Week 2

This has been a very busy past week. I took a children's and adolescent literature class that met each day for 8 hours. It was a great way to get three credits. I also found some overlap with our 521 class. During the class we watched the movie Freedom Writers which had great examples of both project based learning and authentic learning. The students in the movie (which is a true story that takes place in the 1990s in L.A.) took all their journal writings and combined them to publish a book. Everyone was from a different background and told a different story, many of which were related to gangs. The book obviously was turned into a movie so the whole project seems to be pretty high on the LoTi scale because they took their idea so far to the next levels. An assignment that started out as students writing in journals turned into a Hollywood movie that reached millions of people. That is very authentic.

Week 1 for 521

Onto another class already! I learned a lot of great information in our first class about Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi) and project based learning. I did not realize the complexities of integrating technology into classes, schools, or districts. After hearing an overview of all 6 levels, I think I would put myself at a level 2 for now. It's difficult for me to figure for myself right now because I have never had my own classroom to gauge. I also took the LoTI survey which put me at a level 1, but again, not having my own classroom to base answers off of, it was difficult for me to answer a lot of the questions. My group got off to a great start on our LoTI presentation today. I think everyone has a strong grasp of what we need to do. We are reporting on a fictional middle school and have already found some great information.

The biggest idea I took away from the first class session was how we need to go beyond just using technology. In order to get into the 4-6 range of the LoTI, student experiences need to be authentic and have an effect on things outside the walls of the schools. I am starting to think about what else I could do to take student learning one more step beyond what I have done in the past.