Week 6 of CED 525

This was our last week of CED 525. For our final project we needed to revise a lesson utilizing some of the strategies that we learned. I found this very beneficial. I wish that I had time to go through all of my lessons and reevaluate how they can be enhanced with the use of technology.

The lesson that I chose to revise was unit 5 - on energy, heat, and energy efficiency. You can take a look at the modifications that I made by checking out my presentation.

Here is how I feel my modifications will change the outcome of the lesson:

• The objectives for the unit will remain the same but I am hoping that the students will have a more robust understanding of the concepts based on their experiences. 
• My unit revision will increase student comprehension due to better questioning strategies (smart response system and advanced organizers) and lab experiences (Vernier labquests)
• My unit revision will improve the quality of student work due to a refined rubric, self-evaluation, and peer review (google forms and google presentation)
• My unit revision will provide a more robust understanding of the concepts created by the   application of the concepts (house project) and the challenging nature of the material (new test)

I hope to continue to use my experiences in CED 525 to successfully modify other lessons.

CED 525 - Week 5

This week we needed to post a reflection for each of the strategies that we studied (Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating and Testing Hypotheses). We also need to evaluate an online lesson and we needed to revise one of our units. This post will contain my reflection and links to my lesson evaluation and unit revision.

I can think of a time that I asked students to identify similarities and differences and I was pleased with the results. Why did it go well?

One example of when I have asked my students to identify similarities and differences is during our bonding unit. We create a ven diagram that identifies the similarities and differences between ionic and covalent bonding. I have found that this really helps students comprehend the two types of bonding and how they work. This is an important concept because the students must be able to identify the type of bonding in order to understand other concepts that they will learn throughout the rest of the year.

What is the purpose of asking students to complete homework?

The completion of homework was a hot topic of discussion at my school. A few years ago, there was a group of teachers and administrators that wanted to stop counting homework towards a student's overal grade. This was highly debated. The concept was that homework should be considered practice and it shouldn't negatively affect a student's grade if it is not completed. The counter argument was that if we do not require students to do homework, it won't be completed and they will not get the practice they need to succeed. I can understand both sides of the debate. I currently count homework as 5% of a students overal grade. This is a very small portion. My hope is that this will motivate students to complete their work, but it wont have a huge impact on the student's overall grade if it is not completed. This has worked well for me and I have had the majority of my students complete their work.

What kinds of technologies can I use to help students generate and test hypotheses?

I have been trying to implement more labs that utilize the vernier labquests. These are portable devices that can record, graph, and analyze a range of data based on the probes that they connect. The labquests provides tangible quantitative results that are typically accurate and reliable. These labs allows the students to see the science in action and accurately evaluate the results. This has been a great way to test a hypothesis and determine if we were right or wrong. This has really helped my students understand important and sometimes complicated science concepts.

CED525 - Week 4

PART 1

This week we needed to view a TED talk by Clay Shirky. We could choose to watch either Institutions vs. Collaboration or How Cognitive Surplus will Change the World. I chose to watch How Cognitive Surplus will Change the World. I have embedded the video and included some commentary below.

Clay Shirky: How Cognitive Surplus will Change the World


Clay Shirky started his lecture by talking about Ushahidi which is a crowdsourcing mapping platform. It was created out of necessity by Kenyan lawyer and blogger Ory Okolloh during the aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan general elections. The concept of Ushahidi is to aggregate input and information from users in order to monitor situations such as riots, or natural disasters. Ushahidi processes this information and then provides a useful overview of the situation via a map.

The significance of Ushahidi is that it was created through the use of technology, collaboration, and the willingness (or generosity) of individuals to share their knowledge and talents. Clay Shirky calls this phenomenon cognitive surplus. Based on his lecture, I would define cognitive surplus as the ability of the world to volunteer and collaborate on projects through the use of technology. He determined that there are two factors that contribute to cognitive surplus:

1. The use of the world’s free time and talent
• Shirky estimated that there is approximately 1 trillion hours/year available for participation
• He believes that in order for cognitive surplus to work we must have some sort of intrinsic motivation that drives our decision to participate. We will not participate if we are obligated to.
2. The use of modern technology
• Technology provides us with the tools that allow us to create and share

Shirky continues his lecture by discussing the variety of ways that we can invest our time/talent and how we can use the technology that is available. He discusses how we have the freedom to experiment. We can choose to make artistic, scientific, or political contributions. Shirky continues by comparing the creation of Ushahidi to the creation of humorously captioned photographs of cats. He stated that there is a spectrum of how we contribute. He did not bash the creation of the cat pictures, he instead recognized the fact that these individuals were willing to contribute. He later went on to state that we must be intrinsically motivated to shift our our contributions from communal value (funny cat pictures) to civic value (platforms such as Ushahidi). This is when cognitive surplus can be used to change the world.

Conclusion:
Technology provides us with the tools that allow us to communicate and collaborate through social networks. The ability to connect with others provides us with the access to the knowledge and talents of individuals all around the world. We have all of the resources that we need to make a significant impact on how the world operates but there are many questions that need to be answered.

• How will individuals choose to invest their free time, knowledge, and talent?
• How will we use the technology that is available?
• Are we willing to collaborate, create, and share?
• If we have the freedom to experiment, will we choose to create something that is beneficial and significant?
• Will we choose to contribute to something that has civic value?

I thought that this was a very interesting video because it draws attention to that fact that we can all contribute to something that can benefit others and change how the world operates. I believe that Shirky is trying to make people aware of this concept so individuals will choose to change the way that they use their time, knowledge, and talents. We need to stop making stupid and pointless videos to post on youtube and start using our time and talents to contribute to something that may help others. We have the time, the knowledge, the talent, and the tools; what will we choose to do with it?

PART 2

We also needed to post a personal reflection regarding the main topics from this week (Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort).

What kinds of technologies can I use to help students experience cooperative learning?
A colleague and I were recently discussing different ways to do group presentations. She expressed some concerns about using powerpoint for group presentations. I am currently planning a research project with my students so she and I both sat down and discussed some possible options for cooperative learning through group presentations. After examining a variety of tools (glogster, voicethread, google docs, etc.) we both decided that creating a presentation through google docs was the easiest and best way to support cooperative learning through group presentations. We both liked the idea that students would be collectively working on one copy of the presentation. Because google docs allows the students to see the changes that their peers are making, we discussed how helps guide their learning and how it provides them with the opportunity to do peer revision. We really liked the fact that google docs has the revision history feature. This feature allows us to see how each student contributed to the presentation. This eliminates the concerns about having one student doing all of the work and forces all of the students to contribute.


I can think of a time that I asked reinforced a student’s effort and I was pleased with the results. Why did it go well?
I recently had a student that had a bad history with academics. He had attendance issues and put little time and effort into his classroom work. I spent some time establishing a relationship with this student during our lab experiences. I noticed that he really enjoyed doing labs and he was capable of contributing some really great ideas. I focused on this positive aspect and started to encourage him to put more effort into the other areas of his grade. Little by little he started to do more work, he even found time to come in after school to study and make up tests. The student ended up passing the class and is one of the major contributors to our classroom discussions. My next goal is to help him find this same motivation in his other classes.

CED 525 - Week 3

This week we needed to read The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material

I thought that this article used too much scientific jargon. It was too wordy and I lost sight of the main point of the article when I was reading it. I needed to go back and read it several times to really understand the results of the author's research. The main points that I drew from the article were that advanced organizers help students by providing them with the proper anchorage of their vocabulary words and concepts. They also help student recognize and use the relationships between their their vocabulary and concepts. I do agree with these concepts and I currently use advanced organizers in my classroom. I hope to incorporate more advanced organizers into my lessons and I plan on using some of the advanced organizer resources that we learned about this week.

We also needed to view the Maps Alive! podcast.

The third assignment was to compare and contrast three of the following advanced organizer resources:

• Bubbl.us
• Webspiration
• MindMeister
• exploratree
• educationoasis
• CMAP

I reviewed Bubbl.us, Webspiration, and MindMeister.

Bubbl.us
I thought that this was the most basic of the three advanced organizers tools that I reviewed. It was very easy to use and you can create an organizer without an account. The bubbles in your organizer can be modified. You can change the color, text, location, and connections to other bubbles.

Webspiration
Webspiration offers all of the same features as Bubbl.us and a majority of the features from MindMesiter. The bubbles in your organizer can be modified. You can change the color, text, location, and connections to other bubbles. You can also add comments/notes, hyperlinks, and images. It also offered a couple of additional features that aide with the creation of the organizer such as: outline view (a flow chart view of your organizer), rapid fire (an auto-run button that creates new bubbles and links when you hit enter), and arrange (a button that automatically reorganizes bubbles). Webspiration also allows you to share and collaborate much like MindMeister. Another additional features is an option that allows you to choose the type of organizer you can make (diagrams, outlines, or starter docs).

MindMeister
MindMesiter offered all of the same features as Bubbl.us and most of the features of Webspiration. The bubbles in your organizer can be modified. You can change the color, text, location, and connections to other bubbles. You can also add editor notes, hyperlinks, icons/images, and attachments. My favorite feature is that the bubbles are expandable. This meaning that you can show or hide additional information. MindMeister also allows you to share and collaborate.

The last thing we needed to do was post a personal reflection regarding the main topics from this week (Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers; Nonlinguistic Representation; Summarizing and Notetaking).

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers 
I can think of a time that I asked students to use graphic organizers and I was not pleased with the results. Why did it not go well?

I use a graphic organizer every time I teach about matter. We discuss pure substances, elements, compounds, mixtures, suspensions, heterogenous mixtures, solutions, homogenous mixtures, and colloids. We discuss their relationships and we use linking words to connect the terms. The students seem to get it when we fill it out, but they always have trouble explaining the relationships when it they have to answer questions on the test. They are not connecting how the graphic organizer can be used to answer other questions.

Nonlinguistic Representation 
What kinds of technologies can I use to help students experience a nonlinguistic representation of the classroom material?

As a science teacher, I use Nonlinguistic Representation all the time. The labs that we do allow the students to expereince concepts through visual imagery, kinesthetic or whole-body modes, and auditory experiences. In the future I hope to use technology to also provide Nonlinguistic Representation. Lab simulations from sites like http://phet.colorado.edu/ would be a great example.

Summarizing and Note Taking
What is the purpose of asking students to learn proper note taking?


I think that it is important to talk about taking proper notes and demonstrate an effective method at the beginning of a class. This will help students know what you expect from them and it will help guide their learning. It also makes for a more efficient classroom.

I had a student that used a basic version of the Cornell note taking style. After he completed the course I kept his notebook and I now use his notes to help my low-level learners. This works quite well because the Cornell note taking style separates the vocabulary words on one side and their definition on another. It allows the students to see things in a clear and organized fashion. It is also great for studying because the students can fold the paper in half and quiz themselves on the vocabulary terms and their definitions. We are now encourage all of our students in my team taught class to use the Cornell note taking style. It has really caught on and the students seem to like it.

CED 525 - Week 2 - Reflection on Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, and Providing Recognition

This week we were also asked to post a reflection to your blog for each of the strategies that we studied this week: Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition. We were given some guiding questions to use.

Setting objectives

What is the purpose of asking students to set objectives?

Setting objectives is an area that I need to improve upon. When I first started teaching, I use to create detailed lesson plans that incorporated student and teacher objectives for each lesson. This objectives were also tied to the state standards. I use to write the student objectives on the board so that students were aware of their goals for the day. Even though I still use a lot of the same lessons, I have gotten away from this approach because of it was very time consuming. I have focused more or my energy on incorporating new labs, tools, and resources into the curriculum instead. These tools are interactive and effective but, students are not aware of what they should be achieving. It would be more effective if I convey the objectives to the students so that they can determine if they have gained what they need to succeed. Our school is starting to use a service called Build Your Own Curriculum. This resource will provide me with another opportunity to start creating and sharing learning objectives. I also hope to gain student feedback and start to have the students create their own objectives prior to the start of a unit. This will allow them to become more invested into their own learning.


Providing Feedback

What kinds of technologies can I use to help students provide feedback?

I am a science teacher and one of the major objectives that we want our students to learn about is the ability to write a proper lab write up. One of the thoughts that I have had is utilizing rubrics and peer editing to improve their scientific writing. I think that using technology like Rubistar and google docs would improve this process. Rubistar would provide clear and detailed criteria. Google docs would be a great way for student to share and collaborate outside of the classroom.

Providing Recognition

What kinds of technologies can I use to provide student recognition?

I currently use edmodo for our classroom website. This is my first time using this tool and I have experimented with how I use it. I envision eventually having it become more of a social experience for my students. I would like to have the students post comment to each other and myself. Student posts can be done publicly or privately. I would like the students to discuss what we learned and how we can apply this. We can also talk about areas that we may struggle and how we can overcome these issues. This would allow me to provide recognition to the students and it would also allow the students to recognize each other. This would create a very friendly learning environment.

CED 525 - Week 2 - Feedback and Objectives

This week we focused on setting objectives, providing feedback, and providing recognition. We needed to read Feedback that fits and examine RubiStar, Rubrix, Quia, QuizStar, and another tool that our school or district uses for providing feedback. I choose to examine the SMART Response PE interactive response system that I use in my classroom.

Feedback that fits Summary and Analysis

Students need effective feedback in order to succeed. We need to provided clear detailed feedback that is individualized and student specific. Each student needs to know what areas he/she needs to improve upon. This will help each individual students understand his/her strengths and weaknesses. Even though feedback needs to be student specific, teachers need to focus primarily on the content and not the student. The student should can not feel like the feedback is a negative reflection of his/her abilities. Feedback needs to help the student understand where he/she can improve. The feedback needs to portrayed in a positive manner that guides a student towards a better understanding of what the teacher wants. This type of feedback can motivate a student and encourage him/her to continue to work towards the proper learning goal.

Feedback needs to be provided at different intervals throughout the learning process based on the type of content that is being taught. Feedback can be given instantaneously for basic fact driven content, and progressively for complex conceptual content. This helps the student control and monitor their progress.

Feedback can be delivered in a variety of methods. I still like personal oral feedback, but technology allows us to provide feedback more efficiently. Tools like the smart response system (clickers) allow students to receive instantaneous feedback. Other tools like google docs, may be used to do peer edits or collaboration. Technology allows us to provided feedback outside of the classroom which I think is a beneficial bonus.

After reading this article I have become more cognizant of the feedback that I provide. The first concept that I realized was that I need to provide more feedback. The second concept I realized was that I need to make the feedback that I provide more personalized and use it to help my student understand their abilities. The last concept I realized was that I need to keep my feedback positive and relate more towards our class learning goals. This will help motivate students and it will allow them to succeed.

Rubistar, Quia, and Smart Response System

RubiStar is anonline and interactive rubric tool. Rubrics are a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work and specifies the level of performance expected for several levels of quality. Rubrics help the student figure out how their project will be evaluated. This tool would help teachers convey their objectives, expectations, and it can be used as a feedback tool. A teacher may use one final rubric or multiple rubrics throughout the learning process when using rubrics as an evaluating tool.

Quia is online learning site that provides a wide variety of tools, including:
- Learning activities such as: flashcards, word search, battleship, challenge board, and cloze exercises
- Complete online testing tools
- Classroom management system
- A class Web page creator
- Online surveys for gathering student and teacher feedback.

Quia sounds like resource that can provide the extra tools necessary for students to succeed. It creates an online learning environment that can provide extra study tools for students. It is also a great way for teachers to provide feedback for students outside of the classroom. I like using interactive web games and reviews and I often post games from studystack to our class web page on edmodo. I do like all the features that Quia offers but I do not think that I would pay the $49/year.

The SMART Response PE interactive response system combines handheld wireless remotes (or clickers), a receiver, and powerful assessment software that allows you to create tests and manage, track and evaluate the results. SMART Response PE integrates seamlessly with SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, giving you all the tools you need to design engaging and interactive test material. I have been using the smart response system for the last two years. I really like using the remotes during lecture because it keeps the students engaged and it allows me to evaluate their comprehension. It provides the students and the teacher with instant feed back. This allows me to evaluate and determine if I need to spend more time on a topic or not. It also allows me to see if specific students are not understanding a specific concept. This allows me to meet the needs of each individual student.

Week 1 of CED 525

This week we needed to read Principles of Teaching and Learning and
A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning and post our reaction to our blog. Here is a summary of what I read.

I really found the principles of teaching and learning article to be motivating. This article really helped me realize where I need to focus my time and energy as an educator. It addressed the roles of both the educator and the student. I found the teaching principles to be quite revealing. This is my fourth year of teaching and I have started to become a little complacent with my curriculum. This article really revealed the steps that I need to take to become a good educator.

I had some trouble really gaining value from the article A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning. It has been awhile since I have read a scientific study and I felt like the message of the article was somewhat lost within the calculations of medians, control groups, and standard deviations. I points listed below were the ideas that I believed to be important:

- Small group learning had more positive effects than individual learning

- Computer-based simulation had a negative effect on student attitudes.

- Technology can change teachers’ pedagogic practices from a teacher-centered or teacher-directed model to a more student-centered classroom

- Computer-based instruction increases students’ time-on-task

- Teaching and learning with technology has a small, positive, significant effect on student outcomes when compared to traditional instruction


I was surprised to see that computer based learning had only a small impact on student outcomes and a negative effect on student attitudes. My assumption is that the results reveal the idea that the use technology does not guarantee an increase in student achievement. The use of technology needs to be integrated into the curriculum in a fashion that allows for student success. The curriculum needs to remain the focus and technology should be used to enhance the learning process. Technology can be used to validate the student learning and allow students to create connections to the material they are learning.