POST #2: Challenges to Using Iowa AEA Online Resources

I think the biggest challenge for me will be just becoming acquainted with the sheer number of resources that are available, and then figuring out which ones are most applicable and useful to me in my situation. It will also be a challenge to find the time in my busy schedule to be able to devote to that process.  The advantage that I have, of course, is since I am only substituting right now, I do not actually have a full-time school classroom, so if I need to take a day or a half-day off, here or there, I can do so.  Also, I do not currently have the need to write lesson plans, grade papers, etc., so finding time to do this now while I am renewing my license will be much easier than if I were to be trying to do it with full-time classroom responsibilities.  By setting aside a certain amount of time per week to become familiar with one resource or one database at a time, and just working my way down the list, I can start to get an idea for what is available.  
Having, in effect, two classrooms -- one in the schools, and one at my business (Taekwondo school), I know there are resources available that will help me become a better teacher and help my students learn better in both areas, and I'm positive that I will find resources that will "cross-reference" and I will be able to apply in both scenarios.
 

I feel the website password is the biggest challenge as a substitute teacher. I feel implementing the available resources for classroom instruction would be extremely time consuming for the teachers and students to learn and access. I also feel the available AEA online resources would need to be taught to all the staff and students to be most beneficial.
The steps to overcome these challenges would be the instruction of this online course to teach the available resources to the educators at a scheduled teacher in-service.  I see a building or on site educator as the "administrator " of the resources and to offer the instruction or guidance to the staff about the virtual library website.  I want to see the children learning and using these resources from the website at technology class. Because I personally use my own children to assist and teach me about the technology in our home.

 
     My biggest challenge in utilizing the AEA online resources is the time factor.  To explain: my schedule teaching PE St Cecilia School in Ames requires that my classes are non-stop throughout the day. This greatly diminishes time at school for professional preparation.  Also: the time demands of my second job restricts much of what I would often like to do in using online resources. Additionally, I have found the need to upgrade my tech skills for ease (therefore saving time) of using AEA online.  To overcome these challenges, I have recently begun to more effectively use the expertise of professionals and parents.    The many AEA online resources come as no surprise to me.  I am excited to utilize my improved tech skills (thanks to another online class which I recently took AND a helpful parent cohort) to upgrade my professional knowledge and skill in using those resources.

I think the biggest challenge to using the AEA Online Resources is the immense volume of information available.  It is almost like trying to do a Google search on a broad subject (for example:  The Solar System) and not really understanding where to start   Each database seems to overlap another.  Search options can be complex.   The volume of information provided can be used in print and digital methods (and digital methods are broad also).  I think to effectively use the AEA resources, you must devote some time to looking through each of the relevant databases.  Narrow the search by grade level, content and available output.  One benefit is the ability to share work with other teachers.  I haven’t looked, but I would suspect that teachers within the school district must be sharing lesson plans and detailing what AEA Online Resources were used to prepare those plans.  

As a substitute teacher my greatest challenges
 would be:

1.  accessibility unless the primary teacher provided me with that.

2.  filtering through so many choices and options, which is amazing.  Narrowing the selections or really try to determine which resource or medium would provide the greatest enrichment, most efficiently and effectively to my teaching goals for that topic.  

3.  Time.  I remember how much time I spent researching vs contact and evaluation. Researching was probably 50% of how I spent my time (which was not based on an 8 hour day/40 hour work week), far more.  

4.  Becoming more comfortable with the electronic systems and the procedures to implement.  I consider myself to me tech aware but not proficient.  I'm a hands on learner.  Being able to go online and experience what the videos were showing would have been far more valuable for me.

5.  Need for repetition.  Unless I can repeat what I've learned, the information becomes short term and is lost as such.

I think my biggest challenge will be in finding time to look through the resources to find all the valuable information that is out there for me. It may  be a challenge to know exactly how to navigate through all the sites(until I have 100% familiar with it).   It will be difficult to know which site is best to look at for what I need.  I love that they have tutorials that I can use to refresh my mind and I feel that I can possible use it for my students that struggle a little bit with technology.  Most of my students will catch on quite quickly but others that struggle can use that as a resource.  For the sites, that I plan to use in my classroom, I am going to use my smart board to help students as a whole group to see how it works.  I will then give students some time to investigate on their own and share with each other what they have found.  I will need to spend a little time using the resources first then pass it on to my students.  I plan on creating a screencast to help them log in to the site and start researching for research paper.

I feel that my biggest challenge in implementing the resources in my classroom will be finding the time to find supplemental material for my classroom use. AEA Online provides so many resources, it would be easy to become overwhelmed and not try to dive into the newness of everything. I tend to leave PD trainings thinking, “Oh, what a great resource! Now, how do I use it in MY room?”

To overcome this challenge, I will focus on one resource at a time. Since I am already familiar with Learn360, I will continue to use that, but learn how to implement others. Since taking this class, I have already navigated through CultureGrams and am slowly using it one day at a time. Once a week, my class focuses on a new country; we locate it on the map, we greet each other in their language, and then use the website to read a few facts about the country. I have showed my students how to access the website and informed them of the school’s username/password for their own reference. I think the next resource I will attempt to use in my classroom will be Britannica. We will have a research paper coming up, and this will be a great time to introduce this to my students. After we have begun that paper, I will make time to investigate the other resources and brainstorm ideas of how they could work for me in my classroom.

The biggest issue with using the AEA Online resources is that it is not set up for non-full time faculty.  You must get a login/password from a media specialist from what is posted online.  You need to have an affiliation somehow with a district.  For those of us who wish to keep our licenses current because we don't want to let our specialist degrees and designation - which are grandfathered in - go by the wayside and then have to jump through more hoops to re-up so to speak,  it is highly un-user friendly.  From what I can see with the systems still it is also still biased towards Mac users, the rest of the business world uses PC.  I know that there will be some claiming operating systems are far too similar but in practice, it always has problems.

Because I teach in an elementary classroom, I do not expect that I will be having students use the resources themselves as much as I will be using them to supplement my lessons. In this case, just familiarizing myself and spending time understanding how to use and find materials on each of these resources will probably be the most challenging aspect to using online resources. Nevertheless, this is something that I feel comfortable with provided that I can find the time to do so.

One of the drawbacks to the AEA online system is that you must be affiliated with a school to obtain a username and password.  As a substitute teacher, I do not have that link with one school. I have been able to talk to the media specialist at one of the schools where I teach to obtain a student password, but that does not allow me access to the teacher resources.  Another challenge is having the technological equipment available in the classroom to access the resources.  As a band teacher, I have been in many band rooms that do not even have a computer in the teaching area, much less interactive white boards, projectors, etc. that would enable teachers to make the most of these resources. For example, it would be wonderful to be able to use CultureGrams to provide cultural context for the music we are performing, but without having a way to display the information for all of the students, then the resource looses its effectiveness. The media specialist may be able to provide equipment for a short period of time in the band room, but the bigger issue is to continue to emphasize the need for ALL classrooms to include technology.    

First of all, I have the equipment, Promethean board, and know how to use it, which makes the use of the resources and connection to the students computers much less of a challenge then if these resources were not available. The biggest challenge though will be teaching the students how to navigate through the more complicated resources that are available to them, assigned by me or another teacher. In the Resource and ESL classroom, I have the privilege of much one-on-one time with students, which seems the best way to teach the navigation of a site for the students.
Overcoming the student navigation challenge:
The teacher must know the site extremely well to assist in navigation (probably the most important step and most time-consuming for the teacher).
Knowing the students’ computer skills helps the teacher choose whole group, small group, pairs, or one-on-one instruction of navigation.
Instruction should be explicit and modeled (great Promethean board time).
The teacher tutorial created with the website for the students to preview could be useful. (I would have to be taught how to do it).
When introducing the site, the teacher needs to ensure the students of the validity, relevance and value of the resource as it is used for the assignment.
In the end, practice makes perfect and teacher feedback is invaluable.

I believe the biggest challenge in implementing the AEA resources into a classroom will be to get the students to understand how to use each one.  Since there are so many resources to choose from, students (especially those who are just starting to learn how to do research for projects) may become overwhelmed in trying to learn and navigate through multiple resources simultaneously.
A way to prevent students who are new to the AEA online resources from becoming overwhelmed and/or confused could be to break them in one resource at a time.  What I mean by this is that a teacher could explain how to use one resource at a time in depth. Then, the students would do a few assignments that would require them to use the resource just taught to complete the assignments.  By doing this, they would become more familiar and comfortable with that particular resource.  Over time, the teacher could continually introduce other online resources in the same manner.  Hopefully this would help students master each of the online resources with little to no confusion.

As a substitute teacher, technology often challenges me. Working to access and assist students as they complete projects using computers always brings me anxiety. Usually the teacher leaves good directions to follow. The teens I work with can often guide me if I get stuck, but they do ask questions, too. And I would love to be able to help them get the most out of Iowa AEA Online, instead of being the leader who needs help and clarification. I need to improve my computer skills. Atomic Learning has been somewhat helpful in the past. It would be a great place to start, especially if I get advanced notice that "my" students will be using a certain program on a certain day. But just choosing a program to learn about (based on what students are using), or choosing one I might use in my own plans would be a strategy to overcome the challenge.

 I often would go to our AEA website and look at what is there for online resources, but didn't really feel that they would work for me and didn't feel very comfortable using them.  After this class, I now feel that these tools will be a great addition to my lessons and planning.

The biggest challenge that I can foresee is the time it will take to really explore what is available with the AEA online resources.  As I went through this course, I did pick out a few that I feel will be the "go to" ones for me, but I know that I could use others as well.  As I do explore what is there, I am hoping to make some good discoveries that will enhance my teaching!

I would like to talk to other art teachers and see how they may use the AEA online resources .  Being the only teacher at my school who teaches art, this is another challenge, but I do have a network of other parochial school art teachers in my area that bounces ideas around!  

Because I am a substitute teacher my biggest challenge in implementing the resources will be because I don’t develop the lesson plans where I think a resource would be appropriate. I think I will still be able to implement using some of the resources as I will be better able to assist students with research projects, and am better prepared to follow a teacher’s lesson plans when I am left with instruction to utilize the AEA Online resources.  

I think the biggest challenge would be getting the district to let us have this type of resource.  We do have some of the resources that I read about like bookflixs and a few other ones that our library sets up for each grade level.  Having Waterford and clip art has helped a lot with the students.  Especially when doing researcher papers.  Since I don't have a classroom I am not sure the steps I would take.  I know a lot of things have to be approved by the district before anything can be used.  That could take a day or so or even longer.  Just depends how much it is really needed.

I think my biggest challenge would I will be a substitute teacher so i am not sure the teacher will leave me information to use this online resource.  I think the biggest challenge for me if I was a full time teacher would be having the time to get familiar with the resources.  I feel I would most likely zero in a couple of them and try to become comfortable using them.

The greatest challenge to me to using the Iowa AEA online resources is having the time to preview each of the sites so that I can easily navigate each site and find the resources that enhance my lessons. There is a wealth of very good information and having the time to play around with it is difficult. It's time consuming to preview videos, music clips, and online books. I'm very excited to have free access to such an array of online resources.

I actually have had two challenges to using AEA Online Resources.

The first is time. I know that the AEA provides so many resources, but I've only had so much time to explore them. I was certain that there was more available that I could be using, but there are so many demands put upon teachers and the curriculum must keep pressing forward. Taking the necessary time to become familiar enough to effectively lead my classes through them seems a luxury, especially if I don't know that that dedication will provide dividends.

A class like this one is the answer to such a challenge. It was able to give me enough familiarity that I can better decide which resources are going to be beneficial and how to allocate my time.

The second problem has been our technology. The AEA resources may have been there, but my school's resources are limiting. At first it was a problem with having enough computers. We had to sign up to take our classes to communal computer labs, competing with every other class in the building for consistent access. Now we have far more hardware; I have a Chromebook network in my classroom. The explosion of availability as well as the push to become more paperless has taxed the amount of bandwidth we have. We've bottle-necked ourselves.

The district is aware of the issue, and we are in the process of rectifying the situation. We are moving in the right direction to be able to utilize the AEA's resources more fully.

The biggest challenge is to have the conditions outside the classroom meet the expectations for an online learning course.  
Access to technology, internet connectivity, smartphones, etc., for students once leaving the school environment is a rare situation, access at community centers and public libraries being sets of solutions.  Providing time in computer labs or classrooms before and after school.  I still provide written and printed directions for assignments and skill sets, and follow through on students using planners for the same, when and if the student is able to perform at these levels.