These rubrics evaluate educators and/ or students across three areas of technology use and application. They include: Research and information fluency, communication and collaboration, and critical thinking and collaboration. These areas have four different levels; entry being the lowest and ideal/ target being the highest.
To begin, I scored myself in the developing phases of the research and information fluency component. This is the second level beyond entry level. I scored myself here because, although my school is a 1:1 technology school. I often take a more hands on approach when leading students through research based projects. Typically resources are mandated by myself and along with specific resources I provide guidelines for use. One way I might move into the next level is by finding ways to help students discover and evaluate resources more independently.
Next, I evaluated myself against the communication and collaboration component. In this area I again scored myself as developing. Though I have used resources that allow students to communicate and collaborate including edmodo and prodigy math, I have not necessarily made provisions for students to utilize these resources outside of school. I might move to the next level by providing opportunities for students to engage in authentic ways beyond the school building through the use of platforms like these.
For the last component, critical thinking and problem solving, I rated myself as entry (in terms of my use of technology for these areas). Most of the work that I do that involves technology has concrete, right or wrong answers. I might move to the next level by building in a more problem solving based approach to technology oriented projects, though I am currently at a loss for how to do this with 3rd and 4th graders. Any ideas?
James, it would be helpful to have a link to the rubric for your readers to see. You gave an honest self-assessment on where you fall today. What stood out to me is not only that you recognized that there is room to grow but also how you might move to the next level in these areas. Not all technology applications will allow for easy movement but understanding that there is always room to grow and learn more is the next step in innovation.
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteThank you for being so honest in your self assessment. I also chose to evaluate myself with this tool. We placed ourselves in similar levels. I think there is always room to grow when working with technology in the classroom. Hopefully this class helps us find a better understanding of effective uses in the classroom.
James,
ReplyDeleteI have to say I'm quite intrigued by your approach to research and managing resources for your students. Although I am a proponent of choice in the classroom, the truth is that many people (adults included) simply do not concern themselves with questioning the source of the information they are gathering. "Google" is a verb now because people just accept it as the source for information. Searching for resources means more than clicking on links to the top hits that result from a search. While I certainly hope you find yourself improving in regards to the research aspect of this rubric, I will say that I think that managing resources for students serves two distinctly positive purposes: It gives them quality material to work with and it helps the teacher assess because the information and source are well known. If you give direct students to quality resources, you are, by default, modeling a very real skill for them.