Researching Policy - Class Size

1. The problem

The problem of class size is a global issue. It has no cultural or social restrictions. Sadly, as the USA Today news report mentioned, in all countries it is the children that need most attention and have the fewest resources who are mainly affected by this. Bloom’s research tells us that the most effective way of learning is by individual tutoring. However, it is economically impossible to sustain this method. Even if the money was available, the number of qualified teachers or tutors per child would be extremely difficult to find. Just like it happened in California, one of the main side effects of class size reduction (CSR) was a drop in teacher qualifications that disproportionately affected disadvantaged schools. Having this in mind, many educational researchers have been trying to find group methods of instruction that might be as effective as one-to-one tutoring. But how large could a class size be? It is common to find teachers who went from a large to a small class and are more likely to like the current small class, because they report a higher level of personal energy, and believe their students contributed more, paid more attention, and were more satisfied than students in larger classes. Also as the “The wisdom of class-size reduction” article says: CSR allows teachers the space to create meaningful learning opportunities for students. Giving teachers support to develop new strategies for teaching, smaller groups makes it more likely. Still, does this justify across-the-board class size reduction policies? Or should we agree with Hanushek who states that there are likely to be situations where small classes would be very beneficial for student achievement but there are many other situations where reduced class size has no important effect on achievement, even if it always has a very significant impact on school costs.

2. The way I see it

I’ve worked in two private K-12 all-girls schools. The first school served middle class families and the number of students per classroom was between 30 to 37. Now I work at an upper class school where we have between 15 to 25 students per classroom. As one of the assigned resources mentioned: “There’s the expectation that teachers in smaller classes alter their instructional strategies in a way that benefits student learning, therefore raising achievement. However, evidence from survey analyses reveals weak associations between class size and instructional practices.” I totally agree. From what I’ve seen instruction is not different because of the size of the classroom. There were teachers in my former school that were more capable of engaging students and were more open to innovate in their teaching with fewer resources and more students per classroom, than in my current school were there are less students per classroom and more resources but teachers don’t want to leave their comfort zone and you have to deal with their “egos”. I do think that some instructional practices may be more effective than others in small classes. Just like the same document mentions: “When the teacher carries out small-group or individual instruction, the time he or she spends with each student is no longer a constant but a function of class size: as the number of students in the class decreases, the teacher devotes more time to each student.” CSR by itself will not raise student achievement. It is the combination of several factors.

3. How can technology help?

If the purpose of CSR is to achieve the same results as one-to-one tutoring, then we must pay attention to the characteristics that make this method of instruction more effective and think of ways where technology can help simulate the same situation within a group. Bloom mentions that constant feedback and corrective process between the tutor and the tutee were important factors. Plus there is much reinforcement and encouragement in the tutoring situation. Securing instant feedback from a group of students isn’t that difficult if we use different tech tools like clickers, online surveys or quizzes and twitter discussions. Teachers no longer have to wait, they can get instant feedback and results from a large number of students. These tools can be used to facilitate corrective processes and reinforce topics that students don’t understand. Having this information will allow them to personalize student learning. Another thing that Bloom mentions is finding ways of involving more of the students in active engagement in the learning process. In smaller classes it’s easier to do this because you can get to know your students interests better. However, you can combine technology with effective instruction methods to engage students by connecting learning with real life. With technology you can also find ways of supplying additional clarification and illustrations as needed. We all know that we learn in different ways. Technology can help differentiate instruction within a group just like a tutor would do by providing the type of materials that his particular student needs. At the end of Bloom’s report he mentions the improvement of teaching with higher mental processes. These include critical thinking for analyzing and skills for evaluating and creating new knowledge based on what they’ve learned. If we look at Bloom’s new Digital Taxonomy, there are some great tech tools that have opened many ways for acquiring these higher order thinking skills.

Finally, if somebody asked me as a Computer Science teacher if I would prefer a small or large group. I would say a small one. But not because it improves teaching and learning, because it’s nice to get to know your students better. You can have more time to learn about their academic and personal interests, future goals and life problems and help them become better not only in your subject as students but as persons in their life. In a large group it is difficult to achieve this, but is that enough to mandate small classrooms everywhere? As I learned in a previous course, teaching is hard,  and educational research is very difficult because you can’t generalize things like in other sciences. We have to be realistic and make the best decisions taking into account the specific circumstances or situations that each community faces.

Research Proposal Project - Focus & Rationale

Audience:

I work for an association called APDE that manages seven private schools in Guatemala City. I want to share my investigation with the board of directors and principals of all seven schools. At the end of each year all the schools have a two week period of professional development, I would like to take advantage of this occasion to present my research results to all the elementary school teachers as well.

Sources:

I first got inspired to do this project by learning about PBS Kids’ raising readers campaign that focuses on building reading skills using media across all platforms to close the literacy achievement gap.

ISTE’s Journal of Research on Technology Education (JRTE) has a few interesting articles about this:

• ·        Commercial Software Programs Approved for Teaching Reading and Writing in the Primary Grades: Another Sobering Reality. JRTE, 2009; 42(2): 197-216
• ·         Digital Games in Education: The Designs of Games-Based Learning Environments. JRTE, 2007; 40(1): 23-38
• ·         Interactive CD-ROM Storybooks and Young Readers’ Reading Comprehension. JRTE, 2001; 33(4): 374-384

I’ve also found a book on Multimedia and Literacy Development by Adriana G. Bus and Susan B. Neuman. One of the chapters is online: “Cognitive processes during reading: implications for the use of multimedia to foster reading comprehension”. Unfortunately, I don’t live in the US and ordering the book would take too long and be most expensive.

The Reading Online Journal from the International Reading Association has all sorts of articles about using technology to enhance reading instruction.

Description:

Does the integration of interactive multimedia technologies in lower elementary grades increase students’ motivation and skills to read?

Each day of the week all of the students at the all-girls K-12 school where I work, have a one hour reading or studying period, it consists mostly of reading silently by themselves. For my lower elementary kids, it can be difficult and boring at times. I often hear teachers say that they have a hard time keeping the students motivated to read and that they end up doing something else instead, like coloring or drawing on their notebooks. I believe that acquiring good reading skills is very important for a countries development. Guatemala has a low literacy rate and unlike other societies very few people are known to be “book lovers”. Some of it has to do with our socioeconomic problems, buying books can be expensive! But with all the online resources accessible at present, not having money will no longer be an excuse. Since I started working in education this has been a concern of mine. With the help of my sister, we design a children’s poetry page: www.mundoemilia.com, knowing little about all the research available on how to enhance reading instruction.

I would like to work on a theoretical/empirical research study on how integrating multimedia technologies can motivate and develop young children’s reading skills like fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. It would be a longitudinal study with repeated measures. I’m still defining the variables and the methods to get the data I need. On a small scale, I would be very happy if I could just improve the quality and results of my school’s reading period, and find out that there’s a positive relationship between technology and reading. On a larger scale, I have found that there’s a lot of interest in research focused on the impact of applying technology in helping children learn to read, so I would like to contribute my findings with the world. There is still much to be explored by schools, technology developers and researchers.

“Technology can help make a good reading program more effective, but its value depends upon the quality of the overall reading program and the thoughtful implementation of technology to enhance reading instruction.” INDUS - Training and Research Institute.

WPP - Final Overview

This will be my last blog post for CEP-812. Another MAET course concluded! During the course I've been working on my Wicked Problem Project.

The first part consisted in identifying a need or opportunity where technology could make a real impact. I divided the problem in three parts that are connected to the same solution:

Part 1: We’ve had Google Apps in our school for three years now but my teachers still don’t use many of the tools or features that would make their work a lot easier.

Part 2: As Technology Coordinator I have to make sure that all the technological resources available in the school are being used effectively. I wanted to design a system that would give me better control of all our devices and software.

Part 3: I feel that there isn’t enough communication between different subject areas or grade levels of what interesting or creative activities are being done using technology.

What solution did I find for all the parts of my problem?

Incorporate most of the tools that Google Apps has to offer in creating a site where teachers could request assistance and resources and at the same time they could share how their activity went with other members of the staff, I would not only make part of my job a lot easier but also build a functional demonstration of how using Google Apps could be very helpful for other educational tasks and promote their use in the classroom.

To make sure that my solution had the necessary elements to become a good learning resource for my teachers I analyzed it using the TPACK model.

I began with Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). In this solution, the same tools that I want my teachers to learn are the ones that they will be using on a daily basis for sharing their edtech experiences and scheduling the use of different technology resources. TPK in this case would help them identify similarities and differences of doing tasks with or without Google Apps. I think it will also be a good engagement strategy since they are using the same thing that they are learning.

For TCK, Technological Content Knowledge, the content in this case is Google Apps. You might say that the whole site is a non-linguistic representation of the content, since it's a physical or digital model of the different tools. This will help create a mental picture of the different functionalities.

Finally for Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), this solution has a very practical or kinesthetic approach to learning the content. The teachers will first have the experience of using Google Apps as part of the school's needs to keep track of technology integration. Later, they can appropriate the same tools for their own needs inside the classroom.

Watch the next video to learn more about my WP Project:

GLP - Finished Video

Yesterday, my team mate Alex Gonzalez and I finished our 10 minute instructional video for our Group Leadership Project. It was a good team work experience. I think we both contributed a lot of good ideas and were dedicated to deliver a good final product. It’s even sad about it being over and not knowing if we'll get the chance to work together again. Watch the video and tell us what you think:


Google Apps Scripts PD Presentation from Alex Gonzalez on Vimeo.


What tool did we use to deliver the tutorial? Why?

The great thing about technology is that it no longer matters were you are. For this project we used a great variety of tools to communicate and collaborate. By now, you’ve probably noticed that we’re both very much into Google Apps, so we used some of them for this project. Gmail was an essential part of our communication; it was nice to know that we were just an email or a chat away. We also shared a Google document and created a Google site for our script and storyboard. Collaborating with these apps was really easy! It allowed us to focus more on the content and creation process of the project and not so much in the technology.

We also used videoconferencing tools like Skype and Vyew. I’ve never used Vyew before and it does have some nice features, but Skype has become one of my favorite ways to communicate with others. I could hear Alex a lot clearer and being able to see his screen during the editing process of the video pretty much felt like we were working together in the same room. What can I say, Skype rocks!

For the actual production of the video, we also used a mix of tools. From the commonly known MS Power Point program for visual aids, to screen capturing programs like Screenflow and Jing. Not to mention other not so very essential tools like Photoshop and Soundbooth for editing photos and recording audio.

There are very few projects that I’ve done that required such a variety of tools. It was nice learning experience.

What did I learn during the development process of the final product?

Aside from combining all the tools that I mentioned earlier, I also learned that a well-planned storyboard makes a great difference if you’re creating a tutorial of this kind. It allowed us to organize ourselves better and work our parts at our own pace and time. At the end, putting it all together wasn’t hard at all because we had followed our plan.

Of course, I also learned that you have to be flexible and some things may change when you construct the video. It’s like when you see some clothes that you like in a store, but later change your mind when you try them on. We made some last minute changes, some parts from the script or storyboard didn’t quite fit anymore or we added other elements to make our message clearer.

What would I do differently if I had to develop a similar product again?

The topic of our video reminded me of old times, when I worked as a web developer. I think the video is a nice overview of what Google Apps Script is, but there is still so much more to be said. I would have liked to make more specific short videos of the things we mention. This tool has so much potential, for those that are willing to take the time to program a little, there are so many possibilities for what you can do. Our video can give you a very broad idea of the scripting feature but it won’t actually teach you how to really use it.

Professional Learning Plan CEP-812

Another MAET course concluded. This was the last of the courses from the Certificate Program. After looking back at my 810 Personal Learning Reflections, I remember being very interested in learning more about TPACK and sharing it with the other schools in APDE. I’m glad that we revisited this topic in 812 and that I gave my first workshop about it to the Academic Directors and Technology Coordinators of all the schools on Mach 28th of this year. Another goal from 810 was to promote Mobile Learning in my school. In 812 my certainty of the potential of these tools was even more profound. It’s going to be slow process, but we’re taking our first steps in allowing mobile devices for learning in my school. My PLN has grown so much since I started it in 810. My classmates have been great examples to follow. With each course I get to know more about them and it’s been a great experience to work in group projects with really talented people.


I must confess that I was worried at first to make podcasts and vidcasts for this course. It felt weird recording myself in English at the beginning. I just wasn’t used to it. English is not my first language and although I’ve been learning it since I was in Kindergarten, I always get a little nervous and worry about doing it well. I’m now proud of what I’ve accomplished to do and feel more confident using these methods of communication. It inspired me to volunteer in a school project to design and implement a multimedia studio. I’m sure our students would learn very important skills creating podcasts and vidcasts for several of their courses. With time and practice I want to improve the quality and production of these types of resources, especially to complement the professional development/learning of our teachers. I hope that by the end of this year my school will count with the space and equipment for audio and video production that students and teachers can use.

One of the reasons why I decided to apply for the Master’s program was because I wanted to be a better leader in educational technology in my job and for my country. Improving the educational system in my country is one of my dreams and I know that with the help of technology the children in Guatemala will have better opportunities to learn. The second session of this course gave me some great resources and insight on how to accomplish this. It made me reflect on the eight traits of a Technology Leader: Modeling, Approachable, Informed, Knowledgeable, Risk Taker, Supporter, and Initiator. I want to learn more about Technology Plans and Standards in Guatemala and other countries. I constantly have to plan and give group workshops and also assist teachers individually. I always worry about if I’m doing the right things when it comes to professional development for my teachers. The idea of professional learning (not development!) is something that I definitely want to motivate in my workplace. I’m really excited that I will be attending to my first ISTE conference this year! I believe that these courses have prepared me to make the most of this trip. I can attend to the different lectures, forums and workshops with more knowledge and experience on different Educational Technology topics.

In session three of this course, I really enjoyed exploring all the Date Visualization tools that are now available on the Web. So to finish this post, I decided to use the very popular Wordle app and invite you to visualize my Professional Learning Plan in a word cloud. Enjoy!

WPP Part D - Findings and Implications 2/2

It’s been a week since I started using my new Google Site to manage the technology resources at my school. I see now that it’s going to be a slow process for some teachers and others won’t hesitate to use it. After showing it first to a select group, my next step was to make it public to all. I placed a nice banner on our Moodle page where everyone can click to visit the site and sent an email to every teacher and coordinator telling them the purpose of the site and to contact me if they had questions or suggestions. 23% of the teachers replied to my message and agreed to check it out.

It’s no surprise that the students, especially from middle and high school, were the first to use the site in a more consistent way. They come to my office daily to borrow school laptops to use inside the classroom. Instead of having to fill a paper form, I told them to use my computer and fill a Google Form inside of the site. They liked this method a lot more and I now I have a nice spreadsheet that I can later use to generate reports.

I am now thinking of placing another computer inside of my office that will have the site displayed during the entire school day. When students and teachers come for a technology resource they will use it to fill the forms and ask me questions if they have problems. For now, I’ve been letting them use my PC, but then I have to wait for them to finish… students frequently come in groups and I have to wait between 10 and 15 minutes until all of them fill-in the form. Maybe with time they will do this procedure from another place, but even then I would like to make it easier for all and offer them the choice to come to my office where there is a PC at their disposal.

I’m happy that the project is getting implemented as planned but it will take at least a moth for everyone to use it, and maybe more for the teachers to start copying some of its features. The main objective of the site is to motivate everyone at school to use Google Apps more. I’m happy that they are becoming more aware of them. The next time we have meetings or workshops I can use the site as a reference and they will be able to associate it when I talk to them about the different Google tools they can use.

The next time I decide to create a project that will serve as a model for some specific technology or software I will probably send an email to all the teachers prior to actually publishing it with a brief explanation of the technology behind it and the objectives of why I created the model for them. I noticed that only the persons that are already curious asked me how I did the site and took the time to read my descriptions. Others just went straight to what they needed and didn’t bother to ask. Maybe if I create some expectation beforehand they will be more intrigued about seeing the demonstration.

I think the best way of teaching something is by fist experiencing or using it yourself. I will surely make more projects using Google Apps for education. I know the more I use these tools with the teachers and students to make processes a lot simpler the more they will get motivated to use them themselves. There is still much to do, but my job wouldn’t be that much fun if there weren’t.

WPP Part D - Findings and Implications 1/2

Today was my first day back at work from our Holy Week break. “Semana Santa” is a very big deal here in Guatemala; we have some very incredible traditions. If you’re curious about it, you can see some great photos in Flickr.

The Wicked Problem Project is almost coming to an end. Because of the break, I decided to split this last post in two parts, with the permission of my CEP-812 teacher, I hope! I just don’t have enough feedback yet and will surely have more at the end of the week.

I will tell you how today went. I introduced the Google Apps demo site first to the teachers that are more open to try new technologies. It’s always part of my strategy as tech coordinator: Go seek some friendly feedback and support first. Because there are some teachers that always give me a look that I’m sure means “what do you want me to do or try now?” If I tell them that others have already began using the software or tools with specific examples many become interested and drop the negative attitude.

I showed it to three teachers today. I was very glad when the first one asked me: “How did you do it? Can I do something similar?” A voice inside my head said: “Yey! It worked.” What I wanted was for them to see the different Google Apps in action and try to use them for their own purposes. With the second person, I found that I needed to add more instructions to the site. When she saw the calendars on the first page, she immediately started clicking them and wanted to add an event there, not going to the form that was on another page. The last person I showed it to was in a hurry. She wanted to schedule her class for tomorrow in one of the Computer Labs, so I showed her the site but I ended up filling the form for her. I have a feeling that I have to work on making it easy for teachers to access the site quickly, if not I might end up filling the forms for them.

Tomorrow I will show it to a larger group of teachers and also introduce it to the other Coordinators. I’m happy that there will be more order when it comes to scheduling and using different technology resources, I will be able to generate reports more easily and everybody at school will get to know and use Google Apps for education.

First steps to Mobile Learning

As Technology Coordinator, I decided to take my first steps to include mobile learning in school at the beginning of this year. I have to say, I was very pleased when they included this topic in my current MAET course. Just as many other educators, I also had to convince the authorities and parents that phones aren’t that bad in the classroom. You just have to plan your classes a little differently if you decide to use them.

I’m proud to say that I’m now a member of the Classroom 2.0 Social Network and joined the Cell Phones in Education Group. This is an image of my first contribution to the group:

As I mentioned in my Classroom 2.0 post, my first experience with mobile learning was in my Computer Science class using the mobile Twitter App. I like to try new things with my students first, to gain some experience and then motivate the other teachers to try it in their class. It is complicated to have so many smart phones in class. You have to be prepared for the possibility of your students getting distracted. In my case, I try to keep them busy all the time and tell them to put their phones in a visible place while we are not using them. 

In other classes we’ve tried to incorporate other mobile technologies like cameras but those seem less scary or distracting. Students use them to take photos and record short videos. Most of them really enjoy using MovieMaker and online image editors like Picnik to make their class projects. I also have under my care 25 laptops that I can lend to teachers or students to use them inside the classroom. My school has wireless internet access in all classrooms and hallways which makes it really easy for students to search information on the Web. Usually they work in groups of three or four and they take six or five laptops to their class. The laptops aren’t that small, so I don’t see them as portable as other devices. I work at a K-12 school, so I worry about the little ones carrying a 7 pound laptop around the school. I hope we can invest on another type of portable device like Tablet PCs for our Elementary Kids. That would be awesome!

I just learned about PollEverywhere and the possibility to vote using Twitter, so I will try this on my next class coming this Thursday. I was supposed to do it las week but we had time off  for Holy Week. I will post a small update of how it went with my students. You can see a screenshot of my poll underneath:

For the coming months I would like to encourage the use of ipods and phones in other classes. I’m also very excited about developing mobile apps in my CS class.

I think it will take time for the school to open up to these technologies. I have to work with the school's authorities and help them become more flexible about the use of mobile technologies in the classroom. They are still very worried of what the consequences might be if they allow students to bring their phones, ipods and cameras to school.

WPP Part C - Implementation

My Wicked Problem Project consists of developing a Google Site with different features that will help me in my job as Technology Coordinator, but at the same time demostrate teachers what they can do with Google Apps for Education.

You can visit the website here: https://sites.google.com/a/entrevalles.edu.gt/teched/

What surprises, delight and unexpected bumps in the road did I encounter? Listen to my podcast to find out:

Implementation MP3 File

Here are a couple of screenshots of my site, it's coming along quite nicely and I can't wait to return to school and try it out with my teachers and students.

You can now subscribe to my Blog using FEEDBURNER.

GLP Part B - Storyboard and Script

The second part of our Group Leadership Project consisted in creating a storyboard and script for our 10 minute tutorial video about Google Apps Script.

We decided to create a Google Site for this:

Group #3 Storyboard & Script

Each of us worked on different parts of the storyboard and of the script. You can see a published document of the script by clicking here. Alex focused more on the theoretical part of the tool and I worked more on the practical examples. At the end of the video we will both explain how to create a simple script. Parts of the video will display slides of a PowerPoint Presentation that we will design, this will be mostly in parts 1 to 4 of the storyboard. And for parts 5 and 6 we will use Jing or Screenflow to record our screen while we use the different features of the tool.

GLP Part A - Brainstorm

In the Group Leadership Project we have to create a 10 minute stand alone professional development tutorial on a technology of our choice. I was assigned to Group #3 and it consists of three members: Alejandro Gonzalez, Marcus Clark and myself.

For part A of the GLP we had to make a web conference together were we would brainstorm and choose a technology to be taught and a technology to facilitate the learning.

You can watch our Web-conference recording here: http://vimeo.com/22204766

Unfortunately, one of our group members was not present, so it was just Alex and I for the first meeting. The technology we chose to teach is Google Apps Scripts and we plan to make a narrated video of it. We will use ScreenFlow for making the recording.

More technical aspects and timeline of the project:

We divided our video tutorial in two parts. The first is more about the concept of scripting and the technology behind it. We will create a PowerPoint presentation as a visual aid for this section. Some parts of the presentation will be animated so we will campture them with Jing and then put it all together with Screenflow. The second part of the video will be more of a walkthrough of this new feature in Google Apps. We will show how to include already created scripts into Google Spreadsheets and Sites, and how to create a very simple first script using the editor. Both of us will be the narrators of the video and we'll try to make it interesting and funny to watch. We will include some background music and audio effects in some strategic parts of the video as well.

The timeline of our project has three stages. The first stage is to be completed on April 17th with the creation of our script and storyboard. We used Google Apps for this! Our script is in a public Google Document and our storyboard is a Google Site. The second stage for April 23rd is creating our PowerPoint presentation and selecting some background music and audio for our video. The final stage would be recording the actual video using Jing and Screenflow, by the 27th and 28th of April. We should have the finished product by the 30th.

What web conferencing tool did our group use? We used Vyew for our web conference.

What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project? I think that these types of technologies help you communicate better with others regardless of the distance. I'm in another country so I have no choice but to communicate through some electronic method, and it can be very slow and hard to express oneself with emails, IM or forums. It's nice to hear my classmate's voice! The conference lasted about 30 minutes and we got to decide many things we wanted to accomplish with this project. I'm sure it would have taken a lot longer to reach a decision writing back and forth to each other.

What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project? We had some minor technical problems with the tool. Sometimes I couldn't hear Alex very well and there were some delays with the audio, so it's always good to have backup plan just in case. You also may need other supporting technologies to make your collaboration work more efficient, like Google Docs for example.

At the end it was a very productive meeting and I'm sure we will have others throughout the process of this project.

WPP Part B - Application of TPACK

For my MAET Wicked Problem Project I decided to create a website with Google Apps. The site will help me administrate more efficiently our school's technology resources and improve communication among the staff. At the same time it will serve as a model of the different uses or functionalities that G-Apps offers. Our school has been using Google Apps for Education since 2009, I want my teachers to take better advantage of these Google tools.

I've already started my Technology Integration Website using Google Sites.

Now, I will analyze my project using the TPACK model to see if this solution has the necessary elements to become a good learning resource for my teachers.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK)

In this solution, the same tools that I want my teachers to learn are the ones that they will be using on a daily basis for sharing their edtech experiences and scheduling the use of different technology resources. I will also communicate events and share important documents regarding technology integration within the school. Inside the site each feature will make reference to what Google App or feature is being used with a link to a more detailed description. It would be a lot harder to explain to them in a traditional verbal workshop the tools if they haven't used them first and have not seen the benefits of their implementation. TPK in this case will help them identify similarities and differences of doing tasks with or without Google Apps. I think it will also be a good engagement strategy since they are using the same thing that they are learning.

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK)

For TCK, the content in this case is Google Apps. You might say that the whole site is a non-linguistic representation of the content, since it's a physical or digital model of the different tools. This will help create a mental picture of the different functionalities. So when I talk to my teachers about sharing a document template or calendar with their students, they will know what I'm talking about because I've done the same thing with them.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

I think that this solution has a very practical or kinesthetic approach to learning the content. The teachers will first have the experience of using Google Apps as part of the school's needs to keep track of technology integration. Later, they can appropriate the same tools for their own needs inside the classroom.

Web-Conferencing Lab

This week I had my first web conference using a free online tool called Vyew. I had used other software for Web conferencing like Skype, MS Live Meeting and Adobe Connect, so I was very curious about this new option.

It has some really nice features like whiteboarding, screen and document sharing, IM, wecbam and voice activation and the continuous meeting rooms are always saved and can be always on.

I liked that even though Vyew is free and ad supported, the ads are discrete. The only downside of the free version is that only 10 people can participate at the same time in a room, not very practical for a teacher, when classes consists of at least 15 to 30 students.

Some features that are missing and could be very useful are:
- Recording sessions (You need to use another program like ScreenFlow for this)
- Polling

Alex and I had a very productive Web conference. I think it is a lot faster to brainstorm ideas this way than just send emails or post messages on a forum. You also get to know your classmates better and it's always nice to make new friends :)

WPP PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

My next MAET assignment is the Wicked Problem Project or WPP. It consists on implementing a use of technology to address a problem of practice and/or an educational goal. For part A, I have to describe a need or opportunity where technology can make a real impact on the issue I will propose.

Part of my job as Technology Coordinator is to make sure that all the technological resources available in the school are being used effectively. Since I’ve started working at Entrevalles, I wanted to design a system that would not only give me better control of all our devices and software, but also keep a history of the creative things that my teachers are doing with them. I feel that there isn’t enough communication between different subject areas or grade levels. I also wish that my teachers would use Google Apps a lot more; collaboration would be so much easier if they would take advantage of these great tools.

By incorporating most of the tools that Google Apps has to offer (Sites, Calendar, Docs and Scripts) in creating a site where teachers could request assistance and resources, but at the same time they could share how their activity went with other members of the staff, I would not only make part of my job a lot easier but also build a functional demonstration of how using Google Apps could be very helpful for other educational tasks and promote their use in the classroom.

This site would be accessible to all the teachers and coordinators. It would be available to them during the entire school year. Inside they would find a page for each of the different technology resources, with a form that would add events to a Google calendar and a spreadsheet for statistical purposes. They could also get an email with the day’s agenda. There would be a page for sharing comments and photos about the different activities. I would make some useful Google docs templates for sharing reports with other coordinators and myself. These are only some of the basic features that I would like my site to have; new ideas still keep coming every time that I learn new things about Google Apps.

Why is it important for my teachers to use our school’s Google Apps? Google has plenty of documentation on how to use Google Apps in a K-12 setting. You can find the top 10 reasons for choosing them by clicking this link. How will this help me do a better job? There is a Google Sites page for Teachers where I found a similar project or a simple example of a school’s Technology Site. I’ve recently participated in a Google Apps Script for Educators Webinar and was amazed with all the possibilities! Don’t hate, automate! You can really take Google Apps to another level with this scripting feature. I'm excited to try this scripting language out and make many of my day-to-day tasks a lot easier.

So, where to start? During the course I would implement the basic elements of the site, like the forms and calendars for requesting different technology resources, a template repository, a photo gallery, an announcements section and a comments page for different technology integration activities.

I would know the sites success depending on the use or acceptance it has with all the teachers at my school. It would also be successful if it helps me have better control of all the different technological resources and motivates teachers to use them more frequently. I have a pretty good feeling that this site will have a very positive impact on the school’s academic community.

One Minute Bio

One of my vidcasts recorded with Jing and later edited with Camtasia Studio.

Watch and listen some things about me. They are told in one minute or less!

Clic on the link to see it on Screencast:

OneMinuteBio

Recording: A funny thing happened with Technology

I'm exploring Podcasting for my next MAET course. After repeating the same text many times, I think I'm starting to like the sound of my voice, ha!

You can listen to me by clicking here.

CEP-811 Grand finale, some reflections...

Another MAET course finished! Now some last thoughts about what I've learned and the new goals ahead:

What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

This course helped me a lot with my teaching skills. Learning about instructional design principles and UDL made me understand how to create better and more effective classes that integrate technology. I felt really comfortable using technology after studying Computer Science, but I still needed to learn much about instruction and learning, you might say how to improve in the scholarship of teaching. The instructional design template will be a great reference for future lesson planning in my courses and in my school. I will also have UDL very present when I decide to try new technologies at my school.

How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

Web-based technologies are for certain essential in today’s education. I got to analyze these tools not from a technical point of view, but from their educational or pedagogical potential. I found some great resources in Merlot, some useful Webquests and got to experiment more with Wikis. We are definitely using all of these Web resources and tools at my school. You also don’t need a big budget to take advantage of all the technologies, so there is no excuse for using them if you have internet access.

How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

I feel that with this course I acquired a more guided view of how to include technology in the classroom. I learned how to evaluate with better judgment all the material and tools that are available on the Web.

Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

Yes! I want to improve the instructional design of our school lessons and think about how to help my teachers have UDL more present in their classes. We haven’t used Wikis that much, so I will try to incorporate them in some school projects. I want to create more StAIR projects with my teachers, tell them about the concept and make more lessons modules on our Moodle platform that I’m sure will be useful for the years to come. I enjoyed participating in the TPACK Webquest, it could be a great activity to include for the teachers workshops I have to give at the end of the year.

Online Learning

For this next post I have to talk about how I could use one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience with my students.

I have to say that I've never designed a complete online course, but I have been a great fan of blended learning for three years now. I'm used to using Course Management Systems (CMS) or Learning Management Systems (LMS) as a fundamental part of my Computer Science classes and as repositories for different types of resources for EdTech integration for my teachers.


What content could this help you teach?

Online resources can be a great help for learning new concepts. You can rely on all the types of multimedia to aid student's understanding. In my particular subject, Computer Science, online learning helps me to teach the theoretical part of the course so I can focus on the practical part in class, where students apply the new concepts to solve actual problems in a creative way.

As Technology Coordinator, online learning has allowed me to create courses where I can put EdTech resources in an ordered manner for my teachers according to their subject and grade level. These online courses sometimes include forums, surveys and wikis which help me receive feedback from them and improve what I’m doing.

What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?

Non-lingustic representations: Online learning can give you so many choices of how to represent different concepts! From charts, concept maps, animations, presentations, podcasts, timelines, etc.

Objectives and feedback: I really like to put my objectives, calendar and rubrics on my online courses. They can be a very good guide to help students in their learning process. I also like to include surveys and forums to get some feedback from my students and tell me if they are getting the class.

Cooperative learning: It is really easy to collaborate online with all the new Web applications available. Students really enjoy learning with others and I find it very interesting when it's with students from other schools or countries.

What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?

When it comes to online learning the biggest problem is that there are still some teachers and students that don't have Internet access at home. Another disadvantage is that we aren't a 1:1 school for the moment, in some cases all of the computers are being used so Real-time Online learning would not be as effective because many would be left out.

I also think that making podcasts or videocasts would be harder to implement, mostly because culturally we are not used to broadcasting ourselves. Also many don't want to participate in these kinds of media because of security reasons.

Educational gaming could also become a challenge for my Elementary School students, since most of the good games are in English and they still don't feel that comfortable with the second language as the older kids do.

Wikipedia troubles

It looks like they might remove my Wikipedia page after all... It appears that I have to add more content to the page or it won't be considered an encyclopedia article. I added some more text, I wonder if it's enough for my page to survive!

The wiki wiki twist

For my Wiki Lab assignment I had to add my school to Wikipedia. Let me tell you, it has been a challenge! Since I work for a private school, it seems that I can't add the page without being labeled as propaganda or publicity. So I decided to write about the non-profit organization that administrates my school and six others. It seems the Spanish speaking folks at Wikipedia had no problem with this, so my page for the moment hasn't been removed, hooray! You can find my screenshot below:

I've also created my own Wiki in Wikispaces: http://angie4edtech.wikispaces.com/

This was a lot more simple than adding the page in Wikipedia. I've already invited some members to my Wiki and plan to keep working on it as a place to share EdTech ideas with my technology team.

Applying the UDL Guideles

"Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing curricula that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning. UDL provides rich supports for learning and reduces barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all."

Using the next UDL checklist I will identify the features and barriers in my Goal-directed Instructional Design Plan for one of my CS Lessons. View Lesson

I. Provide Multiple Means of Representation

1. Provide options for perception = Feature: Using Moodle and adding different types of digital media resources will allow students to customize the display of information and also provide auditory and visual alternatives for information.

1.1 Customize the display of information

1.2 Provide alternatives for auditory information

1.3 Provide alternatives for visual information

2. Provide options for language and symbols = Feature: A glossary block could be added to the course to define vocabulary and illustrate key concepts non-liguistically.

2.1 Define vocabulary and symbols

2.2 Clarify syntax and structure

2.3 Decode text or mathematical notation

2.4 Promote cross-linguistic understanding

2.5 Illustrate key concepts non-linguistically

3. Provide options for comprehension = Feature: Adding lesson modules can help guide the information proscessing and support memory and transfer. Barrier: It will be more challenging to incorporate resources that highlight big ideas and relationships.

3.1 Provide or activate background knowledge

3.2 Highlight critical features, big ideas, and relationships

3.3 Guide information processing

3.4 Support memory and transfer

II. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

4. Provide options for physical action =  Barrier: There are limited ways for the students to respond or interact with the materials.

4.1 Provide varied ways to respond

4.2 Provide varied ways to interact with materials

4.3 Integrate assistive technologies

5. Provide options for expressive skills and fluency = Feature: Glogster allows students many choices of media for communication and with Moodle you can provide ways to scaffold practice and performance.

5.1 Allow choices of media for communication

5.2 Provide appropriate tools for composition and problem solving

5.3 Provide ways to scaffold practice and performance

6. Provide options for executive functions = Feature: Moodle offers some options for executive functions. 

6.1 Guide effective goal setting

6.2 Support planning and strategy development

6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources

6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress

III. Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

7. Provide options for recruiting interest = Barrier: The lesson provides limited choices of user profiles that may not be relevant to all students.

7.1 Increase individual choice and autonomy

7.2 Enhance relevance, value and authenticity

7.3 Reduce threats and distractions

8. Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence = Feature: There are many ways to foster collaboration and communication. Barrier: The lesson doesn't describe  levels of challenge and support of how to increase mastery-oriented feedback.

8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives

8.2 Vary levels of challenge and support

8.3 Foster collaboration and communication

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

9. Provide options for self-regulation = Feature: Students can use their Glog to develop self-assessment and reflection. 

9.1 Guide personal goal-setting and expectations

9.2 Scaffold coping skills and strategies

9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection

Evaluating learning materials in MERLOT

Learning Material: Active Learning with PowerPoint

Quality of Content

This is a very well presented and organized webpage. Its contents do present valid concepts, models and skills for our school staff. PowerPoint is still a very popular teaching tool or resource among my teachers so the materials are educationally significant to my work as technology coordinator. I think this site can help us improve the quality of our PowerPoint presentations.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool

It has the potential to be a very effective resource for my teachers. It could be used at different stages of the learning cycle. It explains the instruction problems caused by poor use of PowerPoint presentations. It also demonstrates how well designed slides can improve student participation in class. Teachers can apply the sites guidelines to create better PowerPoint presentations for class.

As the introduction to this tutorial says: "Despite the fact that so much has been written about PowerPoint's weaknesses, instructors still feel compelled to adapt PowerPoint to the classroom. This tutorial is designed to help you capitalize on those aspects of PowerPoint that lend themselves best to engaging students' interests." I find this to be very true, PowerPoint is one of the most used instructional resources in classrooms, but not many know how to get better learning results with it.

I like that this learning material can be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals. Every teacher can benefit from this website. If you use PowerPoint, you should take a look at this tutorial.

Ease of Use

It is very easy to use. You can read a clear explanation of how to use this tutorial on the home page. The menus and general layout of the website are very clean and straight forward.