Contents of the Future Vision Project

Contents of the Future Vision Project

Using Buncee slides this is the order of the major contents to present from my constructed knowledge synthesizing what I have learned so I can apply it in my future Montessori and non-Montessori educational practice and to share with other educators in assisting them in making choices on the use of digital tools and apps.

1. Pose the question:

If Maria Montessori were alive today what wold she say( I think) about using technology with students?

2.General  Montessori philosophy;method and planes of development for children to lay framework for criteria in creation of  Montessori materials and applying it to digital tools/apps

3. New knowledge/frameworks learned in this class

4.  4 criteria questions to ask to determine if the digital tools/apps would meet Maria Montessori criteria and the needs of the 21st century learner? they should meet one or more of these attributes

5 -9. Suggestions for possible tools for each of the 4 main motivating attributes

10. Cautions I believe Maria Montessori would have with the use of technology/screen time in the classroom

11. Suggestions of technology that meets special need/remedial students

12. Square Panda digital tool pros/cons

13.Suggestions of movement technology and assessment

14.Conclusions

This will be my first time using Buncee so its a learning curve for me too as I construct this future vision project and share it!  Check out Buncee Blog for uses in the classroom.

Rational for Future Vision Project

Rationale for Future Vision Project;

My rationale is based on my background experience and education because I have about 10 years in the Montessori field and after my BED  I became accredited as a Casa teacher(ages 3 to 6) through American Montessori Academy so I wanted to take my  digital tools/and apps understanding knowledge and synthesize it and decide  how I would apply this new knowledge in a Montessori classroom. I'm most familiar with the casa environment but have also worked in lower elementary ages 6 to 9 and in upper elementary 9 to 12 so the digital tools are my best choice from what I know at this time and are only a suggestion of course. Digital tools change and modify quickly sometimes so its a good idea to be aware of what is available but newer its not necessarily better. I would assume all Montessori teachers to make their own choices or not if digital tools fit in with their own rationale/

Though I had not thought about technology at all and the changing literacy needs of the 21st century learner before taking this course I can see now how digital tools can be beneficial for  students learning and life when chosen with intent and knowledge. I feel that because we have very intentional scaffolded materials that flow together throughout the mixed aged classes it was important that the tools are not seen as  replacements always but have a purpose that adds to the learners intrinsic engagement with their learning that creates  greater authenticity; autonomy; connection and inquiry. For example the use of the place value golden bead material in the casa and the bead frame in the lower elementary class provides a visual; tactile; color coded tool to learn about place value and completely replacing it with a screen application.   Or as seen below compared to screen letters in the  majority of children is more beneficial because it involves all of their senses except taste! I'll rationalize in addition the use of digital tools for young children for exceptional and remedial needs because Maria Montessori having started her casa class with special need children in Rome would see the tools as a way to break down barriers to learning; for example text to speech apps such as Google Text to Talk booktalker; audio books; display text control of font size; color etc; digital graphic organizers and more I will list in my project. As well as more for elementary children.

  “The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world, they cast a light upon it which makes visible to him more things in greater detail than he could see in the dark, or uneducated state.” Maria Montessori

I decided to do this as my future vision project to give a rationale not just about tools but analyzing how Maria Montessori designed her materials and how that could also be applied to my new learning in libe 477 when selecting digital tools/apps for students use.

From my photos; Sandpaper letters; vowels are color coded blue

My rationale also is for my professional development in being clear in my practice in the Montessori field and beyond of  what apps/tools I would choose; how I would use this and Why I would choose them. Because there isn't a unified stance on technology in the Montessori field this could be a guidepost to think about as its important to consider the  additional learner needs because of the information age we live in now.

Hopefully all educators can take some useful ways to analyze tools and come across some suggestions of tools that fit in their environment.  

Resources;

Amazon.ca. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://www.amazon.ca/Absorbent-Mind-Maria-Montessori/dp/0805041567 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2017].

Future Vision Project Scope

Future Vision Project Scope

My vision of what I wanted to do for my future vision project changed as I gathered information, made discoveries and wrote  and read others blogs on Teacher librarianship topics. I thought a lot about how to categorize apps since their were so many and I came upon some websites like Commonsense education media reviews and classification frameworks like SAMR; lesson flows etc to put apps into context and assist with sorting through the many apps to evaluate if they meet students 21st century learning needs.

My vision also changed as I thought about my audience and sharing this project vision with other educators and how it can be useful in creating dialogue and further investigation.
 I thought about Symbaloo which is a tool to paste your tools you use a lot in a webmix but I realized that it takes time to really be comfortable in using apps and its a life long endeavor to form a webmix and it starts off slowly by matching apps to the needs of students.

 I  began to see how Montessori materials/tools are selected and used with control of error/scaffolded with teacher guidance can be similar  to the process in selecting digital tools .By combining my new knowledge with my Montessori background ; I can envision how best to to select digital apps/tools and for what age groups they are best suited for .  I envision Reviewing  a few digital tools/apps with this combined criteria. In Montessori education we group students in their unique 3 year spans so they are  developmentally similar ages in which peer coaching and modelling occurs. The unique developmental ages are 3 to 6; 6 to 9 ; 9 to 12 and 12 to 15. I envision combining my Montessori background and new knowledge I've constructed from engaging in this class to be able to come up with criteria that would assist educators on best how to select tools that meet  how students learn best in developing 21st century literacy and developmental appropriate for these age spans.

From what I have researched and experienced Montessori elementary education does see the value of digital tools; Maria Montessori herself was a scientist and if alive now(she died in 1952)  I feel she would realize the need for students to use  digital tools purposefully to function in the 21st century and complement real life hands on learning.This blog provided a summary of the balancing act of using screen time ;Technology and the Montessori Classroom Because i'm most familiar with Montessori Education I decided to do more inquiry to the use of technology and Montessori education.  I decided to follow 2 Montessori and technology groups on Twitter to keep up to date and gather more insight. Technology is generally not used in the casa class ages 3 to 6 since research shows that a caring connection such  as in teacher  student interaction and Sensorial learning; is of great importance and screen time is not the best for the developing brain but I'm willing to check out possible digital tools which may meet the criteria or used for special need students  .
There is not a unified stance on technology use  so this will give me an idea on what is happening and how Montessorians are incorporating technology. My vision project can give a summary of my findings of technology and Montessori education.

One resource I've decided to try to create my future vision project is Buncee because its new to me and is a creative presentation tool with a lot of features check out; Buncee Features. I've tried Google slides so I can compare them. I want to engage with its potential creativity tools such as audio; video; clip art; different backgrounds etc. I also liked that Buncee users can seamlessly synchronize with Google Classroom so students and teaches can engage with each other and share Buncees. Buncee creators are involved with educators with their blogs and free hour webinars that anyone can sign up for and this helped me on using Buncee in the classroom.

My overall vision is to get a rationale for selection of digital tools and be able to recommend a few digital tools for each age grouping using Buncee as my presentation tool.  I think this will be particularly thought provoking for Montessori teachers and parents as well as all other educators.

From Google Images

Resources;

Symbaloo.com. (2017). Symbaloo. [online] Available at: https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcLj6h4 [Accessed 8 Nov. 2017].

Montessorirocks.org. (2017). A True Balancing Act: Technology and the Montessori Classroom | Montessori Rocks. [online] Available at: https://montessorirocks.org/a-true-balancing-act-technology-and-the-montessori-classroom/
[Accessed 8 Nov. 2017].
 Buncee | Features. [online] Available at: https://www.edu.buncee.com/features [Accessed 8 Nov. 2017].
Common Sense Education. (2017). Common Sense Education. [online] Available at: https://www.commonsense.org/education/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].

Summarizing Topics and Personal Reflections

Summarizing Topics and Personal Reflections;

I've made many discoveries since starting blogging and connecting with other students on Teacher  Librarian topics for the first time. Blogging is an open discovery process that leads to more paths of discoveries  sometimes I had to make a point of keeping on topic and not get too off track.

Overall I loved the inquiry constructism approach in constructing  new knowledge as a learning group and connectivism learning  through technology ; collaborating  with classmates on Google Hangout ( first time  for me ) and reading and commenting on other blogs. It was enjoyable starting with a broad topic and delving in was exciting to come upon great resources to widen my knowledge and then bookmark sites for future use. 

When I started my first couple blogs it was awkward in placing of links and images and  incorporating them and I did a lot of highlighting with different colors and font sizes which looks a bit distracting now that I look at it. I evolved in blogging by trying to incorporate links naturally and adding free images;tags ; videos and citing resources using Cite this for Me online and also giving my opinion sometimes and a little more about my experience too as I got more confident and less colorful highlighting! I found public  Free to use Google Images with the most variety where I did not have to pay for images which I found out quickly after trying to get images or not allowed to copy the URL.
The first topic and reading  of ; Why School?By Will Richardson gave a big picture flipped view of looking at what is 21st century learning look like and it was helpful to look at the different views of the  NCTE 21st century Literacy Learning from National Council of Teachers of English and BC Technology for Education for example. I hadn't thought about how much learning has changed because of this information economy and how teachers need to change to meet the evolving needs of students. This learning made me realize that the communication and life skills needed now by students have changed  a lot with information at their finger tips and use of digital tools with uses from substitution to redefinition. (SAMR model)

 These topics fostering reading ; cultural and supporting teachers learning with ICT and World Libraries and mobile devices gave me a wide view of overarching themes that TL should be aware of to support and facilitate learning for students.
I read about PLN's; Personal Learning Network at the beginning of the class and now I have formed my PLN with joining a Twitter feed of Teacher Librarians which I found very informative and by reading twits it lead to more links and discoveries of new digital tools which I would investigate further online creating more learning.From these discoveries and in reading others blogs I would check out their links  and then bookmark the sites I especially found helpful. I joined many e-newsletters like Edtopia ; Buncee and Google for Education which were helpful in keeping up to date and for further application of their digital tools.  Also reading other students blogs and commenting

from Google Free to use Imags

gave me a different perspective that I hadn't thought of like teaching in undeveloped countries and the challenges teachers have and how key technology can be to bridge the information learning gap and efforts to do this. I experimented with Popplet lite for brainstorming on my iphone and adding as my knowledge grew.I tried to make this larger but it only works on mobile phones not larger devices. If you pay a fee you can use Popplet on an i pad. For more details check out;Popplet.

This process of learning has left me with many new insights and learning that has begun to develop into a deeper knowledge as I put into application the new information and use of the digital tools.