Week 7 Reflection on HPI and Podcasts

Week 7 Reflection on HPI and Podcasts

Chapter 14 Reflection

I think any time we can use Human Performance Improvement concepts and systems it is good. To increase success in schools by having all stakeholders sign up for the vision is a win win situation.  To ascertain where the gaps in student performance are, and then design appropriate intervention strategies to fill the gaps and maintain the goals is essential in the 21^st century School.

The use of HPI in the school system could be applied to all levels of educational facets. Not just the students but also the administration, principals and teachers. As training is more performance improvement focused at the top levels it will move down the line to the student level. The human alignment with a district wide vision would be a great way to foster growth in a district. AYP and “effective” teacher designations that the state requires to be placed on teachers should be linked to valued accomplishments and factors that lessen the gap in learning outcomes. Instead of money thrown into the classroom maybe more should be thrown into Professional as HPI practices increase the human capital yields, which then gives a higher return in teaching skills.

When thinking about student HPI within the technology field we need to design assessments that diagnose the achievement gaps so we can then focus on lessening those gaps. We then should have cost effective programs and lessons that focus on smaller gaps in the curriculum rather than the big picture. Foe example if a class of 4^th grade students all take a math assessment and it shows two or three may be understanding most concepts but do not get three digit division. Then the teacher could intervene with targeted math programs to close the gap. Prior to that the teacher may have had a professional development day about reading data and design of programs for intervention. The RTI and Delta math programs are examples I can think of at present. The vision for the school is to increase math scores and the teacher in a HPI based system will be able to identify and give priority intervention to those students. This would be student focused and less money and time would need to be wasted on whole class instruction as most of the students have got the concepts

Podcasts.

The first of the two podcasts I have found this week that is educational is Time To Move. This is a fun podcast that gets kids up and moving while teaching about various curriculum interests. Brain Gym is the latest thing in classroom education and this fits in well. It is definitely for the elementary level. I played it for my kids in fourth grade and they had a blast. I think it would be great to use small segments after making a transition just to get the brain flowing.

The other podcast is relevant to our class is Teach With Tech.There are several episodes that discuss Teach with Tech" from the Indiana University School of Education Instructional Consulting Office designed to provide higher education faculty, K-12 teachers, useful information about integrating technology into their teaching If you get a chance listen to the Smelly Monkeys episode #9 it’s hilarious. This is about a family who do their own podcast  and how they have found their roles and what fun they have doing the show. It is very informative and explains how to get going with podcasts,and I can see my students really getting into this activity.

Read more: http://www.ipodder.org/p/Teach-with-Tech#ixzz2LZg4O6wY

  http://www.ipodder.org/p/Teach-with-Tech

I have loved podcasts for a long time. I listen to many NPR podcasts such as “This American Life” and “Car Talk” I can see that podcasts can be used in the educational setting readings of literature could be recorded on a podcast so students can follow along improving fluency. Students can get information from podcasts and the podcast lends it self to students that are not strong readers having access to information. We have actually had entire reading series put onto podcast so the students can read them online at school and home. Within the school system a pod cast could be used as a weekly newsletter that parents could access through the school website or a teachers blog. Weekly podcasts could be used to reinforce instruction, especially short podcasts that the kids could access while in computer lab on a regular basis and get information on subjects they are learning in class.