As I was analyzing the four frameworks provided, a common theme seemed to be the emphasis for improvement and current practice.  Although some of them are more student-centered or focused on achieving higher levels of thinking, they all aim to improve classroom instruction for both teachers and students. However, one of the frameworks stood out as the most adaptable and flexible to any classroom.  The one that would be most useful to my Family and Consumer Sciences classroom is Jonathan Green’s Balanced EdTech Integration Model.  The two axes, domains for technology enhancement and the three categories of technology tools, provide a very helpful grid for teachers to differentiate for students and confirm that my plans meet the goals of my classroom.  One of my main goals is family and community involvement in student learning and I feel this value was present in the framework.  The overall emphasis on comprehensive technology integration and the broad focus on teachers, students, parents, and beyond is why I believe this to be the most useful.

      The SAMR Model has great advice for helping to achieve higher levels of thinking as well as incorporating technology in a wide variety of capacities, but I do not believe there is enough emphasis on teaching from multiple categories at once or jumping around rather than achieving them sequentially.  The TECH Model was difficult to find additional information on.  Since the TECH model is so strongly based on the SAMR Model, I feel that the SAMR Model itself offers more suggestions and resources for a teacher hoping to implement the principles.  Finally, the TPACK Model offers great suggestions for teachers to consider as they integrate technology, but I believe it to be lacking in student-focus.  As the TECH model suggests, students are often capable and even more qualified to offer technology resources for class purposes.  The TPACK Model did not offer this suggestion for student initiative. 

      In considering how I would personally apply one or more of these frameworks, I recognize that my “digital anxiety”, a concept discussed in the first chapter of our textbook, is the greatest obstacle.  Giving students the initiative to choose the technology used or the option to design their own activities or assignments (TECH Model) requires risk, but I realize the potential benefits.  I also fall into the category of teachers who lean towards viewing SAMR as a progression, which is not the intended design, and this issue in my thought process is something I need to work to overcome.  However, the EdTech Model allows me the most flexibility and broadest considerations for implementing technology into my classroom and beyond our walls.

Attached is my Matrix of Pedagogies:

      Many of these tools started as instant messenger, email, and even text messaging, but this category has transformed into much more versatile tools, which are great for group collaboration. Most programs are now compatible with multiple functions such as calendars, video chatting, and document sharing. One of the struggles I see in many of my students is their ability to organize their varying schedules and evenly divide the work when they are expected to collaborate. “Shared online calendars offer a solution by helping student teams stay organized and overcome the challenges of trying to find times when everyone in a group is available to work on the team assignments” (Watkins, 2019, para. 4).         Chat rooms such as MSN or TalkCity also allow students to communicate in real time for free and offer benefits such as providing a transcript of the conversation for record purposes (Watkins, 2019, para. 9). 

       Additionally, real-time communication allows for real-time feedback from teachers or peers and easy communication with parents or colleagues.  YahooGroups is a great example of a specific program that demonstrates the wide range of tools available through most learning management systems, but at no cost to the user or district. These programs allow teachers to track progress, add comments, and grade the document directly in the program.  The ability to share with people and add outside communicators allows resources, deadlines, grades, and more to be easily shared with parents or other teachers, which is invaluable.

References:

Attached is the Horizon Report (2017), which is a great resource for seeing current technologies emerging in classrooms today. It will eventually be replaced by the Driving K-12 Innovation series, so keep an eye out for this!

In support of teaching, these revisions account for the use of ICT in today’s classrooms.  The elements added, especially the verbs, personally help me to visualize activities and tools that could be applied to the level of thinking I want my students to achieve. The original and revised version related to most activities and objectives I plan for as a teacher, but the digital components of this model truly relate to the skills we emphasize in the classroom. I think it is important that they acknowledged the choice of a teacher in determining if all levels must be touched on in addition to the choice if the creating level must be reached for all activities.  As a model, this does not mandate how we teach, but rather acts as a guide and framework for ensuring our lessons are engaging our students adequately.

As a new teacher having just graduated, I remember keeping my pamphlet on Bloom’s Taxonomy on my desk to guide the learning and thinking my students would be doing. A great misconception is viewing Bloom’s taxonomy as a hierarchy, but this introduction reiterated that this is not a sequence of objectives, but rather a range of thinking skills that impact student learning in various orders and at multiple levels. In other words, more value is not placed on higher order thinking skills as they cannot be accomplished without first achieving the lower order thinking skills.  Now as a teacher with cyber and blended courses, I often find that Bloom’s original terminology is not as comprehensive as I desire.  The components of this digital version account for a wider range of 21^st century skills incorporated in these diverse and non-traditional classes. The most significant change to me, is the emphasis on collaboration, which is even included as a separate but related component.  Understanding that collaboration is facilitated by digital tools is critical to maximizing this 21^st century skill. 

Attached is a resources discussing this new version:

      I think this would be a great activity to include in the classroom.  Not only did I gain an excellent idea for using Web 2.0 tools for creating comic strips as assessments in my classroom, but having students create similar podcasts would be an option as well!  The short time limit of this activity would be great to use as a summarizer for a day’s lesson or for vocabulary review.  However, a longer segment could also be required for a summative assessment on a research project, end of the unit review, or (in my FCS classroom) a recipe review! I am very excited for the new resources I can add to my repertoire after this module. I anticipate that students would be eager to create one of these and they are easily shared so students could view others’ work too.

Attached is a transcript for my first podcast:

 

References:

       In terms of my experience, I had some technical difficulties.  Finding a chat was a challenge for me, as I experienced the same issue as Macawley.  Several times when I tried to join a chat it seemed inactive or the times that I originally found did not match the actual times.  After finding a chat to join and typing my posts, I realized they were not sending from my account because it has been suspended (I made an account about a year ago but have not used it in the past several months).  By the time I was able to make a new account and make the post on my laptop rather than the app on my phone, I am pretty sure my posts were not in the one hour window.  I will have to try again with hopefully a more successful outcome. It seems like a great resource for having conversations with people around the world!

Attached is a link to my Twitter handle: