CEP 812: Group Leader Project

Here is my Group Leadership project.  I had a wonderful group with varying technology skills that worked very well together to achieve our goal.

To deliver the PD tutorial we used Jing to create our screen capture and windows media to compile the screen casts.  We chose this because it seemed like the best way to demonstrate all of the aspects of Moodle we wanted to highlight.  During the development of this project I learn many new skills, like how to create more in depth lessons in Moodle and how to use Adobe conferences.  Also, I worked on my screen casting skills and working to better my recording quality.

If I were to develop another similar product again I would  create my script differently, though using Google docs helped a lot with planning and collaboration, I feel this would be a project I would complete on my own in the future.   I would also take more time to explore more options of how I could present my tutorial or ways supplement or enhance it. 

CEP 812 Wicked Problem Project: Part D - Findings and Implications

I feel that the project was implemented as planned, though I would like to see it implemented on a larger scale.  Students seemed to respond well to the project and the programs that I found for them to use.  The evidence of the success was the increase in grades on the handout they were given and the student reaction to the programs. 

If I were given another project of this type some things that I might do differently are:

·         Make more attempts to get more people in district on board with trying new ideas

·         Take more time on with student feedback and staff feed back to improve my solution.

·         Try to have multiple teachers at my school trying the solution instead just in my classroom.

The lessons that were learned while working to complete this project are:

·         To allow plenty of time for learning new programs and to be flexible.  It is important plan for all levels of learners.

·         To not underestimate students ability to teach each other and themselves.

·         Listen to student comments and feedback to make your solution better.

I will look into implementing this project on a larger scale and have more teachers involved to see if they feel the programs are effective to enhance learning and teaching strategies.  I would also like to give more time for implementation so students can have more time with the programs so they can be more comfortable with commenting on the effectiveness of the programs.

CEP 812 Wicked Problem Project: Part C - Implementation

This post is about the implementation of the solution for my Wicked Problem.  I have recorded a podcast about the surprises, unexpected bumps in the road, and the things that went well.  This podcast allowed me to go back and reflect on the solution to see if there is anything that I would change and encouraged me to explore more programs that could solve my Wicked Problem of needing a good reader program and translation program for my students.

Click here for my podcast.

CEP 812 Wicked Problem Project: Part B

For my wicked problem of needing a good program that can read and translate text for students I actually chose 2 programs, White Smoke and Natural Reader.  I chose these two programs because together they achieve my goal and offer both free and paid versions of the software.

White smoke is the translation program.  It comes in a free version (though there is a version for purchase) where students can:

·         Copy and paste text into a text box and it has the options to translate the text into English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish

·         Use the writer program for checking their own written work (which can be used just not for the ESL kids, but all other students for proof reading purposes).  This function also integrates itself into Microsoft Word while the student is working (though it is a bit redundant of what  Microsoft word already offers).

·         It also has a dictionary function that searches key words in a dictionary, thesaurus, and on Wikipedia.
Click here for an screen capture of White Smoke that includes explainations of each aspect of the program.

Natural Reader is the text reader program.  It comes in a free version (though there is a version for purchase) where students can:

·         Copy and paste text into the reader to have it read to them in English

·         Use the Floating Bar .  This can be brought to the front of a document and the student can highlight what they want read to them.

·         An mp3 can be made of the document be read

Here is a link to the Natural Readers website that has several different videos that demo the possible uses of the program.

Overall, both of these programs enhance any student’s learning because they offer many different options for facilitating learning of content.  These programs work with multiple types of students with multiple needs.  For students with ESL needs White Smoke provides translations for all types of text including more complicated texts that can occur in high school courses.  It also gives all students another way to proofread their work.  Natural Reader in its free edition of the program offers a basic reader that works well with many text based programs such as Microsoft Word and Adobe.

While using these programs the learner will be able to experience material on more levels because of the options that both programs provide.  It can enhance their experience by offering pronunciations of words that may be difficult and translation for ESL students they still are struggling with English.  

***Both of these programs help supplement teaching strategies that may already be in place in a lesson.   They can enhance teaching strategies that involve reading text out loud to students.  It will allow students to have materials read to them multiple times without a teacher or para-pro that would normally read text to them.  It will also help students better analyze texts for content and for research purposes.

In science we focus on a teaching strategy that we call CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning).  Students are asked fairly regularly to analyze text for claims (opinions and statements) that are well thought out and have evidence that directly connects to the claim (the reasoning).  Having a program that translates or reads the text can allow for better understanding and lets students to be able to process ideas more completely.  This is a skill that students will be able to apply outside of school.

It can also help teachers with giving students clear expectations (DL. IFL).  No matter how “clear” a teacher may think their expectations are, if the students do not understand because of language barriers or a lack of reading skills there is no way to reach the students.  Natural reader gives both teachers and students a way to translate the expectations to meet ESL needs.  Natural Reader allows for both ESL and struggling readers to hear the expectations multiple times without the teacher having to repeat them.

Natural Reader can help ESL students with their English skills because the more they hear the word with the written word the better they understand the language.  It can also help those students with pronunciation skills.  White Smoke can help ESL students because it can give them a context for learning English and it can serve as a way to compare English to their native language (which can help with learning a new language).

At Union High School (where I currently teach) we get a lot of refugee students from Africa that speak French and a lot of Hispanic students that know very little English, these are the students I had in mind when trying to solve this problem.  Feel that they will benefit the most intellectually because they will be able to understand the content even if their English isn’t the greatest.  The other students I had in mind while trying to solve this problem are my struggling readers.  Science curriculums are full of new vocabulary terms and words that may look and sound “weird” to an inexperienced student.  Natural Reader can help both my ESL and struggling readers (and most of the time they are one in the same) with pronunciations. 

CEP 811 Share: Online Teaching Experiences

Currently my students are using Moodle as a Learning management system for a blended curriculum.  This is the first year that we have tried using Moodle in the classroom and the first year for blended.  My students have taken to the program fairly well but still struggle on occasion with some of the “ins and outs” of it.  Moodle has helped enhance my lessons by offering more ways to differentiate my instruction, give my students access to more content resources and to allow my students to explore content based topics.  I would like to do more collaborative group work assignments with my students in the future, potentially using Wikis and  Google Docs.  Recently I introduced my Chemistry kids to Google docs and they have responded well to it, though the learning curve has been there, the transition has been easy for the more focused and self motivated students.  The students that do not fall into that category have needed a bit more guidance using the program but seem to like the idea of it.

My district is next looking to go live with Gaggle in the next few weeks and I would like to use this to incorporate more collaborative opportunities into my lessons.  But, I am still learning about Gaggle myself and feel that integrating it into my lessons could be difficult due to time constraints and students having difficulty with the new program.

The technologies that could be harder to use with my students right now would be podcasting.  This is mostly due to the lack of technology available currently for them to record a podcast (right now we are struggling to make headphones, let alone quality microphones for the students).  I do feel that my students would respond well to a project with podcasts right now the technology isn’t there.

I feel that now that my students have been exposed to what learning in the digital age could be like I think they will be able to pick up new digital learning tools more quickly the more they become acclimated to learning in this manner.

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project: Part B - Storyboard and Script

Here is my group’s script and story board for our Leadership Project.  We collaborated using Skype and using a Google doc and Google presentation.  Our project focuses creating an interactive lesson on Moodle.  As a group we had quite a bit of experience using Moodle in our classrooms and wanted to share some techniques that can be used to create effective lessons  on Moodle.

The portion of lesson creation that I focused on was creating questions and responses in Moodle.  I also explained how to set up the grading on each question.

Story Board and script

I created the portion about adding questions to Moodle, it starts on slide 17.

CEP 811: School Wikipedia Page

I was searching for my school (Union High School) on Wikipedia and found that there wasn’t a page for the school.  I was able to find my district’s page (Grand Rapids Public Schools) on Wikipedia but it had no information and links to pages about the 5 high schools in the district. 

 I clicked on the linked to my high school and found nothing, so it offered me an opportunity to edit the page.

Here is the article that I created.  Union High School Grand Rapids, MI

I added some general information about the school just to get the page started.  I hope that sometime in the future that my article will be built upon to create a more complete description of my school.   This is my first year at this school and I am still learning about what all the school has to offer and would like to see if anyone else from my school has something to contribute.

Wicked Problem Project: Part A - Description of Need or Opportunity CEP812

My educational need that I would like to meet is a way to allow for students to better understand the content that they are reading in the blended science program, particular students that are struggling readers and ESL students.

 I would like to find an affordable, quality reader program and translation program) to meet the needs of students require materials read to them.  I have many students with low reading levels and that are ESL students. In each of my blended science classes I have students that several different learning abilities.  I feel that have a quality program that can read and/or translate material will help them with their learning.  This will help differentiate instruction and give students more control over their learning.

This program should be used on a daily basis in the classroom.  I would like to see the reader program be available to all students and staff to help differentiate learning.

My plan:

·         Research and compare reading and translation programs focusing on accuracy, ease of use and cost.

·         Test the programs in a classroom setting with multiple learners with multiple needs.

·         Work with the district technology coordinator to get the program in the classrooms.

For this to be successful I will need the full support of my district and their technology department.  I will also need to buy/find etc. a program that can be easily loaded on to student computers.

CEP 811: UDL Lab

Here is the UDL check list for the lesson that I created.

I found that I met several of the needs of check list in this lesson, though I do think I could vary the ways that students present their ideas more.

Assignment: PART A - Brainstorm session CEP 812

Scott, Dan and myself decided to focus on Moodle as our technology to present.  Through brainstorming we found that all of us have had experience using the site and can gain access to it for our project. 

 

We used a couple different conferencing tools for brain storming:

·         We used the forum group set for us in Angel for preliminary planning and scheduling a time for all of use to get together. 

·         On Sunday morning and evening we used an Adobe Meeting room to make plans for our project and to decide who was going to do what for the project.

·         Throughout the brainstorming process we posted our ideas to a google doc.

The advantages to using a Adobe Meeting room to discuss the project was that we could meet face to face to discuss ideas and we could share our computer screens with each other to demonstrate ideas and show examples. 

The main disadvantage of using the web conference tool was finding a common time that they 3 of us could get together to be on at the same time.  Though this is something that has to be dealt with in any group work.

Adobe Connect could be used to connects students to other classrooms around the world, it can also be used to connect students content experts (for example, if I wanted to have a guest speaker about genetics for my biology class I could).  Lastly, it can be used to teach lessons from home.  I say this because, there were a few days this winter that I couldn't get to work because the roads were so bad (I drive about 45 minutes to work everyday) so I had to call in, this would remedy the problem of me not being in the classroom.

Here are links to our first and second brain storming sessions.

Session 1 (I was unable to make it to this one, but it was nice that I could go back and watch it, that allowed me to go back and make comments on our google doc)

Session 2

Video Intro

This a brief introduction about myself that I created using powerpoint and Jing.

CLICK HERE!

MERLOT Lesson Review: DNA From the Beginning

http://www.dnaftb.org/

This software is a large collection of different multimedia resources about DNA and genetics.  It presents concepts that are accurate and that are educationally significant.  As a teaching tool this software could be used for explanation and demonstration.  It presents a lot of content that can be used to enhance lectures and allows for student exploration of the topic of DNA.

The characteristics of the target learn is one that is looking to further/supplement their current knowledge of DNA.  This site could be easily integrated into an existing biology curriculum to help demonstrate different genetics concepts. It includes a variety of ways that topics can be explored (through animation, video, reading etc.), this allows the software to be used in several different ways to achieve different learning goals and reach all types of learners.

The learning goals of this resource are fairly easy to identify through the titles of each section and concept covered.  Students could easily complete assignments using this tool and teachers would be able to easily integrate it into a lesson.

The resource is fairly easy to use and navigate.  The interface of the site is easy to figure out and navigate, though when creating an assignment using this site it will be important to give clear directions for where you would want to students to go to in the site seeing that there are several options, a student could easily get lost in the content because there are so many collections of information.

I feel that students would enjoy using this site because it allows them to research topics in genetics in a more organized and concentrated way.  It also has several different ways that the content is presented and this allows for flexibility for meeting learning needs.