Professional Development Plan

Standard 2: Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.

1.      Skill I have: I already knew how to use some famous technology tools to teach in class such as Prezi.

2.      Need: I will need to make my skills toward using Prezi more effective, and also need to learn how to use Prezi to incorporate with smart board or interactive whiteboard. And then I need to learn how to use prezi as an assessment tool to evaluate students’ work.

3.      Short Term Plan: I will start to practice to use Prezi more and get familiar with its functions and practice how to use it to integrate with smart board or interactive whiteboard. I think I can finish this process by the end of this semester.

4.      Long Term Plan: I will have to learn and practice how to use Prezi to do evaluation, and make a report to discuss how Prezi can be an assessment tool for teachers to use in class. I think will start to work on that next semester.

5.      Goal: I think I will need to create a workshop for teachers to use Prezi to teach and evaluate. I also think that teachers’ perspectives on this workshop can help me to determine whether Prezi can be a tool to teach and assess or not.

Teaching with Technology project

    I am going to teach how to use apps for Chinese learning on iPad, and also how to incorporate iPad with Smartboard. Those apps I have been playing with are all free on iTunes, anyone who is interesting in learning Chinese is easy to use. When someone who is completely new to Chinese, those apps I chose will be a good start. Normally, when someone is learning Chinese, the difficult parts are pronunciation and writing Chinese words. Those apps I chose is focusing on Chinese word writing and how to pronounce Chinese word correctly.
    I am still processing how to use those apps to teach someone with iPad, but I think it should be really good. I was actually surprised by these apps, I wish I could have know how to use those language learning apps when I was learning English. It is amazing when I was using iPad to find those apps, there are tons of apps provided on iTunes that you can download either for free or pay. Since my project focus is on free apps, so I will just teach how to use those free apps. It is glad to know that there are a lot of people are trying to learn Chinese. I am looking forward to how my work in class soon!

Ertmer & Leftwich

    This article talks about teacher technology change. In this 21st century, technology integration is important for learners. The authors suggest that it is no longer appropriate for teachers with low-level technology skills to meet the needs of new learners. Also, in this article, the authors discuss four different variables that change teacher technology use (knowledge, confidence, beliefs and culture).
    For knowledge, the authors suggest that teachers need to broaden their conception of good teaching to include ideas that teaching is effective when we combine technology. Also, knowing how to use hardware and software is not enough for teachers to use technology effectively. In order to use technology to support their teaching, teachers need to know the knowledge of technology, not just knowing how to use it but knowing how to incorporate into classroom.
     For self-efficacy (confidence), the authors suggest that self-efficacy may be more important than skills and knowledge among teachers who use technology into curriculum. Teachers' confidence plays a key role when they are incorporating technology into classroom. So does beliefs. Also, the culture press has been addressed in this article. The authors indicate that culture pressure can be a positive factor to affect teachers to integrate technology into classroom.
    I think this article points out the important ideas about the change of teachers to use technology into classroom. I like the authors discuss into four different categories so that I can have a more clear idea. Because I am doing my graduation project about integrating technology to support vocabulary development in classroom, so I found it really easy to understand for me. I do think as a teacher we need to keep learning new technology, but time management is always the concern, I don't think we need to learn every single one of them but just the one is commonly used in the classroom. And I think practicing how to use new technology before you incorporating in your class is really important. You don't really want to waste your time figuring out the new technology in class. I have to admit, it is not an easy job, but as a teacher, we somehow need to do it. According to Hansen (2008), teachers should consider ICT as an assisting tool, it may never replace the role of teacher in a classroom, but those who use technology may replace those who don’t.