This is my last official blog post for CEP-812. The course seemed to fly by. There are two major topics to be discussed: personal growth and goals.
Growth
I think that I grew the most on the assignment requiring the production of a podcast. I learned several new applications: Audacity, GarageBand, Lame, and FeedBurner. I enjoyed experimenting with Audacity and GarageBand (although I sounded pretty stiff voicing my script). I found the assignment frustrating when it came to getting the podcast linked to my blog; the tutorials didn’t seem to cover my particular hardware-software combinations. I think that I would have given up trying to link my podcast to my blog if it wasn’t for the support offered by Sue and Emily through the Q&A discussion board.
One of the things that limited my growth was a general lack of time. Things were coming due in rapid succession and I didn’t have time to go back and master what I had just learned, like the podcast. I would like to spend more time playing with Delicious. I don’t think I am using it very effectively. I was really excited about the SIG and had a great group. I think it turned out OK but we were envisioning something grander. We ran out of time due to fighting the Weebly interface and had to recreate several sections that disappeared during editing.
Goals Met and New Goals
I think that I have met many of my personal goals: learning to use my interactive whiteboard, my document camera, my sound system, and Jing. I have learned to use them but have not fully integrated them into my teaching. My students find it entertaining that I keep switching between my traditional white board, my interactive white board, and the document camera as I try to find the best way to present, and capture, content. I’m sure that these things will become second nature with practice.
I have set some new goals. For example, I need to discipline myself to work more with podcasts and Jing. I need to set aside time for these “productions” but not be too much of a perfectionist or I will end up spending too much time on bells and whistles and not enough time on developing good lessons. I won’t rehash the rest of my hardware, applications, and professional development goals here but direct the interested reader to the “Personal Technology Plan” portion of my website.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TechQuest Project Evaluation
I would have to say that my TechQuest project was a bittersweet experience. At first, I was optimistic that my absent students would benefit from me posting daily content online. On the “bitter” side, I didn’t notice any change in student behavior/achievement for my efforts. On the “sweet” side I learned how to use my classroom hardware more effectively and discovered some excellent online tools for capturing content. As part of this blog entry, I have to respond to the following prompts:
How would I would approach a project of this type differently in the future?
I think that expectations of absent students and procedures for accessing missed content need to be established at the beginning of a course, not mid-stream. Including this information in the course syllabus and posting it on the class website would make students, and watchdog parents, more aware of the options available. Too many students resorted to the ingrained method of asking for missed work during bell time on the day they returned to class. I feel that a project of this nature would be more successful if it was implemented by a group of teachers (preferably the whole staff) and if it was initiated at lower grade levels where academic habits are being formed.
Another thing that I would do differently for a project of this nature is to do a better job of quantifying the results. I should have kept a running log of attendance data and the reported reasons for student absences. My informal observations showed me that more students were absent on assessment days or for review sessions preceding assessment days. I get the sense that these students are not coincidentally ill on assessment dates but rather they are working the system to gain extra study time and to ask their peers what is on the assessment. With no attendance penalties, and little motivation, it makes sense to only study exactly what you need to get by and avoid school as much as possible. This strategy can be especially effective when grades are heavily weighted toward assessment results and not daily work. Getting back to the topic of quantifying results, if I had used a counter on the class website, or implemented a learning management system (e.g. Moodle), I could have tracked how many students were actively accessing the posted resources.
What are some lessons that I learned?
One of the things that I learned is that the research in scholarly journals runs several years behind the implementation of the technology being studied. I suspect that this is due to the amount of time required for writing research grants, developing protocols, collecting data, and going through the peer review process. While this is sound scientific practice, it is less than useful for teachers exploring cutting edge interventions.
Another thing that I learned is that it valuable to have a peer group to bounce ideas off of and to have a group to hold you accountable for completing the project objectives in a timely manner. Given the work load of a typical teacher, it is extremely unlikely that one would undertake a project of this nature without an incentive (e.g. course credit) and without the support of peers in a similar situation as well as instructors with experience in providing guidance, resources, and insights.
What is the future of the project?
Even though I have not observed overwhelming changes in student performance, I feel that continuing the project is the right thing to do. All students, not just the absent ones, can benefit from having class content available outside the traditional classroom environment. Continuing the project will enhance my skills in using technologies like podcasting and screencasting and eventually help me build a “library” of content that can be used to create a blended or fully online course. As outlined earlier in the post, I will also look into tracking reasons for absences and the number of times online content is accessed.
If I really want to help students who are skipping or are absent due to disciplinary issues then I need to look beyond providing online content. No amount of content will be useful if the student isn’t motivated to access it. The key to helping these students is to work on making the content more relevant to their lives so they become engaged in the educational process.
How would I would approach a project of this type differently in the future?
I think that expectations of absent students and procedures for accessing missed content need to be established at the beginning of a course, not mid-stream. Including this information in the course syllabus and posting it on the class website would make students, and watchdog parents, more aware of the options available. Too many students resorted to the ingrained method of asking for missed work during bell time on the day they returned to class. I feel that a project of this nature would be more successful if it was implemented by a group of teachers (preferably the whole staff) and if it was initiated at lower grade levels where academic habits are being formed.
Another thing that I would do differently for a project of this nature is to do a better job of quantifying the results. I should have kept a running log of attendance data and the reported reasons for student absences. My informal observations showed me that more students were absent on assessment days or for review sessions preceding assessment days. I get the sense that these students are not coincidentally ill on assessment dates but rather they are working the system to gain extra study time and to ask their peers what is on the assessment. With no attendance penalties, and little motivation, it makes sense to only study exactly what you need to get by and avoid school as much as possible. This strategy can be especially effective when grades are heavily weighted toward assessment results and not daily work. Getting back to the topic of quantifying results, if I had used a counter on the class website, or implemented a learning management system (e.g. Moodle), I could have tracked how many students were actively accessing the posted resources.
What are some lessons that I learned?
One of the things that I learned is that the research in scholarly journals runs several years behind the implementation of the technology being studied. I suspect that this is due to the amount of time required for writing research grants, developing protocols, collecting data, and going through the peer review process. While this is sound scientific practice, it is less than useful for teachers exploring cutting edge interventions.
Another thing that I learned is that it valuable to have a peer group to bounce ideas off of and to have a group to hold you accountable for completing the project objectives in a timely manner. Given the work load of a typical teacher, it is extremely unlikely that one would undertake a project of this nature without an incentive (e.g. course credit) and without the support of peers in a similar situation as well as instructors with experience in providing guidance, resources, and insights.
What is the future of the project?
Even though I have not observed overwhelming changes in student performance, I feel that continuing the project is the right thing to do. All students, not just the absent ones, can benefit from having class content available outside the traditional classroom environment. Continuing the project will enhance my skills in using technologies like podcasting and screencasting and eventually help me build a “library” of content that can be used to create a blended or fully online course. As outlined earlier in the post, I will also look into tracking reasons for absences and the number of times online content is accessed.
If I really want to help students who are skipping or are absent due to disciplinary issues then I need to look beyond providing online content. No amount of content will be useful if the student isn’t motivated to access it. The key to helping these students is to work on making the content more relevant to their lives so they become engaged in the educational process.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Internet Research for TechQuest Project
What I Learned
Performing research for my TechQuest Project was frustrating. I spent way too much time trying to find scholarly articles relating absenteeism to reduced academic achievement/student performance. I did this thinking that I had to justify the premise of my project to the CEP-812 instructors and the academic community in general. What I found is that there is a general lack of research in this area. Most of the research is anecdotal and dates back to the 1980’s and 1990’s. I also spent too much time looking through research proposing solutions to attendance issues. After spending several hours spinning my wheels searching Google Scholar and MSU’s educational databases, I finally realized that while I would like to see attendance improved, that is not really the goal of my project and that improving attendance is largely beyond my control as a classroom teacher. The goal of my project is to make resources available to absent students and students in general. Therefore, I shifted the focus of my research to finding tools for making classroom content available to students. This proved more fruitful. In the “Tips and Tricks” forums in MSU’s EdTech courses I had read about “Jing” (a free screencasting resource). Google searches on “Jing” and “screencasting” yielded results. From there, I moved into exploring other tools for capturing and posting content.
Before discussing the results of my research, I would like to offer a side note on search engines and databases. Straight Google searches on absenteeism yielded the lowest quality hits - generally blog entries or unsubstantiated comments on organizational websites. Google Scholar was fairly helpful for locating information but it had the significant disadvantage of requiring subscriptions to access full articles. Being a MSU student gave me access to MSU Library search engines and subscriptions. Therefore, I could actually retrieve full articles, not just abstracts, for the better quality hits I was getting. This is something I will share with my students as we perform classroom research. I should better inform myself as to what subscriptions the district has and make sure that they are easily accessible to students from school and home.
Results of My Research - Absenteeism and Student Achievement
Research into absenteeism and student achievement/performance was, for the most part, fruitless. Rather than post a bunch of low quality, outdated references, I will provide a few sites that offer a snapshot of the current state of the problem.
The mission of the National Dropout Prevention Center is “to increase high school graduation rates through research and evidence-based solutions”. The NDPC recognizes 15 broad based strategies for increasing graduation rates. These strategies are presented in a 9 minute video. The site offers research and model programs and is useful for districts looking to reduce chronic absenteeism due to truancy. The downside is that the NDPC doesn’t address ways of helping absent students recover which is the goal of my TechQuest.
This Scholastic survey and a search on “absent students” on the National Education Association’s homepage reveals the typical methods teachers use to help absent students catch up. A quick scan of teacher responses shows that methods have not changed with the times and that technological solutions are the exception rather than the rule. I believe that this largely because
1) many teachers are not technologically literate and
2) that technologically literate teachers may be concerned about widening the digital divide. Chronically absent students often have limited access to technology; which is one of the reasons they may be disaffected enough to be truant. In any event, most teachers either set aside worksheets in folders for the missing student or have another student copy down the assignments for the day. The assignments are sent home with a sibling, friend, or parent or set aside until the absent student returns. Technological solutions are usually limited to posting a calendar of assignments online or maintaining a class website that outlines class activities without providing actual content.
Results of My Research - Technologies for Creating Content
The rest of my research has been dedicated to finding technologies that allow teachers to capture content for students, whether absent or present, as my underlying assumption is that all students benefit from multiple exposures to content and alternative delivery methods. A second assumption (one that is harder to rationalize) of my TechQuest is that students have access to technology while absent or when they return to school. It is worth noting that the technologies described here can be viewed both as a way of delivering content to absent students and as a way for absent students to deliver content to the teacher.
My research into technologies was two pronged: finding technologies that cover the range of content teachers might want to create and finding tools that are freeware, open source, and cross platform to make content more accessible to educators and students.
documents
Office suites include basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Several freeware choices include: Open Office, Google Docs, and Zoho but often lack the high end features of commercial applications like Microsoft Office. Office suites allow saving documents in PDF format; which prevents documents from being altered by the recipient and overcomes translation issues between different computing platforms. PDF readers are necessary for reading the files but also offer ways to annotate the document being viewed. The best overall summary of PDF tools that I found was in Wikipedia. For my TechQuest project, I will be using the iWork suite and Preview applications that came with my district provided MacBook and using PDF files as appropriate.
video
Video can be used in any number of ways to capture teacher or student presentations or demonstrations. Educators will be especially interested in “20+ Ways to Use Flip Cameras in the Classroom” and “Forty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom”. There are a wide variety of options for capturing video, from built-in cameras, to inexpensive Flip cameras, to high end video cameras. Technical manuals come with cameras or can be downloaded online from camera manufacturer sites. Searching YouTube and TeacherTube yields lots of tutorials on video hardware, shooting techniques, and editing options. Video content can be posted to YouTube, TeacherTube, embedded in websites and online learning systems, or e-mailed to students. I don’t foresee creating video content during the implementation phase of my TechQuest as I currently have limited access to video technology. I will revisit this issue when writing my personal tech plan.
screen capture/screencasting
Screencasting is used to record what is occurring on a computer monitor. WebResourcesDepot’s “10 Free Screen Recording Softwares for Creating Attractive Screencasts” offers screencasting applications for the Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems. It is worth reading the followup posts by users of the various applications to determine which system is right for you. Jing is the only option listed for both Mac and PC operating systems. For my TechQuest, I plan on using the free version of Jing. It is limited to 5 minute recordings so I will need to plan the lecture portions of my instruction differently or record a separate series of vignettes on key points.
podcasting
Podcasting can be used to post audio content as well as images in a format suitable for MP3 players. TopTenReviews summarizes the features and costs of the most popular commercial and freeware podcasting applications. For my TechQuest project, I will be experimenting with Audacity coupled with Lame. My MacBook has a built in microphone and I own a headset with a built in microphone for experimenting with scripted recordings. My classroom is equipped with a sound system which should allow me to capture classroom content live with appropriate computer cabling. A commercial product, GarageBand, came with my district issued laptop and will be explored as time permits.
text to speech conversion
Speech conversion is useful for students who benefit from having content read to them. This is an area that currently lacks applications that are cross platform, free, or flexible enough to accommodate a variety of document types. You can get a free demonstration of this technology at iSpeech but continued use is fee based. Additional resources and information on this evolving technology are available at: thefreecountry.com and Wikipedia. I consider this technology beyond the scope of my TechQuest but will continue to monitor the technology as it develops.
resources specific to my situation
I am including links to these resources because they affect the content that I create for my TechQuest although they will likely be of little use to the general reader. My classroom recently received a AVerVision CP355 document camera and an eno PolyVision whiteboard which includes Easiteach software.
Final Comment
I had an “aha” moment while writing up my research. Essentially what I have been doing is describing how to put together content for an online course; which could be viewed as educating a perpetually absent student. This connection reinforces the value of the work being done by my Special Interest Group (SIG) on Online Learning.
Performing research for my TechQuest Project was frustrating. I spent way too much time trying to find scholarly articles relating absenteeism to reduced academic achievement/student performance. I did this thinking that I had to justify the premise of my project to the CEP-812 instructors and the academic community in general. What I found is that there is a general lack of research in this area. Most of the research is anecdotal and dates back to the 1980’s and 1990’s. I also spent too much time looking through research proposing solutions to attendance issues. After spending several hours spinning my wheels searching Google Scholar and MSU’s educational databases, I finally realized that while I would like to see attendance improved, that is not really the goal of my project and that improving attendance is largely beyond my control as a classroom teacher. The goal of my project is to make resources available to absent students and students in general. Therefore, I shifted the focus of my research to finding tools for making classroom content available to students. This proved more fruitful. In the “Tips and Tricks” forums in MSU’s EdTech courses I had read about “Jing” (a free screencasting resource). Google searches on “Jing” and “screencasting” yielded results. From there, I moved into exploring other tools for capturing and posting content.
Before discussing the results of my research, I would like to offer a side note on search engines and databases. Straight Google searches on absenteeism yielded the lowest quality hits - generally blog entries or unsubstantiated comments on organizational websites. Google Scholar was fairly helpful for locating information but it had the significant disadvantage of requiring subscriptions to access full articles. Being a MSU student gave me access to MSU Library search engines and subscriptions. Therefore, I could actually retrieve full articles, not just abstracts, for the better quality hits I was getting. This is something I will share with my students as we perform classroom research. I should better inform myself as to what subscriptions the district has and make sure that they are easily accessible to students from school and home.
Results of My Research - Absenteeism and Student Achievement
Research into absenteeism and student achievement/performance was, for the most part, fruitless. Rather than post a bunch of low quality, outdated references, I will provide a few sites that offer a snapshot of the current state of the problem.
The mission of the National Dropout Prevention Center is “to increase high school graduation rates through research and evidence-based solutions”. The NDPC recognizes 15 broad based strategies for increasing graduation rates. These strategies are presented in a 9 minute video. The site offers research and model programs and is useful for districts looking to reduce chronic absenteeism due to truancy. The downside is that the NDPC doesn’t address ways of helping absent students recover which is the goal of my TechQuest.
This Scholastic survey and a search on “absent students” on the National Education Association’s homepage reveals the typical methods teachers use to help absent students catch up. A quick scan of teacher responses shows that methods have not changed with the times and that technological solutions are the exception rather than the rule. I believe that this largely because
1) many teachers are not technologically literate and
2) that technologically literate teachers may be concerned about widening the digital divide. Chronically absent students often have limited access to technology; which is one of the reasons they may be disaffected enough to be truant. In any event, most teachers either set aside worksheets in folders for the missing student or have another student copy down the assignments for the day. The assignments are sent home with a sibling, friend, or parent or set aside until the absent student returns. Technological solutions are usually limited to posting a calendar of assignments online or maintaining a class website that outlines class activities without providing actual content.
Results of My Research - Technologies for Creating Content
The rest of my research has been dedicated to finding technologies that allow teachers to capture content for students, whether absent or present, as my underlying assumption is that all students benefit from multiple exposures to content and alternative delivery methods. A second assumption (one that is harder to rationalize) of my TechQuest is that students have access to technology while absent or when they return to school. It is worth noting that the technologies described here can be viewed both as a way of delivering content to absent students and as a way for absent students to deliver content to the teacher.
My research into technologies was two pronged: finding technologies that cover the range of content teachers might want to create and finding tools that are freeware, open source, and cross platform to make content more accessible to educators and students.
documents
Office suites include basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Several freeware choices include: Open Office, Google Docs, and Zoho but often lack the high end features of commercial applications like Microsoft Office. Office suites allow saving documents in PDF format; which prevents documents from being altered by the recipient and overcomes translation issues between different computing platforms. PDF readers are necessary for reading the files but also offer ways to annotate the document being viewed. The best overall summary of PDF tools that I found was in Wikipedia. For my TechQuest project, I will be using the iWork suite and Preview applications that came with my district provided MacBook and using PDF files as appropriate.
video
Video can be used in any number of ways to capture teacher or student presentations or demonstrations. Educators will be especially interested in “20+ Ways to Use Flip Cameras in the Classroom” and “Forty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom”. There are a wide variety of options for capturing video, from built-in cameras, to inexpensive Flip cameras, to high end video cameras. Technical manuals come with cameras or can be downloaded online from camera manufacturer sites. Searching YouTube and TeacherTube yields lots of tutorials on video hardware, shooting techniques, and editing options. Video content can be posted to YouTube, TeacherTube, embedded in websites and online learning systems, or e-mailed to students. I don’t foresee creating video content during the implementation phase of my TechQuest as I currently have limited access to video technology. I will revisit this issue when writing my personal tech plan.
screen capture/screencasting
Screencasting is used to record what is occurring on a computer monitor. WebResourcesDepot’s “10 Free Screen Recording Softwares for Creating Attractive Screencasts” offers screencasting applications for the Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems. It is worth reading the followup posts by users of the various applications to determine which system is right for you. Jing is the only option listed for both Mac and PC operating systems. For my TechQuest, I plan on using the free version of Jing. It is limited to 5 minute recordings so I will need to plan the lecture portions of my instruction differently or record a separate series of vignettes on key points.
podcasting
Podcasting can be used to post audio content as well as images in a format suitable for MP3 players. TopTenReviews summarizes the features and costs of the most popular commercial and freeware podcasting applications. For my TechQuest project, I will be experimenting with Audacity coupled with Lame. My MacBook has a built in microphone and I own a headset with a built in microphone for experimenting with scripted recordings. My classroom is equipped with a sound system which should allow me to capture classroom content live with appropriate computer cabling. A commercial product, GarageBand, came with my district issued laptop and will be explored as time permits.
text to speech conversion
Speech conversion is useful for students who benefit from having content read to them. This is an area that currently lacks applications that are cross platform, free, or flexible enough to accommodate a variety of document types. You can get a free demonstration of this technology at iSpeech but continued use is fee based. Additional resources and information on this evolving technology are available at: thefreecountry.com and Wikipedia. I consider this technology beyond the scope of my TechQuest but will continue to monitor the technology as it develops.
resources specific to my situation
I am including links to these resources because they affect the content that I create for my TechQuest although they will likely be of little use to the general reader. My classroom recently received a AVerVision CP355 document camera and an eno PolyVision whiteboard which includes Easiteach software.
Final Comment
I had an “aha” moment while writing up my research. Essentially what I have been doing is describing how to put together content for an online course; which could be viewed as educating a perpetually absent student. This connection reinforces the value of the work being done by my Special Interest Group (SIG) on Online Learning.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Project Description - TechQuest
Providing Assistance to Absent Students
Educational Need
Personal experience has shown that on any given day between 10% and 20% of students are absent from school. The reasons for absences are many: illness, school business, family vacations, suspension, skipping, etc. Many of these reasons are beyond a student’s control. Absent students miss instructional time: going over previous assignments, direct instruction, discussion, guided practice on new material, and new assignments. Academic performance of absent students tends to suffer; with performance degrading further with prolonged absences. The traditional method of assisting absent students is to attempt to send home textbooks, hardcopies of worksheets, and possibly notes, and hoping the student works on them. Otherwise, the teacher waits for a student to return and hands him/her a pile of work and gives a brief explanation during bell time. It is challenging for the teacher to get students “caught up” when they return. It generally cannot be accomplished during the school day as new instruction is occurring. Before or after school sessions are difficult to schedule unless students have a source of transportation. Lunch sessions are inconvenient for both the teacher and the student and are often too short to be effective. The worst case scenario is that lessons do not get made up or the student resorts to copying (without understanding) the work of other students to get out from under a backlog of assignments. Chronically absent students may become frustrated and drop out. With the current emphasis on high stakes testing, even a few absences can affect student outcomes. With more and more states linking teacher pay to student performance, teachers need to take the issue of attendance to heart. Realistically, the methods suggested here can benefit all students, not just the absent ones.
The Role of Technology
Technology can be used to mitigate the negative impacts of absences in several ways. Technology allows lessons to be “captured” and accessed at a time and place that is convenient for the student. Technology allows students access to the teacher and classmates outside of school hours and allows students to submit assignments while they are out of school. Technology is not a complete solution to the problem as accessibility can be an issue for students of lower socioeconomic status. For prolonged, scheduled absences, it may be possible to loan the necessary technology to students as long as they have connectivity.
Relevant Research
There is not an abundance of research in this area. I suspect that this due to the fact that most public schools view attendance as a student problem, not a teaching problem. The research I’ve found focuses on college attendance. Results are generally anecdotal, largely due to poor tracking of student attendance at the college level. One study (Randy Moore. (2003). Attendance and performance. Journal of College Science Teaching, 32(6), 367-371) states that there is a strong correlation between attendance and high performance and between low attendance and poor performance. The study cautions that teacher efforts may not help students with chronic attendance issues, “Poorly motivated students who miss lots of classes will probably make the lowest grades, despite our best efforts to help them learn by offering extended office hours, help sessions, and so forth” (Moore, p. 391).
Resources
There should be no additional technology costs for this project as all the hardware and software needed is currently available within the high school or can be set up using Web 2.0 technology available through the internet. The real investment will be in teacher time; time to learn to use the technology and time to create the instructional materials.
Plan for Implementation
There are many possibilities to be explored. and not all of them can be fully implemented in an 8 week course. Options that will be considered initially are:
• making the online version of the textbook available to students (possible immediately)
• making electronic copies of handouts and worksheets available to students and encouraging them to return work electronically (possible immediately)
• providing links to online resources that cover the content missed (possible immediately)
• capturing discussion notes using an interactive whiteboard and posting them to the class website (requires experimentation - easily accomplished short term)
• capturing lessons using podcasting/videocasting technology and posting them to the class website (requires experimentation - longer term)
Addressing the Four Common Places of Education
The role of the teacher in this project is to capture instructional objects and make them accessible to students in a timely manner, be available for answering questions and assessing performance outside of school hours, and providing regular feedback to students during extended absences.
The role of the learner is to be responsible for taking advantage of the options offered and to do so in a timely manner.
The subject matter for this project will be limited to high school chemistry but the methods could be adapted to almost any subject area.
There are multiple settings for the project. The teacher will be generating many of the materials at school, some concurrent with the actual lessons. Others will need to be generated during planning periods or away from the school. The setting for the student can be at school, at home, or even “on the road”.
Educational Need
Personal experience has shown that on any given day between 10% and 20% of students are absent from school. The reasons for absences are many: illness, school business, family vacations, suspension, skipping, etc. Many of these reasons are beyond a student’s control. Absent students miss instructional time: going over previous assignments, direct instruction, discussion, guided practice on new material, and new assignments. Academic performance of absent students tends to suffer; with performance degrading further with prolonged absences. The traditional method of assisting absent students is to attempt to send home textbooks, hardcopies of worksheets, and possibly notes, and hoping the student works on them. Otherwise, the teacher waits for a student to return and hands him/her a pile of work and gives a brief explanation during bell time. It is challenging for the teacher to get students “caught up” when they return. It generally cannot be accomplished during the school day as new instruction is occurring. Before or after school sessions are difficult to schedule unless students have a source of transportation. Lunch sessions are inconvenient for both the teacher and the student and are often too short to be effective. The worst case scenario is that lessons do not get made up or the student resorts to copying (without understanding) the work of other students to get out from under a backlog of assignments. Chronically absent students may become frustrated and drop out. With the current emphasis on high stakes testing, even a few absences can affect student outcomes. With more and more states linking teacher pay to student performance, teachers need to take the issue of attendance to heart. Realistically, the methods suggested here can benefit all students, not just the absent ones.
The Role of Technology
Technology can be used to mitigate the negative impacts of absences in several ways. Technology allows lessons to be “captured” and accessed at a time and place that is convenient for the student. Technology allows students access to the teacher and classmates outside of school hours and allows students to submit assignments while they are out of school. Technology is not a complete solution to the problem as accessibility can be an issue for students of lower socioeconomic status. For prolonged, scheduled absences, it may be possible to loan the necessary technology to students as long as they have connectivity.
Relevant Research
There is not an abundance of research in this area. I suspect that this due to the fact that most public schools view attendance as a student problem, not a teaching problem. The research I’ve found focuses on college attendance. Results are generally anecdotal, largely due to poor tracking of student attendance at the college level. One study (Randy Moore. (2003). Attendance and performance. Journal of College Science Teaching, 32(6), 367-371) states that there is a strong correlation between attendance and high performance and between low attendance and poor performance. The study cautions that teacher efforts may not help students with chronic attendance issues, “Poorly motivated students who miss lots of classes will probably make the lowest grades, despite our best efforts to help them learn by offering extended office hours, help sessions, and so forth” (Moore, p. 391).
Resources
There should be no additional technology costs for this project as all the hardware and software needed is currently available within the high school or can be set up using Web 2.0 technology available through the internet. The real investment will be in teacher time; time to learn to use the technology and time to create the instructional materials.
Plan for Implementation
There are many possibilities to be explored. and not all of them can be fully implemented in an 8 week course. Options that will be considered initially are:
• making the online version of the textbook available to students (possible immediately)
• making electronic copies of handouts and worksheets available to students and encouraging them to return work electronically (possible immediately)
• providing links to online resources that cover the content missed (possible immediately)
• capturing discussion notes using an interactive whiteboard and posting them to the class website (requires experimentation - easily accomplished short term)
• capturing lessons using podcasting/videocasting technology and posting them to the class website (requires experimentation - longer term)
Addressing the Four Common Places of Education
The role of the teacher in this project is to capture instructional objects and make them accessible to students in a timely manner, be available for answering questions and assessing performance outside of school hours, and providing regular feedback to students during extended absences.
The role of the learner is to be responsible for taking advantage of the options offered and to do so in a timely manner.
The subject matter for this project will be limited to high school chemistry but the methods could be adapted to almost any subject area.
There are multiple settings for the project. The teacher will be generating many of the materials at school, some concurrent with the actual lessons. Others will need to be generated during planning periods or away from the school. The setting for the student can be at school, at home, or even “on the road”.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Final Reflection: Growth and Goals
Growth
I noticed substantial growth during CEP 811. Growth, not so much from learning new instructional strategies, but in using those strategies within the realm of classroom technology. I was actually relieved to see that good teaching is pretty much the same in a virtual classroom as it is in a traditional “bricks and mortar” classroom. Emily Stone’s discussion of online teaching was very encouraging and helped to alleviate some apprehensions I have about implementing a blended, or fully virtual, classroom.
Looking back, I believe my greatest growth came from actually experiencing Web 2.0 applications and seeing that they are within the reach of my generation of digital immigrants. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set up blogs, wikis, websites, and collaborative documents. Linking these objects together was quite straightforward and allows for richer learning opportunities. Considerably more painful, but no less enlightening, was creating a WebQuest and a StAIR. The amount of planning, research, and design that goes into writing quality instructional objects is considerably more than goes into preparing a traditional lecture. In a traditional classroom setting, a teacher can adapt to changing situations and instructional needs on the fly. When developing an online object, the teacher has to think through many possible scenarios and anticipate anything the learner might need or mistakes they might make.
Goals
I would say that I have reached some of my goals. Learning Web 2.0 technology was the first step. The second step, a huge step, is to review my curriculum and determine how I want to incorporate these tools into the classroom in a way that is meaningful, and not just a “bells and whistles” replacement for old school pen and paper activities. The third step would be to start building a series of instructional objects that could be used within a traditional classroom, then adding them to a blended curriculum, and finally compiling them into a completely online learning experience. My district has made Moodle available to teachers and I need to start working with it in a more serious manner. There are several things that I can do to reach these goals. An obvious choice is to continue with MSU’s Educational Technology Program. Another option is to lobby for professional development time to work with instructional technology.
I noticed substantial growth during CEP 811. Growth, not so much from learning new instructional strategies, but in using those strategies within the realm of classroom technology. I was actually relieved to see that good teaching is pretty much the same in a virtual classroom as it is in a traditional “bricks and mortar” classroom. Emily Stone’s discussion of online teaching was very encouraging and helped to alleviate some apprehensions I have about implementing a blended, or fully virtual, classroom.
Looking back, I believe my greatest growth came from actually experiencing Web 2.0 applications and seeing that they are within the reach of my generation of digital immigrants. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set up blogs, wikis, websites, and collaborative documents. Linking these objects together was quite straightforward and allows for richer learning opportunities. Considerably more painful, but no less enlightening, was creating a WebQuest and a StAIR. The amount of planning, research, and design that goes into writing quality instructional objects is considerably more than goes into preparing a traditional lecture. In a traditional classroom setting, a teacher can adapt to changing situations and instructional needs on the fly. When developing an online object, the teacher has to think through many possible scenarios and anticipate anything the learner might need or mistakes they might make.
Goals
I would say that I have reached some of my goals. Learning Web 2.0 technology was the first step. The second step, a huge step, is to review my curriculum and determine how I want to incorporate these tools into the classroom in a way that is meaningful, and not just a “bells and whistles” replacement for old school pen and paper activities. The third step would be to start building a series of instructional objects that could be used within a traditional classroom, then adding them to a blended curriculum, and finally compiling them into a completely online learning experience. My district has made Moodle available to teachers and I need to start working with it in a more serious manner. There are several things that I can do to reach these goals. An obvious choice is to continue with MSU’s Educational Technology Program. Another option is to lobby for professional development time to work with instructional technology.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Online Learning Technologies
The topic of this post is online learning technologies, specifically those suggested in the Michigan Merit Curriculum’s Online Experience Guideline Companion Document .
A Technology I Would Like To Try
A technology that I could use in my chemistry classes is podcasting/videocasting. Utilizing this technology benefits students that have missed class due to illness, personal business, or an athletic/music event. Every year, several students are out for extended periods of time due to family vacations, suspensions, rehabilitation, or self-destructive issues. Even students that attend class every day may have trouble with a concept and need to hear it or see it again. By making podcasts out of key points, students could learn in a time slot that meets their individual needs and when they are motivated, or at least ready, to learn.
The Time Is Right
I think that the time is right for experimenting with podcasting given that my district recently purchased sound systems, eno white boards, and document cameras for every classroom. While all this technology is wonderful, there is still a possible issue of inequity due to accessibility. Some students, especially those of lower socio-economic status, may not own a type of technology that allows them to view the podcasts. Likewise, they may not be able to access school technology after hours as they must ride the bus home.
Content Delivery Options
Pretty much anything I do in the classroom could be captured as a podcast/videocast. Capturing voice and prepared lecture slides is easily done. With the eno board I am able to make screen captures of spontaneous discussions and solutions to homework problems. The most challenging content to capture is laboratory experiments. These would most likely need to be scripted and performed by the teacher during a planning period, although it is possible that students could be recruited to help outside a regular lab period. There has been some debate among my department members over capturing laboratory exercises. Some teachers feel that the whole point of labs is a “hands on” experience with science. Others feel that simulated experiences don’t instill knowledge as well. In any event, over time, I could capture enough content that the class could be offered in a variety of formats, from simple objects, to blended instruction, to fully online instruction.
Some Concerns
I do have several concerns about podcasting. One concern is the amount of time required to pre and post produce materials. I won’t get a feel for how big an issue this is until I actually make a few podcasts. A second concern is incorporating copyrighted material from textbooks and transparencies into my podcasts. I don’t want to have to make new versions of everything so that when I post something for the world to see I won’t violate copyright laws.
Reflections On Using Other Technologies
Looking over the table at the end of the Online Experience Guideline Companion Document, I don’t see any online technologies that would be hard to use with my students and all would be beneficial. There are some that are easy to implement and some that are more challenging. My district has Moodle available and I worked with it over the summer to capture research and discussions surrounding high school transformation. An electronic portfolio could be easily implemented through Google Docs, although I would put the burden of managing the content of the portfolio on the student. Simulations just take time to locate and even longer to write. WebQuests are time and labor intensive so I probably would not use too many of them in an already packed curriculum. Test preparation is also easy to do online in a variety of formats. I am concerned about actual online testing as it would be difficult to validate that the student is actually the one performing the work.
A Technology I Would Like To Try
A technology that I could use in my chemistry classes is podcasting/videocasting. Utilizing this technology benefits students that have missed class due to illness, personal business, or an athletic/music event. Every year, several students are out for extended periods of time due to family vacations, suspensions, rehabilitation, or self-destructive issues. Even students that attend class every day may have trouble with a concept and need to hear it or see it again. By making podcasts out of key points, students could learn in a time slot that meets their individual needs and when they are motivated, or at least ready, to learn.
The Time Is Right
I think that the time is right for experimenting with podcasting given that my district recently purchased sound systems, eno white boards, and document cameras for every classroom. While all this technology is wonderful, there is still a possible issue of inequity due to accessibility. Some students, especially those of lower socio-economic status, may not own a type of technology that allows them to view the podcasts. Likewise, they may not be able to access school technology after hours as they must ride the bus home.
Content Delivery Options
Pretty much anything I do in the classroom could be captured as a podcast/videocast. Capturing voice and prepared lecture slides is easily done. With the eno board I am able to make screen captures of spontaneous discussions and solutions to homework problems. The most challenging content to capture is laboratory experiments. These would most likely need to be scripted and performed by the teacher during a planning period, although it is possible that students could be recruited to help outside a regular lab period. There has been some debate among my department members over capturing laboratory exercises. Some teachers feel that the whole point of labs is a “hands on” experience with science. Others feel that simulated experiences don’t instill knowledge as well. In any event, over time, I could capture enough content that the class could be offered in a variety of formats, from simple objects, to blended instruction, to fully online instruction.
Some Concerns
I do have several concerns about podcasting. One concern is the amount of time required to pre and post produce materials. I won’t get a feel for how big an issue this is until I actually make a few podcasts. A second concern is incorporating copyrighted material from textbooks and transparencies into my podcasts. I don’t want to have to make new versions of everything so that when I post something for the world to see I won’t violate copyright laws.
Reflections On Using Other Technologies
Looking over the table at the end of the Online Experience Guideline Companion Document, I don’t see any online technologies that would be hard to use with my students and all would be beneficial. There are some that are easy to implement and some that are more challenging. My district has Moodle available and I worked with it over the summer to capture research and discussions surrounding high school transformation. An electronic portfolio could be easily implemented through Google Docs, although I would put the burden of managing the content of the portfolio on the student. Simulations just take time to locate and even longer to write. WebQuests are time and labor intensive so I probably would not use too many of them in an already packed curriculum. Test preparation is also easy to do online in a variety of formats. I am concerned about actual online testing as it would be difficult to validate that the student is actually the one performing the work.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Jigsaw
Introduction
As one of the assignments in Session 5 of CEP 811(a course in Michigan State University’s Educational Technology Program), my group had to select either Google Apps or Zoho to explore in a jigsaw activity. Within our discussion forum, we decided to divide up Google Apps in the following manner:
Casey Schaub - docs
Jeff Dagg - spreadsheet
Jeff Vogt - presenter
Carla Hendon - ??
After reviewing our chosen applications we were required to write individual blog entries and then submit a collaborative report to the instructor.
Spreadsheet Summary
My portion of the jigsaw was the spreadsheet. At first glance, it looked very similar to Excel but with far fewer bells and whistles.
Features I Liked
There are a number of features that I liked about the application. One feature is the “formula builder”. It supports a wide range of mathematical functions, certainly enough to satisfy the needs of a high school math and science curriculum. The “form builder” is also a useful feature. It allows database templates, e.g. surveys, to be set up and administered electronically. The data is automatically returned to a spreadsheet for analysis. I also liked the “drawing tools”, they help turn a spreadsheet into a lab report.
Features I Did Not Like
Although the application has many good features, there were several I found frustrating. I thought the application ran slowly; I could easily out type it. I was not thrilled with the “help” system. I don’t feel it was designed with novice users, like students, in mind. You have to be willing to go through the help index or search through user postings to find the help you need. This makes things tough if you don’t know the name of the command you need help with. During the time I played with the application, I was not able to figure out how to type in Greek symbols so I could enter math or chemistry equations. I thought that the four font choices were slim pickings for a society used to accessing dozens of fonts. Another aspect I did not like was the fact that there is no “zoom”. I tend to work with large data sets and I hate having to scroll - I like to be able to see all the data at one time to get a feel for a layout. The “autofill” feature is not nearly as flexible as the “fill series” feature in Excel. I got stuck in “chart” mode and couldn’t get out because the window was larger than my screen and had no scroll bars to allow me access to the “close” button. I ended up having to quit out to escape.
Classroom Applications
There are several things that students would need to be taught before they could be set loose in the application. Most of these are true of spreadsheets in general and are not specific to Google spreadsheet. First, students need to understand the concept of working in columns and rows. They need to taught cell referencing. They also need to be instructed on how to create formulas and to realize that a cell contains a formula but displays a result.
Sharing
Sharing documents with other people (collaborators or viewers) is easily done by clicking on the “share” button on the upper right portion of the screen and selecting who to share the document with. Document owners need to know the e-mail addresses of anyone they want to invite. The owners retains the right to “unshare” the document later.
Applications in Science and Math
Spreadsheet could be used to create data tables for science labs. It does have an “import” feature which should allow data to be uploaded from digital probes. It has the ability to make simple graphs. I did not find a way to add trend lines or best fit curves; although these may be available as external gadgets. Forms could be useful for creating live surveys and then analyzing the data using statistical tools like means and standard deviations. Math classes could use it to graph functions, although it has far fewer capabilities than a graphing calculator.
Assisting Students with Collaboration
A teacher can help students collaborate by establishing teams so that students are not left to find partners on their own. Every student will need to have a valid e-mail address, and computer access, in order to collaborate. The teacher will need to demonstrate some basic features, like sharing and editing, as well as make the distinction between being a viewer and a collaborator. The teacher also needs to explain etiquette for editing. This will prevent students from deleting the work of their peers and will avoid locking up the application if multiple users edit the same material simultaneously.
Organizational Considerations
A primary consideration is providing access to computers and allowing students enough time to collaborate if their assignments extend beyond the class period. Students need to assign viewing privileges to the teacher so the teacher can review group submissions. The teacher might also want to suggest that each student edit in a different color so that the teacher can assess individual contributions to the team project. An alternative strategy would be to have individuals create documents that they only share with the teacher or submit as a blog entry. Teachers should instruct students how to give files meaningful titles and how to manage a large number of files within Google Docs using folders.
Conclusion
Spreadsheet has some drawbacks but these are outweighed by the ability to collaborate. I also get the sense that spreadsheet is a rapidly evolving application that will overcome many of its current limitations in short order. The fact that the application is currently free is a huge incentive for schools to consider in a time of dwindling budgets.
As one of the assignments in Session 5 of CEP 811(a course in Michigan State University’s Educational Technology Program), my group had to select either Google Apps or Zoho to explore in a jigsaw activity. Within our discussion forum, we decided to divide up Google Apps in the following manner:
Casey Schaub - docs
Jeff Dagg - spreadsheet
Jeff Vogt - presenter
Carla Hendon - ??
After reviewing our chosen applications we were required to write individual blog entries and then submit a collaborative report to the instructor.
Spreadsheet Summary
My portion of the jigsaw was the spreadsheet. At first glance, it looked very similar to Excel but with far fewer bells and whistles.
Features I Liked
There are a number of features that I liked about the application. One feature is the “formula builder”. It supports a wide range of mathematical functions, certainly enough to satisfy the needs of a high school math and science curriculum. The “form builder” is also a useful feature. It allows database templates, e.g. surveys, to be set up and administered electronically. The data is automatically returned to a spreadsheet for analysis. I also liked the “drawing tools”, they help turn a spreadsheet into a lab report.
Features I Did Not Like
Although the application has many good features, there were several I found frustrating. I thought the application ran slowly; I could easily out type it. I was not thrilled with the “help” system. I don’t feel it was designed with novice users, like students, in mind. You have to be willing to go through the help index or search through user postings to find the help you need. This makes things tough if you don’t know the name of the command you need help with. During the time I played with the application, I was not able to figure out how to type in Greek symbols so I could enter math or chemistry equations. I thought that the four font choices were slim pickings for a society used to accessing dozens of fonts. Another aspect I did not like was the fact that there is no “zoom”. I tend to work with large data sets and I hate having to scroll - I like to be able to see all the data at one time to get a feel for a layout. The “autofill” feature is not nearly as flexible as the “fill series” feature in Excel. I got stuck in “chart” mode and couldn’t get out because the window was larger than my screen and had no scroll bars to allow me access to the “close” button. I ended up having to quit out to escape.
Classroom Applications
There are several things that students would need to be taught before they could be set loose in the application. Most of these are true of spreadsheets in general and are not specific to Google spreadsheet. First, students need to understand the concept of working in columns and rows. They need to taught cell referencing. They also need to be instructed on how to create formulas and to realize that a cell contains a formula but displays a result.
Sharing
Sharing documents with other people (collaborators or viewers) is easily done by clicking on the “share” button on the upper right portion of the screen and selecting who to share the document with. Document owners need to know the e-mail addresses of anyone they want to invite. The owners retains the right to “unshare” the document later.
Applications in Science and Math
Spreadsheet could be used to create data tables for science labs. It does have an “import” feature which should allow data to be uploaded from digital probes. It has the ability to make simple graphs. I did not find a way to add trend lines or best fit curves; although these may be available as external gadgets. Forms could be useful for creating live surveys and then analyzing the data using statistical tools like means and standard deviations. Math classes could use it to graph functions, although it has far fewer capabilities than a graphing calculator.
Assisting Students with Collaboration
A teacher can help students collaborate by establishing teams so that students are not left to find partners on their own. Every student will need to have a valid e-mail address, and computer access, in order to collaborate. The teacher will need to demonstrate some basic features, like sharing and editing, as well as make the distinction between being a viewer and a collaborator. The teacher also needs to explain etiquette for editing. This will prevent students from deleting the work of their peers and will avoid locking up the application if multiple users edit the same material simultaneously.
Organizational Considerations
A primary consideration is providing access to computers and allowing students enough time to collaborate if their assignments extend beyond the class period. Students need to assign viewing privileges to the teacher so the teacher can review group submissions. The teacher might also want to suggest that each student edit in a different color so that the teacher can assess individual contributions to the team project. An alternative strategy would be to have individuals create documents that they only share with the teacher or submit as a blog entry. Teachers should instruct students how to give files meaningful titles and how to manage a large number of files within Google Docs using folders.
Conclusion
Spreadsheet has some drawbacks but these are outweighed by the ability to collaborate. I also get the sense that spreadsheet is a rapidly evolving application that will overcome many of its current limitations in short order. The fact that the application is currently free is a huge incentive for schools to consider in a time of dwindling budgets.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tangled Web (2.0) We Weave
The topic of this post is integrating Web 2.0 into the classroom. First off, Web 2.0 is kind of a catch phrase for anything new on the internet. There seems to be no exact definition. However, here is a great resource for exploring many new web technologies based on what you want to achieve: The Teacher Chronicles.
The assignment for this week focuses on the specific issue of what instructional strategies work well with blogs in the classroom. I’m going to take a specific slant on this. I’ve just completed 3 days (1 day yet to go...) of professional development on Reading Apprenticeship (RA) and I would like to connect the two. Two things struck me as I went through the RA training. First, reading and writing are almost inseparable. A blog is a good way for a teacher to see what is going on inside a student’s head. Moreover, it is a good way for students to see what is going on inside their own heads (metacognition) as well as the heads of their peers. This ties in the four dimensions of RA (personal dimension, social dimension, cognitive dimension, and knowledge-building dimension). By reading blog posts, a teacher can set up scaffolding for the student to approach the text being studied or help the teacher to select texts that are at a more appropriate level for a particular student (personalized learning). A second thing that struck me was that the RA program is designed around paper and pencil technology. I guess this technology is the lowest common denominator in classrooms around the world so anyone can use it. However, I feel that RA could take a step forward and embrace Web 2.0 technologies in situations where schools have the resources otherwise students will lose interest as we are no longer participating in their digital world. Students should be able to download texts and do double entry or triple entry journal entries using blogs or reader applications.
Obviously, blogs are not a panacea. They do not work well with all strategies as they are primarily a reflective tool. They could probably be used in many cases but it would be like using a hammer to drive a screw. An example would be learning by using inductive or deductive methods in math or science. There needs to be some immediate feedback in those cases so that students are not practicing the wrong thing. A teacher needs to be able to circulate and question students individually without wading through lots of text that students might generate over a period of several days depending on their access to the internet.
I think that I could alter the use blogs to fit into Chemistry as a way of incorporating Collins Writing strategies (another district initiative - that is 3 things I’ve tied together!). Instead of having the students respond on paper for a Type 3 (paper draft) or Type 4 (peer feedback on a draft) they could use a blog. Students hate to write using cursive and frankly, their penmanship stinks. They hate rewriting drafts of things, like lab reports, longhand. By using a blog they could electronically transfer the results of the Type 4 assignment over to a word processor to create a Type 5 (publishable paper). I wouldn’t use blogs for a Type 1 (capturing questions, ideas, or reactions) because the turn around time is too long. I also would not use blogs for a Type 2 (quick quiz). Both of these are not meant to be shared with others as they expose a student’s weaknesses. Type 1 and Type 2 writings are meant for fluency and are timed. Capturing Type 1 and Type 2 writings in a blog would be counterproductive to the aim of being able to handwrite answers to constructed response questions on standardized tests.
The assignment for this week focuses on the specific issue of what instructional strategies work well with blogs in the classroom. I’m going to take a specific slant on this. I’ve just completed 3 days (1 day yet to go...) of professional development on Reading Apprenticeship (RA) and I would like to connect the two. Two things struck me as I went through the RA training. First, reading and writing are almost inseparable. A blog is a good way for a teacher to see what is going on inside a student’s head. Moreover, it is a good way for students to see what is going on inside their own heads (metacognition) as well as the heads of their peers. This ties in the four dimensions of RA (personal dimension, social dimension, cognitive dimension, and knowledge-building dimension). By reading blog posts, a teacher can set up scaffolding for the student to approach the text being studied or help the teacher to select texts that are at a more appropriate level for a particular student (personalized learning). A second thing that struck me was that the RA program is designed around paper and pencil technology. I guess this technology is the lowest common denominator in classrooms around the world so anyone can use it. However, I feel that RA could take a step forward and embrace Web 2.0 technologies in situations where schools have the resources otherwise students will lose interest as we are no longer participating in their digital world. Students should be able to download texts and do double entry or triple entry journal entries using blogs or reader applications.
Obviously, blogs are not a panacea. They do not work well with all strategies as they are primarily a reflective tool. They could probably be used in many cases but it would be like using a hammer to drive a screw. An example would be learning by using inductive or deductive methods in math or science. There needs to be some immediate feedback in those cases so that students are not practicing the wrong thing. A teacher needs to be able to circulate and question students individually without wading through lots of text that students might generate over a period of several days depending on their access to the internet.
I think that I could alter the use blogs to fit into Chemistry as a way of incorporating Collins Writing strategies (another district initiative - that is 3 things I’ve tied together!). Instead of having the students respond on paper for a Type 3 (paper draft) or Type 4 (peer feedback on a draft) they could use a blog. Students hate to write using cursive and frankly, their penmanship stinks. They hate rewriting drafts of things, like lab reports, longhand. By using a blog they could electronically transfer the results of the Type 4 assignment over to a word processor to create a Type 5 (publishable paper). I wouldn’t use blogs for a Type 1 (capturing questions, ideas, or reactions) because the turn around time is too long. I also would not use blogs for a Type 2 (quick quiz). Both of these are not meant to be shared with others as they expose a student’s weaknesses. Type 1 and Type 2 writings are meant for fluency and are timed. Capturing Type 1 and Type 2 writings in a blog would be counterproductive to the aim of being able to handwrite answers to constructed response questions on standardized tests.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wiki-Tikki-Savvy
The subject of today's post is wikis. I really enjoyed the Wikis in Plain English video. It all seemed so simple - until I had to deal with editing Wikipedia. Dexter High School did not have a Wikipedia page. Our assignment called for us to create a page if that was the case. I flubbed my first attempt at creating and linking a Dexter High School entry to the Dexter, Michigan entry. I received a couple of warnings from the cluebot editor for my efforts and my "edits" were discarded. Humbled, but undaunted, I decided to copy the markup language syntax from another school's listing and modify the content to match my needs. This worked much better and looks pretty good. At least the cluebot hasn't sent me any additional warnings yet (knock wood). Here are the screen shots for my adding a "Education" heading to the Dexter, Michigan entry and the actual entry I then created. Not gripping narrative, but now I have a better feel for Wikipedia.
Creating my own wiki was much more fun. I'm not exactly sure what I will do with it at this point but I have experimented with adding pages, incorporating links, and adding graphics.
If you have been kind enough to read this far then you receive the bonus comments on the podcast feed. This should have been a simple task. However, every podcast site that I thought looked interesting was either just pushing single downloads or hadn't published anything in about year. After rejecting many sites I finally came upon "This Week at NASA" and added it to my iGoogle page.
Creating my own wiki was much more fun. I'm not exactly sure what I will do with it at this point but I have experimented with adding pages, incorporating links, and adding graphics.If you have been kind enough to read this far then you receive the bonus comments on the podcast feed. This should have been a simple task. However, every podcast site that I thought looked interesting was either just pushing single downloads or hadn't published anything in about year. After rejecting many sites I finally came upon "This Week at NASA" and added it to my iGoogle page.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Reflections on Computer-based Instructional Objects
Computer-based instructional objects, like the webquests and stand-alone instructional resources (STAIR) covered in CEP 811 can be great for students but require a huge amount of planning and careful execution if they are to achieve their design intent. The less tech literate the audience is the more carefully designed the object needs to be. If a student gets lost or frustrated when there isn't computer aided, or human, scaffolding in place then they will lose motivation and give up. Another pitfall of computer-based instructional objects is to let the learning targets play second fiddle relative to the special effects - like video clips, sound bites, transitions, or navigational options that allow the user to "wander off" in some tangential direction.
I was surprised to find that there is a lack of high quality webquests related to chemistry. Searches kept leading to either broken links or to the same dozen webquests. The webquests, for the most part, focused on topics off the main line chemistry curriculum, which makes them more like distractors than useful review resources. Here are some links to webquests that I found and some summary comments about my take on their quality and usefulness:
Arsenic and Old Lace (http://www.pekinhigh.net/webquest/snoble/index.htm) - I liked the way the students started with a movie clip and then took on the role of a different investigator to explore the effects of arsenic and its role as a health hazard today. I also liked the fact that the students put together a video of their findings. It promotes solid research in a format that appeals to todays students.
Cosmic Chemistry (http://www.can-do.com/uci/ssi2000/cosmicchemistry.html) - I found this quest to be extremely mundane in appearance and the content not that exciting. The worksheets and projects could just as easily and effectively be done using an astronomy text.
The Chemistry of Fireworks (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/webquest/content/fireworks.shtml) - this webquest was created by a textbook publisher and had the feel of a textbook. It spent a fair amount of time on the history of fireworks, which would not appeal to students and on the chemistry of fireworks. Students are definitely interested in making things burn or explode. I felt it would lead to students attempting to work with or create fireworks on their own without appropriate safety precautions. The liability aspect made my stomach churn.
Spring Break Chemistry (http://www-dept.usm.edu/~pt3/info/00-03/lesson_plans/plans/extra/013webquest.html) The premise of this webquest was to give students some chemistry homework over spring break. The questions were trivial and would lend themselves to wholesale copying 5 minutes before the assignment was due the first day back from break. Enough said.
I was surprised to find that there is a lack of high quality webquests related to chemistry. Searches kept leading to either broken links or to the same dozen webquests. The webquests, for the most part, focused on topics off the main line chemistry curriculum, which makes them more like distractors than useful review resources. Here are some links to webquests that I found and some summary comments about my take on their quality and usefulness:
Arsenic and Old Lace (http://www.pekinhigh.net/webquest/snoble/index.htm) - I liked the way the students started with a movie clip and then took on the role of a different investigator to explore the effects of arsenic and its role as a health hazard today. I also liked the fact that the students put together a video of their findings. It promotes solid research in a format that appeals to todays students.
Cosmic Chemistry (http://www.can-do.com/uci/ssi2000/cosmicchemistry.html) - I found this quest to be extremely mundane in appearance and the content not that exciting. The worksheets and projects could just as easily and effectively be done using an astronomy text.
The Chemistry of Fireworks (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/webquest/content/fireworks.shtml) - this webquest was created by a textbook publisher and had the feel of a textbook. It spent a fair amount of time on the history of fireworks, which would not appeal to students and on the chemistry of fireworks. Students are definitely interested in making things burn or explode. I felt it would lead to students attempting to work with or create fireworks on their own without appropriate safety precautions. The liability aspect made my stomach churn.
Spring Break Chemistry (http://www-dept.usm.edu/~pt3/info/00-03/lesson_plans/plans/extra/013webquest.html) The premise of this webquest was to give students some chemistry homework over spring break. The questions were trivial and would lend themselves to wholesale copying 5 minutes before the assignment was due the first day back from break. Enough said.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The first posting!
Hello, and welcome to my blog. I will be sharing my thoughts about educational technology as I work through a series of courses offered by Michigan State University.
This is my first blog and I have to say that it has been very easy to set up. To get this far, I had to view video clips on Blogger and EduBlogs. I found the Blogger video much more appealing because it was simple and straight to the point. The EduBlog video went into too much detail to get me excited. Once I got into Blogger, I found that it had all the same features as EduBlogs (although fewer templates).
There are several differences between traditional web pages and blogs. Traditional web pages tend to contain static information, generally aimed at promoting products, services, or organizations and can be found by anyone searching the web. Blogs are a means of publishing news to an audience that is determined by the author. For example, this blog is targetted at my team mates and instructors in CEP 811. Information can be updated as frequently as I like. My audience is free to comment on my blog entries pending my review.
This is my first blog and I have to say that it has been very easy to set up. To get this far, I had to view video clips on Blogger and EduBlogs. I found the Blogger video much more appealing because it was simple and straight to the point. The EduBlog video went into too much detail to get me excited. Once I got into Blogger, I found that it had all the same features as EduBlogs (although fewer templates).
There are several differences between traditional web pages and blogs. Traditional web pages tend to contain static information, generally aimed at promoting products, services, or organizations and can be found by anyone searching the web. Blogs are a means of publishing news to an audience that is determined by the author. For example, this blog is targetted at my team mates and instructors in CEP 811. Information can be updated as frequently as I like. My audience is free to comment on my blog entries pending my review.
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