Carrying Out the GAME Plan

• Goal: Increase student innovation by providing choices in formative assessment situations.
• Action: Develop 3 rubrics for assessment of student mastery, to foster creative solutions while maintaining the integrity of department-wide assessments.
• Monitoring: Success will be marked by an increase in non-traditional student work on assessments. Such work may be different in format from the traditional paper tests that students may see in high school math, but the students will still demonstrate mastery of the same State of Michigan mathematics standards.
• Evaluation: Quantitative data can be collected from State MME/ACT scores from successive years to determine if State standards trend upwards, downwards, or remain unchanged.

Resources Needed: Time! In order to develop effective rubrics, it is necessary to have the time to thoughtfully craft rubrics that are flexible enough to allow for student choice, but also specific enough to accurately describe what high quality products look like. Possible other resources include investigations into the multimedia resources available to students during school hours, and availability of computer labs and other creative spaces after school.

Information Needed: What are the constraints on our departmental "common assessments?" What measures of mastery are sufficient to satisfy State of Michigan standards?

Steps so Far: My previous work in teaching Digital Video Projects has provided a solid foundation for developing rubrics that allow for student creativity within the confines of particular requirements. My recent efforts have revamped existing rubrics to mathematical situations, and have provided measures of "mastered", "developing", and "emergent" proficiency in various skill areas.

• Goal: Increase students’ ability to drive their own learning experience through the use of technology.
• Action: Modify existing classroom methods for student self-reflection so as to include technological enhancements. Some modifications may simply be to go “paperless” with some forms. However, new activities such as developing a video log of learning, maintaining a wiki site for shared classroom knowledge, or other student-created options are more likely.
• Monitoring: Successful implementation will include an increase in the number of student-generated personal reflections on their learning.
• Evaluation: Much of the long-term impact of such reflection will not be fully realized until much later. In all likelihood, the true effects will not be seen except for those few anecdotes from students as they make their way in the world. Our global market has caused a great demand for students to be able to self-monitor, self-assess, and create new pathways based on their analysis.

Resources Needed: In order to fully allow for students to apply technological solutions to problems, I need ready access to computer resources. I currently have two computers available for student use in my classroom, and hope to add four more computers. This will allow for more simultaneous use by individuals or groups.

Information Needed: How can student use of personal electronics for academic purposes be made compatible with currently restrictive school policies? What changes could be considered to policies to allow for appropriate use of personal technology?

Steps so Far: Initial efforts to increase the amount of personal reflection have been low-tech or no-tech in nature. Students are writing in personal logs about their successes and failures after each quiz. Over the course of a chapter, each student generates a quiz log that describes the specifics of the skills they have mastered, the places they made mistakes, and the steps needed to fix those errors.

NETS-T Game Plan

A “digital immigrant” as described by Marc Prensky, is someone who grew up and went through school before the current “digital age” referred to by the NETS-T from ISTE (Prensky, 2006). He describes such immigrants as unable to fully grasp the concepts of living in a digital society, and may even have difficulty incorporating much technology into personal and professional life. I have rejected this label due to the degree to which I have been absorbed into today’s technologies. Instead, I have chosen to identify more closely with the label “digital convert” as someone who has embraced the possibilities inherent in the digital society.

Today’s students did not experience a time when computers were not commonplace in schools and a basic necessity in the workplace. Modern students have always had cell phones as part of their lives, and CDs have become secondary to flash drives for storing information. These students have grown up with so much technology that they are often astonished to find that there are low-tech (or even no tech!) methods for doing things.

This gives me an advantage as a digital convert. I have the benefit of all the modern technology, along with a vantage point that allows me some perspective. I have experience with non-technological solutions, yet can opt to use technology where appropriate. In fact, I actively choose classroom activities to provide one experience versus the other depending on the situation. While some would say that choosing the pencil-and-paper route is not in keeping with ISTE technology standards, I maintain that we must help students to be thinkers first, so that they can then use technology for their own uses. Without the ability to think independently, society becomes a slave to the technologies that we are encouraged to use.

For these reasons, I am selecting NETS-T standard 1a “promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness” to strengthen. For this standard, my G.A.M.E. plan is:

• Goal: Increase student innovation by providing choices in formative assessment situations.
• Action: Develop 3 rubrics for assessment of student mastery, to foster creative solutions while maintaining the integrity of department-wide assessments.
• Monitoring: Success will be marked by an increase in non-traditional student work on assessments. Such work may be different in format from the traditional paper tests that students may see in high school math, but the students will still demonstrate mastery of the same State of Michigan mathematics standards.
• Evaluation: Quantitative data can be collected from State MME/ACT scores from successive years to determine if State standards trend upwards, downwards, or remain unchanged.

Secondly, I have selected NETS-T standard 2b “develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to purse their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress” as an area to be strengthened. Due to the current emphasis and new State laws surrounding “merit pay,” the stakes are increasingly high for teachers. If teachers are to be paid based on measurements of student achievement, then we simply must give students more tools for improving their own education. I cannot push information into their heads, but I can work to inspire a greater love for learning and an enthusiasm for high performance.

The G.A.M.E. plan for standard 2b is:

• Goal: Increase students’ ability to drive their own learning experience through the use of technology.
• Action: Modify existing classroom methods for student self-reflection so as to include technological enhancements. Some modifications may simply be to go “paperless” with some forms. However, new activities such as developing a video log of learning, maintaining a wiki site for shared classroom knowledge, or other student-created options are more likely.
• Monitoring: Successful implementation will include an increase in the number of student-generated personal reflections on their learning.
• Evaluation: Much of the long-term impact of such reflection will not be fully realized until much later. In all likelihood, the true effects will not be seen except for those few anecdotes from students as they make their way in the world. Our global market has caused a great demand for students to be able to self-monitor, self-assess, and create new pathways based on their analysis.

Reference

Prensky, M. (2005/2006). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8–13. Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/cms/objectlib/ascdframeset/index.cfm?publication=http://www.ascd.org/authors/ed_lead/el200512_prensky.html7, 345

Online Learning Modules

Hi all-

For this week's Application assignment, please visit the VoiceThread linked below. Feel free to add comments with digital ink, by typing, with your microphone, using your webcam, or even with your phone!

http://voicethread.com/share/1198398/

Thanks for visiting!

-Andrew

Social Learning?

Social networking has become one of the biggest uses of Internet usage among teens and adults. Sites like FaceBook and MySpace have brought together people from around the globe, and have created some interesting problems. Some of the more obvious problems often make their way through the Sunday comics: mothers or mother-in-laws who join FaceBook and make embarrassing comments, bosses and coworkers who hear venting rants that they should not, and various trysts that should have never made print to begin with! However, there are additional considerations that occasionally cross ethical lines.

For example, as a teacher of 15-to-18-year-olds, I am a FaceBook member, and have many students on my friend list. However, there are some limitations-- no student currently in my class list may be on my list. There are simply too many opportunities for comments to be made that can turn sour quickly, and such a visible connection can open suspicions, even when any relationship is completely innocent. We have seen news reports of vindictive tirades posted on FaceBook or other sites and the effects of the attacks are felt at school.

Cooperative learning has the opportunity to take all the best aspects of social interaction and apply that to an educational environment. However, there need to be certain constraints in place, accompanying a well-defined structure, before the project can be most effective. In particular, students need to know the goals of the project, and have access to necessary resources and each other. This indicates that it is not merely enough to hand students a generic problem without additional foresight and preparations. When the goals and aims of the project are well communicated, it establishes a focus for what the group needs to do and provides a common purpose to the group's actions. Without that focused effort, the well-intentioned "group project" simply becomes smalltalk and random discussions.

At times, it may be enough for the teacher to define the problem to be solved, provide a timeline, and monitor students. However, with this low level of guidance, students can quickly find themselves off task, especially if they do not see a way to solve that problem. It then becomes essential to write activities in such a way that they explicitly state both the kind of answer(s) that are required, along with a list of 'deliverables' that must be turned in to complete the project. It has been my experience that projects that focus on "why..." can be motivating to students, especially when presented with a situation that seems counter-intuitive. ("Why does this ball roll uphill?" or "why can you sometimes say that 1+1=1?")

Constructivism & Constructionism

My general approach to teaching my high school math classes is to create scientists of my students. (This will be particularly true of my IB Math SL class next year!) By this description, I mean that they are actively inquiring as to the nature of the material they study. We routinely practice questioning techniques that they can use even during tests when they come to unfamiliar territory.

In our ongoing efforts to help produce students ready for the world outside of education, our school has partnered with some local industries to help ensure that we really are doing the job that they require us to do. One of the best pieces of information we have gleaned from those partnerships was from one manager who said "we need workers who know what to do when they don't know what to do." Far from being nonsensical doublespeak, this was an urgent plea for problem-solvers. He was really saying that they need independent thinkers, not mindless drones. Workers who can solve problems effectively are an asset to the company, and provide much more value when they can reach beyond the minimum requirements.

So, my "scientists" are preparing themselves to become future leaders! To do that, they will need to be able to make educated guesses (hypotheses) and to determine a best course of action (testing/evaluating.) Sometimes, that constructionist way of approaching problems works very well-- especially when students are empowered to build prototypes, to rehearse and play out hypothetical situations, or to create demonstrations of a concept. All of those skills build not only an item, but also build and strengthen the neural networks surrounding those concepts in their minds.

Currently, my AP calculus students are working on their exam projects. Each group of 4 students has selected a topic that interests them from our year of study, and are developing "some interactive awesome thing" (my description in class) to teach future classes about their topic. The final products range from music videos, to electronic models that demonstrate volumes of three-dimensional figures, to interactive displays allowing experimentation with concrete representations of abstract concepts. Participation is excellent - students are able to write their own exam grade by judicious application of the supplied rubric throughout the process, and their personal interests and skills greatly guide the development. The level of engagement is particularly impressive when we consider that we have already covered the entire textbook and the AP Exam has already happened, leaving us with a rather empty month before the end of school.

Cognitivism in Practice

Our faculty did a book study of Classroom Instruction that Works, so I was quite interested to see that the course textbook for EDUC 6711 was dedicated to supporting those ideas with technology. For me, it has always been a tricky business when selecting appropriate means for students to interact with content. From my vantage point, I can visualize the same concepts via pencil & paper methods as easily as through technology methods. So, if there were no other considerations, I would select whichever is more convenient to create. However, in the role of teacher, I need to be aware of the effectiveness of a particular method from the students' points of view.

Our students are so immersed in technology that it is no longer a special treat to go to the computer lab. Twenty years ago, students would have been excited to use the computers because of the novelty. Now, students carry so much technology with them that schools have had to adopt new policies about technology use to deal with disruptions, cheating, privacy, and security issues. This means that students are often just as reluctant to use the computer as they are to use paper and pencil; they realize that both scenarios indicate that they will need to think-- not just play. For the educator, this is a good thing-- we can focus on the content rather than merely the novelty of using computers.

Concept mapping can easily be done with low-tech solutions such as Post-It (tm) notes on a table or poster board. However, with the invention of software like Inspiration and Kidspiration, the process can easily be automated and even exported in various forms to be used elsewhere. By computerizing tools like this, it frees students' minds to deal with the tasks and concepts at hand, rather than needing to create their own systems of classification and linking. For example, Inspiration has a rapid-fire mode that allows new topic nodes to be created as fast as the user can type. This greatly liberates the brainstorming process, as students are not slowed down by handwriting. Plus, even the most enthusiastic and prolific student will not run out of room for new ideas in a virtual concept map!

However, the classification of ideas and the creation of categories and sub-categories is an important part of the mapping. When students classify information, they must analyze that data in order to place it appropriately. To the cognitive theorist, this is a marvelous means of strengthening those links in the brain, helping to move the ideas from short-term to long-term memory.

Virtual field trips are an enormous cost-saving measure in these tight economic times. Yet instead of using them just as a replacement for costly physical journeys, those same virtual field trips can be a much more common part in the life of a class. By venturing out into the world from a virtual perspective, there are certain benefits for students. For example, students who are shy and reserved when they leave their comfort zone may actually learn more in the virtual trip than the same trip done in a more traditional fashion. That student can take comfort in the familiarity of their usual classroom environment yet still gain the experience that their more extroverted classmates may enjoy.

Behaviorist Theory & Instructional Strategies

As our video presenter indicated, behaviorist theory relies on reward and punishments-- the basis of operant conditioning. While we are not resorting to shock collars and food pellets, we do essentially the same thing with our words and actions in the classroom. In the text, a major focus is on providing appropriate feedback. When we give a simple "good job" or "that's correct," we have just given a small positive reward to encourage that behavior. Similarly, when we enact any of our stated-and-posted classroom rules/policies/practices due to some misbehavior, there is a negative consequence.

For me however, student success in my subject area (high school math) cannot be just about getting the right answer and small behaviorist viewpoints on teaching & learning. In all my lessons, I seek not only to educate students in the content, but to also help them regain their lost abilities of: being curious, wanting to learn, needing to know "why," and striving to succeed. I wish there were a way I could help students survive 5th-8th grade without that joy of learning being squashed out of them. It is a big job to dig it back out once it has been put away!

However, behaviorist theory can still help me in this quest, for it is often a student's perception of their abilities that controls their actions. Most of us will avoid doing things that make us look foolish, awkward, or stupid. For teenagers, that list of "things" can be almost infinite, and school tasks are no exception. So, I ask a lot of "duh" questions during class- if a student finds themselves thinking "duh" when I ask the question, it means they are probably right! This leads to a series of personal successes that build self esteem and confidence. Then, I work to help students transfer that success into bigger successes with problem solving and increased test scores. That whole process is operant conditioning-- the gradual reinforcement of desired behaviors to encourage those behaviors to be repeated.