Mrs. Kupiecki's Learning Blog

Mobile Technology in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 20:22:00 -0800

Introduction

"Smartphone as Child Toy" by IntelFreePress
used under a Creative Commons license.

There are many schools now implementing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and one-to-one programs in the area of mobile technology. There are innumerable apps available that allow for content interaction, real-time polling (formative assessment), and classroom data collection/distribution. However, mobile technology is the area of ed tech that I consider to most precarious. Stakeholders’ viewpoints on mobile technology (cell phones in particular) in the classroom are wide-ranging. Some teachers think cell phones in the classroom have huge potential and others think cell phones have no place at all in school. Our school does not allow teachers to give out cell phone numbers to students without administrative approval and likewise does not allow cell phones to be used during class time. That being said, some teachers in our school use other mobile technology such as tablets and e-readers to aid student learning.

In the program we use for credit recovery program students work through online courses, but reach stopping points that require teacher intervention. Currently, I give out my home number and my email so that students can contact me if they are working outside of school, reach a stopping point, and need to move on in their course. However, it would be much more convenient if this could be done via text. Students generally feel more comfortable texting rather than calling and texts are more immediate than e-mail (I typically see a text very quickly, but I only check my school e-mail once per night). Due to the limitations my school places on student-teacher-texting, I used this lesson as an opportunity to look into alternative texting options.

Tools I Tried

During the CEP 812 BYOD Google Hangout, the site “Remind 101” was suggested. This site allows the sending of mass texts to parents/students and appears to be an awesome option for classroom reminders. There is some evidence that texts from teachers (up to a limit) are appreciated by students and aid student performance. However, although this site is a great resource, it did not serve my goal of allowing students to text me.

The next resource I explored was Google Voice. This appears to be a good option because it allows for both the sending and receiving of text messages without giving out one’s cell phone number. I know that my cell phone will create Google Voice notifications that function in the same way as new-text-message notifications. I have not yet implemented this in my classroom, but it is an option I plan on using in the future.

Due to the online nature of their coursework, many students in my program already use mobile technology to complete their coursework outside of school. Although the site is not designed for mobile use, students are able to access and complete their coursework from anywhere with internet access using an ipod touch, smartphone, or tablet in lieu of a "traditional" laptop or desktop computer. The program we use e2020 (Edgenuity) has said they are working on creating mobile apps for both the student and administrator side to augment this any-time, any-place learning.

Anecdotes

During this session I conversationally polled students in my class about how they would feel if mobile technology were integrated into the classroom. After explaining what this might look like many students expressed interest and thought learning using mobile phones would be fun to try out. There were some students though who felt uncomfortable using their phone for school work due to privacy concerns or "not wanting teachers to have my number".

Thus the area of mobile technology remains precariously for both administrators, students, and teachers. However the promise the technology holds along with the ubiquity of mobile devices nearly requires that we leverage these mobile tools for learning.

Personal Learning Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 3 Mar 2013 21:12:00 -0800

Nearly a year ago I wrote a document outlining my “Personal Technology Plan” in CEP 810. I titled this “The Things I Cannot Yet Imagine”. I still very much feel this way about technology, there are consistently new apps, new ideas, and new tools that surprise me. Thus I must not simply learn specific tools, but learn how to use, find, and incorporate new ideas. My goals regarding educational technology primarily involve developing broad use skills (basic programming, web design) that will help me in future curriculum/instructional design work. Additionally I plan to work on staying plugged-in to the educational technology network via blogging, reading, and taking additional courses. These goals will help me stay abreast of the “things I cannot imagine” that are coming to be and will help me have a requisite skill set to fully utilize new tools.

In my plan from a year ago I spoke a lot about incorporating social technology into my classroom. This is still something I need to work on. I recently had a student ask “Why don’t we have a twitter?” (at our school). Since it is quite easy to regularly tweet updates, I plan on getting administrator approval by the end of the this marking period to tweet updates for my program.

One goal I was successful in from my initial 810 plan was to “to embed more multi-media and collaborative tools into the physics and math curriculum I will teach this summer.” I did in fact implement many more multi-media and collaborative elements into my curriculum this past summer at Upward Bound. Students created multi-media presentations while doing a service learning project, used Google Docs to collaborate on research during a research paper, and completed inquiry based online simulation activities. I also implemented “open ended” problem solving questions and it was inspiring to see the students use a myriad of background knowledge and creative thinking to come up with countless solutions.

This semester I was really inspired by the outcome of my wicked problem project, using a unified goal to drive curriculum, a type of gamified Algebra I. I’m really looking forward to expanding this project and developing a full Algebra I and Geometry curriculum using this concept. There are additional game-like elements I would like to add (i.e. starting a “0” and earning points rather than starting at “100” and losing points). Overall the idea of designing creative, engaging curriculum in the area of education that most excites me right now.

As part of this design inspiration I would like to learn the basics of designing apps using HTML5. A couple summers ago (as mentioned in my CEP 810 Plan) I borrowed a book on java and tried to teach myself via the book. I found that I lost inspiration part way through. For this reason in the next few years I plan to take some courses in programming at the local community college. I feel that the structure of having projects in a course will be motivating. In addition to the goal of taking courses, more immediately, I have purchased some introductory books on HTML & HTML5 that I can read and work on during spring break.

In the next year or two I would like to find a job either as a classroom teacher where I can implement these great technology ideas that I have learned, or as an instructional designer where I can work to map, design, and deliver content in the most engaging way possible. To accomplish these goals, I plan to work on the things stated above and to practice with some Adobe programs that seem to be popular in the industry: Captivate, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop. To do this I am going to purchase a membership to Adobe Creative Cloud which currently has a special for educators ($19.99/month). I will use and additional resources this to play with, practice, and learn Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop. Captivate is not included, but once I have more fully developed my Algebra I curriculum I plan to try Captivate for 30 days to design interactive flipped lessons for the more “traditional” curriculum points.

Overall I still have many of the same goals that I had in CEP 810, but many are adapted based on my experiences over the past year. I feel as though my technology (and implementation) knowledge has grown more than I realize over the course of this graduate certificate program. Already I've been able to implement these ideas during my summer teaching. I’m hopeful that I can continue in the MAET program to grow even further, can find a classroom teaching position, and can implement even more of what I have learned and will learn.

Wicked Problem - Findings & Implications

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 3 Mar 2013 20:33:00 -0800

"Ulsoor Lake Reflections" by Swami Stream used under
a Creative Commons license. Text added.

The idea of tackling wicked problems is something I believe we as teachers do on a regular basis, day to day, unit to unit, year to year. These typically fall under the category of “ill structured problems”, and work within a evidence-based trial and error type system. In this course we were focusing on problems above the scope of one classroom and where “even the nature of the problem is often in doubt”. What I thought was most useful about this project was simply the process of actually writing out the issue and finding research regarding the problem. Year to year I attempt to tackle what I consider to be wicked problems; I often do research, but rarely write everything out. I found the practice of expounding upon, writing out, and doing process reflection to be very useful.

Although these processes were useful, I was not able to implement my project as I do not currently have a traditional math classroom and the students’ online curriculum is pre-packaged. That being said, I did use some of the methods in my project when I taught a 20-day truncated physics this past summer (20 days). I incorporated student-driven projects, research, “real-life” based lessons, and the use of technology to enhance learning. This teaching experience actually inspired my wicked problem because I’ve found it easier to implement these learning experiences in physics, but have struggled to do so in math.

I have experienced two major hiccups when implementing project-based learning in the past. I did my best to address these two issues in my wicked problem solution. The first of these problems is making sure students find the problem or project interesting, that their interests are taken into account. In the solution to my wicked problem I aimed to implement some game-like elements into a curriculum. One of the key features of games is that they are intrinsically motivating because they are chosen freely. Thus choice is very important. For my project which runs has students working on one overarching task for nine weeks, if students don’t “buy in” to the premise, the whole nine weeks is going to suffer. I chose for students to design a multi-use space in our city to aid “buy-in”. I have heard students lament that there is not an indoor skate park, cool music venue, etc. in Muskegon. This project aims to incorporate the students interests by giving them choices in countless elements of their design. However, going forward with this type of mission-quest-lesson design, it would be important to get student feedback (and to reflect) on what type of mission concepts are the most intriguing for Algebra I students.

The second important design element is that students are given reasonable deadlines and assessments throughout the nine-week curriculum. Most Algebra I students are still novices at appropriately planning out time for big projects. Designing a building may seem to be an overwhelming task and may cause some students to shut-down. Thus the mission is broken down into challenging but achievable mini-goals called quests. This helps students develop skills in learning how to break down large tasks/ problems into smaller chunks and to appropriately time manage these intermediate goals. Each quest is a form of formative assessment that will help them build their final project and will allow them a form of self-check on their progress. Without these steps, students may feel overwhelmed and or get to the end of the nine weeks having not fully used their time.

"Golf Thursdays" by chispita_666 used under a
Creative Commons License. Text added.

As I stated above I think the process of writing out a “wicked problem”, brainstorming, doing research and collecting all of that information in a document is helpful. As opposed to simply “in brain musing” this format will help me (and others who use this process) something to refer back to that will help me assess how the solution is working relative to the initial problem. One other recommendation I would have is to start relatively small. Some wicked problems seem overwhelming and thus one can sometimes feel powerless to affect change. Solving a series of small wicked problems does tremendous good and can help one to feel ready to tackle bigger issues.

My own wicked problem solution still needs tweaking. I look forward to someday trying it in a classroom and learning what works well and what needs to change. As with anything new there is a phase of adaptation that sometimes yields unexpected results.

The wonderful thing about education and about teaching is the ability to consistently adapt, to always learn more, and try new things. This allows us to be slightly better educators today than we were yesterday. This wicked-problem process of identifying a problem, creating a solution, implementing the solution, and reflecting is simply a catalyst for a quicker change. The more we are able to complete a wicked-problem process the easier it will be to make bigger changes and faster jumps forward in teaching/learning.

Wicked Problem Project - Part C

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:50:00 -0800

For my wicked project I started with the goal of designing a "new" type of Algebra course. One that was engaging for students while still meeting the Algebra I Common Core Standards. My initial plan was simply to find a number of engaging questions / lessons and to create a collection of these for use in the course. I started to do this, but this idea changed one day as I was reading my e-mail update from Institute of Play.

I have always been intrigued by the Quest to Learn (Q2L) schools, schools that partner game designers and educators. I've found the idea of students learning while playing extraordinarily exciting, but also a bit perplexing. Recently, the Institute of Play published a Quest to Learn Curriculum Design document which guides interested parties through a unit ("Mission") design process, and offers a peak into how Q2L design happens.

This idea changed the direction of my Wicked Problem Project. While the problem and the aim are the same (making bored math students more engaged), the implementation will be different. I decided to try my novice hand at creating a marking-period long unit that would follow the Quest to Learn model. This is a over-arching mission that is about one marking period in length divided into shorter quests that are then subdivided into lessons. I decided to do this because I think a continuous thread of purpose will help tie the lessons together (as compared to a collection of interesting, but disconnected lessons) while still allowing many of the same qualities I wanted in the first place.

It took some brainstorming to think of a mission. The Q2L design document recommends that students are given a relevant profession and that the mission is framed around this. Over a couple weeks I considered having my students be Olympic planners or Wylie Coyote chasing the Road Runner. Ultimately, I decided to have them be building designers creating a multi-fuction building for Muskegon. It seems to be a trend that many cities are designing mixed use spaces to revitalize their downtown and Muskegon could use some revitalization (as my students will readily attest).

http://kupiecki-algebrai.wikispaces.com

I created the framework for this unit as a Wiki that would serve as a one-stop-shop for students as they proceed through the project. This serves an additional purpose for modeling, as part of the project asks students to create their own Wiki or website. The wiki will be the main technology tool for this project, but throughout the lessons students will utilize a number of online resources for doing things like modeling equations and creating floorplans.

One issue I am running into is letting go of a traditional curriculum, contemplating whether students will be as adept at manipulating equations upon completion of their mission, and whether this is important. Although I firmly believe this type of project (and working with others) is much more valuable in the long run, I worry that if students don't get enough straight equation-solving practice, they would be at a disadvantage in subsequent math classes.

Since I do not currently have a traditional classroom I am not able to "try out" this curriculum. Additionally in my school (as with many others), Algebra assignments are common across all Algebra I courses and are primarily from the textbook. This is another barrier to this curriculum. If I wanted to implement this curriculum I (and students) would need some relief from these textbook assignments as students will be getting quite the workload from the project itself. The textbook would be a supplement to practice rather than the primarily means of practice.

Going forward I would like to polish and significantly add to the wiki and the curriculum itself. I still need to add daily lesson plans and additional detail about the specific standards associated with each quest. That being said, I am very pleased with the opportunity to try and design something new; something I consider much more valuable and potentially engaging for students.

Data Visualization Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:51:00 -0800

Data Sources:

Unemployment Rates & Weekly Earnings: "Education Pays..." Bureau of Labor Statistics

Lifetime Earnings: "The College Payoff" The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Background: "Money" by 401(K) 2013 used under a creative commons license.

If you are like me or in fact, like many people, you enjoy learning about things visually. When reading research, textbooks, or other non-fiction I often find myself scanning pages for visual information. In this vein, info-graphics allow publishers, writers, researchers, and others to display great amounts of information in a concise and often easy to process way.

I chose to represent data about financial outcomes based on educational attainment. I chose this topic based on my current position where I often try to motivate and mentor students on the importance of a diploma. Although one may argue that financial success is not the most important yardstick for success I find my students can often relate to discussions of money. My info-graphic shows only three data points regarding educational attainment and its correlation to financial success, but they are three data points I find compelling. There are a myriad of info-graphics available online that display as little as one data point to hundreds in a single image. As part of this lab for my CEP 812 class I tried a couple different tools including Google Fusion, Tableau Public, Many Eyes, and Arc GIS Explorer. The two I ended up using were Many Eyes and Tableau Public; I found problems in using Google Fusion and Arc GIS Explorer.

Google Fusion offers the promise of being able to search for and compile data. This would be great for creating a very informative data representation. However, in my working with Google Fusion I was not able to find other tables of data related to my topic. Arc GIS Explorer is a free downloadable tool to create a visualization. I found upon download that there was incompatibility between the program and my current graphic card drivers (and I know from past experience my computer does not do well with the updated versions). Thus with these issues I settled upon Many Eyes and Tableau Public.

Many Eyes

Many Eyes and Tableau Public were very easy to use and offer many options for graphic representation of data. Many eyes is run in browser (nothing to download) and you have the option of either using existing data sets others have uploaded or uploading your own (uploading your own requires registration on the site). The process was quite intuitive. Simply copy and paste data from excel or a Google doc, fill in source info and click on the type of representation you would like. The info-graphic is then created as an interactive java applet on the site. A screenshot of the Many Eyes visualization is show above under "Lifetime Earnings". Tableau Public works similarly to Many Eyes, but requires that one downloads the software. Then you simply select your data from a file (Excel or text, csv), choose the fields you would like to display and click "Show me" to select the type of display. The software was very easy to get started on and looking through the site there are a number of more robust features that one can play with depending on the depth of the data. The program works in some ways similar to excel. Overall Tableau Public was the tool I enjoyed working with the most and can see myself using the most in the future.

Flipped PD Group Project - Part B

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:19:00 -0800

Our flipped PD focused on two apps that we believe would be useful in a math classroom. In deciding on the apps to be presented we looked at apps that were available for mobile use (for students with mobile devices and schools with one-to-one technology), but could also be run in-browser for schools/students without access to tablet computing.

The two apps we chose were Educreations and Flashcardlet (also called Quizlet). We created two videos, one for each app. The structure of each video is an introduction with the pedagogy of the app (how/why should teachers use it), followed by step-by-step tutorials for using the apps. The videos are about 15 minutes in length could be done as part of two mini-PD sessions, one full session, or as part of staff meeting. The videos can be used as flipped PD or in-person PD.

If used as true flipped PD, teachers could watch the videos outside of school and then complete the tutorial steps at home. The Educreations video does ask teachers to discuss their thoughts at one point in the video, but this could be altered or teachers could discuss their thoughts at a subsequent meeting. The Flashcardlet video provides "quiz" checkpoints for teachers to enter their reflections. Due to the self-directed nature of the videos, being in one gathering space is not necessary.

Alternatively, the videos could also be used in a department or whole staff meeting to present the apps to teachers. Although this would proceed in a way similar to the flipped PD, the pauses in the videos would allow teachers to engage in peer-to-peer learning and to help each other if they have questions.

These videos would be useful for implementation as a way to introduce teachers to new technology. The apps are easy to use and the PD requires little time commitment. This could be a springboard for getting teachers comfortable with using educational apps and implementing their own flipped lessons. If the videos were found to be useful for a staff, additional videos detailing other available apps could be developed.

Link to the Educreations PD video

Link to the Quizlet PD video

CEP 812 - Group Project - Part A

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 4 Feb 2013 20:50:00 -0800

Our group is focusing on teaching two technologies. Although these tools are not math specific we will focus on the use of these tools in the math classroom. The first technology we will discuss is Educreations, a whiteboard tool; the second is Flashcardlet, a digital flashcard-creation-tool. Both of these are apps for apple devices, but can also be run in browser through most internet-capable devices.
For our group tasks we divided the project into four areas, the "why" and the "how" for each tool. For my section I am responsible for explaining how to use Educreations. This will include instruction on creating an account and utilizing the features of Educreations along with short discussions and time for teachers to use the tool themselves. The Google Doc of our project can be accessed here. My script and "storyboard" (screen-shots) are below. For our final flipped professional development project we will focus on using Camtasia to integrate all four parts from each group member.

Script:

*Slide with Objectives*
Objectives:
1. Make a teacher account
2. Learn how to utilize existing lessons on Educreations

3. Learn how to make a lesson with educreations.

        a. How to add images
        b. How to add pages
        c. Changing the settings for access to your lesson
    4. Learn how students can make accounts to access lessons.
        a. Giving students a link to your course
        b. Adding/ Removing Students from a Course
    5. Editing your profile.

"Educreations is a whiteboard tool that can aid both teachers and students in making learning accessible outside of the school day. It can also be a creative tool for student creation or an instructional tool in the classroom. Educreations is an app for apple products, but can also be run in browser on almost any internet-capable device. The first thing we will do today is create a teacher account. I will guide you through the process and then give you time to create your own account. Next I will show you how to access and search the many public Educreations videos already available. These videos have been compared to Khan Academy videos but were primarily created by teachers.

Next you will learn how to create your own instructional videos and how to edit the settings on these videos. We will also see how to set up a class on Educreations and how to update your teacher profile.

First please watch the following instruction on creating an Educreations account. *Camtasia video with step by step narration*. Now please take this time to create your own account. *Wait time*

Now many of you may simply want to use Educreations as a supplementary instructional resource or a resource to suggest to students. Please go to www.educreations.com and search for your subject under the heading “What do you want to learn”. Find two videos you feel you could use in the classroom and watch a few minutes of each. Afterwards please discuss with a partner how you feel you could utilize these videos in the classroom. Or, if you feel you cannot use these videos in the classroom discuss why you feel this way.

Next we will learn about making custom Educreations videos. These will allow you to tailor resources and instruction for the topics you feel need additional resources. These could be used as homework solution videos, flipped classroom instructional aids, or ready-made videos for in-class instruction. *Camtasia video of creating a Educreation video* (include adding slides, voice narration, pausing, and changing the background). Please take some time to create a short presentation using the drawing tool and microphone. Discuss with a partner how easy or hard this was and why. Not only can you create videos, but you can use this tool to have students create or solidify their own learning.

If you would like to create a collection of videos for a particular class you can have students create an Educreations account and set up a class account where students will be able to access the videos you have created and targeted towards them. We will see an example of how students will create accounts and can be added to your course *Camtasia video*

Finally I will go through the steps you can use if you would like to share your videos publicly so that other educators and students across the video can share the resources you have created. Additionally I will show you how to update your profile if you would like. *Camtasia Video*

Hopefully you have found this training to be useful and you can see some ways to utilize this technology in your classroom. "

Web-Conferencing

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 4 Feb 2013 20:02:00 -0800

For our group project, our group decided to use Google Hangout for our video conference. Although group members listed other options such as Meetingl and Faceflow we decided to use Google Hangouts quite readily. The reasons we decided on Google Hangouts were numerous. Hangouts are free, easy to use, and offer multiple tools such as screen sharing, simultaneous group note-taking, and live broadcasting which creates a YouTube video after the session.

To select a time we initially discussed meeting times on the Angel discussion board, but then utilized a Doodle poll. The Doodle poll was very effective in helping our group to plan the initial meeting. Due to some hiccups with travel I was not able to attend the initial meeting at 2:00pm MTN on February 1st, however, thankfully, my other group members were able to meet again in the morning on the 2nd of February.
During the Hangout video conference our group utilized video, voice, and typed chat. It was nice to have all of these communication options. This is one advantage of this free conferencing tool. If one group member's microphone is not working he/she can still participate via typed chat. During this session we also utilized document sharing to take notes regarding our plans for the group project. I can see this notes feature being utilized in the classroom. A teacher could virtually provide instruction to a group of students who could ask questions via voice or typed chat and the students could gather notes on a Google Doc. We did not use the screen sharing, however, I have utilized this in the past to make travel plans with family (who live far away) and have found screen sharing to be quite useful.
We also utilized the "On Air" option during the February 2nd meeting to both cast our conference and create a video recording. This feature could be especially useful in the classroom if there is a virtual class or group meeting and a student is absent. The recording would then allow that student to know the things that were discussed. Additionally it could be utilized by students who were in attendance to review material. I have also seen this Google Hangout feature used by bloggers in creating live (and subsequently recorded) shows/interviews. Students could use Google Hangouts as a way to interview experts without the expense or inconvenience of traveling to meet experts that are out-of-area. This would be especially beneficial in rural schools.

Group 2 - February 2nd Meeting

Our group did not experience many hiccups in using Google Hangouts for our video conference. We found the interface to be quite intuitive, some members who had not used the Drive feature previously needed some assistance in navigating to the shared document, but this took a short amount of time. Additionally using "On Air" successfully took a couple attempts as the verification process did not appear to work initially. Once we re-started a Hangout the feature worked perfectly.
Overall I find Google Hangouts to be a marvelous video conferencing option both for personal use (such as planning group vacations from across the country) and for educational use (such as for this project or in the classroom). This tool would be useful in the classroom in the ways mentioned above, interviews, note-taking, virtual instruction, and would also be useful when used in a capacity similar to the way our group used the technology: to meet, coordinate, and plan with group members across disparate zip-codes and time-zones.

Wicked Problem Part B - PodCast

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:56:00 -0800

"Problem Solving Fortune Cookie" by Tomasz Stasiuk
used under a Creative Commons license.

My Wicked Problem is a lack of engagement and a lack of emphasis on problem solving skills in Algebra I. Click the link below to download my podcast to learn more about my plans to solve these problems.

Wicked Problem Part B - Podcast

Wicked Problem Part A: "Math is Boring"

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:40:00 -0800

Goal: Improve Performance in Mathematics by Making the Curriculum More Engaging

The Wicked Problem I would like to address is the need to create greater relevance and engagement in mathematics for students. Specifically, how we, as teachers, can design lessons and projects that are meaningful for students while still meeting the requirements of the common core standards and preparing students for standardized tests. In Michigan, “some schools have reported Algebra I failure rates as high as 40 percent…[There is] fear that students who fail algebra repeatedly will drop out of school before high school graduation...” (Switalski 1).

Educators regularly muse about the reasons for these failure rates and come up with a myriad of explanations: a lack of pre-requisite skills, a lack of formal operational thinking, a lack of effort, and poor study skills. Anecdotally, I have found that some students have a belief that they “cannot do math”. Thus, these students feel doomed from the start and their resilience is extremely low. However, most of these same students are quite adept at problem solving in creative ways when the problem doesn’t, at face, appear to be too “math-heavy”. This is ironic, because in many ways this problem solving side of mathematics is the side that will be of the greatest value for the greatest number of students as they move into college and the workforce. Although student x may never need to use the quadratic formula when she is 36, she will most definitely need to solve some problem by deciphering relevant information and analyzing variables.

The great debate over this issue is in striking a balance between computational skills and problem solving skills. Many teachers will say “How can students solve messier problems if they don’t have the right tools first?” They will say students need “the basics” before moving to bigger problems. This is another wicked problem, to define what constitutes “the basics” of mathematics. For my goal of making the curriculum more engaging, I would like to assume the axiom that critical thinking is the most basic math skill we can teach students. Thus we can work upwards from critical thinking to the logic of algebra, geometry, etc.

This solution and emphasis on creative thinking will change the structure of traditional math curriculum. A structure that is primarily based on the knowledge side of Bloom's taxonomy, with an emphasis on procedural knowledge and recall. Emphasizing messier problems that are more open ended will force students to work on the opposite side of Bloom's taxonomy, focusing on analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. Ironically, increasing the level of Bloom's taxonomy will not increase the pressure on students, but will alleviate some of the pressure to memorize or recall math "facts" or steps that are not readily relevant (thus harder to remember) for the student.

Although creating relevant learning experiences for students is not dependent on technology; technology offers a great flexibility and ease to provide these experiences. For example, students may be able to use online manipulatives or labs to solve problems that would previously necessitate paper and pencil. Most importantly students can use the breadth of information online as a valuable research tool during problem solving. Last year I was very inspired by Dan Meyer’s 2010 TED talk “Math class needs a makeover”. During this talk Mr. Meyer discusses the issues with student engagement in mathematics and students’ willingness to engage in conversation if they self-perceive a low skill level. Although many of his solutions are low tech he discusses using multi-media presentations such as video to present questions to students. Using a variety of media will allow for multiple representations and will allow students with a variety of learning styles to access and analyze the information.

My technology integrated solution for this problem would involve planning a pilot first semester Algebra course that focuses on bigger problem solving questions while still meeting common core standards. One of the roadblocks in implementing engaging curriculum is simply an issue of time. Designing engaging lessons, finding the right problem, and gathering the appropriate materials takes much more time than most teachers have during their school week. Often, an hour long lesson might take three hours to plan organize. Thus the logistics on this solution will be to create an Algebra I collection of high quality and engaging lessons. These will primarily work as inquiry student-driven projects, where students work collaboratively. Students will be posed with a problem/project and will have to work together to evaluate what information is necessary to arrive at a solution, then plan a way to gather that information, and then analyze the information to create a solution to the original problem. In some cases this could be done in a class hour, in other cases these project may require multiple days to allow for adequate research time.

In analyzing the results from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study, Hiebert, et al conclude “The results revealed a range of system of teaching across higher-achieving countries that balance attention to challenging content, procedural skill, and conceptual understanding in different ways. U.S. teachers employed…a constellation of features that reinforced attention to lower-level mathematics skills” (112). There were a number of features of teaching in the United States that differed from the teaching in high performing countries. One such difference was in the percentage of problems that required application of content rather than procedural exercises. Compared to Australia, Japan and Switzerland “U.S. students spent a smaller percentage of their time…doing something other than practicing familiar procedures” (Hiebert, et al 117).

Thus improving the types of problems students encounter in mathematics will not only increase student engagement but may also improve student math performance relative to students in other nations.

To implement a solution to this problem I will create a series or depository of lessons/projects/problems for Algebra I that address the common core standards. Lessons will:

o Utilize technology when appropriate

o Be student-driven and inquiry-based
o Emphasize novel application of mathematical concepts

o Encourage cooperation

o Be relevant and realistic (avoiding “faux context” e.g. “Tim bought 157 watermelons”)

o Encourage engagement, conversation, and “buy-in” for students of all skill levels

For this course, my goal will be to complete one marking period worth of materials, creating plans, links and resources for high value Algebra I tasks and lessons.

After this course my goal will be to develop a complete Algebra I course that emphasizes critical thinking and application instead of learning Algebra by solving many of the same type of problem.

I would consider my project successful if I were able to implement it in a traditional classroom and observed increased student engagement and performance. This would be measured by behavior in the classroom, work completion on projects outside of class, and performance on summative assessments. In my current position I do not teach a classroom of students. Thus I will not be able to try out my solution this year, however my goal is to eventually return to a regular classroom. I hop that when I do return to teaching I will be able to use this curriculum I develop to improve my teaching and students' experiences with mathematics.

Resources

Hiebert, J., J. W. Stigler, J. K. Jacobs, K. B. Givvin, H. Garnier, M. Smith, H. Hollingsworth,

A. Manaster, D. Wearne, and R. Gallimore. "Mathematics Teaching in the United States Today (and Tomorrow): Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 27.2 (2005): 111-32. Print.

Hiebert, James. Making Sense: Teaching and Learning Mathematics with Understanding. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann, 1997. Print. http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/07132/chapter1.pdf

Meyers, Dan

TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

Blog: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

Switalski, Michael “High School Math Requirements; Financial Literacy” Senate Bill 834,

Legislative Analysis. House Fiscal Agency, Michigan Senate (2008) http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billanalysis/House/pdf/2007-HLA-0834-3.pdf

CEP 812 Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:32:00 -0800

This is my introduction video for CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Practice.

Online Teaching and Learning Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Thu, 8 Nov 2012 16:08:00 -0800

I have experience online teaching in two ways across three different positions in the last five years. These experiences have been as a “traditional” teacher using online tools in classroom and as the coordinator of a credit-recovery program, facilitating the use of online courses. In the first of these I utilized online teaching resources, science simulations, and research projects. The second position is in an environment that is a much more immersive online experience. Both of these have met the Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS) to varying degrees and in different ways.

"Online Mentoring" by Alec Couros used under a creative commons license.

In the classroom, although I utilized online resources in my instruction, the online experiences that I felt were most useful for my students were online labs and research projects. During this time, I taught high school physics and math at Covert High School. In physics, approximately 20% of the labs utilized PhET Simulations from theUniversity of Colorado. Although these resources could be run offline, I designed tasks around these simulations that encouraged students to not only perform experiments using the applets, but also to explore the content by learning more online. Over the course of the semester each student accrued at least three hours of online experience from these labs. This online experience met all of the “Essential Characteristics of Quality Online Learning Experiences” in that it was collaborative with other students, well integrated to the content, offered teacher support and interaction, was sustainable, and offered students the chance to improve their life-long learning skills through the practice of problem solving and self-directing. These labs met two specific areas of the METS, 9.12CT1 “use digital resources (e.g., educational software, simulations, models) for problem solving and independent learning” and 9.12RI2 “identify, evaluate, and select appropriate online sources to answer content related questions”.

In addition to these labs, my physics students were assigned a culminating multi-genre project at the close of the year. This involved students spending one week in a computer lab (in addition to time at home) researching one topic from the semester more in depth and then presenting their research in at least five different ways. This activity met a significant number of the METS. During the initial research process, students learned how to analyze information they found based on accuracy, validity, and bias. This proved to be a telling experience as many students accepted information they found online at face value and had not previously practiced analyzing the reliability of online sources. Following this research period, students were able to further practice online learning by utilizing multiple online tools to create their presentations. For example, some students decided to use online graphical presentations as one of their genres, others created online crosswords, or faux-news articles to present their information. This met another of the METS areas of creativity and innovation. Overall, I have found that research followed by a creative (or traditional) product is one of the most oft used and valuable online learning experiences for students and one that meets many of the METS.

Following my experience in a “traditional classroom”, I became the coordinator of an online learning program at Reeths-Puffer High School. I am currently in my third year in this role. This has been a very unique experience since my students take online courses exclusively (with the option to take one traditional PE or art course). This program was started to provide students who have not been successful in traditional courses a rigorous alternative to earn credits at a self-directed pace. In regards to the METS this experience meets some of the “Technology Operations and Concepts” standards as well as some “Communication and Collaboration” standards. The program meets nearly all of the “Essential Characteristics of Quality Online Learning Experiences”, however since the software we use presents the courses in a linear and individualized manner, there is not much opportunity for students to engage in collaboration. In the second year of the program we began to require that students complete essay assignments (including research papers) outside of the learning management system. This has allows students to branch out and practice/learn research skills and thus has exposed them to a greater number of the METS.

My experience in coordinating an online learning program has led me to the belief that a hybrid environment is more effective for student learning than an online-exclusive environment. We have found that students perform better when they are in school and have guidance and support available from teachers. The other teachers and I are able to provide interventions, as well as supplementary or alternative material when necessary to meet the needs of students. Thus although our students are exclusively taking online courses, they are doing so in a computer lab, in our school building, where we can offer more of a hybrid-learning experience.

In thinking about the online experiences I want to use with students in the future I would like to continue to utilize research projects as I have found that giving students the tools to analyze information is invaluable as a life-long skill. Additionally, I think that using collaborative online tools such as Google Docs is valuable in education as online collaboration is becoming widely used both in higher ed and in the workplace. Further I will continue to use online simulations like those available through PhET which allow students with various learning styles and skill levels to engage with material in a way that makes sense for them and at a self-driven pace.

I believe that almost all technologies can be used with students as long as the proper support is provided; support is the most important factor in the difficulty of integrating a given technology. Intuitive design is another important factor as it would be harder for students to engage in a technology that was extremely unfamiliar in design and/or did not access prior knowledge. However, this is not usually the case as most well designed tools strive for some degree of intuitive use. For example, the PhET simulations are relatively easy for students to jump into because they utilize familiar images and navigation tools (tabs, play and pause buttons, side bar navigation, etc). In fact, all of the technology I have used thus far in education has been relatively easy to integrate as many design elements are consistent and are quite familiar to digital natives.

CEP 811 - Final Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Thu, 8 Nov 2012 13:03:00 -0800

During this course the point that became the most salient for me is that effective teaching strategies are essentially the same for technology-rich and technology-poor settings. It is vital to engage and meet the needs of a diverse population of learners regardless of the level of technology being used. However, while it is possible to design engaging lessons that meet a multitude of student needs without technology, utilizing technology makes offering enhanced student engagement and choice much easier. Using technology in the classroom also opens up more possibilities for teachers to create lessons that can be auditory, visual, and interactive in nature. There are a myriad of assistive technologies available (such as text to speech) that allow material to be accessed by a broader range of students. The lesson this semester that was most useful in reiterating the qualities of effective teaching strategies was the UDL session. The UDL checklist was a thorough tool for checking the effectiveness of a lesson. Although it may be burdensome to complete this checklist for every lesson, it is a useful benchmark and reference for checking how well a lesson will meet the needs of all learners. I enjoyed and learned quite a bit by analyzing my initial lesson plan using the checklist.

When considering using new technology in the classroom, web-based technologies are especially useful. The fact that this course emphasized web-based material such as WebQuests, StAIRs, website development, and materials available on MERLOT, was valuable. This is due to the fact that resources based on the web give students the freedom to access learning materials almost anywhere. The ubiquitous nature of mobile devices with internet access makes these web-based materials more accessible and thus valuable for students and parents compared to traditional hard-copies. There are some limits to this, as resources such as my PowerPoint StAIR would not work correctly on a mobile device. However, there improvements are regularly being made to mobile operating systems, making them more robust and closer in functionality to traditional computers. In my role as coordinator of an online learning program I find that many students use their cell phones or ipods to access to access class information on blogs and/or to complete work in their online courses. I see students’ use of these devices growing and thus I would like to learn more about creating effective web-based materials and applications to take even greater advantage of this “anywhere learning” option.

One of my personal learning goals is to learn more about online web development. This would include learning to design websites using html (or html5) in addition to “intuitive” tools like Google Sites and Weebly. My biggest goal this semester was to find a better balance and to spend more time on my class. This was something I continued (and currently continue) to struggle with. It has caused me to reflect on how I learn and how online classes can be difficult for me as someone who is a strong inter-personal learner. I found that I did not effectively schedule time for the class on a regular basis and sometimes struggled to stay motivated. It was especially helpful during this semester to have online meetings in Adobe Connect and to complete a group assignment using Google Hangout. I tend to learn well when I can collaborate and work with others. However, overall, since online classes tend to lack face-to-face and/or auditory interaction compared to traditional courses, I have found it difficult to stay motivated even though I find the content very interesting. What I often found is that after an online class meeting I would find myself logging into Angel more often, however when a week went by without a meeting I tended to log in less than the required amount. If I continue in the MSU Ed Tech program I would really like to do a summer session on campus or abroad so that I have the chance to do more in-person collaboration.

This struggle to stay motivated has heightened my awareness of the improvements that are necessary to make online learning (often face-to-screen) as effective and enjoyable as traditional face-to-face learning. I believe that for a large number of learners, in order for instruction to be effective there must be regular and authentic collaboration with peers. I am excited about the tools that are now available for this, including Google Hangouts that allow for audio/visual interaction that is a close approximation to working in person. For example, while doing our group WebQuest evaluation this semester, I was able to see and hear other group members and we were able to share our work station screens and simultaneously work on a collaborative Google Doc. Adobe Connect is also a great and robust tool, but at a significant cost compared to free Google Hangouts. I imagine that as classrooms become more connected and hybrid learning becomes more frequent that Google Hangouts will be a wonderful resource for students to use to collaborate outside of school. As the IDE template suggests, socialization is a strong motivator for learning.

Moving forward I would like to continue to take Ed Tech courses as I find each subsequent course is more in depth and I have learned many valuable things through taking CEP 810 and 811. Whether I continue to coordinate an online credit recovery program, move back into a traditional setting, or move onto a different career in education, I know the skill set and knowledge I gain in these classes will be invaluable. I would like to explore options for taking these classes in a hybrid or in-person model to experience a greater degree of socialization and collaboration. In addition I hope to expand my knowledge of technology by looking for local courses I can take to learn more about the programming side of technology. This will help me discover more about how programs and applets work and possibly, with enough time and effort, would garner me the skills to create custom tools that would be valuable for learning.

Overall I am pleased with what I learned through this course and found the material to be quite valuable. In retrospect I would like to have spent more time on the course as I feel I could have garnered deeper knowledge. Moving forward I hope to use the tools I’ve learned to help me in the classroom (especially when I teach math and physics during the summer), to inspire me to become more involved in the online education community (through MACUL and blogging), and to use what I’ve learned about myself as a student to create deeper and more meaningful learning experiences in the future.

Making Lessons Relevant for All Learners - Universal Design for Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:45:00 -0700

As modern educators we are often faced with big philosophical questions and even political debates about our role in the classroom. Are we simply purveyors of content? How far and how wide does our role stretch? What does it mean to be an effective educator? How do we meet all the expectations placed upon us?

One of the most common discussions I find myself having is about meeting the needs of a youth in a world that has changed significantly from the time when the “traditional” style or expectations of teaching came to be. It is no longer enough (although it was probably never enough) to be a content expert that simply gives students the information through direct instruction and expects them to fully receive it. I recall my own experience in learning math and physics to be of the following pattern:

1. Direct Teacher Instruction

2. Examples shown (usually by the instructor)

3. Practice Problems that look like the examples

4. Divine patterns based on the practice (hopefully)

5. Complete similar problems on a test

6. Rinse and Repeat

As I began teaching I found it was very easy to slip into this pattern. It was comfortable, but I recognized that it was usually not effective for most students. Recently in our CEP 811 class we learned about a concept called Universal Design for Learning. These are design concepts that aim to aid educators in developing lessons that meet the needs of all learners. These design concepts encourage the creation of lessons that represent material in many ways, provide support and scaffolding for students, and allow choice as well as authentic engagement.

For the UDL lab, I evaluated a lesson that I used in my physics class. This was a lesson that was an introduction to graphs of motion using a video of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk. Although all lessons can be improved upon by implementing more UDL principles I felt this was a strong lesson as it provided multiple strategies for choice, scaffolding, and engagement. The lesson can be accessed as a pdf Google Doc here: Analyzing Graphs of MotionUsing Dance. The UDL Guidelines for Educators Checklist with notes on how the lesson addresses the guidelines is shown below.

Collaborative Tools: Wikis vs. Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:03:00 -0700

As part of my CEP 811 course this week I completed a Wikis lab in which I learned about incorporating Wikis in an educational setting. This included an introductory video and "7 Things You Should Know about Wikis" by the Educase Learning Initiative. To be honest, thus far in my teaching career I have not made use of wikis in the classroom or with colleagues. In the past I have made edits and additions to Wikipedia pages on topics of interest to me and have utilized game specific wikis to read in depth about games I play.

Both the video and the article in this lab highlight the convenience of collaboration available through using wikis. Specifically the video in the CEP 811 lab compares the use of wikis to the use of e-mail threads/chains, explaining that information can be organized in a much better and centralized way using a wiki. While this is true, I have found Google Docs to be extraordinarily easy and intuitive for most users and have used this as a collaborative tool over the past couple years. Although I think a Wiki would be useful in the classroom to organize large amounts of information or whole-class collaboration I believe Google Docs are an easier solution for groups of four to six. The scenario presented in the lab video was a group of four people planning for a camping trip. Each was able to edit a wiki in order to organize information. In my experience I believe that a Google doc may in fact be more user friendly and easier to create for this purpose. In fact I have used Google Docs for this very purpose (planning a camping trip), in addition to classroom group work, to have parents sign-up for parent teacher conferences, and to collaborate with colleagues in planning for my credit-recovery program at school.

Wikis are a strong tool for organizing a great deal of information and simultaneously allowing many contributors and editors to this information. The obvious and most robust example of this is Wikipedia, however there an innumerable wikis available of the internet on an enormous range of topics. For this assignment I attempted to add one small piece to this great swath of information. The Reeths-Puffer District Wikipedia page was anemic to say the least (see below). Due to the lack of categories, there was not a table of contents displayed and the wiki was essentially a listing of the district's schools.

In order to improve this page I added information about enrollment (with reference) to the introduction. I also added a history section which then allowed a table of contents to be displayed. This historical information was paraphrased from the information posted on our district website. The updated page can be seen below.

In conclusion as the number of collaborative tools available on the internet grows, various tools will prove to have strengths for specific uses. Through this lab I have found that wikis can be a robust tool for organizing large amounts of information and/or to collaborate with many people. For smaller projects and collaborations a Google Doc is somewhat easier and works well.

CEP 811 - MERLOT Resource Evalution

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 1 Oct 2012 20:30:00 -0700

The learning material I am evaluating from MERLOT is “Physlet Physics: Kinematics”. This is a link to a collection of physics simulations. The material that I explored was for 1-D Kinematics and included applets labeled “Illustrations”, “Explorations”, and “Problems”. The software presents valid and educationally significant representations of motion with both position versus time graphs and velocity versus time graphs. These representations are made via interactive java applets targeted at either high school or college students taking an entry-level physics course.

These simulations could be used at multiple points in the learning process. The illustrations and explorations applets could be used as demonstration to introduce the topic or the problems could be used as practice to assess learning and/or as a guided check for students after the lesson.
After using the materials students should be able to determine the correct position versus time or velocity versus time graph for given one-dimensional motion. Students should also be able to determine the acceleration for an object at a given time when given a velocity versus time graph. The teaching and learning goals are easy to identify as this collection of applets is specifically collected for one chapter which focuses on one-dimensional kinematic motion.
The interactive presentation of the material makes it more accessible for students as many students struggle in creating a written description of motion based on a graph and/or creating an accurate graph when viewing one-dimensional motion. The way these applets are set up to create real-time graphs that correspond to the motion depicted helps student to make these connections. The software can be readily integrated into existing curriculum and could be used either as a presentation from the instructor or something the students explore on their own in a computer lab. In many cases these applets would simply replace the use of static graphs, but would achieve the same ends.
The site is very easy to navigate and the buttons for play, pause, etc are consistent for each applet. Although the labels are numerical it would be relatively easy for an instructor to create a guided lesson by asking students to explore particular applets in a particular order. Due to students’ regular use of video media the buttons “play” “pause”, “step >>”, “<< step” would be familiar and intuitive. The interactive and dynamic nature of the applets would be much more attractive to students compared to a static graph on paper.
Although there are a number of rich and engaging of physics applets available for free online, this resource from MERLOT provides a rich addition in the area of 1-D Kinematics. The material provides enough illustrations and problems to be a one-stop-shop for a lesson on this topic and could be used either to supplement an existing lesson, as a student-driven self-guided inquiry or as an assessment after a separate lesson on the topic.

PC Maintenance and Security - CEP 810 Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:00:00 -0700

The tutorials I viewed for this lab were: the introduction tutorials, including "Explaining typical problems found on many PCs", the two RoboForm tutorials, and the tutorial "Learning about ActiveX Controls". The introduction presented the basis of problems one could encounter with malware (and the definition of malware) and many of the following tutorials focused on specific tools or techniques users could implement to improve their PC experience and performance.
The one suggestion I would give to people in using the internet safely is to avoid any feature of a browser that will auto-run a program, application, or script when viewing a webpage. The author, Mark Repp, discussed this as a security flaw that can lead to major problems. The tutorial on ActiveX discussed the caution necessary when deciding whether to allow a website to run a script or application. In other tutorials he goes into detail on changing the settings of one's browser to avoid these security issues. The second suggestion I would share with others would be for people to simply read advisory pop-up messages when viewing unfamiliar websites. Although pop-ups are blocked at our school, in my computer lab I have seen many students go to unfamiliar websites and just "click through" warning or notification messages without reading, leading to adware being inadvertantly installed. Additionally some students (and other internet users) have a mis-placed trust of internet sites. For example I recently had a discussion about making informed choices with a student who apparently fills out every "You've Won X!" survey she comes across because she said knows someone who got some free product from doing so. The amount of personal information this student was sharing to an unknown source was a bit scary. Thus the primary advice I would give to all internet users is simply to be careful in trusting unknown sites and especially be careful when giving out personal information.
One part of the tutorials that suprised me was regarding an the issue that I believe has changed recently. This was in one of the introduction tutorials where Mark Repp says "Free software often includes spyware" and discusses how this can be used to target specific ads/pop-ups to the user. While this may still be the case occasionally, in my experience, pop-up blockers are nearly ubiquitous in browsers so this type of marketing has lost some effectiveness. I think that a more relevant issue is the use of applications by many (most?) Facebook users. By using these applications Facebook users are (knowingly) trading their information for the use of a game or social sharing device. At a recent panel I attended, in a discussion about free applications, one of the panelists said "If the game is free, you are the product." Thus implying that you are paying for the game with your information. Although some Facebook users are unaware of the extent of information they are sharing, each game lists the information it collects before it is installed. Once again, it is important that the user pay attention to the information presented and make an informed choice about the cost (sharing personal informtion) of playing a game for free.
Overall, much of the information in the tutorials seemed to present basic tools (anti-virus software, password managers, spam filters, etc.) and ideas for using computers well. However, the overall theme seemed to revolve around being informed and making concious choices. The issue of being informed formed an umbrella over numerous topics included using proper software and methods to be keep one's computer and information safe, as well as being concious of what one clicks on while browsing the internet or reading e-mail.

Learning Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:18:00 -0700

To complete my learning style inventory I used a free link from edutopia and accelerated learning. Although all categories ended up being somewhat close my two strongest areas (the scores were tied) were Interpersonal and Logical-Mathematical. The interpersonal side of things means that I "thrive on social interaction" and learning actively with others. This is something that is extremely prevalent in my work place. Many of my collegues know that I occasionaly need to talk problems out to come to a solution. As a teacher, I have learned to sometimes step back this personal preference as some students do not thrive on or enjoy talking out problems. My other strongest area is in logical-mathematical. This is not a big surprise as I majored in mathematics and physics in my undergraduate career. I love organized thinking and problem solving and have sometimes been told I can go overboard using spreadsheets to explain information to others. Thinking of things in terms of a puzzle gives me drive and motivation to tackle challenges because I want to "figure them out". As with all multiple-intelligences I have learned over the years that this is not the way others always see things and that it is part of my role as an educator to step-outside my comfort zone in planning lessons. I typically warn parents during parent-teacher conferences "if I start to explain things using too many numbers, please feel free to stop me". I also use this to explain to students that my love of math was originally derived from seeing the solving of problems as a puzzle to figure out. When I am in a classroom I try to reflect regularly on my own learning preferences verses those of my students to address those who may learn very differently from myself.

Using the three-part auditory-visual-kinesthetic test I scored a 6 auditory and 5 in both visual and kinesthetic. I am quite distracted by noise, but I find that I learn equally well in almost all categories. There are certain things that I learn best by doing, and find that if I can try something out myself I am likely to be able to repeat the process. I also found that in college during lectures I enjoyed both the auditory act of listening while having the visual/kinesthetic act of taking notes. I typically do not do well trying to learn with one style to the exclusion of others.

Personal Learning Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:29:00 -0700

Although I have learned many new technologies in this course I have also learned that rather than simply learning new technologies it is important to develop tools and skills to implement ever changing technology. The strategy that has come to the forefront for me has been gathering knowledge from my personal learning network about software and technology that I am not currently aware of. For example, our school has a limited number of licenses available for Inspiration software to create concept maps. This means that students would have to go to the library to access this software and I would have to rely on our district to be able to continue to fund the purchase of this software. Through this course and working with my SIG group, I have had the opportunity to use Glogster, Popplet, and Prezi, all free online tools that students could also use to create concept maps. I have found that there are innumerable solutions accessible online for various classroom conundrums. This has reinforced to me the need to be surrounded by people who are interested in and excited about technology so we can always share the "next big, cool thing".
The assignment so far that I feel really exemplifies good teaching with technology is our SIG Presentation. We created a Weebly which was something I had not done previously. A visitor to this weebly can interact with the prezi on the front page, view videos about navigating an LMS, click though to a trove of resources in our diigo group, view a popplet, or simply read about learning management systems. I feel that this product is accessible to users with many different learning styles and allows a user to see a brief overview or to dig deeper if more inclined.
In reviewing my personal growth plan I was reminded of a few goals I would still like to work on. Most of my personal goals centered around the use of social networks. I now have a twitter account, but I have not yet explored this as a means to communicate with my students. Our school recently held a professional development training on social networking. It was presented as a tool we could use in the classroom, however I did not feel that twitter was encouraged. What I would now like to do is create a separate facebook account and create a facebook group for my program. I feel this may be more effective and see wider used than Ning since it is a site students are already familiar with.
I discussed in my technology goals my goal to improve my school blog. I have found recently that I utilize a number of other communication tools, such as e-mails, announcements within the e2020 system, and messages over our school network much more frequently than I use my blog. However, I have loved using Blogger for this course. Although they are similar my experience with Blogger has been somewhat more user-friendly compared to WordPress. Throughout the rest of my Educational Technology program I would like to continue to use this blog to share not only class assignments but also interested finds from resources on Educational Technology. Being part of a community of educators excited about technology in the classroom is very fulfilling.

Creative Commons / Copyrights

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:03:00 -0700

It is all too uncommon in the educational realm that copyright laws get bent and in many cases, broken. The intentions of teachers are usually not malicious, but often book publishers, artists, and other educators are taken advantage of for the sake of saving money and/or time. Personally, I have at times found myself in a trap of searching through Google images for a great geometry diagram to use in class or looking through another publisher's textbook for more challenging problems to present to my students. Sometimes there are resources available that teachers freely share, but other times by grabbing an image from the web we are essentially stealing another teacher or artist's work. For this CEP lab I searched for creative commons graduation clip-art I could use in my credit recovery class and came across the following clip art which I could use in a variety of displays in my classroom. I am looking forward to exploring the resources on Creative Commons in the future to avoid the "search and grab" I have done in the past.

Adventures in RSS

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 2 Apr 2012 20:43:00 -0700

When I began CEP 810, Teaching Understanding with Technology, I had never used an RSS reader. I recall that I first encountered RSS feeds in the late nineties as a high schooler when a band I enjoyed offered an RSS for updates on tours and releases. Over the years I have known a number of people who use and prefer RSS readers for daily news stories. Personally, I have always prefered a more serendipitous approach for my news. I typically read stories friends have linked on facebook or sent through e-mail and then explore related stories in the process. In some cases I enjoy going to different websites and just "looking around". For this assignment I had the experience of viewing relevant and topical news in a much more controlled manner.

One of the feeds I have most enjoyed following has been Will Richardson's blog. I have enjoyed that most of his blog posts link to outside resources or full versions of a quote he discusses. Additionally he brings up some tough political issues happening with education today and references work being done by key game-changers. I like that he does this while reflecting on the changing landscape of education and the changing role of a teacher. One quote that really stuck out to me was: "Given that there is too much to teach, the traditional idea of the 'teacher' is moving toward obsolescence. Instead of preparing the adults to be teaching 'professionals' who are adept at a highly structured delivery of education, we need to prepare them to be 'learning professionals' who have deep expertise in inquiry, literacy, information retrieval and vetting, collaboration, creation etc". His blog was different from many others in my feed in that it included more reflection and personal analysis compared to the other feeds.
Most of the other RSS feeds on my reader mainly linked news stories or activities using technology. I enjoyed being able to browse through my reader for topics that were of interest however I sometimes found myself wanting to go about this in a less-formatted way. During the course of this assignment I stumbled across and read "A Teacher's Ultimatum Drives Student's Success" while reading a different NPR article that a friend had posted on Facebook. I read the story on NPR and then the next day saw it on my RSS Reader. As I browsed my reader on this day I noticed many articles I wanted to read and this reinforced how convenient it is to collect many things I am interested in all in one place.

Over the course of this endeavor I made a comment on the article “The Flipped Class: A New Paradigm In Education”. This is a topic I have encountered multiple times this year. There is a teacher in my school who has become known across our community as a resource for the flipped classroom model. All of her lectures as well as additional resources are available online. I have also spoken with my former mentor teacher this year about her experience in trying to implement a flipped classroom and some of the pitfalls she has experienced. The video linked in the ISTE article shows two chemistry teachers briefly describing their reasons for and experience in implementing the flipped classroom model. My comment addressed my desire to see student feedback on this model (specifically the change to this model) and also addressed some of the pitfalls expressed by my mentor teacher.

The reader is a great tool for keeping timely educational discussion going through the use of blogs and comments. Another aspect of the reader that I enjoyed was the ability to weed out old stories and quickly check for new stories. There were some feeds that did not change much over time (the "Teacher's Ultimatum" story has been on the NPR feed for a week) while others had completely new stories over the course of a day (Digital Learning Now). Going forward I would like to focus my reader on feeds that update on a regular basis. One conundrum I ran into while looking for sites to add to my feed is that there are some sites that post interesting information but do not offer RSS feeds. This is a limitation in that it is much harder to monitor a number of sites rather than simply looking in one place for information from a variety of sources. The reader is a helpful tool/reminder to keep tabs on changes in education and technology.
Through my experience I have found a variety of ways I could apply this technology in my setting. The first would simply be to continue to monitor these feeds and use what I learn in my program; the feeds I am following offer myriad ideas for classrooms and learning. As a second option I could integrate a public RSS reader as a resource for students investigating a particular topic. This would allow me and/or the students to gather relevant news sources all in one place and allow groups of students to view the same updated news stories. Yet another option for using this technology is the use of an RSS feed on my own blog. I have an e-mail subscription option on my Reeths-Puffer blog, but from this experience I have found an RSS feed makes it easier to check for updates without regular e-mails that can get over-looked when one receives many emails throughout the day. An RSS feed would allow users to incorporate my blog updates amongst those they already check. This would also reinforce the need for me to keep my blog updated as I found regularly updated feeds to be the most useful. I know the stakeholders in my program would feel similarly. The experience of using a reader for the first time has taught me both the usefulness for myself and has also taught me lessons about how to create a better blog for the students, parents, and community that are part of my program.

Personal Learning Network

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:02:00 -0700

Social Networking for Educators

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:24:00 -0700

It seems that in the past few years social media and social networking have been common "buzz" words. At this point the fact is that social interaction online is simply a fact of life for over 900 billion people worldwide. Online sources point to a range of numbers, but many point to over 70% of internet users belonging to some form of social network. Not only are there the big names in social media: Twitter, Facebook, and (the somewhat anachronistic) MySpace. There are a variety of platforms on which one can build a social network specific to a particular audience.

For educators, this means a largely un-tapped resource to communicate with our stakeholders: students, parents, community members, and collegues. We can leverage both exisiting networks as well as create new networks specific to the students we teach. This means teachers who can fufill the goals of "anywhere learning" for their students and students who can find greater engagement with the content through immediate collaboration with their peers.

Part of what is engaging about social media is the ability to receive nearly constant feedback and interaction. Traditionally feedback in education came in the form of report cards, test grades, comments on papers, etc. In the social space feedback can be a continuous conversation between either a teacher and student, one student with another student, or a whole group.

This ability to have continuous interaction opens a lot of doors in the professional education space, but also brings down a lot of walls in the personal space. As educators it becomes ever more precarious to maintain professionalism while personal information is so easily available online. This social connectivity boom makes it easy and wonderful to find old friends, connect with others on facebook, and share daily triumphs and tribulations. While all of these things are fulfilling this sharing must be done with a constant conciousness of our professional roles.

Overall social media is an every growing and ubiquitous resource that can bring everyone enjoyment personally, but can also be used as a tool professionally. We can improve how we educate students by using the same networks our students are already on everyday and/or we can build new spaces around our educational goals.

10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:34:00 -0700

One of my goals over the next few months is to find information for this blog that is relevant to my current learning program as well as the program I coordinate. I recently came across a list of elements of a high quality program. The list was created by The Digital Learning Council, "a diverse group of more than 100 leaders from education, government, philanthropy, business, technology, and think-tanks". The group collaborated to form a list of the 10 elements all high quality programs should include. With all the varied implementations and iterations of digital learning, it is nice to see a list of standards which may be applied to various programs. The full report can be viewed via the following link: Digital Learning Now Report: 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning.

The 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning are:

1. Student Access: All students are digital learners.
2. Barriers to Access: All students have access to high quality digital learning.
3. Personalized Learning: All students can use digital learning to customize their education.
4. Advancement: All students progress based on demonstrated competency.
5. Quality Content: Digital content and courses are high quality.
6. Quality Instruction: Digital instruction is high quality.
7. Quality Choices: All students have access to multiple high quality digital providers.
8. Assessment and Accountability: Student learning is the metric for evaluating the quality of content and instruction.
9. Funding: Funding creates incentives for performance, options and innovation.
10. Infrastructure: Infrastructure supports digital learning.

K-12 Online Learning Environment Infographic

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Kupiecki) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:18:00 -0700

This graphic is from Keeping Pace with Online Learning K-12's report page. It provides a wonderful summary current of online content providers sorted by area. For me personally, it was eye-opening to simply see how many providers there currently are and how many resources I have yet to learn about.