Reflecting on EDUC 6713

Overall, my experience in EDUC 6713 has been a very positive one to say that least.  I feel that I have learned a lot about 21^st-century learning and how to implement into my teaching.  I am a person who utilizes technology a ton in my personal life, and as a result I have learned a large amount of information about a lot of different topics in a very short amount of time.  If I every want to try something new, whether it be some for of exercise/workout or a new cooking technique (some of my personal passions) I simple do a quick Google search and study up on it and then give it a go.  This class has opened my eyes to utilizing these same processes in my classroom.  One thing that I have also realized, however, is the fact that this type of 21^st-century learning that I am using in my personal life is to learn about things I am greatly interested in.  So when I consider introducing this way of learning to high school math students, I have to remember that the enthusiasm might not be as high as it is for me because for a good majority of them, math is not their favorite topic of study.

Moreover, one of the most valuable things that I have learned in this coarse is how to properly set goals.  You would think that at 27-year old would know how to set goals by now, and I do, but the GAME plan for setting goals is a structured way of setting goals that has checks and balances within it, which make for a more efficient way to set goals.  The GAME plan involves the act of setting Goals, taking Action towards achieving those goals, then Monitoring the progress you are making on your goals, and finally Evaluating the entire process which will ultimately help you decide where to go next (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  What I like so much about this plan is the fact that it is cyclical and helps you either decide to redefine your goal, or press on to a new one.  As far as the progress on my personal goals that I set at the beginning of this course, I would have to say that I did not fully reach either.  My first goal was to provide more self-directed learning experiences in my classes, which would involve them searching new topics of study on the Internet and learning independently.  I never actually found time to take my students to the computer lab to actually do this, except for two of my statistics classes on one occasion, as each day within a trimester schedule is critical and I have plans for just about every single day before the term even starts.  I was not totally unsuccessful in this goal however, because I did promote this to my students a lot and did show them many examples of how to develop these self-directed skills, and encouraged them to practice at home.  I have not gotten feedback from too many students, but from the ones who did try it said they liked it and really prefer to use YouTube because it has somebody showing how to do the math, rather than just reading about it on a website.  My second goal was to create a classroom website, and again time was the major issue here.  I do have a classroom website, however, the only contents on it are helpful links which include links to Google, YouTube, a couple of free online graphing calculators.  With coaching, taking Master’s classes, being a husband and a homeowner, and not to mention being a teacher, I have quite a few things that are higher on the priority list.  However, I will keep this as a goal until I actually achieve it, because a well-developed classroom website is something I would love to have.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the progress that I have made with all things considered, however I fully understand that this is plenty of more room for me to gain in these areas, but that will come with time.

Continuing with the here and now, there are many great classroom ideas that we learned about in the last few weeks of this course.  The units we developed, which included problem-based learning, online collaboration, and digital storytelling, are fantastic ways to utilize technology in the classroom.  Ertmer (Laureate, 2010a) states that problem-based learning involves students looking at a real-world, genuine problem, and finding ways to recommend solutions to it or recommending ways on how to find the answer.  As a math teacher, estimating or know where to even start a real-world problem is at least half of the battle.  One thing that I am constantly preaching to my students whether we are looking at real-world problems or not, is to think about what the answer should look like before you start the problem.  In addition to having an expectation of what the answer should look like, students should have a good understanding of where to look in order to seek out a solution, whether it be searching online or contacting an expert, they should know how to utilize resources to help them find a solution (Laureate, 2010a).  On a side note, the idea of digital storytelling went over very well with my Algebra 2 students when I showed them a couple of math music videos.  This really grabbed their attention and they even talked about creating some of their own.  I really like the idea of digital storytelling because it allows students to express what they have learned in a creative and genuine way, and is considered by some to be superior to writing papers or essays (Laureate, 2010b).

In closing, my overall assessment on 21^st-century learning and including technology in the classroom has become more positive than ever.  My goals, that I know effectively know how to set, are somewhat unfulfilled, but my thinking on these issues has greatly changed.  There needs to be a sense of urgency in how we include technology and the Internet in education, because it is so fast and effective.  I have also learned that my personal experiences with online learning are very valuable pieces of evidence to my students, as they respect the fact that I will always be a student of something, and the Internet will always be my primary textbook.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). [Webcast] Spotlight on Technology: Problem-Based Learning, Part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). [Webcast]. Digital storytelling, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Second Update: My GAME Plan

Up to this point, I have learned a little and gained a little in achieving my GAME goals.  The fist thing I will say that I have learned and also have had affirmed, is that I am very pressed for time when it comes to implementing something this big into my teaching.  On paper everything looked so easy and tangible, but in reality it requires a lot of time and effort.  I am definitely willing to put forth the effort, but I cannot create more time.  As a result I took some of my classmates' advice and decided to start out small.  My first step towards creating more self-directed learning in my class took place yesterday once students finished their quiz.  Now there was not technology involved, but hey, it was a starting point.  What I had students to was take the next section's note packed and read trough the chapter and fill them out on their own.  It was a fairly easy chapter and all of my students have the prior knowledge necessary successfully learn the material on their own.  My biggest fear was not having students put in a serious effort to learn the material on their own, because they knew we would be discussing it as a class the next day.  My plan was partially successful, because one class took this opportunity in stride and had not problems learning the material and had very few questions when we discussed this the next day.  As for my other class, they did not have too many questions either, but this was because a lot of them opted to do nothing.  This was my biggest fear to begin with, because I know my students well and what they expect.  They expect that their teacher will always explain things to them no matter what, so why should they put any effort in learning it on their own.  This is not the case for all of my student in this particular class, but it is or the majority.  I guess I could have taught them a hard lesson and said that they just need to know it and that they would have to catch up on their own if they did not do anything, but the teacher in me says that it is my duty to make sure I attempt to show them how to do things at least once. 

So I did not make any major progress on this goal, but I feel as if I took a step in the right direction.  It gives me a starting point, and it lets my students know that this is likely to happen again in the future.  My next step is to try this type of self-directed learning a few more times, and then hopefully take it to the computer lab.  Although, this again brings up a new challenge, because I know how quickly students can lose focus when they are on the Internet.  In order to help prevent unnecessary surfing on the Internet, I will try to make sure I am constantly circulating the computer lab just to let students know that we are they to get work done, not play around on the computer.  Once this standard has been established, it is my hope that my students will then know what is expected of them when we go to the computer lab. 

As far as my second goal of creating, well actually updating my existing, classroom website, I have yet to find time to make any progress on that goal.  I know that it is an online component and that I can access if from any place that has a computer and Internet connection, but I am so swamped with school work and graduate homework that it gets prioritized pretty low.  However, just like my first goal, I am hoping to take my first small step soon, which would consist of uploading class notes to my website and updating the class calendar.  Again, I have all the resources necessary for this goal in place, but like the majority of my colleagues, I do not have the time to invest in it at the moment. 

Until the next update!

First Update: My GAME Plan

I recently reviewed my GAME plan goals that I set a week ago, and began to think about how I could start to incorporate this into my teaching.  Justo to briefly summarize, my goals were to include more technology to create more self-directed learning opportunities and to open up the lines of communication between my students and their parents and myself.  These goals are very similar, in the fact that they both involve the Internet.  I am lucky enough to have multiple computer labs in my school that I can sign out pretty much whenever I want.  There is usually at least one lab open at any given period though out the day, and there is also a computer lab that is dedicated to math and science classes only.  This is definitely something that I need if I want to use Internet research to promote self-directed learning.  I am also lucky enough to have a classroom website that has been provided for me by my school district through SharpSchool.  One thing that I have learned from both personal experience and hearsay is that SharpSchool is not the user-friendliest software to work with.  Nonetheless, it at least gives me something to start with.  I did take the opportunity to start working on my individual site way back at the beginning of the school year, but then normal day to day operations took over and the website got pushed to the side. 

So basically I have everything I need to achieve my goals, as far as resources, information, and physical equipment (computers) goes.  The only thing really holding me back is time.  I have spoken with many of my colleagues both in and out of the math department, and they all say that they simply do not have time for it.  Most of my colleagues are graduate students, coaches, parents, volunteers, etc. in addition to being a teacher, and they all admit to wanting to do more, but they simply do not have the time to do so.  I also have found that in a trimester schedule (which is what my school is in) does not allow from much deviation from the curriculum because time is so precious.  As a result, I am faced with the dilemma of risking valuable class time to take students to the computer lab and trust that they will learn something while they are there.  My biggest fear is that I will take my student to the computer lab to have a self-directed learning experience and all they will do is surf the internet and either not find anything about the topic we are studying, or have no desire to look anything up that is relevant to the class.  Part of my idea for setting a goal to promote self-directed learning is because of how much I do it myself.  However, I only do this when I am super interested in something or I have to do it for my job or schooling.  I am an adult and understand what is at stake, however, and many high school students do not have this mentality (at least not where I teach).  So my goal within my goal is to try and find ideas, strategies, lesson, you name it that can help me get my students to want to learn math on their own. 

Setting Technology Goals

As a teacher who loves technology and uses it on a daily basis, believes in it, and really cannot see living with out it, you would think that I would incorporate in every lesson that I could.  However, this is not the case, and is probably most unfortunate for my students because most of them are just as in love with technology as I am.  I am a high school math teacher, and part of why I do not incorporate technology all that much (in fact it is very rare that I do) is because I think you should understand what the technology piece is doing before you go ahead and use it.  In my personal experience, I primarily use the Internet to teach myself about concepts that I have a personal interest in.  As for my math students, they want to use technology to make math easier, which means find a piece of technology that can do their work for them.  For instance, I have not found one yet, but I am sure there is a calculator some where on the Internet that can factor polynomials for them.  This idea that there is technology out there that takes the work out of things is what scares me the most, however, I know that technology has must more to offer than making things easier and letting it do all of the work for us. 

I recently reviewed the standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which they dub the NETS-S.  They have five main standards, and all of them have a number of performance indicators that teachers can use to help just their progress on incorporating technology into their teaching.  I have identified two performance indicators that were of particular interest to me, and seem to fit where I am at in my willingness and readiness to bring more technology into my classroom. 

The first performance indicator that I am setting as a goal falls under the second standard:

2.  Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

b. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity (International, 2008)

Part of why I chose this goal is due to the fact that it seems to reflect why I love the Internet so much.  I use the Internet to delve into topics that I want to learn more about and I always seem to find something about whatever it is I am looking for.  I will be using GAME model to help set my goals, which involve me setting Goals, taking Action to achieve those goals, Monitoring the progress on achieving the goals I have set, and finally Evaluating the progress on my goals (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  So for this goal, I would like to try and provide more opportunity for my student to use the Internet to learn the content of my course.  This will provide opportunity for more self-directed learning, which I feel will ultimately inspire creativity.  In order to achieve this goal, I will have to take time to bring my students to the computer lab and cut down on the lecturing and direct instruction, which is currently the my main method of instruction.  In order to monitor the progress of this goal, I will look at students’ assessment scores (both quizzes and tests) in order to see how well students are doing with this new style of learning.  Finally, I will evaluate the overall effectiveness of this goal to see if I will continue on with my original plan, or make a change in order to improve on the process.

The second performance indicator that I am setting as a goal falls under the third standard:

3.  Model Digital Age Work and Learning

c. Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats (International, 2008)

The main reason why I want to set this as a goal is because I want to make things more convenient for all, which includes my students, their parents, and myself.  Part of what I want to do to achieve this goal is to create a classroom website where I can upload different kinds of classroom information.  Whether it is class notes, homework assignments, tutorial videos, or math help websites, I want a ‘central hub’ where my students can go to access information for my class.  So my goal is to incorporate a classroom website where I can openly communicate with students and their parents, as well as provide classroom materials and math support.  In order to achieve this goal I will have to find a software that will allow me to create a website.  Next I will have to upload various classroom documents and links to websites and videos for my students.  In order to monitor the progress of this goal, I can periodically ask students if the website is helpful or not, and also allow student to give feedback and suggestions on the website to improve it if necessary.  Finally, I can evaluate all the input I get back from students and parents to decide if the website is working or not, and also fix any flaws that may have been pointed out along the way.

Resources

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

A Look Back on EDUC-6711

When I look back at what I have learned the past seven week in EDUC 6711, my most recent graduate course, I can now see that a lot of my goals and ideas on learning theory are now very tangible in my classroom.  In the first week of the course, we were asked to write our own personal learning theory, and describe how we think students learn in the classroom today.  The major point in my theory says that I think students learn best when they are in a technology rich environment and have a lot of hands-on learning experiences.  Part of what helped me develop this theory came from Dr. Patricia Wolfe, who said that students are more likely to remember something they have experienced rather than something that they heard or wrote down, and that teachers should try and create more meaningful experiences for their students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a).  This really got me thinking about my own classroom and how I do a lot of lecturing and have my students doing a lot of note taking.  I teach high school math, and I know what college math classes are like, so I never thought that lecturing and note taking were that bad because that is what they are going to see at the next level.  In addition, just about every math teacher I had used the same strategy and I loved learning this way and was very successful with math.  However, I am math teacher, and a person who loves math, and math lovers are a very small population in high schools today.  So I began thinking about what I had been learning in my graduate program, which is all about implementing technology and began to shape my personal learning theory.  I began to think about how often students are using technology and how much I use it myself.  The Internet is a very large and powerful tool that creates a lot of opportunity for independent learning, as it plays the role of the teacher and the students can learn at a pace that is a more tailored to their pace.  The Internet is a piece of technology that creates more hands-on learning as the students themselves are doing the research and learning information on their own.  Using technology in such a manner makes the Internet a learning tool in the classroom, as opposed to an instructional tool.  According to Dr. Michael Orey, an instructional tool is something that helps the teacher present information and a learning tool is something that students use to help them learn something new (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b).  The key words in the previous sentence are ‘helps the teacher’, and ‘students use’.  Instructional tools are great for teachers, as they usually make our lives easier, but at the same time we have to think about making sure our students can benefit from them as learning tools.  Dr. Orey says the best way to make a piece of technology a learning tool is to let them actually use them.  

Moreover, I am very eager to try implementing some of the many great ideas I have picked up from this course.  The first thing I want to implement into my classroom this coming school year is more trips to the computer lab to use Microsoft Excel.  I teach statistics and there is a lot of calculating and recording that take up a lot of time in class.  By using Excel, students will have a more realistic experience of calculating data, as it is rarely done completely by hand any more.  In addition to Excel, I also plan on using the Internet a lot more in all of my classes.  Part of what I realized in this course and all the others before it, is that lecturing is not the most effective teaching method.  I have already made a major change in my classroom by having students constantly working in groups, which has been a very positive change in my opinion.  Now, one of my goals is to try and do less talking and let the students work more independently in their groups.  One way I can achieve this is by letting students work with the Internet.  By letting students explore a new topic on the Internet allows them freedom to work at their own pace (with a little monitoring from me, of course) and find resources that are more relevant to them.  Dr. Orey says that the more ways students have information presented to them, the more likely they are going to remember something (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011c).  So in the past, I would lecture and go over guided notes with my class, which was one resource they had to consult, and they also had their textbook.  So unless students took it upon themselves to use the Internet to seek out alternate resources on their own, they really only had two resources to rely on learning the material.  By giving students the chance to use the Internet to learn something new gives them the power to find a resource that relates best to them.  In addition, I would also like to start using the Internet to extend conversations outside the classroom via blogs.  Blogging is very similar to something my students are already very good at, which is text messaging, and it also extends the cooperative element outside of the classroom. 

Finally, I feel that my ‘bag of tricks’ just got a little heavier after all the I have learned from this course.  It was a bit of a culminating course for me, because we began learning about how technology relates to learning theories.  This was a big deal for me, because it gave technology some validity in how well it works because it is already a big part of my students’ lives already.  I have also set two major long-term goals that I hope to achieve within the next few years of teaching.  The first is to change my role in the classroom from teacher/instructor to facilitator.  One of the most important things I have learned through out my graduate experience is that my students to not have to hear everything from me in order to learn it in my class.  Not every student in my class is going to learn best by hearing me talk about math all hour and show examples of how to do things.  It would be more effective to have students working in a cooperative learning and technology rich learning environment.  In this environment, I hope to see students working together to gain knowledge on new topics, as I monitor and step in to help when students ask for it, or when I see a major struggle.  By becoming a facilitator I am letting my students create their own interpretation of what math is, rather then having them try to remember what I tell them mine is.  My second goal is to use the Internet and various software applications in my classroom on a regular basis.  In order to achieve my first goal to become a facilitator, I need to have this second goal in place.  This is what is going to allow me to achieve this goal and will likely have to be achieved before I become that facilitating person.  I am lucky enough to teach in a school that has multiple computer labs that I can use, and I have not taken advantage of this very often.  I know it will take some time to achieve these goals, but I believe that it is in the best interest of my students.  Their futures are going to be full of technology and cooperative work environments, and I want my classroom to reflect that.

Social Learning Theories

To me, social learning is exactly what it sounds like, which has students learning together in a social setting.  This is different than the traditional teaching style that has the teacher talking at the front of the classroom the entire class period while students record notes.  Social learning theory involves student working collaboratively towards a common goal, and also construct memories of what they are learning along the way.  This week in my Walden class we are making a lot of connections to constructionism, which is what we learned about last week.  Constructionism is the process where a student constructs new memories and artifacts about a subject they have never learned about before.  Social learning provides a much more efficient avenue for student to construct these new memories, because they are doing so with other students that are going through the same process as them.  In other words, they are going through the constructing process with fellow classmates, rather than alone.  One of my resources this week was a video in which George Siemens speaks about an argued learning theory he calls connectivism.  He describes connectivism as a networking process in which students link certain things together to further advance their knowledge.  It sounded to me like a snow-balling type of process, where you first inquire about something, then seek a source to find out more about it, which then leads you to another source, and so on, creating this network on information that helps you learn about a given topic.  To put it into my own terms, I relate it to how I came to brew my own beer.  I am a big advocate of craft beers, and am lucky enough to live in the great state of Michigan, which is home to some of the best microbreweries in the world!  After many different microbrews I asked myself, why can't I make my own beer?  I immediately began researching the topic, and found myself immersed in the world of homebrewing.  Once I learned that there was a homebrewing supply shop only 10 minutes from my house, I headed up there to inquire more about what it would take to make my own beer.  They taught me a few things in the store and also recommended online resources that would be very helpful.  Now this is not a story that I share with my students, because I do not condone drinking in my classroom, but the learning process that I went through in order to brew my own beer is very similar to what Siemens refers to as connectivism.  I had a network of resources that I consulted where I learned more and more as I went from one source to the next.  I used social media, whether it was the Internet, cell phone, or face-to-face interaction to learn what I wanted to do.  This is a very efficient way of learning, and I did most of it on my own.  To translate this into my classroom, I am always telling my students to consult the Internet about any question they have about anything.  The great thing about the Internet is the fact that there is usually at least one person who has something to say about just anything you have to ask.  As a result, you can explore any topic you want to learn more about, and whether the information you initially find is correct or not, you have at least started down the path of inquiry.

Moreover, in order to promote social learning in the classroom, many teachers use collaborative learning activities.  Collaborative learning activities are really just a fancy name for group activities.  In the book 'Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works', the authors have an entire chapter on collaborative learning.  They make a few critical recommendations about which include: varying the criteria in which you group students, keeping groups to a manageable size, and using appropriate groups in different scenarios.  The first two recommendations are pretty self-explanatory, although I will note that the authors strongly recommend to not group students by their ability.  The last recommendation of using appropriate groups, however, deals with finding the right type of group for a given activity.  Say you are planning a major activity in your class, this is an instance where you want to put a lot of thought into how you group students, versus an impromptu activity where you might just randomly assign groups by numbering students or having them turn to a nearby student.  Regardless of the method you use for collaborative learning activities, the process is what is important.  During these activities, granted they are well developed, you will see students working together towards a common goal.  Most of these activities have students delegating roles and responsibilities among each other and also deciding what information is important to include and what is not.  Another benefit that comes with collaborative learning is the ability for students to teach students.  Many teachers often say that they never really understood a topic so well until they actually taught it to somebody, so why not give your students a chance to do the same?  Even if there is a portion of the project that no student in the group understands or knows how to explain to the group, there will always be what Dr. Michael Orey refers to as a 'more knowledgeable other', which could either be the teacher, or the Internet.  Either way, the teacher does not need to be the first or primary resource that students consult when they are pressed with a problem.  They can ask a member of their group, then try and solve the problem together, or consult the Internet and verify with the teacher.  Either way, what social and collaborative learning have in mind is having the students rely less on the teacher, and more on themselves and their ability to seek out information on their own.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program eight: Social learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program nine: Connectivism as a learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with

       classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Voice Thread Take 1

I made my first ever project on VoiceThread, you can check it out here.  I hope you enjoy it!