Week 5

 Summary of Article:

        This week I read the article "Universal Design for Learning: Scanning for Alignment in K-12 Blended and Fully Online Learning Materials" by James D. Basham, Sean J. Smith, and Allyson L. Satter.  In this article, the authors look at a variety of online tools and rated them for learner accessibility.  To do this, the authors created a UDL Scan tool.  This tool reviewed instructional materials systems for their ability to be accessible.  

        The authors concluded that because students are spending more instructional time than ever on online tools, we need to make sure that these tools are following UDL principles and are accessible for all students.  If an online tool isn't accessible, it can not accurately monitor student learning or growth.  Furthermore, the student would not be able to show all that they know because they are restricted by the lack of accessibility of the program.  The authors express the importance of ensuring that educators and creators have high standards and expectations for online technology tools.

Connections between Article and Lesson Plan:

        There are several connections between the article and the lesson plan that I have created.  In my lesson plan, 5th grade students will be creating a final project of their choice to display what they have learned this year in regards to internet safety.  The students have a variety of online tools to choose from (Google Suites, Canva, Flip, etc.).  Using these tools, they can create a poster, a newspaper article, a podcast, a skit, a comic strip, or whatever they want as long as it relates to internet safety or being a good digital citizen.  By giving students a variety of online platforms to use, they can pick which they prefer and what works best for them.  When students are able to pick how they want to display their knowledge, they are more engaged and take more ownership of the project.  One of the UDL check points was "Illustrate through multiple media" and I think this fits that description very well.

Integrating CAST strategies into Lesson Plan:

        Two strategies that I am using are from the Engagement portion of UDL.  Guideline 7.1 says to "optimize individual choice and autonomy."  My lesson meets this strategy because students get to pick how the present the information.  By picking how they present the information they are offered choice and can develop autonomy over the project.  As stated above, when students have autonomy over a project, they are more engaged and produce a higher quality of work.  Guideline 8.3 states "foster collaboration and community."  My lesson meets this strategy because students get the option to work in pairs if they work like.  This allows them to practice their collaboration skills.  At the end of the project, students will get to present their creation.  This allows them to build community.

Week 4

Part 1: 

        For this blog post, I created a lesson plan that addresses the following standards; Next Generation Science Standard 3-5-ETS1-1 and ISTE 1.6.a Choose Platforms or Tools. The lesson plans that I have created using this website in the past have been great. However, today it feels like the website missed its mark. The lesson plan starts off with a good “hook”, however in the “independent practice” portion of the lesson, it talks about students “creating their own simple design following the guidelines given.” I am not quite sure what the students are creating here as the AI tool didn’t give any guidelines. 

        The lesson created aligned with the standards that I provided; however, the lesson was a bit vague and definitely needed to be “beefed up.” Additionally, the assessment created was very vague and did not give criteria for success. 

        To improve this lesson, I would need to go over to the “Group Work Generator” to create a project for the students. I would need to add more detail to the lesson plan about what simple design the students are creating and I would need to add success criteria to the assessment portion. 

        In my opinion, this tool is a useful starting point for rigorous lesson planning. The point of MagicSchool isn’t to do the work for you but to give teachers the starting block. From there, teachers are supposed to add their own flair and “bulk up” the lesson plan. MagicSchool gives us the outline and teachers are supposed to fill in the outline. To compare it to building a house, MagicSchool gives us the walls, teachers decorate and add the furniture. 

Link to Lesson Plan 

Part 2: 

        For this activity, I chose the “Vocabulary List Generator.” This is a tool that I have not had a chance to use yet on MagicSchool. This tool lets you pick a grade, the number of vocabulary terms you get (5, 7, 10, etc.), and asks for a standard or topic to address. For this list, I put 5th grade, 10 terms, and “STEM Engineering Design Process.” Some of the words I got were words that I had already thought of but some were words that I hadn’t considered before/had forgotten about. This tool could be useful if you need a list of words and don’t want to spend a long time thinking about which words. Now, I am wondering if you put the title of a novel/chapter book into the topic section if it would give words used in the book that students should know. I will test this idea another time. To use this list, I would print the words off and do a card sort with the terms and definitions. 

Link to vocabulary list 

Part 3: 

        Overall, I really like MagicSchool. This is a resource that I would use as a teacher and with colleagues. I think MagicSchool has a lot of good tools and can be used in a lot of different ways. A challenge I could see teachers having is that they think MagicSchool is supposed to do it all for them, when it is actually just supposed to be a jumping off point. In a PD that I have had on it, they have recommended using an 80 / 20 rule. MagicSchool does 80% of the work but then the teacher has to do the last 20% (proofreading, tweaking, adding/removing, etc.). There are so many benefits to MagicSchool. I think it will save teachers a lot of time and energy. So often teachers get burned out or stuck in a rut. MagicSchool can give teachers new ideas and help by saving our most precious resource, time. 

        I have not used any other AI tools in the classroom, however, I have seen a new AI software at a conference I recently attended that is meant to teach reading that looks fascinating. The students pick the topic and difficulty, the AI generates the story, and the student reads aloud. Next, the AI listens to the student and then generates a list of words the student needs to work on and asks comprehension questions. This software was just debuted 2 weeks ago so it is not yet ready for mass consumption but I think it will be amazing if we give it some time. 

        MagicSchool is a relatively new tool. As it is a new tool, there are bound to be quirks that need to be ironed out. However, I think if we give it time to grow and improve, MagicSchool will turn out to be a very useful tool for teachers.