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.

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.

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.