Teach->Learn->Teach->Learn...

Wicked Problem Project-Final

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Link to YouTube video

The Wicked Problem
During my student teaching, I often had problems with getting students to engage in materials that required them to read. This in turn meant that whatever activity and learning outcome I had in mind for the day, was undermined, and I often felt that students were unable to grasp the concepts I was hoping to impart.

The Solution
In thinking about my problem, I decided to bring a set of e-readers into my classroom as a means of helping students access the text. Although I had originally envisioned this on a school-wide scale, it was pointed out to me how hard this would be for so many reasons. I decided to scale back to only a classroom set with the idea behind this being that students with difficulties would not be singled-out, and that students who had not yet been identified by the system as needing extra help would then be able to access the tools as well.

TPaCK Application

TP: How does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?

I believe that in order to understand History, each of us needs to build our own understanding of the subject matter, especially, how history narratives (i.e. textbooks) are created. Both of these forms of understanding come from examining source material, questioning, and drawing conclusions. In this way, students make their own mental webs of information that they can use to learn and to interpret new information as it is presented, and to understand ideas about the society that they live in. The foundation for building these understandings comes heavily from being able to read source materials.

The ideal of digital media is a relative blip on the historic timeline, meaning that until recently everything was done on paper in some manner. This meant that if students were to use these texts, teachers not only had to have access to these artifacts but then make copies of them (if possible) so that they were classroom ready. Many groups have been working to digitize these artifacts so that they are accessible and downloadable through the web. Using e-readers in my classroom means that students would have 1:1 access to the documents and texts for the various activities and lessons that I have planned with a device that aids and encourages them with their class reading. I try to make sure that students work together to build knowledge and answer questions based on the things they have read and looked at. If the student does not read the text, my teaching methods are useless. E-readers help to bridge that gap. Basically if a student can ‘read’ the material, then their chances of participating in the class and chances of doing well in the class greatly increase.

The outside sources that I use in order to present information about the time period we are studying can now be collected in an organized manner that students can easily read-access and ‘flip’ between in order to make comparisons or highlight/clip portions to use in their writing. I can now, for instance, provide students with two opposing newspaper editorials, images from the event, artwork (possibly in color), poetry (And I can still be eco-friendly.), and I can have an activity go from these sources, rather than going with a paragraph summary of the event from the textbook. Also, e-readers which are able to access the web do not support the range of programs that laptops do, which means that my students will be better able to stay focused on the task at hand.

TC: How specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.

E-readers allow the information in the texts being used in the classroom to become more accessible in many ways. Perhaps most notably, most e-readers have a text-to-speech function that allows students who are struggling readers or who are more aural learners a gateway in the material that will be used in class. E-readers include dictionaries and translators to help all students understand what they are reading without having to take the time to find such aids or interrupt the rest of the class, nor do they have to call attention to their specific difficulties. Some dictionary functions display “in-page” allowing students even greater ease. E-readers allow students to change the font size, and many devices use e-ink, reducing eye strain. These benefits combined with how lightweight an e-reader is allow the reader to focus and place their effort on the content rather than on the effort of reading itself.

Beyond that, there is a “cool factor” that is involved with using an e-reader. When students are excited about the way they are learning, they become more excited about the learning itself. This excitement in turn leads to a greater willingness to engage in the reading material and approach it with an open mind, especially if they feel that there is a cool tool to help them formulate their ideas.

PC: How specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

As a history teacher I am a big believer of having students examine documents/artifacts from the unit we are studying as a means of helping them to construct their own understanding of the time/place/people/issue/etc., rather than relying solely on the textbook to feed them a single storyline.

Often times the text (for a number of reasons both understandable and un-understandable) leaves out persons and stories of the time period that might connect with the people who are reading that text and the place and situation they are coming from. A textbook overview of people’s reactions is not enough. Incorporating art, music, speech (yes, e-readers support .mp3 files), and other mediums help students to connect to the content. The e-readers also make that content available to students as many times as they need, in the medium that works best for them. That is, a student can listen as many times as they need to understand the material, rather only having one 'shot' with a lecture. The e-reader also allows the student to use the various aids and tools without making it known to their peers that they are doing so. This practice should make the student more willing to engage with the material if they can maintain their image in front of their peers.

Allowing students to bring and access their own information and history to the documents while they are examining and making connections means that the discussions that they will engage in will be that much more REAL. And that means that the knowledge and understanding that they build will be real and lasting as well.

Group Leadership Project-Overview to Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:38:00 +0000

For our project, our group decided to do video tutorial of the various applications available through Google Docs. This would allow access through an easy medium like YouTube, and would allow people to see our steps in action. In creating our tutorial, we had decided that each member would take an application from Google and create a video segment that we would then piece together with transitions. I am not sure about the others, but creating the video segment was ridiculously easy. I used screencast-o-matic.com to record my screencast. My two favorite features about this site are 1) You do not have to create an account to use it (unusual for free programs) and 2) It has an auto-adjust feature for your microphone.

I did have trouble with the various video formats that I could save to. The .avi format would not encode. I could save the .flv file, but Windows Movie Maker Live would not work with the file format. That left me with .mp4.

I then elected to piece the various video segments from team members together in Windows Movie Maker Live.

I created transition images and then simply uploaded the video files that others had sent to me, also in .mp4 format. Again, no sweat. But, the completed product had several issues. First, in movie maker live there is no way (that I know of) to pull out the audio to edit it, so we the user of our video would have had to adjust their volume while watching. 2) We were VERY long on the time, and YouTube has a 15 minute limit 3) The quality of the video was fine in Movie Maker, but any way that I 'exported' it, the visual quality dropped noticeably. I tried converting the files to other formats and then bringing them into Movie Maker, but that only seemed to make it worse-I believe this is essentially the "copy of a copy" issue. I also download another video editing program but was greeted with the same results.

Long story short, the final product was not bad, but not what we had hoped for.

In order for my team mates to see the completed video, I broke them into two segments and uploaded them to YouTube. After contacting Susan Wright, our instructor, we needed to pull the time back to ten minutes. We decided to keep the introduction and the overview of Google Documents since many of the features of Documents are found in the other applications, and then post the original two segments here.

Here is our shortened, official final product

Here is the original segments: Segment One
Segment Two
All in all, this was not a bad experience, but I certainly learned a lot. In the future, I would have one person do all the recording in one program that they can publish from in a format that is not .mp4. For instance, you can publish to YouTube from screencast-o-matic, but there is no way to piece videos together and then post. If I was going to do a lot of this sort of thing, I would definitely being doing some more reading online about what are the best programs. Much of what I read about Movie Maker Live helped me to understand that it is an ok "get the job done" program, but that a true video editing program is the way to go, and that .mp4 is not always that best file format.

CEP812 Personal Learning Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 21:52:00 +0000

It is interesting to have this project come around so quickly again, and how my thoughts have changed on the task. When I completed the first PLP for 810 I feel like it was very academic and big picture. I had set goals that, by this time, I should have accomplished and haven't. I don't feel horrible for not completing those goals, but it has made me realize how much life can trip up your own personal development goals. You really must be as dedicated in your personal study as your classroom study. The one major goal that I have met is joining the MAET program. I am excited to see what this program will teach me and the people that I will meet. Hopefully I will be able to expand my PLN! Given that I didn't meet my smaller goals from my previous PLP, I decided that the best new goal/lesson learned, was that I really need to have a solid logistical plan, that is broken down into small logistical steps. Having these smaller steps in place will allow me to see progress which in turn will hopefully spur me to accomplish more.

For my Personal Learning Plan I created a 'storybook' using PowerPoint. I admit, it's kind of silly, but I was trying to have fun with it. Enjoy!
Personal Learning Plan

Wicked Project Part D Findings and Implications

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:16:00 +0000

I found the last part of the Wicked project to be difficult because not having implemented it in the real world, I have difficulties seeing the flaws or issues that may arise, so gentle reader, if you think of things, please let me know so that I may address them.

Thinking through this problem, the various solutions available to me, and a mental walk-through of how the chosen solution might work has proved to be both educational and information in regards to how I approach problems. As I think about this project, I can try to answer the following questions:

Did the project get implemented as planned?

As much I would like to think that getting the readers would be a no-problem process, I am sure that there would be road blocks of any number of sorts. There could be resistance from my department or administration. Finding money may be harder than anticipated, and fund raising may have to be done “by hand” which could, quite honestly, take a school year to do. That aside, the biggest hurdle I see in implementing the project is making the e-readers a normal part of the classroom. Having students see the reader not only as a tool, but understanding the tool and its purpose, so that it is not just something to play around on or something to disregard as just a gimmick. If I can get past that point, and I could see that taking awhile, I can see the readers being successful.

What is the evidence of success in addressing the identified problem of practice?

As I noted in part Part C, I don’t expect to have some sort of miraculous improvement in my classroom. However, I do expect to see heightened levels of student engagement with the text, especially from my students who have struggled with the text in the past. When students work with text, I anticipate seeing more students reading and less zoning out. In terms of hard data, I would expect to see more classwork attempted, turned in, AND more authentic work-that is, I anticipate seeing less copy-cat answers.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here? What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

The one idea that has benefitted me most in thinking about this project is starting small. Originally, I was thinking on a whole school scale and I understand now how that is not the place to start. I needed to remember how hard it is sometimes to do something ‘different’ in your own classroom, let alone on a school-wide basis. Baby-steps will help me to understand what problems are bound to arise so that I can help other teachers who want to implement using e-readers in their rooms. Success breeds success. If I would like to see e-readers on a one-to-one basis in the school, then I need to model how it can be realized.

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

I don’t know why I would not use the e-readers again in my room, but there are some things that I would probably want to work on or try the next time around-basically things that hadn’t occurred to me until after the “implementation” had happened. During my internship on Fridays, the school encouraged Drop Everything and Read for about 10-15 minutes. This was optional, but I chose to participate and really liked the results. It was a nice compromise with the “Do we have to do work on a Friday?” issue: I didn’t make students do history the whole hour, but they didn’t sit unengaged for the last 10 minutes of class. I would go to the library and check out a whole bunch of books relating to the unit we were in and bring them in along with some of my own and we would all read. I never had any issues with missing books. If I had e-readers, I feel that students would be able to utilize this time even more, and I wouldn’t have to lug so many books back and forth. I also feel that this would help make the readers even more a ‘normal’ part of the classroom.

The next thing that I would love to implement would be some sort of ‘check-out’ system so that students could take their text home overnight. Many school libraries have implemented such programs with great success. I would need to get a set of extra readers so that an over-due reader would not hinder what I would want to do in class. The other issue that I will have to tackle is whether or not I will allow students to use their own e-readers in class. I would love to have all my readings and documents up on the class website ahead of time where students could access them as a PDF file, and possibly load them on to their own reader. I would not have the capability to monitor the e-readers like a classroom set of computers with a software program. I suppose, just like cell phones, you need to make sure that what you are doing in class was purposeful so that students are compelled to stay on task naturally.

Group Leadership Project Part B-Storyboard.

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:04:00 +0000

I am really excited about the progress that is occurring with our group and the tutorial that we're putting together. After creating a template and posting it in a Google Document, we had agreed that each of us would use this copy and paste this template, and then complete it to create our storyboard. This was not a bad idea and things turned out pretty well. I think the only thing I would want to figure out how to work around would be the templates 'stretching' over pages. Sometimes it is hard to remember what slide you're on or what was written before. In essence making each template a 'page', but not have all the white space in between.
Beyond that though, we have agreed that each of us will create our own video clip and then we will piece the videos together, with transitions, to create one longer video. Our storyboard document can be viewed via this link.
I worked on the Google Spreadsheet section, and tried to make sure that in the lower right corner of each template that I put my name, just to try and make tracking easier. My original portion was both Spreadsheet and Forms, but given that we think that we are going to be running long on time, and that forms was covered in this class, we decided to drop it. And I figure if we for some reason need more time, then I can always create a portion for Forms as well. I am looking forward to see what each of our videos look like and creating a polished final product!

Wicked Project Part C Implementation

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:49:00 +0000

Wicked Project Part C-Audio Only

I did combine the audio with a few collected images if you wish to watch the video below instead.

As a side note, I had issues finding my podcast using iTunes. After looking through Feedburners help section, they said that because it was new and for whatever other reason, not all podcasts show up in iTunes. So. I downloaded Juice, another pocatcher, and did subscribe there. I have a screen snip of my subscription posted below.

Mobile Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:54:00 +0000

I have learned quite a bit about mobile learning over the last few days and I can see why educators are eager to integrate these technologies into their schools and classrooms. Although watching the Verizon videos does raise a few questions for me.

I don't doubt that the levels of student engagement in ALL the classrooms has indeed increased since the addition of the MLDs, however, while test scores have gone up, it was not by huge leaps and bounds. I have to wonder if those teachers who agreed to guinea pig the program were not already the more effective teachers whose students would have done better on tests than others anyway, and they only quickly reference one classroom where students had the MLDs, and then didn't and their test scores dropped, but I would still like to see more data on this.

Also, the MLD's have restricted web access. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, but I am reminded of all the other issues raised when we were learning about being a digital advocate and how many times things we don't want to be restricted are and all the other things that come with that.

And finally remember change without difference? Many of the things that teachers say they are doing are the same activities (which are not bad ones!) but simply without paper. This is neither good nor bad, but simply an observation. Does this mean that it is easier or harder for a student to get out the door without having turned something in? If students are doing their homework on devices, and parents don't know how to use the devices, are parents who want to be involved with their kids school work going to be 'shut out' in some manner?

Taking off my negative glasses and putting on a pair of rose colored ones, I can definitely see myself using different mobile learning devices and techniques in my room. One of the projects that I have always wanted to do was to have students record the histories of local senior citizens. With these mobile devices, students can take pictures of places that their subject may want them to see or 'artifacts' a subject may have, record video, record notes, audio, etc., etc., with out having to invest in a ton of equipment or set up time. Plus these media elements can easily be transferred to a blog/web page.

I also immediately see myself using the poll everywhere tool: To check for understanding, to check in on due dates, to ask where the students may want to take the curriculum...and it takes away the burden of being in the spotlight that many teens are not comfortable with. I have embedded my poll everywhere poll below. If you would like to take a minute and answer that would be great! Thanks!

Build television sms voting polls at Poll Everywhere

PART A - Brainstorm Session for Group Leadership Project

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:31:00 +0000

Overall, our first group meeting was a success! Before the meeting, each of us previewed the online tool Vyew and thought that it would be good to tool to try. We set a time and date, and a group member set-up a “room” for us to use. Using the link to the Vyew room was very easy. While in the room, we utilized the video conferencing tool, although some of us (cough, me, cough cough) had issues and resorted to using the chat function. My issues with the chat function are noted in my previous post. One of the great benefits is that you can download the chat. I also turned the chat into a google doc so that it would be accessible that way as well. I would also note here that the video display for the web conferencing was very small. In some ways this is good because it keeps the focus on the project in front of you, but I can see it coming in handy where you could opt to enlarge one person’s feed to see something in particular.

We also used the sticky note functions, drawing tools, and uploaded a document. There was no embedded tool to record the session. Two group members volunteered to record the session using Jing, but were only able to record in “chunks” , which they later had issues turning into one continuous clip. That being said, and to summarize my thoughts from earlier: This tool would be great for group document mock-up, but I am not sure that it the best brainstorming tool, and if it’s documentation you’re looking for, I would use another tool with something already included in the program. The difficulties of piecing the Jing together is an issue that I would like to discuss further, since it was our initial thought to use Jing to record the individual ‘chapters’ of our tutorial and then piece them together.
So that you don't have to suffer through watching the sections or reading the chat here is the summary. We decided to teach the Google "office-cloud" applications through a series of tutorials recorded in Jing and then pieced together. We then set a date and time for our next meeting to collaborate for the storyboard portion.
I am looking forward to the further developments of this project.

***UPDATE****6/4 We have been able to get chunks of our video is a transferable mode! YAY! Please find the link below, although be aware that given our difficulities there is not much audio after the beginning part.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Wicked Project Part B-TPACK

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 30 May 2011 04:32:00 +0000

While my initial solution to my problem involved getting e-readers for everyone, wise comments from others have helped me to refine my vision. While it is cost effective to give e-readers to those students who are identified as having difficulties with reading, I feel that these students would have to deal with being “labeled” by their peers because they would be one of the few in their classes who would have one, and it would obviously bear some school identifier. A few other morsels of food-for-thought brought up through comments and more research on my part, are that expensive tools may have a tendency to disappear and that students taking them home may result in unwanted content on the readers.

Given that, I have refined my scope to having a set of e-readers in my classroom. I see this as similar to math teachers who have a class set of more expensive calculators. If each student is working off a reader than no student is singled out, and those students who may have reading difficulties but have not been identified as such by the school, still have access to the aids. Having a set in my room means that I am better able to deal with “loss-prevention” issues, damage done to the readers, and I am also better able to deal with content issues. And besides, no one can claim that they couldn’t do their homework because their reader didn’t work.

TP: How does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?

TC: How specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.

Often times the text (for a number of reasons both understandable and un-understandable) leaves out persons and stories of the time period that might connect with the people who are reading that text and the place and situation they are coming from. A textbook overview of people’s reactions is not enough. Incorporating art, music, speech (yes, e-readers support .mp3 files), and other mediums help students to connect to the content. Allowing students to bring and access their own information and history to the documents while they are examining and making connections means that the discussions that they will engage in will be that much more REAL. And that means that the knowledge and understanding that they build will be real and lasting as well.

Web-Conferencing or: trial, error, more error

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:28:00 +0000

   Had our first group meeting this morning. The people were lovely, the subject of discussion engaging, the technology, well, the technology was doing something....

We decided to use Vyew, which I had suggested to use. I had gone to their website and went through their full tutorial and it seemed to be a dandy thing, but after really working with it this morning I have more mixed feelings.

   It started with things on my end (I think) when the internet connection that I had anticipated having was not what I was told it was going to be. I had echo issues with my mic, and issues syncing and in the end the program crashed on me twice. This I chalk up to the connection because I have never had video chat problems before this and I have the latest edition of Flash. After that, I decided to stick with the chat end of the meeting and just listen to the audio and comment along.

   Given that the chat was my main line of communication, having just a little tiny box was less than great and their was no way to hide the user box to expand the chat area. I found that scrolling up and down to read what was being posted was very 'clunky' and that it was difficult to find exactly what you were looking for. Also, I did not see a way to put in a hyperlink which was disappointing.I did upload a document which automatically created a new page which was nice.

   It was not a bad program, but I see it as more of a document collaboration program, for instance if you were going through a contract etc., but I am not sure if this is the best for what we are going to be doing, although it would be hard to say, given that our situation would different. For instance I will be back home so the chat feature would not be as necessary, but we will be story-boarding so I wonder if that will transfer well. Perhaps next time we will need to find a different program that will allow for more graphics manipulation.

    Overall I can see how web-conferencing would be great to incorporate in the classroom. I know that some teachers use it to hold meetings with the authors of the books that kids are reading, and I can see numerous similar applications such as chatting with elected officials or other special speakers that may not be currently in the area. I can also see teachers using this tool to create collaboration projects between their school/students and students and schools elsewhere (anywhere!) And while it wouldn't have to be this particular tool, I can see web conferencing as a means to the end of the "our project isn't finished because we couldn't meet after school/johnny can't get a ride/etc" issue. This technology means that students can stay up working together until 2 am if they need to. I'm not saying they should, but it could help alleviate some of the typical due-date headaches.

Wicked Project Part A- Description of Need or Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:18:00 +0000

For my year of student teaching I was placed at Everett High School in Lansing, MI teaching history. This school serves a student population that comes from primarily minority and lower socio-economic backgrounds, as well as a large portion that are learning English as a second or third language. Not surprisingly, many of these students had difficulty with reading and other related literacy issues. As a social studies teacher, I encouraged my students interact with their textbooks, and I worked hard to bring in outside source material and primary documents. The knowledge from all these sources, as well as the insight gained from the lesson plans that I had developed was lost when students weren’t utilizing the text. Often times, students would simply let others, especially in group work, read the text and then fake or copy the answers. If we read aloud, often times I would find students ‘zoning out’, doing other things, or sleeping. These actions often time were used by students to mask a literacy issue of some sort.

Asking students to read text outside the classroom was not a feasible option due solely to the fact that we were only allowed a classroom set, with a handful of CD-ROMs to give students to take home, or we were to print sections of the text from the CD if a student did not have access to the computer-which was common. Had we been able to assign each student a text, the weight of the book alone would have deterred some from taking it home, along with the fact that many did not have access to resources as simple as a dictionary to help them understand the text. Had I opted not to use the text, any outside reading I would have wanted my students to do would have meant making 130+ copies which is a lot of trees, ink, and time. Plus, it’s amazing how quickly a packet of papers gets misplaced or lost in the sheaf of all the other papers from school. I believe that had I been able to assign more reading outside of class that the time spent as a group in class would have been more productive and we would have been able to ‘cover’ more content and work on developing those skills necessary for the 21^st century.

I cannot imagine what it is like to be an English teacher.

Therefore, the problem I would like to solve is finding ways to help students access the text and print based materials that they utilize in/during class and give them the tool(s) needed to aid them in assigned reading outside of class.

I believe that technology can help address these issues. A one-to-one solution seems optimal here, but I’m not sure that it needs to be laptops. Laptops are expensive not only in terms of hardware and software, but “help desk” personal as well. They provide opportunities for students to place programs, content, and viruses on the computer that is undesirable (no matter how many contracts they sign), and it is hard to monitor how ‘on-task’ a classroom of students is when they are on their laptops. Also, they are heavy.

Instead, I would implement the use of e-readers, such as the nook. These portable devices may prove to be the ‘just-right’ solution. Here’s how:

I’m not saying that laptops for every student are a bad idea, but in terms of addressing this specific problem it provides too much opportunity for students to be doing something other than the task at hand. E-readers provide students with the text(s) they need, necessary tools (like dictionaries), and internet. The user interface of most readers combined with the relatively slower speed its processor means that gaming is not really a feasible option.

Cost. E-readers are not cheap, but compared to the cost of outfitting every student with a laptop, software, etc., it can be less expensive. Beyond that, most textbooks are cheaper to purchase in an electronic form, not to mention exploring options of open/free content. Often times a text or book purchased online can be shared across multiple readers. E-readers can handle pdf files encouraging the use of outside materials and reducing the need for physical copies.

Students have options to aid them in understanding the text. Most models allow you to modify the text size, have text-to-speech options, include dictionaries, allow you to “clip” and/or highlight sections of text, keep your place, and allow you to take notes “in the margins”.

Students are able to more readily access their texts. Realizing at 9 p.m. that you left your novel in your locker is horrible, but if you have your Kindle, everything is in one place. Granted there is a problem if you leave the Kindle at school, but there are other accessibility options such as syncing to online accounts through computers or mobile devices. And while reading on a mobile device screen would not be my choice over an extended period of time, it would do in a pinch or if I found myself bored with only my phone.

It is much easier to carry around one e-reader than 5 huge textbooks. Granted there would be some investment cost in cases, but many students in a high school setting don’t want to be seen as the ‘nerd’ who lugs all their books home every day (especially in a rolling suitcase)-to the point that they don’t carry a bag or backpack. E-readers are easy to slip into purses etc. Beyond that, because these are personal reading devices, it is much harder for students to know whether another student is using an assistive tool or reading at slower pace. Essentially, e-readers help to minimize “ego damage”.

Given these benefits, I believe that assigning e-readers with their texts pre-loaded and allowing time for teachers and students to learn how to use them, will in the end prove to be more than worth the cost and teachers will be able to better utilize their class time. My initial research shows if nothing else, the “cool factor” of e-readers encourages more students to read and for longer periods of time, although much of this comes from English teachers and librarians utilizing stories and novels as opposed to a traditional “text” readings. There are mixed results about students with literacy disorders and whether e-readers actually improve literacy or simply (again) encourage students to read. There was a 2,100 student high school in Clearwater, FL that was supposed to implement e-readers across the board in 2010, but I have not yet found a “follow-up” article that states the results of their project.

Reading the blogs of what others have done, I would probably look to first distribute the e-readers among those students who are officially labeled with reading difficulties and/or are receiving assistance with their schoolwork due to reading difficulties. I would choose this population for two reasons. The first is that this population is a smaller group within the school meaning that the initial investment would be smaller and if it was found that this program was not working, the bite would not hurt so much.

This small ‘set’ of readers could be transferred to the library where many schools have found success having them there. Secondly, these students are more likely to have someone specifically monitoring, tracking, and recording their academic progress. This means that we would have a more detailed understanding of if and how students are utilizing these devices and whether moving to a whole school system is best. I would monitor this first group of students for at least an entire academic school year. I would also distribute short periodic surveys to teachers utilizing the readers to find of the degree of use and any observations or issues that they might have. Universities that have been “guinea pigging” the use of the large screen Kindle DX have found less than astounding results with Graduate students, but I must wonder how their experience compares to that of a special needs student. And also, given the rapid development of technology, I believe that this small investment is a worthy one to aid those students who most need help until an economic and student-friendly model of an e-reader is developed.

Although I have no classroom (or money, ha) to implement this idea there are several things that I would like to do during this course to ‘fill out’ my knowledge of this project. First, I would like to survey the high school students that I do have ‘access’ to regarding their thoughts and knowledge about e-readers. Using this knowledge, I hope to gain a better understanding of the issues (positive and negative) that I might encounter if I were to implement the project. I would also like to investigate further into tablet computers, and if they may be modified to isolate or “turn off” certain functions easily to provide an effective hybrid between the laptops and e-readers.

CEP 812 Intro Video

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 14 May 2011 20:39:00 +0000

CEP811

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:59:00 +0000

What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?
How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

I feel like writing this post will be a little redundant with the post for 810....but I'll try to keep it fresh.

One of the best things that I learned in the class regarding effective teaching strategies and technology was the UDL principals. And really it was more than just learning about them. Who wouldn't nod their head and agree that they are a good idea and that everyone should use them? It was taking a lesson plan that I had written, and finding the strengths and weaknesses within it- kind of like facing the mirror and really looking. I also really gained some confidence in the section about Online Learning and Face-to-Face strategies. This really helped me to see how...not easy exactly, but, viable it was for me to provide my students with online learning experience options.
After taking this class, I feel like I have a much better grip on what Not-effective technology use is and looks like, which was something I had hoped to learn. Separating the sparkle from the things that are truly effective was a knowledge/skill I had hoped to acquire by taking this course.

Taking this course and the skills and resources that I have a acquired here will help me as I progress to the MAET program at MSU.

CEP810 Personal Learning Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:54:00 +0000

     Looking back at my Personal Growth Plan, I can say that one goal was met and one was not. One of my goals was learning how to better communicate with others using technology. Initially I had envisioned this as better communication between myself and students (and maybe parents if I was lucky), but over the course of this class I have been repeatedly reminded that communication is such a broad term, and that the means of communicating and who I can communicate with when technology is involved, are endless. Web 2.0 technologies are amazing in the this regard. Google Docs (and similar programs) allow for better communication between students on projects and more timely communication of my input to students. Course management systems and blogs allow students, and myself, to communicate not only with each other, but also with the world at large (which includes parents). Learning about PLNs and different organizations means that I now know where to turn when I need to communicate with peers to find information and get new ideas.
    My other goal was to learn more about programs that help me administratively, and more specifically with matching standards to questions and analyzing test data to help me understand what I need to reteach. Although these topics were not addressed, the instructor did offer suggestions to me to use.
   The two topics that I probably learned the most new information from were Copyright and Creativity. Both I feel that I will most immediately, and "easily" implement, and also in someways, are those things that are most urgently needed- at least for me. I really liked that the copyright section gave us positive means of actions in Creative Commons and actually has us go through the steps of using it. I have used Creative Commons almost immediately upon learning of it, including on other MSU EdTech classwork.
    The SIG assignment probably best shows how learning with technology should be setup. Students are given a group assignment. This group must use various technological means to collaborate. Each member than uses technology to do research. The group then works to create an original finished product that will be viewed by others in a digital medium. I don't know how much more it could fall in the center of the TPaCK diagram. :-)
   Using the Internet, as a student, really helped me to understand all the benefits and pitfalls of technology in education. How easy it can be to put something off till the last minute, and how great it is to find the exact tool to complete the job. Using the TPaCK information has helped solidify ideas that I had previously regarding effective technology use, but also codifies exactly what that means.
Now that the class is done, I plan to continue on to the MAET program. In the "gap" I hope to do some of my own personal reading to explore topics that were not necessarily hit upon, but are still relevant to the overall topic.

Online Learning Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:24:00 +0000

Sadly when I think about my own experiences with Online Learning, that I have participated in through an institution, much of it has been of the "plug and chug" variety. Do the work, submit it, and never interact with anyone else. Ever.
Like I said, sad.
But, this semester, the two courses that I have been taking has altered my opinion on that. I'm sure that part of it has to do with the fact that I am working with a group of competent adults, but all the same, it was the instructors who established the course so that I could have those experiences.
I knew that Michigan required an online learning experience, but I had not realized that it extended outside of a traditional online course, which to me is quite exciting because that means that teachers who are not ready to go "whole-hog" with online, can find the ways and means that they are comfortable with to still provide their students with the needed experiences.
As a social studies teacher, I can definitely see myself incorporating the virtual field trip into my curriculum. As budgets get tighter, the likelihood of taking students to the next city, let alone out of the state becomes more slim. With a virtual trip, the only limit is the quality of what is on the web. While not every historical place has a museum or an official website, chances are you can still find content that will allow you take students where they need to go, and see what they need to see (documents, landmarks etc.). And that's the other beauty of the virtual trip: if there is something in particular that you want students to focus on, you can easily customize the activity. For instance, instead of possibly having students go through information overload at a local Civil Rights museum, you could go on a virtual tour of only the stops of the Freedom Riders (and no one is complaining about being bus-sick). I would probably try to use jigsaw and other small group activities...because it would be too easy for students to simply get answers from each other if I had them all look at the same things and answer the same questions. Plus, I feel that jigsaw helps students to understand how different perspectives are formed, and the idea of how interconnected different people, ideas, and themes really are.
The most difficult experiences to successfully accomplish, in my opinion, are the activities like blogs, wikis, and OLMS because students must have individual computer access for an extended period of time in order for the experience to work, and often that time is outside of classroom hours. This means that students must have computer and internet access. Although schools are working towards getting students these resources, many still do not, and I believe that unless students can reasonably gain the tools to accomplish the task, then the task should not be assigned. It's not that these are bad idea, in fact they're great, but consideration of resources (including time to moderate) should be done before planning any of the online experiences.

Quickie Wiki

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:27:00 +0000

Ok, I realize the redundancy in the title but I couldn't resist-especially since this posting will be short.
Of all the technology that I have come across, I find the Wiki to be the least intuitive of them all. I understand what they are, and essentially, how to use them. But when it comes to formatting the page, I just keep thinking "Why can't this be more like Weebly?" Anywho, because I am not currently a teacher at any school, I went to see if there was anything that I could add to the MSU page. Reading through I realized that one of my favorite places Abrams Planetarium was missing (Best. Cheap. Date. Ever.). So I added the text with external link to the page.

Also, my wiki creation lacks any real depth to it because I again lack a reason to make one (no class). So I spent some time playing around with the different widgets. I like how it gives you options for applications to choose from, although I am not sure that all would suite classrooms very well...I suppose it would depend on the class. Here is the link if you would like to see my own "sand box": https://chamberlainclassroom.wikispaces.com/

Learning Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:37:00 +0000

I have always been a visual learner, but more specifically the verbal/linguistic kind....if I could read about it, I could do it. If I could write, I could tell you what I mean. This probably explains why I have done as well as I have in school, especially at the university level. This hadn't really occurred to me until just now, but I realize how true it is. I can remember a time in middle school where my social studies teacher asked us to visually represent an idea that was found in the Bill of Rights. I don't even remember what idea I was assigned, but I really struggled with that assignment. In college, I may not have liked have forty billion pages to read, but I never struggled with learning the content, especially if it was followed up with a powerpoint or lecture that involved me taking notes. Over all, if an instructor were to say something like, "Do X and just be creative about it/surprise me" I would not do well. But if teachers can give me written explanation or set of steps with a rubric, I can complete the assignment without a problem. This probably also explains why I was on the speech team, and why I continue to coach it....
Thinking about the classroom from the other side of the desk, I know that I am rather guilty of being on heavy on text, reading, lecture, notes etc. When I think about approaching learning styles as an educator now, I think that perhaps the best route is one similar to UDL. We know that we can't make every adaption for every student every single time, but when we think about and plan our classroom instruction, we can take learning styles into consideration and allow for alternate ways to be made available. And I do not think that it is "wrong" to have students working in their 'weak suit' sometimes. I know that I did not like making that Bill of Rights poster, but it was probably to my benefit that I had to think and express myself in another way. And looking back now, I realize that that assignment was probably one that some students had been dying to get all semester because all we had been doing was reading and writing. Making sure that we allow all students to feel successful is too important a goal to let slip by simply because we "don't want to make extra work for ourselves".

Creative Commons Post

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:04:00 +0000

Photo Attribution:
Title: "Berlin Wall"
Image URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/volubis/5319992750/in/photostream/
Author: SFview
Released under an Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike License found here

I randomly chose this image, but now that I think about it again, it's rather appropriate. Digital media and the internet are breaking down barriers to knowledge and information sharing all over the place and we are no longer able to say that we are going to 'block out' ideas, images, etc. As a social studies teacher, I rely heavily on images (photos or otherwise) to help my student connect with the content and engage with content that would be awfully dry with out imagery. I am very excited to finally have an understanding of Creative Commons and Fair Use policy so that I can no longer feel guilty about my power point presentations, and I can give my students a viable (and easy!) means of being good digital citizens. Below, a pic from when I went to New Mexico in December of 2009. A few more on the picassa page here

UDL lesson reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:28:00 +0000

UDL ChecklistThis past week in CEP 811, we have spent time learning about Universal Design, whose main goal to remove barriers to knowledge acquisition and student success by analyzing content delivery and interaction. We were then asked to evaluate the lesson we had previously posted to Merlot using a checklist. Overall my biggest strength within the lesson was that students were working in groups on computers and online so they are able to manipulate content and decide what ways they would like to contribute to the groups success. However, I realize now that, although U provide an example (early on) and a rubric, I do not provide any sort of structure or scaffolding to help students realize in what order they should take what steps to successfully complete the project. Also, any student who does not have the ability or access to tools that allow for successful computer use, would be hard pressed to complete this assignment. I have posted the link to the checklist page below:
UDL Checklist

WebQuest...if you can find it

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:16:00 +0000

Fair warning: This is going to be another soapbox moment.
But it will be brief, I promise.....Really!

If you are going to post a WebQuest, or a collection of WebQuests, or anything that falls into that catagory, would please check your links on occasion to make sure that they are:
1) Still actually an existing WebQuest, If you don't want to host it anymore, just take it down
2) That all your links within the WebQuest still work (look at this Awesome picture I have!... that isn't there....oh.)

That is all.
See? Short!

Detroit Public Schools seeks to charter a public boarding school for fall 2012 - Detroit Public Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:04:00 +0000

Detroit Public Schools seeks to charter a public boarding school for fall 2012 - Detroit Public Schools

RSS Feed Pt 2

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 14:46:00 +0000

No lies, I totally forgot that the RSS feed assignment was multi-part, until I was browsing the discussion boards. (forehead smack) So that accounts for my RSS feed post being so long since I tried to pull all the elements into one. But, looking back, again, here are some changes I am considering making:

Downgrading the Novachi feed to a bookamrk: Kudos to their marketing department, since they seem to be posting at least once a week, and their 'system' seems really cool, but I don't need to know about every update or new feature since I don't actually use their product.

Shifting Michigan Council for the Soc. Studies to bookmark. Last post here was Dec 30....this is one of the big organizations you would think could have someone posting once a week....

Weblogg-ed: I really like the sense of tension/urgency that seems to come out of this site. Alot of the tech sites it's something of a "Here's something that I found useful/A reflection I had. You can take it or leave it" But this site seems to say: "You should be getting involved! Power to the masses!" You know someone is enthusiastic about what they do when it comes across in a blog.

HistoryTech: Still LOVING this blog

MediaShift: More about media than I had for some reason anticipated....I feel like these are articles that I could bring to my students because the media (not just news) is what they spend time engaging in.

Anywho. A few more thoughts about the RSS. Hopefully I will not lose points lol :-)

Resource from Merlot

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:33:00 +0000

For, for those in CEP 810, in CEP 811 we have been exploring Merlot, a great online source for lesson plans, materials, sources etc. I suggest you check it out. www.merlot.org You can start by either browsing the collection on the left, or go to the Learning Materials tab at the top. For 811, we are required to find and evaluate something that we found on Merlot that we could see ourselves using, and I have found www.eyewitnesstohistory.com. This site provides lots of first hand source material (as the title suggests) in written forms, pictures, video clips, and audio clips from ancient times to the 20th century, however I am SORELY disappointed by the lack of minority representation at the site...for instance, I can click on '20th century' and there is no trace of the African American Civil Rights movement. ?!?! So, I would not use this site as a way to see an 'overview' of time periods (because there are gaps) but a place to find source material to enrich something you are already presenting.

After playing around on the site for awhile it seems that everything is accurate in terms of historical detail, and I appreciate that they take the time to 'set the scene' explaining the background of the person writing and the activities which they are describing. At at the end of each section is the citation, showing students proper referencing. I like the idea of students using this site (directly or indirectly) because it is not history from someone else, it is the first-hand accounts, and I am a big fan of primary document evaluation. Students would best be able to use this site, or the material from it during the Explanation or Demonstration stages. As I mentioned above, primary documents are great because they can present history unedited. What I really like about students using primary documents is that they are not only able to see many perspectives on an event, but they can take what was initially documented and compare it to what is presented in their textbook and start asking questions there. They also have this area titled "snapshots" which presents a Powerpoint type overview of the era with photos and texts- a good introduction.
For the written sources students will have to have a firm grasp on the English language, especially for the older entries, which are in there original language structure (think like reading Shakespeare), but beyond that, only basic point and click skills are needs to manipulate the site. The beauty of this website is that you could easily have students access it at school or home, or pull materials from it to print and distribute. This website really allows for flexibility in use (pull a journal entry for a bellringer for instance), but any thing that you pull from it, or have students access, is only going to make the topic more robust and real.
The physical layout of the site is very user-friendly. Topics are organized into a menu at the top of the page, and that menu never disappears. As you enter a topic, a list of other sources appears on the left hand side allowing you to explore further if you wish without having to search blindly. Each section has small images that accompany it, not unlike a history textbook, and the writers of the pre-document, seem to stay to the point without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail that might cause a student to lost interest. My only complaint is the ads on the pages, but there are ways around that.
So, while I would not give the site 5 stars due to the lack of breadth and depth of its' content, it is HIGHLY user-friendly and something that I would use within my own classroom.

It's a big scary interweb out there....

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:13:00 +0000

I would first just like to give a shout-out to the curriculum designers for giving us some freedom on this lab to pick and choose topics that we wanted information on. Although I do not know a lot about internet security, there are a few things that have been hammered home to me and I did not need to sit through another lesson on them. The video in the Email Security bit, had a comment that said something along the lines of "everyone over 65 who uses email should be made to watch this video" and I whole-heartedly agree. I am not sure why this age demographic seems to have a lot of trouble with internet security...in my mind it is no different than evaluating snail mail...perhaps they assume the same degree of Federal oversight? Food for thought...I'm sure some grad student out there is hammering out a thesis on it as I type....

I skipped around quite a bit with the Atomic labs but here are some that I found useful:

H 1 &2 These regarding safer web browsing and using Firefox. I have used firefox for as long as I can remember because my brother (who is a tech guru) told me that he would cut off my pinkie if I chose to use anything else :-P but he never explained why. I NOW understand that it is due to how IE is linked to the Windows OS. This above everything else that I learned is something that I will pass on to others, because I've been telling people for a long time to switch but had no real justification why they should. Huzzah me!

L This section is about backup options for your computer, and I think I watched all but one of these. My brother has also been nagging me about this for years, but I never really got around to. I had also wondered about the online options and whether that was a good choice or not (something I had placed in the KWL). Backing my computer up is starting to weigh on my mind since student teaching I have many files that I would hate to lose. I now know some good places to start both at home and online.

I also first looked at the Understanding How Malware Spreads clip to kind of review and reaffirm those things that I already knew. When I read through and look at some of this stuff all I can think of is MadEye Moody from Harry Potter (yes, I'm a nerd, I know) who was always going on about "Constant vigilance!"

Too bad I can't just hook up to my laptop- then I'd be safe from malware AND dark wizards

RSS feed overview

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Before starting this class I actually had used Google Reader in the past, but had fallen out of using it (probably because I am lazy) and so this gave a me a chance to reignite the flame if you will. Here's an incomplete screen snip:

I'm sorry it's not quite a complete list, but for some reason, (probably that I am not smart enough...yet) blogger will not let me upload a complete screen capture using what I've got. I'll have to fuss with that later.... There are a few more subscriptions that I was not able to grab in the snip. I did update my reader 'Education' bundle on my shared page today though, so you can get a better sense of them from there too. Most of the pages that I subscribed to, update only weekdays, so by Friday the Reader can look a little daunting if I don't keep up, but I like the spread of topic areas that I've been able to come across (including a site about developing active, effective youth leaders). I do find it funny though, that the pages that update the most often are those kept by individuals (doing it for free), whereas the big groups/organizations that could pay someone to do it, or at least have a staff hierarchy that the job could be delegated don't always keep on top of posting regularly. If nothing not for love of the topic you'd think they'd post daily to keep traffic coming to the site.

In terms of using RSS feeds in my own practice, I am still a big fan of having students "do" current events, and I think that introducing them to RSS feeds as a way to complete that assignment and stay an informed individual is great. Especially since I think many teens see TV news as "something their parents do". This could be the hook that gets them involved.

I won't take Your time to describe them all, but I will talk about a few favorites:

NPR Topics: Education. First off: Who doesn't love NPR? They could talk about mushrooms and I would be sitting in the parking lot, 10 minutes late for an appointment, waiting to hear the end of the segment! But what I really like about this feed is it's broad range. It covers everything K-college (like the recent story about money/funding for community colleges) and it's not just about schools. For instance, they've had several articles the last few days about the woman in Ohio who falsified documents to get her children into a better district, and has now been charged with a felony. It is a nice break from the instructional/classroom management/ technology overload that I seem to get everyday, and I feel like it gives me a peek at some of the bigger trends in education. While they do not post everyday, it is just about that and there are often several different articles when they do.

changED: A blog by a teacher of 10 years. Although I have not been following her for too long, most posting are about resources, rather than what is going on in her classroom, though the ones that do, seem to be about actual attempts to fix a problem, rather than gripe about it. But what I really like is that I get a weekly Diigo list through the feed, so I get all the resources she's using about a topic right in my reader inbox.

History Tech: Another blog. He posts daily, mostly about EdTech stuff, but with some social studies mixed in. What I really like about his postings is that they tend to be on the "And this is how you practically apply this widget in your classroom" side rather than "ooo shiny new thing only I can understand". It is also through him that I learned about thisisindexed. A great 'comic'. If you like xckd.com , you will probably like this.

The comment I posted was on TechLearning site, and is pretty much the same as my soapbox moment, in my earlier post, since one lead to the other. School districts who block social networking sites, and other tools so that they can control students, and especially student bullying are only fooling themselves. If teachers are doing their jobs right, there should be much time or motivation for students to be doing things they shouldn't, but beyond that, students who are bullies, or who are looking for trouble online, are going to find ways to be bullies online (and in person) outside of classrooms and schools. All the more reason why we must not lose sight of educating the whole child, that is the heart, hands, and head....not just the head.