ARTIFACTS
STANDARD I
Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.
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Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness
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Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
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Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
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Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
Standard I primarily focuses on the collaboration and communication aspects among students. Throughout my time in the MSIT program, I have explored many different tools that promote collaboation between students. I have selected some of these tools, and listed them in the Artifacts section.
Blackboard Communication Tools Paper
One course required the exploration of the various communication tools that Blackboard offers. To take it a step farther in the collaboration aspect, this was a group project that was completed using Google Documents. Due to the fact that the members of my group did not live in close proximity, we used Google Documents as a method of collaboration on our paper about the Blackboard Communication tools. We also used Blackboard Collaborate to communicate due to the fact that it allowed us to engage in learning with each other in a way that would not have been possible in a standard email. In the "Artifacts" section below, you will see our group paper that discusses each of these Blackboard Communication tools in greater detail. Each tool within Blackboard provides a way for teachers to collaborate and communicate with their students, colleagues, and others in a way that would not be possible without those digital resources.
Google Documents
Additionally, Google Documents was used in an assignment where "students" of mine, otherwise known as group members, participated in an interactive shared writing activity. Playing the role of the teacher, I started a story, and instructed my students to add on to it through Google Documents. They each added several sentences, and created a very entertaining story through their collaboration together. This resource allowed me to meet Standard I because of the way I was able to interact with my "students", and observe them interacting collaboratively within the creative process.
Learning Blogfolio
Finally, as a component of IT 645 "Computers in Education", students were required to set up a blog to use as a discussion board for the duration of the course. I composed weekly posts that pertained to the content we studied that week, and my fellow classmates commented on each post. Many times, my classmates' comments were very constructive and insightful, building upon my reflection of the content. I also had the opportunity to comment on each of my classmates' blogs, which allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the content, as I was seeing it from a different perspective each time. This blog is listed in below in the "Artifacts" section below. It is a prime example of Standard I because of the opportunity for collaborative student reflection that it provides.
classroom blogs into my instructional methods. Should I teach at a higher educational level, I will use student blogs as a method for them to document and reflect on their learning, as well as communicate with one another in an engaging manner.
Standard I is a crucial standard in both teaching and learning. Collaboration and communication between students, colleagues, etc. is vital to the learning process. The tools that I have gained experience with throughout the MSIT program will absolutely be used in the future. I currently use Google Drive for the majority of my lesson planning. Google Drive allows me to easily collaborate on lessons with my colleagues. We use Drive to upload files, write our lessons, and create spreadsheets and quizzes. I plan on continuing my use of Google Drive as a communication tool in the future. I also love the idea of incorporating
REFLECTION
FUTURE LEARNING GOALS
