Alex Lawhon

Reflection for Standard 3.3 Information technology

Candidates demonstrate their ability to design and adapt relevant learning experiences that engage students in
authentic learning through the use of digital tools and resources. Candidates model and facilitate the effective
use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support
research, learning, creating, and communicating in a digital society.
Artifact Description
ISTC 651, Unit Plan Padlet:
In ISTC 651, a Padlet page was created with resources for teaching students to present their new
understandings in a variety of formats after completing research. The Padlet page provides tutorials on digital
presentation tools such as PowToon, Prezi, ThingLink, and PowerPoint and is accessible from the home or
school setting.
ISTC 541, Instructional Plan for Integrated Technology Lesson:
This lesson, created for the Foundations of Technology course, is for fifth graders on the topics of mood
and tone. This lesson seamlessly integrates technology with traditional teaching methods to give students a
unique and effective learning experience. The lesson incorporates TodaysMeet and ClassFlow to present
information and share student thinking. ClassFlow also has an embedded formative assessment to collect data
on students’ progress throughout the lesson. This plan also includes media sources shown through ViewPure for
safe sharing and the use of the presentation tool Glogster for student work.
ISTC 541, Screencast Tutorial:
This screencast, created with screencast.com, is a tutorial for teachers on how to adapt the Web 2.0 tool,
Padlet, to fit their needs in the classroom. The tutorial includes an overview of Padlet’s features, its accessibility
and cost, and ideas for uses for educators and with students. Ways to use Padlet include as a discussion tool, for
evaluation and analysis of peers’ work, as an organization tool, or for curating and presenting information.
Relevance
In the past, students have created traditional presentations on research topics by creating posters or
PowerPoints. My unit plan Padlet page represents AASL Standard 3.3 because it demonstrates how I was able
to adapt these learning experiences into authentic research with engaging presentation methods that appealed to
a variety of diverse learners. The Padlet page contains tutorials on digital tools that can be used to express
student learning in different ways. The Padlet page also enabled me to model the best practices in using
multiple digital tools, while allowing students the option to choose the method that works best for themselves.
The lesson plan created for ISTC 541 contains many digital tools that transform a traditional teacher-
centered lesson into an interactive and engaging learning experience for students. The lesson uses the learning
platform ClassFlow to enable students to annotate texts and submit them virtually to the teacher. This helps
facilitate discussions on mood and tone and allows effective analysis to take place. Students also use other Web
2.0 tools to communicate and discuss their learning via TodaysMeet and Glogster, where they create virtual,
interactive posters to share their findings on mood and tone.
The screencast tutorial is relevant to AASL Standard 3.3 because it models the effective use of the Web
2.0 tool, Padlet. In the screencast, educators are shown how Padlet can be used in the classroom to locate,
evaluate, use, and communicate information. Students can post to Padlet and interact with peers via discussion.
Padlet can also be used as an organization and bookmarking tool where teachers can save links to other digital
tools and information they would like to access later. Students can also be given links to teacher-created Padlet
pages where they can access information that has been curated and posted there for them, or they can post
pictures and links to their own work on an editable Padlet. All of these uses of Padlet are shown in the tutorial
and help to facilitate the access to and use of information for research and learning.
Analysis
In analyzing these artifacts, I was able to see the effectiveness of this AASL standard in the school
setting. By creating a Padlet page with a variety of digital tool tutorials on it and still including traditional
options for communicating, I was able to adapt a research project to become more engaging for all learner
types. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) states that allowing multiple means of expression and
representation of learning creates assignments that are more meaningful and authentic for the learner. I was able
to do that through the use of Padlet in the unit plan.
Padlet enables teachers to curate information for their students and aids students in locating appropriate
information for their research. It also gives students the opportunity to express his or her thoughts and analyze
the work of their peers.
Since the creation of the screencast tutorial on Padlet itself, there have been updates to the Web 2.0 tool
that I would include in future professional development sessions and in my own teaching. Rating tools on the
website now give users the ability to evaluate information in a quick, efficient manner. Now there is also the
ability for Padlet pages to be embedded on other sites, which is helpful to Harford County educators who are
transitioning to using a learning platform similar to Blackboard, called itsLearning.
By including these updates in a new screencast or professional development session, I am able to
continue to demonstrate my abilities to be a knowledgeable teacher and effective instructional partner as AASL
Standards 1.2 and 1.3 require.
The mood and tone lesson developed for ISTC 541 was effective as shown by the data collected during
the implementation of the lesson; however, to give students more autonomy, I would include access to Harford
County Public Library’s GALE Books & Authors database to help them complete the analysis of a text’s mood
and tone that is chosen by them. By including the database in the future, I will be providing them with resources
to facilitate the effective location of information within a database. In this instance, the information is on
literary texts. All of the above artifacts were effective in the school setting and I look forward to seeing how the
improvements to the artifacts continue to make me a strong candidate for library media specialist.