3.2 Managing Digital Tools & Resources
Candidates effectively manage digital tools and resources within the context of student learning experiences. (PSC 3.2/ISTE 3b)
Artifact: Internet Lesson Plan
Reflection:
The Internet Lesson Plan was created for ITEC 7430 Internet Tools in the Classroom and implemented in my AP Literature and Composition class. After reading Fences, a play by August Wilson, and A Lesson Before Dying, a novel by Earnest J. Gaines, students wrote a comparison-contrast essay analyzing these two texts, which both reflect on the struggles of an African-American main character in two different locations. Digital tools helped to scaffold each step of the writing process; students used Padlet to brainstorm and organize their essays, blogged in order to draft a thesis statement, and then edited and revised their papers and a peer’s using the editing and commenting features in Google Docs.
The Internet Lesson Plan describes how I was able to manage the various digital tools and resources during the course of the lesson. First, I chose digital tools only after determining the skills I wanted students to develop; tools were not arbitrarily selected but instead chosen as a means of helping students engage in specific learning processes, meet certain technology standards, and use higher-order thinking skills. I also created an evaluation checklist for each digital tool so that students would know exactly what they should accomplish by using the digital tool. I did have to spend some time teaching students how to use Padlet since this was a tool with which they were unfamiliar, as well as troubleshoot some issues that arose with the program. I spent most of my time walking from group to group, monitoring use of the digital tools and answering relevant questions in order to ensure all students were on task and progressing appropriately.
I would make some changes to this lesson plan if I were to implement it again. Although I learned about carefully choosing digital tools while creating the lesson plan, it was not until actually seeing students use the tool that I realized students probably needed to create two Padlet pages—one for group collaboration and one for individual essay organizing—rather than trying to combine those two tasks on a single Padlet page. During the course of the lesson, the Padlet became too full of information so a new, clean Padlet would have helped students focus on the essential elements in their particular essays.
Scaffolding the writing process using digital tools definitely had an impact on student learning. While AP students are typically rather proficient writers, they still struggle when analyzing two full-length texts since it is easy to forget the details and instead focus on vague, general ideas. The digital tools reminded them of the importance of details and allowed them to engage in several steps of peer editing and revision in order to ensure that the final product was of high quality. The scores on these writing compositions were higher than on others, demonstrating the impact of the Internet tools.
The Internet Lesson Plan was created for ITEC 7430 Internet Tools in the Classroom and implemented in my AP Literature and Composition class. After reading Fences, a play by August Wilson, and A Lesson Before Dying, a novel by Earnest J. Gaines, students wrote a comparison-contrast essay analyzing these two texts, which both reflect on the struggles of an African-American main character in two different locations. Digital tools helped to scaffold each step of the writing process; students used Padlet to brainstorm and organize their essays, blogged in order to draft a thesis statement, and then edited and revised their papers and a peer’s using the editing and commenting features in Google Docs.
The Internet Lesson Plan describes how I was able to manage the various digital tools and resources during the course of the lesson. First, I chose digital tools only after determining the skills I wanted students to develop; tools were not arbitrarily selected but instead chosen as a means of helping students engage in specific learning processes, meet certain technology standards, and use higher-order thinking skills. I also created an evaluation checklist for each digital tool so that students would know exactly what they should accomplish by using the digital tool. I did have to spend some time teaching students how to use Padlet since this was a tool with which they were unfamiliar, as well as troubleshoot some issues that arose with the program. I spent most of my time walking from group to group, monitoring use of the digital tools and answering relevant questions in order to ensure all students were on task and progressing appropriately.
I would make some changes to this lesson plan if I were to implement it again. Although I learned about carefully choosing digital tools while creating the lesson plan, it was not until actually seeing students use the tool that I realized students probably needed to create two Padlet pages—one for group collaboration and one for individual essay organizing—rather than trying to combine those two tasks on a single Padlet page. During the course of the lesson, the Padlet became too full of information so a new, clean Padlet would have helped students focus on the essential elements in their particular essays.
Scaffolding the writing process using digital tools definitely had an impact on student learning. While AP students are typically rather proficient writers, they still struggle when analyzing two full-length texts since it is easy to forget the details and instead focus on vague, general ideas. The digital tools reminded them of the importance of details and allowed them to engage in several steps of peer editing and revision in order to ensure that the final product was of high quality. The scores on these writing compositions were higher than on others, demonstrating the impact of the Internet tools.