Phase 1
Analysis of Learning and
Teaching Needs
Mia is a teacher trying to implement
interesting multicultural activities in her classroom. She is finding it
difficult to make these activities more meaningful and impactful for her
students. She noticed this problem when she overheard her students saying negative
comments about people from different cultural backgrounds. Because of these
comments, Mia came to the conclusion that she must find a new approach to
teaching her students about different cultures. Mia decided to use a new model
for multicultural education that pairs students from different cultures around
the world as digital pen pals. The relative advantage of this model is that
students are able to use technology to connect with other students with
different cultural backgrounds. This technology-based model allows students to
connect and share in ways that would be impossible without technology. Live
video tools, instant messaging, virtual chatrooms, and email communications are
all ways that Mia’s students can instantly connect with students around the
world. Specifically, the students would create travel brochures to share with
their partners about their culture. By using this model, Mia hopes that the
students are able to learn about other cultures in a more personal, meaningful
way. Because the students will be learning by personally engaging with other
students, Mia also hopes that her students will learn to respect and appreciate
other cultures.
Although Mia is excited about using
this new model when teaching multicultural studies, she is not equipped with
the technology knowledge needed to successfully implement it. She does not know
how to use digital cameras needed to create the travel brochures. Mia also does
not know where to locate the online resources needed to implement the model. Mia
is also not fully equipped with the content knowledge needed to use the new
model. She knows little information about the cultures they will be studying.
Although Mia’s content knowledge and technology knowledge are lacking, she is
confident that her pedagogical knowledge is strong enough to create a
curriculum using these new activities. In order to improve her TPACK
(Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge), Mia would have to make some
changes to her approach to this new model. Mia needs to learn what software and
other technological tools to acquire in order to begin this model. She also
must learn how to use these tools proficiently in the classroom. It is
essential for her to master these tools prior to implementation so that if
problems arise during the lesson, she would be able to address them without
much class disruption. Mia must also improve her content knowledge before using
this model. It is crucial for Mia to be knowledgeable about the different
cultures included in her lesson. This model will promote student inquiry, and
Mia must be able to answer the questions the students may have to maintain
their interest. If Mia masters the TPACK she needs for her new model, her
students will not only learn new information about different cultures in a more
exciting and meaningful way, but because of the personal nature of the lesson,
they will also learn to respect those with different nationalities and
backgrounds.
Phase 2
Planning for Integration
In phase 1, Mia had to analyze the
needs of her students and her TPACK needs to successfully implement this new
multicultural studies model. Now that she has determined those needs, she is
ready to move to phase 2 and plan for integration of this model. Mia determined
that using a product rubric to evaluate the brochure would help assess student
achievement. She could create the rubric and assign values to the
characteristics she wanted the students to reflect in their brochures. For
example, she could assign the most points for the highest number of
characteristics. If she wanted the students to list ten characteristics, she
would assign the most points for those that listed all ten characteristics and
the point value would decrease as the number of characteristics do. In order to
gauge student interest in the model, Mia could survey the students upon
completion of the unit. In this survey, Mia could ask the following questions
to determine their level of interest: On a scale of 1 to 5, with one being
least interesting and 5 being most interesting, how do you rate this lesson
overall? What did you like most about the lesson? What did you like least? If
you could suggest one way to improve this lesson, what would it be? Answers to
these questions would help Mia improve the model for her future students.
Mia is primarily using a directed
approach for this multicultural lesson. She chose this method because she feels
that the directed approach with explicit directions for each part of the
assignment would be the most suitable approach to this specific model. The
website she was using as a guide to implementation had helpful and specific
ideas for assigning tasks for individual group members and guidelines for the
sequence of activities for the project. Therefore, she chose to follow the
website’s directed approach for implementation of the assignment. The website
suggests following specific steps for project success. After Mia introduces the
unit at step 4, and assigns them to groups at step 5, she should perform
pre-assessments to gauge the students’ technological skills and attitudes
toward the content at step 6 of the process. This will determine what skills
Mia needs to teach her students prior to moving to step 7 which begins the
initial digital communication with their partners. Mia could determine their
email and Internet skills by having her students send a practice email to her.
She could also have the students access a search engine to find an answer to a
specific question to determine their Internet skills. For example, she could
ask the students to find the most populated city in India using Google and have
the students email their answer to her. This would be a quick way to determine
their basic email and Internet skills.
After she determines her students’
skills, Mia also needs to determine her resources needed for the project,
guidelines for privacy and security, and a back-up plan for interrupted
Internet access. In order to display the project website to her whole class
simultaneously, she would need to arrange resources. She could use a tool such
as an interactive whiteboard to present the website. This would be a great tool
because she could discuss the website and use the interactive tools to
highlight important material as she discusses it. She could also use a
projector that connects with her computer to project the website onto another
surface if an interactive whiteboard is not available. In order to protect her
students’ privacy, Mia needs to set up guidelines for exchanging information
digitally. She could provide examples of what is acceptable to share and what
is not acceptable to share with their partners. For example, she could create a
“do’s and don’ts” list and display it in the classroom. “Do’s” could include
information such as number of siblings, pets’ names, favorite subjects, etc.
Examples of “don’ts” could include personal information such as his or her
address, phone number, etc. Mia must also have a back-up plan in place in case
Internet access is temporarily unavailable. An example of an alternative plan
would be to have library time to research three fun facts about the culture to
ask their partners about during the next email communication. The students
could also decide on three fun facts about their own culture to share with
their partners. This plan would allow them to work on the project without using
technology. Mia could apply these techniques for the project to ensure
successful implementation of the new model.
Phase 3
Post-Instruction Analysis and
Revisions
Now that Mia has analyzed her needs
in phase 1 and planned for implementation in phase 2, she is ready to move to
phase 3 and evaluate and revise her strategies. According to her students’
rubric scores, Mia needs to make some revisions to her lesson plan. Her
students scored poorly in the grammar, spelling, and punctuation area of the
project. What she could do to prevent this in the future is include an area
stressing the importance of grammar on her checklist. Her students may be
familiar with informal communication on-line, therefore, Mia needs to emphasize
that this is an academic project and the writing should reflect that. Mia could
include steps such as “avoid slang” and “follow all grammar rules including
punctuation and spelling” in the production checklist. She could also include a step at the end of
the checklist such as “proofread the brochure for grammatical errors” to ensure
the students improve their grammar next time. If only five of the seven groups
were doing well on their projects, Mia would need to find out why this was the
case. She may need to closely observe the groups as they work and figure out
why two of them are not doing well. If she observes them closely, she should be
able to determine the cause of the problem and work to fix it. For example, if
the group members are having difficulty with their assigned tasks, she could
help them along the way and possibly change their roles within the group. If
she determines that the students in the lower-performing groups are not
managing time well she could help them avoid distractions. While observing the
groups as they work, one teacher suggested that Mia allow the media district
office to do the final products for the students. This does not seem like an
appropriate solution for Mia. In this case, the students would not have the
benefit of working diligently on a project and seeing their hard work in the
final project. They may be discouraged and feel that their work was not good
enough to share with their partners. The goal of the lesson is to have the
students collaborate and complete a project by thinking critically and being
creative, and in the process learn about new cultures in a meaningful way. If
someone else completes the project for them, it could take the meaning away
from the lesson and not be as effective in the future.
Personal Response Questions
1.
I
believe the TIP model is a helpful resource for technology integration because
it provides a framework for teachers to follow for successful technology
integration. I especially find the phases of the TIP model helpful because they
break the steps into specific categories to consider when integrating
technology. When considering integration, it is essential to determine the
learning and teaching needs, plan for integration, and reflect on the
experience and make necessary revisions for improvement. The TIP model
emphasizes these important considerations and provides a plan to help teachers
implement them successfully.
2.
When
integrating technology into my classroom, I do foresee using a framework like
the TIP model. It is important to follow a framework when integrating
technology to ensure success. Because the TIP model is a relatively simple plan
to follow and covers important aspects of technology integration, I would use
it or another similar integration framework.
3.
I
believe this model is especially helpful for technology integration because it
emphasizes important aspects of technology integration. Phase 1 of the TIP
model focuses on analyzing needs. If technology would not make a lesson or
assignment better, then why use it? Phase 1 also emphasizes the importance of
TPACK, which I believe is especially important when integrating technology. How
technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge connect is the foundation of
successful technology integration. Phase 2 of the TIP model focuses on planning
and preparation. For me, this phase is especially helpful for implementation.
Phase 3 helps teachers improve their lesson for the future. I believe the three
phases and the steps within these phases make the TIP model a great framework
to follow for successful technology integration.
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