? As my dependence on technology to support instruction and feedback has grown quickly in recent years, I have needed to consider how my online assignments and assessments are available to all. I introduced this blog topic to stimulate conversation about the potential for inequity and for the teacher's role in supporting access for all to digital learning tools.
Photo Credit: Infed.org
My final selected entry in this showcase features a post that serves as an evolving story, a chronicle of my growth as a professional teacher. The phases of the post: "In The Beginning, "Gaining Ground," and "Into the Future," suggest extensive years of repeated experience followed by a significant professional growth spurt in the later years of my public service. The post is designed for experienced teachers and novice teachers. Hopefully for the most experienced teachers, the post may serve as a potential impetus for pondering productive change. It is also a story that can inspire young teachers to consider how a long career in education can offer continual opportunities for new growth and new beginnings.
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