Effective reflection should involve four steps: Assessment, probing deeper/looking for meaning, planning and review. The act of reflection becomes tremendously powerful when we couple it with the discipline of taking action and checking for results. We will look at each of these steps and offer a set of simple tools to help you improve your reflection practices.

Now, while the memories are hopefully clearer, is the perfect time for you to conduct intentional reflection on this past school year’s performance.  These questions should provide a systematic questioning or assessment of your performance in several key areas. To give you a starting point, four key areas have been pinpointed and several questions to ask yourself are provided. As you answer these questions, be sure to record your observations in a special notebook or computer file for later reference. If you have questions that you feel will serve you better, feel free to replace the ones provided  with your own.  What’s vital is that you answer the questions honestly and as fully as possible.

1. The Big Picture (school year as a whole).
   • What is my overall view on the school year?
   • In what situations did I or did I not really succeeded this year?
   • Have I been more tired  or spread thinner than in the past?
   • Does this fit with my personal mission?
2. Planning/Instruction
   • How was the pacing?
   • What lessons seemed less effective this year than in the past?
   • Am I teaching a specific lesson out of laziness?
   • Are there any students that I am under-serving or having difficulty reaching?
   • How can I make my classroom better serve my students?
3. Relationships
   • How are my relationships with the administration, fellow teachers, students and parents?
   • What could I do to improve these?
   • In what ways could I experience growth in my relationships?
4. Professional Development
   • What would I like to learn to improve as a teacher?
   • What do I need to commit to learn in order to stay relevant?
   • What additional actions could I take to meet my personal mission?

Step two, consists of studying your responses and performing a deeper analysis of these responses. This is done with the intent of finding shared commonalities or previously unidentified connections. In the process of reflection, it’s quite common to identify the surface symptom rather than the less visible core cause. By digging a little deeper, this misdirection can be significantly reduced and allowing for the crafting of solutions that will be more effective. Several questions that will help in this process are provided below.

• How are these successes/problems connected?
• Could this be a result of classroom management?
• Is this connected to scheduling or planning?
• Is this a result of teaching methods?
• Could this be caused by my limited knowledge of a subject?
• Is this a failure of technology?

Following the deeper analysis, it’s time to create a plan of action. With the core causes identified, rank the identified solutions in order of importance. It may help to separate these into three categories based upon urgency. Those needing a short-term response (one month or less), longer-term  attention (greater than one month), and those of questionable importance. From these groups, pick the actions to which you are most committed and determine the logical time necessary for their accomplishment. Use a calendar and set a target date for completion of these actions. Hint: Make sure that you set clearly definable actions as your objectives (i.e. Read The Elegant Universe by August 1^st or create a good writing habits poster by July 17^th). Furthermore, it is very important to select reasonable completion dates.

The fourth and final component of effective reflection is to review your progress. Often goals and deadlines are set but there is no follow-up to see if they were achieved. To minimize this, pick at least one day each month and set half an hour aside to review your progress (try and make it the same day every month). Goals that are met may be crossed off the list, while those that haven’t been achieved will need a little more attention. As you examine these, see if you still believe in their importance. If you still feel that they are vital, go ahead and revise your process or completion date in the manner that makes the greatest sense. Those that no longer maintain relevancy can be dropped. Reviewing your progress on goals not only brings great satisfaction from seeing the progress, it will make you a better educator.

So take an hour or so and put these tools to use before you find yourself saying, “I can’t believe I let another year go by without really reflecting.” There’s no better time than today to reflect on your past year and begin crafting the future.

The professor, David E. Pritchard, led a research team that analyzed student performance in an online homework system called MasteringPhysics.com during four different semesters. The researchers were able to measure the time spent on each question and look for suspicious work patterns. If a student took less than a minute each answering several complex questions and got them all right, for instance, the system flagged that as likely cheating. “Since one minute is insufficient time to read the problem and enter the several answers typically required, we infer that the quick-solver group is copying the answer from somewhere,” said the researchers in a paper due out today in the free online journal Physical Review Special Topics–Physics Education Research.

Based on later surveys of the same students, researchers found that the culprits typically copied answers from friends, by logging onto a friend’s account on the system to copy work or by getting answers via e-mail or instant message.

For veteran teachers this is hardly a surprising revelation. The complexity of cheating and plagiarism schemes has increased with the rise of technology and ability to transfer information digitally. Cellphones and other devices have made cheating easier than ever, see The Cheating Heart for an overview. Furthermore, despite the education aimed at informing students about copyright and intellectual property, it is clear that generation y and future generations seem to have a different perspective regarding copyright.

While many would point to this as indicating the need for better detection systems, real success comes from successfully encouraging students to choose not to cheat. Restrictive access to technology and more robust detection schemes may seem appealing but lead to students and teachers engaging in a never ending cycle of trying to outsmart one another. This doesn’t mean ignoring cheating or giving it a free pass. In this Web 2.0 world, it does mean, demonstrating a better way and allowing students to make choices. If unethical, according to Professor Pritchard, these choices mean that cheaters will earn the scores they deserve.

In my next article I will outline three keys to building an environment supportive of ethical decision-making. Until then I’d like to hear your comments and observations.

With a growing expectation that both the Federal and State governments will provide a large infusion of funds in 2010 to facilitate school reform, it is important that school leaders consider the extent to which technology will shape this effort.  The purpose of the list, then, is to provide a general framework for educators and policy makers as they consider the role technology should play in educational reform moving forward.

According to ISTE, educatonal leaders and policy makers must

1. “Establish technology in education as the backbone of school improvement.” According to ISTE, effective ans sustainable school reform must involve a significant commitment to technology. The authors argue, “technology must permeate every corner of the learning process.” This includes not only student learning but other important areas, including professional development and school administration.
2. Effectively utilize technology to better prepare students for post-secondary learning and increase college attendance rates. According to the authors, “we must embrace new instructional approaches that both increase the college-going rates and the high school graduation rates. By effectively engaging learning through technology, teachers can demonstrate the relevance of 21st century education, keeping more children in the pipeline as they pursue a rigorous, interesting and pertinent PK-12 public education.”
3. “Ensure technology expertise is infused throughout our schools and classrooms.” District leaders must ensure each school in their districts have access to technology experts who can effectively build the organization’s capacity to effectively utilize technology to improve student achievement.
4. “Continuously upgrade educators’ classroom technology skills as a pre-requisite of “highly effective” teaching.” According to the authors, “[Educational leaders] must commit that all P-12 educators have the skills to use modern information tools and digital content to support student learning in content areas and for student assessment. Effective teachers in the 21st Century should be, by definition, technologically savvy teachers.”
5. Ensure all new teachers are prepared and able to use technology to educate students.
6. Use technology to “scale improvement” and “accelerate reform.” “School districts that have successfully led school turnaround and improvement efforts recognize that education technology is one of the best ways to accelerate reform, providing the immediate tools to ensure that all teachers and students have access to the latest innovative instructional pathways.”
7. Ensure broadband access for all students and teachers.
8. Utilize technology to more effectively collect and assess relevant data. Teachers must use technology to help them tailor instruction to meet individual student learning needs. In addition, teachers must utilize technology to collect the sort of data that can be used to inform their instruction.
9. Invest in research and development. “Increased investment in education R&D, particularly with regard to innovation in teaching and learning, ensures that we remain a global leader in education. By stimulating meaningful, broad-based research and the dissemination of such research, we can ensure that the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms keeps up with the goals and expectations we set for our students.”
10. “Promote global digital citizenship.”

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How to Run a Meeting Like Google– Carmine Gallo, Business Week

Digital Textbooks Open a New Chapter in the History of US Education– eSchool News

Twitter for Teachers: A Collaborative Effort to Teach Teachers about Twitter– Twitter for Teachers

R2D2, Where Are You?– Shawn, edbuzz

Start the New Year Off Right with the Essential Tools for Educators– Steven Anderson, Blogging about the Web 2.0 Classroom

8 Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2010– Sarah Perez, Read Write Web

Student Learns Homeschooling Can Be a High Tech Lesson– SnoValley Star

November Hotlist– Judy Brown, mLearnopedia

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Blogging Improves Young People’s Confidence in Their Writing and Reading– Ewan McIntosh

The State of E-Learning 2009– Tony Bates, E-Learning and Distance Education

Engaging Students with Engaging Tools– Ed Webb, EQ

Using Technology to Improve Collaboration– James Manyika, Kara Sprague, & Lareina Yee, What Matters

25 Sites for Free Educational Videos– refseek

Failing to Learn from Failure– Michael Horn, Disrupting Class

Homework in the Responsive Classroom– Elizabeth Rich, Teacher Magazine

Ten Common Phrases that Could Be History– Steve Rubel, Lifestream

Learned about Learning in 2009– Tony Karrer, Elearning Technology

Students use cellphones to solve math problems.

In a recent piece in THE Journal, Bridget McCrea spoke with a group of technology experts in order to compile a short list of technology trends educators should look for in 2010. Here’s McCrea’s list:

1. eBooks will gain traction in the K-12 market during 2010. According to J. Gerry Purdy, chief analyst for the business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan in Atlanta,

“The eBook phenomenon is gaining ground in the consumer space, where people are using them to read both fiction and non-fiction,” said Purdy. “The way the stars are aligned, it won’t be long before someone adapts eBooks out of the consumer space and makes textbooks available on these portable devices.”

2. Netbook functionality will improve enabling many districts to move closer to the goal of one-to-one student access. According to McCrea,

“One-to-one computer initiatives are proliferating throughout United States schools and are expected to become even more popular in 2010 as netbooks become even more affordable. Priced at $200 to $300, these small, inexpensive computers are helping to bridge the technology divide that exists at those schools where individual students don’t have access to their own laptops.”

3. More teachers will use interactive whiteboards. With the huge infusion of federal stimulus funds into public education, experts perdict more and more teachers will use these funds to outfit classrooms with interactive display systems. According to Sheryl Abshire, chief technology officer for Calcasieu Parish Public Schools in Lake Charles, LA.,

“Large, interactive display systems that allow teachers and students to work together in ways that traditional blackboards could not are gaining ground in the K-12 environment. Expect the trend to continue this year.”

4. Personal devices will infiltrate the traditional classroom.

“Sometimes barred from the classroom owing to perceptions of security risks and student “distractions,” smart phones and iPods are now making their way into the K-12 space, and with teachers’ and administrators’ blessings,” says McCrea.

5. New technology will enable educators to specifically tailor curriculum and more effectively differentiate instruction.

“On educators’ and administrators’ wish lists right now is an easier, tech-based way to assess, record and track individual student performance in the classroom. David Stienes, principal with private equity fund LLR Partners in Philadelphia, said those wishes could come true this year, courtesy of several emerging companies that are working on new student assessment tools.”

2010 looks to be another very exciting year for educational technology.

E-Learning: Where do we start? Where is it going?– Tech and Learning

Taking It Home With Self-Directed Learning– Bob Sprankle, Tech and Learning

November Hot List– mLearnopedia

The Powerful Combination of Mobile Devices and Learning Apps– The Mobile Learner

Top Fifty Mobile Learning Resources– Upside

5 K-12 Technology Trends for 2010– THE Journal

Take a look at this excerpt of his 2006 talk. If you want the full version, you will find it here.

How does technology impact our students creativity? In what ways might it be holding them back? We look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments…

In addition to her fine guest article, Jennifer has graciously provided EDBuzz fans the opportunity to win a copy of ISTE’s The Best of Learning and Leading with Technology. There are two ways to win:

1. Click here to register
2. Tweet or retweet the link to her article (http://bit.ly/1xepIM). Be sure to attach the hashtag #edbuzz

A winner will be selected Oct. 2, 2009. Spread the word and we’ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow…