On Line Learning in K-12 Schools

Well, I chose to do a podcast of sorts tonight and spent a heck of a lot of time learning about quicktime and iMovie. Never, never delete the clips out of the bin at the bottom of the iMovie! (This adds at least two hours to the creation of the movie!)

The podcast can be seen here:

Reflective Essay

Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning is a state of mind. I found this statement to be empirically correct through innovative teaching the last time that I set foot in a classroom. Last Friday, I taught my class in a way that my fellow teachers deemed “Cloning.”

As I considered what to teach last Friday, I longed for an easier class period, but the pressure remained for what I need to cover in the timeframe as established by my administration. I had recently employed a program, which I shared through my Differentiation Station network, called Podcast Capture. This program enables teachers to very quickly capture and record podcasts and to link them to websites, blogs and iTunes. I had previously used this resource to post reviews of difficult problems for my students to study prior to unit testing. Podcast Capture is found on all Apple computers within the Utilities folder.

I have been very fortunate to acquire a document camera and to place it on my podium. The camera allows a live feed of whatever I am writing on my podium and allows me to face my students as I instruct my class in a way similar to an overhead projector. It is ironic how we take steps forward and then back to regroup and recall what is truly effective instruction. This camera was literally collecting dust on a shelf. Now, after seeing what might be accomplished, all of my fellow teachers want one. Somewhere, in the back of my mind was born an idea. I endeavored to record a series of three instructive podcasts with which to introduce the process/procedure for solving multiplication equations. This skill is an essential skill at the core of pre-algebra. I posted the podcasts to my class wiki, and shortly after the class completed a quiz over a prior lesson, I broke the class into pre-selected collaborative groups, requiring each group to get one laptop out of the cart. I then instructed the class to go to the wiki and to play at least one podcast regarding the solving of multiplication equations. As the students watched, I distributed a standard worksheet, and monitored their levels of involvement. It was obvious that I had nearly one hundred percent participation. Most students were immediately successful with regard to the required practice problems, but others required more intensive remediation. I simply circulated around the classroom and assisted some students one-on-one, as needed, re-watching podcasts in freeze frame mode while providing extra coaching and encouragement. The success level and motivation was phenomenal.

At the end of the day, I took a little time to stop by my principal’s office to let him know what I had been doing. He was extremely interested and went immediately to the class website to view the podcasts himself. He indicated that he would share these ideas at his next district principal’s meeting.
As I near the end of my Master’s program, my enthusiasm is beginning to wane. I long to spend Wednesday and Sunday evenings stress free in the company of my wife and six year old son. Regardless, weather by osmosis or immersion, I continue to evolve and develop as a teacher, and due to my devotion to my profession, I am extremely grateful to this Walden course of study and the excellent collaboration with fellow teachers.

There are two different types of categories that support diverse learners, assistive/adaptive and supportive (Bray, Brown, & Green, 2004). I found the podcasting instruction to be both. Students with difficulties could pause as needed to absorb or receive instruction that they otherwise would be unable to grasp. Podcasts could also be accessed at home for reinforcement of newly gained knowledge. Utmost, the technology allowed me to be in more than one place at a time so that I could reach many students directly. I was able to actually observe and adapt my own teaching as the students were absorbing it through a multiple-pathways approach. Although I’ve had many inspired teaching moments, I cannot recall one by which I could have been more proactively diagnosing and differentiating. Tomlinson states that “Every child is worth the best and only by giving them your best can you affirm your belief in them” (Laureate, 2009). My students received the best teaching in a magnificently direct manner that absolutely conveyed my belief that they had the ability to acquire mastery of the clearly stated objective. Students surpassed my highest expectations.

Finally, as I reflect back to the spark that ignited this instructional strategy that flowed through me I recall a statement made by Dr. Stephanie Throne regarding Differentiated Instruction and technology integration. She claimed that this method of teaching was a “Mindset” (Laureate, 2009). This state of mind with which I enter my classroom has direct and significant implications upon my students’ success.

Week 8 Reflection

As I have read back through my GAME plan, I realize that my initial goal was to encourage digital citizenship. I had stated that I wished to create a poster and student sheets for use when searching the internet in order to encourage student accountability and fair use practices. I still need to continue to focus and implement these changes. My Geometry in Art students are currently engaged in a project to create or report on something that is geometrically artistic, and I realize that this course has influenced the means by which I have encouraged my students to partake in this activity. I have encouraged students to use the laptops while working on this activity, but in monitoring of the activity, I realize that I still need to encourage students to acknowledge the work of others as the use images.

My use of Delicious has become quite extensive and I have begun to substantially and carefully Tag pages as I mark them so that I can go back and re-investigate at more opportune times. I intend to share these bookmarks with my students for future implementations. Among my bookmarks that I have added, ePals, Moodle, Wiggio and Ning are the most interesting to me.

Utmost, I am reminded that the NETS Standards are not simply a stand-alone document. In order for the standards to be truly met, teaching and learning must be interwoven into a mesh of technologically driven advancement along the lines of student interest and educational evolution.

Week 7

My first thoughts in regard to the blog post this week are that Walden has run out of good questions with which to challenge students.  (It’s my blog)  “Consider how the NETS-S and the NETS-Tare inter-related.”  Really????? Do we need to do this in a double column note format or could we simply state that in order for students to advance along the prescribed direction of technology as addressed by the NETS-S, that teachers must be accomplished guides and ambassadors that accompany students along the technological journey.

Just as I have taught, so are my students to learn. As I teach, I model the joy of learning. In my discussion this week, I spoke of how I first had an idea to create a voice thread by using screen shots to create voice threads as problems were worked on the Promethian board. In turn, students implemented the same techniques to create their own voice thread “Digital Story” presentations.

Therefore, I believe that teacher and student NETS are best seen together as parallel maps through the technological frontier.  Teachers must move forward with technology and constantly model the tools by which students might best learn.

Finally....

I feel that my game plan has finally gained direction this week. As I watched the video presentation, I was rapidly bookmarking sites. I have a lot to look into still, but at least I have a place to look. ePals, Moodle, Wiggio and Ning all interest me greatly, but Ning appears to be what I have been looking for. Of course, I need to secure some funds, but since the price is so low, It shouldn't be a problem. I really look forward to having some real educational networking established inside and outside of my classroom, and I now feel that Ive got some places to begin.

Game Plan Progress

I feel pretty good in that this week I have taken some time to speak with my director of technology with regard to setting up a walled classroom environment for the students in my classroom to establish personal and acceptable mathematical blogs and RSS feeders so that they can monitor each others blogs. We're trying to set up a place on the district server that is secure and accessible from home. I know that there are public sites that are devoted to such practices, but I am trying to keep the interactions that my students initially partake within the walls of the district. In this way, we may begin to create a dialogue with regard to writing prompts and problem solving techniques.

Further, I am working to establish funding so that my class might have a voice thread account. I found this tool to be exceptionally helpful last year and would like to establish a dedicated space for saving of my student's voice threads.

I'm still looking for sites that really narrow down project based learning with regard to seventh grade standards. I really believe that there must exist ideas that I can use to springboard my creativity. I continue to add to my delicious bookmarks and accumulate items, but I am constantly looking for other shared spaces where I might seek 7th grade mathematics style projects. Please feel free to share!

Assessments within the Game Plan

It’s difficult to pretend that we are implementing a game plan in the middle of the summer, but as far as anticipatory preparation, there are some things that I have begun to consider this week. Most of my focus is currently centered around assessment, and as I work with the other 7th grade math teachers in my district, I have been challenged to create the multiple choice portion of our unit assessments. I am using a program called Exam View Pro, that enables us to have the tests stored on an in-house server for student accessibility through their laptops. After the assessment, teachers receive an automated e mail with regard to student performance.

I also frequently use the active votes that accompany my Promethian board. These student devices allow me to create instantaneous “Forced Response” questions to formatively assess my students’ progress during every class day.

The greatest area where I struggle for valid assessments is in the area of project assessments. As a beginning teacher over 20 years ago, it was very simple to create numerous projects in order to occupy and instruct my students. This led to a very high level of motivation and learning as would be expected in a project based classroom. As I have matured as a teacher, I have become considerably more focused with regard to my teaching objectives. I have come to realize that subsequent teachers in the progression of mathematics depend upon my reaching the finish line with regard to the objectives that support the standards to which I am charged. I am really looking forward to a set of national standards so that groups of teachers or textbook companies will assist in the creation of project based learning activities that specifically target GLE’s while tapping into students’ natural motivation and curiosity. I am interested to learn if there are some of these programs already in existence that would meet the needs of seventh grade mathematics students. I’m not one to follow someone else’s plan step by step, but I sure appreciate a guide in the proper direction! Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

Resources for Implementing the Game Plan

I feel that there are two essential needs for my game plan's success. The first is an accessible accountability checklist for my students and their web work and the second is a means by which to organize the different resources that I find to implement in my classroom.

In order to create the checklist, a paper checklist is the first step in order to flowchart the ideas that I have for student accountability. However, in order to best meet the student's needs and to implement technology, I feel that it would be essential that this checklist be incorporated into an on-line format. I'm not sure what format that I would choose at this time, but I would like something that the students could easily fill out and then submit. It should be something of a simple nature with buttons to check and fields to fill out. I am very open to suggestions as to resources that I might employ to create such a re-usable document.

Secondly, in order to organize the resources that I intend to borrow from in order to enhance my classroom instruction, I have already begun to add tags to my delicious library. Using these bookmarking "files" I am able to compile resources as I find them. Later, I am easily able to re-access these files as I need them.

Game Plan

Nerdliness comes very easily to me. I’m constantly listening to tech podcasts, purchasing the latest gadgets and really blazing the way along the lines of technology. I consider myself to be a front-line user, a recovering hacker and a strong example of what can be done with technology. I push software applications to the limit while frequently finding new and different ways to exploit their benefits towards educational presentation. One step into my classroom will find a kid at my Promethian board, while others vote with their active votes. My laptop will be open on my podium controlling my presentation computer through screen sharing. My iPad may or may not be in use to control the screen, but my iPhone will surely be in control. Intermittent music will be playing through my computer which is linked to the stereo. Each student will probably have a laptop open and be following along while I stand behind them in order to monitor and direct. Fortunately, the Social Studies teacher on my team, the Evil Mr. Seibert, runs his class very much the same way and my students are constantly immersed in high expectation, technological development of curricular ideas.

I have no issues in keeping up with technology as it is my hobby. I share this passion with my imaginary enemy and partner in crime Mr. Seibert. He and I, as well as the building IT pretty much lead the district charge towards development.

It is appropriate to have goals with regard to our onslaught towards digital evolution. Our goals for the current time frame center around NETS standards #2 and #4. Mr. Seibert and I have to constantly remind ourselves of ethics involved in the fair use of materials. The speed at which we move and the ease with which we borrow must be kept in check such as to assure proper credit to creative entities. It is essential that our students whiteness and understand this approach as we hope that they will become even faster and more digitally agile than we are.

Further, as we push the edge of the walled garden, it is a clear responsibility and goal to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. My friend and I constantly share ideas that we implement in our very different curricular environments and we often borrow technological approaches from each other. We are the creators. I think that we would benefit much from borrowing ideas from others. It is, therefore, a fair goal to attempt to reach out to seek truly inspirational learning and assessment activities from other sources.

In order to attain these two goals, I intend to implement a few simple steps. With regard to digital citizenship, a simple checklist poster on the wall of my room should keep me on track. As I move through digital sources at the speed of light I will take time to make sure that my students see me slow down to check validity and authorship while providing credit where credit is due. I cannot expect my students to perform with digital integrity if I do not hold myself to the same standard. A simple measure of my development along these lines will be an observation of my students’ similar accountability.

As far as the use of other sources for technological implementation, it is a simple goal to seek out one outside source per grading period with which to challenge both my openness and my students’ boundaries. Other teachers have a great deal to offer both collaboratively and publicly on sites such as Promethian Planet and other sharing sites.

Monitoring will be simple in that I will be able to asses what works as far as my teaching style and my students’ performance. I will continue to make use of our class wiki for student reflection and collaboration.

Ultimately, I will attempt to step outside of my comfort zone of feeling like I’m the only one who can create anything while trusting and relying on the creativity of others to assist my teaching style.

Reflection

This course has led me to some very profound changes that I have implemented within my personal theory of learning. I do not believe that my foundational stance has shifted, as I remain quite structured and assertively behaviorist in nature. However, with the implementation of student voice threads(http://tgosepanski.wikispaces.com/VT+Add) and construction of artifacts such as mind maps created through the program Inspiration and Webspiration, I have recognized significant student gains in knowledge. Student mastery of basic concepts has risen steadily as less time is spent on traditional instruction and more time has been allocated to constructivist ideas and practices.

One of the most basic manifestations came this last week with my 7th Grade Pre-Algebra class. We were studying a concept regarding using multipliers to convert between different units of measurement. After guiding the kids in how to think, I led a discussion about who was actually going to use these procedures? This led to an assertion that, "There's an App for that!" I pointed out to the kids the converter that exists on my class website and further, I pointed out 2 converters that I have on my iPhone that they could download to their own iTouch's. We discussed the need to have a rudimentary understanding of unit sizes in order to be "educated." However, students will be allowed to use technological devices on their next assessment. It is ludicrous not to encourage this practice.

Tomorrow's class begins using voice threads to discuss relevant topics covered in the standard curriculum. What follows is an opportunity for students to convey an actual understanding of what is necessary to have mastered and at their fingertips as compared to what is reasonable to access electronically.

It is through the acceptance of change that we step forward. I have begun to recognize that Missouri Grade Level Expectations allow a framework of essentialist mastery while teaching and learning gravitate toward collaborative constructivism of relevant artifacts.

Voicethread Post

Here is a link to the voice thread post that I created regarding an activity that I conducted with my 7th Grade Mathematics and Pre-Algebra classes.

Your comments are welcome!

Thanks,

John

http://voicethread.com/share/893383/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Cooperative learning environments and social networking play directly into correlation with social learning theories. Our culture is literally gushing with an overabundance of data and resources. In order to construct knowledge or to gain equilibrium, it is essential that students learn expertise into the proper use of networks and group interactions in order to establish cultural meaning. “Knowledge is a human product, and is socially and culturally constructed. (Orey, 2001)” In order to assemble knowledge, it is essential that educators facilitate communal situations that enable such social constructivism.

Technology is the impetus that has ushered in the change from behaviorism through connectivism. In an environment of limitless information, “The act of learning, then is the act of forming networks (Laureate, 2009)” gained through the social process. It is logical that since technology has ushered in this most recent evolution that it remain the vehicle of advancement and connectivity.

Our students today are immersed in social connectivism. It is imperative that we embrace this trend rather than remain stubborn in our comfortable traditions. An excellent college professor once explained to me that a “Revolution” was like a wagon wheel. In a revolution, the bottom came up onto the top and the top went to the bottom. We are experiencing a silent but unprecedented revolution of the educational environment. We must embrace the technology and social connectivity in order to assist our students to develop a perspective with which to embrace an environment of rapidly exponentially accelerating change. It is no longer acceptable to present a topic and provide a diploma. Kids need the skills to establish and access networks in order to process overwhelming amounts of information into knowledge.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles. Retrieved from
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page on January 10, 2010.