Reflection for Lesson Two

My second lesson is all about technology. Students today are not only wanting to use
technology, but they are also expected to be “native” tech users. My reflection focuses on two aspects:
one, how media multitasking is present in student learning. Two, how social media can encourage
active learning. I wanted this lesson to showcase the value of using technology in a classroom, but not
to take away from traditional teaching. This class was originally designed for a two-hour block
schedule. My lesson plan will reflect 120-minutes of lesson plans during the same class period. As a
non-native teacher to ESL students, I work daily on improving my relationship with technology to help
them learn proper pronunciation and conjugations when speaking English.

“Learning a new language in a traditional way is not so enjoyable for today’s

technology dependent students, for this, the environment of the classroom has been changed” (Lari
2014 p.1). As a high school language auxiliary, I am faced with the challenge of meeting my students
language needs daily. In one study by Uncapher et. al (2017), it was said that, “American youth spend
more time with media than any other waking activity: an average of 7.5 hours per day, every day. On
average, 29% of that time is spent juggling multiple media streams simultaneously (ie, media
multitasking) (p.1). After reading this it became apparent that teaching a lesson that encourages my
students to use several sources of media at the same time may actually be helping them learn faster. I
have also come to the conclusion that if my average student, as noted above, is spending 7.5 hours a
day on media; then regardless if it is good or bad I should be engage in media multitasking as their
teacher. Technology is one of the best ways, I can scaffold my lessons.

My second lesson is the perfect standard to encourage multimedia tasking in the classroom:
“CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio,
visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and
evidence and to add interest” (National Governors Association Center 2019 p.9). In order to meet this
standard I have designed a 60 minute lesson that requires my students to use the internet to find a
famous invention and create a 45-second to a 1-minute presentation using PowerPoint. The first
objective, is all about them using their research skills to find a famous invention and create a
presentation about it. To incorporate both multimedia tasking and meeting the standard each student
will need to make an interactive presentation. I expect pictures and encourage music, and any other
aspect they can fit into a quick 45-second to 1-minute presentation. Essentially, they are making a
commercial. As noted in one study by Lari (2014), “Ozaslan & Maden (2013) concluded in their
study that students learned better if the course material was presented through some visual tools.
They, also, reported that teachers believed that PowerPoint presentations made the content more
appealing; therefore, they helped them to take students' attention” (p.2). Students today rely on visual
representation as a form of learning. This lesson will focus on their skills and allow my students to
create a powerpoint that describes Ozaslan & Maden (2013) have suggested. My students will meet
their second objective of applying their knowledge of digital media, by creating a PowerPoint with 10
slides that individually include text, graphics, and visual elements. This entire activity is directed
towards active learning. “Effective instruction builds bridges between students' knowledge and the
learning objectives of the course. Using media engages students, aids student retention of knowledge,
motivates interest in the subject matter, and illustrates the relevance of many concepts. (Mateer 2018 p.
1). Overall, this is going to be a time for my students who are very technology “native” to shine, and
for my students who do not spend as much time using technology this is their chance to practice.
Technology is growing daily and the more I can educate my students the better.