Carter's Adventures in Educational Technology

In my grad school journey, I learned many new things and a few of those I get to revisit regularly. One of those topics was the growth mindset. I was first introduced to Carol Dweck's (2006) book on the growth mindset back in January when we were asked to develop a plan for how we would share the growth mindset with others. Here is my website on Growth Mindset that I created back in January that includes my plan. I've made some changes to this site since it originally held the slide deck and the references only. Recently I have added more information about the growth mindset with more of my personal thoughts and opinions.  Another topic I learned more about is creating a significant learning environment for my learners. We discussed how technology has changed the way people learn and interact with each other while learning. Thomas and Brown (2011) introduced me to the term collective when referring to my online community of educators. We all contribute to the groups' ...

As I continue to develop my innovation plan on blended learning to create personalized professional development, I had an opportunity to explore the Backwards Design in Wiggins and McTighe's book, Understanding by Design  to design a unit within my plan. I had already used  Fink's 3 column table to design the course therefore I knew my goals for the course.  UbD has you start with your standards and the ISTE Standards for Educators was where I looked to begin. I found the perfect standard that reflected the main purpose of my plan: Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability(5). It fit perfectly! It allowed for blended learning, student choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities, and personalized learning.  Next, I worked on the understandings and essential questions I wanted my learners to pursue. From these understandings, I derived the skills and conc...

Using Backwards Design For my innovation project, I have to develop a course design using Fink's (n.d.) guide in order to create significant learning to be used for my blended learning of professional development of technology integration. At first, I was intimidated to write a whole course guide but then I fell back on my curriculum writing experience. The two are not so different, both start with you thinking of your end goal and then you work backward to determine the skills needed to get you there. Siedleck, n.d. I started by developing a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) for my learners; educators that I was assisting to integrate technology into their classroom. I asked myself what did I want them to remember and be able to do 2 - 3 years after they completed my course. My BHAG is that l earners will create a blended learning environment for their classroom which provides their learners Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic learning opportunities ( COV...

To Do Is To Learn Venosdale, 2012       I believe that you have to experience something to really learn; think about when you were a kid and you were told “don't touch the stove, it's hot.” You never truly believe them until you touch the stove and experience the pain for yourself, I know because I was the one touching the stove.        Learning is a very active thing, you're making connections, reflecting on personal experience, and talking to people about it. You work to connect the newly acquired knowledge to prior knowledge so that it has context and meaning to you. M yself as a Learner       I  like to learn about things relevant to myself and applicable in my life. I learn best when I’m actively engaged real life applications. I don't learn very well in lecture-only atmospheres, my mind tends to drift if my hands are not engaged, therefore I learn best by doing. I also need to have a passion for the topic...

3 Days of Learning Know Your Impact is a 3-day conference my school district holds in June. Each day has a different focus, classroom culture, innovative teaching practices, and social/emotional well being. I was thoroughly exhausted after the conference this year! Last year I only informed the teachers about registration then helped set up since I was a member of the information committee and once it started I was able to attend the sessions. This year my new position was part of the team that was running the whole shebang.  Early in October, we started contacting vendors for the expo, (it's a good thing they were all still calling me after ISTE!) I was to find 4 commercial and 4 local vendors. Next came finding teachers to present. Some were highly encouraged to present since they participated in our Google training for the Level 1 Certified Educator. Others I had to convince that they had something awesome to share with other teachers. (I think they kn...

Here's my reflection on A New Culture of Learning  by Thomas and Brown.  The three principals from A New Culture of Learning: - The internet has the most up-to-date information for learners. - Peer-to-peer learning is most natural for learners. - Collaboration happens in a collective of learners. Application within my  Innovation Plan : - Online resources for teachers to reference. - Working within the collective to build understanding. Resources ChangSchool. (2015, Dec 14). Dr Tony Bates on Building Effective Learning Environments. [Video File]. Retrieved from URL https://youtu.be/3xD_sLNGurA Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE). [Video FIle]. Retrieved from URL https://youtu.be/eZ-c7rz7eT4   TEDx Talks. (2012, Sep 12). A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM. [Video File]. Retrieved from URL https://youtu.be/lM80GXlyX0U   Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A new culture ...

Micro-Credentials, What are They? When most people think of micro-credentials, they think of badges, and they are similar in some ways but different in others. Both are ways for people to show what they have learned, while badges tend to be specific to a particular app, micro-credentials are linked to specific skills. Badges tend to show an ability to use specific technology, micro-credentials are earned by submitting proof of application of knowledge in specific areas.  My innovation project is to bring micro-credentials to my district to enhance our technology training and our current badging system in order to personalize our training. I will start with showing this call to action video as an "advertisement" for micro-credentials. I have already spoke with my supervisor and he likes the idea! I wrote a  proposal letter , plan outline , and literature review  to support my innovation project. We are already working on the survey for June. I am excited t...