Wicked Problem Project Part D

Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?  
There were no major deviations from the original proposed plan.  It was interesting to look at the feedback I had gotten about my plan however.  It seemed clear that I had not explained as clearly as I could have the reasons for and ideas about how to implement my website.  As of right now I have a lot of work to do to get this up and running for next year.  There is a ton of content that needs to be written.  Thankfully I have the help of the teacher that I will be working with next year.

Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.
This is a hard question to answer as this was not intended to go live until the '11-'12 school year.  We plan to enlist the help of some students this summer in gauging their reactions to the work that has already been completed and how it can be bettered.  This is really formative in nature but since I will have no other evidence of success it will have to serve as summative until I can see what really happens.  I can say that my teaching partner for this project was really excited to see the work that I had done and was anxious to add to it.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
I don't think that I would go about doing much differently that I have.  I believe strongly that this will be a exceptionally useful next year. For my personal sanity, I might have chosen a project with a smaller scope.  It has been really difficult to deal with the vast number of things (different technologies, producing content, aesthetics...) required to produce this project.  However, I think the fact that it was difficult and did force me to think about so many different aspects is what makes it a superior choice to an easier topic.

What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
I think the biggest lesson to be learned is that it is a bad idea to pick a technology and then try to wrap a context around it.  From having watched my group members blog postings it seemed like many of them realized there were some issues with their chosen technology once they reached the TPACK phase of the assignment.  TPACK obviously provided a reflective tool to evaluate whether a proposed solution was good or not.  However, I think TPACK is much better used as a tool to guide me in the construction phase.  I would prefer to see Part C of this assignment exchanged with part B for this reason. 

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I have a feeling that I will be busy for some time completing the current project.  I anticipate that it will be continuously revised and refined once we see it in action.  In that sense I am not sure that I will move on to doing another project like this for quite a while. 

Mobile Learning Lab

Alright, I played with Polleverywhere for quite a while.  I could see using it in my classroom as a formative assessment tool for sure.  I liked how quickly it registered responses (I sent several to my own question).  The display as a bar graph for multiple choice questions is very nice.  I have used my TI Navigator system in the same way, but it is cumbersome to set up and get kids logged into.  I am less optimistic about the open response questions.  The data isn't aggregated in a way that is as helpful as it could be.  For example I sent the same response twice because I wanted to see how it would handle the information.  The result was two separate answers that had the same text.  One cool thing about the Navigator system is that if it gets the same response multiple times it shows that in a bar graph by increasing the length of the corresponding bar.  I also don't like that you cant ask multiple questions on one poll.  I see using this as a way to get a quick fix on what students know and don't but prescripting questions might be difficult as I don't always know what direction students will go with a particular topic. Here is one of the polls I made.

Make a live audience poll at Poll Everywhere

On the Classroom 2.0 site people cited other potential issues with using it.  Cell phone reception seemed to be one possible limiting issue as well as those who don't have unlimited text plans.  Also, in reading through the 25 Practical Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Classroom there were some other issues raised about students who may not have a cell phone and possibly feeling embarrassed if they can't participate.

I have watched kids take pictures of homework assignments from the board so they didn't have scramble to write it all down.  I have even taken a picture of some students work with my phone so that we could save it to talk about the following day.  I think that there are lots of uses for phones in particular and I think as educators we need to learn how to encourage kids to use them creatively and not in the disruptive "I need to text my friend who's in German class right now" way.  Several of my colleagues refuse to believe that students are capable of doing much other than the former and I keep arguing that the reason for that is that we are not showing them what it means to use them appropriately.  That is a separate issue for now I guess.

Data Visualization Lab

Ok, to be honest I didn't expect much from this lab.  As a math major and physics minor I spent huge chunks of time in college making visualizations to support my work.  This was particularly true in my physics labs.  I decided not to look at visualizations that I was used to working on in those classes and instead looked at some of the flow-charting options that were available. 

I have used MS Visio on a couple of occasions including recently in my Wicked Problem Project and I think it has some great features.  For example if you drag a balloon onto a page with an existing balloon Visio will snap the new object to a grid that aligns it vertically or horizontally with the existing item.  Really this snap feature is useful for drawing arrows between items, crossing out a balloon, etc.  Visio doesn't do a great job with pretty colorful charts.

For this lab I played around with three pieces of free flow-charting software.  Dia (http://live.gnome.org/Diav), Exploreatree (http://www.exploratree.org.uk/) and Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/).  Each had their own relative strengths and weaknesses.  I am already thinking that it would be cool to use one to set up a comparison chart.  Here it is, double click to take a closer look..

The winner in terms of functionality is Gliffy.  Presumably that is why it is the only one that you eventually have to pay for.  I actually used it Gliffy to make the chart.  Excel might have been better for this task but still pretty neat.

The real visualization I choose to make is a chart showing the normal/ideal flow of students through our math curriculum. 

Wow, talk about professional looking results in about 40 minutes.  My big ah ha moment with this came when I noticed that as elements are moved the software provides the coordinates of the object.  This allowed me to line them all up neatly.  I later discovered that it was possible to enter the coordinates to locate the object, as opposed to moving them into place pixel by pixel.  Not as nice as Visio's snap feature but very acceptable and better looking results in less time than Visio (at least the antiquated 2002 version that I have).  I will definitely be using this type of thing more often, especially as I continue to put together my website.

Wicked Problem Project

After 8+ weeks I am finally done with this project.  What follows the video is a summary of the problem addressed, information about the proposed solution and its connections to the TPACK framework.

The Problem:

The problem facing our district and likely many others is that students who struggle in their mathematics classes.  Often these students reach a point where their self efficacy becomes so low that they give up, resulting in failing multiple trimester of Algebra 1.  The consequences of this are wide ranging and include students not graduating on time if at all, schools failing to make AYP… clearly in the context of No Child Left Behind the last outcome is unacceptable but more importantly as educators we know that the prospects for these students is bleak.  In an effort to increase student achievement my district has dedicated four hours of instruction time for interventions with them.  The teachers will work with students in some way to promote success in their current math classes.  The additional constraint was added that the class must be technology based.

The Solution:

We will use a math lab that is technology based, with the goal of helping students be more successful in their current math classes.  The lab is scheduled to be staffed by two math teachers and cover 4 of the 6 hours in our day.  The lab consists of a classroom with laptops where students will work on assignments determined by their current math teachers and the lab supervisor. 

We decided that we did not want students assigned to the course.  This had been tried previously and the classes ended up becoming populated by groups of students who actively sought to undermine the purpose of the class.  The proposed system allows us to bring students into the lab as needed by calling them out of classes other than their math class or other required courses.   Unfortunately this means that students will be brought down during their elective periods.  It is certain that there will be teachers of electives who are unhappy about having students pulled out of their classrooms.  This is not a statement that elective classes are less important.  To the contrary, under the current system students who fail end up having reduced choices of electives, as they end up filling their schedule with retakes of required courses.  It is our belief that this will be mitigated by the fact that students passing their math classes should have more slots in their schedule for electives later.  Additionally, we do not intend to pull them from any class for weeks at a time and it is planned that they should be able to continue with the coursework of any elective that they miss.

In order to reach as many students as possible we have decided to construct a website that contains a series of learning modules or groups of content geared toward helping a student with a specific goal.  We will facilitate their learning by monitoring their progress with them directing them to particular resources while at the same time building mentoring relationships.  The modules will do the majority of the work with the mathematics content.  We will do the management work and assist with the mathematics as necessary.

What we will be looking to see is if we are able to lower our failure rates for starters.  This is easy to measure because it is quantitative.  A more difficult thing to measure will be the behaviors’ of the students we work with.  It is hoped that we will have an impact on their attitudes toward school and math in particular.

TPACK:

Technology and Pedagogy:  The main issue here is that our chosen pedagogy requires students to use higher order thinking skills and engage in doing mathematics not just memorizing algorithms and facts.  As such it is imperative that we select a technology that supports this view.  There are various pieces of software that exist to help students pass math courses, however they seem to share the notion that mathematics is about process and memorization.  In order to remain true to a constructivist pedagogical model a technology must be chosen that allows us to author content to address the issues of our learners.  The technology must also be flexible enough to allow different learners to access a vast array of content at different times.  A website is one such technology.  In addition to meeting all of the criteria described above it has the added benefit of allowing many other technologies to be used through it, such as blogs, embedded videos, links to other websites etc.  As excusive authors of our own content we are able to help ensure that the experience that students get is consistent with what is being done in their regular classroom

Technology and Content: What is true about a website is that it allows for multiple other technologies to be used within it.  Instead of discussing the entirety of the problem we can look at how a module may play out.  Lets say for example students are struggling with the notion of a function.  A part of the module devoted to exploring these ideas might be a time lapse video where students are asked to record their ideas about what things the can measure that are changing.  They could also be asked to think about way to show how two of the things that noticed change.  More pointed questions like pick two things that are changing and make a table are also possible.   This same module may contain more directly targeted ideas like a StAIR where the students would be asked to take a table, make a graph from it and explain how the two relate.  After any activity students could be asked to respond to a series of questions about their learning.  Each module would also have an assessment at the end to give us and the student feedback about their progress.  A Google Docs Form could be embedded for this purpose.  A link to a Jing presentation about how to make a rule from a table could also be included.  The technology allows for almost any content topic to be covered in this way.  The format of a website allows for complete flexibility to add many different types of experiences for the student to help them engage in the content more fluently. 

Content and Pedagogy:  Where our program differs most significantly from my perception of other mathematics programs is that we do not teach a skill and then try to teach how it is connected to other ideas.  Our goal is to have students come up with ideas for how to deal with problems that is directly linked to other things that they already know.  They may then develop skills as a result of a deeper understanding of the mathematics, but it is meant to be grounded in understanding, not memorization.  We often provide situations where we expect particular mathematics to be “discovered” as a result but the questions are open and not scaffolded to the point where students are left with no other choice but to do the things we want.  This kind of thinking by students is uncomfortable for many of them and they struggle as a result.  There is a need for students to have extra practice in thinking through this type of problem, as this is what is expected of all students in the classroom.  For some students the extra chance to experience the content from their classes again may aid in their understanding and proficiency. 

We also know that having multiple means to access content is helpful in allowing students to access the mathematics.  Many students may also find that interacting with a computer allows them to move at their own pace through material as opposed to what they may experience in the classroom.  Many students lack self assessment skills which would be a tenant in any of the content that is presented in the modules.   It is hoped that students will be able to see some success with mathematics in an environment that is nonthreatening and not directly tied to a grade.  They can experiment with their ideas and build new ones without having to feel as though others will judge them for their responses.  This is where I take on a very active role with students, encouraging them to work with the content the way they would be expected to in their actual math class.

WPP Part C: Implementation

You can take a look at some of the things that I have done so far for my Wicked Problem Project.  If you click on the link below it will download the podcast that I have created.  It should open a new window that is your preferred audio player.  You will probably want to minimize the audio player so that you will be able to view the screenshots that are being referenced.

Click here for audio

Image 1: Weebly's builder interface and the live site.

Image 3 and 2 respectivly (yes, I know 2 comes before 3)

Look forward to seeing how this works!

Personal Learning Plan Reflection

It seems like it hasn’t been that long since I started the MAET program but I feel as though I have made significant progress towards my goals.  Having reviewed my original plan from 810 just to get a sense of what my goals were when I began it seems clear that I have met many of them or a least addressed large portions.  I think one of the more interesting aspects is looking back on them and being able to see how they have evolved.  When I started the program I had two goals in mind.  The first was to learn or develop a framework for understanding how to implement technology in my classroom in a more fitting way than I was already.  The second goal was to build a skill set that would put me in a position to be a technology leader in my department, school and district.

During 811 we were introduced to the concept of TPACK, which was further considered in this class.  The TPACK framework has helped me greatly in meeting my first goal.  The seemingly simple idea that technology can and should work in the service of pedagogy and content has caused me to be considerably more aware of what to think about when using technology in a lesson.  Whereas I used to say “Wow, that’s a cool piece of technology I’m going to use it tomorrow” now I am thinking carefully and deliberately about which one to pick and for which reason.  For example, it has been very difficult to do the Wicked Problem Project (besides the time required to do it well) because I am finding that I need to be extremely careful about how I put it together.  The difficulty lies not in making technology work but in making the technology work with my pedagogy.  I don’t like to teach by telling, I prefer to teach by putting students in a situation where they need to make decisions and draw conclusions for themselves, the learning outcomes tend to be much greater for the student when the latter is used.  As such, I want to do more with my website than just have it be a list of things to read or watch.  The technology is geared toward that purpose (thinking about 810 and the difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0).  I am having to find creative ways to engage the students in the topic by integrating some web 2.0 technology.

TPACK has also served to heighten my awareness of my pedagogy.  I am now thinking about wanting students to be the center of the lesson (this was almost automatic in what I had been doing) I am finding that I am refocusing on exactly how I want my students to interact with the content and what technology I can pick to make that happen.  Even in the absence of technology I am thinking more about my teaching in terms of the PCK portion of the framework.  No doubt I am a better teacher when I do that, particularly because make so many of my own assignments.

With regard to my second goal of becoming a technology leader, I have been a little slower moving.  This is typical of my personality though as I tend to want to master something before I am completely comfortable sharing it with others.  I have certainly brought many ideas to my department and a few to other teachers.  They tend to be things that I feel comfortable with.  For example, I shared with an interdepartmental group my StAIR project about solving for x in a thoughtful way as opposed to the algorithmic way that is traditionally taught.  I was able to get a ton of feedback about it as well as see how people who were not “mathy” interacted with it.  I know others in my department have developed similar things after having learned about how to make a PowerPoint with internally linking pages from my StAIR.  
I have been working with two other teachers on developing ideas for the website which is also part of my Wicked problem project.  One of the main obstacles with this has really been finding time to get together and discuss it.  I have made some significant progress on the site, as it was non existent four weeks ago, and am looking forward to working with others to hopefully do great things with it.

I mentioned earlier that it has been interesting to watch my goals evolve as I have moved through the program.  My future focus will be to continue to work on integrating technology in my classroom.  I want to set up a class wiki page next year where my students will take turns entering day to day information about what happened in class, summarize the topics covered and list any assignments that were completed or assigned for homework.  I think that this will help them to feel like they are owners of the class in a different way.  It will also help me by reducing the work I have to do when students miss a day for whatever reason.  I plan on having the groups of students assigned in one or two week intervals to this task.  I also plan to have a second group of students who are responsible for making suggestions for alterations to the wiki.  I picture it as being a sort of review for the students while simultaneously forcing them to make sense of the mathematics we are working on and communicate their understanding to others.  I need to make sure that whatever I choose to use to do this will allow students to have an equation editor.  Otherwise it may be difficult to communicate the mathematics that we are doing in class.  While I would not be upset about students needing to use English to describe the concepts, I aslo want them to have practice communicating in symbolic math.  Wow look at that, TPACK in action.  In my opinion this is much better than the “i’ll just use some technology and hope for the best” approach that was previously my custom.

Carrying forward with the Wicked Problem Project, I really want to code the website myself.  I made a storyboard layout for it and I have found that wysiwyg interface offered by most build a website services to be inadequate for that purpose.  One of the perks of coding my own stuff is that I can make it look and behave anyway that I want.  For example Weebly doesn’t allow you to code a navigation back button.  The nav menu is too simplistic, not allowing for any interesting effects like a hover over drop down menu.  It does a marvelous job of being fairly easy to use but the cost is functionality.  Choosing to code myself does have some drawbacks however; I have concerns about the sustainability of the project if I end up not being teaching the class again.  If I am the only one who know how to code or knows what I coded than I will be solely responsible for its maintenance.  Additionally, I will need to learn a lot more about coding in order for it to function the way I really want it to.

I’ve ended my last two learning plan summaries the same way.  I have so many new ideas that I am having a hard time keeping them all straight.  My big fear is that I will end up trying to implement too many things at one time and end up doing a poor job of it because I have spread myself so thin.  As I look back on some of my early work with technology in the certificate courses I can already see how they can be improved and I look forward to being able to continue to develop as both a teacher and student of technology.

Group Leadership Project: Smart Boards

Our group actually used several tools to complete the final product.  We began with a PowerPoint to set up the storyboard and there are several slides from that presentation that ended up in the final product.  We also made extensive use of screencast o matic to add the audio to the pieces of the project.  It is a pretty neat tool as it is web-based unlike jing so there is no need to download and install anything.  It also gives options to save the screencast in multiple formats.  The other thing that it allowed us to do was actually show a Smart Board in action which says far more than the words we put with it ever could.  We used the .mp4 format which I believe is more useful when it came to editing and producing the final product with iMovie.

It was difficult to put together the final product as we had several smaller videos that needed to be spliced together to create the final one.  We ran into some issues with my portion of the presentation not playing nicely with my groupmates.  For what ever reason it would not play correctly on their computers at school but they were able to get it into the presentation by using a different machine.  I thought this was really strange since I, like them, used screencast-o-matic to make it.  We also had a difficult time integrating all the pieces, probably due to the fact that we were in so many different places on the project.  We would run into a tech issue and changes would be made to the project to fix the issue but not all of would know about exactly what the change was until it ended up causing another issue.  Our method of group work was definitely more stressful than it has been in the other group projects I have done so far in the program.  Whereas before we always scheduled meeting times where we actually produced the project, in this group we split it into pieces and did our own thing and then tried to bring it back into the group setting.

If I had this to do over again I would definitely like to have a document online i.e. google docs, where we could all edit the same thing either together or as individuals.  Emailing around a PowerPoint where people added their changes as we went slowed us down.  People were stuck waiting for others to finish their parts before they made edits to avoid having eight different copies of the presentation in circulation.

Overall I think the final product is pretty good.  We each brought our own unique set of skills to it that combined well and you can check out our final product below.

Group Leadership Project: Part B - Storyboard and Script

This is our storyboard for our group leadership project.  This is a newer version than what my group members posted, which is entirely my fault as I was late in making my edits to the introduction.  Please do not hold them responsible!  The scripting is mostly contained in the comments section which is not readily viewable using Slideshare.  I included some screenshots later on to show what the actual script looks like.

Group project story board

View more presentations from slawatsch

Reflections so far on what we have accomplished.  We did not spend nearly enough time discussing how this portion of the project would be carried out.  All we had decided on was that we would use PowerPoint.  I am definitely regretting that decision.  Since that time we have had several issues.  The first issue we have is that PowerPoint can not be worked on simultaneously like Google Doc file can.  The result is that I received a .ppt file from a group member with a slide that said this is where your portion goes.  I viewed the presentation using Google Docs as Gmail gives this as an option.  It looked like an acceptable presentation that was well thought out and nicely laid out.  When I asked where the script portion was (via chat) I was told that it was in the notes section, which I am unsure if Google even supports.  When I opened the document using PowerPoint I was unsure where to look still but I eventually found the area where the existing script was (to be honest I don't think I knew that area existed before that point).  In retrospect, all of this could have been avoided had we scheduled a time to all get together and work, at least for a while, so we could make some decisions on the formatting as a group instead of doing our parts individually and then trying to put it all together.  It was not disastrous just inconvenient and inefficient.

I also encountered an issue when I received the PowerPoint back from my group with all the sections put together.  My group members had suggested some changes to my portion; however, when I went to edit the file I found that all of my bullet points were showing up as images instead of editable text fields.  I am guessing that this is due to a version compatibility issue as my group members are working with a post 2003 version of Office and alas, I am still in the dark ages.  :(  I ended up having to redo entire slides which wasn't entirely a bad thing since I had lots of edits that needed to be made.  In my opinion, this is where cloud computing excels.  We would have had no issues (well at least not the same ones) had we chosen Google Docs as it is the same for all users regardless.  We couldn't necessarily have foreseen all of these issues and I do not mean for this to be a criticism of my group members, rather it is a reflection on some of the issues that I have encountered so far and the lessons I have taken from them.

Looking at our storyboard as it stands now, we will have several things to do before it is ready to go into final production.  We need to remove all of the scripting from the actual slides.  I have volunteered to tackle this portion but I am waiting to hear back from my group about how we will proceed.  I think we also need to compile a document of some sort that puts all of script items (what will be said, when to transition...) in one location so that when it is time to produce the final product it can be more easily accomplished.  Last we will need to actually produce the final presentation.

Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorm

Having agreed upon an original time to meet our group met at first using an online meeting tool that Lisa selected, I believe from the list that was provided in the Lab.  We found almost immediately that we were having problems getting set up and logged-on to.  Lisa picked a different meeting tool, Vyew, and we moved the meeting to that site.  Once we ironed out some technology problems, feedback, and getting everyone talking so we could hear we began our brainstorming meeting.  I captured what you see below using Jing and quickly discovered that it only picked up my voice, though you can faintly hear the others talking.  This is what the meeting looked like once we got going.  Please excuse the creepy breathing sounds.  :)



Things moved pretty quickly once we were up and running.  We chose to focus on Smart Boards as our presentation topic as we all have one in our classroom.  At first, and to some extent now, I  am not thrilled with the choice.  I do not think Smart Boards are particularly great tools as they don't integrate very well into my students centered teaching style.  I agreed to the topic in the hope that I would be able to learn more about what others were doing with them and why they felt that they were so great.  We talked very briefly about just that, what my other group members were doing with theirs.  They threw out ideas "whats that thing you do? A vortex?"  and I asked some clarifying questions to try to get a better idea about what they were talking about.  (Note, I am the only one form my group that does not teach in the same school.)  The summary of their ides sounded good and I left with the impression that we would have a good amount of interesting material to discuss and I felt certain I would learn some new things that I could use in my own classroom.  We then went on to discuss who would be doing what portion of the project.

We settled on using a PowerPoint in conjunction with Slideshare to make our presentation.  It was decided that I would tackle the intro.  Lisa would deal with some of the basics of the Smart Board, and Jenna and Laura would each put together a piece on what they were doing that was unique in their classrooms.  I don't recall the exact timeline at this point, but as I recall it was about 4-5 days out.  We made no plans at that time for a specific date to reconvene.

As I mentioned earlier we used the Vyew site to host our conference.  It was easy to get to the meeting and once we got all of our equipment working together, the meeting went well enough.  We didn't spend a lot of time playing with all of the features of the site as we were already pressed for time having spent 30 minutes trying to get it all working.  I did go back into an empty room (part of their preview of the site) later to play around with some of the tools.  The equation editor was a neat feature that I discovered during this second pass, and it is of particular interest to me as conveying math in symbols is often not well integrated into the web based technologies I have used previously.  We did as a group make use of the desktop sharing feature while looking at the requirements for this project.  Other big advantages, it worked, which was better than where we started.  The biggest disadvantage was that it did not allow us to record the session.  (My group scheduled a make-up session (which I missed) with Adobe Connect and it seems as though they didn't mange to get that feature to work with it either.  The second disadvantage was the amount of time taken from our meeting by dealing with getting everyone connected and able to hear and see each other.  We would have probably been able to brainstorm far more quickly had we just used chat feature of Google Docs and made notes in the document..  This is what I have done for the two previous group projects I have worked on and it has performed more than effectively.

I am sure that having gone through this once it would be far easier to use in the future.  It is defiantly not a tool I would use again knowing that I was pressed for time, or if it were the first time that a majority of participants would be using it.  Could not even begin to imagine what this would have been like if it were three teenagers and a teacher trying to get this set up.  :)

Video Conferencing Lab

The conference did not go well at all.  We ran into problems with people being unable to be heard or seen with the first attempt.  We moved the conference to the Vyew website which was much more useful.  However we quickly ran into problems with feedback.  I posted my tip to MACUL about how to deal with this problem.  One member of our group was able to share her screen which was on the Angel sight so we could all be looking at the description of the assignment we were working on.  We ran into another problem when we found that we could not record our conversation using the tools offered.  I made an attempt to record it using Jing, but what I ended up with is a view of my screen, my creepy breathing through the microphone and no one else’s voice.  Of course this was compounded by the fact that I was trying to feed my daughter at the same time.  It is hard to troubleshoot a tech problem when you have limited use of one hand.  :)  

Having used Vyew and worked out some of the bugs I am sure that it would be much easier to use for subsequent meetings.  I also spent some time just plying n an empty room.  It has an equation editor built in which was of interest to me as it is often difficult to communicate math symbols and equations with a linear display. 

With regard to class use implications, I can see how it would be useful if there was no other method for seeing or hearing students, such as it is used in this class.  I could also see using it with homebound students, especially since my class relies so heavily on discourse to make sense of the material.  However, I also sense that it requires a huge time commitment outside of the classroom and as awful as it sounds to say this, I am at the limit of what I can do right now outside of “working hours”.

I am much more comfortable communicating via text or email as I have easy access to a record of what was said and when it was communicated.  I know that part of this course is stretching us beyond our comfort zone and I appreciate the exposure to something new.

Wicked Problem Project: Part B - Application of TPACK

What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

The Wicked problem I have chose has a somewhat unorthodox pedagogy associated with it.  The content will not be delivered by a classroom teacher but instead will be delivered by two interventionist who will be pulling students throughout the day from classes other than the students’ primary math classes.  As such, the solution must allow students to enter and leave the intervention at any point.  The goal of the intervention is to increase achievement in a student’s current math course.  Another layer of complexity is attributed to the fact that we do not use textbooks in out Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 courses.  Instead we have a series of assignments that are meant to allow students to build their own knowledge of mathematics rather than having a book or a teacher as the authority.  When students take charge of their own learning and are the ones who control the direction of their learning they achieve more than those who simply memorize a series of facts that to them are discrete and disconnected.  We find that many students struggle in transitioning from having math content dictated to them to being responsible for generating their own ideas about it.  As a result they do not engage in conversations about mathematics in the classroom and wait for others to do most of the thinking. 

The technology that I choose to address these issues is a website that contains learning modules.  There are several reasons that make this technology a good fit for the pedagogy.  First, it allows students to access material throughout the day and allows them to access to material after school hours as well.  This is important to our pedagogy in the sense that students can be pulled from another class to work with us on issues that the classroom teacher deems necessary.  The intervention is allowed to take place for as long as necessary in order to help the student achieve.  More importantly we can put them in apposition where they are responsible for building their knowledge.

Central to the TP portion of this discussion is that a website allows us to produce, store and display content that matches the way we teach.  Currently our district is spending large sums of money for a software package that claims to be aligned with the Michigan High School Content Expectations, which is disputable.  What is not in dispute is the fact that it is not aligned with the way we teach, and therefore only reinforces the students beliefs that mathematics is something that is to be memorized and not engaged in.  The software seemingly asks students to memorize rote facts and recall them later.  It contains assessments that are multiple choice and really allow the students to guess their way through the material.  While there are times when we need students to know and use algorithms, we usually ask students to derive them.  When assistance such as the one provided by our districts software are used we send students the message that what we really value is their ability to memorize an algorithm.  When students return to their classrooms they take the idea with them and the cycle repeats itself.  Creating our own website allows us to have complete control of the material we use and allows us to be sure that it matches our pedagogy. 

It is difficult to separate the content from this part of the discussion but part of the content that is planned for the website is directly related to the TP part of the discussion.  Overwhelmingly teachers responded to a survey that I sent out to them by saying that one of the biggest obstacles that they see for their students is lack of engagement in the curriculum.   One module will be devoted to student learning habits in an attempt to help them understand what is required to be successful in their math class.

What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

It is difficult to separate the content from the TP part of the discussion because I see the content and pedagogy are so tightly intertwined in my mind.  The planned content for the website is directly related to the TP part of the discussion.  Overwhelmingly teachers responded to a survey that I sent out to them by saying that one of the biggest obstacles that they see for their students is lack of engagement in the curriculum.   One module will be devoted to student learning habits in an attempt to help them understand what is required to be successful in their math class.

Since the content related to the Wicked Problem is the entire Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 curriculum it is difficult to discuss specifically why the chosen technology is a good match to a specific area.  What is true about the chosen tech is that it allows for multiple other technologies to be used within it.  Instead of discussing the entirety of the problem we can look at how a module may play out.  The results of the survey I sent out also indicated that students have difficulty transferring between the representations of a function (Table, Graph, Rule and Verbal-Written).  A part of the module devoted to exploring these ideas might be a time lapse video where students are asked to record their ideas about what things the can measure that are changing.  They could also be asked to think about way to show how two of the things that noticed change.  More pointed questions like pick two things that are changing and make a table are also possible.   This same module may contain more directly targeted ideas like a StAIR where the students would be asked to take a table, make a graph from it and explain how the two relate.  Each module would also have an assessment at the end to give us and the student feedback about their progress.  A Google Docs Form could be embedded for this purpose.  A link to a Jing presentation about how to make a rule from a table could also be included.  The list above is my brainstorming about how the particular content we are interested in is connected to the technology.  The format of a website allows for complete flexibility to add many different types of experiences for the student to help them engage in the content more fluently.  While the idea of student learning styles is not the only way that students can learn the website also provides for an array of learning styles to be addressed.

What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

I touched on this idea in the both previous sections.  Where our program differs most significantly from my perception of other mathematics programs is that we do not teach a skill and teach how it is connected to other ideas.  Our goal is to have students come up with ideas for how to deal with problems that is directly linked to other things that they already know.  They may then develop skills as a result of a deeper understanding of the mathematics, but it is meant to be grounded in understanding, not memorization.  We often provide situations where we expect particular mathematics to be “discovered” as a result but the questions are open and not scaffolded to the point where students are left with no other choice but to do the things we want.  This kind of thinking by students is uncomfortable for many of them and they struggle as a result.  There is a need for students to have extra practice in thinking through this type of problem, as this is what is expected of all students in the classroom.  For some students the extra chance to experience the content from their classes again may aid in their understanding and proficiency. 

We also know that having multiple means to access content is helpful in allowing students to access the mathematics.  Many students may also find that interacting with a computer allows them to move at their own pace through material as opposed to what they may experience in the classroom.  Many students lack self assessment skills which would be a tenant in any of the content that is presented in the modules.   It is hoped that students will be able to see some success with mathematics in an environment that is nonthreatening and not directly tied to a grade.  They can experiment with their ideas and build new ones without having to feel as though others will judge them for their responses.  This is where I take on a very active role with students, encouraging them to work with the content the way they would be expected to in their actual math class.

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity (Wicked Problem Project)

It is fair to say that the Holt High School mathematics department prides ourselves on using what we consider to be many of the latest technologies.  When I started the certificate sequence I was surprised to learn about just how few technologies we really do employ.  Our administrators are pushing us to continue to employ technologies as they learn of them.  An unfortunate side effect of this push is that we are using some technologies that seem good on paper, particularly the publisher’s marketing documents, and when we are asked to use them we quickly find that they are far from perfect, or even worse a hindrance to student learning.  Many focus on learning rote facts and procedures with little meaning attached.  That is what makes this project so important to me.  It was determined that next year I will be teaching a regular classroom part time and using the remainder of my time to work with struggling mathematics students in an “interventionist” role.  The requirements that were laid out for our department were that whatever program was created was to employ a blended (computer and in person) instruction model.  This represents the first time that the classroom teachers will be responsible for designing a course that must integrate technology.  So we stand at the edge of a very pressing problem (one might call it a wicked problem), the need to design a series of interventions that make regular use of technology.

The problem more narrowly defined is that the number of students who are failing our Algebra 1 course is too high.  Credit recovery courses that have been offered seem to only exacerbate the problem by allowing kids to feel that if they fail the course that they will be given multiple opportunities to retake it.   This leads to students simply giving up when it get the least bit hard.  Unfortunately the summer school and credit recovery courses that we offer are so watered down that we find students often fail the next class in the sequence and find themselves back in credit recovery.   We need to devise a way to keep kids on track for graduation and avoid having it become a lower track which is inescapable.  Enter the interventionist position.  My task is to identify struggling learners in a class and work with them to help them be successful in the class that they are currently enrolled in thereby allowing them to find and maintain success in the normal curriculum.  The current plan calls for students to be drawn form the entire population of Algebra 1 at high school, so the interventions need to be flexible enough to allow any student to enter and exit as needed.  This is considered a part (Tier 2) of the Response to Intervention (RtI) model which is currently being implemented through the Ingham ISD. 

            As it stands we have decided to make a series of modules to address issues common to our struggling students.  The goal of each module would be to give students multiple ways to access the material.  We have looked at various course management systems (CMS’s) as a means to deliver these modules but have been met with various obstacles.  Most of the CMS’s do not seem to allow for a easily viewable, accessible layout that is easy to jump in and out of.  This is particularly important because we do not want to have to “enroll” students in CMS course when the intent is to have them move in and out of our supervision.  I think that the most useful way to go is to make a website that is always accessible.  The idea would be to have the learning modules up on the site so that when we work with a student we are able to send them to the computer right away to work on a particular module that meets their needs.  Like the CMS’s a website also allows students to access needed materials outside of the class both during the school day and at home if they choose.  Another benefit of a website is that it is possible to add any type of material that is required.  There is no company that restricts what type of java app can be used with their software or on their servers.

            The proposed solution is to create a website and add modules as need be.  We would also continue to edit existing modules as needed.  There are issues to consider with regard to building a website, in that it requires someone with the ability to build it in order to maintain and alter it.  Each module is likely to contain other technologies within it such as blogs, StAIR’s, webquests and web 2.0 technologies.  A likely goal for the portion that will be completed during CEP 812 will be to set up the website and add one module complete module or portions of a few modules to it as completing the entire site in the time allotted for this course would be infeasible. 

CEP812 Intro

Cep 812 introduction slawatsch

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CEP811 Reflection

I'm not entirely sure what I am supposed to have taken away from this class as far as integrating technology goes.  I guess UDL is a combination of accessibility combined with generally just being a thoughtful teacher.  I am not using the word thoughtful in the caring sense, but rather in the contemplative "I need to make sure I am aware of all the aspects of this before I put this in front of kids" way.  It seems to me that this is common sense what good teachers should be doing.  I'm a little disappointed that some people need a checklist to be thoughtful about teaching, regardless of the content.  I suppose that because I don't use a textbook I might be more aware of these ideas whenever I design any content that I will put in front of my students.  I was also taught to write unit plans using Wiggins and McTighe's UbD. 

The StAIR project was by far the most useful thing that I created in this class.  It isn't so much the StAIR that I created as much as it is the ideas of what I can do with it.  I am particularly drawn to the idea that I can tailor an experience for the students at my school and be responsive to their needs and the way we each Algebra, not beholden to some textbooks CD interpretation of Algebra that they supply as a "resource".  I actually took mine to a cross departmental meeting and asked teachers from other departments to try it.  I explained that I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to know how we are teaching our students to solve equations.  I also started thinking about using  it as a resources for parents, as we get a lot of complaints about not having ways for parents to access the material.  Maybe I will post some things like it on my website.  Next year I am teaching an intervention class and was thinking how nice it might be to have a fleet of StAIR type things that kids can sit and work on that are actually in line with the curriculum we teach (as opposed to the garbage E2020 software our district has now).  I am amazed by how many things that just this one assignment or other things like it could be useful for.  This project has given me lots to think about as far as goals for integrating technology into my department.

Just an aside but doing the StAIR project made me remember playing with HyperCard on a Mac when I was in Jr. High.  We used to write goofy games that were navigated in exactly the same way.

I liked making the website as well and I spent a lot of time hand coding it.  I have learned a ton of HTML #tags and a lot about what goes into trying to make a site that displays well in multiple browsers (might want to look at my site with Firefox because it doesn't play nicely with IE).  I mentioned that I would like to create a website for my department and I feel like that is much more realistic at this point.  I will probably scrap much of the code I wrote for my site and try again.  It is really sloppy and I am having tons of issues with the named CSS elements not playing nice with the CSS rules.  I am in no way disappointed by the idea that a lot of hard work may be scrapped because I am sure of the fact that I will learn a ton more and be able to create a site that is even better.  This is the piece of the class that has brought me much nearer to my personal goals at least as they stood at the beginning of the class.

I've come to look at my goals for this program as being very flexible.   They have changed drastically in the short time that I have been enrolled in the MAET program and I see that they will probably continue to evolve as I am faced with new information in each course. 

I am not a big fan of having to read about and respond to issues of pedagogy where the questions regarding it presume that I learned so much from it.  I felt like that happened a lot in this course.  Read this amazing thing that should "change the way you teach" and now tell us how great we are for having put it in front of you.  I appreciate it when an idea is delivered without having made mention of exactly what conclusion I was supposed to draw.  It is more authentic feeling to me, as I am not a person who likes the feeling of having someone tell me what to think.

Editing Wikipedia

I have never found an instance where I felt like I had enough skill or knowledge about a topic to actually edit a wikipedia page.  I ended up editing the vice principal name to reflect our new principal Chris Billinglea as well as adding citation to the vice principal and principal section of the page.  All in all it was pretty easy to do.  I've been having a ton of fun learning about html coding throughout the program so far.  The syntax for the editing part looked just like html to me so I used the tags already in use to add the citations.

You can also check out the wiki that my group made in CEP810 for our SIG project.  We invited all of the students in our class to become members and make any edits that they thought would help improve the page.  Right now much of it is locked to editing because we wanted to make sure it was as we had intended while it was being graded.

UDL Checklist

The following is a UDL checklist for my lesson on Visual Univariate Statistical Representations posted to the MERLOT website. I have some reservations about UDL.  In order to meet many of the requirements in the checklist I can envision having to print out a document for my students that is in excess of 15 pages for this particular lesson.  This is due to all of the aspects of UDL that seem to require explicit instructions.  i.e. Checklist items 4.3, 5.3, 6.1-3 etc.  There are also several aspects which I feel are simply implicit to good teaching and are a part of the lesson though I never explicitly state them in it.

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines Checklist version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.

CEP810 Personal Learning Reflection

   Wow, eight weeks did go by fast.  It probably did not help that I was playing catch up for the last four.  After the first eight weeks of this degree I am proud to report that I could not be happier about my choice to pursue it.  From the very beginning I have been challenged to think about what it means to teach with technology in ways I had never imagined.  I have learned about tons of technologies that I had never used and have started asking questions about how to best integrate them with my classes.
   My favorite aspect of this class has been learning the technologies in a hands on way.  I had never blogged, kept bookmarks on delicious, or shared what I was doing in any way.  The whole time that I was doing these labs I kept going over a list of questions in my head.  How could I use this with my class?  How can I structure a lesson with this technology where the technology is not the focus but is instead an aid to learning? (I have some concerns about how to deal with the logistics of running a lesson in a technology based setting and having the mathematics be the focus as opposed to spending my whole time just helping students get the technology to work).  The addition of the NETS standards at the end of the class answered a large part of the overarching question I had had all along, how do I evaluate weather the technology is doing anything useful for students?  
   The SIG project was the highlight of the course for me.  Working with others and having to find solutions to problems with technology allowed me to explore issues as they arose was a powerful experience.  For example the discovery of the chat feature in Google Docs allowed the three of us to communicate effectively while we simultaneously edited our proposal document and then again when we were actually crafting the content of our wiki.  Another problem arose when we needed to combine all of our bookmarks with delicious.  We had to find a way to aggregate them and then pick out the ones that we wanted to share with the world.  We settled on the idea of creating a new account with Delicious and then linking to all of our bookmarks.  We found quickly that when we were crafting the wiki page that it was difficult to communicate in real time on the wiki page itself, so we returned to doing our work on the Google Docs site where we could communicate in real time and then copying and pasting to the wiki once we felt we had created a presentation that combined all of our individual work effectively.  Good grief, start checking of NETS standards for this project!
   After I had written the paragraph in my Personal Technology Plan paper about expending my PLN with people I have real world contact with I spoke with our libary media specialist.  We talked about technology integration and what our district was implementing.  When she told me that next years eighth grade students will have gone through some experience that will have introduced them to many of the technologies that I had just been working with in this class I was awe struck.  She asked a very straight forward question immediately afterwards.  "What will happen when a teacher in this building tells them that they have to do it some other way when they know a smarter way to accomplish the task already?"  We look like idiots is the simplest answer.  I have continued to strengthen my resolve that we as teachers need to be more than just aware of what students know, we need to make sure that we are a part of it if we want to stay relevant to them.
   I have done much more than meet the goals that I set forth in my initial Growth Plan.  I experienced things that I had never anticipated experiencing in this class.  I revised my understanding of what it means to teach effectively in the 21st century.  I have set new goals with the understanding that many of them will need to be revised as I learn more about how to use the technologies I have encountered throughout this course and those that I expect to encounter in the future.  Oddly, the one idea that is set in stone is that everything changes and I have the choice to be thoughtful about it or sit back and watch as I am made obsolete.

Learning Styles are Myths

I know I am posting this later than was prescribed by the class but I am so fired up right now about the topic of learning styles that I can barley contain myself.  Firstly to all of you who paid $8.95 to have your learning style emailed to you, ... I am sorry.  You have my condolences because their is a wealth of information to suggest that learning styles are bogus psychology.  No really google it!  Bing it I don't care it doesn't hold water.  I mean no disrespect to the people who contributed to the formation of this course and the material presented its just that it is not as cut and dry as learning style theorists would have you believe. 
When you answered the profile questions how many times did you have a memory of a certain moment in your own learning that influenced your choice???  I did for almost every one.  Does that mean that a single moment in my life is really a good indicator of who I am?  No!  Whether or not a particular moment in my life painted me as a saint or a sinner doesn't describe who I am in total.  It certainly should not be the case that my responses to a few questions, for which I had a particular memory about an incident in my life, dictate how I prefer to learn.  Check out the video below of Professor Daniel T. Willingham Cognitive Psychologist from the University of Virgina.

All of us who are taking this class have learned things in a multitude of ways and been successful.  That's why we have degrees.  A much more important pursuit to find ways to help our students become good learners. 
It is my belief that If we stop asking students to perform only rote tasks and instead focus on providing kids with authentic tasks that require analysis and synthesis of ideas that they will bring their overall "learning preferences" to bear on the task.  Furthermore we can focus on what teaching and learning is all about, in light of the fact that "facts" are free on the internet, helping students to make intelligent decisions with the facts that they gather.
I didn't  pay for my learning style inventory and I take issue with the fact that MSU has made this a requirement for a course, despite the fact that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that it simply isn't true.  I urge anyone who has a role in the editing of this course to take this into consideration as it is revised and improved.

Creative Commons and Copyright

I feel like it is strange that we have just now discussed copyright at this point in the course.  It is obvious to me that it is an issue that needs to be considered in the context of any web2.0 technology.  In fact I was concerned about it when I made my PLN visualization as I was looking for images that were in line with my ideas about my personal learning network and the pictures I selected.  To be honest after reading all the information I feel both more concerned and more confused about how to decide what I can include in the products for this class and for my own classes.  The four factors that decide fair use that were cited repeatedly in the readings/podcasts are so vague that it seems as though one can construct an argument for almost any "fair" use of copyrighted material that is not overtly stealing.  Even as I write this I am aware that what it means to overtly steal content is my own construct and may not be agreed upon. 
The Creative Commons copyright is a wonderful idea in theory.  However, when I tried to use the link to the creative commons search provided in the lab I was dismayed to find the declaimer in a link on the site stating that
"search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content."
So the resource that is meant to ensure that I don't infringe on a copyright can't ensure that I don't infringe on a copyright?????  What good does this do us then?  Where do I find the statement that tells me exactly what the "CC" is?  Is it always obviously displayed?

Ahhh math humor, maybe this will lighten the mood.  Requires understanding of Complex Analysis though. :(

"Graffiti math"
by Quinn Dombrowski
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/

Released under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

My image.  Experimental Probability Lab in Algebra 2 Honors, during my internship year.

MAET

https://picasaweb.google.com/slawatsch/MAET?feat=directlink

I use images and video all the time in my class I am worried at this point that I am not using them appropriately.  It was nearly impossible to find images that resemble the things I use on a regular basis.  Advanced math seems to make this difficult.  This lab has made me significantly more concerned about using any images.  I hardly have time to plan effective lessons and I certainly don't have time to spend digging through licenses on the web for two hours before I use an image.  When I show an image or a video in a class it is always for educational purposes, I have no idea if this passes the test for copyright infringement but i do know that students have learned a lot from my choices.  I think I would have enough of an argument that I have transformed the content into an educational experience that I am alright but I also want to respect intellectual property in the same way i would want others to respect my own.

RSS Page Reflection

This is a lot of work.  I am hardly able to keep up with email from three accounts and this is like adding yet another.  As I mentioned in the workflow entry I have a difficult time building new habits and this is no exception.  Right now this is especially true as I readjust to having a baby in the house again as well as being a student again.  The time that I have invested in it has been surprisingly useful.

It took me a little while to get the hang of the Google Reader interface which surprised me because I generally pick up things like this quickly.  Other than that my experience has been pretty solid.  I haven't spent a lot of time searching for new feeds to add to subscriptions, instead I've focused on the feeds I picked for the RSS lab.  In general there are a lot of items that I skip over after reading only the title.  I was quickly enticed into a series of articles about interactive white boards (IWB).  I found it particularly interesting because I have an IWB and don't think that it has been any great benefit to my teaching, the articles cite many of the same reasons I am disillusioned by them.  It would have been good to have read articles such as the ones I shared prior to our decision to install them in every math classroom in the school. 

As a consumer I research many of the things that I buy ad nauseam and it was interesting to consider the fact that as a teacher adopting technology I simply just grab anything new that I can get my hands on with little to know time spent researching it.  It should be equally important to a teacher to research the potential of and possibly the limitations of anything we bring into our classrooms.  I have known for a while that I needed to be more thoughtful when it comes to using technology in my classroom which is one of the reasons I applied to the MAET program.  Its not as though reading the articles from the feed was amazingly insightful, what I gained more of was an appreciation that there are people with first hand experience that have thought about the same questions I have and put their thinking out there for the rest of us to consider and use. 

There doesn't seem to seem to be as much information in my feeds pertaining to actually teaching my content with technology as the prescribed feeds were general in their scope.  That tells me I probably need to find some other feeds that are more in line with my goals,content area and grade level.  That task proved difficult when I started looking for feeds to complete the lab assignment.  Having added the feeds I did and tracking them over a couple of weeks has helped me to know more about what I am actually looking for when I continue to add subscriptions.