Guest Speaker: From VHS to Vine- Tom Ward

One of the guest speakers that came to talk to our 504 class was Tom Ward (10/16/14).  He gave us information on how video can be used in the classroom and used math examples as a way to demonstrate this to us.

The overarching idea came from the SAMR model, in which technology can redefine, modify, augment, and substitute other materials in a classroom.  Through this model, teachers can still teach the necessary concepts, but they can change it up by incorporating technology.  I personally think it would be fun to learn a core idea in a new way.  I think technology can provide new ways to learn a concept and provide new activities that students can use to help them address their misconceptions and start using higher order thinking.

I knew that video clips from YouTube could be beneficial to a high school class, but I learned that there are so many other video platforms and technology tools that one could use to incorporate video media in the classroom.  Ward showed us an example of stopping live action in a video to show the trajectory of a basketball so students could calculate whether or not the ball would go through the hoop by examining the parabola the ball was following.  After viewing this I realized a science teacher could probably use something like this to show his or her class the motions of stars in the sky or follow the growth of a seed through a time lapse video.

The use of Twitter was also brought up.  The extent of my thinking about Twitter in the classroom had previously been that I could use the application to send reminders to my students about homework or tests.  However, I learned that Twitter could be used to force students to write concisely since there is a 140 character limit.  While this idea is great, I wonder if 140 characters is enough to accurately capture an idea.  I can barely work within this limit to tweet about irrelevant things in my life, so I am unsure of whether or not I would use Twitter with my students in this way.

Ward also presented us with some new ideas of how to use Vine or Instagram.  Students can create short videos to present an idea, rather than writing everything out.  For example, I think Vine or Instagram could be useful if students needed to list a variety of materials for a lab in Biology.  Rather than just writing out the materials list and procedure, students could film a few short clips of materials and how they are executing the procedure.  Though it might take some time, I think this would be engaging and I would like to try this out in my future classroom.  However, I still do not know if cell phones in the classroom is a good idea, so I would have to think about this a lot more to decide whether or not this is beneficial to students' learning.

For me, the modification aspect of the SAMR model stands out because it would allow me to keep some of the general teach practices, while incorporating new innovative practices.

Tech Tools In Use: Socrative

Last week, Kim, Melissa, Rachel K, John, and Holly gave an awesome presentation on Socrative, which I learned is a tool that can create formative assessments.  I assumed this tool would have something to do with questioning, as it is named after Socrates.  Rather than a tool that just allows one to create questions in a quiz format, Socrative gives teachers the opportunity to create engaging quizzes, polls, and exit tickets to use with their students.

This group presented the information clearly and in a logical order.  By immediately giving us a "do now" assignment to answer several questions about the University of Michigan, they engaged us. I was very proud of myself that I managed to get all four questions right (go me!).  Next, they walked us through what Socrative was and how it could be used.  I found that providing us with the opportunity to create our own questions was useful to me because it gave me firsthand experience so I will be able to do this quickly if I decide to use it in my own classroom.  I think allowing high school students to get used to the tool by creating their own quiz questions would be helpful as well because it gives them the opportunity to make mistakes and ask questions before using the tool to actually answer a graded quiz.  

One feature of this tool that I think students will especially enjoy is the Space Race function, which allows teams to compete to see who gets the most questions right and also provides information on which team finishes the quickest.  If this tool wasn't already engaging, I think this function will motivate students to do well and work efficiently.  However, one issue that I could see arising in a high school classroom is students just randomly guessing to finish first and "win."  One way this could be combated is deeming the winning team the team that gets the most questions correct, rather than the team who finishes first.  Alternatively, the teacher doesn't have to show the class the team standings in real time.

I really liked how visual this tool was, what with the colors and the animations (like the rockets).  Socrative can also be accessed on smartphones, so if a teacher allowed students to use phones for school work during class, this could be one way to use the tool.  Since many schools are allowing cell phones for work related purposes, I think this would be feasible.

Since Socrative allows one to create multiple choice, true/false, and open-ended questions, I think this tool could be immensely useful to a high school teacher trying to get a sense of where the class is at so he or she can modify future lessons, as well as to assess students on material that was just presented.  I would absolutely TRY to use this tool for these reasons in my future classroom!  However, I am still grappling with the idea of allowing students to use cell phones in the classroom, so if I were to use this tool I would probably want them to use school provided laptops.  

For now, I might just stick with Google Forms because it seems a little simpler to use.