Teaching Reflection (FA13 Week 5)

This week, I'm glad that my students and I had lots of discussion this week about their digital story project as well as why and how they are by to do their case analysis project. Last time, I got my mentor's feedback that each step of my ULA's demo was too quick so that lot of my students could not follow, which caused students more confusion. Before I let me ULA do other demos, I tried to demo by myself this week and slow down the pace. My strategy was: wait until everyone get to this step that I was doing, and then go to the next step. Although it seemed to have longer waiting time in each step, but every student have more time to process where to go and how to do the steps. And the most important thing is, I would need to demo once rather than many times with many different problems and questions students had during the whole demo process. In the demo process, I also found that while some advanced students were waiting for my next step, they would volunteer to help other students who did not quite follow. A lot of times I was thinking about how much detail instruction I need to provide my students in class. When I was observing Matt's class, he always emphasizes the importance of learning and solving problems independently. I understand that most of my students were freshmen and would want lots of support from their instructor, however, I agree with Matt that students need to learn how to learn and find solutions to their problems by their own. I have not found the appropriate instruction for this issue yet, but I will need to talk to more experienced instructors to figure out what is the best way for me to do for my students.

3 Organizations Would Support My Area of Interest

This post is about the 3 organizations that I would like to join as support and resources for my academic interest in K-12 technology integration and teacher education. I chose the following three organizations not only because the topics they focus are closely related to the field I'm in and I would like to attend their conference, but also because they provide so many great opportunities to build connections with other professional scholars and educators and to join their professional learning communities for sharing up-to-date issues and thoughts.


1. Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)

Last year, I attended AECT conference as my very first academic conference as a first year doctoral student. Although I was just a volunteer in AECT conference last year without any presentation, I had a wonderful time. I think attending AECT conference could be a great opportunity for me to build connections with experienced and young scholars in my field. The community in AECT conference was a perfect size that I could obtain all sorts of information that I'm interested in and talk to different presenters within a comfortable conference environment. I'm especially interested in the Teacher Education Division, Culture, Learning and Technology Division, Design & Development Division, and School Media & Technology Division. Moreover, the Graduate Student Assembly is my target community where I can gather news and opportunities for graduate students provided by AECT as well as learn from experts in this field by joining their social networks such as GSA Facebook group.


2. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

The main reason for me to select ISTE as one of the three organizations that I would like to join is because that their "goal of all conference content is to help educators develop students' learning, problem-solving, critical-thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration abilities"and "explore practices and strategies for achieving digital age learning in learning environment". That means ISTE conference content would be the resources to support my W200 teaching (Using Computers in Education) and my research interests (teacher education and technology integration). Moreover, the primary groups of audience in ISTE community are both teacher in practice and researchers. So, I assume that ISTE conference is a good learning community for me to hear lots of conversations between research and practice. In ISTE conference, I would like to delve more into three areas of focuses - Digital Age Teaching & Learning, Professional Learning, and Technology Infrastructure.

Note: The ISTE Facebook page is a good resource for getting new information about educational trends and issues and topics people are interested. Lots of the posts on ISTE Facebook page are from ISTE blog where gathers all kinds of interesting, up-to-date issues and discussion.


3. American Educational Research Association (AERA)

My third choice of organization that I would like to join is AERA. Honestly, I know AERA conference is a big thing for many graduate students and scholars, but I was not very sure that I would like it very much or not. Probably I will know more once I attend the conference in the near future. On their website, I saw a wide variety of focused areas in education are included in AERA,. Also, over 28% of AERA community members are graduate students from all over the world. Although AERA is not an organization specifically focus on educational technology issues, it would be a good place to receive broader types of information from different educational areas.

Examining My Social Networks Reputation by Using Reppler

I have not recognized the importance of building my impression and reputation as a scholar on social media after I started the IST doctoral program. I have used Facebook as my social networking tool the most often. Before coming to IU, the main purposes of using Facebook were sharing music videos, communicating with my friends from different places through messages, and sharing my pictures when I traveled, etc. Nothing was really serious on my Facebook. However, after I started working in the Teaching Technology Lab (TTL) in my first doctoral year, I learned about the importance of building my own digital identity and my own reputation and image in the digital world. Although I still share some things about my personal life with my friends and families in Taiwan on Facebook, I started post something educational on my Facebook as well. Basically, I've tried to continuously share educational news and resources as well as join professional groups on my Facebook. So far, I feel very comfortable to use my Facebook as a tool to market myself and get educational/professional information from those groups I involve in. However, I still sometimes struggle with how much/what kinds of personal life information I should or shouldn't post on Facebook so that I won't destroy my professional reputation online. I think I will have a clearer understanding about this after attending Dr. George Veletsianos' presentation on digital scholarship.

The following two images are screenshots of my social networking reputation/impression score and results by using the social media monitoring service - Reppler. 

This is a screenshot of my Reppler score.

This is a screenshot of my social network impression analysis from Reppler.

When I google myself on the Google Search Engine, fortunately, all the results showed up on the first page were all about me from my LinkedIn, Google+, Blogger accounts, as well as my service positions in the IST Conference and the GIST. I guess it is because I have a pretty unique name and I used my name and email information consistently for most of my social media accounts, so the search results showed up with consistent information of what I have been using and doing recently.

At first, I created my LinkedIn account before I graduated from UPenn and tried to look for a job or an internship in the U.S. The Career Service Center at Penn strongly recommended me to use LinkedIn to build my professional portfolio online. Eventually, I found it is a really powerful tool to build and expand my professional networks. I found many scholars update their LinkedIn accounts more frequently than their information on their own websites. Having up-to-date positive information in people's profession is one of the vital elements to maintain their online reputation and impression. I feel that it would be a lot easier and better for me to completely devote in two or three specific online platforms to build my own digital scholarship with good reputation than to have lots of different platforms with incomplete or outdated information online. So, I think I will definitely keep using LinkedIn and Facebook as main tools to maintain or improve my professional image online.

This is a screenshot of the results when I google myself on Google Search Engine.

This is a screenshot of the results when I google myself on Google Images.

Service Opportunities

During my first year in the IST doctoral program, the service I have done mainly focused within IST department and the 2012 AECT conference. I think I have gained not only new knowledge in our field by participating IST conference and the AECT conference last year, but also communication and connection skills to reach out different resources by being leadership roles in the IST conference and the GIST. From my personal opinion, doing service in academic organizations or communities helps me build and shape better personality as a researcher and educator as well as broaden my knowledge in my field that provides me inspiration in my teaching and research. In order to keep developing my service competencies, my goal for my future service is to participate in academic organizations/communities in the same field, but in different institutions or in different countries. Provide the service as a reviewer for different organizations and communities might be a good start. I will also need to find more opportunities to participate in conference. That way, I could apply what I learned in the IST department and have more interaction with other scholars.

Janet's Online Dossier

Visit Janet's Online Dossier! 

Teaching Opportunities

In terms of building my teaching competencies, the goals I would like to achieve during the doctoral program at IU are: 1) to have more real teaching opportunities in the undergraduate level no matter it would be face-to-face or online teaching opportunities, one-on-one or group instruction. I would like to be involved in as many teaching situations as I can in order to experience various teaching environments and I can implement different instructional approaches and techniques in teaching. 2) Be a teaching assistant in different courses which could help me deepen my knowledge through class preparation or class facilitations. 3) with more experiences on teaching, I need to work on how to teach my class that students would easily get motivated and engaged.

Teaching Reflection (FA13 Week 4)

After teaching today, I just could not stop thinking about a few questions about teaching and learning. I wonder why sometimes I asked students whether they had any questions or difficulties doing tasks such as insert an image or embed a video on their teachers websites after I did the demonstration, they would shake their heads and act like they understand everything I teach, however, I usually could find some problems from the assignments they submit. Was it because I provide too much information at one time so that they could not process through what they have learned and figured out what kinds of difficulties and challenges they had? Was it because they did not even know what their problems were in class so they did not know what to ask and how to ask questions? Or, do they really not understand what I was doing and talking about in class? I think I have tried to slow down the pace of my instruction in class and tried to use different ways to check their understanding of the course content. However, I don't think I have figured out what is the best way for me to ameliorate this kind of situation that I encounter. I will keep searching for the best solution for this issue.

Another question for myself is: From the standpoint of students, what does "good teacher" mean? Do high-achieving students and lower-achieving students have different definition of good teachers? If I were sitting down there as one of the w200 students, what would I expect my teacher do in class? Thinking of my own learning experiences back to college, I was not one of the top students, but just average. When I was in class, I did not really think about whether the topics were interesting enough to make me engaged in class, but whether teachers could deliver the course content in the simplest way for me to understand and how the content could relate to my self experiences. Although I am not sure about how my students think about my instruction, I have a feeling that each student wants me to notice what they need and wants me to help them with every kind of issues and challenges they have, especially for those students who do not speak often. This is actually one of my goals in this class that I want my students can feel my passion in interacting with them and trying to give as much support as I can no matter who they are. I want to create a learning environment in my class where students feel comfortable and not be afraid of asking questions and sharing their own thoughts.

Spice You Up activity in week 4.

Here is the feedback from my W200 mentor, Ya-Huei Lu.

Journals in IST Field

CITE 

The CITE Journal is an online, peer-reviewed journal, established and jointly sponsored by five professional associations (AMTE, AETS, NCSS-CUFA, CEE, and SITE). This is the only joint venture of this kind in the field of teacher education. Each professional association has sole responsibility for editorial review of articles in its discipline:
Technology and Science Education (AETS)
Technology and Mathematics Education (AMTE)
Technology and Social Studies Education (NCSS-CUFA)
Technology and English Education (CEE)
Educational Technology: General (SITE)


ETR&D

he Research Section assigns highest priority in reviewing manuscripts to rigorous original quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods studies on topics relating to applications of technology or instructional design in educational settings. Such contexts include K-12, higher education, and adult learning (e.g., in corporate training settings). Analytical papers that evaluate important research issues related to educational technology research and reviews of the literature on similar topics are also published. This section features well documented articles on the practical aspects of research as well as applied theory in educational practice and provides a comprehensive source of current research information in instructional technology.

Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (JTATE)

JTATE serves as a forum for the exchange of knowledge about the use of information technology in teacher education. Journal content covers preservice and inservice teacher education, graduate programs in areas such as curriculum and instruction, educational administration, staff development instructional technology, and educational computing.

JTATE is the official journal of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE).


The e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology (e-JIST) 

e-JIST is an International peer-reviewed electronic journal. ( Australian-based) The Journal is an multi-faceted publication with content likely to be of interest to policy makers, managers, investors, professional staff, technical staff, and academics within education and training.Contributions may cover theoretical and applied discussion of contemporary issues, review research in particular fields, report on specific research, describe recent technical developments and contribute to debate in a wide range of areas including foundations of instructional science, practice of instructional design in education and training, instructional delivery technologies, management and administration of instructional technology, evaluation of instructional design input, and future developments.Since so much of current development occurs in a multi-disciplinary context, perspectives reflecting specific discipline approaches are encouraged. In addition to considering reports of empirical investigations - which will usually follow standard presentation - the e-JIST will consider presentations, especially of on-going research and developmental or innovative work, which do not fit orthodox presentation format.

Educational Technology Magazine

Educational Technology Magazine is the world's leading periodical publication covering the entire field of educational technology, an area pioneered by the magazine's editors in the early 1960s. Read by leaders in more than one hundred countries, the magazine has been at the forefront of every important new trend in the development of the field throughout the past five decades. Its list of published authors is a virtual "who's who" of the leading personalities and authorities from all over the world active in educational technology research, development, and application.

5 Studies that Interested me

1.
Title:
The Role of Teacher Knowledge and Learning Experiences in Forming Technology-Integrated Pedagogy

Research Question: 

1.) What is the nature of practicing teachers' educational technology learning experiences?
2.) How do practicing teachers use technology to support their practice?
3.) What role does teachers' prior knowledge and learning experiences play in the building of 

      technology-supported pedagogy?
4.) Specifically, do teachers have the professional opportunity to examine and reflect on content-based 

      technology alternatives or dilemmas? If so, is their subsequent technology-supported practice 

      transformative?

Abstract:
Using a multiple-case embedded research design (Yin, 1994), this study examined the nature of teachers’ learning during technology professional development activities and the extent to which their subsequent technology-supported pedagogy was innovative. Four English language arts teachers, who ranged in teaching and technology experience, served as contrasting case studies. Results suggested that the power to develop innovative technology-supported pedagogy lies in the teacher’s interpretation of the newly learned technology’s value for supporting instruction and learning in the classroom; learning experiences grounded in content-based, technology examples were most effective toward this end. Furthermore, teachers with less professional knowledge (e.g., pre-service or novice) and/or less intrinsic interest in identifying uses for technology may need guided or collaborative, content-specific technology learning opportunities, while teachers with more professional knowledge (e.g., veteran) may be able to develop innovative technology-supported pedagogy by bringing their own learning goals to bear in professional development activities. Collaborative, subject-specific technology inquiry groups are proposed as professional development that supports all teachers’ learning to integrate technology into their subject areas. 

 
2.

Title:
First-year Teachers’ Use of Technology: Preparation, Expectations and Realities

        

Research Question: 

This article will report the results of a study that investigated the needs and concerns of first-year teachers in our local school district. Data were gathered in successive years through surveys sent out to teachers at the end of their first year regarding: (a) their general concerns, (b) the problems they encountered, (c) the support they desired and received, and (d) the degree to which they felt prepared to implement various teaching and management strategies (including the integration of technology). An overview of the survey's general findings will be provided as context for this paper's main focus--technology use by first-year teachers.

Abstract:

This article reports the results of a study that investigated the needs and concerns of first-year teachers including the problems they encountered, the support they received, and the degree to which they felt prepared to use technology. Beginning teachers participating in the study reported that: (a) access to computer resources was a major problem; (b) support for technology varied greatly from school to school; (c) their preparation to teach with technology lagged behind their preparation for other instructional strategies; and (d) student teaching had a minimal impact on their preparation to teach with computers. Findings of the study are consistent with the mounting evidence that beginning teachers are not being adequately prepared to teach with technology. The authors recommend increased efforts to integrate technology into preservice courses and field experiences. They further recommend the need for research that documents specifics of current practices, levels of preparation, and approaches that promote effective implementation of technology by beginning teachers.

3. 

Title: Beginning Teachers’ Technology Use: First-Year Teacher Development and the Institutional Context’s Affect on New Teachers’ Instructional Technology Use With Students

Research Question:

1.) How did the first year development of two beginning teachers affect their technology use with students?

2.) How did the existing institutional context affect technology use with students?

Abstract:
This empirical research study addresses the issues of new teacher development and the role of the institutional context on new teachers’ instructional technology use. The study examines two first year teachers, their development during their initial year of classroom experience, and how the institutional context they entered affected their instructional decisions about technology use with students. Results underscore the challenges many beginning teachers face and how those challenges affect instructional decisions of beginning teachers. Results also stress the importance of the institutional context in valuing beginning teachers’ instructional decisions about technology use with students.

4.

Title: 

Beginning Teachers' Technology Use: First-Year Teacher Development and the Institutional Context's Affect on New Teachers' Instructional Technology Use with Students

Research Question: 

1.) How did the first year development of two beginning teachers affect their

     technology use with students?

2.) How did the existing institutional context affect technology use with

     students?

         

Abstract:

This empirical research study addresses the issues of new teacher development and the role of

the institutional context on new teachers' instructional technology use. The study examines

two first year teachers, their development during their initial year of classroom experience,

and how the institutional context they entered affected their instructional decisions about

technology use with students. Results underscore the challenges many beginning teachers face

and how those challenges affect instructional decisions of beginning teachers. Results also

stress the importance of the institutional context in valuing beginning teachers' instructional

decisions about technology use with students.

5. 

Title: 

A bridge too far? Explaining beginning teachers’ use of ICT in Australian schools        

Research Question: 

What aspects of the sociocultural environment impacts on beginning teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, and their knowledge, dispositions and skills in using ICT?

         

Abstract:

This paper discusses some of the findings from a recent longitudinal study that
examined how 35 beginning teachers used information and communications
technologies (ICT) in the first three years of their teaching. The research, set in
Western Australia, adopted a mixed method approach to help understand the role that
ICT played in the evolving pedagogical practices of the teachers involved. The study
found that beginning teachers articulated pedagogical beliefs that aimed to engage
their students in active meaning making. It also found that these teachers were
competent in the use of a basic suite of ICT software. However, pedagogical beliefs
that resonate with contemporary learning theory and operational ICT competence did
not translate into practices that synergised pedagogical, content and technological
knowledge. The teachers involved in the study did not use ICT in ways that were
consistent with their stated pedagogical beliefs. The relationships between teachers’
beliefs and their pedagogical and technological knowledge are discussed within the
contexts of different school settings. A framework is presented that emphasis the
need for teachers and school leaders to make connections across pedagogical and
technological domains.

Teaching Reflection (FA13 Week 1-3)

Teaching

After the first three weeks of teaching in w200, I felt my classroom atmosphere has been getting so much better than the first week because I feel more comfortable to talk in the classroom and students are getting more involved in what we are doing in class. Also, some students gave me the feedback saying that they feel more comfortable in this class when we slow down a bit, cause they would know more about what they should do and how they can complete tasks. Therefore, I realized that most of the time, I would always need to talk about new concepts, new skills, and new requirements AGAIN and AGAIN until they started thinking I was funny and a little bit annoying by asking questions or telling them the same things so many times. Another strategy I used this week in class when I want to check whether students remember what I said or understand the new information, I would pretend I was one of their students to ask them questions and waiting for their answers. Some of them would give a summary of what they learned today or something like what different kinds of sources they could use if they encountered any problems. I think it's helpful for me and for my students to have some time wrap up the main points in the end of each class.

Activity

I'm really glad that I have opportunity to do the observation in Matt's class before I teach every week. One of my biggest concerns for my teaching is the time management in how much time to spend lecturing and letting students have discussion, hands-on activities, and the technology integration practice in class. Therefore, it helps a lot when I can roughly estimate how much time Matt spent on each part of a lesson and have an idea about what kinds of problems or issues that students might have for different activities. Additionally, when I observe Matt's class, I would come up with some other ideas that I would like to try in my class. For instance, using an interesting online timer while students were doing discussions and having students sign up for Spice Up activity for each week (we had Laffy Taffy and Jumping Jack for these two weeks) that they need to facilitate a 3-5 minutes activity when the class needs to be spiced up.

FA13 - W200 Teaching - Self Evaluation

This is my first semester of teaching W200, an undergraduate course. For me, it is not only a challenging mission that I want to accomplish, but also a great opportunity for me to improve my education profession and instructional skills. 

First, let me first evaluate my strengths and weaknesses in teaching this technology integration course. 

After my first time teaching of W200 this week, I reflected myself that classroom time management is my first priority that I need to improve for this class. Some unpredictable things can happen in class some times. Therefore, I need to learn how to solve problems (students' questions or technical problems) as fast as I can and not delay on my instruction schedule as possible. Most importantly, students should be given enough time to do their hands-on activities and practices to process the knowledge and skills they are learning. Also, giving enough opportunities to ask questions is something I need to do more in my class. I believe that as I teach more, I would know how to keep the class rolling more.

I believe that being a good educator is not an easy job. From my own perspective, a good educator should be knowledgable about the course content with lots of authentic examples for students from different backgrounds and needs. Although I think I can be familiar with the course content, the skill that I also have to improve is to know what students in each subject area need and to give specific examples related to their subject areas or grade levels as useful and helpful feedback. Another instructional skill that I need to improve in my teaching is to ask good and inspiring questions that can trigger students to think deeper about what they are learning and why it is important to them.

Although this is my first experience teaching undergraduates and my teaching knowledge and skills are still developing, I am confident that I have passion and motivation to teach W200. I think I have enough patient with solving problems for my students and trying to use different ways to engage my students in their learning journey in my class. I am looking forward to learn from my mentor, senior instructors as well as my students.