Welcome:

My name is Ivy Meighan and this portfolio represents the instructional design Principles and Theories learned from previous courses to construct an e-portfolio that demonstrates the attainment of the 8 learning outcomes for the MATLT program at Ashford University.  

PLO 8

MATLT Program Learning Objective(s): Program Learning Outcome 8 "Demonstrate the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of learning and leadership"

This project demonstrates the ability to use UDL in a diverse learning environment to benefit all cultural backgrounds.

Introduction

            Web 2.0 is an LMS that “supports different modes of learning” (Brown & Adler).  Learning 2.0 is a new form of enhanced learning technology.  Learning 2.0 allow students to learn the way they want, at their own level of understanding.  The best way to use Web 2.0 resources to support learning is to make it available in classrooms at all levels of education, from elementary schools all the way to the boardrooms.  Gone are the days when we have to open a book to get information. 

Prior MATLT Activity of Program Learning Outcome 8

To demonstrate “the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of learning and leadership”, is a direct link to data analysis and decision making.  Teachers depend on data a great deal in order to make decisions about the next step to take with the education of a student, such as instructional improvements and goal setting.   It’s important to follow through and take actions based on data. “What good is data if it doesn’t change something?”(Levin, Datnow, 2012).  Data is meant to either continue doing what you’re doing or change what you’re doing to make things better.  So, in reality, data does not mean anything until we place value on it, if we don’t it’s just numbers.  Many teachers agree that using data caused them to reflect more on their instructional strategies in relation to their students’ progress, and many feel that they differentiate instruction more.

Principles and Theory Chosen and Why                 

To redesign the above MATLT activity, I used the Universal Design for Learning principle and theory.  In today’s classrooms, most, if not all learners are diverse, which makes classrooms diverse, and as such, educators must take steps necessary to meet the needs of their learners in order to meet their learning goals. To do this, teachers must set goals for students, and if those goals become unmet, teachers must figure out what the barriers are and address it. UDL means flexible curriculum for a diverse classroom, it minimizes barriers and maximizes learning.  In a diverse classroom, “one size does not fit all”.

Challenges and How They Were Overcome

            The challenges of differentiating lessons require a bit of data analysis, planning, and appropriate execution of the plan.  When teachers complete a lesson and then assess, to find out that more than half the class did not understand the lesson, it becomes a big set-back for both teachers and students, because, the lesson will have to be taught once more to those students, and sometimes, the teacher may not have a way to reteach the lesson separately to those at-risk students, so then, the whole class end up having to listen to the lesson all over again.  These days, teachers are able to teach a subject to a diverse group of students through Universal Design for Learning, which allow students to learn the way it works for them.

 Solving Problems

             UDL is an approach to learning that addresses and redresses the primary barrier to learning: inflexible, one-size-fits-all curricula that raise unintentional barriers. Learners with disabilities are the most vulnerable to such barriers, but many students without disabilities also find that curricula are poorly designed to meet their learning needs. UDL helps meet the challenges of diversity by recommending the use of flexible instructional materials, techniques, and strategies that empower educators to meet students’ diverse needs. A universally designed curriculum is shaped from the outset to meet the needs of the greatest number of users, making costly, time-consuming, and after-the-fact changes to the curriculum unnecessary.

In order to deal with the barriers that plague students, teachers are able to offer these learning capabilities to meet student needs.  

• Multiple means of representation – using a variety of methods to presentation, provide a range of means to support


• Multiple means of action and expression – providing learners with alternative ways to act skillfully and demonstrate what they know


• Multiple means of engagement – tapping into learners’ interests by offering choices of content and tools; motivating learners by offering adjustable levels of challenge

Conclusion

The introduction of Web 2.0 which supports different modes of learning, as well as provide important data about our students, has made it possible for many students to overcome barriers which otherwise may not have been possible.  Currently, with the use of technology, students are able to learn without borders, teachers have access to a multitude of technological learning tools to meet the learning needs of a diverse population.  The more advance technology becomes, the easier it will become for students to learn and teachers will have access to learning tools that will help them deliver lessons in a more efficient manner.

References

Google. (n.d.)  UDL At a Glance. Image of udl classroom.  Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=learning+and+leadership+with+technology+images&rlz

 Brown, J.S. and Adler, R.P. (2008).  "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0" Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf

Levin, J.A., Datnow, A. (2012).  University of California, San Diego.  The Principle Role in Data Driven Decision Making: Using case study data  to develop multi-mediator models of educational reform.  Retrieved from https://ccl.northwestern.edu/papers/2012/LevinDatnow2012.pdf

Boardman, A., Arguelles, M., Vaughn, S., Hughes, M., and Klingner, J. (2005). Special education teachers’ views of research-based practices. The Journal of Special Education, 39(3), 168-180.

PLO 6 & 7

MATLT Program Learning Objective(s): Program Learning Outcome 6 & 7 :Evaluate technology resources to facilitate effective assessment and evaluation.  Utilize technology to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings."

This project illustrates the use of technology in the classroom to assess and evaluate student learning outcomes.

Introduction

The use of technology in the classroom for assessment and evaluation continues to be an important implementation in classrooms, organizations, and schools in general.  There are many testing resources out there to choose from, and school administrators and employers need to be educated on the right software that will yield the result they want, as far as assessment and evaluation goes.  There are softwares for the education sector, and softwares for the employment sector, making the right choice could save you money and time.

Prior MATLT Activity of Program Learning Outcomes 6 & 7

            I wrote a memo to my principal, about the usefulness of the use of technology in teaching, learning, assessing and evaluating students.  I recommended a few softwares that we could implement school-wide.

The two softwares I recommend were:

            Productivity software -typically generic business-application software that educators can use and adapt for the administrative and professional tasks they must address. Word processing, spreadsheet, and database management software are all examples of productivity software.

             Classroom management support software is usually customized software written for educators to help them manage school and classroom tasks, including the creation and maintenance of seating charts, class rolls, student records, or school budgets (Lever-Duffy, McDonalds, 2005, p.136). These two softwares help administrators and/or educators do their jobs more effectively and productively.

“The productivity Software, assist educators in preparing memos, letters, reports, and budgets. It assists educators in tracking student information, computing grades, and preparing lesson plans and IEPs.” (p.137). The Classroom Management Support Software, assists educators prepare required reports, assists in tracking and reporting grades; helps seating charts, roll calls, and other classroom charts; assist educators in analyzing grade and student data for better academic decision making. (p.137).

As with each software there are benefits and there are challenges.  However, in this case the benefits outweigh the challenges. The challenges to each software is extremely time consuming; it may take time to become fluent with the program.  There are step by step process that is required to complete a task. There will be training involved for both administrators/teachers. The benefits involved with each software is that the school will have all information in one central location where information can be merged for easier access.

Principles and Theory Chosen and Why

            To demonstrate an understanding of “technology resources to facilitate effective assessment

and evaluation” and Program Learning Outcome 7 “Utilize technology to collect and analyze data,

interpret results, and communicate findings”, I delivered lessons daily, with built-in assessments for understanding.  At the end of each quarter, students will be tested on the lessons given with the Frontrowed software.  After students complete the test, scores are calculated by the Frontrowed software, which gives me how many students improved and by how much, which students exceled in a particular subject, and which students I should use to tutor which students in the classroom.  This software is able to utilize technology to collect and analyze date, interpret results, communicate findings, and make suggestions on the best way to help students by reteaching subjects in a way that students will understand enough to improve scores in the future.

Challenges and How They Were Overcome

            The challenges to each software is extremely time consuming; it may take time to become fluent with the program.  There are step by step process that is required to complete a task. There will be training involved for both administrators/teachers.  To overcome these challenges, administrators have to allow teachers ample time to learn to use the software, offer paid training time, and test the product before allowing for official use.

Solving Problems

            The benefits involved with each software is that the school will have all information in one central location where information, including analyzed data and scores can be merged for easier access.  Such system is very rare in an institution or school districts.  Schools tend to use different softwares for each aspect of the school’s activities.  Having all information about students in one central location makes it less stressful for both administrators and teachers.

Conclusion

            Assessment is an increasingly common practice in the education and employment sector. Whether discussed as a measure of student learning, cost-effectiveness, administrative efficiency, or the value of technology, assessment is on the minds of many stakeholders. Assessment has different meanings and whether or not it is useful and effective, depends on the results that we seek.  

 References:

Lever-Duffy, J., McDonald, J.  Teaching and Learning with Technology. (2005).

PLO 4

MATLT Program Learning Objective(s): Program Learning Outcome 4 “demonstrate knowledge and skills related to applying research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment.  .”

This project illustrates assessment data usage in a teaching environment.

Instructional design principles and theory greatly influence the evaluation of technology resources to facilitate effective assessment and evaluation. This influence can be observed in many ways,  one of those ways  being "the allowance of teachers/instructors in selecting appropriate technology which will allow students to demonstrate knowledge gained" (Bedard-Voorhees, Johnson, & Dobson ,2011). Instructional design principles and theory also help by allowing teachers to meet the needs of individual students with differentiated lesson plans and helping students personalize their learning by means of technological variance resources.

These principles and theories require educators to use appropriate judgment when it comes to choosing technology.  As presented  in our Instructor Guide, there are at least two different programs that can be used to present data.  Both programs yielded the same information, the only difference is the process it took to get to that information/data.  As I watched both clips, I asked myself, which program would I use if I had to come up with such data for my students.  Frankly, I could not understand the first version, but I did understand the excel program.   So, I guess I will use the excel program, since the process appeared easier for me to understand.  In order to understand my data, I have to know how that data came about, so understanding the program and knowing how to use it is very important.



As a teacher, I have an obligation/requirement to assess my students quarterly in reading.  In the beginning, I did not know the most efficient way of keeping track of their improvements or lack thereof, without digging for the pile of testing papers.  Eventually, I found the time to create a spreadsheet that allowed me to record all  the assessment scores, which allowed me easy glance of how my students were doing. These days if we research hard enough, we can find many more ways of tracking data in a more efficient and accurate manner.




References

Bedard-Voorhees, A., Johnson, L.M., & Dobson, P. (2011). Letting them show what they know: Digital assessment strategies.

PLO 3

MATLT Program Learning Objective(s): Program Learning Outcome 3 “demonstrate knowledge and skills related to learning using ”technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners.

This project illustrates the Multiple Intelligence of learning.  

Introduction

According to Howard Gardner, (Big Thinkers: Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences 2009), there are “different kinds of intellectual strengths”.  He also believes that “education that treats everybody the same is an unfair education. There are people who can only learn a specific way, in other words, they have different intelligences, and if those intelligences are not utilized in their everyday learning, then they’re being neglected by their teachers and the education system.   As such, Gardner has termed these 9 types of intelligences.

Prior MATLT Activity Program Learning Outcome 3

This prior assignment is from EDU648.  The assignment was about multiple intelligence and what educators can do to engage all these different learners.

Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”) –this intelligence, uses the human ability to discriminate among living things, as well as a sensitivity to other features of the natural world such as clouds and rock configurations.

Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”) – the ability to discern pitch, tone, and rhythm. People of this intelligence learn through music, such as learning multiplication by singing or rapping to aid in memorization of multiplication tables or vocabulary.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart) – those with this intelligence has the ability to calculate, quantify, and carry out complete mathematical equations.

Existential Intelligence - this type of intelligence has the sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart”) –an interpersonal intelligence has the ability to understand and interact effectively with others

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”) - Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibit well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence.  They have the capacity to manipulate objects, while using a variety of physical skills to get their point across.

Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart) –the linguistic intelligence is the ability to effectively think in words and use language to express meaning. 

Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart”) –this intelligence has the capacity to understand one’s self, thoughts and feelings and uses that knowledge in planning and directing one’s life

Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”) –has the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills, and an active imagination. 

Principle and Theory Chosen and Why

I chose the MI principle and theory because technology has the capability to accommodate all nine multiple intelligence.  “Howard Gardner viewed intelligence as ‘the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting’ (Gardner & Hatch, 1989).” (Smith, Mark K.  2002, 2008).  The “cultural setting” in today’s meaning would be our technological culture.

Once again, I will cite Gardner by saying, “education that treats everyone the same is an unfair education” (2009).   It is very important that we continue to recognize the various types of intelligence in teaching and learning.  We as educators know and understand that we cannot teach all our students the same way, they’re not all going to understand the subject.  Re-teaching doesn’t work most of the time, and modeling only works for a short period of time, so what do we do?  We get down to the root of the solution, “learning styles”. 

According to Gardner, “when children have an opportunity to learn through their strengths, they may become more successful at learning all subjects--including the basic skills."  However, when we neglect these types of intelligence in our students, we risk failing them and potentially destroying future livelihoods.  Many students will inadvertently be placed in programs that deemed them “learning disabled”, going through school stigmatized because we failed to recognize their unique ability to learn.

Challenges and How They Were Overcome

At first I was stumped as to how teachers will be able to help students incorporate their specific intelligence with the use of technology.  It turns out, there are many technological ways of implementing the use of multiple intelligence.  Learning tools, such as Imagine Learning, Accelerated Reading, Brain Pop, Spelling City, Frontrowed, envision, and wowzers are some of the tools that can be implemented in daily curriculum to help student achieve their goals.

Solving Problems

Many technological activities are related to multiple intelligence.  For example, many of the games that our students play, such as sports relates to physical/kinesthetic intelligence.  Some strategic games such as warfare and the likes, relate to logical/mathematical intelligence.  Crossword puzzles utilizes the linguistic intelligence, making a video of one’s self rapping to multiplication tables or to learn the alphabet is a musical intelligence, and so on. As educators, we must not fail our students, we must help them utilize their talents in the only place that they would not be judged because of their differences in learning.

Conclusion

According to Gardner, “education that treats everybody the same is an unfair education”.  This belief or understanding is what all educators should subscribe to.  As complicated, difficult, and unsupported as we may be, our priority as educators is to give every student the opportunity to use their talents to help them achieve their educational and social goals.

References:

Cast (n.d.). UDL at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDvKnY0g6e4.

 Smith, Mark K. (2002, 2008) 'Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences', the encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved from  http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Gardner, H. The nine types of Intelligences. http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm

PLO 5

MATLT Program Learning Objective(s): Program Learning Outcome 5 "Exemplify ethical practices of technology usage."

This project illustrates the ethical use of resources, copyright laws and fair use guideline.

Introduction

 Fair Use and Copyrights laws was established to protect the integrity of other people's hard work and to keep others from claiming that work as their own.  Copyrights laws make sure that when we use other people written, audio, and visual work, we give credit to those individuals.  The Fair Use guidelines allow us to use up to 10% of other people's work while giving credit where its due.

Prior MATLT Activity of Program Learning Outcome 5

This prior MATLT program course below is an assignment I completed last year in course EDU600: Introduction to Online Learning.    It exemplifies the ethical practices of technology usage.

I will redesign this assignment/activity, (which consists of just this one page) by using instructional design principals and theory. 

1.

Fair Use reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” TEACH Act The TEACH Act authorizes us to digitize works for use in digital distance education, but only to the extent we are authorized to use those works in Section 110(2), and so long as they are not available digitally in a format free from technological protection. Copy Rights Compliance •Literary works •Musical works, including any accompanying words.  Dramatic works, including any accompanying music.

Copyright: has to do with "laws that protect the interest of those who own creative works, whether 

text, music, artwork, software, or any other creative product" (Lever-Duffer & McDonald, 2011, 

p.364).

Fair Use Guidelines:  With all the information on the World Wide Web, someone has to be given 

credit for all that’s available to us.  Even when the work is not copyrighted, we have to assume that 

someone owns it or came up with it on their own, therefore, they should be credited when we borrow 

their words or work.  It’s only fair. It does not mean that you can use 100% of their work, there are 

limits.  Below are some general guidelines for copyrighted materials as provided in Lever-Duffer & 

McDonald (2011, p.365):

•For motion media: You can use up to 10% or 3 minutes (whichever is less)

 •For text: You can use up to 10% or 1,000 words (whichever is less)

 •For audio: You can use up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds for a single event

 •For images: You should use no more than 5 images by a single artist/photographer

 •For images: You should use no more than 10% or 15 images (whichever is less) from a collection of

 work

Principal and Theory Chosen and Why

I have chosen to use option one, dealing with the issues involved in the ethical use and following

the rules of technology use.  I chose this theory because I’ve been guilty of plagiarizing, not 

citing my work, and giving credit where it’s “Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use” (Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship, 2016).  My research from Nine Elements, are two of the elements that closely speaks to the appropriate digital usage, elements 5 and 7 below, as written.

“5. Digital Etiquette:   electronic standards of conduct or procedure.

Technology users often see this area as one of the most pressing problems when dealing with Digital Citizenship. We recognize inappropriate behavior when we see it, but before people use technology they do not learn digital etiquette (i.e., appropriate conduct).   Many people feel uncomfortable talking to others about their digital etiquette.  Often rules and regulations are created or the technology is simply banned to stop inappropriate use. It is not enough to create rules and policy.  We must teach everyone to become responsible digital citizens in this new society.” (Nine Elements, 2016)

 “7.   Digital Rights & Responsibilities:   those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world.

Just as in the American Constitution where there is a Bill of Rights, there is a basic set of rights extended to every digital citizen. Digital citizens have the right to privacy, free speech, etc. Basic digital rights must be addressed, discussed, and understood in the digital world.  With these rights also come responsibilities as well.  Users must help define how the technology is to be used in an appropriate manner.  In a digital society these two areas must work together for everyone to be productive.” (Nine Elements, 2016)

In the case of our hypothetical scenario:

1.      Could you record and reuse the Hangout for another class?

·         The term ‘record’ in this case is not necessary, because all digital/technology activities online or text in this case are recorded automatically.  So, now the question becomes… “Can you reuse the Hangout activity for another class?”  Possibly!  I think that based on the privacy and fair use guidelines, you can use a portion of the Hangout activity, which is 10% or 1,000 words (whichever is less), being cautious as to the exact information you choose to use, so that you don’t embarrass the author in any way.

2.      Could you prevent students from recording and distributing the Hangout?

·         Unfortunately, you have no way of physically stopping other students from “recording and distributing the Hangout”.  The best you could do is educate students and make them aware of the privacy and fair use guidelines available to all technology users, and try to appeal to their ethical sense of right and wrong.  We all have responsibilities to protect ourselves and others from unethical and illegal behaviors on the World Wide Web.  So, before this Hangout activity was to take place, students should have been educated and reminded over and over about privacy, and rights of all users of technology, and the consequences of not following those guidelines.

3.      How would you design the synchronous study session to exemplify and ensure ethical usage of the technology?

·         Since I have no control of what students might do outside of the discussion group, the first thing I would implement is create an agreement prohibiting the reproduction of any and all Hangout activities pertaining to this discussion.  Each student will be asked to sign by printing their name and dating such document. The document would have to be in a PDF format so that no changes can be made after everyone signs it.  Along with this agreement, I would post the Nine Elements of online etiquette and The Fair Use guidelines.

Challenges and How They Were Overcome

Obviously, my previous MATLT activity above was very short and lacked information.  I’ve learned a great deal about digital responsibilities and etiquette 9 classes later.   I would be the first person to say that I’ve been guilty of plagiarism, due to lack of proper time management, lack of information about the topic, and plain laziness.  I’ve turned in assignments that earned me bad scores because I was lazy and unprofessional.  If I were to advise anyone about ways to avoid plagiarism, I would tell them to start their research days ahead of time, and if they’re going to use other people’s work, be professional and cite the work, and don’t use more than 10% of other people’s work.   This level of academic status deserves professionalism and proof of your knowledge and capabilities, because in the real world, you won’t be able to get away with stealing other people’s ideas and make them your own.  If you can’t get away with it in school, what makes you think you can get away with it in the

real world!

Conclusion

The fact that we're able to research our subjects and come up with so many information to help us complete projects and reports, is very humbling.  It shows that we're not all knowing.  Authors who put in the work to write and or create works of art (written, created, painted, drawn, or recorded) need to be properly acknowledged when their works are cited.  Unfortunately, not everyone may want to comply with this simple ethical guideline, so, to ensure that these brilliant creators are not taken advantage of, Copyrights laws and Fair Use guideline were created to make sure that all of us practice professional etiquette.

Reference

1.)   Lever-Duffer & McDonald, 2011, p.364.  Teaching and Learning with Technology, 4^th Edition.

2.)   Nine Elements: Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship (2016).  Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

3.)   Copy Right Crash Course. (n.d.) Retrieved fromhttp://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/teachact.html

4.)   Copyright Fair Use.  Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

5.)   Copyright Basics.  What is Copyright Law?  Retrieved from https://www.copyright.com/Services/copyrightoncampus/basics/law.html