How peer video coaching is completely changing how our teachers teach

The article that i read was written  by Diane Lauer at eschoolnews.com, and it discussed using peer video coaching to help with teachers and professional development.  This has been the first time in a long time that i read an article and thought to myself “wow I really want to do that in my school”.  The article talks about how teachers would record themselves teaching and upload the video to a website for their peers and peer coaches to view and offer advice on their teaching habits.

While reading this article I got to thinking how great it would be to record videos and share them with other grade levels.  We have all had those moments where students ask us “why do we have to do this?” Most of the time we just tell the students “just because”, but how great would it be to show students lessons from higher grade levels and ask them to identify what concepts they are currently using to be able to solve the higher grade level problems.

What I also thought of is using this concept to help bring other teachers into your  classroom.  Our district will be making the 1-1 leap next year with seventh and eighth grade.  With this being a new concept, teachers would be able to videotape certain lessons/subjects, load them up to the cloud for other teachers to see and use.

There is drawbacks to using a peer video coaching concept in my opinion.  There needs to be a lot of faith and support between administration and teachers in order for a concept like this to work, if it is not there then the concept will never take off.  I for one know that a concept like this will be very difficult to get going in Valley View because most of the teachers in our district fear that administration will use this as a tool to nit pick every flaw and use it against them in evaluations.  That may not be admins intentions, but that is the culture that they have created in the school district over the past five years.


Lauer, D. (2016, February 02). How peer video coaching is completely changing how our teachers teach. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/02/02/how-peer-video-coaching-is-completely-changing-how-our-teachers-teach/

Summary:

The article that I read was written by Jennifer Carey and it discuss that the use of media in the classroom is hear and instead of attempting to stop it, we rather should change our classroom and embrace it.  The main point of this article was discussing how to properly manage a classroom with the use of multimedia.  Since it is not a typical style of learning, it should not be a typical classroom.  "Teachers need to set the expectation of the classroom right away with using devices"  (Carey, 2014)  "Devices should be face-down and in front of the students" (Carey).  The article discussed how teachers need to be constantly moving around the classroom and keeping a lookout while teaching to make sure that students don't get the "Ipad Eye", where you can tell that kids are staring off into space and not engaged  in the lesson.  The biggest difficulty that teachers will have is to change their views about technology as a whole in the classroom.  Don't view them as just a word processor or extension for a lesson.  View them instead as creation devices to allow students to show a whole new level of what they have learned.

Opinion:

While searching for an article about "student engagement with media"  I stumbled across this one and gave it a read.  I found it very enjoyable as classroom management is one of the things that teachers will be encountering as school districts continue the push of 1 to 1 devices.  Since my key assessment had to deal with the use of Socrative, this article was very beneficial to me. One of the biggest things that I took from this article was having students put their phones down and in front of them. This I actually did myself in the classroom and it is a great way to keep and eye on students and what exactly they are doing.  If we embrace the change with technology and actually change the way a typical classroom looks, feels, and operates it usher in a great time in education.

 Carey, J. (2014, December 16). Classroom Management in Connected Classrooms. Retrieved December 15, 2015, from http://edtechteacher.org/classroom-management-mobile-classrooms/ 

Virtual Reality in the classrom.

Summary:

This article was written by Frank Smith.  It goes briefly into how VR in the classroom is going to have one of its biggest years in education with Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear leading the way. Bringing VR into the classroom opens up a world of possibilities from field trips (a lot of districts do not allow classes to go on field trips anymore), skypeing with other classes, to witnessing a certain career through the eyes of that person.  The article briefly touches on how the actual virtual reality works with a smart phone.  It focus more on how company plan on using this technology. 

Opinion:

The one thing that I found very intriguing with this article is the STEM component and the career component.  With a lot of school districts pushing 1 to 1.  It is only a matter of time until VR is mainstream in the classroom.  Frank asked Joe Catlin ( edtech,2015) what he viewed as the most positive impact of VR in the classroom.  Joe mention "I think it'd be a great for students to develop content for the platform.  Having VR in the classroom can help drive STEM and programming classes."  (Edtech,2015).  I found this intriguing that it could be used as an actual class, rather than just a form of teaching.  My favorite part of this article was the VR being used to explore the career of jobs that kids did not even know existed.  Imagine people from all career fields wearing some type of recording device that allows kids to see through their eyes what skills are required for their profession.  This would give kids a great opportunity to view a career before they even start the required coursework for it.

Smith, F. (2015, July 1). ISTE 2015: VR Is Facing Its Biggest Year in Education Ever. Edtech Magazine.

Technology Can Have a Positive Impact on Classrooms.

Lytle, R (2011).  Study:  Emerging Technology Has Positive Impact in Classroom.  Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/07/14/study-emerging-technology-has-positive-impact-in-classroom.

Summary

This article gives a brief overview of Stacey Roshan, a teacher at a private school in Potomac, MD.  It discusses how she felt that she was no longer a teacher, but rather a performer to keep the interest of the students at a high level.  She decided to make a huge change to her lesson plans and started to create video lectures for students at home to complete their work rather than at school.  According to Roshan (2011)  She "noticed a 10% increase"  in a third of her AP calculus scores.    Lytle (2011) mentioned in his article that " technology is inevitable, it will eventually make its way into the classroom so why not embrace it rather than shut it out."

Reflection
While this article may not have been extremely long in length I felt that it gets straight to the point.  Technology is everywhere, rather than run from it we should find a way to embrace it.  Whether it be allowing to students bring their phones into the classrooms, tablets into the classrooms, or the district providing some type of electronic device, we as educators need to adapt to the changing student body.

I am fully aware that 1-1 is not a feasible idea for every single school, but each teacher can somehow bring technology into the classroom for kids to use.  If there are 5 phones/tablets/laptops in a room, have students work in groups or stations to be able to embrace these new methods of teaching.  I for one agree with Stacey that I do feel like an entertainer sometimes in the classroom rather than a teacher.  Thankfully I enjoy it, but we have to adapt to the changing student body. 

Should students be allowed to bring their own device to school?

http://neatoday.org/2012/07/19/should-schools-embrace-bring-your-own-device/

I am in the middle of a project for my masters programs and one of the things that we were asked to do is discuss a couple of edtech tools that can be used in the classroom.  Before I chose my tools I found a real good article by Emma Chadband discussing whether or not schools should allow students to bring their own devices to begin with.  Their are two main issues that come to mind when faced with BYOD, the first issue is who will properly train the staff? and the second issue is the great divide.

While BYOD is great because it will allow students to have their own technology in the classroom, who will properly train the teachers themselves on how to properly implement it.  I for one am the type of person to figure it out on my own, but not all teachers are that tech savy.  The second issue is what Chadband called the "Great Divide" where some students will not have the technology or they will have the older version of a tablet/phone, which will then bring fear of being bullied or made fun of.

This article discusses how Shelly Burgess, a teacher in Ohio was very successful in implementing BYOD.  She recorded her lectures, and when students had questions during a class discussion, they could go and look at her lecture on their device if she was unable to get to them at that moment in time.  This is the type of example why I feel that BYOD should be allowed in schools.

Districts learning mistakes about 1-1

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/06/11/districts-learn-lessons-on-1-to-1-from-watching.html

I recently read an article written by Malia Herman for Edweek.org about how a superintendent in Florida learned several mistakes from other districts about implementing 1-1 technology's in her district.  The article went into depth discussing how the 1-1 concept is like a "shiny new toy"  everyone wants to buy it, but once they get it, they have no clue what to do with it. 

 For the past few years I feel that school districts have been looking for the quick easy answer to close the learning gap and technology is one of them.  Lets buy everything, throw it at the teacher, and have them figure it out.

The article discusses how Sylvia Diaz learned from other mistakes of school districts from around the country.  She discovered that it was not wise to purchase 354,00 tablets at once, but rather to purchase only a few and pilot the program at first to see if warranted more purchases for the district.  This i feel is a great idea because it makes that mistakes that WILL happen much more manageable on a smaller scale.  

I love the concept of 1-1 technology in the classroom, but my biggest fear is that school districts across the country (not all)  will just throw the technology in the classroom and say here you go figure it out.  I have heard of this happening where smartboards will show up in a classroom one day, with no proper training or workshops on how to properly utilize it in the classroom.