Paper+on+Class+and+Personal+Growth

Differentiation, at the beginning of class and well into the introduction, was strictly a means to present information to students in varied medias and methods, so that the educator could tap into individual students’ strategies or perceptual strengths and assist in the class’s understanding of new ideas and concepts. Now, after reading Zull’s book, differentiation is more than just presenting information in a number of ways, it also is a means to trigger responses from students’ past experiences and prior knowledge. Differentiation affects the input, content, output of the lesson. From the beginning of presenting the information, to processing information, and ultimately the product of the lesson will be varied.

As far as planning for a differentiated classroom, I have learned much, though I know I still have an ocean of knowledge yet to learn. It seems to me that all of the elements of a lesson plan are intricately intertwined with each other not to be separated or examined outside of the whole. Standards, procedures, objectives, and assessment must all be observed when designing an effective differentiated lesson plan. I know I found myself at times focusing on specific parts then having step back and reintroduce all of the elements back into the lesson.

This class has truly opened my eyes to the possibility of using technology in the classroom. I will in the future, provided my school has the resources, fully utilize the tech-tools we discussed. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, screencasts, flickr, and RSS feeds can be useful tools of disseminating knowledge in differentiated models. I never used a wiki prior to this class and was, and to speak honestly still, apprehensive about posting onto other students’ work and opinions. But, after the discussions we have generated both online and in the classroom, I am genuinely going to try to use a wiki and a blog in my classroom. They are a great means of reflection and insight. After the July 5, class, Podcasting is something I really would like to implement for a few assignments, not too great a number—but certainly a few. Screencasts are a tool I believe I will use on occasion; with a frequency I see similar to that of podcasts—maybe once or twice a month simply due to the technical mastery aspects of them both and the measure of resources available at most public schools. Flickr, to me, has become invaluable. I can see it being used nearly everyday in my class, as photo editing and photo-manipulation are something I have great deal of experience with, and I enjoy the visual aspects of it. Not having set up an RSS feed yet, I have little to say other than I hope to do it soon. From what I have read and spoken with my fellow “techno-geeks” it is a great way to trim the fat of the Internet into just the meat you want.

My technological growth in the class is more in practice than anything. I knew of blogs, wikis, podcasting, but never really sat down and played with them. That is what I loved most about this class; sitting down and doing it—knowledge alone wasn’t enough, you had to get dirty. There were a lot of uses that I wouldn’t have thought of in an academic nature, and that is what I believe this class was about bridging technology and academia.