115: Technology #2

I watched the Education in the Digital Age: Insights and Findings
PBS webinar. I chose this program partially because I was slightly familiar with Digital Nation (an ongoing program about digital media and it's impact on children that PBS is focusing on). I had seen a documentary about the very beginnings of this exploration back in a sociology class in college. Plus, with the content being relevant for our current coursework, I figured that it was important to explore digital media. I also would have loved to have watched some of the Reading Comprehension or ELL focuses (and in fact tried to watch a webinar on Response to Intervention, but was not able to do so).

1) What are the advantages to watching a webinar as opposed to reading an article?
I like that the webinar gives you so much more interaction than watching a TV or listening to a sound clip would-- it is so much more of an integrated learning experience. The webinar that I watched had a "chat" feature on the side, as well as different tools to put the scope of the webinar in perspective-- an interactive map where teachers could mark where they were communicating from, plus respond yes or no, chime in as necessary, etc. Moderators exist to keep the conversation focused on the webinar ( mostly.. I was slightly disappointed at the off-topic sidebar discussion happening) but people can "type" in questions or actually verbally chime in during Q and A times. It was so much more interactive than reading an article and I think as such is in some ways "easier" or at least much more engaging.

2) How can you see this tool being used to support your own development as a teacher?
I plan on using webinars to learn more about other perspectives. Just in looking for one to watch, I found multiple webinars on RTI which our school site is in it's second year of experimenting with. I have just been exposed to a few other methods of doing RtI and I am curious about what else exists, what methods have seen significant progress and how I can use the information in the webinars to create more focused Independent Learning Plans (ILPS) to be used to plan RtI. Our school is currently improving their RtI methods and I think I could be much more of an asset to the school site, as well as generally more knowledgeable as a teacher, if I take the time to look at how I create goals for my students and follow up on them through RtI. Thus, I think this could directly affect the achievement of the 12 students that are currently in RtI.

3) What are some other topics on which you would like to see webinars?
I would love to also go into the ELL webinars. One of my REACH ongoing goals has been related to finding more methods to help my struggling ELL students. Without a base in Spanish to communicate, this is certainly an area of growth for me as a teacher and I intend to continue try to work on this and grow more as an educator. I think webinars on instructional methods could help me be a more engaging teacher with integrated visual/audio assistance etc for ELLs.