Standard 3.6 Selecting and Evaluating Digital Tools & Resources
Candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital tools and resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility with the school technology infrastructure. (PSC 3.6/ISTE 3f)
Artifact: Emerging Technologies Project
Reflection:
This artifact is the Evaluating Emerging Technologies Project that I completed in ITEC 7445. Education Galaxy was the emerging technology that I evaluated. This program is available for kindergarten through fifth grade students, and it covers subject areas such as math, reading, language arts, and science. Our school had recently been introduced to this program, and the teachers who were trying it out absolutely loved it. When I taught fourth grade, I utilized it specifically for my grammar lessons, and I thought that it did a great job of covering the standards that my students needed to master. This artifact shows mastery of Standard 2.6 - "Selecting and Evaluating Digital Tools and Resources" which states that "candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital tools and resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility with the school technology infrastructure" because as I evaluated Education Galaxy, I had to take all of these factors into account before determining if a subscription to this website would truly benefit my school.
Before selecting Education Galaxy to evaluate, I collaborated with other teachers and my administration to get their feedback on how Education Galaxy has gone when trying it out with their students. I received a lot of positive feedback on this website, and as a result, I decided to select this program to evaluate. The engagement level that this program brings to the classroom is incredible. Students can earn galaxy stars and rockets, which makes them very motivated to answer the questions correctly instead of just clicking through them. The other really good things about this website are that it is standards based, and it helps students improve in their test-taking skills without making the students feel like they are taking a standardized test.
Education Galaxy meets the criteria for accuracy and suitability with the school technology infrastructure. Gwinnett County Public School's technology vision is to "support instructional and operational needs with technological systems and processes that support effective performance and desired results." At our school, technology needs to be used to enhance instruction. Teachers should never use technology just for the sake of using technology. Education Galaxy effectively support the technology infrastructure at Alcova because it supports and enhances instruction by allowing students to practice the standards they need to work on so that they can reach the performance level of mastery for every standard on their grade level.
Finally, Education Galaxy meets the criteria for compatibility with the school technology infrastructure. It is web-based, so the only thing that is required to use this program is a reliable internet connection, which is something that my school has most of the time! Kindergarten and first grade students will also need headphones since one feature of the program is that it can read the questions and answer choices to the students. In our computer labs, every computer has headphones, and classroom teachers have one pair of headphones for each laptop they have in their room.
I learned so much about this program by completing this presentation. I also learned the value of evaluating technology programs before implementing them school wide. It was good to extensively research Education Galaxy and really see how it aligns to common core standards. I also learned some new features of the program that I was able to introduce to teachers. This artifact improved faculty development because it thoroughly described how Education Galaxy supports Gwinnett County's vision for technology use.
This artifact is the Evaluating Emerging Technologies Project that I completed in ITEC 7445. Education Galaxy was the emerging technology that I evaluated. This program is available for kindergarten through fifth grade students, and it covers subject areas such as math, reading, language arts, and science. Our school had recently been introduced to this program, and the teachers who were trying it out absolutely loved it. When I taught fourth grade, I utilized it specifically for my grammar lessons, and I thought that it did a great job of covering the standards that my students needed to master. This artifact shows mastery of Standard 2.6 - "Selecting and Evaluating Digital Tools and Resources" which states that "candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital tools and resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility with the school technology infrastructure" because as I evaluated Education Galaxy, I had to take all of these factors into account before determining if a subscription to this website would truly benefit my school.
Before selecting Education Galaxy to evaluate, I collaborated with other teachers and my administration to get their feedback on how Education Galaxy has gone when trying it out with their students. I received a lot of positive feedback on this website, and as a result, I decided to select this program to evaluate. The engagement level that this program brings to the classroom is incredible. Students can earn galaxy stars and rockets, which makes them very motivated to answer the questions correctly instead of just clicking through them. The other really good things about this website are that it is standards based, and it helps students improve in their test-taking skills without making the students feel like they are taking a standardized test.
Education Galaxy meets the criteria for accuracy and suitability with the school technology infrastructure. Gwinnett County Public School's technology vision is to "support instructional and operational needs with technological systems and processes that support effective performance and desired results." At our school, technology needs to be used to enhance instruction. Teachers should never use technology just for the sake of using technology. Education Galaxy effectively support the technology infrastructure at Alcova because it supports and enhances instruction by allowing students to practice the standards they need to work on so that they can reach the performance level of mastery for every standard on their grade level.
Finally, Education Galaxy meets the criteria for compatibility with the school technology infrastructure. It is web-based, so the only thing that is required to use this program is a reliable internet connection, which is something that my school has most of the time! Kindergarten and first grade students will also need headphones since one feature of the program is that it can read the questions and answer choices to the students. In our computer labs, every computer has headphones, and classroom teachers have one pair of headphones for each laptop they have in their room.
I learned so much about this program by completing this presentation. I also learned the value of evaluating technology programs before implementing them school wide. It was good to extensively research Education Galaxy and really see how it aligns to common core standards. I also learned some new features of the program that I was able to introduce to teachers. This artifact improved faculty development because it thoroughly described how Education Galaxy supports Gwinnett County's vision for technology use.