Jessica McHugh's Portfolio

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Welcome to Jessica's Portfolio page for ETAP 623 Fall 2014! This portfolio will demonstrate all of my work for the semester including the development of my mini course.

Topic/Purpose

As technology advances, the use of it is being incorporated in classrooms lessons and environments more frequently. This course will review the use and benefits of educational blogging and how to use them as needs assessments to track student progress and evaluation of instruction.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Problem

“Needs assessment in an analysis activity that examines the instructional problem, intended learners, and learning context” (Shambaugh & Magliaro, pg 61). A problem in today’s classrooms is the fact that teachers cannot always accurately evaluate a student’s progress throughout a unit without a large test or project at the end. Being able to monitor progress throughout is key in making sure students do not fall behind.

As educators, our goal is to figure out the problems and needs of our students and produce lessons and strategies to help these students. “Ultimately, a needs analysis is conducted to collect data that will be used to make appropriate decisions and to help you prioritize the identified needs” (Larson & Lockee, 2014, pg 27). I find I am documenting data constantly throughout the school year to make sure I am addressing the needs of my students accurately and appropriately through recording the progress of my students.

What is to be Learned

A tool to use to help have evidence of this progress is through blogging by students. Having a place for students to record what they are learning, it provides a place for the teacher to see what is actually being learned and understood.

Learner Analysis

This mini-course is mainly to be used by educators to learn about and use blogging for educational purposes. This mini-course primarily focuses on blogging for older-students so most of the learners teacher grades 7-12. This course can be informational to the tech-savvy educators but is still user-friendly enough for those newer or more hesitant to using technology in the classroom. Survey

Instructional Content

Students are familiar with working and expressing themselves online and engaging with others online. Students are able to express themselves through typing an technology, but most of them are not used to reading or writing in a blog. This will guide the mini-course further as an introduction to blogging for educators to introduce blogging to their students.

Exploring the Problem and Solution

The problem is both educators and students are not informed about all the possibilities and uses of blogging, especially in the classroom. This mini-course will be the solution to this problem as blogging can impact and enhance classroom discussions, reflection, and as a result of these, document progress management of what students know. The break down of this mini-course allows educators to become more familiar and learn about the benefits of blogging and has them create a rubric for the blog and a blog of their own.

Goals

The main goal of this mini-course is to teach learns and students how to use blogs to reflect on lessons and therefore, produce evidence of progress the student has with this particular strategy or on a topic over time to see if it is effective or isn’t working. The use of a blog can document the results of a strategy or goal of a lesson directly to each individual student.

Performance Objectives

Upon the completion of this mini-course, learners will be able to:

· Explain the definition of blogging

· Explain the benefits of reflection through blogging

· Explain the benefits of discussions through blogging

· Identify different sites that are good for educational blogging

· Develop grading rubrics for requirements of blogging

· Create a blog of their own

Task Analysis

General Outcomes: At the end of the unit, learners will have a better understanding of the benefits of blogging, reflection and discussions. The learners will also discuss, create, and apply a grading rubric for blogging along with their own educational blog.

Unit 1: What is Blogging?

· Learners will be able to define blogging and other associating terms and jargon

· Learners will learn the importance of reflection through blogging

· Learners will learn the importance of discussions through blogging

Unit 2: Use of Blogging

· Learners will explore different sites and examples of educational blogs already created

· Learners will learn how to create an appropriate grading rubric for their classroom blog

Unit 3: Creation

· Learners will develop an educational blog of their own

· Learners will develop an educational rubric for their created blog

Curriculum Map

References and Resources

Larson, Mariam B., and Barbara B. Lockee. "Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design." New York, NY: Routledge, 2014. Print.

Shambaugh, R.N & Magliaro, A.S. "Mastering the Possibilities: A Process Approach to Instructional Design." Allyn and Bacon. Print.