Building pre-service teachers' leadership capacity for technology integration

Each semester, the pre-service teachers in my Technology in the Classroom course create multimedia instructional technology presentations that can be used to help teachers integrate technology effectively. The assignment increases my students' comfort and efficiency with the use of multiple types of technology, forces them to think through pedagogical and technical issues related to a specific tech tool, and provides them with an opportunity to take on a teacher leadership role. This past semester, I required my students to present to an audience of educators. In past sections of the course, I did not require students to present due to this being a 1-hour course. However, this semester I removed some other assignments in order to add the presentation requirement. Students had options for when and where to present. Some presented at grade level, department, or faculty meetings at the schools where they are currently interning. Others presented at a technology professional development conference in a local school district. Most students chose to present to the School of Education faculty on campus.

I was able to be an active participant in the majority of my students' presentations and was impressed with their ability to talk with ease about technology integration in a way that's focused on pedagogy, student learning, and student engagement. It was an amazing experience for me to see these teaching candidates present to practicing classroom teachers and University faculty. My primary goal is for these pre-service teachers to become leaders in technology integration in their schools and districts, and this assignment works to build their leadership capacity. One of my students who presented at the local district technology conference said that it was a unique experience to lead a teacher workshop before he ever attended one as a participant. Keep reading for the assignment description and links to student presentations.

Below is the assignment description from the syllabus.

Work in pairs to create a multimedia presentation you could use to teach future colleagues about how to integrate a specific technology tool into their classrooms. Your presentation must give teachers a rationale for why they should use the tool, an overview of how the tool works, sample ways to use it, and technical instructions for using it. Include at least four different types of media, such as images, text, screenshots, screencasts, podcasts, or videos. You will share your presentation with a group of educators in a local school, with the School of Education, or with another LR department. Your presentation must take place prior to the end of the semester, so you will need to begin scheduling it early in the semester. You will give a brief overview of your presentation as the final exam for the course. You will be responsible for providing feedback on your partner’s work as well as your classmates’ presentations. A few possible tools to use: VoiceThread, Animoto, Prezi, Popplet, Glogster EDU, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Photo Story, Livebinders. You will upload your presentation to Edmodo.

Presentations from this semester are below. Feel free to leave a comment for my students. Thanks!

Assessing Student Learning with iPads

Cell Phones in the Classroom

Class Dojo

Making the Most of Your Classroom Website

Nearpod

Popplet

SMARTBoards in the Classroom

Symbaloo

Tagxedo

Why One iPad is Better than None

Are we REALLY connected educators? Some thoughts about being disconnected

If you're reading this post, chances are you're what we call a connected educator. Connected educators have vibrant, dynamic personal learning networks (PLNs) and are continuously learning from others while contributing to the growth of other educators. My PLN is one of the most valuable things to me professionally and has contributed to my own development in more ways than I can describe. I have made numerous connections with educators that have developed into strong collaborative partnerships.

Lately, I've been thinking about the disconnect between my PLN and my local network of colleagues. Those of us who are connected educators often share more through Twitter and blogs than we do with our co-workers. Somehow, it feels safe sending my thoughts out to the world through tweets and blog posts. At the same time, it feels risky to walk down the hall and have the same conversations I'm having on Twitter with a colleague in my department. I participate regularly in Twitter chats - #ncadmin, #edchat, #atplc - and engage in international conversations around educational issues. I think you'll agree that we should be having those same conversations with the people with whom we work most closely, but that may not be happening for a lot of us.

Two things initially sparked my curiosity about this disconnect. First, I had the awesome opportunity to moderate the #ncadmin chat on October 3rd. The topic of the chat was new teacher support. Several of my pre-service teachers joined us for the chat, and it was great to hear their perspective on new teacher support and to see them making connections with administrators. You can read a Storify version of the chat here. During the chat, @philgriffins, an elementary Assistant Principal, tweeted:

That got me thinking. My students follow me on Twitter (because I make them), while most of my colleagues in the School of Education are not on Twitter. Through Twitter, my students have come to know a lot about me that my colleagues don't know. Case in point:

On a Friday afternoon, a student in the teacher education program where I work as Director of Teacher Education came to my office to tell me about a blog she'd found which she thought I'd be interested in. She mentioned that she had read a post on the blog about homework. She said something like this: "I know how you feel about homework, so I thought you might like to read this blog." Here's the thing: Before this exchange about Joe Bower's blog, I had never even introduced myself to the student. She's a junior, and I teach mainly senior-level courses, so she hasn't taken any of my classes yet. She and I had never even had a conversation. Not once. But she follows me on Twitter and she knew my philosophy on homework. I doubt that any of my colleagues in the School of Education know my philosophy on homework, because we don't talk about it.

I have come to the realization that I have to be bold enough to have the same conversations I'm having on Twitter with the people down the hall. So here's my question for you: How can those of us who are connected educators bring that same level of connection to those with whom we work closely?

This has been on my mind for a while now. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment!

Exemplary Classroom Web Pages by Pre-Service Teachers

I love exploring and discussing applications of technology for teaching and learning. It's my passion. I feel extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to teach a course for pre-service teachers called Technology in the Classroom. One of the major assignments I've designed for the course is the development of a classroom web page. Most of my students are seniors who are currently in their internship semester and will begin student teaching in January. I encourage them to develop a web page they can use this year and in the future as a classroom teacher. I demonstrate four possible sites my students may want to use to build their classroom web pages, but I also encourage them to use any other sites and tools that work well for them. The tools I demo in class are Edmodo, Google Sites, Wikispaces, and Weebly. Last semester, most of my students used Edmodo to develop their classroom web pages. This semester, an overwhelming majority chose Weebly. My expectations for their web pages include:

• Web page is visually appealing and structured in a way that makes it easy to access and interact with content.

• Web page enables students and parents to access and interact with instructional materials. Multiple types of resources are in place to support and extend students’ learning.

• Web page provides a structured format for meaningful interactions between teacher and students and among students.

• Web page provides a meaningful structure for ongoing two-way communication with parents.

• Web page provides extensive evidence of meaningful application of course content.

Early in the semester, I asked my students to explore three different classroom websites of their own choosing and critique those websites according to the criteria above. We used this initial exploration and evaluation to jump-start a conversation about what makes a classroom web page effective and useful. My students identified features and ideas that they wanted to replicate on their own web pages. They also found several examples of ineffective classroom web pages and identified things they don't want to replicate (i.e. outdated announcements, lack of organization).

I have been extremely impressed with the quality of the classroom web pages my students have created. Keep in mind that their websites are fictional since these pre-service teachers do not yet have their own classrooms. However, I believe there is much that current classroom teachers can learn from these students' web pages. The creativity and resourcefulness of these sites are amazing. If you're a teacher who is looking to spice up your classroom web page and make it more useful for you, your students, and your students' families, please take some time to check out the sites below. If you're an administrator who expects teachers to keep their web pages up-to-date and use them in a meaningful way, you may want to use some of these as exemplars for your faculty. My students and I would love to hear your feedback, so feel free to leave a comment.

Elementary:
http://msowensthirdgradeclass.weebly.com/

http://mrsmatthewsclassroomwebpage.weebly.com/

http://msaustinclass.weebly.com/

http://537018080932608192.weebly.com/

http://msglennssecondgradeclassroom.weebly.com/index.html

http://mrscrumps1stgradeclass.weebly.com/

http://mongsmonkeys.weebly.com/index.html

http://growinglearnersdaily.weebly.com/

http://msbeardsclassroomwebsite.weebly.com/

http://mshousersfirstgrade.weebly.com/

Middle Grades:
http://msfeimster.weebly.com/

High School English:
http://mrfrye.weebly.com/
http://misswelty.weebly.com/
http://fallsengclass.weebly.com 
http://mshodgeenglish.weebly.com/
http://exploringenglish2012.weebly.com/
http://mrsbowlesclassdotcom.weebly.com/
http://www.schoolrack.com/Stephanie_Stokes90/

High School Social Studies:

http://mrpooleshistoryadventures.weebly.com/

http://mrdealshistoryclass.weebly.com/index.html

http://mrfarnsworth.weebly.com/

High School Math:
http://mswoodcockmath.weebly.com/index.html
http://mscrispsalgebraclass.shutterfly.com/

Health/PE:
http://blogerrr.weebly.com/index.html
http://drshaverpe.weebly.com/