This post will be highlighting our group's final project. Our task was to create a stand alone 10 minute video tutorial on a technology of our choosing. We chose to highlight Moodle's (an online management system) ability to create a lesson. I gave us an introduction, Dan highlighted how to set up your lesson, I highlighted how to insert an image, add a live-link and embed video into the lesson, and Rebecca highlighted how to add questions to the lesson and the conclusion.
The tools that were used to create the tutorial were screencast-o-matic.com (SOM) and Jing, and Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Dan and I used SOM to record and Rebecca used Jing. Both are a free sites that allow you to record videocasts. SOM has no download and allows up to 15 minute recordings. Jing does have a download and install and only allows a 5 minute recording. The reason I chose to use screencast-o-matic was because it is very user friendly and allows you many different options after you have recorded as to what to do with the recording. It allows you to upload your video to their website, download it as a mp4 file, AVI file, or flash file, and it also allows you to upload it directly to YouTube. I have used screencast-o-matic before in my classroom and it really functions well.
The way we created the final piece being miles away from each other was through communication on google docs as well as utilizing email to send attachments of our recording to one person (Dan) so that he could piece all of the sections together in Windows Movie Maker (WMM).
Throughout the entire project, not only did I learn how to further utilize Moodle's capabilities (from making the tutorial), but I also became familiar with many different video conferencing software out there including Adobe Connect, Skype, and Vyew. In all three video conferencing tools, we found some of the drawbacks to using their free version. One large drawback was that none of them allowed you to record your sessions for later playback. We were able to use SOM for recording as well.
I did find that because we were so well prepared and the work was split evenly along the time-line, that the final video was not as hard as it could have been. What kept us on task and on track was creating a storyboard and script. I did amaze me as to how fast 3:30 minutes go by!
We did learn that if we were to do this again, to make sure that all group members use the same recording tool so that all of the recordings will be in the correct format. Dan ran into an issue with Becky's recording because she used the free version of Jing which only records in swf. Flash format which is not compatible with WMM. Dan then had to feverishly work at converting her file to a format that WMM liked.
I would definitely recommend being as well prepared as possible for each step to allow your group the greatest opportunity for success.
After Dan finished splicing the three pieces together in WMM he then uploaded it to his MSU AFS space so that it would be posted to the web. You may access that WMV file here. You may access the mp4 file here.
Group Leadership Project. If the link doesn’t play nice in your browser, right click and “Save link as” to download the video. Firefox hasn’t been playing as nice as IE and Chrome lately.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
WPP - PART D - Findings and Implications
After setting out to concur a wicked problem within my classroom and devised a plan to incorporate a type of technology to tackle that problem, I have been able to implement the first portion of my plan. If you recall, I wanted a way that I could get more students involved in my lecures/note-taking and also wanted a better way to monitor student progress throughout a lesson. I decided that the tool that best fit my problem was incorporating a Student Response System (SRS) into my lessons and units. My original plan was to incorporate the SRS into at least two lectures/note-taking and give two pre and post tests. I was not able to stick to this plan completely strictly because of timing issues. When I made the plan, I hadn't really taken a minute to look at a calender and think of how long each unit would take me to get through. I was able to incorporate the SRS into multiple note-taking sessions but have not been able to move into the next unit and therefore will only have given one pre-test and one post-test at the conclusion of this class.The unit I due to the great data I received from my SRS.
When I looked at my dismal results from the pre-test I gave my 7th graders regarding their up-coming sexual education unit, my first thought was, "WOW! These kids know VERY little about their own bodies!". It was a great starting point for both the students and myself. This provided each student with their own starting knowledge platform on this topic.
Throughout each note-taking session within the sexual education unit, I was able to ask every student at least 5 questions within a 15 minute session by using the SRS in comparison to my note-taking sessions without the SRS where I asked an average of 10-12 students one question each. I say "at least" because I still asked specific students individual questions in-between the SRS questions. The information that I gathered from the SRS questions was helpful in guiding my next few minutes in my note-taking session. Some questions were answered in ways that told me that a majority of the class knew the material and were ready to move on and other questions were answered in ways that told me I needed to reiterate something before moving on to the next topic. I may have missed needing to reiterate something without the SRS. Because I was able to get quick accurate results in seconds, I was able to tailor my lesson to the students needs which is ideal.
My post test results showed improvement in every student. Below is a screen shot of the pre/post test comparison
This pre/post test comparison serves two purposes for me as a teacher. It allows me to monitor progress very easily and efficiently throughout the unit plus is also allow me to see how effective my SRS questions were in my note-taking process. Based on these results I concluded that the questions I embedded into the notes were very successful at guiding my notes to be more congruent with what the students needs were and therefore all students were able to achieve to their potential and beyond.
Having addressed and implemented a plan to tackle a wicked problem in my classroom I would have to say that the process was very simple and somewhat straight forward. I felt that the extensive preparation to start helped guide me it the best direction. I also feel that the collaboration among my peers helped guide me in the best direction as well. If I were to do this again, I would most definitely talk with my peers to see if I could hone in on a problem that I share with other teachers so that I may help more than just myself. I feel that all three aspects (planning. implementing, and reflecting) are equally important and I would make sure to complete all three thoroughly. So often the reflection piece get pushed aside and that, in most cases, is one of the most crucial pieces to the puzzle. Without reflection, how does one get better?
Throughout this process I have taken many things away. One lesson I've learned is to plan "small". By that I mean don't bite off more than you can chew. You can always go back and complete the same process again after tweaking a few things. I would also make sure that you have a pretty good understand of the technology you will be using otherwise when a student has a question, you won't be able to answer it and you start to hit a "wall". I remember numerous questions arising the first time we used the SRS and if I hadn't of spent time learning the SRS and it's software, my day would have been much harder. I would definitely suggest using a SRS for all types of lessons, but they particularly boast very will with sensitive material where students may feel uncomfortable sharing out-load or in-front of the class such as sexual education.
If I am fortunate enough to be able to do this project again, I would alter my pre/post test a bit. The pre/post test that I made was 100% multiple choice, true/false, or matching. After making the test and having the students take it, I later found out that the SRS affords you the ability to create open ended (short answer) questions as well as multiple answer questions. The open ended questions would not be graded instantly, but would allow me a different perspective into a students knowledge on a specific topic. Knowing that some kids just don't do very well on multiple choice tests, I need to differentiate. I feel that the SRS that I used met and exceeded my expectations as a teacher and am hopeful in receiving a grant to purchase my own SRS. It fulfilled my need of both progress monitoring and more student involvement in lectures with better understanding of student comprehension.
When I looked at my dismal results from the pre-test I gave my 7th graders regarding their up-coming sexual education unit, my first thought was, "WOW! These kids know VERY little about their own bodies!". It was a great starting point for both the students and myself. This provided each student with their own starting knowledge platform on this topic.
Throughout each note-taking session within the sexual education unit, I was able to ask every student at least 5 questions within a 15 minute session by using the SRS in comparison to my note-taking sessions without the SRS where I asked an average of 10-12 students one question each. I say "at least" because I still asked specific students individual questions in-between the SRS questions. The information that I gathered from the SRS questions was helpful in guiding my next few minutes in my note-taking session. Some questions were answered in ways that told me that a majority of the class knew the material and were ready to move on and other questions were answered in ways that told me I needed to reiterate something before moving on to the next topic. I may have missed needing to reiterate something without the SRS. Because I was able to get quick accurate results in seconds, I was able to tailor my lesson to the students needs which is ideal.
My post test results showed improvement in every student. Below is a screen shot of the pre/post test comparison
Having addressed and implemented a plan to tackle a wicked problem in my classroom I would have to say that the process was very simple and somewhat straight forward. I felt that the extensive preparation to start helped guide me it the best direction. I also feel that the collaboration among my peers helped guide me in the best direction as well. If I were to do this again, I would most definitely talk with my peers to see if I could hone in on a problem that I share with other teachers so that I may help more than just myself. I feel that all three aspects (planning. implementing, and reflecting) are equally important and I would make sure to complete all three thoroughly. So often the reflection piece get pushed aside and that, in most cases, is one of the most crucial pieces to the puzzle. Without reflection, how does one get better?
Throughout this process I have taken many things away. One lesson I've learned is to plan "small". By that I mean don't bite off more than you can chew. You can always go back and complete the same process again after tweaking a few things. I would also make sure that you have a pretty good understand of the technology you will be using otherwise when a student has a question, you won't be able to answer it and you start to hit a "wall". I remember numerous questions arising the first time we used the SRS and if I hadn't of spent time learning the SRS and it's software, my day would have been much harder. I would definitely suggest using a SRS for all types of lessons, but they particularly boast very will with sensitive material where students may feel uncomfortable sharing out-load or in-front of the class such as sexual education.
If I am fortunate enough to be able to do this project again, I would alter my pre/post test a bit. The pre/post test that I made was 100% multiple choice, true/false, or matching. After making the test and having the students take it, I later found out that the SRS affords you the ability to create open ended (short answer) questions as well as multiple answer questions. The open ended questions would not be graded instantly, but would allow me a different perspective into a students knowledge on a specific topic. Knowing that some kids just don't do very well on multiple choice tests, I need to differentiate. I feel that the SRS that I used met and exceeded my expectations as a teacher and am hopeful in receiving a grant to purchase my own SRS. It fulfilled my need of both progress monitoring and more student involvement in lectures with better understanding of student comprehension.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Group video tutorial PART B - Storyboard and Script
Below is a link to our Group 5 storyboard and script. I worked on slides 10-17. These slide are describing how to add an image to a lesson , how to embed an image in a lesson. how to add a live link to an image, video, or website within a lesson and lastly, how to embed a video in a lesson within Moodle. We have split the 10 minute video tutorial into 3 equal parts and will be recording our own parts sequentially so that we will be able to put it all together very easily. We plan to use screencast-o-matic.com to record as it will record up to 15 minute episodes.
Daniel is working on the start-up of a lesson in Moodle
I am working on embedding within an lesson
Becky is working on imputing questions into the lessons
Our Storyboard and Script
Daniel is working on the start-up of a lesson in Moodle
I am working on embedding within an lesson
Becky is working on imputing questions into the lessons
Our Storyboard and Script
WPP - Part C - Implementation
Remember, the Wicked Problem that I am trying to solve is getting more kids engaged in lectures by polling all of them periodically throughout my lectures as well monitor progress throughout a unit by providing instant feedback on pre and post tests. I am accomplishing both of these actions by implementing a Student Response System into my lessons and units. I have recorded my thoughts on my first stage of implementation of the "clickers" into both my lesson and pretest unit. In listening to the recording, you will hear my thoughts on program set-up, reflection about implementing into a lesson, reflection about my pretest implementation and finally, things I would do differently.
Click here to access my WPP - Part C-Implementation
Click here to access my WPP - Part C-Implementation
Below are a few screenshots of my pretest results
Mobile Learning
I believe that mobile learning is the way of the future for education. I believe that it needs to evolve and make many strides forward to be as effective as possible.
This year I have dedicated a large chunk of my time to developing online lessons, activities and lectures that I am linking to my Moodle page. My book is available online as well so I hope, in the next 2-3 years, to be a completely paperless classroom. This year my 7th grade team ran a pilot wireless program. The district bought 32 netbooks and made each of our rooms wireless. This jump started my paperless classroom initiative. It has been a great experience with its successes and pitfalls and we are looking into more funding to purchase more netbooks for next year (althought I truly do like the cellular computer idea...). The program really opened my eyes to the availability of information to the students by offering our classrooms online. No longer does learning stop when they leave my room, it may happen at midnight for some kid who is watching my lecture on Moodle...simply amazing..!
I see the benefits to mobile learning, but have also seen some of the drawbacks first hand with mobile learning. Security is one big issue. Theft isn't really an issue in my school, but more so, the security of the software. I know their are programs to monitor student use, but we have had kids change backgrounds, download games, play with the camera, etc. with those programs in place.
In reviewing some of the arguments for and against mobile devices in school, I can relate to both. Do we want students to have to ability to take pictures of other students inappropriately? No. Do we want students to have easier tools to cheat with? No. But are we going to deny a chance of success for a student because of a few bad eggs? What if a cell phone keeps a student in school? What if that is the only thing we gets up for? Are you going to deny them that because you're scared of what they might do? I believe that with careful monitoring, the vast majority of students will breed success from using mobile devices.
here is a link to my post on classroom 2.0. http://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottCox
This year I have dedicated a large chunk of my time to developing online lessons, activities and lectures that I am linking to my Moodle page. My book is available online as well so I hope, in the next 2-3 years, to be a completely paperless classroom. This year my 7th grade team ran a pilot wireless program. The district bought 32 netbooks and made each of our rooms wireless. This jump started my paperless classroom initiative. It has been a great experience with its successes and pitfalls and we are looking into more funding to purchase more netbooks for next year (althought I truly do like the cellular computer idea...). The program really opened my eyes to the availability of information to the students by offering our classrooms online. No longer does learning stop when they leave my room, it may happen at midnight for some kid who is watching my lecture on Moodle...simply amazing..!
I see the benefits to mobile learning, but have also seen some of the drawbacks first hand with mobile learning. Security is one big issue. Theft isn't really an issue in my school, but more so, the security of the software. I know their are programs to monitor student use, but we have had kids change backgrounds, download games, play with the camera, etc. with those programs in place.
In reviewing some of the arguments for and against mobile devices in school, I can relate to both. Do we want students to have to ability to take pictures of other students inappropriately? No. Do we want students to have easier tools to cheat with? No. But are we going to deny a chance of success for a student because of a few bad eggs? What if a cell phone keeps a student in school? What if that is the only thing we gets up for? Are you going to deny them that because you're scared of what they might do? I believe that with careful monitoring, the vast majority of students will breed success from using mobile devices.
here is a link to my post on classroom 2.0. http://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottCox
Poll Everywhere Experience
After using Poll Everywhere I found it a bit cumbersome to input questions. There was no way to import questions from another source (word doc, ExamView, etc) to make it faster. This is a problem for me as I have many questions already typed and would like to option to input them directly without having to retype them. Also when using it, I was a the mercy of the speed of the internet. My districts infrastructure has not had a major update since 1999. There was lots of wait time and no real easy/quick way to move between questions. We as a class were moving much faster than the internet would allow us.
Some of the upsides we found were that the kids were WAY into it! They loved using their cell phones in school. They also found it easy to use since they were already familiar with the technology. They loved seeing the bar move and yelling out "THAT WAS ME!!!! I said 'NO' and it went up!!!". One upside I found was that Poll Everywhere gave the option to answer the poll through a website. This was essential for all students to feel involved as all students in my classes do not have cell phones and some have phones without unlimited texting.
Here are my questions
Some of the upsides we found were that the kids were WAY into it! They loved using their cell phones in school. They also found it easy to use since they were already familiar with the technology. They loved seeing the bar move and yelling out "THAT WAS ME!!!! I said 'NO' and it went up!!!". One upside I found was that Poll Everywhere gave the option to answer the poll through a website. This was essential for all students to feel involved as all students in my classes do not have cell phones and some have phones without unlimited texting.
Here are my questions
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Group Video Tutorial PART A - Brainstorm Session/Web-Conferencing
This post will be about my experience with video conferencing. We held a few video conferences today using Adobe Connect.
Our Video conference served two purposes. One was to learn video conferencing and two was to brainstorm about our group tutorial project design.
Prior to the conference our group had good brainstorming done in both google docs as well as through angel posts. Below is a link to our google document brainstorming and a screenshot of our angel brainstorming posts.
Google Document
after deciding to use Vyew as our video conferencing tool, Dan and I hopped on Sunday morning and to our dismay Vyew was down and you could not log in as a member...Dan was still able to create a room and we attempted to communicate in that room but were unable to find how to communicate though microphones and were stuck writing in the chat box. The best we could figure was that you had to be logged in as a member in order to use mics. I then called an audible and signed up for a free trial of adobe connect and we jumped ship to the adobe room I created. Some advantages we found of adobe connect was that it was extremely user friendly and easy to create a free account. It literally took less that 2 minutes to set up an account and get a room up and running. Within the room, it was very easy to start communicating through our webcams. It wasn't as easy to fine-tune the audio so we didn't get echoing but still was not difficult. Adobe immediately provided a URL for me to copy into our Google Doc so that Dan and Becky could enter the room.
Some downsides to Adobe connect is that they have no extended free version. My free trial ends in 15 days and I would then need to purchase a version or switch to a different video conferencing tool. Another disadvantage is that Adobe's free trial does not allow you to record the meetings for later playback. To do this we had to use Screencast-o-matic.com (SOM) and we were then obligated to keeping the meeting under 15 minutes as this is the longest SOM will allow.
If I were to do this over again, I would try and hold my video conference on a day that I was not under time constraints and I would enter the room before the meeting so that I was very familiar with all aspects of the video conferencing tool. Therefore, I would be able and answer as many questions or address as many problems as possible. I see video conferencing in general being useful in my classroom by allowing us to go on virtual field trips (for free) to many different science careers and actually get to talk with people who make science their life. I can also see creating virtual office hours on a given night for students to be able to ask questions if they were having difficulty on an assignment. (although that would take some ironing out before I could put into practice).
Overall the video conference went very well and as a good experience to go through.
Here are a few screenshots of us using Adobe Connect
Our Video conference served two purposes. One was to learn video conferencing and two was to brainstorm about our group tutorial project design.
Prior to the conference our group had good brainstorming done in both google docs as well as through angel posts. Below is a link to our google document brainstorming and a screenshot of our angel brainstorming posts.
Google Document
after deciding to use Vyew as our video conferencing tool, Dan and I hopped on Sunday morning and to our dismay Vyew was down and you could not log in as a member...Dan was still able to create a room and we attempted to communicate in that room but were unable to find how to communicate though microphones and were stuck writing in the chat box. The best we could figure was that you had to be logged in as a member in order to use mics. I then called an audible and signed up for a free trial of adobe connect and we jumped ship to the adobe room I created. Some advantages we found of adobe connect was that it was extremely user friendly and easy to create a free account. It literally took less that 2 minutes to set up an account and get a room up and running. Within the room, it was very easy to start communicating through our webcams. It wasn't as easy to fine-tune the audio so we didn't get echoing but still was not difficult. Adobe immediately provided a URL for me to copy into our Google Doc so that Dan and Becky could enter the room.
Some downsides to Adobe connect is that they have no extended free version. My free trial ends in 15 days and I would then need to purchase a version or switch to a different video conferencing tool. Another disadvantage is that Adobe's free trial does not allow you to record the meetings for later playback. To do this we had to use Screencast-o-matic.com (SOM) and we were then obligated to keeping the meeting under 15 minutes as this is the longest SOM will allow.
If I were to do this over again, I would try and hold my video conference on a day that I was not under time constraints and I would enter the room before the meeting so that I was very familiar with all aspects of the video conferencing tool. Therefore, I would be able and answer as many questions or address as many problems as possible. I see video conferencing in general being useful in my classroom by allowing us to go on virtual field trips (for free) to many different science careers and actually get to talk with people who make science their life. I can also see creating virtual office hours on a given night for students to be able to ask questions if they were having difficulty on an assignment. (although that would take some ironing out before I could put into practice).
Overall the video conference went very well and as a good experience to go through.
Here are a few screenshots of us using Adobe Connect
Using the chat window
Sharing Screens
Shared notes window
On to the nuts and bolts of the video blog. We have decided that to make a tutorial on a few of the basics of Moodle the online management system. We will be teaching how to make a lesson on moodle with embeded video and guided questions. We have chosen to divide the tutorial into 3 equal parts and will be using screencast-o-matic to record our sections and then use windows movie maker to piece them all together. Becky will be demonstrating how to begin creating a lesson in Moodle, I will be demonstrating how to embed a video and ways around YouTube and Dan will be demonstrating how to add questions with guided responses. We have agreed to all look into getting a dummy Moodle class set up, one that all of us will have access to so we all can work on the same lesson. We are trying to get this set up by Tuesday and will be communicating on our Google document throughout the week.
Below are the two links to our web conference
Below are the two links to our web conference
LINK TO FIRST CONFERENCE:11AM Dan and Scott
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cXf6D2DfI
LINK TO SECOND CONFERENCE: 8PM Dan, Scott and Becky
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cXfXctDfJ
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cXf6D2DfI
LINK TO SECOND CONFERENCE: 8PM Dan, Scott and Becky
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cXfXctDfJ
WPP - PART B - Application of TPACK
When I take a step back and look at my Wicked Problem Project, incorporating a Student Response System into my classroom and I compare it to following to the TPACK curriculum I see my problem being well supported my TPACK. TPACK takes technology and ties it closely with pedagogy and content so that a teacher will have the greatest opportunity for successful technology integration into their curriculum.
By incorporating a SRS into my lesson, I will not be changing my teaching methods all that much. I will still be delivering content and probing for questions, but I now will be probing each student numerous questions and will be able to give instant feedback to both myself and the student. This will allow me to alter what I am doing, based on class participation, to best fit a class or group of students. It will allow a student to instantly see "how am I understanding this content?" and will hopefully provoke questions from the students if they are not understanding.
By creating pre-tests and post tests that the students will use the SRS to answer I am hoping for a shift in motivation for students. Unmotivated students will now have a tangible goal. They will see where they started with their pre-tests and most will want to see their post test score higher and in turn will find some motivation to get there. For the extrinsically motivated student, I am hoping for some intrinsic motivation to arise within.
When I look at how my SRS will make my content more intellectually accessible, I find myself looking at how quickly I can get results for both the students and myself. The students will immediately know how they did on a pre or post test and it will allow me the ability to publish test grades quicker for parents and students to access online.
By being able to pose numerous questions throughout my lessons I am also able to reel those rouge day-dreamers back in and make sure they are staying connected with the content of the lesson. Plus at the conclusion of lessons I will now have to ability to ask open ended, thought provoking questions (i.e. exit slips) to further test their knowledge and the SRS allows easy, quick, and organized access to their answers that I can then use to tailor the follow days lesson accordingly.
By using a SRS I will be reaching all learnings. My SRS allows me to incorporate an array of different types of questions into my lesson. From true/false to multiple choice. From multiple answer to opinion or open ended questions. I will be asking students to read and respond, watch this clip and respond, answer this question after I present this information to you, etc. As i become more comfortable with them I would also like to incorporate the SRS into group work and collaboration as well.
By incorporating a SRS into my lesson, I will not be changing my teaching methods all that much. I will still be delivering content and probing for questions, but I now will be probing each student numerous questions and will be able to give instant feedback to both myself and the student. This will allow me to alter what I am doing, based on class participation, to best fit a class or group of students. It will allow a student to instantly see "how am I understanding this content?" and will hopefully provoke questions from the students if they are not understanding.
By creating pre-tests and post tests that the students will use the SRS to answer I am hoping for a shift in motivation for students. Unmotivated students will now have a tangible goal. They will see where they started with their pre-tests and most will want to see their post test score higher and in turn will find some motivation to get there. For the extrinsically motivated student, I am hoping for some intrinsic motivation to arise within.
When I look at how my SRS will make my content more intellectually accessible, I find myself looking at how quickly I can get results for both the students and myself. The students will immediately know how they did on a pre or post test and it will allow me the ability to publish test grades quicker for parents and students to access online.
By being able to pose numerous questions throughout my lessons I am also able to reel those rouge day-dreamers back in and make sure they are staying connected with the content of the lesson. Plus at the conclusion of lessons I will now have to ability to ask open ended, thought provoking questions (i.e. exit slips) to further test their knowledge and the SRS allows easy, quick, and organized access to their answers that I can then use to tailor the follow days lesson accordingly.
By using a SRS I will be reaching all learnings. My SRS allows me to incorporate an array of different types of questions into my lesson. From true/false to multiple choice. From multiple answer to opinion or open ended questions. I will be asking students to read and respond, watch this clip and respond, answer this question after I present this information to you, etc. As i become more comfortable with them I would also like to incorporate the SRS into group work and collaboration as well.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
WPP - PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity
I have been teaching for over 3 years and in those three years I have taught over 7 different subjects within the sciences. I have also taught in both the high school and middle school settings. In each of those classroom settings, there was an underlining struggle that arose in all of the classes. The struggle was my ability to get an really good understanding of the students comprehension (as a whole) on a certain topic before I moved on to the next topic. What I have found worked best for me was to ask lots of questions, often. With this strategy, I am asking a question to a specific student every 30 seconds, on average. Even with this strategy I am only able to ask one question to one student. To me, this is unacceptable to swallow, but I had to swallow because I had no other alternatives. I plan to address this issue by using a Student Response System in my classroom. This system will allow me to pose multiple questions to the students and get a response from the ENTIRE CLASS!!! The system that I will be using is on loan from a fellow teacher who wrote a grant in order to purchase the $1500 system. I feel this is the most cost effective technological alternative that addresses my issue. Other alternatives include a netbook/laptop for each student which would cost roughly $500-%1000 per student or having the students use a polling software like Polleverywhere.com. This software allows students to use their cell phones to text in answers. I have tried using this type of software and a few problems arise with it. One problem is that you are at the mercy of the internet connection and in my district the words "archaically slow" comes to mind. It actually inhibited progress. The other problems I ran into were that not every student has a cell phone nor do all students have unlimited texting options on their plans. I then had to find other options for those students.
My plan is to seamlessly integrate the Student Response System into my note-taking process so that periodically throughout the notes, I will pose questions to all students and receive instant feedback from all students that I will use to gage if I need to clarify anything or can move on. All students will participate by using the system. I hope to have the ability to use these for the remainder of the year and if all goes well, purchase some after writing a grant for next year.
I also plan to use the Student Response System as a way of monitoring progress within a unit. I would like to create pre and post tests that will be administered to the class so that each student (and myself) will be able to know what their level of knowledge comprehension is before and after a unit. I am hoping students will see an increase in comprehension throughout the unit of study and this will spark some internal motivation to do as well as they can.
The following are sites that I have found that will be great resources for me when preparing a lesson as well as during the integration process.
http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/srs/faculty/best_practices.cfm - Provides best practices of SRS integration from University of Wisconsin.
http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/swssa%20ms.pdf - outlines the history and benefits to using SRS. Also gives uses, types, and alternatives to SYS.
http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0 - A website that provides premade lessons and test question sets that I may access when designing my lessons. (I may not have to reinvent the wheel each time!)
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0508/0508114v1.pdf - This addresses the different types of questions
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ClickersintheClassroomAnActive/157458 - This gives evidence that SRS work to increase test scores
http://www.turningtechnologies.com/media/files/100%20ttech%20ideas%20for%20SRS.pdf - 100 ideas for SRS.
http://www.suite101.com/content/10-personal-response-systems-teaching-strategies-a159078 - 10 best practice using a SRS.
I used Google search engine for my searches and had tremendous success. I Rarely use other search engines. My Searches included "student Response systems in the classroom", "How to integrate student response systems into the classroom", "Ideas for SRS in the classroom", "Tips for use of SRS", "student response systems tips and tricks", "Student Response System Ideas".
I also used google Scholar search engine and found that most if the literature was not useful simply because of the length of the articles. Some of my searches included "student response systems in classrooms", "student response systems in middle school classrooms"
My plan is to integrate the SRS into at least two lessons, and two pre/post tests during the length of my CEP 812 class. My plan after that class finishes is to continue to integrate my fellow teachers SRS into as many lessons as possible and make pre and post tests for each unit from here on out. I also plan to look into writing a grant for funds to purchase my own student response system.
The way I plan to assess whether my technology integration was successful is to look at my pre and post test scores. I have a few pre and post test scores from units without my integration from earlier in the year that I will use as a control to compare my scores after using the SRS to. Hopefully I see an increase in my scores.
My plan is to seamlessly integrate the Student Response System into my note-taking process so that periodically throughout the notes, I will pose questions to all students and receive instant feedback from all students that I will use to gage if I need to clarify anything or can move on. All students will participate by using the system. I hope to have the ability to use these for the remainder of the year and if all goes well, purchase some after writing a grant for next year.
I also plan to use the Student Response System as a way of monitoring progress within a unit. I would like to create pre and post tests that will be administered to the class so that each student (and myself) will be able to know what their level of knowledge comprehension is before and after a unit. I am hoping students will see an increase in comprehension throughout the unit of study and this will spark some internal motivation to do as well as they can.
The following are sites that I have found that will be great resources for me when preparing a lesson as well as during the integration process.
http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/srs/faculty/best_practices.cfm - Provides best practices of SRS integration from University of Wisconsin.
http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/swssa%20ms.pdf - outlines the history and benefits to using SRS. Also gives uses, types, and alternatives to SYS.
http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0 - A website that provides premade lessons and test question sets that I may access when designing my lessons. (I may not have to reinvent the wheel each time!)
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0508/0508114v1.pdf - This addresses the different types of questions
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ClickersintheClassroomAnActive/157458 - This gives evidence that SRS work to increase test scores
http://www.turningtechnologies.com/media/files/100%20ttech%20ideas%20for%20SRS.pdf - 100 ideas for SRS.
http://www.suite101.com/content/10-personal-response-systems-teaching-strategies-a159078 - 10 best practice using a SRS.
I used Google search engine for my searches and had tremendous success. I Rarely use other search engines. My Searches included "student Response systems in the classroom", "How to integrate student response systems into the classroom", "Ideas for SRS in the classroom", "Tips for use of SRS", "student response systems tips and tricks", "Student Response System Ideas".
I also used google Scholar search engine and found that most if the literature was not useful simply because of the length of the articles. Some of my searches included "student response systems in classrooms", "student response systems in middle school classrooms"
My plan is to integrate the SRS into at least two lessons, and two pre/post tests during the length of my CEP 812 class. My plan after that class finishes is to continue to integrate my fellow teachers SRS into as many lessons as possible and make pre and post tests for each unit from here on out. I also plan to look into writing a grant for funds to purchase my own student response system.
The way I plan to assess whether my technology integration was successful is to look at my pre and post test scores. I have a few pre and post test scores from units without my integration from earlier in the year that I will use as a control to compare my scores after using the SRS to. Hopefully I see an increase in my scores.
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