Ms. Sanders' math blog

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:15:00 +0000

PROBLEM

I teach Integrated Geometry Strategies, which is a 10th grade math support class that students take in addition to their regular math class if they historically have had trouble with math. I have tried several differentiated instruction ideas; however, I have not been able to fully engage my students to learn the curriculum, which in turn produces behavior issues.

SOLUTION

I wanted to find a way to assess my students’ learning but also keep them engaged in an activity. From doing research and having discussions with colleagues, I decided to utilize student response devices with this group of students in order to engage them in learning the Geometry curriculum. I hoped to be able to see directly if their engagement affects their learning based on their results from the response devices. I will use the data to shape my practice as well as get students more involved.

To evaluate the success of this solution, I will focus on several areas including my students’ learning and my effectiveness as a teacher due to the student response devices. I will be able to tell if students are engaged if they actively participate, seek to understand why they got a problem incorrect, and get excited to use the technology. By using this system, I will be able to monitor my students’ individual responses, track their progress, and students will get immediate feedback. I will also be able to tell when a majority of students have a misconception about a question and can address it on the spot, which I hadn’t been able to before.

TPACK

When determining the educational need for my students, I immediately thought of this support math class because many of my students lack the motivation to learn, which affects their behavior in class. Their current need is engagement in their lessons, which should increase their motivation. I chose to use the CPS Student Response Devices as a way to engage my students in their lesson, to allow them to receive immediate feedback, which should in turn motivate them to improve their scores the next time around. This would be where technology meets with pedagogy. With the availability of immediate feedback, I will be able to address the educational needs of my students and/or alter my lessons and examples if necessary.

Standardized testing is a major component to the Integrated Geometry curriculum. Something that should help my students achieve success on these assessments is the practice of answering multiple-choice questions along with the ability to quickly see their results. Because the Student Response Devices that students will use allows for only multiple-choice answering, this should help them to better comprehend test-taking strategies for these types of questions. Alternately, I may have the students do the work on paper and explain the steps they had to take before they can select the correct answer. Then they can turn the work in at the end of the review session. Also, the CPS results will help direct me in the type of classroom instruction I will give my students in the days leading up to their final exam. This is where technology and content overlaps. By reviewing lessons that cover the content that students have misconceptions about, it will improve overall understanding of the curriculum. Another thought would be to have students monitor their progress using the CPS data and then review their most-missed problems each night.

The teaching approaches that I will use during this review lesson that specifically address the Integrated Geometry Strategies course will focus on students’ prior knowledge from previous lessons or courses. Another pedagogical approach I will use will be addressing misconceptions about the content. Since my students’ needs fall under engagement and motivation, having various representations of questions, answers, and feedback will help cover a wide range of the learners in my class. Keeping the lesson moving with minimal distractions will also keep my students focused and engaged with the content. Finally, students will be receiving grades for participation and possibly for accuracy, which can be altered depending on their behavior. These approaches demonstrate the connection between pedagogy and content knowledge.

Link to Entire Wicked Problem Project

Link to Part A

Link to Part B

Link to Part C

Link to Part D

CEP 811 Final Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:10:00 +0000

1. What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

This course made me think about the ways in which I could effectively integrate technology into my lessons. In the first session, the scholarship of teaching was introduced as a way to get teachers to focus on engaging students in the lesson designing process and collaborating with others. I also learned that instead of simply deciding on a technology and finding a place for it in a lesson, I should develop a lesson based on Instructional Design and UDL (universal design for learning) principles. These principles suggest that curriculum should be designed to “address the diverse needs, strengths, background, and interests of students in today’s classrooms.” Then, I will be able to use an appropriate technology tool in my lesson to promote student engagement and achievement.

2. How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

When I learned about the different web-based technologies that are available for education, I felt both excitement and relief. There are several new technology tools for education available with the creation of web 2.0, in which many are free. By having access to educational internet tools, such as WebQuests, students are able to learn and review content easily and perhaps in a more engaging way than before. Something else that I had not thought much of before is the idea that these technologies can help enrich a lesson so that it is accessible to many different types of learners. Whether it is for captions, translators, audio, visual, etc., adding educational technology to a lesson, or classroom in general, can produce a positive outcome for the learning of all students.

3. How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

By taking 4 online courses in educational technology during the past year, many of my goals have been met, the largest one being to take at least one new tool from each class and successfully use it in my classroom this year. However, I have also acquired several new goals because of all of the many opportunities I was given to learn about these tools for the classroom. I had no idea how much was out there in terms of physical technology tools (cell phones, e-readers, iPods, clickers, tablets, etc.), web-based tools (wiki, glogster, wordle, screencast, prezi, weebly, merlot, etc.), and even software tools that promote learning (StAIR,audacity, moviemaker, etc.). I want to integrate all of the tools that I have not had time yet to use with my students and continue to explore the ones I have introduced.

4. 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?

As stated above, many new goals formed frequently with the amount of tools that I was exposed to over the course of the year. After I complete my Master’s degree, I plan to incorporate at least one new tool in every math unit I teach. Between now and next summer I plan to further my professional learning for my own good and the good of my students, even after I explore the all of the tools that I learned about during these courses. I have also volunteered to lead a local school staff development on integrating technology into the classroom for the teachers at my high school in the fall. As users of technology know, the tools available keep updating, changing, and are constantly being created, so I must keep that in mind. I will continue to be active on and seek support from the many forums and professional networks I am a part of including MACUL space, Merlot, Classroom 2.0, and various blogs and websites I have bookmarked on the topic of educational technology.

Group Leadership Project

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:57:00 +0000

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial? Why?

Our group chose to create a Screencast-o-matic tutorial on Google Docs as well as its many features including Google Presentation, Spreadsheet, Form, and Drawing. The reasoning behind this decision was because Screencast-o-matic was recommended by my CEP instructor and you did not need to create and account or log in to create a screencast. It allowed you to save in multiple file formats, upload directly to YouTube, and embed your video. We chose to feature Google Docs as the tutorial topic because we felt that so many people do not know about the features and convenience of this cloud computing program, especially in the education world. I, for one, had not heard of this application until taking CEP 810 and now use it on a regular basis, for both professional and personal reasons. I feel as though other teachers could benefit from having access to and knowledge of Google Docs for enhancing their lessons as well as making interaction with colleagues and students easier.

2. What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

Making our professional development tutorial as a group proved to be quite the learning experience. We started our Group Leadership Project by brainstorming what type of tutorial we wanted to create by holding web conference using the application Vyew, which was new to all of us. The actual web conference went fairly smooth and we decided on Google Docs for our tutorial. However, figuring out how to record, save, and upload a screen cast of this conference was challenging. I volunteered to be in charge of this aspect of the project and eventually (a week later!) pieced together our Brainstorm video using the hosting feature of screencast.com. Next, we created a storyboard for our tutorial video using none other than Google Documents, which Megan kindly set up for us. We decided upon a logical arrangement of splitting up the work since we wanted to include 4 features of Google Docs: Megan was going to create the portion for Documents, Kevin went with Presentations, Laura with Spreadsheets and Forms, and I took on Drawings. We met 4 times during the course of this project via Vyew and sent countless e-mails and Angel discussion posts back and forth to discuss our progress and what we needed to work on next. During this time, we worked well as a team and completed our assignments for part A and B on time. When working on putting together our final product, Laura graciously agreed to glue together all 4 of our tutorials into one video. This presented a few difficulties because the final video’s time length was much longer than was required and because of that it could only be uploaded if we separated it into two separate videos. With time dwindling down, we had to make some decisions to cut down on part of our intended parts to the tutorial. Because our main focus was on Google Documents, we had Laura drop the additional features of Presentations, Spreadsheets, Forms, and Drawings out of our final tutorial. However, because my part was one that was left off, I included the link to our original two videos for further learning (See
Original Tutorial Part 2 below for Google Drawing).

3. What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

When all was said and done, the arrangement for our tutorial could have been made in a more effect way. Instead of each of us creating our own videos, it would have been nice for one person to be the narrator and facilitator of the screen cast. That way, we would not have to scramble at the end to make cuts from each others’ videos and essentially change our initial focus for the tutorial. It also would sound more polished and professional if our video had one voice as opposed to 4 voices.

Final Tutorial Version

Original Tutorial Part 1
Original Tutorial Part 2

Link to Part A: Brainstorm

Link to Part B: Storyboard

Professional Learning Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:39:00 +0000

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT - PART D - FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:13:00 +0000

For my Wicked Problem Project, my plan was implemented fairly close to the way I planned for it. As I mentioned in my podcast for part C of this project, I started a day earlier than I anticipated, but still within an appropriate timeframe to yield results. I did not, however, use the student response devices with my students every single school day during this time as originally planned. Nevertheless, I did review misconceptions from the previous day on the in-between days. Logistically, there were a few dilemmas, such as altering the time limit that the students had to answer the question and then losing my data after the fact. This did not prevent the desired results of increased student engagement and behavior.

The evidence of success came from a data stand point as well as from a teacher standpoint. First, even though I lost my original data after I shut down the CPS program on my computer, I did record the type of problems that a majority of students got wrong. I added more of these types of problems to the next review lesson with the clickers and then compared the change in percent correct. In almost all of these questions, the percentage correct increased. In more than half of the questions, the percentage correct was 90% or higher. Second, in order to conclude that students were more engaged and better behaved, I observed and listened to my students during this time period. Most of them participated more than they had in the past, many of them spoke of their enjoyment and, more importantly to me, I rarely had to redirect students because of their behavior.

I really would like to try this project again but by using a different type of technology to enhance engagement and behavior. I received a Interwrite Mobi Tablet this past school year that I have yet to try out. I think by having the ability to do what is typically done on the board anywhere in the classroom would be to my advantage as well as my students’. I would be able to be closer to students in order to discourage disruptions and mischief which would promote more focus.

This project has produced many benefits in terms of student engagement and learning, as explained above. The biggest benefit I have gained from doing this project is seeing how technology can change an area of my teaching and classroom management. If a teacher is looking for something new to add to his or her practice to get instant student engagement, student response devices are one way to go. Although the clickers do have some “manual labor” involved in setting up a set of questions for the students and analyzing the data, the benefits outweigh the losses.

If given the chance to repeat this project again, I would change a few aspects to my plan. I would like to test my plan over at least a month to be sure the novelty of the technology does not ware off causing the behavior and disengagement to return. I also would like to supply students with surveys (via online, texting, or simply clickers) to ask their thoughts on the response devices and the effect it has on their learning. Overall, I can take away a valuable learning experience through this Wicked Problem Project.

Group Leadership Project - Part B - Storyboard

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:12:00 +0000

For our storyboard, each group member was responsible for a part of our tutorial. There are 4 parts total for the Google Docs tutorial that include Google Docs, Google Presentation, Google Spreadsheets and Forms, and Google Drawing. Megan chose to discuss Google Documents, Kevin chose Presentation, Laura chose Spreadsheets and Forms together, and I chose Drawing. We also chose a storyboard template from the link that our instructor displayed in Angel’s communication links. We uploaded this document to, none other than, Google Docs and collaborated on it throughout the past few weeks. Together as a group, we spent time editing and met once to chat in the discussion feature of Google Docs. All of our chats for this project are located in our group’s Angel discussion forum under “Group Documents”.

In order to create my portion of the storyboard, I played around with Google Drawing to be sure I fully understood the basic functions it allowed. I then came up with an order for the objects and features I wanted to highlight in the tutorial. I screen-captured all of these items and highlighted the object that was being discussed or that needed to be clicked. After I saved all of the screen shots, I uploaded them into the “visual description or sketch goes here” portions of storyboard and proceeded to create a script for each slide. Since Google Drawing will be our last portion of our tutorial, I took it upon my self to add a small conclusion slide with script. I had thought of just using Photo Story to upload my screen shots and record the narration, but then decided I wanted to make it look more like a tutorial video. Therefore, I will use Screecast-o-Matic. By using this program, the viewer will be able to see the motions of my cursor and more detail than if they were just seeing screen shots. All group members decided to use this program for their part, and then we will put all 4 video together for our final tutorial using Windows Movie Maker.

Link to Storyboard and Script

Online Teaching Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:22:00 +0000

The Online Learning Experience Guidelines that the Michigan Department of Education created is a very helpful document for all teachers, not just in Michigan. Even though some of the resources were specific to Michigan, as a teacher in Georgia, I took away many interesting ideas for developing online experiences for my math students. Some of these resources include:

Discovery Education – This site includes math worksheets and math vocabulary worksheets as well as step-by-step webMATH tutorial videos.

Best Webquests – I came across this site during our webquest session and it included a few useful webquests for high school math students on real-world topics.

Wikispaces – This site allows for collaboration, projects, discussions, and questions and can be used for many different content areas. I didn’t find Front Page Wiki to be as user friendly as Wikispaces, but it did give some advice as to creating a wiki.

Educational Podcast Network – This site hosts many different types of video podcasts, such as math tutorials.

Moodle – This learning management site could be used more so with online classes, but I could use this as the online portion to my math class.

Noodle Tools – This site helps educators with online learning, collaboration, and ethics for research. It related more to literacy, reading, and writing courses, but could be useful in other content areas.

Electronic Portfolios – I saw this as a neat tool for elementary teachers to use to collect/gather all work from the year to show parents. I think it would be beneficial for high school students to do this as well to make a compilation of their work and accomplishments.

Adobe Breeze – I’ve had some experience with this during my online classes, but thought it would be convenient to use web conferencing for office hours with my high school students.

Mobile Learning Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:51:00 +0000

I enjoyed this mobile learning lab and bookmarked many of the resources it provided. One tool that I tried that I can really see implementing in my classroom, especially on the first day of next school year is Poll Everywhere. How funny it would be to see my students’ faces on the first day when I say, “Ok if you have a cell phone take it out for our first activity!” I made a multiple-choice poll that asks students about their experiences in their last math class. I also thought instead of making it multiple-choice, I could leave it open-ended to get more useful feedback.

I joined classroom 2.0 and the group Cell Phones in Education. I posted the comment that although I’d love to use things like Poll Everywhere, iPhone apps, and the web, the cell phone service in my school building is really bad. I’m wondering how I can still incorporate cell phone in my math classroom, perhaps outside of school?

Another tool I looked into was the flip cam. I have seen this done by a math teacher at my school and I would like to do the same. Possibly at the end of a unit or school year, students can create a video that discusses and shows real-world examples of the math content they learned. I saw the Google presentation of the many ways teachers have used them in their classroom. Even though I’m not in elementary education, I think my students would still benefit from analyzing their behavior in class! I saw a teacher used a flip cam to record how her students behaved during a lesson and then they watched it as a class. It would also be useful to record lessons and upload them to a teacher webpage for students to look back at for review or if they missed school.

One last tool that I’d like to comment on is the mobile hand held devices created by Verizon Wireless that some schools are using. I think they are a great tool to use specifically because the texting and calling features are deactivated. Those are the applications that cause the most distractions and don’t necessarily contribute to student learning. I can understand that it’d be cheaper for students to just use their own cell phones, but I think they (in my case, high school students) would use it to their advantage and still use these features.

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT - PART C - IMPLEMENTATION

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:58:00 +0000

Link to transcript of podcast

Group Leadership Project - Part A - Brainstorm

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:57:00 +0000

Web Conference Videos

Video 1: http://www.screencast.com/t/vVFYRKTx1W22
Video 2: http://www.screencast.com/t/ph1nLhsw
Video 3: http://www.screencast.com/t/pHiWPjryo1aM
Video 4: http://www.screencast.com/t/tHe1qGjt
Video 5: http://www.screencast.com/t/DPFvAxPA0R

What web conferencing tool did your group use?

Our group used Vyew for our web conference. I set up the conference the first time my group met, in which we all logged in successfully. My group member Megan set it up for us the second time we met using Vyew, which we both agreed it was pretty easy to do so. We explored the application to see what tools we could use during our conference and noticed that Vyew did not have a screen recording option available, as mentioned in my earlier blog post. Both Megan and I recorded our conference using Jing, but did not have success in figuring out how the video could be accessed by others. I met with my instructor Susan during her office hours and she helped immensely! I uploaded the 5 separate recordings in Screencast and provided my group with the links to these videos to post on our blogs, as shown above.

What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

Even though Vyew gave us headaches, the program did offer some advantages. It was very easy to sign up for, log into, and create a room for our conference. The buttons for certain applications such as chat, video, and talk were easy to locate and use. Another advantage is that if you use the same conference room, the pages you upload and edit will be available in the future when you return. A user can easily insert a blank page, a document from their computer, a link to a website, etc. It also has the capability to screen share, similar to Adobe Connect. We used this option more when we met the second time to discuss the storyboard template for part B of this project.

What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

As mentioned above, the biggest disadvantage Vyew had was the lack of a screen recording service. We also had connection issues the first time we used it, Laura and I were kicked off a few times! The microphone also produced a major echo and the webcam froze a few times, so half way through our conference we mostly used the chat feature instead of webcams and microphones. Depending on what your use for the tool is, the disadvantages might outweigh the advantages, which it did in our case. We could have easily used g-chat (google chat) for our conference based on how we used this technology.

Wiki Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:44:00 +0000

My school, Brookwood High School, already had a Wikipedia page set up. There was actually a lot of information already added, however I made a few small additions to the layout portion of the wiki. As a math teacher, I noticed right away that our department was not mentioned in the school’s layout. I added the subject to its appropriate location and also noted the fact that in addition to the building’s halls, there are trailer classrooms. The reason I noted this is because there aren’t just a few, there are well over 20! 20 classrooms is basically the same amount of rooms as a new hallway! Here is a screen shot of my school’s Wikipedia page and the highlighted portion is what I added.

I used the PBworks service to create my own wiki. Its focus is on extra online resources for the math classes that I teach. I provide a few online resources and I ask that others add more they know of or that they find. The link to my wiki is www.sanderslindsay.pbworks.com .

Web-Conferencing Lab Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:15:00 +0000

For our first web conference, my group decided to use the program Vyew. Previous to the conference, we individually played around and got comfortable with the program so that when it came time to meet all together it would be more successful. I set up a room for us to use and e-mailed the link to that room to my group members Laura, Megan, and Kevin. My group members and I agreed on Saturday May 28th at 10:00 am EST as the date and time for us to meet. We all logged into our room around the same time with no major issues. I was at my parents’ house and Laura was out of town as well so our slower connections kicked us off a few times, but overall it worked out logistically. We used the webcam, microphone, and chat features as well as document sharing, comments, and sticky notes. We could not locate a built-in recording option with Vyew, so I offered to record our session using Jing. With Jing, the screen recording only lasts 5 minutes, so I had to break our session video into about 6 chunks. I told my group I would figure out a way to put them together into one video.

If I could do this web conference differently, I would use a program that had a built in recording option that did not have a time limit and also formatted the video for easy sharing and uploading to youtube. As our CEP 812 instructor displays, web conferencing is such a good way to stay connected to students when class is over or when a classroom is not accessible. I think I will look into getting a subscription to a web conference service such as Adobe Connect and hold online office hours, especially the night or two before a test or due date for a major assignment. This would help students who have conflicts with staying after school for help and/or those students who may be too shy to stay after for help or ask questions in class. Students could also collaborate using web conferencing if they can’t all be together or if they want to record their computer screens for an assignment.

UDL lab

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Mon, 30 May 2011 00:53:00 +0000

I used the Universal Design Lesson Guidelines Checklist to evaluate the effectiveness of my original instructional design lesson plan. I found that about half of the standards were met with my lesson, while the other half were not. I uploaded my UDL checklist to my AFS space.

Here's the link to the pdf of my UDL checklist:
https://www.msu.edu/~sande194/CEP811LSandersUDLChecklist.pdf

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT - PART B - APPLICATION OF TPACK

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 29 May 2011 17:53:00 +0000

1. What is the TP knowledge for the solution?

When determining the educational need for my students, I immediately thought of my Integrated Geometry Strategies students. This is a support math class and many of my students lack the motivation to learn, which affects their behavior in class. Their current need is engagement in their lessons, which should increase their motivation. I chose to use the Student Response Devices as a way to engage my students in their lesson, to allow them to receive immediate feedback, which should in turn motivate them to get more correct answers the next time around, especially if I add the element of competition to the lesson. With the availability of immediate feedback, I will be able to address the educational needs of my students and/or alter my lessons and examples if necessary.

2. What is the TC knowledge for the solution?

The nature of the TC knowledge was more difficult to determine because I will be using my technology for a final exam review lesson, not necessarily to teach content. However, standardized testing is a major component to the Integrated Geometry curriculum. Something that should help my students achieve success on these assessments is the practice of answering multiple-choice questions along with the ability to quickly see their results. Because the Student Response Devices that students will use allows for only multiple-choice answering, this should help them better learn test-taking strategies for these types of questions. It will be interesting to see how students react and learn by not writing or bubbling in their answer, but by sending it to the computer system via their clicker.

3. What is the PC knowledge for the solution?

The teaching approaches that I will use during this review lesson that specifically address the Integrated Geometry Strategies course are focusing on students’ prior knowledge from previous lessons or courses, as well as other helpful out-of-classroom knowledge. Because this is mainly a review lesson, addressing misconceptions will be another pedagogical approach I can use. Also, since my students’ need falls under engagement and motivation, having multiple representation of questions, answers, and feedback will help cover a wide range of the learners that I have. Keeping the lesson moving with minimal distractions will also keep my students focused and engaged with the content.

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT - PART A - A NEED OR AN OPPORTUNITY

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 22 May 2011 18:18:00 +0000

1. What is the important educational need that you are seeking to address?

I teach an Integrated Geometry Strategies math course to 10th graders. Strategies is a math support class that students take in addition to their regular math class if they historically have trouble with math. With this being a remediation class, I have a collaborative teacher assist me in helping our students gain a better understanding of the concepts required of them. We do a lot of previewing and re-teaching of material but also allow students to play review games and complete projects. My collaborative teacher and I have tried many differentiated instruction ideas, however, we have not been able to fully engage our students to learn the curriculum which in turn produces behavior issues.

2. How you plan to address this educational issue with technology?

I have found that games work well with my group of students because of their competitive nature and the motivation they get from winning. However, I feel that students are only engaged in these activities based on winning and not on the learning. I want to come up with a way to assess my students’ learning but also keep them engaged in an activity. This is where technology comes into play. From doing research and having discussions with colleagues, I decided to utilize student response devices with my group of strategies students in order to engage them in learning the curriculum. I will also be able to see directly if their engagement effects their learning based on their results from the response devices.

3. Logistics of solution

I will use the response devices during the last week of instruction with my Integrated Geometry Strategies students. I have access to a class set of CPS response devices, so each student will have their own to use in my classroom. They will see each multiple-choice question appear on my smart board, have a limited amount of time to answer the question, and lock in their results by sending their answer via the response device. The questions that students will be answering with the devices will be review questions for their math final exams the following week. I will tell the class that the use of this technology will be contingent on their appropriate behavior in class and while using the devices.

4. Relevant research and resources

The research that I located has helped me to understand what a student response system is, how they are used in classrooms, and what effect they have on student learning, which will help with the implementation of my project. I was recommended a few of the resources by my CEP 812 instructor, Susan Wright, and found a few of my own by searching through the MSU Library and google’s Scholarly Articles .

Roger C. Lowery, a Ph.D. from UNC Wilmington, wrote a paper titled “Teaching and Learning with Interactive Student Response Systems: A Comparison of Commercial Products in the Higher-Education Market”. He suggests that this technology is designed to “create an engaging and inviting learning environment that will maximize active learning” and student participation. In his paper, he mentions the main benefits for using the student response devices: they improve student learning and teaching effectiveness. Dr. Lowery quotes other’s research on the topic which concludes preparation and alertness are increased and that participation comes from all students when using the devices. Even though Dr. Lowery conducted his research in a college setting, many of the benefits the student response devices produce with that age group can be shared with high school students.

Another source that focuses on use of the student response devices is “Teaching with Student Response System Technology: A Survey of K-12 Teachers”. This research was created based on a questionnaire for K-12 teachers about their experience with the response system. One main finding that I will be taking into account with my Wicked Problem is the type of value I place on the technology. According to the authors, “teachers who valued the system for its feedback to them and time-saving affordances would use it for judging whether students had mastered particular concepts, while teachers who sought to increase student attention and stimulate discussion would tend to use data from the system formatively to adjust their instruction.”

The last resource I chose is “Classroom Response Systems: A Review of the Literature” by Carmen Fies and Jill Marshall in which the authors discuss the various evaluations others have created on the student response devices. Some of the benefits that were included in this review were that classes that used the devices were “more interactive, more engaging, and more enjoyable”. It was also noted that teachers and students became “more aware of the condition of the students’ understanding, ultimately leading to more responsive instruction and to better understanding”.

Overall, the resources encouraged me to go forward with my Wicked Problem Project in hopes that I see positive changes in my students behavior, engagement, and understanding of the curriculum.

5. A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

Since my school year will be over May 27, my students will be using the devices for the majority of each day’s lesson during the last week of instruction, May 16 - 20. During the first few days, students will be working independently to answer questions I pose on the Smart Board to gain an understanding of how to use the devices. This will also allow me to evaluate the progress and learning of my students individually and offer additional instruction if needed. As a reward for good behavior and participation in the independent response lessons, I will conduct a game in which students will work in teams to answer questions during the last day of instruction. Seeing as my school year culminates prior to the end of this course, I plan to implement lessons that utilize the student response system more regularly with my strategies students next school year in order to better engage them in learning the curriculum.

6. How would you know you were successful?

To evaluate the success of this plan, I will have to look at several facets including my students’ learning and my effectiveness as a teacher due to the student response devices. The evidence that will tell me if this plan was a success is the engagement and motivation of my students to learn the curriculum. I will be able to tell if students are engaged if they actively participate, seek to understand why they got a problem incorrect, and get excited to use the technology. By using this system, I will be able to monitor my students’ individual responses and track their progress and students will get immediate feedback. I will also be able to tell when a majority of students have a misconception about a question and can address it on the spot.

Technology Use Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Fri, 20 May 2011 21:17:00 +0000

Click here to take survey

MERLOT peer review

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:30:00 +0000

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=78197

Quality of Content:
1. Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills?

Yes, the website contains a collection of articles, applets, puzzles, and problems with valid information.

2.Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline?

Yes, there are plenty of resources for high school math, specifically algebra and geometry.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
1. What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
a. Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem
b. Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem
c. Practice using the curriculum/analysis of the outcomes from solving the problem
d. Applying the curriculum to "new" problems/application of the outcomes to other problems

Mainly, the website’s materials can be used as explanation and demonstration tools, where the author writes information about various math concepts and includes applets to illustrate mathematical ideas. The author does allow users to apply the curriculum in some of the problems as well.

2. What is (are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials?

Depending on what link is chosen, the learning objective is to first read the information provided by the author about the math topic. Next, there is a problem, puzzle, or applet that allows users to demonstrate that they understood the material. For example, “Factoring with the Factor Tree” gives users a brief written tutorial on the concept of factoring. Then below is an applet designed for users to build their own factor tree, demonstrating that they understood how to factor numbers.

3. What are the characteristics of the target learner(s)?

Learners can vary in age from middle school to high school level mathematics. The topics under the subject can also be varied because the website contains many different concepts. There are certain links that are also applicable to college-level students.

4. Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials?

This resource definitely helps to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics, but may not necessarily be a replacement for actual lessons.

5. Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline?

Yes, the website has an immense amount of resources for many math topics covered in high school math and beyond. A teacher can readily integrate the applets or puzzles as an extra visual aid in a lesson. Also, the teacher can include a link to the resources on his or her teacher webpage for students to use for extra help.

6. Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals?

Yes, as mentioned, the website contains a verbal explanation of the math topic, a related problem to answer, a puzzle to complete, and/or an applet to explore.

7. Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?

The topic of math is easily identified on the home page. However the goals are not listed up front. The user will have to open the link to see what the learning goal is.

8. Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily?

It will be easy for a teacher to add this resource to many lessons or create lessons around many of them.

Ease of Use:
1. Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct?

The general layout is consistent and visually distinct. The left side of the page lists the topics of math, when you click on a topic the applets, problems, and puzzles are listed in alphabetical order. It also notes if the application uses Java, Flash, or html text.

2. Does the user get trapped in the material?

On the bottom of each page, there are navigation buttons that get you back to the pages you were previously on. It might be a good idea for the author to include these buttons on the top of the page as well since each page is lengthy.

3. Can the user get lost easily in the material?

It is a little overwhelming because there is so much material listed. It’s nice that is in alphabetical order in each strand of math, but it’s not broken down into different categories so you really have to look at the words in the whole title. You could also press ctrl+f to search for specific words you are looking for.

4. Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses?

In most lessons, problems, applets, and puzzles, there are solutions given, whether it is a written solution or displayed in the applet when a user gets the correct answer.

5. Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use?

Because there are various types of resources and applications, users have the flexibility to choose the most appropriate type of resource for their learning or their students’ learning.

6. Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software?

Not much documentation or technical support is needed for this software. The applications are generally straightforward and contain instructions on how to use them.

7. Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students?

It depends on what types of applications the students are familiar with. As said, the applications include basic instructions on how to use them. Students would have to read and understand these instructions if they are not familiar with the application.

8. Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students?

If the teacher can pinpoint the specific applications he or she wants students to use, then yes. If a student is just looking through the website on his or her own, he or she might be overwhelmed by the amount of material. Plus, the website contains math concepts for college math as well, which would not be attractive to high school students.

Personal Introduction CEP 812

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:25:00 +0000

Personal Learning Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:19:00 +0000

One of the biggest things I have learned this semester is that the generation I teach, and will be teaching for years to come, is continually changing in their learning habits. It takes more than just a lecture to engage a student in the 21st century and it also takes more than that for me, as a high school teacher, to stay interested in teaching my subject matter. As my graduate course CEP 810 culminates, I wish to reflect on what I learned that will help me to incorporate “more” into my lessons.

During the sessions, I have discovered many effective teaching strategies that are being employed in school districts around the world. The focus of these strategies is how to successfully integrate technology into lessons. A memorable video from Edutopia called “A Commitment to High Tech Education”, featured many classes that used technology and lessons daily, such as clickers, GPS, heart-rate monitors, laptops, etc. What also stood out from this school was that sports teams, clubs and classes intertwined their lessons together. Not only does this allow students to collaboratively use the tools that they learn best with, but they are also able to learn about information in a way that interests them. Other helpful aspects of our course that demonstrated effective teaching strategies were our SIG projects, the MACUL network, and our Angel discussion board. My classmates and I discussed lesson plans, tips, and tricks to new technology that are easily incorporated in any classroom. Many of these include using videos, cell phones, wikis, blogs, and, of course, cloud computing in classes, whether in school or at home.

As mentioned in my Personal Growth Plan, before this class I thought about classroom technology as interactive white boards, graphing calculators, clickers, online textbooks and other electronic devices. However, when reflecting on the strategies mentioned above (videos/screen casting, wikis, blogs, cloud computing), the Internet played a major role in many of them. They are not necessarily a piece of equipment. The greatest thing about teachers and students using the World Wide Web for technology incorporation is that it is easily accessible and mostly free. Most students have access to the Internet at home but also have the ability to use it at school before school, during lunch, or after school. The Internet can save a lot of money for schools that can purchase technology tools but can also enable lower-budget schools to use certain online technologies at little or no cost.

During my course, I have read articles, browsed websites, and watched many videos and tutorials to help me create assignments demonstrate technology that can be used in my own classroom. I have a few that I am particularly proud of: my blog, my RSS page, SIG presentation, and my Personal Technology Plan. I plan on turning my blog into a Math blog for my classes and allow students to solve problems on, discuss assignments, and ask questions. My RSS page is something new to me and it is very cool to have a collection of educational (and other) blogs and sites that are continuously updating that I can browse for advice and ideas. I had a great experience presenting video lessons with my group in our SIG project. We worked well together and I am proud of what we accomplished. I feel 100% more comfortable with utilizing videos in lessons, projects, for at-home use, screen casting, etc. Lastly, I was very excited to learn about the presentation application Prezi that I created my Personal Technology Plan with. To me, it is the new Powerpoint with engaging features that allowed me to properly reflect on my plan for technology integration in my classroom.

When re-reading my Personal Growth Plan from the beginning of the course, the last sentence proved to be of worth, because I did indeed learn a wealth of knowledge since this assignment and started thinking of ways to incorporate these ideas in my classes. I think at the time of my Personal Growth Plan creation, I had the idea that I would be able to incorporate technology immediately in my classroom as the course progressed. However, by taking two online courses, working full-time, and coaching, I have not had the time needed to successfully include technology everywhere I want to. I think my previous goals mentioned in my plan and above in my reflection are still valid and I intend to meet them. I will bookmark all websites I learned about to my Diigo account and save all my files for future use.

Personal Technology Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:33:00 +0000

Learning Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 15:03:00 +0000

When viewing the LDPride website and reading the Occasional Paper, Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, I have developed an understanding for the different types of learning styles. I have reflected on these and thought back to when I was in high school and college to determine which learning experiences I remember the most and what teaching strategies were present for these experiences. According to the website mentioned, I believe that I am first and foremost a visual learner. I liked sitting in the front of the class, taking notes, and doing problems that had a picture or diagram to go with it. Even better would be to do something hands-on with manipulatives, computers, or experiments, which would also bring up the fact that I consider myself also somewhat of a kinesthetic learner. Although I enjoy learning through doing, I do not usually get restless when sitting or distracted easily. According to Table 6 in the Occasional Paper mentioned, I believe I was a dependent, participant, and competitive learner in high school because I was more of a math inclined and logical person. I liked learning the steps from notes and doing practice problems to learn the material. However, when I attended college, I felt my learning style shift more toward independent, collaborative, and participant, which I think most professors strive for their classroom environment. I have never been a reading, writing, open-ended discussing type of learner and verbal learning was a struggle for me.

As one can see, I have had experiences with different types of learning throughout my life and have even matured in my ability to learn in ways I had not been able to in the past. I think the same is true for my students. Many of them have the capability to learn in more than one way and have more than one learning style. With this in mind, hopefully I can reach each student by mixing up my teaching strategies frequently to embrace as many learning styles as possible in a given unit of instruction. As the Occasional Paper explained, “faculty should begin by being self-reflective about their pedagogical goals and strengths in teaching.” I will continue to do what works, learn about different teaching strategies, try them out gradually, and reflect on these experiences. My hope is to expand many of my students learning capabilities, just as it was for me in my transition from high school learning to college learning.

Creative Commons

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:56:00 +0000

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Venice Canals"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55089313@N02/5109372528/

By: Lindsay Sanders

Released under Attribution Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Happy Pi Day (to the 69th digit)!"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/3355106480/
By: Mykl Roventine

Released under Attribution Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Images can make all the difference in your lessons. To visual learners, as discussed in the reading Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, pictures, charts, images, clipart, etc. are engaging in lessons. These students will have a visual image to draw back on when remembering a concept taught in my class. I try to add clipart to my powerpoint notes and to accompany word problems in hopes that students will recollect the problem solving process for a particular question on future assessments. What I will be sure to do in the future is give photo attribution and search for my photos on Flickr or Creative Commons websites.

Group 1 SIG Proposal

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:58:00 +0000

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=11xDugF-wbDbHQjLeI2RHj8LyStj7FdinEnAGrAf38Fo

Atomic Learning Internet Security Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:44:00 +0000

Computer Clean Up and Speed Up

There are several programs available to computer users that will clean up disk space on your hard drive. These programs feature ways to delete unwanted programs you have downloaded, duplicate programs, demo programs, older versions of programs, old files, and temporary files. There were a few new processes of computer clean up that I learned about while viewing the tutorials at Atomic Learning. One thing is called compression of old files. This feature allows you to minimize the amount of space these files take up but does not delete them from your computer. You can access this through “Disk Cleanup” in the system tools folder through accessories. I also learned about something I didn’t know existed, a way to clean up your computer by using an application from the internet called “Windows CleanUp!” It even makes a toilet flushing noise when you use this program. When you clean up space on your computer, this will allow your system to run more smoothly and at a faster rate.

Firewalls

This was an extensive section of information that I did not have much prior knowledge on. I have always known that you need firewall protection on your computer to protect it from viruses, but did not understand that there were different types of firewall, what exactly firewall does (or doesn’t do) for your computer, or the different free firewall programs available for users to install. One thing that I learned that I want to share with you is that it will be beneficial for you to have both a hardware and software firewall system on your computer because they each do different things to protect your computer from dangers of being connected to the internet. The hardware is usually part of your internet router and can hide your computer from hackers, but will not stop you from receiving/spreading viruses, spam, pop-ups, and spyware. This is when the software firewall comes into play. It will notify you when these threats occur on your computer and gives you the ability to protect your computer from them. What surprised me is that there are (at least) two free firewall programs that you can download that will protect your computer’s vulnerability from internet threats. These programs are Zone Alarm and Shields Up. Also, if you have a PC, you should have a Windows firewall program already on your computer that you can use to set your firewall settings at a high level of protection.

File Backup Options

These were the tutorials that caught my attention the most for this assignment and were the most beneficial to me personally. If you read my previous blog posting, you noticed my hard drive crashed and my old computer basically won’t turn on anymore. I was in the market for a new computer before this happened, but had I known about file backup, I might have been able to recover the files I had on my old computer and held out on buying a new one for a little longer. According to the Atomic Learning tutorials, there are many file backup options in existence. Some charge a fee for using their services (like Genie Backup Manager), some are free (like Karen’s Replicator and Folder Share), and there is also one on your computer in the system tools folder of accessories. Some of these back up your documents to an external hard drive (like a usb flash drive, big usb hard drive, laptop size hard drive, blank CDs), which you must purchase separately. For my work documents, I back up my files on our network periodically as well as on a usb flash drive. I also have some of my older documents from my old computer on this flash drive. With other backup programs, you can simply back up your files online, which I was excited to learn about. I will be looking into using one of the programs the tutorial recommended; media max, yahoo, gmail, 4shared, allmydata.

Wireless

This last tutorial I viewed discussed wireless connection for computers. I found this tutorial a little outdated, yet it provided me with some information that I felt increased my awareness of internet security. Of course, when you want to have a wireless internet connection in your house, you will need cable internet and a wireless router. Also, if you have an older desktop or laptop without wireless built in, you will need a wireless usb adapter. The prices are pretty similar now to what the tutorial claimed routers, such as Linksys and Netgear, were (about $60-$150), depending if they come with firewall built in. The important information discussed in the tutorial about configuring and securing your wireless connection is something I will make sure I do every time I move. I will also share this information with friends who also use wireless internet. It is very important to change your SSID name to something you will remember, but does not identify you. Also, the security option is essential to remaining protected from outsiders. You will want to choose the WPA-PSK protected access and create a good password. This way, you can prevent just anyone from accessing your internet for free and possibly damaging your network. I was surprised to learn that some people are known to drive around looking for unsecure wireless connections in neighborhoods and connecting to them from their cars. When living in an apartment complex it is especially important to keep your wireless network secure from outsiders, since you have so many neighbors close enough to have that access.

RSS Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Sanders) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 02:40:00 +0000

After having my computer crash, I finally got my new laptop! I am able to update you on my latest obsession of my CEP 810 course... RSS! Let me tell you what an RSS is. It is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication" and is basically a personal website that contains your favorite blogs and updates to your favorite websites. It is a quick way to see new items of interest online without wasting time looking through all of your favorite websites for updates, when many won't have any. In the past 6 months or so, I have noticed a little orange RSS button on many websites and I have had no clue what that button was for. Now I know and I enjoyed my time collecting feeds from my favorite sites to put on my RSS reader, Netvibes. Below are some images (created using Jing) of my various feeds including educational blogs and websites, world news, sports updates, and entertainment highlights.

In my educational tab above, I included the four required feeds: Technology and Learning, NPR Topics: Education, Weblogg-ed, and Literacy Education Updates. These sites are continuously updating posts and articles on average once or twice a week. NPR tends to have news articles about the politics of education, Tech and Learning displays new technology products that are available, Weblogg-ed is a blog discussing technology in education, and the Literacy Education blog for English language arts teachers. Of these, the NPR feed was of most interest to me because I learned of many interesting current issues in the teaching world, including bullying, grading systems, and the controversy over educational reform. I plan to continue to view this feed and many others mentioned to help better inform myself on the profession of teaching and learn of new free technology features that I am able to use in my classroom.

I also added my own feeds, shown above, as I explored websites with RSS capabilities. These include the EduTech Today Newsletter, Sudoku puzzles, the weather, a calculator, my teacher calendar from Brookwood High School, Wild About Math, ISTE Connects (this also had a blog about tips for new teacher bloggers!), Media Infusion, Rhyme Rhyme Results (songs about math), and Teacher Tube. One of the blogs that I subscribed to on my RSS is an educational math blog called "Mathematics and Multimedia" by Guillermo Bautista that focuses on school mathematics. His post entitled "Free Tools Every Math Blogger Should Learn" is what hooked me to subscribe to his blog. It contained tools such as WordPress, GOOGLE DOCS!!, Scribd, GeoGebra, Google Sketchup, CamStudio, and many others. As you can see below, I commented on this post on how much I appreciate that he created this collection for new math bloggers, such as myself. I continue to observe his posts, he updates about once a week, and I plan on trying out some of the new resources and free technology I've discovered! (I mentioned some of these on our MACUL discussion post.) I am already using Google Docs, when working on lessons from home, instead of emailing the documents. I have also looked into GeoGebra for my notes and assessments. To continue this in my CEP class, I will look into Google Sketchup and CamStudio for my SIG project.

One of the blogs that I subscribed to on my RSS is an educational math blog called "Mathematics and Multimedia" by Guillermo Bautista that focuses on school mathematics. His post entitled "Free Tools Every Math Blogger Should Learn" is what hooked me to subscribe to his blog. It contained tools such as WordPress, GOOGLE DOCS!!, Scribd, GeoGebra, Google Sketchup, CamStudio, and many others. I commented on this post on how much I appreciate that he created this collection for new math bloggers, such as myself. I continue to observe his posts and try out some of the new resources I've discovered!

Being a concerned citizen, I continuously check up on the local, national, and world news via the internet. It was nice being able to contain all my favorite sites on my Netvibes page, such as 11Alive (Atlanta TV news), AJC (Atlanta newspaper), Click on Detroit (to keep up news in my hometown area), CNN, E! Online (celebrity news), Food Network (daily recipes), 955 the beat (Atlanta radio station), and Delta and Airtran news.

I also am a sports fan and enjoyed seeing all the highlights from ESPN and BigTen football games, including MSU! I coach golf at my high school, so the PGA feed keeps me up to date on who is wining the Ryder Cup and the mini golf game keeps me entertained.