Digital Citizenship Project

The next project for this class is to cover a segment of digital citizenship.  I have selected etiquette for the web, including emails and discussion boards.  I hope to work with Tywanda on this project.

My students are 7th graders and are beginning to experiment with all areas of technology.  I believe that a lesson on how to properly respond to emails and discussion board posts is important.  Having knowledge early in their learning phase should help them form good habits for the future.

This presentation, while useful for the students, will be directed to parents.  Parents can assist their child in learning good habits for online interaction.

I am discussing problem-based learning in this edition of my blog.  I will again be referring to the Egbert text Support Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice, 2009, published by Pearson Education.

Problem-based learning presents the student-explorers with real-world problems to investigate which will combine critical thinking and problem-solving skills with inquiry.  The use of problem-based learning provides much opportunity for students to think critically about a topic and discover or invent potential solutions. This delivery model is excellent for the teacher who wishes students to be the driving force and the center of learning.

PBL situations need to be well designed to avoid too many problems at the same time.  The teacher must also insure that scaffolding is present for those students who may lack the prior knowledge necessary to be successful.  Without this scaffolding, students may become frustrated and less successful.

Egbert lists numerous characteristics for incorporating technology into the PBL task.  Among them are: giving students control of their learning, fun and interesting topics for investigation, and the emphasis placed on process and content.  She also discusses the problem-solving process and the development of PBL tasks.

Potential benefits to the students who are involved in PBL are great.  For me, one of the biggest benefits to PBL is that students learn to become responsible for their learning and to exercise a level of autonomy in their work.  Depth of knowledge and understanding is also enhanced in PBL.

I hope that you will undertake a task using the PBL methods described in Egbert's book.

This week I will discuss critical thinking and problem-solving.  Both are important aspects of a student's education and can be easily overlooked or put aside by teachers.

The ability to think critically is essential for everyday mankind; the path to critical thinking has many components.  I many use different components than you and both of us can be critically thinking about the same issue.  As a classroom teacher, teaching critical thinking to 7th grade students appears to be a lesson in herding cats.  Sometimes I hit a home run, sometimes a grounder and reach on an error, but I am always thinking about how I can phrase my questions to require answers that are more than rote memory or regurgitation of facts.

Egbert, in Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice (2009), implores teachers to model critical thinking for students.  She gives five ways that teachers can model for students: overtly and explicitly explain what they do and why they do it, encourage student to think for themselves, be willing to admit and correct their own mistakes, be sensitive to students' feelings, abilities, and goals and to what motivates them, and allow students to participate in democratic processes in the classroom.

When I do a demonstration during math class, I think aloud.  My students hear the type of questions I ask myself as I am working through the problem.  They see me encounter a roadblock, backtrack my steps, and then forge ahead.  They see mistakes and are encouraged to correct my mistakes, many purposefully made.  When I think of it, I give the student who reports the mistake a Pez (a tiny candy).  Remember, it is scary for students to report an error made by the teacher.  They must feel safe and confident of the reaction of their teacher.  This is a learned activity.

The internet research is a perfect arena for teaching critical thinking.  Analyzing the research, thinking about who wrote the article or website and their motivation in the writing of the same increases a student's own critical thinking ability and media literacy.

Learning to think critically will not happen overnight!  Much practice is required of the fledgling critical thinker.  I say to my fellow teacher -- don't give up on your students!  Encourage, prompt, and help them develop this skill.

This blog has become lengthy and so I will leave a discussion of problem solving for another time.  Perhaps I will get back here during the week, but grades are due this week and that is always a busy time for me.

Things to consider in Planning an Online Class

The development of my hybrid or blended Social Studies class for 7th grade students is still a work in progress.  I am certainly glad that I am planning this course for use next year.  I will have the time to prefect the videos which I am making and locate additional supplemental materials.  I also will be able to create graphic organizers to offer support to my students as they watching content-high videos.

Content-high tasks are common in face-to-face instruction and require little of the student.  In Supporting Learning with Technology: Essential Classroom Practice, Egbert states that content-high tasks offer little support and are often left incomplete.  Process-high tasks are another story.  With process-high tasks require more of the student but still lacks the interpersonal qualities of a f2f meeting with the nonverbal feedback and cues.  Egbert stress that eLearning tasks must be designed to incorporate opportunities for interaction.

I also found that the benefits from eLearning which Egbert delineates confirm mine, the novice.
I have always believed that when students have some control over their work they are more motivated to complete the task.  Egbert takes the idea of control and adds the element of flexibility to it.  So, not only do students have control of the task, but also of the pace and time they choose to complete the tasks.

Additional responsibility or the demonstration of responsibility is also greater in an online environment.   Often during regular ff2f classroom instruction students are comfortable with allowing the teacher to assume responsibility for seeing that assignments are turned in a timely manner, often encouraging and cajoling students to do what is required; eLearning requires the student to be an active learner, not a passive receptacle. 

Other areas Egbert discussed were exposure, interaction, anonymity/equity, and convenience.  All had brief descriptions and were worthy of my consideration as I work through the preparation of my class.

This particular chapter is worth more than a once read and done!  I will return to study, in more depth, Egbert's discussion of the portfolio as an assessment tool.  

I posted my course project plan today.  I have incorporated opportunities for using technology in the classroom as well as assignments to be done independently at home.  I believe that the use of technology and the ability to make decisions for their culminating activity will provide motivation.  However, in working with pre-teens motivation is a tenuous thing.  As I work through the process of assembling the course for presentation to the students, I will search for different websites to use that are engaging.

Students engagement is the latest buzzword around my school.  In a recent professional development session, the presenter discussed four levels of student engagement.  They were from lowest level to the highest: rebellious, submissive compliant, driven compliant, and fully engaged.  The rebellious student does not engage and is disruptive in the classroom.  The submissive compliant does what is expected but desires to be left alone.  This person has, in the past, been called a wallflower or "cipher in the snow".  The driven compliant student strives to do what is required to achieve a level of success in grades or to meet parent/teacher expectations.  The fully engaged student is "in the zone".  For these students the clock does not matter.  The statistics given for the ratios place the majority of the students in the compliant zones.  The presenter stated that full engagement was a rarity.

I located a site, http://www.cobbk12.org/sites/ALT/training/forms/cwt/Engagement.ppt which lists five levels of student engagement.  The additional level is just above rebellious and places students who are not disruptive, but offer no effort to participate in this category.

While I will not disagree with the statistics mentioned above, I will say that the computer based site, GetKahoot! is something that my students are wild about.  This site is new and the developers appear to be very interested in student engagement.  If you search me on Twitter(@PrimeFactors_LJ) you can see some evidence of GetKahoot in use.  My students ask me every day if we are going to Kahoot.  On the days and at the time that we are using this site, there is 100% engagement in the activity.  Teachers and students can both make quizzes and polls.  These are then presented in the classroom via projection.  Students use handheld devices to respond.  For quizzes, time and accuracy allow the students to amass points.  My 7th graders are very competitive!  I am sure that an administrator walking down the hall when we are Kahooting wonder if I have lost total control.  I do nothing but make an occasional comment as the game progresses.  If you have not tried this site, check it out.  I have proof it is engaging, at least in the middle school.

It has been too long between posts, but sometimes life gets in the way!

I had a frank discussion with my principal this week about flipping my classroom for the upcoming school year and preparing for Social Studies.  She was excited about the idea that someone would undertake flipping; she has shared may articles and evidence concerning flipping in the past.  Her comments about my choice of Social Studies were at the least disconcerting for me.  She cautioned me that she was unsure as what grade level I would be teaching next year and expressed concern about me putting so much time into the development of the class which I might not be able to use.  I do really understand and appreciate her concern.  But, I must forage ahead with this plan as I feel that I am too far along to go back now.

I have moved the site to CourseSites.  This free teaching site is, for me, more user friendly.  Now the real work begins!  Got to get that class moving. 

Snow Jam 2014? ClusterFlake?

Whatever it is called by the media, the past week has been challenging for those of us who are educators. High stakes testing will come to my county the third week of April.  Could we request snow for that week?  The test is coming sure as the night is followed by the day.

Missing students the last week of January for 3 days delayed plans.  My Professional Learning Community in 7th Grade Math worked to condense and streamline the curriculum, but now we have missed 3 more student days.  The missed days may have to be made up at the end of the school year, but the teaching days prior to the testing week are gone!

I suggest that students be given the opportunity to become responsible for their own education via the use of technology.  Students need to be educated using 21st century skills, so let's incorporate those same tools into the school and classroom.  I am totally in favor of increasing student engagement through the use of technology and educating students in an online environment.

This week in my Technology and Student Engagement course at UGA, we were asked to examine project-based learning and the assessment and evaluation tools.  We had two videos to watch and two articles to review.  The video which I most enjoyed concerned a high school geometry class and the culminating project for that class.

The project was designed for a high school geometry course.  The task was to design a 2050 high school on the site provided.  A complete site plan was provided to the students.  Students had to produce floor plans, a site plan, a building cost analysis, and a mock up of one room of their school.  The teacher located two local architects to assist her in guiding the students and evaluating the final products.  The students also presented their finished work.  Finally, the class took a walking field trip of their city, inspecting the architecture of many buildings and finishing their day at the office of the architects for the presentation of excellence in various areas.

The video demonstrated how much collaboration was involved between students, the architects, and the teacher.  This was not the first year of this project for the teacher.  Over the course of nine years she developed an extensive rubric which served as the guiding tool for the students.  This project was outstanding.

My favorite reading this week was by Diane McGrath, entitled Artifacts and Understanding, published in Learning & Leading with Technology, V 30 No. 5, and is an ISTE production.  Dr. McGrath listed several things that could be considered artifacts.  These included physical models, multimedia projects, Web sties, and robots.  The important thing about artifacts is that the students constructed the product while "constructing their own knowledge about important subject matter."  She stressed that these projects required extended time, often many weeks to a year, so that enough time was available to develop understanding and produce an excellent project.

When you get the time, please check out the video and the article.  It is time well spent as you employ project-based learning in your own classroom.

I am currently reading the book entitled Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice by Joy Egbert. This book is very readable and full of helpful suggestions for classroom teachers who are incorporating technology into their classrooms.

This week I will discuss the topics from Chapters 1 & 2 which I have found beneficial.

In Chapter 1 there is a section called Guidlines for Using Educational Technology.  Ms. Egbert gives three simple guidelines: 1) Understand the realities of technology, 2) Examine equity and access for your students, and 3) Consider student differences.

1. Understand the realities of technology--Learning to use technology will not be a smooth and seamless process.  Expect a time for learning.  This requires time and patience.  She reminds us that students love the "bells and whistles" which technology affords, but that as teachers we can keep this under control by ensuring that our content is rich and rigorous.
2. Examine equity and access for your students--Ms. Egbert reminds us of some potential spots where inequity can occur (girls and students with disabilities).  Also having a limited amount of computers in the room for student use.  I saw this problem this week and circumvented it by a simple rule.  If you were male, you must select a female to follow you on the computer.  If you were female, a male had to be selected.  I made sure that my students with disabilities were involved in this process.  Also, my school permits students to use their own technology.  This freed computer time and students volunteered, without encouragement or even my suggestion, shared their technology with a neighbor.  Students wanted to help their peers with the assignments I gave.  I count this a huge success!
3. Consider student differences--Making consideration for particular learning preferences was central to this topic.  I opened a discussion for my students with the prompt "What about technology?" and while the due date has not yet passed, the resounding cry from students is for me to continue.  They cite "not having to carry large books and binders" and "easy and fun" as just a few reasons for me to continue.

Chapter 2 covers learning content while using technology.  Early in the chapter Ms. Egbert addressed the challenges of teachers incorporating technology into content lessons.  She reminded me that many of the challenges present in the traditional classroom are also present in a technology filled class.  As in chapter one she acknowledged the time and effort it takes to learn new technologies and reminded me to use the school media specialist as a resource.

More for the book in future posts.

This has been a busy week in my classroom.  After attending the UGA Digital Technology conference last weekend and hearing Cat Flippen discuss "Failing Up", I took her words to heart.  I have put technology into my classroom at full tilt!

My county subscribes to My Big Campus and encourages us (the teachers) to use it to its fullest capacity.  I will be the first to admit that while I have employed this site more this year, I am still learning and have not risked using it for online assignments.  That has all changed and I am proud of what I did.

I began by having students respond to simply posts which I then had to figure out how to score.  Scoring was so simple that I am ashamed that I did not try it soon.  I then used a multiple choice summation strategy which we call ticket out the door.  The are several advantages to using multiple choice responses: students get immediate feedback and I have only to add the grades into the grade book program.

I also asked all classes to respond to a discussion post which asked them to talk about why they wanted technology in the classroom.  If I had reservations about sticking my neck out and appearing to be in the "learning along with you" mode, the responses of the students removed all fear.  They want to use their technology and enjoy the freedom afforded by using their own devices.  My students have discovered many things about how to navigate the site on their phones.  This was somewhat challenging, but the students found the answer quickly!  I am so proud of them.

Some teachers to whom I have spoken are worried about students misuse of their devices.  As we all know, students will do what we allow.  I had only one known incident and handled that according to my school's policies.  I also contact that student's parent - and happily received complete support.

If you are in doubt about incorporating technology into your classroom, please consider the students.  They want to use technology and my students are more than willing to be patient while I make mistakes trying to incorporate technology into their lessons.  I can't let up.  During dismissal on Friday I overheard a discussion going on in the line.  The students were praising the new techno-friendly environment in my classroom and expressed the hope that I would have more of the same on the following week.  They threw down a gauntlet to me and I will not let them down!

Written February 2, 2014 but somehow this did not get posted properly.

Friday and Saturday of this week just ending proved to be very informative and inspiring!  I  experienced Tena Crews or U of SC. She was a dynamic keynote speaker on Friday evening. She opened the 1st Digital Conference at the University of Georgia.

Dr, Lloyd Rieber spoke on his first MOOC  -  Statistics in Education for Mere Mortals. His presentation left me wanting to take his course;  I have taken several stat courses in my time but I think there is much I can learn from his class.

On Saturday I met and devoured the lively and knowledgeable Cat Flippen. She was entertaining and left me wanting to put more and better uses of technology into my classroom. She wore her Google glass and talked about daring to try, taking moon shots and so much more. She is a Twitter user in the biggest sense of the word and had the entire audience Tweeting and learning to employ Twitter as a learning tool. She was tireless in her 4 presentations and early morning keynote.  Don't be afraid to fail up!

Dr. Gary Shattuck discussed and challenged his session to bring our classrooms into the 21st Century and all that school leaders can do to assist the teachers in their buildings.

Rick Willard discussed and exposed his session to flip the classroom. There are many apps which were introduced to assist us and make learning the responsibility of the students. His presentation showed the apps with the intent of helping us to engage our students.

When the conference was over a large group of us and our guest, Cat Flippen, enjoyed a meal together and shared some more fun and learning. I wish all of you could have been there. I encourage you to improve you usage of technology and engage you students is learning in the modern world.

This was an interesting and disappointing venture for me.  I located the LoTi Survey at lotilounge.com, signed up, and took the survey.  After answering the 38 questions I have been determined to give High Priority to Student Learning and Creativity, Medium Priority to Professional Growth and Leadership, and Low Priority to Digital Age Work and Learning and Learning Experiences and Assessment.  The overall LoTi Level was 2!  I was shocked.  I thought I would be at least a 3, but now for the soul searching.

I must admit that in past years I have done more with technology than I am doing this year.  Many of my current student say that they do not have a device which they can bring to school to use as internet access.  I am beginning to see more smartphones since the holiday season so I must investigate this again.  In previous years my students have all or nearly all had their own devices.  So there's that obstacle to over come and I have not been diligent in moving students to the computers (2 only in my classroom.  I frequently hand over my laptop and iPad, but that only makes 4 devices.  Sitting here I am considering why I am not using these for small group activities.  This would make sense!  I can do better on this.

I also need to get into advanced planning mode and sign up for the computer lab, the laptop cart, or the iPad cart more often.  These students need to be comfortable, but they do seem complacent, and I have let them be so.  I must redirect my thinking on this too!

HUMMMMM....seems that the problem could be ME not the students.

I think that my flipped classroom in social studies will boost my score for the short term, but the changes in me must be lasting changes.

Projects to do with my students

I am been working on the two online certificates for 3 semesters and love the things I have been studying.  Integrating technology in a more meaningful way is so exciting for my students.  During the past couple of years I have heard some random chatter about flipping a classroom.  I thought someone might come into my room and turn the desks upside down and scatter all my belongings!  But, low and behold, I have discovered that flipping the classroom is a wonderful way to increase student engagement and cause the students to accept additional responsibility for their learning.

The major project for this course is to use technology in a new way and to create an online environment - a class - which can be taught!  With my awakening to the idea of students accepting more responsibility for their learning (I firmly believe in this!) I have decided to use my current 7th grade social studies class, select a portion of the curriculum, and develop the materials required to flip the classroom.  I also plan to use this material with my students. 

Stay tuned as I work toward this goal!

Lj

Friday, January 17, 2014

What a week this has been!  Teaching school in the public domain, in middle school, becomes ever more challenging.  My students are wonderful, but it has been a challenging week.

I am taking two classes in EDIT this semester: 7500 and 7520.  I am so please that Dr. Orey is the professor of record for both!  He is so very organized and his delivery is just to my liking.

Today, I returned from school early as I was under-the-weather!  I have been able to wrap up and get some work done on the computer!  I am told that I am a "Type A" personality.  I know I like for things to get done in advance as I never know what will turn up right as an important submission date comes up.  All the instructors which I have encountered during my Ph.D. studies have been grand about life experiences getting in the way of study, but I hate to be late, no matter what the reason.

I worked on my syllabus which is the first segment of a project in 7520.  I have that well in hand and ready to review with my peer team on Monday afternoon.  If you don't have a great group of peers to help review you work, seek one or two.  It makes life so much more enjoyable, helping them and them returning the assistance.

I got a burst of energy and decided to tackle the Cool Tools project for 7500.  I as I looked at the first selection I made, I decided that it really wasn't as cool as I first thought, so I pick another!  I hope that this will be okay.

My first Cool Tool is in CoolTools.net.  I created an arcade came.  It was really easy.  First I determined the topic for my game questions.  I selected geometry as that is what my students are currently studying.  After reading the directions, I decided that instead of typing in my questions and answers at the site, I would create a Word document, then cut and paste the text.  That went fine with one minor drawback.  In Word, I used superscript to make the degree symbol.  When this symbol was pasted into the games area, the "o" fell into place as a letter instead of a degree symbol.  I will study how to fix this when I feel better!  I went ahead and practiced making the game and then just had to play the five!  That was a shock!  I got five games for the effort on 1!  Sweet!

I pulled up my free copy of Screencast-o-matic, and after about 6 trials, got an acceptable version for the project.

Then I moved on to my second selection, CaptionTube.  As online educators we must be sensitive to the fact that some of our students may be hearing impaired and YouTube videos, and perhaps even PowerPoints if they are narrated, are of little use if you can't hear them.  So I worked and worked with CaptionTube.  I finally learned it well enough to demonstrate it.  The Screencast has been uploaded to YouTube and also posted in the dropbox.  Don't worry, I will not be so early on every assignment.  One task down, but really, I may search for some other things.  This part was really fun.

Have a great weekend and see everyone in class on Thursday.