Susan Moore AEET 650, Fall 2013 December 9, 2013 Internship Final Reflection Upon the completion of my internship

at Gilbert Elementary School, it is clear that I not only learned a lot throughout these past four months, but that I was successful in completing my goal. My internship involved working with the Technology Integration Specialist (and my on-site supervisor), Mrs. Amber Buzhardt, to develop tutorials instructing students how to utilize the Internet for research. With the abundance of technological tools and resources available for teachers at GES, many students are unfamiliar and/or uncomfortable with the new concepts and ideas. Creating these tutorials was an effort at teaching students how to appropriately operate the Internet for educational purposes especially in the field of research. This effort also fulfills Lexington 1s goal to prepare 21st Century students in our district. Upon meeting with Mrs. Buzhardt in the early days of the internship, together we decided I would be creating research tutorials with the following four topics: Keyword Searches, Valid Websites, Relevant Information, and Citing Sources. Each tutorial was created using a variety of technological tools and sources, including Microsoft Word, iMovie, the Internet, print sources, Jing, Screencast-o-Matic, and more. Each tutorial included not only information on each topic, but also included modeling and some sort of activity to serve as an assessment piece to check for understanding. Each tutorial was also hands-on, and provided interactive aspects throughout to ensure that students are engaged throughout.

The process of creating each tutorial strictly followed the ADDIE instructional design process. Together Mrs. Buzhardt and I analyzed the need for these tutorials at the very beginning of the internship. Then, I designed each tutorial using a basic storyboard in Microsoft Word. After the design was complete, I developed each tutorial with PowerPoint slides, iMovie, and other programs. I implemented each tutorial separately to a group of my fourth graders, and later evaluated each tutorial privately, and then with colleagues and Mrs. Buzhardt. Research I was sure to use an abundance of information gathered from research of both scholarly and popularly written journal articles1. The majority of research found regarded the general topic of needing to educate students to use the Internet for research purposes. An article written by Ahern discusses the multiple advantages that the Internet has to offer, including the fact that the Internet is less expensive, takes less time, and has more to offer than other traditional printed text. Ceyhans article describes that students tend to use the Internet more for entertainment purposes, and need to develop the skills of how to use it more productively. Gencer and Kocs article, along with an article by Koff and Moreno explain that many teenagers are abusing the Internet and using it more for communication and entertainment, rather than to collect and learn information or conduct business. OHanlons article in Education Week explains the necessity to teach students better online research skills in order to make them more effective Internet users. Tsai, Chuange, Liang, and Tsai continue what OHanlon describes and explains the importance of students to demonstrate self-efficacy in
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A citation and short description of each source can be found in the Annotated Bibliography.

Internet-based learning environments. A variety of other scholarly journals were found that explain the importance of students to become comfortable to using the Internet for research purposes, along with the anxiety that accompanies many students when attempting to use the Internet for research. Dominick and Wimmer explain in their article research is an attempt to discover something. These authors conclude a lot of what most of the other authors explained, as well as support my efforts through my internship to teach students that they are capable of acquiring information on the Internet, which modeling for them how to do so effectively. These sources all work together to support the goal of my internship, which is to better educate students to effectively utilize the Internet for research purposes. While the previous authors helped support the goal of my internship, an article by Benton-Borghi greatly effected the creation of each of my tutorials. This author explained the significance of using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) when creating lessons. Using the information explained in this article, as well as previous knowledge from other sources and courses, I decided to attempt to create all of my tutorials with UDL in mind. I tried to ensure that all learners would find my tutorials effective by providing as much support as possible throughout. I attempted to make my tutorials appeal to all types of learners, and included both text and audio support throughout. The assessments included were all engaging, along with a variety of other activities in each tutorial that allowed students to remain active and focused. I also found articles that supported the goal of each tutorial specifically. The first tutorial was focused on keyword searches. An article by Kenney stated the importance of teaching students how to use search engines to conduct online research. From here I

conducted further research to find tips and tricks to teach my students how to effectively use search engines in order to yield the best results. The second tutorial was focused on evaluating websites for their validity. An abundance of articles were found that supported this skill, including one by Maceli, Wiedenbeck, and Abeis who explained the need to learn and decipher between legitimate, scholarly sources. Weisz explains in his article that in order for students to become better online researchers, they must understand how to determine valid websites. Additional articles were also found that explain the need for students to be able to critically evaluate websites in order to be effective, tech-savvy researchers. The third tutorials purpose was to instruct students how to find relevant information. Shaw emphasizes a six-step process in his article, which allows students to question, plan, gather, sort and sift, synthesize, and then evaluation online information. This was used in the third tutorial to model how to determine what information is relevant to specific research topics, and what information is unnecessary. The fourth tutorial focused on citing sources. An article by Howard and Davies explained that teachers should educate students of the skills and strategies that goes along with using online sources, including instructing students how to avoid plagiarism and giving credit to others for their ideas. While the fourth tutorial teaches students to cite their sources, it also explains plagiarism and the importance of avoiding such an illegal act. Lessons Learned One thing I learned quickly was to use resources that are already available. I found a great resource while searching for keyword hints and tricks for kids. I found a

website hosted by Common Core, the new educational standards that South Carolina is in the midst of implementing. The website not only had lesson ideas, but also included standards addressed, key points, and a handout that I was able to implement in my own lesson! I know the teachers at my school will be more likely to use the tutorial I have created in their own classrooms, now that they know it has its roots in Common Core. The biggest thing I learned in terms of student achievement from the first tutorial was to include some kind of conclusion. Last time, after the activity students came up and said, ok we are done, whats next? and I hadnt planned for this! This time, I was able to create two parts of the tutorial. Even better, the second part of the tutorial is necessary because it informs students of whether their tutorial is valid and useful or not. Conclusions are necessary in regular traditional classrooms, and should also be included when integrating technology. The last of my tutorials was originally supposed to be focused on Bibliographies. However, during the design stage, I realized that I should focus on citing sources. This led to me realize that really I just want to teach students about plagiarism, and how to avoid it when using online sources. While all citizens are becoming more and more reliable on online information, I want to educate my students so that they understand the responsibility they have to cite information used appropriately and legally. Successes and Emotions I feel that the completion and implementation of all four tutorials was a huge overall success. I could easily observe my students comprehending the information, and visually see the excitement upon learning new things while using technology. Most importantly, I believe the biggest success of my internship is the amount of doors that

are now open up to my students. Now that they have learned these basic online researching skills, I can incorporate more and more research into my classroom without having to give full lessons on how to perform basic searches, cite sources, etc. I am excited and look forward to not only including more research opportunities as it relates to fourth grade standards, but also to watching them grow as mature, effective online researchers. Difficulties One of my biggest challenges was finding a program that would allow me to record an audio of myself as well as the computer screen as I showed examples. I began using Jing. However, after spending the time to record all of my videos, I was unable to import the swf file into iMovie. After seeking outside help, I was introduced with the online program Screencast-o-Matic. While it was frustrating to have to start over with my recordings, I am so glad I learned about this program! Screencast-o-Matic is extremely user friendly and easy to use. In addition, this program is extremely easy to save onto my computer, and it even saves in the mp4 format, which imports directly into iMovie with no problem! After figuring this out early, I ended up using this program for the remaining tutorials throughout the internship. An additional difficulty I dealt with throughout my internship was my attempt to create the tutorials in a format that would require minimum teacher input. However, as I created tutorial after tutorial, I found that teachers still play a vital role. Even with the thorough modeling and straightforward examples in each tutorial, teacher assistance was still necessary. I learned quickly that technology is not here to take over the role of the teacher, but to influence and enrich what is done in class. It is up to the teacher to

make the most out of technology and to guide students to discover how to learn with the technological tools that they have available. In the Future If I were to complete this internship again, I would go into creating each tutorial with the mindset that the more technology used, the better! One of my tutorials used technology to teach, but when it was time for the students to test it out they simply used a basic worksheet. To be more effective, next time I will include more technology throughout, and allow the teacher to teach with it, while the students are able to learn with it. Connections During my internship, I saw first-hand that creating UDL based lessons are effective! Previous courses have explained this through text, but the tutorials were real life examples of the success of UDL for all students simultaneously. I was sure to include multiple representation of text (audio, visual, etc), along with multiple means of engagement throughout each tutorial. In addition, I switched around the environment in which students learned. I allowed for whole group and either partner or small group work for each tutorial. This allowed for all students to have a chance to participate, as well as learn from each other in the whole group setting. Furthermore, I also experienced the power of engagement. Using not only interactive assessments, but also hands-on activities throughout each tutorial kept kids engaged. This engaging behavior, in turn, kept students motivated throughout, as they participated in each tutorial waiting for the next chance for interaction. Keeping students

engaged throughout the tutorials was a great way to allow them to actually test out the skills they are learning, while the students see to have a good time. Conclusion An abundance of other sources were also used during my internship, from which I collected ideas regarding specific content, lessons, and activities in each tutorial. Using this great collection of references, along with following the ADDIE process and staying in close communication with my on-site supervisor, I am able to conclude my internship experience feeling great success. All four tutorials were designed, developed, implemented, and evaluated to my fourth graders. I look forward to using these tutorials in my future classrooms, along with seeing the results of these students continue to grow as 21st Century researchers.