The course I have been teaching is called EDIT 2000: Teaching with Technology and it is my first time teaching this class, it is my first time teaching in the United States and it is my first time teaching higher education level courses. Besides that, I am an international student. Despite all the challenges, I am very thankful for teaching two sections of that course. It has been a great learning experience. The purpose of that class is to teach pre-service teachers to use and manage technology in educational
settings and to communicate means for using technology in educational
settings.
Throughout the course, the instructor and students engage in numerous activities with various technologies that comply with the National Educational Technology Standards (Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, Research and Information Fluency, Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, Digital Citizenship, Technology Operations and Concepts). As for the LoTi framework level, despite the variability of activities developed in and out of the classroom, I would say they evolve around Level 4b. In general, students are always engaged in activities that simulate real-world educational situations and they always have to "solve a problem" of how to implement a tool in education. For instance, students were asked to think from the perspective of a K12 teacher and design an animation video to teach those students some skill, to provide them further information on a topic discussed in class or even to help them evaluate a situation. Students had to conceive a realistic plot for the video based on a problem, design and develop the video itself and think of an application, that is summarized in a short paragraph.
For future improvement, I would ask students who engage in the video activity described above to collaborate in small groups towards the creation of a longer video, to synthesize the experience from a K12 teacher perspective (challenges, resources used) and to evaluate their final product and some of their classmates'. I believe that way students would achieve the Level 6 of the LoTi framework. Another example of activity that can be improved in the future is the use of the app iMovie. This semester students were asked to produce a movie trailer in small groups of 3 by using iPads and shooting around the College of Education building. Students were asked to be creative with regards to their movie trailer plots and to master the use of the app. Since this activity was not related to a real-world problem, in my opinion it can be classified as a Level 3. In order to enhance students' learning process, I would tell them to shoot a movie that is based on a specific case. In order words, students would think again from the perspective of the instructor, create a case-based learning activity that addresses an issue or a skill that is important for students and evaluate the final product as a learning object. I believe that would raise this activity up to Level 6.
It's awesome that you can implement projects that have the potential to reach level 6. As an elementary teacher, I struggle with making projects authentic. Your project ideas are practical and will give the pre-service teachers great experience. I think if I had a teacher do things like this in my first instructional technology course, I would have pursued the major earlier.
ReplyDeleteLucas,
ReplyDeleteMovie making is always a fun way to create something and gives all of us some perspective, albeit miniscule, into the world of film making.
Since you are in the posistion of teaching young adults, with easy access to technology, you could honestly pose some of the work we are doing in this class to your students. Introduce them to LoTI. Have the students pick a grade level and curriculum focus, and then have them plan, build, and create a sample project for students that would reach level 6. Maybe the assessment piece isn't whether they figured out a way to get to level 6, but if they effectively planned a lesson or project that utilized the many parts of LoTI. Just a thought!
Cool project, though, Lucas! Your class sounds like a meaningful, hands-on way to learn about education.
Jack
Reading this post makes me envious of higher ed and the ability to really infusion the real-world experience. I think that your activity does a great job giving pre-service teachers an opportunity to think about moviemaker and its uses in the classroom. I also think that you are giving your students an opportunity to learn and very useful piece of technology for the classroom. I think that you could also raise your LoTi level by allowing your students to explore other editing apps. You could then add a component that allows the students to describe the production process and share the apps they used. This could give an opportunity to learn even more technology.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that pre-service teachers are having the opportunity to be introduced to technology and think about its use in the classroom.