Standard 3.5 Basic Troubleshooting
Candidates troubleshoot basic software and hardware problems common in digital learning environments. (PSC 3.5/ISTE 3e)
Artifact: Internet Lesson Plan
Reflection:
The artifact that I have chosen that best illustrates standard 3.5 basic troubleshooting is the internet lesson plan that I created in ITEC 7430. I created this multi-step lesson with an advanced anatomy and physiology teacher, Ms. Hartley-Lewis at Marietta High School. One of our goals as a collaborative team was to take a lesson that we had created and implemented in the past that combined content standards with student technology standards and increase the learning outcome by creating a more authentic lesson. We wanted the students to use digital tools and resources to analyze, evaluate, and create their cell magazines. Students working in differentiated groups of 3-4, were to create/design a magazine or journal that is informative and creative with a focus on the cell, tissues and histology. There was to be a minimum of 5 major informative articles (2 or more pages) and 5 short stories (a page or less). It needed to have: Cover Page, Table of Content, Editorials (letters to and from the editor), Articles, Advertisements, and Graphics. All communication and article sharing was completed in Google Drive and a webquest on Weebly was provided that included instructions for creating this project and resources to use for both research and technology. http://mariettamediacenter.weebly.com/index.html
This artifact demonstrates mastery of troubleshooting basic hardware and software problems in the management section of the Lesson Plan for Implementing NETS•S—Template I. This section contains a description of the classroom management strategies and troubleshooting strategies needed if problems should arise. It is important when using technology to plan and have a backup plan just in case I run into new issues. Technology can at times be temperamental and it is best to be prepared. I begin with researching. In the past and in this lesson, I try to research all potential software and hardware issues beforehand. My research methods include reading about the programs that we will be using in education blogs or websites to see if others have run into problems. I try to use programs that I have used in the past and have a good working knowledge of. If I am not familiar with the technology I always complete the activity I’ve assigned as if I were the student myself. I like to call it test driving the technology. For this particular lesson, I anticipated that there might be problems with using Google Drive and Google Docs so I asked the teacher to speak to her students a few days before the lesson and to make sure they could access their email accounts. All students need email accounts to create a Google Drive and using this software was important for the group collaboration to occur in this lesson. Another troubleshooting strategy I employed was I consulted with the school’s IT department to make sure the desktops and laptops we would be using for these activities had the updated version of the programs needed. These are all important steps to take when creating a lesson with a large technology component.
From this artifact I learned that while Google Drive and Google Docs are good programs for group collaboration and sharing, its biggest drawback is needing access to an email account. Students at Marietta High are not given email addresses, they usually create their own with many different email carriers. Many do not use their email on a regular basis so even prepping them before hand to check their email accounts, we ran into many problems creating accounts in Google Drive because of this issue. Next time I use Google Drive with a classroom I will have all students create Google accounts and have them use their school logon credentials to create their accounts.
Creating this artifact improved student learning in this class on this standard. The students walked away with a solid understanding of the standards and they also learned how to create a document collaboratively online. The impact was assessed by the rubric created to grade this assignment.
The artifact that I have chosen that best illustrates standard 3.5 basic troubleshooting is the internet lesson plan that I created in ITEC 7430. I created this multi-step lesson with an advanced anatomy and physiology teacher, Ms. Hartley-Lewis at Marietta High School. One of our goals as a collaborative team was to take a lesson that we had created and implemented in the past that combined content standards with student technology standards and increase the learning outcome by creating a more authentic lesson. We wanted the students to use digital tools and resources to analyze, evaluate, and create their cell magazines. Students working in differentiated groups of 3-4, were to create/design a magazine or journal that is informative and creative with a focus on the cell, tissues and histology. There was to be a minimum of 5 major informative articles (2 or more pages) and 5 short stories (a page or less). It needed to have: Cover Page, Table of Content, Editorials (letters to and from the editor), Articles, Advertisements, and Graphics. All communication and article sharing was completed in Google Drive and a webquest on Weebly was provided that included instructions for creating this project and resources to use for both research and technology. http://mariettamediacenter.weebly.com/index.html
This artifact demonstrates mastery of troubleshooting basic hardware and software problems in the management section of the Lesson Plan for Implementing NETS•S—Template I. This section contains a description of the classroom management strategies and troubleshooting strategies needed if problems should arise. It is important when using technology to plan and have a backup plan just in case I run into new issues. Technology can at times be temperamental and it is best to be prepared. I begin with researching. In the past and in this lesson, I try to research all potential software and hardware issues beforehand. My research methods include reading about the programs that we will be using in education blogs or websites to see if others have run into problems. I try to use programs that I have used in the past and have a good working knowledge of. If I am not familiar with the technology I always complete the activity I’ve assigned as if I were the student myself. I like to call it test driving the technology. For this particular lesson, I anticipated that there might be problems with using Google Drive and Google Docs so I asked the teacher to speak to her students a few days before the lesson and to make sure they could access their email accounts. All students need email accounts to create a Google Drive and using this software was important for the group collaboration to occur in this lesson. Another troubleshooting strategy I employed was I consulted with the school’s IT department to make sure the desktops and laptops we would be using for these activities had the updated version of the programs needed. These are all important steps to take when creating a lesson with a large technology component.
From this artifact I learned that while Google Drive and Google Docs are good programs for group collaboration and sharing, its biggest drawback is needing access to an email account. Students at Marietta High are not given email addresses, they usually create their own with many different email carriers. Many do not use their email on a regular basis so even prepping them before hand to check their email accounts, we ran into many problems creating accounts in Google Drive because of this issue. Next time I use Google Drive with a classroom I will have all students create Google accounts and have them use their school logon credentials to create their accounts.
Creating this artifact improved student learning in this class on this standard. The students walked away with a solid understanding of the standards and they also learned how to create a document collaboratively online. The impact was assessed by the rubric created to grade this assignment.