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About the Author

I grew up in a house with a computer. In fact I was the first of my school friends to get one. I spent countless hours on the program Kid Pix on an Apple Macintosh with a floppy disk drive. This was lucky for me growing up in Humboldt County in the rain soaked winters and soggy summers. I would not describe myself as an indoor child, I spent dry and even wet days playing in acres of pastures with more horse manure to shovel than is plausible to even remember. I literally moved mountains of it. But those hours spent playing on the screen, troubleshooting, adding and deleting and making mistakes that the open ended program of Kid Pix allowed, gave me a foundation that I realize now has influenced my attitude toward technology and even my sense of confidence with it today.
My name is Karling Skoglund and I am a teacher at Redwood Middle School in Napa CA. Throughout my 12 year career as a teacher, I have seen the evolution of technology in classrooms and see the need for integration and innovation with one to one devices that capture the attention and give dimension and depth to my students' experience. I teach 6th grade math and science and I am passionate about pushing students to be their best selves while being the support to develop and inspire students to have a love of learning.
I started the innovative learning program with a little experience teaching in classrooms with one to one devices. This limited experience, I realize now, was spent directing my students to use technology as a substitute for traditional learning strategies. My students were ready with Chromebooks in hand, but I was not even scratching the surface of the capabilities these technology tools had to offer. I needed direction, time to explore the possibilities and a helping hand to give advice and guidance.
My new assignment as a middle school math and science teacher in the fall of 2018 thrust me into a subject area with supportive colleagues and administration but with a gaping hole in my ability and expertise with innovation and integration of technology into my lessons. Throughout my journey in the innovative learning program I have discovered new theories, techniques, and ways to capture engagement and foster creativity that was unfamiliar to me before. I realize now that my journey as an educator has a before and after, and I am excited to begin my “after I got my masters” phase so I can truly challenge, prepare, and engage my students so they can embrace a love for learning.
My name is Karling Skoglund and I am a teacher at Redwood Middle School in Napa CA. Throughout my 12 year career as a teacher, I have seen the evolution of technology in classrooms and see the need for integration and innovation with one to one devices that capture the attention and give dimension and depth to my students' experience. I teach 6th grade math and science and I am passionate about pushing students to be their best selves while being the support to develop and inspire students to have a love of learning.
I started the innovative learning program with a little experience teaching in classrooms with one to one devices. This limited experience, I realize now, was spent directing my students to use technology as a substitute for traditional learning strategies. My students were ready with Chromebooks in hand, but I was not even scratching the surface of the capabilities these technology tools had to offer. I needed direction, time to explore the possibilities and a helping hand to give advice and guidance.
My new assignment as a middle school math and science teacher in the fall of 2018 thrust me into a subject area with supportive colleagues and administration but with a gaping hole in my ability and expertise with innovation and integration of technology into my lessons. Throughout my journey in the innovative learning program I have discovered new theories, techniques, and ways to capture engagement and foster creativity that was unfamiliar to me before. I realize now that my journey as an educator has a before and after, and I am excited to begin my “after I got my masters” phase so I can truly challenge, prepare, and engage my students so they can embrace a love for learning.
Reflections on your Journey
Learn by doing. Those three words were so much a part of my undergrad and credential program that I still try my best to live by those words today. Inspiring students to be active learners is something that is easily done when they see meaning and an end result of their learning. By having my students create something, there is a forward momentum that is established to inspire and motivate them to engage with the curriculum. One of biggest take away concepts from my masters journey is the notion of students being transliterate. This idea of being able to read, write and interact across different platforms joined with the motto of learn by doing inspired me to develop my lessons and intervention for this project.
As a math and science teacher of 6th grade students there are many opportunities to use the idea of trans literacy to build and update the lessons that students receive and how they engage in those lessons. My journey began by realizing I could do more to update those lessons. Changing from traditional classroom strategies was the first thing that came to mind when I beginning to transforming a lesson from “old school” to innovative. The biggest task was to incorporate some form of technology and bring in an aspect of creation inquiry or collaboration. When thinking about how I could incorporate trans literacy into my classroom, Costa’s levels of thinking came to mind. My students show higher engagement when tasked with designing or creating something new. Combine that with making videos and creative choice while working with their friends and there is no stopping them.
I could go on and on about how technology coupled with creativity and student choice engages and support students but that is not brand new information. The challenge is offering that integration often enough to build truly transliterate students in a way that allows them to be diverse and confident in their understanding of the different media tools and platforms that they may see in the future. Keeping a variety of digital tools in your teacher bag of tricks is not tough to do but does take effort and patience. I have personally tried out many applications that are confusing, too detailed for the task needed and just did not fit the job to be done. I am glad I took the time to find a few gems that I know I can go back to and use knowing they are functional and worth the time. The innovative learning program gave me that chance to investigate what works, and now I have the confidence to keep trying new strategies and technology tools for my future students.
As a math and science teacher of 6th grade students there are many opportunities to use the idea of trans literacy to build and update the lessons that students receive and how they engage in those lessons. My journey began by realizing I could do more to update those lessons. Changing from traditional classroom strategies was the first thing that came to mind when I beginning to transforming a lesson from “old school” to innovative. The biggest task was to incorporate some form of technology and bring in an aspect of creation inquiry or collaboration. When thinking about how I could incorporate trans literacy into my classroom, Costa’s levels of thinking came to mind. My students show higher engagement when tasked with designing or creating something new. Combine that with making videos and creative choice while working with their friends and there is no stopping them.
I could go on and on about how technology coupled with creativity and student choice engages and support students but that is not brand new information. The challenge is offering that integration often enough to build truly transliterate students in a way that allows them to be diverse and confident in their understanding of the different media tools and platforms that they may see in the future. Keeping a variety of digital tools in your teacher bag of tricks is not tough to do but does take effort and patience. I have personally tried out many applications that are confusing, too detailed for the task needed and just did not fit the job to be done. I am glad I took the time to find a few gems that I know I can go back to and use knowing they are functional and worth the time. The innovative learning program gave me that chance to investigate what works, and now I have the confidence to keep trying new strategies and technology tools for my future students.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
As I began the Innovative Learning Program, I was completely in the substitution level of the SAMR model. My students had the technology in front of them to create, but I was not functioning at the level they needed to have an experience that pushed them to develop their transliteracy skills.
As I developed my research topic and understanding of innovative teaching and learning over the course of the program, I realized that by incorporating technology as a substitute I am still strengthening my students 21st century skills, but not enough to prepare them adequately. My students should be engaged in creating and designing on a constant basis which is why the next steps of my project will be to continue to explore students creating and collaborating with their peers to maximize engagement. |
TPACK Reflection
The pursuit of education is so important, especially for educators as our content, pedagogy and technology expertise needs to be constantly updated to meet the different needs of our students in an ever changing technology driven world. Waiting too long to explore the innovation that has happened in education over the past few years shows when our students graduate and become adults.
Combining the statement about technology changing and what we teach, this gives us a new understanding of the path to take. No longer are we focusing on teaching facts, but how to take facts and apply them to arguments and produce original work. By combining the content, appropriate pedagogy, and the right tools teachers can attempt to get our students across the learning gap.
Combining the statement about technology changing and what we teach, this gives us a new understanding of the path to take. No longer are we focusing on teaching facts, but how to take facts and apply them to arguments and produce original work. By combining the content, appropriate pedagogy, and the right tools teachers can attempt to get our students across the learning gap.
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