EDU 651 Reflection

I'm so excited about this program -- I think that just from what we've done this semester, some aspects of my teaching came together, especially with best practices for maintaining a sense of participatory culture in e-learning. To show the key concepts learned, we needed to create a notecard confessions video. My work shows how important it is for online and blended instructors to set up expectations where students feel they are part of a community of learners, not just idle note-takers, essay writers, or test widgets. 

The learning experiences in this class make me take a second (third and fourth!) look at the types of technological lesson plans I write for my classes. I think I've been much more mindful of my students' needs for feedback especially --for example, when they write an essay or story, they do so in Google Docs so I can make comments as they write. It's been amazing to see how just this addition of specific and one-to-one feedback makes a difference in the quality of their work. Additionally, I have started incorporating a "show me" component to our lessons. Whatever the kids are doing, I ask that they use a digital tool to create a representation of their thinking and share it with a classmate as well as with me. This has enhanced our community feel and my students' comfort level in asking others to help with their work. 

In my district, the leadership has decided that there is no reason for a 1:1 model of technology integration (I know. It kills me, too!). However, there are offerings of online courses in the high schools from the local community college, NCVPS, and our district e-learning instructors. Unfortunately, due to lack of home equipment, only those who already have the means can take advantage of these courses. This says much about the digital divide that's not being addressed by some very important people; therefore, I believe it is my responsibility to be a good steward of this program, showing how technology can be used to increase a student's critical thinking, creativity, and engagement in a class. It's not a good feeling when I see how important technology is to our students while I can only have one foot in the technology door! 

I look forward to building my toolbox and enhancing my face-to-face classes with the technology I have on hand. My students feel much more comfortable using their cell phones as opposed to a computer, yet even there, the hardware divide is like bridge to nowhere -- I can't count on everyone to have the right tools. 

It's a work in progress! ;-)

EDU 653 Reflection

A reflection from a semester of trying new ideas and learning creative ways to use technology....

I've genuinely enjoyed learning about these various topics during the semester. I've blogged before that I want to gamify my independent reading so students can see their progress quicker than just collecting titles of books they read. It's important for them to be thinking as they read, too, and this format can do that.

Through this course, I've been able to delve into technology activities that have helped me plan for my students. When I completed the quests about TPACK and SAMR, I had to examine my current practices and question whether they were authentic, balanced, and/or sound -- not whether I used a particular web tool or app. This focus on student learning, not the technology, is what made this class an eye-opener for me. Some parts I knew/understood, just from reading professional literature and trial-and-error planning. However, having a community of like-minded learners to bounce ideas off of or hear their stories deepened my understanding.

There were some things that I really know very little about --namely copyright expectations. I know that I need to make this a teaching priority, especially in light of the ubiquitous nature of information from Google! When my students create something from online sources, they rarely document where they get the information if it's media (picture, video) and I admit that I haven't stopped it. There is just too much to do in a short semester. Now, though, I have the information to create a mini-unit that my students can complete before we start using any digital tools.

One piece of exciting news for me is that I was hired to teach an online class for the spring semester in my district. So all these tools we've learned about and practiced with will be in my toolbox for those students. It's exciting to be able to apply my learning in this setting.  And, since I learned about flipped classroom -- and created a sample video --I'm not as afraid of my webcam as I was before that quest!!

Probably the absolute most important take-away for me is the Fear Factor. I've never been afraid of technology, however, I've been wary of expecting or requiring my students to use technology to create because they aren't on a level playing field with computers and Internet. I have to "do" technology rather than "integrate" because I can't expect everyone to have the necessary materials. Through the quests in this course, I learned that they are going to have the technology -- I need to teach them how to choose wisely and find their own learning path. I believe my teaching is more beneficial to my students after finishing this course.

And...I made a thing (It's also my final product).

653 The Hole in the Wall

The TED Talk by Sugata Mitra turns educational thinking on its head and flips it up like pancakes and pizza! I first watched this last year after a conversation with my assistant principal, and at first Mitra made me angry that he said I (a teacher) wasn't needed -- I can be replaced by a little ol' granny "in the cloud" and an Internet connection.

Then I watched the talk again, and HEARD what he was saying.

The kids in Mitra's slums didn't need to pass a test at the end of three months or the school would get in trouble with the state. If they had, what would that have done to their receptiveness to learning? I don't know the answer to the Kids These Days complaint, but I can see a contributing factor for why my colleagues and I feel bound by the Victorian Educational Empire --it's called Accountability, and it's a real disease that has spread to every classroom across the country.

Mitra (2013) isn't the first researcher to say that the current educational system worked well for its original purpose, but that purpose has passed us. Ken Robinson talked in 2007 about school systems being responsible for the death of creativity, and Dr. Tae spoke in 2011 about how learning skateboarding tricks could transform grading and, thus, learning itself. These researchers, combined with Jane McGonigal (2010) showing us how gaming can save the world, should be a national wake-up call for educational systems to revamp their ideas of what a successful student behaves, learns, or lives.

I'm pretty sure, though, that there hasn't been a Revolution of Education. I'm pretty sure my sophomores complained for the millionth time since September that they had to write some sentences and use their brains a little today. I'm pretty sure I have conversations with other teachers at my school who voice their frustration over Kids These Days.

I'd love to throw my English students a problem and have them use literature and research skills to offer solutions to it. Like Mitra, Robinson, Tae, and McGonigal, I want my students to see education as a way to open doors to their futures. It's sad that the people making the decisions about students don't understand what they are doing.

Anyway, below is my first attempt at Sketchnotes. That's not really tech, but I wanted to try it and I think it helped me make connections between ideas --I didn't just remember the beginning and end of the talk, like can sometimes happen with students.

If you read this blog and haven't watched these TED Talks but care about education, you owe it to yourself to watch. I'd love to hear thoughts!

Challenge: Real or Fake

After reading this blog post, http://searchresearch1.blogspot.com/2015/11/answer-fake-or-real-how-do-you-know.html, it's important to reflect on my thinking!!

This challenge was pretty fun. I didn't really have a particular strategy to my guesses, but I think logic worked. The picture of the plane, for example, had to be fake because it was flying too close to the buildings. The "answer" page gave me many more reasons why it was fake, but mine seemed to work. The other two examples were just deduction, especially for the quote. The reviews, though, stumped me. They both seemed real, but I chose the more detailed one as the answer, although I made a note that it was probably the fake one because one of the road names or towns would be wrong!

Several years ago, my mom visited and told me about a story she had read about then-President GW Bush in which he had done something crazy --like, you knew it was fake. I asked her where she read it, and told her that the story wasn't on Chris Matthews news show, so it couldn't be true. She showed me the website, which ended up being The Onion --and online satirical view of the news. When I told her this, she was pretty embarrassed, but it made me view news in a different way. If some web page can dupe my mom - who is one smart lady -then what can it do to people who aren't more savvy?

Our political climate now is filled with "fake news" and "alternative facts" so it's hard to know what's real and what's not. I think it's more important than ever for educators in particular to pay attention to media literacy and teach our students to question and think critically about the media they consume. 

EDU 651: Literature Review #3

This semester has shown me so much in terms of how to better use technology with my students. I'm always worried that they aren't learning enough or that I'm boring them -- and these are face-to-face classes!! My district does offer online classes (through NCVPS, the local community colleges, and district courses), and when I walk by that classroom, my heart is just saddened. The students are playing on their phones, or are on another website like Pinterest, or watching Netflix/YouTube, or have heads down. They aren't engaged at all --at least from the looks outside. Why? If Kids These Days love the computer so much, why don't they show it in school? If taking an online class is a privilege, why are kids sleeping or playing around during their designated class time? Is their work of any quality, or are they just trying to do the least amount of work possible?

So, my in-depth research for this time is on student engagement in online learning. From the articles I read, three big ideas emerged:

1. Community vs. Isolation
2. Communication & Feedback
3. Active Lessons

Community vs. Isolation             

We want to be seen and feel like part of a group IRL, so it is natural for that to translate in our technology, as well. Haythornthwaite and Andrews (2011) devote an entire chapter on building community in online and distance courses. They advocate a commitment to collaboration which feeds the students'/participants' feelings of connection to the group (Haythornthwaite & Andrews, ch6 Kindle).
Anytime we are allowed to work with someone else, the product gets better. So it is with online learning.

However, because the physical classroom does not exist, students can easily begin to feel isolated when they sit in front of a screen for several hours a week --even if they can play with Siri, like I can on my Mac. Researchers have found that the sense of isolation goes away once the instructor pivots toward the positive side of collaborative assignments and directly works to create a community of learners (Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010, p. 1230) 

Communication & Feedback

Just as in face-to-face classes, online instructors need to let students know how to get in touch with them and progress in the course. When instructors commit to communicating on a regular basis with their students, it enhances engagement and makes the learner want to keep working (Dixon, 2010).

I'm horrible about giving feedback (grading!) - it's my least favorite part of teaching. Even though I like I talk to my students every day about the literature and writing we do, so why do they need a grade?? haha...But feedback is different for online learning. The student isn't sitting in front of you or able to raise their hand to ask a question. Therefore, it's imperative to be sure to get back to students within a short, regular time frame (Howard, Ma, & Yang, 2016). Feedback could take the form of emails, short quizzes, weekly announcements or videos.



Active Lessons      

In the study of college students' engagement in online learning, researchers noted that feeling creative increased positive attributes of the class (Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010, p. 1228). Additionally, Briggs (2015) discusses specifically that learners want to apply their learning to the world outside the course rather than rote activities like watching long videos purely for information or reading Powerpoints. So, thinking about how to get the students' brain in the game is key to higher engagement.



In a totally random search, I found this short video about e-learning engagement from a company that specializes in creating your own online course -- so it's a business. But, the five strategies the person gives clearly illustrate my points even though it's not specific to educational settings.

References

1001 Free Downloads. (n.d.). Download Free Vectors, Photos, Icons, PSDs and more. Retrieved 

         from https://www.1001freedownloads.com/free-cliparts/

Briggs, A. (2015, February 11). Ten Ways to Overcome Barriers to Student Engagement Online 

        (Academic Technology: At the College of William and Mary) - OLC. Retrieved from      

        https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/news_item/ten-ways-overcome-barriers-student- 

        engagement-online/

Chen, P. D., Lambert, A. D., & Guidry, K. R. (2010). Engaging online learners: The impact of Web-

       based learning technology on college student engagement. Computers & Education, 54(4), 1222-

       1232. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.11.008

Haythornthwaite, C. A., & Andrews, R. (2011). E-learning theory and practice. Los Angeles, CA: 

       SAGE.

Howard, S. K., Ma, J., & Yang, J. (2016). Student rules: Exploring patterns of students’ computer-

       efficacy and engagement with digital technologies in learning. Computers & Education, 101, 29-

       42. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.008

653: Blended, Flipped, or Personalization

I love the idea of using tech in my classes every period, every day -- just tech being ubiquitous! It's easy to imagine all the Great and Powerful Things we could do if I didn't have to schedule lab time. I mean, seriously -- IT'S 2017, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!


Unfortunately, I'm not one of the Lucky Ones (you know...the 1:1 schools??).


All of these approaches could help me in my work with high school students. They need their work to be personalized for them -- to go deeper into a topic of literature or writing that they have connected to, or go slower to make sure they understand a concept. I attended an EdCamp in September and learned about Personalized Playlists -- where the students take a pretest on the unit, then they have a list of lessons/activities to complete during the unit. I guess it's somewhat like our class game, but I loved just mulling over the idea of a kid knowing that their learning for the day was created just for them. That could be empowering.


I am probably more of a blended learning teacher, though. That's kind of how I roll right now, anyway. I work with Google Classroom and Drive for the most part, but I hear I'm going to have to start using Canvas. That change will be okay, I think. I'm just really worried about the students at my school having access --they aren't all equipped with home computers or Internet, so I have them use their phones whenever possible. But then, I get complaints that they are using too much data...It's hard to be a 21st Century teacher when your community is not.


All in all, these types of technology integration platforms have opened my eyes to possibilities.

653: Flipped Classroom

So, I've never seriously considered flipping my classroom because my students don't all have computer and Internet access at home. I'm not sure how to hold them accountable. However, when I read this quest, I was intrigued, so I re-read a professional book that I've had for a year. It's a book by Caitlin Tucker, who walks you through teaching secondary ELA with technology. I use her ideas a lot, and in the book, she sends you to a blog post about flipping vocabulary . I've read her blog several times, but somehow missed this one. And, man, I wish I'd been doing vocab like this for years!!

It's hard to get everything in as an English teacher, and I can usually let vocabulary instruction slide. Now, though, I'm going to work on making videos and adapting Tucker's process to my students. I hope this quick video shows that.

**Images from video found at classroomclipart.com

653: Makerspaces

I've dabbled with using makerspaces within some units I've taught before (Arabian Nights and the Holocaust memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel). My students usually enjoy them.

In my experience, kids love to tinker and be active in their classes, even in a literature class. But, just like with a new technology, the teacher has to let the class "play" with little interference at first, so the students feel relaxed enough to try, fail, and try again. But, it's fun to watch and listen to them navigate the makerspace (or, in my case, the making station). Their creativity is always much more than I expected.

For this quest, I used the notes from class along with my experiences in class to create an infographic.

653: Individualization, Differentiation, & Personalization...Oh, My!

I'm guilty of being too teacher-centered. Although I try to differentiate for my students, but everyone ends up doing the same thing. When I'm planning, I'm concentrating too much on getting through the standards/objectives for The Test at the end of the semester, instead of the best way for my students to learn the material. I do give them choices of assignments sometimes --but only sometimes because I can't figure out how to put their learning in the district gradebook if they don't complete the same assignments. So, even if I wanted to work on personalizing my classroom, I'm impeded at the district level. I want to go to Mooresville and see what their setup is. In this TEDTalk, the presenter mentions that school district as a leader in reimagining technology in the classroom:

 


So, as I'm thinking about personalized learning using technology, it sounds like the SAMR model -- don't just digitize the same lectures, but allow technology to do its job for transformation. That's a powerful pedagogical shift in thinking!

For this assignment, I've created scenarios for personalized, differentiated, and individualized learning in my high school ELA classroom. We read the book Night last month, so I've based my examples on it.

1. Differentiation --In differentiation, the teacher is in charge of the class time and assignments; however the students can choose what to work on. Some teachers may use choice boards or groupings. Additionally, students could post to an online discussion through a shared Google slideshow or wiki.  Normally I teach this book through learning stations. The students rotate through 3-4 stations per day until all the assignments are completed. One of the stations I use is online research about particular topics pertaining to WWII and The Holocaust (I have links provided). They are graded on whether they complete the work, and their grade on the final test. Although there is choice (and movement), the teacher really owns the learning.


2. Individualization -- Here, the students may need more time to read the novel, or, they could become an expert on an aspect of the setting/time period, then teach to the class. Students can use technology to practice vocabulary or write blog posts about a topic of interest. But time is a factor when thinking about individualizing a lesson. Sometimes, I've let a student decide how to show their learning that might be different from a list of projects (ex: I want them to create a digital story, but they would rather make a 3D model). Again, the teacher owns the learning.


3. Personalization --In personalization, the teacher can use a "playlist" of assignments where the student chooses those that most interest him/her; the playlist is based on the standards/objectives emphasized in the unit. Here, the student is in charge of how they will learn those objectives. For example, in my unit on Night, if a student had a question about an aspect of WWII, she could visit the history teacher next door who is our resident expert. Then the student would connect that new knowledge to her learning objective. Most of the work in a personalized, student-centered classroom is digital, both in classroom work and in assessments. The teacher's role is providing feedback and facilitating student progress on objectives.


To illustrate the personalization scenario, I created a video using Dvolver, an animation program:

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-1266512

I tried to show personalized learning from a student's point of view. Coming to class and asking the teacher where to start, but the teacher directs the student to the pretest and a list of assignments to meet the objectives from it. The student gets to choose not only what he wants to work on, but how --he wants to work with a student who knows a lot about the book and who can help make sure he's on the right track. The student is in charge of how and with whom he learns; the teacher is a facilitator of the objectives.

This stuff has me like....