Running Head: OTL545 PORTFOLIO PROJECT

Portfolio Project

Steven K. Crain

OTL545 Technology and Innovation

Colorado State University Global Campus

Brenda Bagwell, PhD

30 July, 2017
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Section 1: Self-Analysis of the Lesson

A lesson plan template that integrates the TPACK framework is meant to encourage

thoughtful integration of technology into the content and pedagogy that we teach and use during

a normal lesson in a familiar format for teachers. This layout enables a quick reference for what

technology should be used in what step in the lesson, as well as giving space for a teacher to add

future ideas and changes to the lesson plan and technology that could be used. In general, the

template follows a standard lesson plan format so it would not be unfamiliar to a teacher to use

and implement. Because of these positive traits, this template is something that I would use in

my classroom.

The lesson taught was based on the Colorado Standard SS.HS.4.3: Analyze how public

policy - domestic and foreign - is developed at the local, state, and national levels and compare

how policy-making occurs in other forms of government (Colorado Department of Education,

2015). Using the standard, the learning objective for this class period was to have the student

research the local and state government legislative process, then create a flow chart that could

visually describe the process and break it down so that anybody could understand how a bill

could become a state law or city law. The student was engaged during the day starter discussion

question Which has a greater impact to you and the people around you? The Police, or the

FBI?. They brainstormed an answer and discussed it with the teacher at length, providing

reasoning for their answer. We then smoothly transitioned to the Zoho presentation with the

student reading the material and watching the embedded videos on her own computer.

Afterwards, the student asked clarification questions and then started researching the information

that would be needed to create the final flow chart. The next class period, the student had

compiled the information and had a rough draft of the flow chart ready. We analyzed the chart

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and identified some spots that could be revised or were incomplete. The student revised the flow

chart in class and submitted the final product.

In the lesson, the student was engaged for the day starter, and had little trouble using

online resources to effectively research the information that would be necessary to develop the

flowchart and finish the lesson. When going through the presentation, the student clearly

understood the slides and visuals, and was able to connect the material and learning objective to

her past experiences and real life. For the second part of the lesson, the student was able to create

an effective flow chart that showed the legislative process in an easy to understand way using

online tools. The flowchart showed proficiency in researching the information for the legislature

process at the state level, and was presented clearly so that anyone could see the information and

get started on the process of introducing legislation to the state government.

There were some things that definitely could have gone better in the lesson. When

researching the process of how a bill becomes a law at the city level, the student was having

some difficulty using the search engine to find the information about the process. This led to

some frustration with the lesson and required some additional mentoring about how not all

information is easily returned with a search and would require navigation through official city

sites, and may even require communicating with a city official or someone knowledgeable with

the process outside of the normal web search engines. Another thing that could have gone better

was the willingness to learn how to use an unfamiliar creation tool for the flow chart. The student

initially wanted to do the flowchart using pencil and paper, and cited unfamiliarity with online

design tools as the reason. Once presented with the advantages of creating something online, the

student needed some coaching in the use of the design software that she selected, since she was

unfamiliar with program and design in general. When using online resources during the lesson,

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there were some technical glitches that required some starting and stopping of the lesson in order

to correct, both on the teachers end and the students. These were due to trying new features

with the online video chat software and the online presentation. The difficulties, though

relatively minor and reasonably resolved, disrupted the flow of the lesson and caused some

frustration to the student. The student was able to overcome these difficulties and use the online

resources smoothly to achieve the learning objective.

This is an important lesson toward meeting the standards and it should be taught again.

This lesson was meant to explicitly teach a student the process of how laws are made at the local

and state level so that they could develop strategies on how to more effectively participate in the

civic process at all levels of government and to teach the student research skills when examining

civic processes. Implicitly, the students are taught to how to manipulate online search tools and

web searches to return results that are useful, to design graphics that are both functional and

visually appealing, and to learn how to share online products with others. Both the explicit and

implicit learning objectives are valuable to students toward meeting the Civics standards and

toward becoming proficient in the 21st century fluencies.

Section 2: Student Data Analysis

The student responded well to the lesson. During the introduction to the topic, the student

was already knowledgeable about the topic in some aspects, and was interested in learning what

else she could learn about the rest of the topic. When presented with many suggestions for flow-

chart design tools, the student initially was hesitant to choose a tool, because she was unfamiliar

with all the tools and didnt want to get locked into a tool that wasnt user friendly after she had

already put in time to build the chart. Toward the end, the student was enthusiastically sharing

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her chart and discussing her research methods and problems encountered while researching in an

effort to develop

The student was engaged during the lesson, primarily because the lesson was able to

resonate with her personal life and situation. This relevancy and practical application motivated

the student to do thorough research into the legislative process, and to lay out the process in a

logical manner so that others could use the chart in the future. The ease of use for researching

online and using online creation software also let the student focus on the concepts of the lesson

and not on the means of creating them. Even though the student struggled initially in using the

creation software, the tools were designed to be intuitive and were picked up quickly by the

student. When compared to past lessons, the student was able to produce a product that showed

increased proficiency toward the standard. Because they could focus on the outcome and product

rather than the medium that they were using, they could try a design and quickly make revisions

if they didnt like how it looked or if they found some information to add in later. The student

was also able to become proficient in the online design software quickly, even though the

program was initially unfamiliar, and to use that software to create a product that was good

evidence of student learning, so it could act as a form of assessment toward proficiency

(McTighe & Wiggins, 2005).

What was surprising in this lesson was how well the student was able to see relevance

between learning the legislative process at the local level and her own life. Civic engagement is

not the most exciting of topics, especially when you examine processes and real ordinances to

find information. The student was able to immediately see tangible benefits to learning how a bill

becomes a law and the large impact that city and state laws have when compared to federal laws.

This early establishment of relevancy led to increased engagement and more progress toward

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proficiency, making the lesson a success quickly. Student achievement was also surprisingly

aided by the student using online tools that were intuitive to use and to share. The student could

focus on content over the medium, which led to quick success. This encouraging response

indicates that finding and using more online software and web-based tools would greatly help

students in future lessons because they could focus on learning the content rather than learning

how to use and interact with the software. Also, the online research method, which allowed the

use of some search shortcuts, like the find function meant that the student could sort through

irrelevant information fast and find the information that was relevant to the learning objectives.

Section 3: Future Application

Moving forward, students would benefit from having more access to computers during

class assignments and projects. This would be beneficial because the students can collaborate

quickly with each other in the classroom while still having access to the research tools and

primary sources that are needed for historical and civic research. The computers also allow the

students to create and play educational games about the topic at hand to better understand the

material and inferentially learn more programming and creative skills (Nguyen, 2015). Another

way that technology can be integrated into teaching is through the use of Personal Learning

Environment (PLE) applications. These applications create a virtual toolkit of resources and

software that can be accessed anywhere at any time from a wide range of devices (Ash, 2013).

The main benefits of using a PLE are that software, online resources, and websites that you

would like to refer back to can be added to the list of sites in the PLE, and you can set up student

resources on the PLE so that students all have access to the tools that the teacher selected and

dont have to search for their own tools. Being able to research from home or while traveling and

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access the information found from the school saves time and enables more spontaneous lessons

to be implemented if needed.

Several things need to be considered and discovered in order to implement more

technology resources into the classroom: Is the use of this technology going to enhance the

learning experience? What is the process if a computer had some bugs that need to be fixed?

Using computers in the classroom will require more than the hardware, it will also require access

to the internet and training on how to use that, permissions necessary from the technology

director, and available repair and troubleshooting resources to correct and hardware and software

glitches. In order to get more computers into the classroom, the school and district has to have

enough computers to accommodate a classroom set up like that, use laptops that can be checked

out for classroom use, or allow students to bring in their own electronic devices to do work. One

successful way that I have seen a school bring in more computers is the use of mobile carts with

enough laptops for a classroom. These mobile carts would allow students to use laptops and

access their school accounts, internet research sites, and PLEs when that was appropriate for the

class, without the school buying hundreds of laptops so that every class could have them. Some

information that would have to be known would be the schools Acceptable Use Policies so that

students would be using the computers and online resources in compliance with the school

district (Scholastic, n.d.). Another successful method, although it comes with problems, is to

allow students to bring in their own tablets, phones, and laptops to use in the classroom. By

allowing personal electronics into the classroom, the students can access almost all of the online

resources that a school computer or laptop could, they would be familiar with how the device

works, could give permissions for software to run and install, and any hardware troubleshooting

would be handles by the student and whatever tech support that their device manufacturer would

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provide. The downsides of this approach is that not every student will have devices that can

access online resources, or permission to bring those devices to school, and the diversity of the

devices means that if a student encounters hardware problems, they may not be able to resolve

the problems during the class period and fall behind while other students are learning.

There are two strategies that should be effective in getting information about the TPACK

framework and the use of PLEs. The first is to actively share information about the tools with

fellow teachers and peer groups. This includes asking other teachers questions about their

practices and tools in order to build your own knowledge and establish the communication

pathways. By creating an open sharing environment in the teachers in your team, the field is set

for more collaboration and more open discussions which will help facilitate the ideas of using the

TPACK framework and PLEs to the other teachers (Mesmer-Magnus & DeChurch 2009). The

second strategy is to model the success of the TPACK framework and PLE use for the students

and other teachers to see. Teachers are always looking for ways to improve the classroom

experience for themselves and their students, so having a classroom with more engaged students

that are collaborating, using technology, and generally succeeding in class would promote

discussions with other teachers as to how that classroom was conducted.

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References

Ash, K. (2013). 'Personal learning environments' focus on the individual. Education Week. V.

32(32). P. S32-S34. Retrieved 22 July from

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/05/22/32el-personallearning.h32.html

Churches, A., Crockett, L., & Jukes, I. (2012). Literacy is not enough: 21st-century fluencies

for the digital age. [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Colorado Department of Education. (2015). Colorado Academic Standards. Retrieved 25 April,

2017 from https://www.cde.state.co.us/cosocialstudies/statestandards

Graham, C. R., Kereluik, K, Koehler, M. J., Mishra, P., & Shin, T. S. (2013). The technological

pedagogical content knowledge framework. Retrieved 12 July, 2017, from

http://www.punyamishra.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/TPACK-handbookchapter-

2013.pdf

Mesmer-Magnus, J.R., & DeChurch, L.A. (2009). Information sharing and team performance: a

meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), p. 535-546.

Nguyen, Sophia (2015). Computing in the classroom. Harvard Magazine. March 2015.

Retrieved 22 July, 2017 from http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/03/computing-in-the-

classroom

Scholastic (n.d.). Why have a technology policy in your school or library? Retrieved 25 July,

2017 from http://www.scholastic.com/librarians/tech/techpolicy.htm

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded 2nd ed.). [Kindle DX

version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.