I strongly believe that equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become critical thinkers is of utmost importance. I feel as if on this blog I have written a lot about standardized testing, but a lot of these topics lend themselves well to a conversation about such. In today's test-heavy education system, there is unfortunately all too often a lack of focus on empowering our students and ensuring they are prepared to face real-world challenges with problem solving and critical thinking skills. I believe it was a conversation I had with Pasha earlier in the semester where we discussed focusing on test-prep, and how that did not transfer to students being able to think critically. However, when we talked about the opposite, teaching our students critical thinking skills, we both strongly were under the belief that this would transfer into students being strong test takers, and it is more important/relevant for children to be prepared with real-life skills. One thing I would like to learn more about with critical thinking is how to promote this amongst younger learners, particularly with the K - 2 students I interact with on a daily basis. I think "teaching" critical thinking skills at any age can be quite challenging, but particularly in the early elementary grades, this poses a particular set of difficulties where you first must teach students basic skills and abilities, and transfer that knowledge to critical thinking skills. One strategy I have seen a teacher at my school utilize quite frequently is outlining the steps students need to take for activities such as problem solving in math. I think that by laying out the different steps students need to take, and then working with them to exploring challenging questions, students will be much more equipped to think independently and become true critical thinkers.

This week we researched telecommunications projects that could be utilized with students or adults.

I viewed a wide variety of projects on iEarn (https://media.iearn.org) and came across one on Bullying that stood out to me (https://media.iearn.org/projects/bullying). The reason for this was because I was recently reading an article about bullying that I shared with my school counselor, and thought that this project was something he could possibly contribute to.

This site is a collaborative place where educators and students alike can come and share resources such as audio files, poems, artwork, etc. related to Bullying. As this is a very important topic.

The author also provided external resources (such as www.bullying.org) that people visiting his iEarn site could access.

My only point of feedback with his project would be to see it developed further. I think this is a great idea but unfortunately I do not see a lot of artifacts related to the project. Hopefully this is a work in progress and as time passes more great artifacts will be posted to the site.

Chapter 8 described a variety of important aspects of eLearning. What stood out to me this week were the disadvantages of eLearning as described by the text. The reason that this particular section stood out to me was because for the other course most of us in the LDT program are taking (EDIT 6100 with Dr. Orey), this week we were asked to write an abstract of an article that critiqued some aspect of instructional technology. This assignment was interesting because we were required to find examples of articles/books that pointed out potential flaws in integrating technology into education, summarize, and provide our own perspective.

Here are a few of the disadvantages the chapter cites:
-Technical support for users who are participating in distance learning might not be easily accessible
-The learner can be overwhelmed with the wide variety of information that is available online
-All learners' needs may not be met by the instructor due to the fact that some individuals may perform better with more structure or face to face interaction

While I think these are valid points that need to be considered when teaching (or participating in) an eLearning experience, I think the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks. A few that were noted in the chapter include:
-Convenience (learners have more flexibility/ability to set their own schedule)
-Exposure (greater chance of interacting with people/resources outside who/what might normally be available in a face to face setting)
-Responsibility (learners are required to take personal responsibility for their growth and must develop important skills such as the ability to work independently)

As I mentioned above, it was an interesting take to consider the potential drawbacks of eLearning, but again, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives for me as a learner.

In Chapter 3 of Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice there were numerous ideas on how we can utilize technology in order to further enhance the learning process.

One concept that stood out to me was the idea of collaboration versus cooperation. With collaboration, students draw upon their strengths, skills, and knowledge to engage in a discovery process and reach an end goal together. In the case of cooperation, students have unique roles in a structured task and bring their parts together to a specific end goal. There are benefits to both, but I would say that as an educator, my ideal would be to strive towards more learning experiences that center around collaboration. While cooperation would be more powerful in certain circumstances, I reflect upon my own education (such as with the LDT program at UGA) and think about those experiences that have been most rewarding and beneficial to me and I would say they would lean towards collaboration. While many of the projects we have completed have been independent, the time we spent together doing "desk crits", reviewing each others work, and more, was a much richer experience than times where I worked within a group and contributed a specific component that helped the group get towards its end goal or product.

I think about this in terms of my ability to impact student learning as an administrator, and how I can encourage teachers at my school to explore teaching with a focus on both collaboration and cooperation, and what the benefits are to each.

One small change I am considering making with my project for the semester is to include more teacher input. I am utilizing my network's "intranet" system (Prism) in order to disseminate, organize, and store important forms, documents, handbook, etc. as a common place for all staff members to have access to. I currently have not solicited teacher feedback for the site, and I think this could be a small, but important change moving forward. I remember with our projects for another class in our program we had to have prototypes and share this with our client for feedback. I think this is a feasible change that I can integrate without much difficulty, and would give me valuable information about things such as the content, layout, and more. As time progresses, I believe that I can get continuous feedback from the staff and make the appropriate changes based on what the staff is able to share with me.