Skip to main content

Home/ OLLIE Iowa/ Group items tagged samr

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Steven Hopper

SAMR in 120 Seconds - YouTube - 0 views

  •  
    The SAMR model is my "go to" way of starting a conversation with schools about effectively technology integration.
criley55

Pedagogy Wheel V4.0 - 1 views

  •  
    Pedagogy wheel including technology and the SAMR model
lkmace

"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 2 views

  • many school district leaders require public school educators to teach a specific curriculum that will be evaluated on standardized tests, while at the same time telling teachers to be innovative and creative within their classrooms
    • anonymous
       
      This is a major concern I have been struggling with in regard to Personalized Learning. The content many elementary teachers have been presented with is very specific - follow the basal or system of information you have been given, present it in the order it is to be taught, in the confines of the time you have to teach it, however, be creative (but don't stray from the plan because you have Standards Based goals to achieve), reach all students with it irregardless of ability or interest (make sure you meet with those groups every day to ensure they learn the content) and get good scores on our standardized tests (but don't teach to the test and you need to show growth).  It is a challenge we face but the dream of personalized learning is not an impossible reality. We just have to understand how it can be done. 
    • wolson86
       
      I agree and can easily connect with your comment about sticking to the curriculum, yet being creative. This is also a major concern of mine. I often feel that there is so much to fit in and little time. A guaranteed curriculum is important but I believe teachers need to have some freedom within their room to create plans and lesson that can be personalized and meet the standards.  Once teachers are better acquainted with personalized learning I believe we will see more and more of it within classrooms across the country. 
    • Megan Schulte
       
      I can relate, too.  I mentioned earlier that we work in PLCs, so we write curriculum together and then go to our rooms to teach it, share Data later, and learn from each other.  I feel like this setup is too restrictive for me to implement PL.  Instead of throwing the idea away, we need to experiment with implementing PL small then look at the data and see if we can convince others to go with it.  We won't be able to make the full switch in a year, over the summer, or even within a few years until the entire system gets on board and works toward this common goal of implementing PL..
  • In a world where we can explore almost every interest or passion in depth on our own or with others, it’s crucially more important to have the dispositions and the skills to create our own educational opportunities, not be trained to wait for opportunities that someone else has selected for delivery.
    • anonymous
       
      As an adult learning individuals, if we want to continue to learn and grow, we need to reach out and ask questions and find the answers rather than waiting for the world to find us. We need to inspire that in our students as well. Motivation and drive with a purpose!
    • lkmace
       
      To instill this drive for learning and seeking one's own understanding seems so important when developing skills in our young students. When we as adults have that drive for learning continuum, modeling that passion, sharing examples on how this is evident in work environments, as well as higher education, should be a skill all students be taught. PLEs could be a great tool to do just that!
  • Personal learning entails working with each child to create projects of intellectual discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests. It requires the presence of a caring teacher who knows each child well. Personalized learning entails adjusting the difficulty level of prefabricated skills-based exercises based on students’ test scores.   It requires the purchase of software from one of those companies that can afford full-page ads in Education Week.
    • anonymous
       
      Personal Learning requires "heart" Personalized Learning requires "hardware"
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Thus, while making sense of ideas is surely personal, it is not exclusively individual because it involves collaboration and takes place in a community.
    • anonymous
       
      Personal doesn't mean individual. 
  • Personalization is often used in the ed-tech community to describe a student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace. The only choice a student gets is what box to check on the screen and how quickly to move through the exercises. For many educators that’s not the true meaning of “personalized learning.”
    • amorarend
       
      At the district I teach in we have many computer programs like this. Our lower elementary students (K-4) work on ST math and our upper elementary students (5-6) work on ALEKS. Our district also recently purchased and is going to start implementing Lexia Reading Core5. I personally have not worked with any of these programs, but from what I've heard teachers really like ST Math and ALEKS. 
    • wolson86
       
      Our district has also just started implementing Lexia Reading Core 5 this year. I have found it to be engaging for the students, but I have a student who has already passed all levels. At this point there is nothing left for her to do. I think personalization is more than a computer program, however I am a fan of computer programs that are tailored to the students' needs. 
    • Megan Schulte
       
      From some of the things I've read in the PL Environment articles, these computer programs are only one part of Personalized Learning.  They have a purpose for some students who need it, but shouldn't really be implemented as a "work until you complete the program" type of thing.  More of a "you need more practice..go here" type of situation. Until we really embrace PL and truly personalize, we'll continue to encounter these issues.  So hard to do!
  • “It meets the needs of an individual in a very standardized way, but it doesn’t take into account who that kid is.” For Laufenberg, personalization only comes when students have authentic choice over how to tackle a problem.
    • amorarend
       
      I don't think many teachers and administrators realize this. I think most feel like the computer programs, such as ST Math, ALEKS and Lexia Reading Core5, are personalized because each student is working at their own level. From what I've learned so far in this class is that Personalized Learning takes it a step farther. 
    • lkmace
       
      I have felt hesitation from adminastartion with using computer programs for student learning. I'm looking for evidence that supports research in this area. Is it best for certain learning styles? I believe so.
    • lkmace
       
      Ditto! I've tried some pilot computer learning, and students enjoy and stay engaged. Trying to receive support from administration isn't easy - district policy, costs, and balance between classrooms are the constraints I find.
  • Personalization comes at the expense of denying students opportunities to learn personally, forming the habits of mind and “network literacies” that will serve them much more effectively than most of the content knowledge that, as we know from experience, never gets applied in real life.
    • amorarend
       
      I agree and disagree with this statement. I think every student in America has asked the question "When am I ever going to use this in real life?" at some point in their educational career. I know I did when I was sitting in Pre-Calc my senior year of high school. On the other hand I cringe every time one of my 5th grade students doesn't know that Iowa is a state. I had to have all of the states and state capitals memorized in 3rd grade! I do feel there are some things every well educated person should know, but the question is how do we decide what is important enough for every person to learn.
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      There are definitely basic, foundational skills that need to be learned by all students. For example, since our district has focused less on teaching and grading students on grammar, punctuation, and elements outside of the content of a paper, we have noticed huge gaps in performance. I had to spend an entire class period with my ninth grade students explaining when to capitalize a letter before printing their final papers. I was also able to listen to Richardson speak at my school last year, and he claimed that all math classes would be rendered irrelevant over the course of the next decade due to technology resources; however, he used many graphs and statistics in his presentation. Luckily, I had great math teachers throughout school in order to possess the skills necessary to interpret his presentation data! I would agree that we have to develop certain basic skills in all students before we can set them off to work completely independently. I think it all comes down to your final question...how/who determines those priority skills or standards?
    • Megan Schulte
       
      I completely agree!  However, I feel we're just not advanced enough as a system or society to truly see what we're doing work well.  The standards are set up to build upon the previous year's standards.  Unless everyone is covering his/her standards, it won't work as well.  We saw this first hand at my school when our JH/HS started aligning to the core before our elementary did.  It was very difficult for our 7th grade teachers to even teach the 7th grade standards because our students were back on the 2nd/3rd grade level according to the standards.  We had to back up and teach those skills first in order to get anywhere close to our own standards.  However, in the last 4 years I have seen much improvement!  Our elementary has begun aligning, and we're not (almost) able to do our own jobs!  I have hope!
  • But the red light flashes here not just because of the focus on standardized tests but because of the larger preoccupation with data data data data data.
    • amorarend
       
      With being a Title 1 teacher everything I do is based on data. The school I teach at just got done doing the FAST testing for winter and when it was done I sat down with the principal and the other Title 1 teacher and used the student's test scores to determine who was going to be receiving Title 1 services. I am not a huge fan of testing, but when the state requires students who are flagged as "substantially deficient" to be in an intervention and students who are flagged as "at risk" to be progress monitored we have no choice but to be driven by the data. I really like the idea of personal learning, but I don't think school are going to be able to make that switch until the government changes things.
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      It is frustrating that this information/research is out there and many teachers want to shift towards learning that is less test-focused, but unfortunately we don't have the power to make those changes! I also wonder how parents would respond to a change from the traditional school format. I know when we even discussed switching to standardized based grading, we got a lot of push back and criticism from parents. I don't know how we start making these changes.
    • lkmace
       
      This is directly connected to the students I serve that are identified as gifted. Testing often displays data that doesn't seem to reflect their total understanding, often posing a picture where students haven't reached that area of one year's growth. This has engaged many debates as to pushing core v. pushing student interests.
  • ‘We often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization – but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      But at some point, don't we have to hold students and ourselves accountable for the learning taking place in the classroom? With the requirements of the current education system, there doesn't seem to be much that we as classroom teachers can do here: at some point we have to prove that we have created growth in our students through data. I wish the article would have specified other methods for depicting learning/student achievement rather than simply debunking the current ones. While I am all for personal learning and a change in the way we view student performance, I have yet to see a realistic method presented to ultimately score or evaluate the results of our students in the classroom.
    • wolson86
       
      I agree that it would be nice to have some other specified methods to collect data and show student growth. I do believe what we have now is not a true judgement of our students, they are so much more than a score. 
    • anonymous
       
      I think our major hiccup lies in our struggle with producing "proof" of learning. It is important that you state a realistic method of scoring students. In a perfect world, we would have a personalized instruction for each student with a personalized rubric guiding the learning. However, that is not realistically possible, especially if I want them to be authentic and innovative at their own level. As long as I am expected to prove my kids are learning, regardless of the system used, time will play into how personalized the instruction can be.
    • lkmace
       
      Before reading your post, my thinking directed to the time constraint and proving a year's growth in each of our students. This is a major component in our classrooms and often fogs up the importance of addressing individual learning needs. How do teachers with large groups of students realistically find time to implement successful PLEs? I have 40+ students on my roster between two buildings. PLEs could be the answer to providing challenges more than 30--40 minutes 1-2 times per week. That part I am excited about. Assisting with all 40+ PLEs sounds a little overwhelming, but initial skill development in students in designing their own with my assistance seems to be my starting point.
  • it implies moving away from the industrialized form of education that pumps out cookie-cutter students with the same knowledge and skills
    • wolson86
       
      This first sentence really stuck out to me, especially the statement cookie-cutter students. Why would we want to create students to all have the same talents? What kind of future would that be, with students who all have the same specific skills?
  • Can the Web and laptops, et al., support and expand intrinsic engagement for those parts of the world that interest us? Absolutely! But while a multimedia textbook on an iPad may be more engaging than the dog-eared paper one we’ve been handing out for decades, a textbook is still a textbook. You want to really engage kids? Give them opportunities to learn personally, to create their own texts and courses of study, and to pursue that learning with others in and out of the classroom who share a passion.
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      This makes me reflect on the learning we have done about the SAMR model. Because our students recently became 1:1 with iPads in our building, we have done a lot of learning on making technology usage meaningful rather than just "fluff" in the classroom. Here is a link for those of you not familiar with SAMR: http://tinyurl.com/posterV4 As Richardson indicates, we can't simply put technology into the hands of students and call ourselves innovative. It is what we allow our students to do with technology in order to generate new ideas that stimulates innovation and creativity.
  • meaningful (and truly personal) learning never requires technology
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      I found this statement to be particularly profound; I never thought of it that way!
    • Megan Schulte
       
      Especially nowadays when technology is such a big part of their lives.
    • lkmace
       
      Fifth graders in our district are fortunate to have Chrome Books. After working in secondary for the past 4 years, coming back to elementary made things very exciting to know these students would have tech access at their fingertips. After a few weeks working with this age level, I found the tools could be very distracting. Starting with personal understanding to form inquiry and learning proposals allowed for focus on goals. Technology came in next as a great resource, but ending with communicating new learning (sometimes with tech, but often through discussions, writing or small group share.)
  • A personalized environment gives students the freedom to follow a meaningful line of inquiry, while building the skills to connect, synthesize and analyze information into original productions.
    • Megan Schulte
       
      This is so hard to really implement correctly!  Most of us are in school systems where we are really restricted by required classes, bell schedules, teacher certification, the previously mentioned DATA COLLECTION (!!!), which would look much differently in a true PL classroom.  I'm personally struggling with how to implement PL because we work in PLC teams where we have common formative assessments that need to be administered around the same time.  That allows very little room for kids to work at their own pace.
  • resource rich.
    • Megan Schulte
       
      I have found that finding good resources for English is really hard.  There are so many factors when it comes to literature, like readability level, topic, concept, that it's hard for ME to find resources, let alone have my students find them on their own.  Unfortunately, if someone develops something that is good, they're going to want money for it making it unattainable for many of us.  I was excited to hear about the pilot going on with the AEA Online for students.
  • Our kids (and we ourselves) are suddenly walking around with access to the sum of human knowledge in our pockets and connections to literally millions of potential teachers.
    • Megan Schulte
       
      A few problems come to mind.  1)  This is why it's important to climb the ladder of Bloom's with our activities and lessons and make them real life.  2) Students don't value knowing the basics because they can just Google them.  The part of speech of a word...Google can tell us that, so it isn't important.  But it IS important to know when it's applied later, for instance writing complex sentences and identifying clauses/subjects.     Or is it?
    • kelsi-johnson
       
      Think about how much longer it would take for students to complete seemingly simple aspects of a project or task if they had to look up every single smaller bit of information. It seems that this is where we need to set priority standards in order to determine what basics are most important for students to know in order to complete and take part in personal learning.
  • give opportunities for our kids to do personal learning.
    • Megan Schulte
       
      This is it!!  This is all we can hope for.  Having the perfect school, unit, support, funding, etc. to do this is not anywhere in our near future.  If our classroom is set up to give opportunities for our kids to do personalized learning, we're on the right track.  I feel it will snowball into more opportunities.  Kids will want it, the ever-important test scores will prove it, and schools will slowly jump on the PL train!
  • the best thing we can do for kids is empower them to make regular, important, thoughtful decisions about their own learning, what they learn and how they learn it, and to frame our use of language in that larger shift, not simply in the affordances for traditional curriculum delivery that the tools of the moment might bring.
    • Megan Schulte
       
      This is the beginning.  Find opportunities for this wherever you can and then let personalized learning grow from there.
    • lkmace
       
      Advanced differentiation conversations often involve the, "how do we develop independent learners?" This shift is dearly needed. Enabling students with PLEs - tool to make the shift?
  • as long as he ends up fundamentally similar to everyone else:
    • Megan Schulte
       
      Agreed, but this is what students need to understand when it comes to PL.  You don't just get to pretend you're working, you are still held accountable to reach the end target; you can just get there how you want.  This is my biggest fear with "setting kids free" in PL.  I'm afraid I'll check-in with their progress and they'll have done nothing.  What's the consequence?  How do you hold them accountable daily (at first) and realize they still have to do something.  Hopefully interest level, real life applications, etc will help hold them accountable.  They'll be on stage for someone hopefully.
    • anonymous
       
      I have a self-paced system currently in place in my classroom. Often times, I do check in, and they will have done nothing. I have the daily goal for where they should be to be on target to finish on time. My kids have figured out that I will fail them. I akin it to a job. If you do not do the task, the boss will penalize you for it. That said, grades are fluid. I have no problem changing the grade once I receive the work. Normally the work happens after a few angry emails from parents, pulling from study halls, and a little bribing. This morning I sent out an email stating I was still missing fifty papers from students, giving their names. The immediate consequence is failing, with the understanding that once work is shown, failing is not a permanent ultimatum .
  • She cautions educators who may be excited about the progressive educational implications for “personalized learning” to make sure everyone they work with is on the same page about what that phrase means.
    • anonymous
       
      I find it interesting that she says everyone we work with needs to be on the same page about the implications of personalized learning. I find, that when I try something new, even if my co workers aren't on board right away, my results speak for themselves. I am not sure it is important that BEFORE I start personalized learning, EVERYONE is onboard. 
    • lkmace
       
      As I "pilot" PLEs with some of my students, taking evidence from their experience to share with staff could begin those "on board" conversations and reel teachers towards learning more and trying in their classrooms, as well as sharing with administrators. Many past learning models have sounded wonderful, but without having data to show evidence of success, hesitance exists.
  • Our systems and assessments assume that neither content nor access to teachers is widely available, and that we must deliver a proscribed, fairly narrow curriculum to each child because if they don’t have it in their heads when they need it, they will fail at the task.
    • anonymous
       
      I find it interesting that the Web and other pieces of technology have expanded the capabilities of learning, yet our standardized testing and other assessments specify exactly what they "need" to know. I question how, regardless of how the Internet has changed education, we still use the same methods to prove proficiency. 
1 - 3 of 3
Showing 20 items per page