Regan EDUC 685

Final Project

regankinney — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:43:28 +0000

I have finally completed the closing project for this class. My project can be found at http://millerregan.web.officelive.com. I chose to create tutorials explaining how to set up a classroom in Moodle. I not only learned a great about Moodle, but I also learned how to use Camtasia Studio and had more practice with YouTube. This project has absolutely worn me out! However, I have learned quite a bit about different programs for creating videos, sharing videos, and setting up online classrooms.

I will go ahead and apologize for my slow, country accent. I didn’t realize I had such a strong accent until I heard myself play back on these tutorials. I also didn’t realize how much I talk! I found myself getting off subject through these tutorials or adding my own comments whenever possible. If I do this in the classroom it is a wonder we ever get anything done!

I have enjoyed the process of creating the final project and I have also enjoyed viewing the projects of others. I never realized how much work went into the planning for distance education. There is so much information floating around out there but I think the main goal of distance education is to try and put it in one place or give the learners the tools they need to find it successfully.

Appreciating Technology’s Convenience

regankinney — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:21:27 +0000

I ran across an interesting blog on CoolCatTeacher called “From Amazing to Normal; Taking the Journey While Encouraging Others.” The author of this blog was sharing a writing she had read over Thanksgiving break in which someone that apparently has much knowledge about how to use new technology is frustrated with those that do not. He says he wishes that teachers would quit talking about certain programs or technology abilities as if they were amazing and just realize that this is where we are today when it comes to technology.

Victoria Davis of CoolCatTeacher replied to this article through her own blog. She does agree that we should and do reach a point where certain technology and applications don’t have the same “amazing” factor to them. However, she also says that this can’t happen until those that don’t have much knowledge learn how to use the technology fluently and this comes from help with those that are experienced. She is really thinking about those that are behind in their tech ability and is encouraging everyone to help them out and not make them embarrassed of their inability.

I agree with Victoria Davis. I personally like it when people find the excitement in everything they do. I don’t know why amazement with convenience would be something we would want to get rid of. I understand the author of the article was meaning that he got tired of hearing people gush about features that have been around for a long time. I just view that gushing as appreciation for something they never knew was possible and think it is great that they are finally getting to use something new. As an 8th grade math teacher, I am going to gush and be excited when one of my students finally learns their multiplication tables even though this is something they should have learned in elementary school. We need to be thankful there are those out there willing to learn something new that may be very scary and unfamiliar to them at first.

Thankful

regankinney — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:42:10 +0000

This Thanksgiving I had several things to be thankful for. Most of them were the usual things: family, friends, health, etc. I would like to add to my list of thanks online shopping. While many were out and about early in the morning on “Black Friday,” I was sitting on the computer in my pajamas ordering Christmas presents. I don’t know that I saved more money than those that ventured out early into the cold, but the extra money I did spend was worth the comfort and convenience to me!

Another Great Blog

regankinney — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:06:08 +0000

The Top Education Blog listed 50 of the top blogs that focus on education. I looked through several of these to find things that interested me. I found one called “So You Want to Teach?” I loved this blog and am going to add it to my GoogleReader. I was looking for one particular blog to share but it had so many! They were personal opinions and experiences from a teacher that didn’t teach for a full 2 years before quitting because he was miserable. He made it his goal to find out how to be a great teacher. He shares many inspiring ideas in his short, common sense blogs on how to keep students learning, engaged, interested, and he shares other sites that are helpful to teachers. He also gives valid reasons that teachers quit their jobs and reasons that aren’t valid. Most of his other writings are to help those struggling with the invalid reasons for quitting to make their job better. If you get a chance to check out his stuff I think you will leave his site feeling some relief that you aren’t the only one that gets frustrated and overwhelmed, but his positive attitude will make you ready to overcome those obstacles. The link to his site is http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/.

Online Chats

regankinney — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:41:48 +0000

I was looking through some educational blogs and found one that listed the top 50 educational blogs. I ran across one blog called “The Fischbowl.” One of Karl Fisch’s posts was about chats. The title is “What Makes a Chat a Chat”. He had been asked by Education Week/Teacher Magazine to participate in a chat with over a thousand other teachers about social networking through CoverItLive. There was a moderator that selected from a number of questions the ones that would get asked. There were also comments thrown in that the moderator had chosen, but these didn’t come very often. Fisch’s post is about getting input from others as to what makes a chat a chat. He didn’t feel the method used above was a chat, as it was more like a discussion panel.

I think chats can’t be held with that many people involved. The online chats we have had this semester with no more than 30 people get confusing to me. I think chats should be held to a maximum of 50 people (and I still think that is a little high). With chats, there should not be anyone looking at all questions/comments and determining which ones make it through. All questions/comments should be asked or shared. Another question Fisch asks is how to address diverse participants. I think different chats should be held for those that are fluent in online chatting (quick) and those that are not. If you are talking about an online class, I don’t think these separate chats would have to occur more than 2-3 times. After a few times, all participants should be able to chat together because they will all be familiar with how to chat online in a large group.

The most important thing to remember with online chats is that some people aren’t quick with their thoughts and in a large group could get overshadowed. Also, chats need to be held to smaller numbers so everyone can provide questions or comments if needed.

Interactive Notebooks

regankinney — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:49:42 +0000

I know I should really be researching articles right now and finding things for my final project but I am really excited about the week I have had and want to take a minute to share and get feedback from any of you guys that use interactive notebooks.

This school year has been very difficult for me. It got off to a bad start with me missing the first week of school and I just never could get it back on track. Well, I finally feel as if I am starting to regain control of not only the students and their behavior, but of my focus on the classroom. I have found several ways this week to eliminate all of the transitions we make in my classroom each day- from getting calculators each class period to getting flashback cards off the shelf. I also learned more about interactive notebooks. I can’t wait to start using them in my classroom.

The social studies teacher in my team uses these on a daily basis and she has seen a great improvement from her first unit to this past when the notebooks were in full swing. The students keep a spiral bound notebook and write in it each day. You open it up like a book and one side is used for teacher directed instruction and the other is used for student processing. Students are given a variety of choices for how they choose to process the new information. For example, they can draw a picture, draw a cartoon, provide a reflective response, create a Venn diagram, or create a poem. The students use any of these activities they choose, color it, and make it their own in order for them to process and remember the information. I am so excited to start using these in my math class! Has anyone else used them that could share some good tips?

Final Project

regankinney — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:13:38 +0000

Part of me can’t believe we have made it to this point where we are starting to think about the end of the semester and the other part can’t wait until December! This seems to have came so quickly that I can’t come up with a final project idea.

I would like for my final project to be something that I could use in my classes from year to year. We were introduced to Moodle at the beginning of the school year and I am thinking this may be something that I would be interested in setting up for my students at school. I could set it up to include assignments, extra practice and help for the content we are working on in class, discussion boards for students to share thoughts and questions about homework, and maybe even include information about careers that require several math credits the students might find interesting.

This project would be created for my students so they could get extra help at home with their homework, ask questions after school if needed, and see how math will benefit them in the future. To know if this project is working I would like to be able to keep track of how many visits the site has (maybe through some sort of counter or track of student logins). If there was a way to see which students were utilizing this site I could make comparisons of their content knowledge prior to this site and after they began using it to see if it was working.

This is just an idea for the final project. I may be going in the wrong direction with this because I am not sure about what we are supposed to be doing. However, this will be something beneficial for my students and once I figure it all out, it will be something I could continue to use in the future.

Kearsley Ch 4: Student Interaction

regankinney — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:56:18 +0000

One section of this chapter focuses on the interaction that can take place in an online classroom. In one study, students were asked to read an article, rate it, and discuss it. During the online conference, there was a high level of student participation. The study also found that even though most students participated, the students that participated most frequently were the same students that participated in a face-to-face classroom.

This research topic is one that I feel strongly about because I am a shy student. In a regular classroom setting I would not raise my hand to answer questions or add comments to the discussion. However, I am much more vocal during online discussions. Of course, part of my grade depends on this participation but I also feel more comfortable to share my opinions. I give the credit for this comfort to the fact that I don’t have to look anyone in the eye and share my ideas. I can’t stand the thoughts of hearing people laugh at my comments, roll their eyes, or put me down through their comments. Online, even if my peers do this, I don’t have to actually see it!

I enjoy writing on my blog about course material or discussions on blackboard. I am the type of person that has to really talk something out before I truly understand it. When I have to read the content, think about it, answer questions, and share it through a discussion, I have a much better understanding of it than if I were to sit in a classroom and listen passively. I am not a big fan of the live chats. The few I have participated in were very confusing. By the time I would think about something and come up with an answer we would move on to the next topic. I also had a hard time keeping up with who said what.

To sum this up, as a student of online classes, I agree that student interaction is present in online classes. Students are usually required to communicate with teachers and other students. I personally like blogs and discussion boards because it allows me to see other viewpoints and think about my own before sharing. Live chats move too quick for me and don’t give me the time I need to really think out the topic before responding. Regardless of my preferences, online classes don’t leave room for students to be passive.

Research in Distance Education

regankinney — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:30:53 +0000

For the past couple of years, our school has really focused on assessment. There is a big push towards formative assessment and how we go about doing this in class to change the way we teach to meet student needs. I have also read a couple of articles online that are arguing for a change in the grading system from the standard A, B, C… scale to a system that is based on student mastery of standards, not single assignments. In my classroom everyday, I use observation and discussion as formative assessment. I am able to walk around and check student work as they practice math content. This assessment allows me to work one-on-one with students that are not grasping the concept.

With distance education where observations as students are working aren’t possible, I would like to know the best way to assess students on their knowledge of the content. I would also like to know if these assessments are true measures of their knowledge. To research this topic, I would need access to several distance education teachers and their students. I would choose classes from the same content area so the knowledge of students could be compared against each other. I would start by gathering different types of assessment the instructors use and class averages on this content. I would use student surveys from this class so I could understand how they feel about what they are studying. I would also get assessments and results from instructors that taught in face-to-face classrooms. I would want to compare the results of these assessment with those that are in an online class. I think it would be important to come up with an assessment, maybe a quiz, that includes content that each class has focused on. Students from both types of classes could take this quiz and their scores could be compared. This would help me to see if the assessment results were accurate to what the assessments said the students know about the material.

The student questionnare would help me see if the assessments are an accurate way to measure student knowledge. The comparison of students quiz scores that take this class online and those that take it in a face-to-face classroom would help me see which method of assessment is best to help the instructor know what to re-teach so the students understand the material.

Course Evaluations

regankinney — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:15:36 +0000

In Barbara Ganley’s blog, Good Partnerships in the Classroom, Conversation 3, found at http://bgblogging.com/2008/03/21/grading-partnerships-in-the-classroom-conversation-3/, she discusses how grading should change. Students need to learn in an environment where they work in cooperative groups to improve their skills. Grades give them the desire to work to please others, when they really need to be learning to please themselves. Students should be assessed on 4 things: risk, effort, improvement, and quality. This method gets students to think not only of themselves, but the group of students as well. They share through discussion and learn from each other. They help each other grow and improve without worrying about grades.

I like the idea of changing the way grades are given. I don’t think grades will ever go away because there has to be a system for determining if you are ready to move on to another grade level where the content is laid out for you and expected to be mastered. I don’t like the idea of grading every piece of work the students turn in, practice work, partner work, quizzes, etc., and this being the final say so on their grade. Students need to share and learn from others. We shouldn’t expect students to be experts on material the first one to two days they learn something. They need to feel safe when they practice and not be scared of a grade attached to practice.

I can’t recall where I heard this example, but I remember hearing about a student being excellent at science labs but terrible at written tests. Is it fair the student fails the class because they can’t show their knowledge of the information the way the teacher chooses even if they do understand the material? I don’t think a failing grade is representative of what the student knows and grades often misrepresent student’s knowledge. Some students won’t turn in homework and take zeroes. Is it correct to give them an F based on their missing work? This F isn’t a true reflection of their knowledge; maybe they are defiant, had no discipline at home, or have a home that doesn’t promote homework.