POST #2: Challenges to Using Iowa AEA Online Resources

One of the biggest challenges I see myself facing is how to use each resource I have learned about in this class in the appropriate way.  The way I will address this is by going back to the resources offered in this class and giving myself a "refresher" course right before I will use that particular resource in the class room.  This could be re-watching a tutorial video or revisiting ideas on how to best use each resource.

Another challenge will be having students learn how to use each tool effectively for themselves.  I plan on sharing resources (videos, guides, etc) with them to address this issue.  

A third challenge I will face will be just having adequate time to fit these resources into my existing curriculum.  Fixing this issue will involve revisiting what standards and key ideas I want my students to learn and then finding what online resources will be best for those particular lessons and themes.  

It will be a very big challenge for me, because of the limited exposure I have to each classroom.  I’m usually in and out in a day.  If I had more time to set up and be in the room in would be much easier.  Many times teachers already have lessons planned and they don’t appreciate you setting your own agenda.  I would try to get contact the teacher prior to entering the classroom and see if threes any way of implementing some of these I ideas into their classroom structure.  This is possible, but again very difficult because of the lack of time and the short notice from which you are suppose to fill in the regular teacher.  In a perfect world you could already have a lot of these resources set up and really use them in the classroom, because I think the students would be very interested.  

While there is no substitute for trial and error when using AEA on line services on any level, I believe AEA should do more to promote what they offer on line.  I found about Teen Health and Wellness from our school librarian at CCE, Kathy Barnett.  She sent me the link 4 years ago and thought I might use it. She was right!  I feel that in-services on your on line resources would be of great benefit especially to those of us that have been around for awhile.  (40 years!)

I think the AEA should put together an on site professional development series for schools that it serves.
Promote what you offer and make it available to teachers with support. Along with this, being able to take part in training on the various resources would be helpful to all teachers.  Your online services are underutilized, with most of the area of improvement being here in our schools.  I believe if more teachers knew about AEA online services they would use them.

My biggest challenge, I think was at the beginning of the school year and still is now that our media specialist is in the high school once a week. She put a poster in the library at the beginning of the school year and showed me some of the resources. I really didn't understand it until i started this course. I still have a lot to learn about it but I feel like I can help teachers and students better after taking this course. I believe that the media specialist and myself need to work with the teachers more on the different resources that are available to them and show them how easy it is to use the AEA. And the students need to know how many different resources that the AEA has for them. I think the day the media specialist is here. We need to work harder to get the teacher and the students to try the AEA and show them that it's easy and safer then google.

I think one challenge we all will face is how to implement so many great ideas and resources, without overloading our kids and the class. Hitting my kids with 5 new tools at once, while exciting for me, may be overwhelming for them. Filtering them in and making sure mastery is accomplished before introducing the next resource will be a must.

Training videos are an awesome tool, but adapting the training to a wide range of learning levels (I have several team taught classes each year) may be time consuming. Functioning in an already cramped pacing calendar already is going to make this an interesting challenge.

As I reread this post, I am struck that this seems like the typical educator response to being asked to do something new. And in all honesty, that is annoying! The thing is just to DO what I am concerned about..... filter in one new idea a unit or lesson plan and figure out how to adapt training videos for all learners.

I think that the biggest challenge for me will be to introduce and acquaint the students with the wide variety of resources and how to use them effciently.  Becoming more acquainted with the resources will take time but will be worth the effort. Learning how to effectively serach for topics will be a challenge as well.  Keeping a log of resouces I and the students find useful will help us in reserching topics. For example, one student is interested in studying Iowa history and current events.  Dividing these two subjects will be easier to study rather that doing both at the same time.  However, one resource may provide ilnformation for both so keeping track of the source, article or video will be helpful.

It seems that every advantage has a disadvantage hidden within it.  From this course, I learned that the AEA Online Resources are very extensive, ranging from research materials such as Britannica Online, SIRS Issue Researcher, and AP Images to literature resources such as TeachingBooks.net, BookFLIX, TrueFLIX to teaching resources such as Learn360 and Atomic Learning.  Add to that the vast storehouse of information in CultureGrams, GALE, iClipArt for Schools, Soundzabound, and Teen Health & Wellness, and I am swimming in an enormous amount of cool information and classroom resource material.  I realize that I don't know where to begin or how to integrate the resources into the classroom in a consistent, efficient manner. But I also realize that several of the resources had links to the Iowa Common Core which made it easier to connect the AEA resources to the concepts that are already embedded in lesson plans.  I also was impressed with the way most of the resources understood how to organize their user interface in a way that an educator would want to approach and search the material.  Clear navigational links and "save to my list" or "favorites" options allow teachers to browse and select/save in one step. I've also decided that I can create my own rotational practice of investigating one resource each week, and achieve a gradual integration of the AEA Online Resources into my professional experience.

The biggest challenges to using as many Iowa AEA Online Resources as possible will be remembering which ones will work best with different activities and convincing my students that these resources will be easier and better to use than "Googling".  That will make it imperative that I am as well prepared and planned for the lessons as I can be so my students don't get frustrated with me or the resource. That will take time and that may also present a challenge.  

To overcome these challenges, I need to start right away with one resource as soon as possible.  The more often I reference and use these resources, the more likely my students will be to go the AEA site. As I went through the training with each resource, I noted specific lessons that could be improved with that resource.  Not all of the resources were applicable to my grade level but most were.  I also have study hall time to go through the resources with my students and let them investigate on their own.  I'm not sure these resources are utilized in other classrooms.

I feel the biggest challenge of implementing the resources will be trying to find the right resource to use.  I have gotten a nice overview of what is offered on the AEA webpage, but now to find the right resource for the right assignment or project.  

One of the ways I will overcome this problem is spending time on the resources that I have found to be the most beneficial for the things I do in my class.  I have a health class and learned about a couple of resources that I will spend more time getting familiar with these resources before I use them with my students in the classroom.

As mentioned in a previous post I plan on investigation the many resources of the AEA as time goes on. I will do this on an as needed basis meaning that when a particular student in my alternative classroom shows the need for an alternative form of instruction than we currently offer I will go looking.
Already I have stumbled upon an issue and that is matching up the alternative instructional materials that I want to use with the accepted and required materials that we currently use. So far to overcome this I have simply taken out the book that we use for General Math and opened up the alternative course on the computer and basically did an item by item comparison of what each offers. This is a little time consuming but I hope worth the effort it takes. My plan is to use the "computer" learning as the teaching tool and then revert back to the tests from our current course and see if we can get some success here. If that does
happen - great!

There is so much content to find and evaluate within the Iowa AEA online resources...that I do at times feel overwhelmed. I try to remember that my end goal is to find content that will best fit the needs of the students in my classroom. Finding the time to navigate through the endless resources is also an obstacle for me. I will need to be disciplined with my time as I familiarize myself with these new resources. As I familiarize myself with a specific online resource, I am hopeful that my confidence level will also increase and I will begin to use these great resources effectively in the classroom.
Another challenge is the newness of this available resource. I generally conduct a "google search" or "youtube search" when I want to find information or an image. This will be quite a change for me to implement but I do understand the strengths and pros to the Iowa AEA online resources.
Finally, as a substitute teacher, my job is to follow the lesson plans from the regular teacher. I am hesitant to familiarize myself further with the Iowa AEA online resources because I wonder if I simply do not have a need for them in my substitute teaching positions.

One of the biggest challenges to using Iowa AEA Online Resources is that I am a para professional. Since I am a para, I am not in charge of deciding what the students use for their projects. If I am working with a student who needs to do a research, I feel comfortable using the online resources available. It will be handy to have the resources available for use.
If the teacher is looking for some help trying to decide how to assign a project or what to have the students put in their project, I would be able to suggest ideas from the online site. The teacher may have been too busy doing other things and not taken the time to look over the online resources. Since I know what is available, I could suggest some ideas as to how to assign the assignment.

Overwhelming!
As I was trying to review the different data bases, I had trouble in accessing them- nothing major mind you, but still frustrating.
And this is my challenge.
Every step of the way, when using the technology, I am faced with spending too much time trying to even get started.  I am so old I remember trying to thread a movie projector correctly as a student teacher back in 1978.
To overcome this obstacle, I've found that I have to;
1. Say to myself "You can do this."
2. Say to myself "You can do this."
3. Say to myself "You can do this."
I just started an eighth grade unit on The Great Barrier Reef and that will be my first attempt at using the great resources AEA has to offer. "I can do this."  

There are so many resources to choose from, that one challenge might be to limit yourself to introducing just one or two. You would have to decide how you are going to use the resource and come up with a specific plan for implementing it in your classroom plans. I am a substitute so I can imagine if I had a classroom I would want to spend a lot of time playing around with this new tool so I felt really comfortable guiding my students and felt confident helping them along the way.

I feel using any of the AEA resources in the classroom would be such a benefit to the teacher and student. But, like everyone else is saying, finding the time to sift through all of these resources is going to be a challenge. I think you just have to take one thing at a time. Find something that can be useful to your lesson and add that the first time. You can always add more later. See how it goes. Challenge yourself to use a different resource for another lesson next time.

There are so many resources available, I will probably forget when I have a resource available to me!  

The biggest challenge for me, is implementing some of these resources in my performance group.  It was much easier for me to discuss concepts in a general music classroom.  I have a routine in my performance classes that revolve around singing.  That is learning to sing properly, reading music properly, and working as a team.  That does not require too many outside resources.  This course did give me some ideas for lessons or units for a general music classroom.  

I will be a substitute teacher and do not foresee the opportunity to implement resources of the Iowa AEA Online website in the classroom. However, in the event of a long term placement I can see myself using the resources available from AEA Online.

As a sub my biggest challenge is to actually access all the sites without an account and password. However, if the students are left an assignment to do using the AEA Online Resources it will be useful to know about the various databases and how to navigate around them, which is one reason why I thought this class would be beneficial.
The time factor is another issue that might present a challenge. It has been my experience that when students have technology available it can take some time for them to settle down, maybe even be unable to find a laptop with enough battery to last through the class.
Personally, I have an interest in Teen Health and Wellness, since I often sub in the Special Education area in the High School age range. That said, I think that all the sites discussed are good resources and I look forward to encountering them in a classroom setting.

As a vocational instructor we work onsite most of the time. I do have laptops for all the students but there is only a temporary Wi-Fi link in my classroom. I have had trouble downloading to 2 or 3 laptops at one time. Not sure how 15 surfing the AEA Online services will work. As I have had the class do OSHA online in the library, it was an ongoing problem to keep the students from surfing the web in the background of the OSHA site. Many of the resources presented in the class did not have a direct Vocational/Carpentry application. I will need to do a lot of searching to find a suitable application for Home Building class.

Well, I think just the incredible volume of resources out there will be hard to sift through. The biggest challenge for me will be just wading in, and seeing what is there. I don't fear the process, just worry about the time required to dive-in. I have become comfortable over the years doing it "the old fashioned way" and now that every student has a chromebook in front of them, the challenge is to make their use of that tool meaningful educationally.

So I intend to wade into the Britannica resources, Culture grams, Learn 360, and AP photos for starters; and see where it goes from there.