POST #2: Challenges to Using Iowa AEA Online Resources

 There are so many great choices of online resources that I can use in my classroom.
I think one of the biggest challenges for me is to narrow down the selections of what resources I want to use.  I need to get familiar with the new resources that I have not used in the past.  I believe it will be time consuming to find the best videos to use in my History class.  I would start with using the Media Specialist at school to help guide me on the online resources that would suit my needs.   I think maybe alternating what online resources I use for different years would give a variety to my class.

With teaching there always seems to be hurdles to overcome and problems to tackle.  Incorporating these resources is no different.  If I want the students to access them and be confident in navigating them, I will need to provide time to train them in basic computer skills and do a significant amount of modeling using the “I do”, “We do”, “You do” approach.  I will thoughtfully consider the resources that would enhance the instruction and then weigh that against the time required to train students to use it.
        There are TONS of resources tailored to education and teaching beyond those featured on the AEA website.  Another challenge I anticipate is that I will forgot all of the benefits of each of the sites and forget to use them in instruction.  I plan to print off the variety of informational fliers linked to the modules in the course and put them in an “AEA Resources” binder.  This way I can quickly revisit each with a reminder of what each site has to offer.

I am lucky to be in a district that is very pro technology and understands the value of getting it into the hands of its educators and students.  That even trickles down to my students in preschool.  We are provided with a classroom laptop, two full sided iPads and an iPad mini.  We also have an AppleTV connected to a wall mounted project that makes displaying online materials very easy.  The huddles I have encountered are two fold.  The first is a me thing, I could never find my schools password and username to use the resources! I always had to look back through emails to find it because I always seemed to misplace my Iowa AEA online brochure that had the login information on it.  The other issue I've encountered is bandwidth.  Most of the time, I am able to use the online resources easily but if I want to use the online resources at certain times in the day, the connection is slow and having 20 4-5 year olds wait for something load or start is frustrating.  My first issue is easy to solve, for my second challenge I guess I would have to get in touch with our tech guy and inform him on the times of day when I am experiencing the lags in internet speed.  

     I feel my biggest challenge is time - time to explore what is available, time to plan lessons that are relevant to my current curriculum, and time to implement them in the classroom.  As with any technology it takes more time, at least initially, to teach students how to use the resource independently and confidently.  
     My first step will be to spend time just exploring the vast resources available.  My next step will be to choose a few (one or two) resources that I would like to have my students use consistently all year long.
Then I will plan lessons that can be infused into my curriculum.   (I know if I plan the lessons now, and they are ready to go in the fall, I will be more apt to use them.)   My last step will be to find resources that as a classroom teacher I will use to support learning.   For me summer is the perfect opportunity to work on this goal.
     My last challenge - time to implement - may be my greatest challenge (at least in my head).  It seems every year we are asked to teach/cover more and more.  I just need to keep reminding myself that using these resources will actually cover many more standards at one time.   Plus the students will actually be much more actively involved in their learning.
     

I don't see a lot of challenges to using Iowa AEA Online Resources.  If you are comfortable with technology and have them time to search I feel like it is a great tool to have in my tool belt.  It does take time though.  If you pole teachers I would guess that most say that is the biggest challenge to education.  We run out of time to look through materials.  I will try to take some time throughout this summer to lay out some different resources that can align with my Science/Social Studies Units.

I will be teaching elementary physical education this fall for the first time.  There is already a curriculum of activities for me to follow but I am looking for ways to make it better and more interesting.  I would like to find appropriate video and musical content.  I think my biggest challenge will be the time required to preview resources and find the ones that align with the lessons.  This will require time on my part.  From what I have learned in this course use of the advanced search option on many of these sites will make this process much more efficient

MY NAME AT THE TOP OF THIS ASSIGNMENT SAYS I AM NANCY GABRIELO.  IT WON'T LET ME CHANGE IT.  MY NAME IS NANCY GABRIEL.  THANKS!
  My biggest challenge will be in getting the students to use this.  They always seem to want to just google something for the answer.  They think it saves time, but it doesn't.  It is actually time consuming narrowing down the search into good research material. Also, much of the information they find by googling is not valid or is simply someone's opinion.   I think if I explain the value of this to students and demonstrate each area, they will see how helpful and beneficial it will be in finding material that is actually useful.  
   I think it will be particularly useful for writing research papers.  All of the sources will be legitimate and the citing of the resources is made very easy.
   In the literature classes I am teaching, we make the material relevant to today's society.  I think  SIRS will be helpful in discussing both sides of an issue today that can relate to the subject and theme of the story or novel.  
   I am thinking that on their first research paper, I will only allow them to use sources that come from AEA Online Resources. They will complain at first, but after using this, I am certain that it will be their most used place for information thereafter.

The biggest challenge for implementing these resources in my classroom is the vast quantity and variety of resources.  Not only are there a large number of resources, but finding the right ones that supplement my teaching and curriculum would take time.  The availability of these online resources is awesome, but to use them effectively, I would need to spend a considerable amount of time browsing them.

Another challenge that I see is making sure I am familiar with the workings of particular databases so that I am able to serve as a guide when presenting them to my students.  Naturally, students are full of questions. To make the implementation of a new resource go smoothly in class, it is important that I have a good understanding of the resource itself.  Again, the factor of time comes into play.  Having time set aside to introduce something new can be tough when trying to accomplish so much in class each week.  As the teacher, I would have to be sure that the resource I am introducing to my students is worth the time it takes.  Though students today are very tech-savvy, so it may be an easier implementation than I think!

TIME will be the biggest challenge for me for many reasons.  Time for me to decide which tools I want my students to use.  Time because I will have to take instruction time to teach the students how to use the tools.  Time for me to figure out (since I am switching grade levels) what I want to use where in the curriculum.  Time because I will want to implement so many things.  
The steps for me to take will just have to be baby steps.  This will be hard for me because I will want to do it all right away.  Everything will be new this year so it will be a perfect time to try everything out.  I can take my time to explore, get familiar, and learn what will work together.  I can try different tools for different units. I will keep notes while working through everything this next year to help me in years to come.  

I feel that one of my biggest challenges in implementing the use of the Iowa AEA Online resources in my school will be incorporating resources that include videos, such as Learn360, BookFLIX, and TrueFLIX, without students simply using just the video elements. YouTube, Netflix, and other video browsing during non-school hours has trained them to hop from video to video. In order to overcome this challenge, I plan to introduce the resources by looking at all of the interactive pieces, as well as discussing the possible uses for each resource. I will also continue to monitor student use of these resources while they are in the library in order to encourage students who are only using the video elements to explore other interactive options (such as puzzles, extensions, author information, project ideas, activity center, and safe websites that discuss the topic further).

A challenge I currently have is that classroom teachers have different expectations for students citing information and images that they gather and use. To tackle this issue, I would like to meet with grade level teams and make list of citation expectations for each grade level. Part of this will need to include educating the teachers on how easily the citations for images and information from articles can be copied and pasted. Once a plan is made, I can then share this across grade levels, as well as with the middle school, and support their classroom work with teaching/reviewing consistent citation expectations.

There are so many amazing resources with Iowa AEA Online.  And time is always an issue for teachers when it comes to lesson planning.  I feel that the biggest challenge for me as the Instructional Coach, is to simply have conversations with teachers about how they can use these resources in their classroom.  I will need to have conversations about standards, themes, assessments, and just the content of each teacher in general.

However, after those conversations have been made, then I will need to take the time to share just the resources that will be most beneficial to each teachers classroom and students. So, I will first start with conversations.  After the conversations, I will work to share with teachers what resources are best suited for them.  From there, then I will work with teachers to utilize the resources.  My plan is to begin with the new teachers to our district and just make sure they are aware of the resources at their disposal.  As the school year progresses, I can provide support in finding resources and helping all teachers use them in their classroom.

I think that the biggest challenge to using the resources available through the AEA Online is to find the correct resource that enhances the project you want to do that is also worth the time to teach the technology.  By this I mean that each and every year we are asked to do more in our classes with no more or less time than in the past. As we are being streamlined into what we "have to" teach it takes away much of the creativity that was open when I started teaching in the State in the early 90s.  An example would be that we did a research unit in Government on the process of passing a Bill in the State Legislature.  To present the project we started to use the Power Point program.  We would need to spend at least a day or two for the students to "learn" the program.  It was a balance of teaching the content of Government verse the teaching of the technology. As the years went by the need for the teaching of the technology decreased because the program was taught in earlier years in our district.  This also changed because how we could teach about the Bill procedures became a lower priority as we changed our Government curriculum.  Now we have an American History project that we used the AP Images for to see major events that happened in their lifetime.  This helped to teach the proper copyright issues about where and how you can use images from the internet. Again with the time crunches and new standardizing of what "has" to be taught takes away from a fun and educational activity that there just isn't the time to do. Where I see the best opportunity to expand the use of the resources is in outside of class time individual research. To use the AP resources is an example.  If we are to maximize the effectiveness of these resources we need to work harder to be the most creative in the least amount of time.  

I love that you are involving the Media specialist.  Time management and creativity are a common theme in this thread and collaborating seems the best approach using the personnel available as well as the online resources.

As a classroom teacher there I believe there are many resources that could help enhance my instruction and provide my students with the kind of access they could use to add to their knowledge on a particular subject and/or topic. We are fortunate that our students have access to computers daily. For the most part we are 1:1 as a classroom. I believe the biggest challenges might be deciding what resources to use first and then how they can be used successfully.
The first thing I will do is decide on one or two resources and become as familiar as I can with what the resource looks like, how to properly navigate the website, and then how I can connect the resource to our current learning targets. Once I feel confident on my end, I will then be able to introduce the tools to the class.
Secondly, I would need to decide whether I should first model to students how to the website can be navigated or allow them to explore and figure out things on their own (likely in teams). Once students become familiar with the website I will then make it available to them as a tool to enhance their knowledge of the topic.
Finally, I will need to help students by answering any questions they may have or by challenging them by asking the right questions in order to make sure they are reaching the correct levels of thinking while using the resource correctly.

For me one of the biggest challenges will be deciding which resources to use.  I can see myself using a number of them in my Life Skills Classes.  As I stated before, I have a health component, and a financial literacy component, so the Teen Health and Wellness resource would be perfect.  Now I have to figure out how to incorporate that information into the short amount of time I have for each of those sections.  I would also like to try the Soundzabound and clipart for student projects.  In all of these cases, I feel that I need to at least be familiar with them in order to give basic instructions to my students on utilizing them.  I don't know if that time exists right now!  It may end up being a process that I investigate throughout this year and discover ways to better incorporate next year.
I might also assign an investigation to a group of students and have THEM show us what they can do with the resources.  This strategy doesn't always work, so I would need to be deliberate in my groupings.  Time and investigation are probably the biggest hurdles!

Using the Iowa AEA Online resources in my classroom will be challenging to start with since I work with special needs students on their individual academic goals. My students will have research assignments from their classrooms to complete so that's where these resources will be useful. With research assignments, many have difficulty finding reliable sources on the internet. There is so much to choose from that they often just pick the first place they see and use it. I am always having to teach and reteach how to find credible sources.
I would start with sharing the resources with the teachers who assign the research reports to the students so they are aware of them as well. My hope is that the general education teachers would use these resources so my students would be hearing more than once. I would then have to take the time to teach my students how to navigate each of the resources, such as Britanica, CultureGrams, Gale, or SIRS. I feel that once my students learn how to navigate these places they will get comfortable about using them, and then using them again for future classes while they are in high school.

My biggest challenges to using Iowa AEA online resources would fall to the fact that I don't have my own "classroom."  My role as curriculum facilitator means that I work to support the teachers in the district and don't have many opportunities to work directly with instructing students.

That being said, I believe that I can use these different resources when modeling and providing curriculum support to various teachers.  I provide a lot of support for social studies education and am excited to see how we can incorporate Culture Grams, sirs, points of view, and other online options.  I also plan to share the Teen Health & Wellness resource with our counselors, as social emotional behavioral mental health is a big focus of our professional development this year.

One other topic that I would like to address with using online resources is the issue of copyright and fair use.  Many teachers are confused by or unaware of some of the restrictions of classroom use vs. fair use.  I plan to take the additional tools mentioned in this self-paced course to help guide teachers to be more aware of copyright requirements.

I think the biggest challenge with using the Iowa AEA Online Resources is the pure fact that there are so many different tools and resources that a person has trouble even knowing where to start and what resources to try.  To go along with that challenge, to be able to instruct my students how to use and navigate each of the resources is also a challenge because there are so many different ones.
The best way to deal with these challenges would be for me to continue working through the different tools and then to pick 2 or 3 of them that I feel would work the best for my students and what we are learning or focusing on.  Once I have chosen the tools I will spend some time using them and figuring them out so that I will be able to instruct my students on how to use the resources.  When I present the unit, project, or the tools to the students I am going to give them many examples and samples of how the tool works and what kind of information they will be able to get from each one of them.  I will also try to share a video tutorial on working with each tool and resource so they can see if from another point of view.  I do believe that taking it all in 1 tool or resource at a time is the best way to do it, using "small bites" so my students and I can learn to use the tools to the best of their abilities.  And, for me personally, just spending some time in advance just searching and working with the the tools will be the best for me to figure them out and use them to the best of their abilities.

The biggest challenge for me in order to implement these great resources in my classroom will be to find the time to sift through and find the grade level appropriate materials to use with my students.

I absolutely loved the AEA Digital Library. I like that this tool is like Youtube, but you know when you are surfing it is safe to use and appropriate for the classroom setting.

To overcome the challenge of not enough planning time to implement these resources, I will set myself attainable goals. I would like to use at least one AEA resource a week in my lesson plans. I feel this will give me and my students a chance to become more comfortable with the different resources. Many of the resources had the capability to save videos and books to a list. I will use this feature when possible so that I may easily access these resources from year to year, thus saving even more planning time.

I will have two major challenges to using these AEA online resources in my classroom.  First, I currently cannot use technology in my Japanese classroom.  Everything here is old fashioned in the sense that we will occasionally be able to use a TV and computer in the classroom.  There is only one TV per grade level. When I come back to Iowa my other challenge will be getting my students used to using these resources.  Students will often want to explore and mess around on their own.
It will be hard for me to overcome the first challenge of technology use in the Japanese classroom.  Unless the Japanese want to use more technology, things won’t change for awhile.  The second challenge of students getting used to the resources, I will have to first pick my top one or two resources that I will use and give an introduction lesson.