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.

Does Detroit School of Arts use technology?

The first major assignment for Educ 504 this fall was to interview the media specialist at my school.  At Detroit School of Arts (DSA), this would be Ms. Lemmons.  The assignment was easy enough and pretty straightforward: go in, talk to Ms. Lemmons, get out.  Unfortunately I found it very difficult to locate Ms. Lemmons on the day I intended to talk to her.  After visiting the media center (all the way up on the sixth floor!) twice and calling her extension throughout the day, I was ready to give up and try again the next time I came to school.  Instead, I decided to search for answers for my school study for Educ 402.  As I entered the office, who did I find hanging out in there?  Well, none other than Ms. Lemmons, of course.  Luckily I brought the "tech in my placement" assignment with me!

We went through the tech survey in sequential order and Ms. Lemmons described some of the technology to me as well as which pieces of technology she only dreams that DSA could obtain.  One important detail that I obtained was that rather than pay for a lot of cool software, such a Microsoft Publisher, DSA opts for the free versions of similar software.  Many of the items on my list I was not surprised that the school had access to, such as a computer lab, video editing software (it's an arts school after all), and electronic grading, among other items.  However, I was surprised to find out that the school did have some smart boards.  Coming from a high school that never had smart boards (maybe they do now?) and never having a college class that used one, I had never even heard of the term "smart board" until a few months ago.

Though I think some other interns might be surprised to find out what software is available to their students, I was not.  Glancing at the survey, I fully expected DSA to have access to lots of software simply because it is an arts school where students to a lot of video/sound/image editing.

According to the acceptable use policy, students are allowed to email, blog, and use wiki, but they cannot instant message, use cell phones, or download files to the hard drives.  Makes sense.  Ms. Lemmon's also confirmed my suspicions that the filtered internet would block social media websites.  When I hopped on a computer to test out this out though, I found the complete opposite.  I miraculously was able to access websites such as Facebook and Twitter...  I informed Ms. Lemmons of this and she seemed just as surprised as I was.  I guess I just have the magic touch to break into blocked websites?



--> not for me!










I didn't really understand the importance of asking the media specialist what types of technology DSA has access to at first.  Just another assignment to do, right?  After completing the assignment though, I realize how beneficial it really was.  Now I know exactly what pieces of technology I can sign out for my students and I can figure out creative ways to incorporate them into my lessons.  In my future teaching I think I will definitely make my way around to visiting the school's media specialist so that I can use the school's technology to benefit my students.

*Note#1: Another important detail that I learned was that Ms. Lemmons is always running around the school. Instead of going up to the media center to look for her, calling her cell phone with a technology question would be much easier for me.

*Note#2: Even if I can access social media websites, it would be unprofessional to do so while on school property, so I would not do this.

Connections Across Disciplines: The Sam, Jeremy, & Derek Edition

Towards the end of the summer semester, groups of three students created lesson plans for their content area that included the use of technology, for our Teaching With Technology class.  My group consisted of two math majors and one biology major (me!), so we decided to devise a math lesson that would help students learn how to find the slope of a line.  Though I wish we could have integrated Biology somehow, it is not something that managed to do. 

Upon reading some of my classmates’ lesson plans, one in particular that I really enjoyed reading compared the BYOD policy to the “separate but equal” laws of the past, specifically Plessy vs. Ferguson.  This group, consisting of Sam, Jeremy, and Derek, had a fantastic idea to relate the past to the present.  Though I don’t think I myself would have initially thought about the similarities between these two ideas like they say they immediately did, I appreciated how much thought they put into this assignment to come up with a lesson that really showcased an important aspect of history.  I realized that it is not enough to consider different policies and rulings on an individual case-to-case basis, but it is also important to compare and contrast them to demonstrate how the past influences the present, and how two ideas that may be in stark contrast on the surface are actually similar.  Their lesson also surprised me because they managed to integrate history and English into one lesson.  This illustrated to me that they put in the effort to make a lesson like this work and it reflects the title of the assignment (Connections Across Disciplines) perfectly.  The lesson this group outlined was for a 50 minute class period, and the sequence they have provided seems to be reasonable.  They incorporated individual work as well as discussion, which is a strong combination for a lesson such as this.  The lesson flowed well and the method of assessment they provided (exit ticket) was one that all students should be able to succeed at, providing that they were engaged during the lesson.  Overall, this group’s lesson reflects the type of lessons we have been learning about over the summer, in which students are given several different activities and opportunities to interact with their peers, rather than being lectured at for an hour.  I think students would definitely benefit from this lesson!

This lesson plan reminded me of the thoughts I have had all summer about the fairness of a BYOD policy.  While it seems like a feasible and interesting idea on the surface, it could actually be detrimental to some students.  What happens to those students who do not have the means to secure a device to bring?  I am not sure this question will be answered any time soon.  It also brings up questions of how much technology should play a role in the classroom.  Should technology be fully integrated or should it be used sparingly?  The inequalities that could result from a policy such as this must be considered in depth before a school implements a BYOD policy.  Considering Plessy vs. Ferguson in detail might actually be very beneficial for policymakers when creating a BYOD policy.  

Organizing Your Online Life: Google Drive Edition

          As I went about creating my presentation on how to use Google Drive and how this website can benefit teachers and students, I tried to think about what logically made sense to me.  Many MAC students are very familiar with Google Drive already, but I never really used it much before starting this program.  I understood the basics of how to create a document and that multiple people could collaborate at once, but I had never shared an item with someone or uploaded my own documents into the drive.  In order to effectively present this website, I wanted to be knowledgeable about as much as I could, so I spent some time just exploring the site and seeing what I could do with it.  I also watched some YouTube videos that were very informative.

          Once I figured out the logistics of Google Drive, I began to think about what I wanted to tell the two MAC students in my group.  I decided to first go over what Google Drive is and why it is helpful, and what the heck this mystical "cloud" thing is.  Then I would describe in detail how to create documents, presentations, etc.  After this I wanted to describe how to share items with others and how the permissions worked.  Next, I wanted to describe how to upload documents from one's computer or other device.  Finally, I wanted to talk about how this website could help teachers and students in school.  This helped me get a good sense of how I wanted to organize my handout as well.  I thought it would be good to put everything on the handout in the same order that I was going to talk about it.  However, formatting issues prevented me from doing this (I think the images messed things up), so I was forced to change the order up a bit.  I don't think this really detracted from the presentation though because the information was still the same.  Also, when creating my handout I tried to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible because I know that I am more likely to look at a handout that is colorful and fun.

          I actually practiced going over everything I wanted to say in my presentation once the night before and it ended up being about 25-30 minutes, which was perfect.  I think going over this definitely helped me remember what I wanted to talk about and be cautious of how much time I should allot to each section.  During my actual presentation I stuck to the order that I had set up for myself and I think it went pretty well.  When I was demonstrating the sharing function my email was taking forever to load, so that was a minor set back.  While we waited I just described what would happen once I received the email, but thinking about it now, allowing the other two students to ask questions might have been a better use of time.  As I talked about the benefits of Google Drive in the classroom, I realized that I was just speaking and wasn't really illustrating my points.  Maybe if I had created a form beforehand to show how teachers could create surveys for students or created a spreadsheet to show how teachers could track grades, the other students would have been able to visualize the benefits better.  For some reason I didn't expect to receive any questions (what was I thinking?), but when I did I tried to answer them to the best of my ability.  Usually these questions were just to clarify on steps that I had demonstrated, so I did not have any problem answering them.

          I also enjoyed the other students' presentations about Blendspace and Endnote.  I thought they did a wonderful job explaining how to use these websites and how they related to the classroom.  I really liked Blendspace and it is something that I would definitely like to incorporate into my own classroom in the future.

Below is my handout:

Go play a video game!

          When we were first told in Educ 504 that we would be exploring video games that could be used to support learning, I must admit I was skeptical.  My initial reaction was that video games are for fun and I couldn't figure out how one could use these in a classroom setting.  Grand Theft Auto (GTA), which is definitely one of my favorite games, involves theft, weapons, murder, and general rule breaking, among various other things.  There is no way that this game would be appropriate for the classroom!

          Despite my skepticism, I remained open-minded as I began to read "Good Video Games and Good Learning," by Gee.  I realized that one doesn't have to necessarily bring the video game directly into class for it to support learning.  (Would any school actually be okay with students playing GTA in their building?)  A few ways that video games can influence learning are as follows:

• Players learn problem solving skills
• Games give feedback and new problems
• Lowers the consequences of failure
• Forces thinking about relationships between actions and skills
• Performance before competence

There are a variety of other ways that video games can influence learning, but I think one of the most important take home messages is that video games can help students gain problem solving skills.  The games can challenge players because they might encounter problems that they have not experienced before and might never experience in their lifetimes.  Players must figure out what the problem is, what skills they need to solve the problem, and the procedural knowledge of how to execute the solution.  Though the problems one experiences in a video game might be drastically different form the problems one must solve in school, the underlying thinking skills are the same. Gee helped me realize that video games are therefore an awesome way to influence learning by helping students solve problems.  If they can transfer these skills to the problems they face in their assignments, I think playing video games could be a fun way to supplement the objectives that are taught in school.

         Transitioning back to the video game I explored, GTA is an open world action-adventure game in which players take on the role of a character of their choosing and must navigate around the city to complete missions in order to gain points.  The successful completion of a mission allows players to challenge themselves with more difficult missions.  These missions require that players solve problems, take risks, and think about consequences.  GTA can also be converted into a multiplayer game in which one can play with friends or other players over the Internet.  This game also helps players increase their decision making skills because they must decide which weapons to use, which cars to steal (I like the fast ones), how to steal cars (beat people up!), and which direction to go in order to avoid the police.  Though is is unlikely that students will need to make these decisions in a school setting, the skills necessary to make decisions can be transferred to the types of problems students encounter in school.

          I don't think incorporating GTA into the curriculum or allowing students to play this video game during class time is a feasible, but I do think that it is a good way for students to learn many strategies that they can use in school.

Paper vs. Digital

          Thinking back to when I was in in primary and secondary education, I can remember several times when my school administered standardized tests, such as the MEAP and ACT, to the students in certain grade levels.  The students would come in and receive a test booklet and answer sheet to fill out with #2 pencils.  The mental image that I get when thinking of these wonderful test days (We got out of school early, what more could you want? Let's take a test every day! Sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm.) looks a bit like this:

However, a shift in testing format is occurring, in which paper-based tests are becoming less common and digital-based tests are becoming more common.  Rather than filling out answer bubbles by hand, students simply click on the answer they want, and voilà the bubble is filled in perfectly!  Now, the image I get of standardized testing looks like this:

          Just by looking at the second picture, it seems to me that taking these fate-determining tests on the computer would be a welcome change because there is more privacy, depending on the testing site of course.  When I took the GRE on the computer, I was at a testing site that looked very similar to the  one in the picture above.  I thought this was awesome because I had my own little cubby with dividing walls, so I couldn't see anyone else and they couldn't see me.  I was even provided with silencing headphones.  Sitting down to take this test, I was optimistic that this was going to be easy to take since I wouldn't have to flip between pages and make sure my answers were bubbled in dark enough.  Halfway through the test though, my eyes were watering and I had a headache (why did I choose to wear my contacts for a five hour test that consisted of starting at a computer screen?).  My experience with digital-based testing illustrates to me that maybe we need to rethink making the switch from paper to computer.

          In Educ 504, I attempted (and failed) to answer some questions from the 12th grade math portion of the Smarter Balance assessment.  On the first question, the calculator tool froze on top of the question and I couldn't get it to go away, so I tried to just move on to the next question.  This seemed like a logical idea, especially since students are often told to skip something if it's too difficult and then come back to it at the end.  Unfortunately, this assessment forces students to put some answer before moving on to the next.  I do not think that this is a good tactic because students might try to spend more time writing something in the answer space, which is very time inefficient.  Not all digital-based tests force this upon students, but there are other cons to taking a test on the computer:

• Navigating the pages might be difficult
• Students might not be familiar with the icons
• Split screens make things very busy
• Students can't really "talk to the text" unless they write on the screen (I think this is discouraged?)
• Inefficient scrolling techniques cause a loss of valuable test time
• The mouse might be hiding 
• Students might not be skilled typers
• There might not be any scratch paper
• Puts extra stress on students (especially their eyes...)

You get the idea, right?  On the other hand, there are some pros to switching to taking a test on the computer:

• The test is cheaper to produce
• Scores are received much quicker, if not instantaneously (it can feel like 7.5 months before you get the paper scores back...)
• There is no hassle of labeling the tests and sorting through them
• Students can tag specific questions to easily find at the end to review

         Even though switching to digital-based testing might seem like a really good idea at first, I don't think it is necessarily better than paper-based testing.  "Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: Effects on reading comprehension" was a Norwegian study that discovered that students who read texts in print scored significantly better on a reading comprehension test.  This research demonstrates that students do better on paper-based tests, so it is very confusing to me as to why so many people are advocating for digital-based tests.  Have these people never taken a test on the computer before?  Do they care more about costs than student growth and learning?  If money is the driving force behind this decision, then we need to elect new people to make these decisions.

          I believe that the most important aspect of standardized testing should be to try to assess what level students' are at in their learning in order to evaluate teachers and help these said teachers to revise their lessons to better equip their students for future courses and life in general.  The cons of digital-based testing outweighs the pros for me, so I think that it is important that we do not let paper-based testing become obsolete.  At the very least, we should give students a choice of how they want to take the test, such as how the MTTC test gives students a choice between paper and computer.

          Do you advocate for paper-based or digital-based testing?  Both?  What factor weighs the most in your decision?