Traditional vs. Web 2.0. I now know the difference. I use to classify Web 2.0 as strictly interactive. I am very happy to have this understanding and bet highly my colleagues will disagree with me when I call new, flashy websites created by professionals, traditional.
Before taking this course I evaluated media resources by their ease-of-use and appropriateness. While I still believe this to be valid, adding a more stringent evaluation process will only aid in my students learning and my teaching. By doing so, I believe I can find better tools to use with my students instead of more tools. In accomplishing this, their, and my, creative nature will come alive and more areas of Digital Bloom's Taxonomy can be accomplished within a project. Students will collaborate, create, and become better digital citizens. And in learning just a few tools very well, their access to knowledge expands because they will start creating their own content with ease and confidence.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Evaluation Instrument Reflection
Evaluation Instrument - Traditional
The online form was a strength and the immediate feedback via email was also very organized and something that can be referred to later. Our instrument looked very clean and organized and was easy to use. I liked the comment boxes as I believe narratives to be very important.
A weakness of our instrument was that there was no place to actually put the evaluated website. I noticed this immediately and just added it in the comment box. There was no quantitative data piece involved which I felt was missing. There were some limitations to the amount of categories that could be included do to using the free version. With more room, I would have liked to include headings for each area.
Evaluation Instrument - Web 2.0
One strength was the ability to have quantitative data. This is an important piece when looking for a snapshot of an evaluation. The evaluative categories explored many aspects of a resource and were easy to understand.
After using the tool, I wish it would have been a spreadsheet to automatically calculate the user's score. Being able to put something like this online would have been helpful as well. While there are free options out there, limiting someone to using MS Word could be a hindrance. I also found that some of the narrative areas below were redundant. Lastly, using a likert scale instead of statements would have allowed for the instrument to be on less pages which I believe to be useful as well.
The online form was a strength and the immediate feedback via email was also very organized and something that can be referred to later. Our instrument looked very clean and organized and was easy to use. I liked the comment boxes as I believe narratives to be very important.
A weakness of our instrument was that there was no place to actually put the evaluated website. I noticed this immediately and just added it in the comment box. There was no quantitative data piece involved which I felt was missing. There were some limitations to the amount of categories that could be included do to using the free version. With more room, I would have liked to include headings for each area.
Evaluation Instrument - Web 2.0
One strength was the ability to have quantitative data. This is an important piece when looking for a snapshot of an evaluation. The evaluative categories explored many aspects of a resource and were easy to understand.
After using the tool, I wish it would have been a spreadsheet to automatically calculate the user's score. Being able to put something like this online would have been helpful as well. While there are free options out there, limiting someone to using MS Word could be a hindrance. I also found that some of the narrative areas below were redundant. Lastly, using a likert scale instead of statements would have allowed for the instrument to be on less pages which I believe to be useful as well.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Analysis of Competing Instruments
Comparison of Web 2.0 Instruments
Comparing Team C & Team A
Commonalities
Comparison of Traditional Media Instruments
Comparing Team C & Team D
Commonalities
Comparing Team C & Team A
Commonalities
- Both evaluation tools are printable and not editable online. Team C's must be printed, Team A's does not have to be printed, but requires MS Excel to be used.
- The evaluation tools of both teams have suggested passing scores after completion of the instrument.
- Both tools use statements as their grading criteria.
- Similar areas are covered in each tool but Team A breaks them down a little further based on the different vocabulary used for each area.
- Team C's evaluation has a rating scale from -5 to 5 while Team D is evaluating based on scores of 5, 3, 1, or 0.
- The tool created by Team C lists on the evaluation a suggested minimum score for a site to be considered appropriate. Team D's tool has an accompanying document, which a user should read through first, in order to find a minimum "passing score."
- Team A allows for additional comments in each rating area with no overall narrative writing area. Team C does not allow for additional comments within the rating areas, but does allow for an overall impressions rating at the end.
- Team A has an inconsistent rating categories. While the scale is consistent, the vocabulary term for the point value changes throughout the tool. The reasoning appears to be to address several different aspect of the same criterion, such as content, which has 3 different ratings available.
- Team A's use of categories are nice and allow a quick overview of what areas are being evaluated.
- There is not a cost category in Team A's tool, nor is there an area to write the URL being evaluated.
- Our tool needs to be accessible online and not just printer-friendly. Google Docs can enable editing, but we need to be sure that cells we have created cannot be altered. A drop-down menu in the scoring column would be nice for users to be able to select instead of typing in an answer (if editing were available).
- Setting up categories in our tool would be useful and provide a user a quick-look about the evaluative areas.
- When creating our tool we were worried about the length and I believe Team A has done a nice job incorporating a lot of information in a reasonable space. I do like the narrative piece though and would like to keep that in. So, I'd like to redesign the evaluation to allow for more information in less space while keeping a narrative piece. In doing so, I believe the areas we put as narratives can be answered as part of our scale evaluation and lessen the amount of pages needed.
- I would like our instrument to show that it is research-based.
Comparison of Traditional Media Instruments
Comparing Team C & Team D
Commonalities
- The first commonality between our instruments of traditional media is that they are both online surveys. Both also state that results will be emailed as well. The scoring criteria, while grammatically different, is essentially providing the same results. Scoring is a 4-point rating system with an option for "N/A," as well.
- Both forms address core and technology standards, ability for the learner to comprehend and understand how to use the media, areas to comment further on each category (although Team C lacks categories).
- Digital Bloom's Taxonomy is addressed in both forms but differently (see below for differences).
- Team C's evaluation is meant for a traditional web site whereas Team D's evaluation can be used for traditional web sites as well as computer software.
- When picking a web service to host our survey one consideration was the display of results. Meaning, how would this instrument be able to collate the results for the user. While I'm no Google Form Master, we stepped away from Google Forms because I'm not aware of a way to display individual results back to the person filling out the form. WuFoo allows an immediate, and automatic, email returned to the user with a printout of their results. Google Forms, to my knowledge, doesn't allow for this without the administrator of the form intervening.
- Team C's form links to an example of Bloom's Taxonomy and asks if 4 or more areas are addressed. I think the link to the visual is nice. Team D's instrument addresses the levels of Digital Bloom's individually in their form.
- Team D has made their survey research-certified with citations listed at the end of their evaluative tool.
- I like how Team D put their scored areas into categories. One limit of a WuFoo free account is the number of questions available to ask. This was a consideration of ours, but the online service simply did not allow such as a free service.
- Their area and focus on cross-curricular use is also helpful. With many standard requirements and only so many hours in a day/week, cross-curricular instruction is more needed and prevalent than ever.
- For both instruments, a list of the core areas addressed at the beginning of the survey would helpful. Team C's instrument is one page with no headings. Team D's instrument is four pages and I cannot view the other pages without answering each page. As someone looking for a tool, I'd want to research it's usefulness prior to actually using it.
- Would like to add citations at the end so users know our tool is research-based.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
EDT 620-01: Instrumentation Process Reflection
Throughout the process of creating the evaluation tool, back to the finding of bibliographies, the whole process has been an "a-ha" moment. It is the realization that there is a whole background and involved research in creating not just a tool, but a valuable and professional tool. While this tool is intended for use by professional educators, not all educators are proficient in technology and evaluating technology. The epiphany here was that we needed to make a tool that was useful for not just us, but the non tech-savvy person as well.
We created both a rubric and a likert scale evaluation. To a person not comfortable with technology, we realized we need to use language that was not intimidating. Our goal was to create a useable tool for all educators, not just tech-savvy educators.
In creating the tool, our idea immediately defaulted to a rubric-based evaluation. Rubrics provided both a scaled and detailed medium to evaluate anything. We spent a lot of time considering our bibliographies and rubric categories. Once the categories were determined, the scoring guide needed to be developed. We developed a 3-column rubric with scores of 5, 3, and 1, soon changed to a 4-column scoring guide (5, 3, 1, 0), and then returned to the original 3-column guide. We filled in the rubric on an high, medium, and low quality evaluation using the number scale in order to create a quantitative piece. Finding a workable scoring guide was a time-consuming task.
Upon further discussion, we returned to a 4-column scoring rubric and added more categories. It was determined that we had many combined categories that should be separated. For example, the incorporation of curriculum and technology standards was combined, but later determined to be separated because they are in fact two separate considerations. If combined, the absence of one of these could effect the rating which is unfair to the site and the evaluator. Creating specific categories for the rubric was a valuable consideration.
The other big change was that after spending so long on the rubric we decided to do a likert scale for the traditional website evaluation and make this an online form which could email the submitted information back to the user. The likert scale form was much easier to create and modify because wording for all rubric areas wasn't needed. If we could state our categories for evaluation properly, the tool would be useful and sound.
Working as a team is often rewarding and frustrating. I believe that our group worked well together, and while we had different wording for our rubric scale, we were all trying to say the same thing to best suit the user. We created a tool we found useful for us, and then sat back and rethought the rubric, and scale, as a user and reworked some parts to make it understandable to all. A group setting definitely promotes this thinking.
We created both a rubric and a likert scale evaluation. To a person not comfortable with technology, we realized we need to use language that was not intimidating. Our goal was to create a useable tool for all educators, not just tech-savvy educators.
In creating the tool, our idea immediately defaulted to a rubric-based evaluation. Rubrics provided both a scaled and detailed medium to evaluate anything. We spent a lot of time considering our bibliographies and rubric categories. Once the categories were determined, the scoring guide needed to be developed. We developed a 3-column rubric with scores of 5, 3, and 1, soon changed to a 4-column scoring guide (5, 3, 1, 0), and then returned to the original 3-column guide. We filled in the rubric on an high, medium, and low quality evaluation using the number scale in order to create a quantitative piece. Finding a workable scoring guide was a time-consuming task.
Upon further discussion, we returned to a 4-column scoring rubric and added more categories. It was determined that we had many combined categories that should be separated. For example, the incorporation of curriculum and technology standards was combined, but later determined to be separated because they are in fact two separate considerations. If combined, the absence of one of these could effect the rating which is unfair to the site and the evaluator. Creating specific categories for the rubric was a valuable consideration.
The other big change was that after spending so long on the rubric we decided to do a likert scale for the traditional website evaluation and make this an online form which could email the submitted information back to the user. The likert scale form was much easier to create and modify because wording for all rubric areas wasn't needed. If we could state our categories for evaluation properly, the tool would be useful and sound.
Working as a team is often rewarding and frustrating. I believe that our group worked well together, and while we had different wording for our rubric scale, we were all trying to say the same thing to best suit the user. We created a tool we found useful for us, and then sat back and rethought the rubric, and scale, as a user and reworked some parts to make it understandable to all. A group setting definitely promotes this thinking.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
EDT 620-01: Comparison of Bibliographies
1) Describe any commonalities and differences between your choice of sources and theirs.
Comparing my bibliographies to Ben's, there is one common theme with each of our first bibliographies; if students learn better with text or with other media. My article was if pictures were beneficial in addition to text whereas Ben's article focused on three aspects: audio, text and audiovisual.Ben and I compare also in that we both chose resources based on pedagogy. While both focus on pedagogy, Ben's articles focus on the implementation of specific tools and their success while mine refer more to the planning aspect of multimedia designed lessons.
In speaking with Ben, as you'll read later, he wanted to know if his methods were working and looked for research to support or disprove. I use a lot of technology in my room and sometimes I wonder if too much. My focus was to find articles relating to the planning and implementation of technology tools to create meaningful learning experiences.
2) If both of you picked the same source (or sources!), were there any differences between your summary and rationale statements and theirs?
We have no similar sources.
3) Go talk to the other person and ask them how they went about finding their sources.
Which databases or collections did they consult? What keywords did they
use? How easy or difficult was it for them to come up with what they
did?
Ben used Eric, Education Research Complete, and Google to search for articles. While searching, he began broadly by using the phrase evaluating media education. His interests lied in whether what he was using in the classroom is working or ideal, so he added terms like middle school and secondary education. Also while searching he looked for studies with a control group. He found the searching easy but questioned whether he was on the right track and completing the assignment appropriately. If he were to do it again, he would focus more on finding tools for evaluating versus articles regarding tool effectiveness.
EDT 620-01 Annotated Bibliography
Rasch, T. (2009, October). Interactive
and non-interactive pictures in multimedia learning environments:
Effects on learning outcomes and learning efficiency.. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475209000115
Summary
This article discusses possible benefit or detriment to adding pictures and animation to presentations. The study was done on 100 university students. The article finds that adding pictures/animation to a presentation is not helpful or harmful, but that students are more efficient when learning via text only because there is no processing time needed for the pictures.
Rationale
The article was interesting and helpful because many teachers try to engage their students and make their presentations exciting with all kinds of multimedia aspects. The article, while with university students, concludes that pictures and animations have no benefit, or harm, to learning outcomes.
Lombardi, M. (2007, May). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An overview. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/authentic-learning-21st-century-overview
Summary
Authentic learning is defined in this article, partly, as real-world problem solving. Not all real-world events can be replicated in a classroom, whether current or previous, and so we must find ways for our students to experience and solve these problems and events. Technology plays an important role because authentic learning experiences are rich in collaboration. This is accomplished through online community sharing via various media solutions. The article provides eight factors for creating a learning environment.
Rationale
When designing multimedia presentations for our students we must consider the long-term benefit to our students. Education today is not drill and practice so much as it is go out and find the answer. This is accomplished through search and collaboration. Depending on your grade level, are you a teaching or facilitating? Most likely you are doing both. Included in their eight factors is developing teacher and student roles as well as including technology pieces and assessment. Important considerations when evaluating and applying a multimedia lesson.
Shrock, K. (2001, July). E-valuating the web: Six questions to help you decide which cable in the classroom sites are suited to your needs. Retrieved from http://kathyschrock.net/eval/pubs/07_01_cic.pdf
Summary
Discussed here are specific websites related to the journal. However, the questions posed can be applied to any website available. Questions regarding ease-of-use, relation or acknowledgement to accompanying standards, and options for feedback and interaction by users.
Rationale
The article was written in 2001 and could be perceived as outdated but the information and critical questions are still very valid. The questions are simple and answers to them should be simple to find as well. The article is written by an educator who understands the need for validity and safety of the material passed to our students.
Baran, E., Chuang, H. H., & Thompson, A. (2011). Tpack: An emerging research and development tool for teacher educators. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology, 10(4),
370-377. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=25&hid=10&sid=1a6b322c-2eea-4e5b-bb97-c87d9702728e@sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl
Summary
TPACK is an acronym for technological pedagogical content knowledge. It is a framework for understanding the integration of technology. There are seven components in the TPACK Framework that are focused around teaching, content and technology. The TPACK strategy is meant to improve the design of technology integration.
Rationale
By understanding how teachers are being evaluated for their integration of technology, teachers can work backwards to have all the necessary components of successful tech integration. By using this framework, teachers will not just pick a tool and use it, they will understand and work toward a better understanding of one's teaching, content knowledge, and how technology successfully integrates into what they already know.
Friday, September 14, 2012
EDT 620-01: Incoming Reflection
I'm known in my building/district to be a techy guy. Why? Probably because I taught in the computer lab my first four years and tech doesn't scare me. I can troubleshoot very basic problems, also known as amazing technological feats by those not so techy.
My only formal assessment of technology was in my undergrad at GVSU during my Computers in Education class (this was 1999, mind you). Currently, my "expertise" is finding new tools by following other techy folks on Twitter, Pinterest and Scoop.It. I read their reviews, review the website/tool myself if I see benefit, and I try it out. Nothing formal. Just an idea of how to apply it to my students. My "review" is more of a, "yeah, I could use this."
The problem with all of this is that these people I follow, some educators, some tech educators, and some just techs, it's often their job or position to just report on new tools. They don't necessarily evaluate either; to my knowledge. They'll write about possible educational implications and uses which is often based off of the websites description of the tool and an idea by the author describing the tool.
Another problem is when a new tool is discovered there is often another that comes along shortly thereafter that does something very similar; leaving one to wonder which is really the most useful for me and my students.
From this class I hope to learn how to properly evaluate online classroom tools. Instead of doing trial and error all the time with these tools, I'll have the knowledge to evaluate them before putting them to the test with my students.
I believe my application of media resources is fairly good. My principal commented during my evaluations last year that I was using technology to be useful to my students, and not just to "impress" her. However, I know I can do more and I love learning and implementing new technological tools and websites into my lessons. The students find it engaging and I enjoy teaching with them and get excited when teaching with them.
My hope for this course is to further learn how to better implement these tools by using them together to create multimedia presentations that engage students as well as encourage interaction.
My only formal assessment of technology was in my undergrad at GVSU during my Computers in Education class (this was 1999, mind you). Currently, my "expertise" is finding new tools by following other techy folks on Twitter, Pinterest and Scoop.It. I read their reviews, review the website/tool myself if I see benefit, and I try it out. Nothing formal. Just an idea of how to apply it to my students. My "review" is more of a, "yeah, I could use this."
The problem with all of this is that these people I follow, some educators, some tech educators, and some just techs, it's often their job or position to just report on new tools. They don't necessarily evaluate either; to my knowledge. They'll write about possible educational implications and uses which is often based off of the websites description of the tool and an idea by the author describing the tool.
Another problem is when a new tool is discovered there is often another that comes along shortly thereafter that does something very similar; leaving one to wonder which is really the most useful for me and my students.
From this class I hope to learn how to properly evaluate online classroom tools. Instead of doing trial and error all the time with these tools, I'll have the knowledge to evaluate them before putting them to the test with my students.
I believe my application of media resources is fairly good. My principal commented during my evaluations last year that I was using technology to be useful to my students, and not just to "impress" her. However, I know I can do more and I love learning and implementing new technological tools and websites into my lessons. The students find it engaging and I enjoy teaching with them and get excited when teaching with them.
My hope for this course is to further learn how to better implement these tools by using them together to create multimedia presentations that engage students as well as encourage interaction.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
iPad Implementation Year 1: Post 1
First, I'm not a blogger. But I was encouraged to start a blog by a friend and I'm realizing as a I learn that documenting and reflecting will be important, so hopefully I'll continue with this. And as the world now goes, why keep my thoughts to myself? I'm teaching my students that they are presenting to a global audience so it seems I should allow myself to do the same!
Second, it has been about 4 months since my second grade team and I found out we'd be given 1:1 iPads for the 2012-2013 school year. I swear if I were by myself I would have cried I was so happy! We actually received our teacher iPads about 2 weeks after school ended, around the end of June. One of the best things that can happen is to get the iPad into the teacher's hands ASAP. I'll give us a B+ for that. Although it's probably good school was over because I would have been greatly distracted otherwise!
What's the first app I downloaded? Pretty sure it was Pandora. Not real educational, but it actually is useful during the day. I'll keep that on my teacher iPad for sure. My team and I (there are 3 of us) all have automatic downloads turned on and share a teacher account. I'll be curious to know their reasoning behind downloading some of the apps they have as I'm sure they wonder for mine. I expect a similar answer from them as mine would be to them, "I just wanted to experiment."
Some general thoughts, comments, and observations:
Teacher iPad: The thought is that the teacher iPads should have greater capacity and be the newest, yet compatible, available. We will be getting The New iPad (iPad 3, some say) with 32 GB and students will get the iPad 2 with 16 GB. For our summer trial we have the iPad 2.
Cases: What kind? Short answer; don't know. There are large spongy cases that would be good for young and uncoordinated young hands but those are pricey. Basically, there are hundreds of choices and we haven't picked one yet. Seems like a case with reinforced corners will be important.
App Management: Free! Free! Free! My focus is free apps. Don't get me wrong, there are some paid apps that intrigue for sure but I'm content without them for now...I think. Either way, it's important to set up a Volume Purchasing Program person. Ours is the network administrator. I'll put the apps in folders but don't want to do 20-something of them. Wouldn't be difficult, just time-consuming. I'd also like the kids to experience that too.
PLN: Much like this blog it needs to be shared. I'm fortunate to have a friend that is much more knowledgeable and involved in tech integration than I am and is willing to be helpful (Thanks, Brad!) I'm fortunate that one of my teaching partners has a master's in Ed Tech and is interested in implementing these properly. I'm fortunate that the other teacher is super creative and likes to experiment with tech, but isn't real confident. I like that I can share and teach. I'm not real connected otherwise, but I'm thankful for Twitter and Pinterest for all the resources that they provide. Almost too many to go through in a day or evening, but still glad they exist! This is probably the most important thing to have otherwise I think I'd be flying blind.
PD: Attended some webinars this summer. Those are important to seek out. Mainly have attended SimpleK12 presentations. Also went to a Day of Innovation in Hamilton to meet and listen to Amber Kowach, the MACUL Teacher of the Year. Her advice and experience with 1:1 iPads was priceless.
At this risk of making this too long for an introduction, I will end here and add additional posts as I think of key tips For right now, I'm looking forward to meeting with an Apple rep next week and working with our superintendent and tech coordinator to discuss our policies, procedures, and implementation ideas.
Second, it has been about 4 months since my second grade team and I found out we'd be given 1:1 iPads for the 2012-2013 school year. I swear if I were by myself I would have cried I was so happy! We actually received our teacher iPads about 2 weeks after school ended, around the end of June. One of the best things that can happen is to get the iPad into the teacher's hands ASAP. I'll give us a B+ for that. Although it's probably good school was over because I would have been greatly distracted otherwise!
What's the first app I downloaded? Pretty sure it was Pandora. Not real educational, but it actually is useful during the day. I'll keep that on my teacher iPad for sure. My team and I (there are 3 of us) all have automatic downloads turned on and share a teacher account. I'll be curious to know their reasoning behind downloading some of the apps they have as I'm sure they wonder for mine. I expect a similar answer from them as mine would be to them, "I just wanted to experiment."
Some general thoughts, comments, and observations:
Teacher iPad: The thought is that the teacher iPads should have greater capacity and be the newest, yet compatible, available. We will be getting The New iPad (iPad 3, some say) with 32 GB and students will get the iPad 2 with 16 GB. For our summer trial we have the iPad 2.
Cases: What kind? Short answer; don't know. There are large spongy cases that would be good for young and uncoordinated young hands but those are pricey. Basically, there are hundreds of choices and we haven't picked one yet. Seems like a case with reinforced corners will be important.
App Management: Free! Free! Free! My focus is free apps. Don't get me wrong, there are some paid apps that intrigue for sure but I'm content without them for now...I think. Either way, it's important to set up a Volume Purchasing Program person. Ours is the network administrator. I'll put the apps in folders but don't want to do 20-something of them. Wouldn't be difficult, just time-consuming. I'd also like the kids to experience that too.
PLN: Much like this blog it needs to be shared. I'm fortunate to have a friend that is much more knowledgeable and involved in tech integration than I am and is willing to be helpful (Thanks, Brad!) I'm fortunate that one of my teaching partners has a master's in Ed Tech and is interested in implementing these properly. I'm fortunate that the other teacher is super creative and likes to experiment with tech, but isn't real confident. I like that I can share and teach. I'm not real connected otherwise, but I'm thankful for Twitter and Pinterest for all the resources that they provide. Almost too many to go through in a day or evening, but still glad they exist! This is probably the most important thing to have otherwise I think I'd be flying blind.
PD: Attended some webinars this summer. Those are important to seek out. Mainly have attended SimpleK12 presentations. Also went to a Day of Innovation in Hamilton to meet and listen to Amber Kowach, the MACUL Teacher of the Year. Her advice and experience with 1:1 iPads was priceless.
At this risk of making this too long for an introduction, I will end here and add additional posts as I think of key tips For right now, I'm looking forward to meeting with an Apple rep next week and working with our superintendent and tech coordinator to discuss our policies, procedures, and implementation ideas.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Online Learning Experiences - Blog #3
Online learning is convenient, but not always easy. Online learning is nice to have the ability to schedule yourself, but it also takes discipline. Sometimes I'm able to read and post right away. Other times I cannot read and post until Wednesday due to other commitments. Again, this is convenient, but sometimes puts a crunch on the amount to accomplish in a shorter time.
I'm fairly sure my stresses of online learning have often been due to my classes being of the 6-week nature. They are the only kind I've taken. I appreciate the ability to learn on my own. I appreciate having the ability to discuss with classmates while saving gas. These are just a couple examples of positive experiences of online learning.
Another positive, I thought at first, was podcasts. Initially, I was thrilled to not have to read another article. Thrilled to relax and just soak in the information. Sadly, this doesn't happen. While I still enjoy the idea of a podcast, they are too long. And honestly, the length may not matter. Taking an online class during the school year, which may not matter either, I find podcasts too easy to 'mind-wander' away. I find myself thinking of what I need to accomplish for anything else in my life, including other assignments in the class.
On occasion, there are additions to a podcast. There are notes or slideshows and both are appreciated because they provide something on which to focus. If my eyes are focused, my brain has a better chance of being so too. More specifically, the slideshows, with podcast, are best. Why? Because the information is often changing.
With accompanying notes, it is still just a page of words, similar to articles, and I still get distracted too easily. (ADD wasn't prevalent when I went to school but I may have been diagnosed with it.) When a slideshow goes along with a podcast, the background, or scenery, changes every minute or so and I am able to stay on task much better.
So, I would take the podcasts and the notes and combine them into screencasts, or videos. Perhaps, sharing or making videos like on Common Craft or using the ShowMe app would be cool. I would explore a way to make these so there is some action, something that changes from time-to-time instead of staring at a blank screen. Doesn't need to be flashy, just something to keep my mind from wondering.
The other items I would consider changing is how the weekly discussions are run. I believe the discussions are organized in a nice way and I get it, but it took a long time to learn where everything was and to know where I needed to post. I wonder if it would be simpler to understand if, instead of having separate categories of information, if the information was separated by week. This way, I know to login to the discussions and find the Week 4 Category vs. a couple different areas with Week 4 labeled inside the assignment. When logging in and clicking on Week 4, I can see the article discussions and the topic discussions. Now, I must go to 2 or 3 different areas to complete all my tasks.
I really have enjoyed the labs much more than anything. One class we had a Twitter lab and I'm now a Twitter junkie ('ish). We also had a Google lab and while I don't often take advantage of that, it was a cool experience and something that can translate to the classroom, either as something for students to experience or for me to find information. Currently, we offered the opportunity to create a final presentation using a screencast tool. I thought this was awesome. It was simple to use and provided a different way to present, which was great since I was out-of-town at a soccer tournament all weekend (we took 2nd out of 12 teams). This tool will also be simple and useful for my students. And that's all I really care about, finding things that are useful in the classroom, and using and experiencing labs and tools are what work for me.
I'm fairly sure my stresses of online learning have often been due to my classes being of the 6-week nature. They are the only kind I've taken. I appreciate the ability to learn on my own. I appreciate having the ability to discuss with classmates while saving gas. These are just a couple examples of positive experiences of online learning.
Another positive, I thought at first, was podcasts. Initially, I was thrilled to not have to read another article. Thrilled to relax and just soak in the information. Sadly, this doesn't happen. While I still enjoy the idea of a podcast, they are too long. And honestly, the length may not matter. Taking an online class during the school year, which may not matter either, I find podcasts too easy to 'mind-wander' away. I find myself thinking of what I need to accomplish for anything else in my life, including other assignments in the class.
On occasion, there are additions to a podcast. There are notes or slideshows and both are appreciated because they provide something on which to focus. If my eyes are focused, my brain has a better chance of being so too. More specifically, the slideshows, with podcast, are best. Why? Because the information is often changing.
With accompanying notes, it is still just a page of words, similar to articles, and I still get distracted too easily. (ADD wasn't prevalent when I went to school but I may have been diagnosed with it.) When a slideshow goes along with a podcast, the background, or scenery, changes every minute or so and I am able to stay on task much better.
So, I would take the podcasts and the notes and combine them into screencasts, or videos. Perhaps, sharing or making videos like on Common Craft or using the ShowMe app would be cool. I would explore a way to make these so there is some action, something that changes from time-to-time instead of staring at a blank screen. Doesn't need to be flashy, just something to keep my mind from wondering.
The other items I would consider changing is how the weekly discussions are run. I believe the discussions are organized in a nice way and I get it, but it took a long time to learn where everything was and to know where I needed to post. I wonder if it would be simpler to understand if, instead of having separate categories of information, if the information was separated by week. This way, I know to login to the discussions and find the Week 4 Category vs. a couple different areas with Week 4 labeled inside the assignment. When logging in and clicking on Week 4, I can see the article discussions and the topic discussions. Now, I must go to 2 or 3 different areas to complete all my tasks.
I really have enjoyed the labs much more than anything. One class we had a Twitter lab and I'm now a Twitter junkie ('ish). We also had a Google lab and while I don't often take advantage of that, it was a cool experience and something that can translate to the classroom, either as something for students to experience or for me to find information. Currently, we offered the opportunity to create a final presentation using a screencast tool. I thought this was awesome. It was simple to use and provided a different way to present, which was great since I was out-of-town at a soccer tournament all weekend (we took 2nd out of 12 teams). This tool will also be simple and useful for my students. And that's all I really care about, finding things that are useful in the classroom, and using and experiencing labs and tools are what work for me.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Online Teaching Vision
Judging from our definitions of online teaching so far, I don't know that I've done any online teaching. Have I done lessons online? Yes. But to require or ask that my second graders fulfill some requirement(s) from home for our class? No.
In the future, I hope to implement some hybrid learning. I've heard more and more about "flipping the classroom" and I plan to use the summer to research this concept. Next year, my classroom will become a 1:1 iPad classroom and I view a flipped classroom more possible (based on the little I know). My basic understanding, so you know where I'm going with this, is that traditional homework is done at school so the teacher is available for assistance, and they are to watch or listen to my lessons at home. With second graders, I don't know how possible it is as I haven't seen a lot of elementary examples of flipped classrooms, but I haven't been able to look a lot either.
So what can I do with the iPads? I don't know! There is so much out there and this summer is dedicated to me and my team to put together an effective implementation plan for the iPads. Right now, I'm real interested in how I can use Edmodo to share information and assignments. We watched a short video about a kindergarten and second grade room in Ludington using 1:1 iPads and they used Dropbox to share information. Students will be able to find resources, links and lessons on my classroom website and I will need to keep up more with blogging this year. I do not plan to get my students email addresses and don't see why I would need to, especially since I would want the info. to go to the parents as well. Additionally, the students will be taking the iPads home with them each night so the information they need should always be available.
At this point I've used Audacity and the Voice Memo app on my iPhone to create podcasts for students as well as Vimeo to post videos. Judging from our previous week I may also look into starting a wiki they can work on at home but I'd prefer another option if possible. The kids enjoyed Typewith.me last year and that could be a fun discussion tool to use while they are at home. Of course, I have to see how all of this works on an iPad, which I do not yet have.
The resources I've listed is because I've heard of them, used them, or seen others use them. I'm familiar with DropBox, Audacity, and Typewith.me. I'd like also to see how Evernote can benefit my class, if it can. I know Evernote can do so many things for an individual but I do not know if my class can share a "notebook." Perhaps that's how I use Evernote and Dropbox together.
The biggest barrier that I do not know an answer to, nor do I believe the district does either, is with the iPads going home each night I do not know how to solve the issue of no home internet for some of our students. The question of 3G came up but I can't believe the district would pay for that. I've thought that instead of asking for internet to be available at home, that before the students leave my room we transfer the night's homework so that they have a digital copy already on their iPad and part of their morning procedure would be to Dropbox (turn-in) their homework to me. With or without iPads, the biggest barrier is equitable access. My beginning of year tech survey will probably be longer and have to include items for smartphones. While homes may not have internet, many of those families still have smartphones. This makes something like Edmodo that more powerful because there is an app for that.
In the future, I hope to implement some hybrid learning. I've heard more and more about "flipping the classroom" and I plan to use the summer to research this concept. Next year, my classroom will become a 1:1 iPad classroom and I view a flipped classroom more possible (based on the little I know). My basic understanding, so you know where I'm going with this, is that traditional homework is done at school so the teacher is available for assistance, and they are to watch or listen to my lessons at home. With second graders, I don't know how possible it is as I haven't seen a lot of elementary examples of flipped classrooms, but I haven't been able to look a lot either.
So what can I do with the iPads? I don't know! There is so much out there and this summer is dedicated to me and my team to put together an effective implementation plan for the iPads. Right now, I'm real interested in how I can use Edmodo to share information and assignments. We watched a short video about a kindergarten and second grade room in Ludington using 1:1 iPads and they used Dropbox to share information. Students will be able to find resources, links and lessons on my classroom website and I will need to keep up more with blogging this year. I do not plan to get my students email addresses and don't see why I would need to, especially since I would want the info. to go to the parents as well. Additionally, the students will be taking the iPads home with them each night so the information they need should always be available.
At this point I've used Audacity and the Voice Memo app on my iPhone to create podcasts for students as well as Vimeo to post videos. Judging from our previous week I may also look into starting a wiki they can work on at home but I'd prefer another option if possible. The kids enjoyed Typewith.me last year and that could be a fun discussion tool to use while they are at home. Of course, I have to see how all of this works on an iPad, which I do not yet have.
The resources I've listed is because I've heard of them, used them, or seen others use them. I'm familiar with DropBox, Audacity, and Typewith.me. I'd like also to see how Evernote can benefit my class, if it can. I know Evernote can do so many things for an individual but I do not know if my class can share a "notebook." Perhaps that's how I use Evernote and Dropbox together.
The biggest barrier that I do not know an answer to, nor do I believe the district does either, is with the iPads going home each night I do not know how to solve the issue of no home internet for some of our students. The question of 3G came up but I can't believe the district would pay for that. I've thought that instead of asking for internet to be available at home, that before the students leave my room we transfer the night's homework so that they have a digital copy already on their iPad and part of their morning procedure would be to Dropbox (turn-in) their homework to me. With or without iPads, the biggest barrier is equitable access. My beginning of year tech survey will probably be longer and have to include items for smartphones. While homes may not have internet, many of those families still have smartphones. This makes something like Edmodo that more powerful because there is an app for that.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Blogging in my Classroom (629)
Once I started using Twitter professionally I noticed that many of the links lead to blogs versus actual websites. Understanding that these links were meant for professional learning I could understand the setup and content. However, as I explored more and more the content on these blogs it became more apparent that blogs, in many cases, are serving as both a professional resource and student resource.
In teaching, I was, and am, terrible at doing newsletters. I could never do it each week so I offered up a bi-weekly newsletter, which often failed too. So, I began looking to social media to update my families, thinking that if I give smaller updates each day then that could also be a newsletter replacement. In terms of me using this setup, using Twitter and Facebook, I couldn't be happier. However, I have yet to know how well it works for all families. I know it works for some because they will comment on our class Facebook page. I know email works for some because they will reply to my messages. Those that indicated no access to internet, which was 7 out of 25 students, are sent paper copies.
The website I use for my class website does have a blogging component which I used at the very beginning of the school year to state some class guidelines. Haven't touched it since. I do believe blogging, to communicate with parents, has a place in my classroom but I need to make time for it. One of my colleagues does this each Sunday morning to preview the week and again, I just need to commit to doing so. The blog updates can be posted to Facebook so parents can read the updates.
Blogging isn't something I'm very familiar with so I cannot speak to all the features they may offer. From blogs I've viewed and my little experience of curating a blog I seem to like most the widgets that can be added. While not on my blog, I use the Shelfari widget to share the books we read in class. The search feature of blogs are also nice so that anyone can find the information they have been looking for by searching through tags. I haven't gotten into "professional blogging," like the science teacher's blog, and I don't expect to in the near future.
As for my 2nd graders, we have been blogging all year using KidBlog. This year has been an experiment to see how it worked and what I realized quickly is they love it and I should have been more prepared for that. After just 3 classroom trainings the vast majority were already proficient in the steps to post an entry (thanks to KidBlog for making it simple). Essentially, the kids respond to a prompt each day and their writing is out there for all to see. Anyone can comment but those do not post until I approve. Blogging is a classroom job so certain students will blog for two-straight weeks until they move to a new job. When we do class blogging, meaning all students do an individual blog at the same time in computer lab, I'll email the parents so they know and will hopefully comment. If I don't notify parents then there usually are not many, if any, comments. I believe I have "step one" down meaning the students know how to blog. Next year's additional focus will be on leaving good comments.
Personally, I could see having a couple different blogs. One being a newsletter-type blog and the other being a "homework hotline." While emails are useful for this too, blogging would put the questions and answers to homework wonderment's in the public therefore lessening questions. Blogging could also incorporate mini-lessons using video so parents can see the lessons on the blog as well. I essentially already do some of this on my web page but a blog would make it more interactive.
In teaching, I was, and am, terrible at doing newsletters. I could never do it each week so I offered up a bi-weekly newsletter, which often failed too. So, I began looking to social media to update my families, thinking that if I give smaller updates each day then that could also be a newsletter replacement. In terms of me using this setup, using Twitter and Facebook, I couldn't be happier. However, I have yet to know how well it works for all families. I know it works for some because they will comment on our class Facebook page. I know email works for some because they will reply to my messages. Those that indicated no access to internet, which was 7 out of 25 students, are sent paper copies.
The website I use for my class website does have a blogging component which I used at the very beginning of the school year to state some class guidelines. Haven't touched it since. I do believe blogging, to communicate with parents, has a place in my classroom but I need to make time for it. One of my colleagues does this each Sunday morning to preview the week and again, I just need to commit to doing so. The blog updates can be posted to Facebook so parents can read the updates.
Blogging isn't something I'm very familiar with so I cannot speak to all the features they may offer. From blogs I've viewed and my little experience of curating a blog I seem to like most the widgets that can be added. While not on my blog, I use the Shelfari widget to share the books we read in class. The search feature of blogs are also nice so that anyone can find the information they have been looking for by searching through tags. I haven't gotten into "professional blogging," like the science teacher's blog, and I don't expect to in the near future.
As for my 2nd graders, we have been blogging all year using KidBlog. This year has been an experiment to see how it worked and what I realized quickly is they love it and I should have been more prepared for that. After just 3 classroom trainings the vast majority were already proficient in the steps to post an entry (thanks to KidBlog for making it simple). Essentially, the kids respond to a prompt each day and their writing is out there for all to see. Anyone can comment but those do not post until I approve. Blogging is a classroom job so certain students will blog for two-straight weeks until they move to a new job. When we do class blogging, meaning all students do an individual blog at the same time in computer lab, I'll email the parents so they know and will hopefully comment. If I don't notify parents then there usually are not many, if any, comments. I believe I have "step one" down meaning the students know how to blog. Next year's additional focus will be on leaving good comments.
Personally, I could see having a couple different blogs. One being a newsletter-type blog and the other being a "homework hotline." While emails are useful for this too, blogging would put the questions and answers to homework wonderment's in the public therefore lessening questions. Blogging could also incorporate mini-lessons using video so parents can see the lessons on the blog as well. I essentially already do some of this on my web page but a blog would make it more interactive.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)