Week 5 Discussion

Effort is the only controllable source of success and students who truly believe that they can be successful have more motivation and initiative than other students(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155). Even if the task outcome isn’t a success, the reinforcement of it is and students will continue to work towards achievement of goals. Tracking will actually show students the correlation between effort and achievement. The spreadsheet example displays clearly to the student that increased effort translates in to higher grades. A teacher’s goal should be to train students to, not only, believe in the effectiveness of effort, but also, to have them track effort and achievement (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 156). I’ve seen this defeatist attitude that Pitler refers to in many children in my district. During my 14 years as special education teacher, I taught many children who didn’t put out any effort because they detected no correlation between it and positive outcomes. This permeated their lives, in school and out. We are striving to improve our positive attitudes toward overall school climate. The principals are looking for ways to improve and increase parent and community involvement while training staff to better understand differing cultures represented in our school.

So, how do we tie effort, motivation, collaboration, and assessment together? If the overall theme of all of these master’s courses combined point to technology; then technology is the answer! Page’s (2002) article about students in low socioeconomic populations referred to how technology integration strategies impact student motivation and self-esteem. This seems to be proven not only in all student demographics, but also in non-traditional students and minorities, including low socioeconomic status (SES) groups. The studies presented showed that positive self-concept and achievement were strongly related to increased use of technology. The studies also seemed to show that students benefitted positively from exposure to technology by gaining a sense of accomplishment and a higher sense of worth. The students engaged more with peers resulting in increased collaboration and interactions.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenosksi, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

Page, M.S. (2002). Technology-enriched classrooms: effects on students of low socioeconomic status. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(4), 289-409. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Number_4_Summer_20021&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=830