Reflection 2 for C&I 579 Summer 2012

What attitudes, skills, and concepts have you gained from participating in the course so far?

            Well, here we are coming up on the end of this “boot camp” and it has been a wild ride so where does one begin to sum it all up? As I have mentioned several times, I have felt overwhelmed by the vast amount of digital tools, ideas, and information coming in via the course content, blogs, Twitter, and other classmates. I am beginning to adjust my way of looking at this and to find ways of sorting through the volume to read only the most relevant. I just started using iGoogle based on the presentation I watched for the third discussion and it really seems to help now that I have gotten it set up and organized. Of course, the next day Google sends out an announcement stating that they are dropping iGoogle and it will be gone November 2013, at least I will have time to research an new dashboard.

            Skill wise, I finally got caught up enough to try out Camtasia for my final project (presentation?) and so far it seems super easy—of course I’ve been editing video for over a decade—I like what it can do in terms of trimming, uploading and placing the picture-in-picture (PIP). I am looking forward to using it and my new microphone to start recording some video lectures as early as next week. For quick recordings away from my laptop I found Screencast-o-matic very easy and Screenr seems to be similar. I will also be playing with a new app for my iPad called Explain Everything to help when I have a substitute in my classroom.

What have you learned in the course that you will not forget tomorrow?

            New concepts I have gotten from the class center around the Flipped Classroom model. I have been looking into the idea since C&I 407 last summer and had decided to try it next year especially since we are getting laptops for all the students. Of course, I am interested in seeing the impact the laptops will have, and I hope staff will get training to use them in innovative ways so that they are not “domesticated” to old routines (Rowan & Bigum, 2012). As Cummings, Brown & Sayers (2007) note, “for technology to change education, “has much more to do with pedagogy than with the technology itself” (p. 91). Given the lack of input the had on the process, I hope there is buy-in from them and that the professional development we get will be of the type needed, content specific and long-term (Harris, Mishra, & Koehler, 2009, p. 395). 

            Of the things I have learned from the course that I will not be forgetting, perhaps the most important to me is to plan for options when it comes to technology based education. It will not be enough to record and post my videos, I will also need to have media based versions available for those without Internet access at home or for those who leave their laptop and/or charger at school and can’t access in the regular manner. I hope that by posting downloadable versions, students without access can download them before they leave school so that they have a copy on their laptop. When it comes to communication, I have learned that the generation of students I am teaching (and some of their young parents) want feedback immediately (Tapscott, 2008) so I hope be able to meet those needs through My Big Campus and a new site I found called Remind101. Of course, some will still want emails, phone calls, or even letters home, but being able to reach and involve more parents is the goal. 

How will you apply what you have learned to your teaching and future learning?

            I have plans to implement several technological and new education ideas in my classroom in the future. I will be adopting a flipped classroom model in my social studies classes and possibly my communications classes as well. The flipped classroom, and the 1:1 laptops we will have at our school, will allow me to expand upon the changes I have already made in my teaching through the use of my Universal Reading Questions (URQs). My URQs were already designed to assess students’ prior knowledge and interests, as well has discover misunderstandings and misconceptions. In the past I have provided my students with background and additional knowledge to help make connections not only between events but also to the world today. With the flipped model allowing for more classroom time to engage in higher order thinking and collaborative work, and laptops for the students to research and discovery content with guidance, more of the knowledge they gain will be knowledge that they construct themselves.

            The online tools, blogs, and information networks that I set up during the class will be extraordinarily helpful in continuing to learn and improve my teaching in the future. I will continue to expand and refine the online learning networks that I have set up for the class and use my blogs to reflect upon and analyze the things I will be trying to implement in my classroom. I will also use these as assets when we set up our professional learning teams (PLTs) for professional development in our district next year.

Wish me luck future, and the same to everyone else.

References

Cummings, J., Brown, K., & Sayers, D. (2007). Literacy, technology, and diversity. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Harris, J. B., Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2009). Teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge: Curriculum-based technology integration reframed. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(4), 393-416.

Rowan, L., & Bigum, C. (Eds.), (2012). Transformative approaches to new technology and

student diversity in futures oriented classrooms: Future proofing education. Dordrecht,

            Germany: Springer.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. [Kindle

Version].  Available from http://www.amazon.com

Final Project for C&I 579

Just finished recording and posting my final project for my educational technology class so I thought I would share it here as well.

Let me know what you think and wish me luck!

Phil

Flipped Classroom Infographic

Thanks to Kristen (C&I 579, Group 3) for mentioning this website in her discussion 4 post. I'm adding it here as a great representation of the Flipped Classroom Model.

You can click on the graphic to go to the Knewton website and see it in a larger format.



Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Discussion 4 C&I 579

I thought I would share this discussion post based upon Jackie Gerstein's blog post: http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/the-flipped-classroom-model-a-full-picture/.

Summary of Basic Points

Jackie Gerstein includes several ideas about the ideas of the flipped classroom including a model for the process, resources for those who might want to try and perhaps most important to me, critiques of some who are trying to “hijack” the idea.

The model she includes of 1) experiences, 2) what, 3) so what, and 4) now what is similar to the ideas of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that includes what, how, and why. She also notes in her slideshow similarities to other models like: the Experiential Learning Cycle, Experiential Learning, 4MAT, and models by Robert Gagne and David Kolb. In her practice she correctly points out that the initial “experiences” help engage students and provide a setting, the “what” becomes the flipped lecture, “so what” would be the old homework (now done in class) but using scaffolding to build to higher levels of understanding. Finally the “now what” is where students demonstrate their understanding.

Compare/Contrast Resources

The UDL resources mirror the ideas that Jackie has outlined in her post, all of which are models to try and move away from the Industrial Revolution model of one-way education to meet and address the needs and learning styles of 21st Century learners. I have see other complaints about Kahn Academy, and while this might be a part of the new education process, it is important to note that it is only a part. Rowan and Bigum (2012) note that technology can help change how education is done IF we allow it to change how we teach rather than “domesticating” it to how we already do things. She brings up and provides links to those who are “attacking” Kahn, but as Gerstein, Utrecht, Bergman, Rowan & Bigum and many others point out, the issue is more one of how Kahn is being presented, for that matter flipped classrooms as well. Both represent tools to use, not universal answers.

What new information, application, and/or issues did you discover?

I already had problems with much of “fervor” over Kahn academy, partially because there is little history, but mostly because of the procedural methods of his videos. (And don’t get me started on the support of the Gates Foundation). My wife is a mathematics professor and believes in cognitively guided instruction where students tackle new problems based on prior knowledge and present their answers. THEN the teacher presents alternatives and provides explanation. This way students gain an understanding of the concepts, not just memorize a procedure. Sadly many students that are “good at math are often good at memorizing procedures, conversely, those who are “bad at math” are really in need of understanding because they don’t memorize procedures well. This same idea is true in my area of social students; far too often it is “learn the facts” without making the connections. What I was happy to see is the number of people saying, wait; Kahn Academy is a tool to AID the teacher, not something that can REPLACE the teacher.

How could you use the flipped classroom approach in your teaching?

This is an idea I have been thinking about since last summer and with our school going to a 1:1 laptop program for all students I plan to implement the flipped model in my classes for next year. I had already gotten away from much lecturing and the presentations I already have can easily be adapted to this model. In my social studies classes I have students read new materials and when they read they have to answer my three Universal Reading Questions (URQs) and those become the basis for most of the discussions in class. (See my URQs post) With the laptops and new individual desks/tables I plan to have students research additional materials for the things they find interesting, and the questions they generate. That way instead of me sharing (telling) facts they can explore and become creators of knowledge and I can help guide them to connections and implication for their world today.

References:

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author. Retrieved July 3, 2012 from: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/

Bergman, J. (2012). Flipped learning, Turning learning on its head. Flipped Learning. Retrieved July 3, 2012 from http://flipped-learning.com/?p=868

Rowan, L., & Bigum, C. (Eds.), (2012). Transformative approaches to new technology and student diversity in futures oriented classrooms: Future proofing education. Dordrecht, Germany: Springer.

Utecht, J. (2012). Can there really be a revolution in education? The thinking stick. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.thethinkingstick.com/can-there-really-be-a-revolution-in-education/

Blog Post #3 C&I 579

In Response to the following blog post:

The Thinking Stick: Can There be a Revolution in Education (Jeff Utecht)

Jeff raises some interesting ideas about revolution versus evolution and students being the change agents. I wonder however if it should be what we are going to overthrow instead of who?

Did we revolt against King George III or the idea of being taxed, controlled, and generally treated like second-class citizens with no say in the matter…remember “no taxation without representation”? What we need to overthrow is the way we take new technology and ideas and adapting them to education. We need to adapt education to new technology and ideas instead. In the past technology has been “domesticated to the Industrial Revolution model of education (Rowan & Bigum, 2012).  Let’s use its capabilities to transform education instead.

You are correct in noting that it is the students (at least their needs) that are driving the current calls for change. Students have long adapted to using technology in one way at home and in a completely other way at school, but that is changing. The calls for change are louder and more frequent and pace of that change is accelerating.

I’m not sure the technology forward thinking teachers at ISTE want a revolution in the classic, or modern Arab Spring sense.  Precious few of us are willing to give up our lives or jobs. Perhaps they are tired of being called the cause of the problems in education, especially since they feel they have some inspiring answers to help address those problems. Perhaps it is an evolution of the word revolution.

At any rate, and semantics aside, I’ll settle for something in between. Not a revolution, but certainly a faster form of evolution. Step out of the way of us trying to prepare the students for the 21^st Century and no one gets hurt. We all should learn something along way. 

This response focuses on the highlighted sections of this excerpt:


What is this education revolution going to be? Who are we going to overthrow? And the biggest issue of all.....revolutions means you are willing to die or at least get fired for your cause and honestly I don't know to many teachers who believe strongly enough about what this education revolution should change into to quit their jobs. 

So what we end up with is a social evolution and I think that's what we're seeing. This is why change is gradual in education. Those of us in power; administrators, teachers, etc like our jobs...like having a job and therefore we can't cause a revolution. We can cause an evolution and that's what we're seeing.

So if teachers don't have the power to bring a revolution to education who does?

Parents? Yes....parents could decide not to send their children to school. Will that happen? I don't think so.

Which leaves us where?

Students....this is who will bring the revolution and this is who we need to be talking to if we truly believe there needs to be a revolution in education. Of course the revolution isn't coming so what we're getting is an evolution of education.

In my TEDx presentation I talk about students being the change agents....and if we are going to see a revolution it will come from them. Little did I know just 6 months after giving that TED Talk what I explained would play out in Egypt. Students and people taking to social networks and creating a revolution. 

Universal Reading Questions

 I often make reference to my Universal Reading Questions (URQs) which I devised as a way to try and get my history students to interact with their history readings instead of just finding answers to a series of questions from the book. I wanted question one to give me what the students thought was interesting versus what I thought was interesting because sometimes these are wildly different. I recently added the "or important" part for my students who sometimes complained that "nothing was interesting."

Question two was important for me because I often found out in the middle of a class that something I thought all the students knew was in fact something that few if any knew. It helps me to find out their prior knowledge to build upon and to find out misconceptions that may need to be corrected.

Question three is the one that I feel is the most important, to make a connection. History should not be seen as a list of facts and dates, but a story to be told and understood. Without seeing the connections between events students will not be able to see how one action affects another and how things from the past influence their lives today.

So if you are interested, here they are. Feel free to use, or modify them as you see fit. If you can think of ways to improve upon them, let me know as I see them as a living document that is constantly being modified and hopefully improved.

1. List two things from the reading you thought were

    interesting or important and why you think so.

       Things that strike you as:

-Interesting

-Strange

-Odd

-Funny

-Weird

-Unusual

2. List two things from the reading that were unclear and/or

    that you want to know more about.

                 -Don’t get it? Let me know, we’ll find the answer.

                -Got it? Do you want to know more about?

-There is always more to know! (Pleas Be Specific)

3. Can you think of a similar situation (from the past or

    something more current)?     

          OR

  

What is the relevance of something from the reading to today’s world, your life, or the lives of your friends & family?

                 -This can be from history     -From other classes

-Events at school                  -Something at home

-From your experiences

-Or from pop culture such as TV/YouTube/movies

Blog Post #2b for C&I 579 "2b but Not to Be"

Excepts from Justin Reich’s blog entitled Don’t Use Kahn Academy without Watching this First, June 21, 2012

In a send-off of the Comedy Central classic Mystery Science Theater 3000, two teacher-educators sit in front of a Khan Academy video on multiplying and dividing fractions and offer their critical commentary. Dave Coffey and John Golden are the hosts here (they really do need at least one talking robot), and they clearly are not big fans of Mr. Khan or his patron Mr. Gates.

The two teachers systematically dissect the video, noting a variety of missteps. There are a few unquestionable errors of mathematics: Khan uses incorrect terminology at a couple of points. Khan is also inconsistent in his language about positive and negative numbers (using plus when he means positive, or minus when he means negative), which is perhaps a lesser sin, but poor practice and misleading for students. He's also inconsistent in his use of symbols, sometimes writing "+4", sometimes writing "4", never explaining why he does or doesn't. He making the kind of mistakes that would reduce his score on the Mathematical Quality of Instruction observational instrument, used in the Gates-funded Measures of Effective Teaching Project. 

Coffey and Golden are probably most savage when Khan makes these outright mistakes, but I think the true fuel of their satire is their broader critique of Khan's approach. Khan teaches students to memorize a small set of procedural rules for dealing with multiplying negative numbers, with essentially zero effort expended to explain conceptually what the symbolic manipulations represent. In fact, in the final minute of the video, Khan says verbatim, "In your own time, think about why these rules apply." 

For many math teachers, the most important work to do is to get kids to think about why the rules apply, to help them derive them where applicable, and to help them contextualize them when derivations are impractical. 

Khan Academy pulled down the video satirized in MTT2K, Episode 1 within a day or so of publication. It will be interesting to see if they simply fix the outright errors, or if they address some of the broader pedagogical concerns. 

My Response:

Justin,

Once again you point out what should be obvious, but sadly is not. In mathematics today the ongoing debate about teaching for conceptual understanding versus procedures continues with the concept side losing, no doubt thanks to teaching to the high stakes standardized tests under NCLB. But as my wife (a PhD in Mathematics Education) would say, the debate continues among mathematics teachers themselves as many do not buy into the Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) ideas set out by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). 

Too often people who are “good at math” think they are because they are good at learning and memorizing procedures, yet they may not understand the concept or its applications. This becomes a problem if they become mathematics teachers as they can only tell students the procedure, which merely represents one way to solve a given problem, and they will not able to explain the concept or applications of the procedure. One result, people who don’t think or learn that way begin to see themselves as “bad at math” at an early age.

This may once again be a negative effect of “teaching to the test” and may actually be made worse by some aspects of Common Core standards as more ideas, in the form of procedures, are to be taught to students with little time devoted to conceptual understanding. 

As one of my professors says, the result is exposure to information that is, “a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Link to Justin's Blog: 

 Justin's Blog