| Tuesday, February 24, 2009 |
| It's SNOWY |
I was very pleased overall with the professional development plans that the students completed. For the most part, their goals were very specific and attainable. Many mentioned that they would like to keep track of their progress towards their goals with a dedicated page in their e-portfolios. I thought this was a great idea and decided to make this the assignment for the professional development plan revision. I explained to the students what I thought should go on this page - their original goals, the progress they've made thus far, links to evidence (screenshots, photographs, web links, etc.) of their progress, and plans for the future. The students' reactions to this assignment was positive, expressing that they felt it would be more useful to them than simply revising their original plans.
The students seemed to appreciate the segment during last week's lab on making our W200 pedagogy transparent, that is, sharing tools and tips as one teacher to another. The tool I shared was Poll Everywhere. This week, I shared three other tools that I had found helpful in my professional teaching tasks - Google Calendar, Twitter, and Umbrella Today. I demonstrated how they can use their cell phones to send and receive "tweets" and explained how Twitter is being used to share insights during conferences. I also shared how I have been using Google Calendar to manage my schedule and how I have set up to receive reminders on my cell phone so that I won't miss meetings or appointments. I then showed the students who were interested how to set up the option to receive SMS (cell phone text) reminders. I introduced Umbrella Today as a tool that simply sends SMS reminders when the forecast calls for rain. This can be helpful to a busy teacher who has a lot on the mind when heading out the door to school each morning.
I then modeled how they might make technology integration decisions using the SNOWY decision making process. SNOWY stands for Standard, Needs, Options, What, and Why. After modeling this process, I asked the students to join with one or two classmates and create a Google Doc that outlines the SNOWY process as applied to an 8th grade science case. Having the students in groups was very beneficial in especially the Options step, as they bounced ideas off one another for possible activities (or Options) that they could use in this case. The groups then wrote learning objectives that incorporated the option they chose. At the close of class, each group presented their Google Doc, some of the Options that they found, and their learning objective. I was able to provide specific feedback on their proposals to each group (and the whole class). I hope that this workout will lead to better proposals in the coming weeks.Labels: teaching, W200 |
posted by SG @ 12:51 PM   |
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| Monday, February 16, 2009 |
| The Classroom Newsletter |
Classroom newsletters provide a way for teachers to communicate classroom and school happenings with students and their families. This week, we discussed newsletters and other ways teachers can communicate with families and the kinds of information these communications might contain. Here's the list we came up with. With the focus on using technology tools to be more productive in a teacher's professional life, we experimented with Google Docs (and spreadsheets, forms, and presentations) to create sample classroom newsletters. Some of the students used the templates available on Google Docs, others started their newsletters in Word then uploaded them to Google Docs, and others started their newsletters from scratch. We explored the collaborative features of this resource as well as the limitations in formatting and layout.
In an effort to make the W200 pedagogy more transparent, I demonstrated how to create online polls using Poll Everywhere and led the students through the process of creating free accounts. We used the sample poll to find out how many in class knew how to bookmark websites in their Delicious accounts and found that there were just a few in each section that weren't sure how to do this. (I directed these few to tutorials on the Delicious website.)
 One student in each section volunteered to show his/her digital story about why they chose the teaching profession. The majority of the students selected this topic for their stories; however, a few did do stories on what makes a teacher great and how to... . Overall, the stories were really interesting to watch, and they helped me to get to know the students better.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 2:35 PM |
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| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 |
| Quite a Development |
So, today's focus is professional development. Because last week's class was cancelled due to snow, I sensed some confusion concerning course activities among the students. I had looked into the chatroom on Oncourse a few times and noticed some of my students' comments. I e-mailed these students directly, but I wanted to clear up the questions with the entire class before moving forward into today's lesson.
I was surprised that many had forgotten about their blogs on Blogger that they created the first day of class or otherwise missed the connection between these blogs and the make-up assignment from last week, which was to write a post about integrating technology into a standards-based lesson in the content area of interest. (I did not specify in my announcement to the students that the blog posts would go on the Blogger.com blogs. I assumed they would know this, as it didn't cross my mind that they would go anywhere else!) One student creatively used his Delicious account to tag the lesson plan and then wrote his comments in the description area of the bookmark. I had planned to begin class with a follow-up activity stemming from these posts; but because so many had trouble, I decided to postpone the activity until a future session. Instead, I demonstrated how to post to their blogs and offered them a second chance to complete the assignment, because I felt too important a lesson to skip.
I also demonstrated how to get to the correct lecture worksheet for each week and where to find my and their classmates' e-mail addresses in the Roster area of Oncourse. I encouraged the students to visit the TTL or e-mail me with future questions and avoid getting sucked into the negativity that has seemed to surface in the course chatroom. I compared the chatroom to the teachers' lounge, saying that it can be a great place to vent but can also drag your perspective down as you listen to others' complaints.
I then introduced the professional development plan assignment, describing each section of the plan and how they were to be graded using the rubric. We then moved on to the digital storytelling workout. I explained why learning how to create digital stories is important for them as future teachers (it is a great strategy for involving our digital native students in interacting with the content that they are studying) and offered a few suggestions for how it might be used in the content areas. We reviewed the web resource from University of Houston that outlines the components of a digital story and the kinds of tools that could be used. I then demonstrated from start to finish how to create a digital story in Windows Movie Maker. I explained the difference between their Windows Movie Maker file (.MSWMM) and their published digital story (.wmv). I instructed them to submit their published digital stories by uploading them to the Artifacts page of their e-portfolios. Knowing that this is a multi-step process, I created a tutorial and posted it this week's Resources in Oncourse. I asked the students to attempt to follow the tutorial, and then ask for help if they got stuck on one of the steps. Providing the tutorial at least initially reduced the number of times I had to walk the students through the process.
I provided them the option during the second half of class to choose what they wanted to work on. Some chose to work on their professional development plans and do their digital stories in the quiet of their own rooms, where they wouldn't feel awkward recording in front of others. Some decided to go ahead and do their digital stories in class or in the TTL. Many fixed their blog posts from last week. And I circulated and answered questions as needed.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 3:32 PM |
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| Monday, January 26, 2009 |
| Digital Natives |
With this week's focus on understanding the concept of digital natives and digital immigrants, we spent some time discussing what these terms mean, where we might place ourselves in (or between) these categories, and the kinds of technologies that can be used to reach our digital native students. This is an interesting place to be talking about this topic, as some of my students are digital natives and some are more toward the immigrant end of the spectrum. The whole idea of digital natives lent to a pretty good discussion, and I was pleased with some of the ideas that the students offered in how to tap into a digital native's world.
After going over a few announcements and demonstrating how to troubleshoot the in-between lecture podcasts, I had the students divide into groups of 3-4 and provided them a scaffold with which they were to come up with several examples of typical classroom tasks and ideas for using technology to approach such tasks in a more digital native way. The groups then created a digital graphic to demonstrate visually one of their examples. Some of the groups used PowerPoint and then converted the slides to JPEG files. Others used Microsoft Paint. Some used Word or Excel and took screenshots of their images and created pictures files by pasting the screenshots in Adobe Photoshop and then exporting. I circulated and helped each group as needed. If I do this activity again, I'd like to provide a job aid for how to save PowerPoint slides as picture files and how to take screenshots, as I went through the steps with many of the groups over and over again. Representatives from each group then presented their graphical representations to the class.
The remainder of class was spent working on the e-portfolios. I guided the students in how to arrange their pages in the navigation area, upload files, and create links on their pages. I am pleased that both sections are making a good deal of progress in putting together their portfolios. Hopefully, this will make the project easier on the students towards the end of the semester.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 2:40 PM |
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| Thursday, January 15, 2009 |
| Shift |
I used M&Ms to facilitate introductions, which involves giving each student a fun size package of M&Ms, asking everyone to choose one of the M&Ms, and then having them share something about themselves that corresponds to the M&M color. With Valentine's Day nearing, I had gotten the Valentine's edition of the M&Ms, so the colors and corresponding statements went something like this -
Pink – If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to ______ because…
Red – One of my greatest accomplishments is…
Magenta – The person who has most influenced my life is…
White – One of my goals in life is to…
There were many students who wanted to travel to Australia or New Zealand, some who chose parents or teachers as the most influential in their lives, and several who have the goal of being able to use their skills to help others in third world countries. It was a great way to start to get to know each other. With 40-50 students in two sections, it will take me a while to learn all of the students' names.
After introductions, we reviewed the syllabus, some Oncourse basics, and other important course-related info, such as how to download the podcasts and readings. I then helped them create Gmail and Delicious accounts and create a blog in Blogger and a new Google Site. This took most of the rest of the class period for the first section; the second section created the accounts very quickly. Since the second section finished so quickly, I demonstrated how to use Google Sites, and the students created their e-portfolio skeletons. At the end of class for both sections, we toured the Teaching with Technology Lab (TTL).
I guess I'll learn how to manage teaching two sections as the semester progresses. I thought it was interesting that the second section finished so quickly. I will probably keep using the e-portfolio as something that students can work on if they finish the lab activities early.
One thing that I'd like to create for next lab is a list of major assignments and due dates. With teaching two sections this semester, I communicated to the students that I will not be able to track down late assignments. So, I want to make sure that they know what assignments they are responsible for completing and the dates they are due. I still have not decided how I will manage assignments. With the changes in how the Oncourse site is set up this semester, I'm leaning away from using the Assignments area, as the drawbacks seem to outweigh the positives. I am considering using their e-portfolios as a way to receive submissions. I plan to make a decision before lab next week.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 3:08 PM |
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| Friday, December 12, 2008 |
| The End |
I began class by going over the agenda for this final lab session. The students then completed the final course online evaluations.
I decided to facilitate peer reviews of the e-Portfolios for the main lab activity this week. Many students had asked me what to put on their Portfolio Discussion pages, and so doing a peer review provided them with some content for those pages. I showed them how to add peers as collaborators on their sites. This allowed the peers to post their remarks as comments on the bottom of the Portfolio Discussion pages. Knowing that the collaborator role also allows editing capabilities, I cautioned the class to honor their peers by not making any changes except to add comments. I provided each of the students with two copies of a peer evaluation rubric. I thought that giving them paper copies of the rubric would be easier for the students to write remarks while viewing the e-Portfolios on screen and would allow them to hand their completed rubrics to the e-Portfolio authors. I also wanted the comments posted on the Portfolio Discussion pages to be positive, so the paper rubric was a means for the students to communicate critical feedback.
After about 15 minutes of instruction on how to add collaborators and review the portfolios, the students had 45 minutes to complete their reviews. I advised them to spend about 20 minutes on each portfolio and to make revisions to their own portfolios if they finished early. This seemed to be adequate time, and I enjoyed observing the interactions between students as they explained their feedback to their peers. The activity also seemed to be quite beneficial as it helped the students make final revisions to their portfolios before they were graded.
I expressed my appreciation to the students for their enthusiasm and participation this semester. I really did have a great group of students, which was such a blessing as I had a tough semester learning to handle all my responsibilities with a small child.
I had Mother Bear's Pizza deliver several large pizzas shortly before the end of class, and we spent the final moments of Lab 28816 discussing the students' future careers while enjoying pizza and cookies in a nearby conference room. I really enjoyed this time, as the students opened up a lot about their thoughts concerning their majors and changing majors and future jobs. They asked me about grad school and types of jobs they could do with an education major. I related some of my undergraduate experiences, how I changed majors several times, and how I finally decided on my chosen career. I encouraged them to gain some authentic experiences in education, such as substitute teaching or working at a childcare facility, to get a better idea of what it feels like to be a teacher. I found these final moments so valuable as I got to know my students better and they were able to talk candidly with me about their thoughts on teaching and technology.
It reminded me of a Mastercard commercial...
3 large pizzas from Mother Bear's - $50
1 dozen Reese's chip cookies - $5
A meaningful time of discussion and reflection - PricelessLabels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 11:54 AM |
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| Friday, November 21, 2008 |
| Excel-ing in Administration Tools |
After distributing this week's lecture worksheets, I handed back the graded Unit 2 exams and asked for questions about the test. Overall, the students did well on this exam and had no questions for me.
 So, we moved on to this week's workout - using Microsoft Excel to create an electronic gradebook. I demonstrated how to do a weighted average and create a lookup table to assign letter grades. I ran into a little problem with the lookup table and finally figured out that the scores needed to go in the first column and the associated letter grades in the second column. Also, it was a bit challenging to go through this workout demonstration using the Windows version of Excel 2007, as I had prepared for the lesson using the Mac version of Excel 2008. I found the locations of some of the features to be slightly different in the two versions.
After the workout, I reviewed the e-portfolio rubric with the students and answered questions about the e-portfolio. I had prepared a Google Sites e-portfolio quick tips sheet for two repeated questions that I had received during last week's lab time, and this came in quite handy during the e-portfolio work time today. I noticed many of the students referring to it, which allowed me to circulate and assist in other ways. The students seemed to appreciate having time to work on their artifacts and e-portfolios in class, as they were able to get help when needed.
For next semester, I would like to explain and work with the e-portfolio in the first few weeks and plan for time throughout the semester to revisit and built onto it. I think I will be able to do this now that I am feeling more comfortable with Google Sites and what the final product should look like. For now, I am considering creating a checklist that they can use during next lab to make sure that they have all of the necessary elements on their sites. I think this will help them to identify areas of their e-portfolios that still need work.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 12:01 PM |
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| Monday, November 17, 2008 |
| Assessment |
I went over my observation with Karen Hallett this past week. She was very encouraging, saying that I was doing a good job overall. We talked about ways to improve participation in the weekly discussions. She suggested using an Oncourse poll at the beginning of class. She also mentioned taking at look at Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers for more ideas.
After the students finished completing the second unit exam, we talked about defining assessment, providing examples of assessment, and describing challenges teachers face with assessment. I then led them through the process of creating a rubric using RubiStar. I showed them how they could create a permanent file that they could access later on the RubiStar website or just a temporary file. I showed them how they could save their files as webpages and Excel spreadsheets.
We worked on the e-portfolios the rest of class. I fielded lots of questions on how to link directly to their work, so I plan to create a job aid for that and will share it with other instructors.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 9:18 AM |
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| Saturday, November 1, 2008 |
| Making a Big Production |
I have to say that the students seem to really get into the labs with a production component. So, with this week being focused on production tools, the lab went really well. I set the stage for the workout by asking questions about some key concepts from the assigned reading. With it being halloween, I gave out candy for right answers. I encouraged the students to open the reading from the lecture website and search through the text to find the answers. We talked about the roles of teachers and students in production activities, a variety of production tools and tasks, stages of production, and ways to assess production projects. I realize that it is about mid-semester when students have lots of their plates, and class readings can fall to the bottom of the priority list. So, my intention for this activity was to remind them about doing the readings and to help them glean the main concepts from this week's reading.
They then got into groups of 2-3 to create their productions from the leaf scenario. With a few students absent, this made for four groups. Because the groups were formed during their lecture sessions, I noticed that some of the students were working with others that they had not worked with in past group activities in lab. This provided the students with the opportunity to get to know other students, which I think is a really good thing.
One group went to the TTL lab to use Inspriation software. Another group began creating a scrapbook in PowerPoint. I noticed the third group had PowerPoint open as well, and so I guided the students in how to make their presentation different from the other group. I showed them how to create an interactive quiz in PowerPoint by hyperlinking text and images to other slides. They had never used PowerPoint in this way and excitedly proceeded with building their show. The fourth group also had decided to do a scrapbook and wondered what tool to use to create it. Since two groups were using PowerPoint, I steered them in the direction of Windows Movie Maker. Having done the digital story a few weeks prior, they needed no additional instruction on how to use the software and got right to work. They imported pictures they had taken of trees, bark, and leaves around campus. They added narration and titles to their slides and then published the resulting two minute movie.
It took the students about 45 minutes to create their productions and 15 minutes to present them in class. During each presentation, the students talked about how they created their products. I then added some ideas for how the production could be extended given more time and resources. I was pleased with how the students were engaged throughout this workout and with the diversity in the products.
Since groups were using different tools and thus finished their projects at different times, I structured the rest of the class period to be independent work on their fourth artifact proposal and their electronic portfolios. I circulated and worked with students individually on how to create a files page in their sites, upload files, and copy the link locations in order to create links to their files on other pages. I also met with some students about past assignments that I wasn't able to access through Oncourse.
I would definitely like to do this workout again in future semesters, though we may want to change the topic to something else for the Spring semester, such as shapes found in the real world, since there may not be any leaves on the trees at that time. It was good to work on the electronic portfolio during this class session. I would like to have provided time before now to work on it in class. So, maybe in the Spring, we can build in time during some of the lab sessions throughout the semester to update the portfolios. I would also like to bring back the blogs in the coming weeks, because that is another thing that hasn't been used since the start of the semester.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 8:00 AM |
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| Monday, October 27, 2008 |
| Communication Tools |
We started the lab this week with online student evaluations. Then, I opened the floor for any questions that the students may have had about Monday's lecture. There were no questions. As I passed back the lecture worksheets, I asked them to name some tools that they use to communicate. Instant messaging, Facebook, text messaging, cell phones, and e-mail were mentioned. I asked if any used Twitter and was surprised that none of the students had heard of it. So, I demonstrated how I can send a "tweet," which is a micro-blog of sorts, from my cell phone. I explained that the message is then transmitted to others' cell phones who are following me. It also updates my Facebook status and can be seen on my Myspace page. I showed them some of the accounts of people I am following, including educational technologist David Warlick, and explained that Twitter can be for personal uses, such as updating family and friends, as well as professional uses, such as posting ideas and resources relating to teaching or technology integration.
I then led them through two activities in which they experienced two communication tools - Oncourse's forums and Google Groups. For each tool, I allowed time for the students to participate in the discussion then showed them some additional features. I then facilitated a discussion about positives and negatives of each, ways that teachers might use these tools, and challenges for teachers and students in using communication tools.
The session wrapped up with the students working on their third artifact proposal. I encouraged them to use the feedback I had provided on their first proposal in crafting the third. I added a bullet point on the artifact proposal form for where they could state what they plan to create for their portfolio. I'm hoping that this will remind them to be more explicit about what will come out of the proposal.
Though I like the idea of collaboration spanning all of the lab sections through the Google Groups workout, it would have been better if our section was able to have their own group to facilitate more participation. By being one of the last sections for this week, I felt that the students didn't have as much of a part in putting together the top 10 website lists. Though they did provide comments about sites already posted and added some of their own, the pages for the most part already had plenty of sites posted from previous sections.
They seemed to be tuned in to the discussion about teacher challenges with using communication tools. There are many things we could have done in this lab relating to communication tools. I think that it would be helpful when teaching this lesson again for the students to take on the role of teacher in the communication tool workout, such as facilitating discussion, setting up discussions, crafting questions or scenarios that lend to good discussions, etc.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 8:40 PM |
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| Friday, October 17, 2008 |
| Content Exploration |
Figuring that this would be a pretty typical lab session, I decided to set up the video camcorder to record about the first half hour of class as a mid-semester observation in order to further reflect on my teaching. I may post my reflections next week after watching the footage.
I began class by distributing index cards and asking the students to think like teachers and write down what they consider makes a content exploration resource "good" to use in their classrooms. While they were working on writing down their thoughts, I handed back their lecture worksheets. We then discussed then some of the key concepts from the lecture including - What are concept exploration tools?, What are some examples?, and What are the different types?. They then shared the tools they had chosen for the scenario presented in class and why they selected those tools from the ones available.
I transitioned the discussion to characteristics of good content exploration resources. I asked several students to share their ideas. One mentioned how easy it would be use to the tool. Another talked about the benefits of repetition within a drill and practice or educational game. And another spoke of how good resources they have previously used incorporated guidance into the interface.
I then presented six areas of consideration -
- Content (accurate, educationally appropriate, free of errors, meets learning goals and objectives, valid, free of stereotypes and racial bias)
- Ease of use (directions are clear and easy to follow, program is fun, easy to start and exit, can resume where left off, free of bugs)
- Documentation and support (teacher guides, technical support, help features, tutorials)
- Ability levels (can be set, level automatically advances, covers a variety of ability/skill levels)
- Assessment (built-in assessment and reporting features, appropriate assessment, documents student progress)
- Technical quality (animations and graphics are appropriate and meaningful, audio is used well, feedback and prompts are appropriate, allows branching)
While these areas are essentially what would be considered when evaluating software, I think that such considerations are applicable also to web-based content exploration tools. I then led the students to find and bookmark in their Delicious accounts, web-based content exploration resources pertaining to their content areas of interest. I provided my own Delicious account as a resource and also showed them how to search within Delicious to find related sites bookmarks by other users. I circulated the room while they worked and talked with several of the students individually about the particular site they were exploring. For instance, one student and I talked about how a math game Math Lines, which is similar to Bubble Blasters, was fun at first, but it got old quickly. We also noticed that success did not necessarily rely on a student's ability to solve addition problems, as accuracy of the blaster was also required. We also noted the advertisements located at the top of the site, something that teachers may not want in an educationally appropriate resource. I asked the students to use the tag content_exploration as one of their tags when bookmarking the sites to make it easy for me to filter through their bookmarks to see what they found. I saw many new sites as I was circulating that I want to be sure and save into my own Delicious account for future use.
I then provided some specific feedback about what I had seen needed to be clarified in the artifact proposals. I gave the students the opportunity to revise their first proposal using this feedback and then write their second proposal. The rest of the class period was spent doing this. I circulated and answered questions back-to-back for about an hour. In reflection, I would say that the students are not quite grabbing a hold of the GRADE framework as well as how it might generate artifacts for their portfolios. I think particularly that the Availability step is fuzzy to them, as they are not convinced of the usefulness of listed resources that they know they wouldn't use. It is like their thought process automatically skips to the Decide step when they find a resource that they think will work for the case. They then do not focus much on other resources, as they have already chosen one in their solution. I can understand their perspective, but I encouraged them to continuing exploring other resources to demonstrate that they are aware of the variety of tools available.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 12:42 PM |
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| Saturday, October 11, 2008 |
| GRADE-ing Productivity |
I felt it was important to review the test with the students, so we began class doing that. I wanted to make sure that they understood the items that they had missed as I think that the concepts covered in the first unit are foundational to those presented in the rest of the course. We then segued into a discussion of what productivity tools are, how they can be used in education, and possible challenges teachers may experience in using them. I asked them to identify examples of productivity tool use in their content areas of interest and was pleased that many participated in offering their ideas. I tried to use some wait time instead of jumping in and giving some answers, which was somewhat difficult for me, especially in judging how long to wait without going into an uncomfortable stretch of silence. I'll keep working on it in future discussions, because I do want to give all students the chance to participate in discussions, including those who may need a little bit of thinking time before answering.
I did not think that we would have enough time in class to do a newsletter, so I combined the using a productivity tool segment with the segment on applying the GRADE process to Case #2. Only one student had ever used OpenOffice before, so I had the class create documents in OpenOffice Writer to record their responses. We read the case and then visited Indiana's Academic Standards website to find applicable standards. After determining the subject (High School Social Studies) and broad content area (United States Government), I gave the students a few minutes to look over the standards and benchmarks to find one that might apply. In sharing our findings, we saw that there were many that corresponded to this unit and even discussed that standards from other content areas might go with it as well. We then identified the overall learning goals from the case and wrote one objective. The students have struggled with being able to write specific criteria in their objectives, so I dwelled on this part of the objective we were writing to generate several possibilities for assessment criteria. We then noted the requirements listed in the case.
I then had them divide into groups of two or three and complete the A, D, and E steps of GRADE. We then came back together as a whole class and shared documents. It was neat to see what they had come up with and visit some of the sites that could enhance the unit, make teaching the concepts more effective, or improve the students' or teacher's efficiency in some way. I thought it was interesting that though there were six groups, no groups decided on the same resource.
We then went over the writing of an artifact proposal, which I explained would be similar to the activity we had just done except they would be generating an artifact related to their decided tool or resource. The students will be completing their first proposal for homework, and we will review it next week.
I then spent some time that afternoon grading some of the workouts. I found that I thoroughly enjoyed viewing their digital stories about why they had decided to pursue teaching. Some of them were so touching in that they mentioned and provided photographs or past teachers who had inspired them. This is an activity that would definitely like to do again in future semesters.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 10:33 AM |
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| Friday, October 3, 2008 |
| Making the GRADE |
Though I very much wanted to allot time to share digital stories the students created during last week’s class, I felt that there was not enough class time available with giving the first unit test this week. After answering a few last minute questions, I distributed the exam and gave the students forty minutes to complete it. While some students finished in about a half hour, most of the students utilized all of the forty minutes.
I then felt it necessary to clarify how to write the criteria portion of instructional objectives, as I had noticed many students did not quite have the hang of it as evidenced in the objectives they wrote on their lecture worksheets. I provided some examples of criteria and suggested ways that their objectives could be improved. I assured them that their struggle with this concept was not unusual, as I have observed many of the students in previous semesters struggling with this also.
We then focused on the first workout for this week, applying the GRADE process to a lesson plan in their area of interest. As I selected a lesson plan from the DiscoverySchool lesson plan library for demonstration, I noticed another opportunity to discuss writing good objectives. I asked the students to look at the objectives on the sample lesson and identify the components that were missing. They found that the objectives did not include criteria or conditions. I also pointed out that the verbs used in the objectives, like “learn,” made it difficult to be able to determine when the students have met the objectives.
I got the students started in Google Docs, showing them out to create a new document, change the document title, add text, and share it. They then deconstructed their chosen lesson plans using the GRADE process and posted their notes on the documents. I think this workout really helped the students better understand the process. Many of the students were confused about the difference between the resources identified in the Requirement section and those that should be in the Availability section. I told them to put the materials identified in their lesson plans in the resources area. I then encouraged them to brainstorm about other tools and materials that could be used to teach the concepts in their lessons. These additional tools and materials, many of which included Internet-based resources, would then go in the Availability section. That seemed to make sense to the students.
I had posted specific feedback on their professional development plan drafts, and the students used the last few minutes of class to review my comments and work on revising their plans.
I think the exam format worked well, and I think it was helpful to the students to go through each step of the GRADE process with a lesson plan in order to better understand how to use it to make decisions about the appropriateness of selected resources. There is one student who was absent due to illness, and so I will have to work to arrange for her to make up the exam next week, if she is better by then. I am thinking that I might try to have her take it when I am working in the lab next Thursday afternoon.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 9:29 PM |
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| Friday, September 26, 2008 |
| Getting Our Stories Out: Going Digital |
I have to say that I was a little intimidated by this week's lesson. I became a Mac person last year, and as a result, I haven't used a lot of the Windows applications lately. So, when I saw that we were going to create digital stories in Windows Movie Maker, in a half hour no less, I wasn't sure if I could pull it off. However, after going through the process myself, beginning with writing my own narrative about why I chose to become a teacher, I kind of got excited about this lesson. It wasn't that hard after all! The latest version of Windows Movie Maker seemed a lot more intuitive than when I had used it last. With a little guidance from some of the other lab instructors, I had it figured out in no time. I recorded my narration (using headphones - something else I learned this week!), found and imported some pictures, add a few transitions, titles, and effects, and presto - my one and a half minute digital story was complete.
So, during class, I briefly discussed what digital storytelling was and highlighted some educational uses, tools for creating digital stories, and potential topics for digital stories. Then, I showed the students my completed digital story and then recreated it in Windows Movie Maker so that they could see how I had done it. I then had the students read their narratives to a classmate so that they could hear how they sounded when spoken and revise as needed. They then spent the rest of class time constructing their digital stories. I had allotted an hour for this activity, half of which would be spent on creating the stories and the other half in sharing the stories. The creation process, however, took the entire hour. Some students had brought their pictures in Word documents and so had to spend some time copying and pasting them into Adobe Photoshop to create JPG files that would import into Windows Movie Maker. Most of the students were able to wrap up and publish their stories before class ended. A few were still working and planned to finish before next week. I was disappointed that we didn't get to the sharing part, but I plan to share a few at the start of next week's class. I think it would be helpful for next time I teach this lesson to create a handout with most of steps, from finding Windows Movie Maker in the Programs list to submitting the assignment on Oncourse.
The discussion went much better today. I tried out another strategy from Dr. Bonk's creative, critical thinking, and cooperative learning class I attended last spring - free writing. I modified the strategy slightly, as I gave the students the option to type instead of write on paper. I had the students write for two minutes anything they could remember from this week's lecture. They had to write whatever came to mind and if their mind was blank, they had to repeat what they had written until something else came to mind. I then had them share their writings with a partner and had a few students share with the entire class. This led into a pretty good discussion about technology use and current problems in their areas of focus. One student voiced her opinion that she is skeptical about using technology to teach kindergarten. We talked about grappling with this issue throughout the semester and how we will strive to learn the appropriateness of using technology in various settings.
We also created a concept map in Word on technology strategies/tools that correspond to each of the 3 e's. I demonstrated concept mapping using the free web-based tool Gliffy as well, but I chose to have the students use Word because they would have had to create accounts in Gliffy, which would have taken more time.Labels: concept mapping, digital storytelling, teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 12:29 PM |
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| Monday, September 22, 2008 |
| Developing Young Professionals |
I created a blog roll by adding all of the students' blog addresses to my Google Reader account, sharing their posts, and then publishing my shared items to a web page. I posted the link to this web page on the lab Oncourse home page. I began this week's class by having the students visit the blog roll and read and respond to at least two of their classmates' posts. In the mean time, I was able to pass out the blue and red cups and hand back their lecture worksheets. I have learned all of the students' names, which by having a smaller class was easier than in previous semesters.
After students had enough time for their blog comments, I explained to them why it might be helpful to do such an activity with their own students. I also mentioned that comments are motivating to bloggers, as they show that someone is actually reading their blogs. I then walked the students through the steps of creating their own blog roll through Google Reader to manage blogs that they might be reading. We used blog addresses from classmates as examples in this exercise. After class, I read through some of the comments they had posted, and I think they got the hang of commenting.
In the discussion time, I was surprised to find that most of the students were fuzzy on what the terms professional development and standards meant. I realize that these students are so new to the profession of teaching that they are still learning the jargon that goes with it. We talked about what these terms meant and then went through some of their answers from the lecture worksheets. We also discussed a few key terms from the readings. I then tried out a new technique - think, pair, share - to promote better discussion this week. I posed three questions - one for each row of students. After the students thought about their answers, they talked about their answers with the person sitting next to them. Then, each pair discussed their answer with the whole class. This activity did help in eliciting more discussion, and I think I will try it out again later on in the semester. I plan to try out different such discussion techniques that I learned in a critical thinking/creative thinking/cooperative learning class I took last Spring taught by Dr. Bonk, as this is an area of my teaching that I want to really improve in.
We proceeded to the professional development plan workout. The students had a half hour to work on their drafts. I provided them a variety of web resources to spur their thinking about areas or technologies they might want to learn about and ways that they could learn them. The students worked busily on this, and I am looking forward to reading what they wrote. As students finished, I had them take a look at some of the sample portfolios from MCOATT and Andrew Barrett's W200 example.
We finished out this week's lab session by working on the digital portfolios. We reviewed the information about the portfolios provided in the syllabus, and the students created the basic pages. They uploaded their professional development plans to their artifact pages. I wasn't sure exactly how they should link to their artifacts from this page, but I figured we could move the link later if we need to. I provided the students with the link to Chip Easterling's portfolio FAQ page, and I saw several refer to it in search of answers to their questions. They seemed to appreciate this resource, so thanks, Chip, for the time you invested in putting it together!
I plan to continue working on my discussion time, trying out new techniques to promote conversation and working to come up with questions that require some critical thinking in order to answer. I also am working on learning the features of Google Sites, so that I can be as helpful as I can to the students when we work on the portfolios in class (as well as assist them when they might come to the TTL).Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 10:02 PM |
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| Friday, September 12, 2008 |
| A Flat Discussion and Overview of Tools |
I started class by distributing half sheets of paper and asking the students to write down two things that they learned last week - from lecture, lab, or the reading. I also said that they could think about and write down any questions that they had about this course as well. While they were writing, I distributed the cups and lecture worksheets and worked on learning all of their names. After a few minutes, I had them turn to their neighbor and share what they had written. Then, a few shared with the whole class. Only one question was raised relating to how to do the collage when someone from their group was not following through with contacting the others through Facebook like was promised. I suggested finding this person in the IU e-mail global address book or through Oncourse and sending her an e-mail. Without any other contact info, there wasn't much else I could think of that she could do.
I then took the discussion to what it meant to teach in a now flat world. On a PowerPoint slide, I displayed some phrases that I had copied from their lecture worksheet responses. I then tried to take the discussion a bit deeper. While there was much discussion when the students had paired up in the beginning of class, little was said in the whole group discussion arrangement. Only a few actually volunteered answers; I mostly had to call on students to voice their thoughts. Overall, the discussion did not last very long, so I decided to move on to reviewing some key terms and ideas from the reading. I encouraged the students to do their reading, though it might not explicitly correlate to what they hear and see in lecture. We talked about what cognitive load, educational technology, technology, and instructional design meant and how they might apply in various settings.
I was unsure about what direction to take this week's lab workout and so I queried other AI's to find out what they had planned or had done. One had the students review webquests and three others did an overview of some of the tools we would be using this semester. I decided to go with the overview of tools. We had only created the accounts last week, and I thought it would be good to talk about what they were and how they could be used instructionally and then have some hands-on time to learn how to use them. I provided an overview of Blogger, Delicious, and Google Sites, and the students just watched. Then, they had about an hour to post to their blog, bookmarks sites, and create a new Google site. This was just the right amount of time, and the students really participated well in this workout. I had them type their URLs to these three sites in an Oncourse assignment so that I could review their work. We reserved a few minutes at the end of class to debrief. Many said that they enjoyed having time to work on the tools, as some had experienced frustrations and were able to get problems resolved in class.
Overall, I think the discussion segment could use improvement, while the workout was just right. I plan to investigate and then incorporate some strategies to better facilitate the discussions.
I am appreciative of Chip, Clare, and Pratima for discussing with me their plans for this lab and Andrew for sharing his blog and adding me to his Oncourse site.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 5:45 PM |
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| Sunday, September 7, 2008 |
| Back to School |
I am excited about teaching the introductory educational technology course (W200) for pre-service teachers at IU this year. I am looking forward to seeing similarities and differences between my experience teaching it at IU and the past few years at KWC. So far, I have found that the students are of the same collegiate level - mostly freshmen and sophomores. With 14 students enrolled, my class is smaller than previous semesters, though it could be because I'm teaching this section on a Friday morning. I plan to take advantage of this small class size to really explore the content and skills deeply with the students this semester. Since I'll be teaching two sections in the spring, I want to make sure that I work out most of the kinks this semester.
Besides going over the syllabus and creating new Google, delicious.com, and Blogger accounts, we spent some time this week getting to know one another. We used the ice breaker activity "When I went into my 28816 lab section...." This went really well, as the students seemed to enjoy it and actually started to learn each other's names. I brought packs of mini M&Ms and Reese's sticks to encourage participation and bring about smiles all around. In our class we have a twin, someone who spent the summer in Honduras, two student athletes (track/cross country and football), a member of the Marching Hundred, and someone who worked at a daycare all summer (who I may ask to babysit at some point!)
I decided not to do the wikispaces class profile this week in order to give the students ample time to complete the survey and not feel rushed doing it. I think many of them had difficulty with the questions about educational technology knowledge, but I had briefed them before they began the survey that some of the questions would be very hard and that they were not expected to know the answers at this time. Many finished in about 15 minutes, but some took a bit longer to complete it.Labels: teaching, W200 |
| posted by SG @ 10:58 PM |
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