Assessment and Technology Essay

My mission statement for my classroom is to be able to incorporate technology into it as well as into the curriculum so that it is more challenging and demanding for the students. Also incorporating it will bring the students to want to learn and engage in a twofold environment that will join together traditional learning and technology centered instruction. Classrooms and students who have access and the ability to use different technologies such as computers, Smart-boards, digital cameras, digital recorders, e-tablets, smart-phones, iPads, ect will be able to have an advancement for designing, formulating, and organizing projects which will give the students a tremendous boost in the learning process. My intentions for the classroom is that I would like my students to comprehend the advantages of technology as well as how it will continue to develop and progress in their lifetime and assist in preparing them for the public in the 21st Century. Vision I foresee a classroom full of students that are properly equipped with several different uses of technologies that will allow me as a teacher to be resourceful with the students in the classroom along with the classroom curriculum. I visualize technology being applied in the classroom to allow students to be more involved with their coursework and encourage critical and creative thinking alongside with collaboration, communication, life, and career skills. Rationale I decided to involve in my mission statement the idea of preparing my students for the 21st Century as well as having a multitude of different technologies is because in the reading from Information, Media and Technology Skills, talks about the quickly changing technology tools and being able to collaborate which will help the students be efficient in the 21st century (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). Being able to use multiple technologies such as the mission statement states will help the students grow with the technology and make it more feasible for them to use technology in their projects. Also in the mission statement I stated technology such as laptops and ipads because students growing up with technology such as those everyday and using them for games or other activities, if students can use technology for that then they can use those types of technology in the classroom to learn (Teachers, technology and training). When it comes to my vision statement I chose this because I believe that all children as well as my students should be able to apply technology to their everyday learning environments (Unleash the power of technology in education). Communications Plan Incorporating technology into the classroom can either hinder the learning environment or help it depending on how the technology is used to teach as well as in communication with the students, teachers, and the parents. Communication should not be taken lightly. There are a few methods that can be used to communicate with parents that I intend to use in my class such as: contact list, phone calls, e-mail, letters, and a website. Not only is communication with parents important but communication within the classroom, with the students, has the same importance. With this communication a tremendous way of communication in the classroom is through collaboration. When a class first begins I will have my class fill out an emergency contact form so that I am able to have the phone numbers of their guardians to keep in contact with them. This will help me give phone calls to parents and guardians to keep them updated on grades as well as behavior. If a child is distracting the classroom and making it a poor environment for learning then the numbers will come in handy to give the parent a phone call and let them know that the child is having behavior problems within the classroom. Another good way for communication that I intend to use is email and letters to the parents. The emails and letters will have updates about what is going on at the school as well as the classroom. A letter will be sent out to the parents asking for emails and addresses as well as asking permission to send out weekly updates on what is going on in the classroom and the school. Finally, another way to communicate with parents is through a class website. Through the website the parents will be able to see what is going to be taught that week as well as grades for each child. This is an easy way for parents to check out what their child is learning and how well they are doing (School Community Journal). A superior way to communicate within the classroom is through collaboration. Collaboration has many forms such as groups within the classroom along with groups outside of the classroom. An example of that is collaborating with a different school by either going to the school or having another classroom come to mine. Also, there is using technology such as Skype and other Webcam-Ming programs to have another classroom from the opposite of the country on the smart-board or screen to communicate with each other for a few lessons (Multicultural Education). When it comes to students using the Skype, or any other program on the internet, students need to learn what is appropriate to use as well as when it is an appropriate time to use the program. Within the first week I will teach the students the proper way to go about using the internet and have a set of rules as well as consequences for the internet to maintain a proper learning environment (Internet Research). Integrating Technology Into The Classroom Educators are able to integrate technology into the classroom by using various technology devices. A good example that many classrooms have today is the Smart-Board. With the use of this technology the students are able to write on the board as well as learning games by touching the board with a finger or a special marker. Also with the Smart-board, teachers are able to show their students videos through the internet. Another great type of technology to use is a webcam-Ming source such as Skype or Tiny-chat which will be an advantage for the students as a tool to use to bond with other students around the world. In my Special Education classroom, my Comprehensive Classroom Technology Plan will consist of assistive devices. Assistive devices comprise any device that disabled kids and students can utilize to help them learn and function more effectively. The most current studies show that around 4,000 assistive technologies have been designed for students and teachers. Such devices include wheelchairs, hearing aids, glare reduction screens, screen magnifier, Braille note taking devices, voice recognition software, and devices that are simple by having the child follow letters and pictures on a screen. Children that contain special needs or a disability have an assortment of communication devices and have modifications for their every day life to help them get through everyday life (Education World). A familiar device is a small computer screen with pictures, letters, and words that help children that cannot communicate efficiently. The device helps the children to communicate with others with the screen because they have trouble speaking and making sentences to tell people if they may need something. Another device is a specialized wheelchair. For children who have no communication functions there is the advance technology of a special wheelchair that they can stare at a picture or words to communicate with others. Some might think that smart-boards are only for main stream students, however, in a special education class the smart-board is a very useful device to help the students engage with the classroom. There are activities and games that the students can go up to the smart-board and do such as answer questions that pop up on the smart-board. Over billions of dollars have been invested into wiring schools for desktop computers. A wireless network is able to present an engaging alternative that secures superior access for the student (Wired Versus Wireless). Nearly two thirds of institutions are using wireless networks. Also known as WLAN, wireless networks are defines as a â€Å"local area network, not connected by cables or wires† (The Journal). Wireless is what people see more in classrooms today. in the company of a wired classroom there are more benefits by being able to educate students on how equipments are to be connect together. Wired classrooms scamper the threat of the students tripping over the wires. It is said that wireless is less secure; however, either way information can be stolen or secured. In Conclusion, integrating technology into the classroom is the teacher way of the 21st Century. Technology in the classroom is a creative way of learning. Every year technology grows and brings about more opportunities for children to cultivate and learn with ease. Look back 20 years ago, children who were unable to communicate truly where unable to communicate. Now, children who cannot speak properly have a way to express themselves and learn with the technology integrating in the classrooms. Rationale I decided to talk about assistive technology with integrating technology in a classroom because from experience most special education classroom is all about technology being used. Many students use technology just to communicate in the classroom. The technology used helps the students learn at their own pace because they are able to look at pictures and words to create the best guess on either an answer to a question or a statement they need to make. I think it is so amazing on how more advance a special education students is rather then a main stream student. Technology for Assessments The use of technology in the classroom has grown abundantly within years with not only the effect of entertainment but also the result of learning. With technology being integrated into classrooms, the technology can also be used to enhance assessments such as formative assessments and summative assessments. Furthermore, teachers should use both traditional as well as technology to assess student learning. When it comes to assessing a student it entails viewing what the students can do and depicting conjectures on the student’s capability (Caacentre). Technology helps to assess students by giving them more learning tools in the classroom. Today’s advancements in technology offer more opportunities to teachers and students that were unfeasible before. Applying a variety of technologies in one lesson can facilitate the understanding to all students (Shelbyed). There are a few advantages that have been known and discovered in regard to technology being included in the classroom. One advantage is when technology is being used in the classroom its extensive range of utilizing has the prospective to reach students of all different learning capabilities along side with being more proficient. Another benefit is that due to the curiosity and motivation technology encourages in the students makes the use of technology in the classroom significant. Lastly, there is the advantage of enhanced preparation in the students for the future when it comes to using technology that is targeted at attending to each learning method (Shelbyed). Along side with advantages there are disadvantages. When it comes to the disadvantages of using technology a major one discussed is the cost of the technology being used with the pre and post tests given. Another disadvantage is that it becomes more summative rather then formative and becomes difficult to segregate what changes need to made. Finally, there is also the frustration of receiving results in a timely manner (Morningside). There are two assessments that are used in the classroom. First there is summative assessment which is intended to measure the achievement of each student at the conclusion of each unit. This assessment also gives a concluding grade. The next assessment is formative assessment which includes techniques that are deliberated to ascertain the progress of each student during the learning process and makes it possible to obtain feedback to the teacher as well as the student (Caacentre). Educators should integrate technology in the classroom; however, teachers should not only use technology to assess students. When there are multiple ways to assess students all methods should be looked upon and used to give the students the best education as well as get the most responsive feedback from the assessments. In conclusion, with the growth of technology in the classroom, it becomes more actively used not only in the learning process but is also used along side assessing the students. Summative and formative assessments are used to obtain the growth of the students during each lesson and technology can have a huge factor in assessing the students by encouraging them. The uses if technology can have a huge impact on the students and can help enhance the learning and assessment process. Rationale When coming up with the conclusion in my writing I used personal experience for the most part and how technology benefited when assessing me. I used clickers in my government class in high school to takes tests and when I put in my answer it would show up on the smart board if the answer was correct or not. Another way I formed my conclusion was reading an article about integrating technology as a teacher. In the article it talks about how intergrading technology in the classroom may be difficulty at times but it can give many students the encouragement they need to do well on an assessment especially when technology is used the way it was used in my government class. It gives the students an opportunity to get quick feedback in that instance; however, technology can have its hiccups which can result in a less timely manner of feedback (Beginning with a Baseline). Technology Ethics in the Classroom Throughout the past 10 years technology has grown significantly and began being used within the classrooms. Due to the elevated use of computers and the internet, fraud, plagiarism, and copyright becomes a higher risk in essays and assignments. Not only should firewalls be put on the computers to block certain sits, students should be taught the appropriate sites that should be used. Students ought to be educated on how to use citations in their essays to keep from plagiarizing. There are three ethical practices of technology that I would use to implement the classroom: resources, expression, and responsibility. Countless amounts of teachers dread having to deal with â€Å"academic dishonesty† within the assignments of the students due to the easy ability that it can be done (An Ethical Dilemma). However, with the proper teaching students can learn the suitable sites to use as well as how to prevent plagiarism. In most classroom settings it is told to the students never to use Wikipedia. Sites such as Wikipedia should be taught to students to use with care and never as a citation due to the fact that anyone can write on it and it could be false information. When students are asked to write an essay they may struggle because they lack the knowledge needed for the essay which then the internet then serves the person as a â€Å"real equalizer†. There are access to hundreds and thousands of sites that are available (Tech Talk). A good educator will take the time to teach the students useful sites to get research as well as not to copy what is said from the sites word for word. There should be an agreement signed by each student that if plagiarism is used there will be consequences such as having to rewrite the essay for less credit. Besides just educating the students on the sites, they should also begin to get educated on citing the sources used in their essays as well as quotations. Citations can be very difficult for students especially the younger grades. Plagiarism is the act of entailing that another individual’s work is in fact your own work. When teaching the students about citations it should first be known that even if they are going to cite where they obtained the information from do not copy and paste. When a statement is copied word for word it should be put in quotation marks (Avoiding Cut and Paste). Depending on how the school or classroom is run there are several ways of citing. For the younger kids it should first be taught in MLA style to make it easier to grasp as well as because students most of the time do not use APA format until the last couple years of high school or even until college. After the students are educated on citations, a good way to help guide them is by giving the students a website that can further assistant them so that there is less plagiarism. A site that I would recommend to my students is easybib. com, which helps all styles of citations. Three ethical practices of technology that I would implement in my classroom are resources, expression, and responsibility. With these three a teacher can put into the agreement that will be signed by the students that there needs to be proper use of resources such as using knowledge and skill, expression such as skills and practices, and responsibility such as values and ethics. These are to be more similar to guidelines when it comes to ethics in technology. In conclusion, with the advancement in technology throughout the years, technology has become more common in the classroom. Plagiarism has become an issue that teachers dread to have to deal with. I believe with the proper educating of this to the students the plagiarism in the classroom will become scarce. Students need to learn the rights and wrongs of technology. Reflection Technology growth has had a major impact at schools and within classrooms. With the growth of technology comes more ways of learning as well as more safety to be taught with technology. My comprehensive technology plan helps guide me with the learning process for my students with the use of technology; it increases both the productivity and efficiency for students  and teachers. When coming up with an efficient plan it should include the reduction of costs and making certain the compatibility with already accessible technology. With the plan should come five steps which consist of: Define the accessible technology strategy, Identify requirements, Design, develop and purchase technology, Implement and Train, and Maintain technology and continue learning. These steps make for a productive and efficient comprehensive technology plan. In the first step, define the accessible technology strategy; the educator defines how accessible technology can be put into the classroom by creating a mission and vision statement that will set the ground work. Knowing this will help me as a teacher integrate accessible technology into the classroom. Within the vision statement should be how accessible technology plays a role in the learning environment. My vision statement states how I foresee that students will be equipped with a multitude of technologies as well as how I visualize the technology will be applied. In the mission statement it helps to clarify the vision statement. The mission statement will help in step 5 when I as a teacher will measure the success. My mission statement includes incorporating technology into the curriculum and what incorporating technology into the classroom and curriculum will do for the students (Microsoft Accessibility). The next steps are more details of the mission and vision statement made into the actual comprehensive technology plan. Throughout my whole plan I describe how technology benefits the classroom and the different ways it benefits. One important way technology benefits is through communication. With the use of the internet, computers, and even smartboards, teachers are able to communicate easier with parents through emails, websites, and newsletters. Furthermore, students are able to communicate with other students in the same grade level and are able to work together through sources such as Skype. Also mentioned in my plan is internet security which is an important subject when it comes to technology in the classroom. Students should be taught the appropriate sites to use as well as how to  cite the sources they use for essays and assignments. It truly is amazing how technology has progressed and grown throughout the years and that students that are not only in main stream but special educations students as well are able to use technology to grow further in their education. There are several assistive technologies that have been specially designed for students and teachers such as hearing aids, screen magnifiers, picture software and voice recognition software. Some of these devices help these children with their everyday life along side learning. Another point put into the plan is the use of technology in assessments. Although technology and assessments combined can be a real pain in the butt at time, with time and work it is a very useful way for technology to coincide with assessments. It is easier for teachers to grade rather them going through several papers as well as make a students more interested in the assessment because they are using a computer or something they know how to work. Overall, the comprehensive plan is a very useful source to integrate technology into the classroom. Reference  Banister, S. , & Vannatta, R. (2006). Beginning with a baseline: Insuring productive technology integration in teacher education. http://search. proquest. com/docview/200006665? accountid=7374 Caacentre. (1993). Using Technology to Assess Student Learning. http://www. caacentre. ac. uk/dldocs/alter. pdf â€Å"Developing an Accessible Technology Plan. † Microsoft Accessibility. Microsoft, 2012. Web. 16 Aug. 2012. . Donlevy, J. (2005). Teachers, technology and training: Envisioning the future: The U. 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