INTIME Technology Grant
Final Report
I became a member of the Longwood faculty August, 2000 and began my twelfth year in higher education. I was fortunate to be asked to participate in the INTIME grant with my undergraduate class EDUC 325: Teaching Reading and Language Arts in the Elementary School. Since that time I have taught this course five semesters and I have had all my students participate. I have approximately fifteen students each semester. I have also implemented INTIME in one graduate course EDUC 524: Emergent and Early Literacy Instruction during fall, 2001 semester. Twenty-seven graduate students participated in the project through this class.
Implementation of Project
EDUC 325: Teaching Reading and Language Arts in the Elementary School.
The following objectives are aligned with INTIME:
Knowledge:
explain the principles for effective literacy lessons.
understand the importance of developmentally appropriate practices for
literacy development.
explain the role motivation, aptitude, and interest has in learning to read
explain the various teaching techniques used for developing a literacy curriculum.
explain how technology enhances literacy development
explain how to use technology in literacy lesson planning
explain the importance of integrating various aspects of technology within the curriculum
Skills:
design literacy activities that will enhance learners' growth and build on their sense of self as learners.
demonstrate how teachers use traditional and current practices to organize and manage for effective literacy instruction.
examine and critique how technology is used to enhance literacy development
Dispositions:
appreciate the contributions of various disciplines to the understanding of
literacy instruction.
view oneself as a researcher of teaching and learning and as a professional whose continued growth can best be met through inquiry, reflection and sustained dialogue with peers.
appreciate the need to motivate students to become life long readers, writers, and problem solvers.
Throughout the semester students are taught effective literacy instructional practices. To accomplish the objectives, INTIMEwas used towards the end of the semester for students to examine different types of technology that can be use to enhance a literacy lesson. Each semester, I first introduced my students to INTIME in class. We would view two videos and discuss whether or not the teacher followed an effective literacy lesson plan that followed the five stages of the reading process: prereading, reading, responding, exploring and applying. In addition, students were also asked to determine at what stage the teacher used technology and if technology enhanced literacy development. Students only viewed videos that were categorized as Language Arts. Students were then required to examine three videos on their own using the same criteria. A three page critique was then turned.
EDUC 524: Emergent and Early Literacy Instruction
The following objectives were aligned with INTIME
Knowledge:
explain the importance of child development knowledge in creating and early childhood curriculum
explain the role of the teacher as a facilitator for student’s learning
explain how to develop the component areas of reading in young children: comprehension, word recognition, vocabulary development, and fluency
explain instructional techniques and learning strategies which support
emergent and beginning literacy development
explain the importance of the writing process in developing a positive
writing curriculum for young children.
After using INTIME with my undergraduate students for three semesters, I decided to incorporate it with one graduate class as a teaching tool for demonstrating effective literacy instructional practices using technology. I used the video Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? with teacher Judy Robinson after we had discussed the importance of using predictable books with beginning and emerging readers. In class, we watched the video in a large group and then discussed the importance of integrating technology into developmentally appropriate literacy lessons. Students were also asked to provide other ways the multimedia used by Ms Robinson could be integrated into a literacy lesson. I then had the students move into small groups where they were asked to integrate various other teaching techniques into Ms. Robinson’s lesson that we had studied in class.
Evaluation of the Project
EDUC 325: Teaching Reading and Language Arts in the Elementary School.
Critique papers completed by the students in this class showed that they were introduced to a variety of technology that can be used by classroom teachers. This particular class participates in our partnership semester and are placed in an elementary classroom for four half-days per week. The other half-day they are enrolled in their methods courses, EDUC 325 is one of these courses. The partnership school that these students are placed has limited technology resources. INTIME provided my students the opportunity to see a variety of technology being effectively used in elementary classrooms.
However, each semester my students also expressed frustration in watching the videos for two reasons. First of all, not having actually worked with the technology, my students did not understand some of what they watched. For instance, none of them had experience with using a Smart Board nor did they know what it was. This caused confusion and frustration in writing their critiques. The second reason is they did not like the technology format of the videos. They often made comments that they were confusing and hard to view.
EDUC 524: Emergent and Early Literacy Instruction
Using INTIME as an instructional tool in my graduate class provided me the opportunity to expose my graduate students to a form of technology that can be used in the classroom with young children. Because the majority of them are practicing teachers I found that they enjoyed watching the INTIME videos more than the undergraduate students. The reason for this was it exposed them to what types of technology was available for them to explore to use in the classroom. Many of them asked me how to go about getting the technology program that was used in the video that we watched in class. Many also asked me for the web site so that they could view some of the other videos. This delighted me, but also frustrated me because I would have liked them to be able to use the technology in class. I plan to use INTIME again this fall semester with this course. I recently discovered that we have one Smart Board on campus and I am going to have my students first be exposed to this tool, use it, and then view the video that uses this technology.
Summary
Overall, I found INTIME to be very limiting for my courses. The limiting factor in using INTIME was not having the technology to actually use with my students. Both of the populations of these courses are involved with teaching children on a daily basis. The undergraduate candidates and the graduate candidates both expressed frustration in not being able to be engaged with the technology that was viewed and not being able to use it with their students. I also found using INTIME to be frustrating. Many times my students would ask me specific questions about the technology used and I could not answer their questions.
In order for INTIME to be more successful, I feel that students and faculty members need to be engaged in the various technology that was used in the videos. It would also be more beneficial if the candidates were trained in using the technology and then required to use it in planning and implementing lessons with children. Unfortunately, I do not feel that INTIME will have a lasting impact on my undergraduate students that participated in this project. However, I do feel that some of the graduate candidates that are presently teachers might use INTIME to introduce themselves to the different types of technology that teachers can use in their classrooms. This may then lead them to explore something that they saw in one of the videos in more depth.
INTIME would be a great tool to use in an education technology course in which the students were first engaged in using various multimedia technology tools. The candidates would then have background knowledge in the technology, be familiar with it, and then use it with children.