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http://ctl.utexas.edu/teaching/flipping_a_class/what_is_flipped Many teachers have heard of and are using the idea of a flipped classroom. Some are only providing videos to students to watch at home, to allow more time in the classroom for experiments, discussions, projects, or challenging homework Q&A time. The problem that some of these teachers might face is that students aren't accountable to watch the videos - and many of them simply don't. This teacher (Ramsey Musallam) has found a way to engage students during this stage of their learning, how to hold them accountable, and how to help them learn concepts better. The video embedded in this page shows an example of one of his flipped lectures. He's using a combination of video and Google docs forms - the video on the page for students to learn from, then a form underneath that students must fill out with their names, summary of the video, and the important part - to finish his last example and provide an answer. He always shows two examples in his videos, but the second one he doesn't finish fully, and lets the students finish it. I thought this was brilliant! This form also allows him to capture all of the responses from the students in a single location, can sort them, check for duplicates (plagiarism), and he shows the list to the class on the projector screen - double accountability! I found it very interesting that he was then taking the responses and pasting into a wordle word cloud, and using that as a discussion stem about the subject! How smart... this is useful technolo The other great example of student engagement and interaction with flip teaching is the use of ed.ted.com - a central location to find educational videos, then create questions and discussion about the video. This method also encourages student accountability, and allows the teacher to gather student responses for grades, or progress. In any case, I will be teaching with a flipped classroom in the future, and hopefully will get a good taste of it during my PSIII placement. Another great resource to learn more about flipped teaching can be found at http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/the-flipped-classroom-model-a-full-picture/ This summary and response are based on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x71hjtTgQ0E
observation: - attitude regarding technology, motivation, interest, self-learning, voluntarily helping other students, distraction or benefit? Checklist: - most points being met suggests that the technology was a success. Rating scales - similar, but more involved (mostly like a rubric) Rubric - more detailed, deeper levels of learning/achievement based on levels of quality and stages of development. Re-evaluate at regular intervals, like every year. Students, learning objectives, etc change over time. Keep the technology applicable to the real-world, and current. Sample year-end evaluation: At the end of the school year, think back and reflect on the technologies used in your class - whether it be software, hardware, the internet, or any combination of the three - to help you determine whether the resources are working and/or where you need to make changes. One way to help you determine this is to think about whether your students know how to select and use technology to help them find, analyze, and convey information effectively and creatively. If so, then you have a good indication that technology has at least enhanced students’ learning. Also consider whether it helped you as a teacher, such as helping you track grades and other information, or create classroom materials. Exit Slip surveys are also a very useful feedback method from students to gain understanding about a technology mid-stream, instead of waiting until the end of the year or unit. Evaluate digital tutorials: Give young students either an online or CD tutorial that teaches them phonetics and how to read. After they have sufficient practice with the tutorials, evaluate the effectiveness of the digital tutorials. To help you in your evaluation, sit with each student and have them read aloud a short story or a series of sentences that they should be able to read after using the tutorials. Use either a rating scale or rubric to evaluate. My Response: Though this isn't stated in the video, I agree that sometimes technology is used sometimes just for the sake of using it. Educators need to be assessing their use of technology in the classroom, and considering if it is in-fact useful and beneficial to student learning. The fact that a lot of technology integration needs to be assessed through it's own medium is a great method, and does indeed require more thorough assessment techniques such as rubrics and check lists. My concern is that some teachers are biasing their assessment tools to grade the use of the technology, rather than the real content and learning which should be demonstrated through the technology. In many cases, the ITC curriculum is more of a tool, than an end-of-year outcome. This is certainly something that I will be considering, especially some of the evaluations from a teacher's perspective on how effective a tool was throughout the year, where I need to improve or adapt, and what to toss in search of something more effective for learning. Below is an embedded concept map I made as a summary of Jeff Bradbury's podcast about PLNs (the podcast is about 45 minutes long). As of right now, my PLN consists of youtube subscriptions to other science and technology educators, as they are helpful resources for teaching science, or learning different topics which I am not fully comfortable with (yet).
I liked Jeff's ideas of connecting more face-to-face; it doesn't always have to be an online network. (Though I'm a fairly quiet and reserved person when it comes to conferences and conventions... we'll see how that evolves over time). I agree with everything that was mentioned in his podcast, and can see many benefits of twitter inside and outside the class, and see it as a potentially extremely valuable tool inside and outside the classroom, as more students are bringing internet-connected devices to the class (or can use school devices). In a Virtual Reality for Education class here at the University of Lethbridge, we are using an OpenSim VR environment (Second Life clone) with FireStorm viewer to interact with classmates. This 3D VR environment/server still has a few glitches, one being that the audio chat feature is not working.
In our group meeting last night, we discussed some of our findings from internet searches about the Pros and Cons of using virtual reality in a classroom. We shared our lists, then had a little discussion around the combined lists of pros, then for the cons. This PDF file is my summary of our discussion. I have read and provided a brief review of the article posted at: http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/959553/integrating_technology_into_k12_teaching_and_learning_current_knowledge_gaps/ This is a rather lengthy article discussing barriers and strategies of technology integration in a public education classroom (k-12). The article is slightly dated (from 2007) given the current rate of technology evolution, advancement and adoption - but I think many points are still valid. Below is a presentation including some brief voice-over explanation of some of the summary points from the paper. If the embedded presentation doesn't work... here's a link. The Alberta Ed. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programs of study include a very lengthy document covering all grades from 1-12. They are divided into the four divisions (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12), and further divided into three main categories - Foundation, Communicating, and Process.
The ICT outcomes can be found here: http://www.edc.gov.ab.ca/ict/pofs.asp The outcomes for each of the F, C, and P categories are similar throughout all 4 divisions, but grow in depth and intensity/complexity with the student. One of the main differences between the ICT curriculum and all other subject curricula from Alberta Ed, is that the ICT outcomes do not get a separate class treatment - they need to be integrated into all (any) other subject classroom. This works well in many cases, since most teachers try to cover two or more birds with one stone as frequently as they can. Teachers can tie in 3-4 ICT outcomes like Internet research, word processing, multimedia presentation, and creating a simple website all while working through a social studies module. The technology now literally serves as a tool or vehicle to assist and express understanding. My gut reaction to how these outcomes are setup is that there are too many specific outcomes for this decade. I could see how this document would have been helpful in the last 10-15 years, with fewer teachers having adopted some of the more modern electronic technology, fewer students with computers and internet at home, and higher prices of such technology which would have affected budgets. But now - most students have access, all schools have internet and a decent amount of computers, and most teachers and parents have at least a basic understanding of the software options available. If there were fewer outcomes in the ICT P of S, teachers would have flexibility to use technology however and whenever, without having a mandate to do 'this' or 'that'. A lot of technology is already being used and or learned at home, making it a redundant effort in some cases to do so at school. Perhaps an option would be to leave the curriculum as it stands, but to not mandate every outcome; this would still give teachers and parents ideas to ways which technology could be used, but allow freedom to provide optimal learning opportunities to all students. Here is my summary in both text and video form about the Alberta Ed ICT outcomes, and the integration of some of them into four grade 8 science SLOs from the light and optics unit. The video is far from my best... but for the time it will have to do. Alberta Ed - Division 3 ICT outcomes - (Page 37 or here).
The ICT outcomes for Alberta Education are divided into the four divisions - grades 1-3 are division 1, grades 4-6 are division 2, grades 7-9 are division 3, and grades 10-12 are division 4. For the ICT programs of study, each of these divisions is then further divided into three categories of technology integration - the C category - which is for communication, and problem solving like using technology for research, the F category, which is for foundational knowledge - like understanding ergonomics and the nature of technology, and the P category, which is for processes of productivity, like manipulating data, and communicating through multimedia - where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. P3 (Students will communicate through multimedia.) 3.1) create multimedia presentations that take into account audiences of diverse size, age, gender, ethnicity and geographic location 3.3) create multimedia presentations that incorporate meaningful graphics, audio, video and text gathered from remote sources P5 (Students will navigate and create hyperlinked resources.) 3.1) create a multiple-link web page 3.2) demonstrate proficient use of various information retrieval technologies P6 (Students will use communication technology to interact with others.). 3.1) communicate with a targeted audience, within a controlled environment, by using such communication technologies as email and web browsers 3.2) demonstrate proficiency in accessing local area network, wide area network and Internet services, including uploading and downloading text, image, audio and video files Grade 8 Science Outcomes - Unit C - Light and Optical Systems Key Concepts: The following concepts are developed in this unit and may also be addressed in other units at other grade levels. The intended level and scope of treatment is defined by the outcomes below. − microscopes and telescopes − contribution of technologies to scientific development − transmission and absorption of light − sources of light − reflection and refraction − images − vision and lenses − imaging technologies GLO 2. Investigate the transmission of light, and describe its behaviour using a geometric ray model
Technologies to use: (computer, screen recorder, internet/browser, website creation, concept mapping software, video editor, email/social media) Rationale: This is more than the required two technologies - but they fit nicely together to complete this project. Light and optics are an interesting branch of science, it would be interesting to show these topics through a rich multimedia experience - first through an interactive ray diagram applet via screencast with spoken explanation, then with the concept map graphic organizer showing how all of the topics are connected or branch out from each other. The video editing and website are a part of the ICT outcomes, but really are just tools to represent the information from the student. Computer to create a variety of small projects after learning about light interactions: (all temporary files saved on the student’s networked folder on the school server). 1. a video screencast (using screencast-o-matic) showing and explaining with speech recording a ray diagram applet such as http://teleformacion.edu.aytolacoruna.es/FISICA/document/applets/Hwang/ntnujava/Lens/lens_e.html - The video must be edited in a basic editor to include a title, date, your name, and intro section showing images from the internet depicting real-world uses of lenses and mirrors, and a subdued and appropriate selection of royalty free (legal) background music available from sites such as http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ Create a second video (with a helper or at least a tripod) of you demonstrating light interacting with lenses, mirrors, and passing through different medium interfaces (ie air-glass, air-diamond, air-water etc). For each of these interactions, attempt to measure the angles of the light (ingoing and exiting) using a protractor. Try different lenses from magnifying glasses, eye glasses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and describe what they are made out of, and possible reasons. Upload the videos to a hosting service such as Youtube or Vimeo. 2. a concept web using the free www.xmind.net software showing the relationships and connections between higher order concepts of light down at least three levels for three different categories to specific details. Saves the concept web as an image file to upload to a website such as weebly or Google sites. 3. Set up a website with at least four pages, and a menu to navigate throughout. The pages should include a homepage with a basic introduction to the topic of light and optics, a page with your videos and legible concept web, a page with additional resources and links to other websites that are helpful in learning about light interactions, and a Bibliography-type page listing detailed sources of all images, sounds, and other resources used. Include disclaimer/note on your pages that you are a student, and that it is possible that there are mistakes. 4. Promote your website to the other students, the teacher, your friends, family, etc. using email and/or social media, and elicit feedback and comments from them. What if our current definition of time was wrong?? I believe it is. So do many other physicists. Read this article for more thought provoking ideas... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-more-time-passes-the-less-we-know-about-time/article11573986/ Latex is a pseudo programming environment which allows for professionaly typeset formulas and reports. (If you don't already know how to use it, it has a steep learning curve (aka takes a long time to learn). Here is the link to a very nice online editor called ShareLaTex. |
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