EDLD+5364

Team Reflections
**__**__Final Reflection__**__**

__**What have we learned through the scenario based group project?**__

Alison--I agree with Christina though I would venture to say this project was heavy with challenges. My group members were great-- very professional and responsible. Christina was a strong leader, and thanks to her guidance and reminders, I was able to work my way through the course requirements. I felt a great deal of stress about this project because we could not come together to have thorough discussions and develop a unified plan. Each group member shared significant pieces, and I learned from everyone's contributions. I am concerned that the format of the assignment resulted in a disjointed end product. Regardless, the lesson plans, technology learning activities, and perspectives shared through the assignment are all high quality. __**What is the rationale for the selection of each learning activity?**__

Alison--Students may be able to develop an entire portfolio of work that demonstrates their learning in multiple ways. A wiki site could be utilized for this, or students could create blogs. A class may choose to create a group wiki that houses digital media that demonstrates their knowledge of converting fractions to decimals. Sites such as Glogster.edu allow students to create and select visuals and audio as well as hyperlink to files or other sites. Students at various levels may create blogs (or Glogs) of varying complexity, but all could be assessed with a rubric that details the requirements for demonstrating learning progress and mastery. Technology tools such as these are particularly useful because of their flexibility and wide accessibility. Students may work as quickly or slowly as is appropriate for their unique learning style and needs. They also may work from a variety of settings-- classroom, lab, home, hospital, coffee shop-- anywhere with internet access.

__**What is the rationale for the selected professional development for the teacher?**__

Alison--The teacher is likely to benefit most from observing and participating with a strong model for technology integration. Whether laptops are rolled into the regular classroom or students visit a computer lab, a technology lead teacher can initiate the instruction and implementation of the learning activities. The classroom teacher's role may be to support the lead teacher and facilitate student participation and engagement. Once the classroom teacher has had an opportunity to observe and learn in the initial stages, he/she can take on more and more responsibility until eventually the roles are reversed. Ideally, the classroom teacher will be leading the instruction while the technology teacher will be able to step back and work to support the students.

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__**Sample ebooks**__ ** **Christina's Fraction to Decimal Poem Alison's Fraction and Decimal Relationship E-Book** **
 * John's Fraction and Decimal E-book (Lesson) **
 * __ Chandra Carroll's ebook "Presto, Converto, Fractions to Decimals" __ **
 * __ [] __ **

__ **eBook Reflection** __ **Alison**- I like the e-book fairly well. It has some potential for ways to hook students. However, I don't find it terribly unique. There are many ways to generate similar products where students walk through slides or pages and are given instructions, demonstrations, links, etc. Perhaps my favorite feature of the e-book is the ability to use coaches. For my e-book, I tried to utilize the coaches to address learning styles.

= = = = = = = = = Week One Learning =

This week's readings and video segments addressed three learning theories: Constructivism, Connectivism, and Cyborg Learning Theory.

Constructivism This theory is based on the belief that learners bring their prior understanding and experiences into every new learning situation. Learners never learn anything from scratch. As they are exposed to new concepts and ideas, they see how it relates to something they've already got in their brain and construct a bigger framework. The successful learner is the person who starts with pool of ideas that they really understand, and when they come to a new idea, they embed the new idea into the old idea. A constructivist would say there was no such thing as being objective.

I can understand and relate to this theory because I have learned with life experience that no one sees, hears, nor understands anything in exactly the same way. It is not possible to remove subjectivity from learning. I believe a teacher's role is to present new learning in a way that all kinds of learners can walk away with a new understanding-- although each learner's understanding is likely to be somewhat different.

Connectivism The nature of learning and knowledge is changing. Students in the past had different needs for learning than students of today. We are relying on a network model of learning. The learners themselves and the connections they form with one another is really the primary point of learning. The network that learners create becomes the learning. Learning is not exclusively limited to what happens within one's own mind. Learning is about the distribution that occurs across a network. We have internal and external learning networks. The internal networks are neural networks. The external learning is more controllable by forming connections with another person or source of information. It's not just what we know today that's important, it's our ability to continue to stay current as knowledge changes. The prominent need for continual learning exists. The social element is prominent because the connections we have other individuals is often what allows us to stay current.

This theory is new to me, but it makes sense based on what I have learned in the past few years about humans interacting with technology and one another. I am very interested in learning more about Connectivism. I think it will be helpful to me in my new work environment as I try to "sell" the value of learning and staying current.

Cyborg Humans are poor at doing certain things. Why not upgrade what we are and how we do things by linking ourselves with technology? The way we're heading, we could possibly download information into the brain. This will completely change the education system. The medical world will change because we are headed to electronic inputs and stimulation. Cyborgs may be able to think in 5, 6, or 10 dimensions, which will make the entire learning experience different.

I have a great deal of trouble relating to and/or understanding this theory. I will have to learn more about it before I form an educated opinion!