Thoughts on Edubloggers

I was quite inspired by Eric Langhorst's Speaking of History blog. In particular, I was drawn to his post on creating screencasts and videos for his students while away.

At the time of the post, he had recently returned from the Mount Vernon Missouri Teachers' Workshop, where he had spent the weekend learning about George Washington and Mount Vernon with fellow teachers. His enthusiasm for the trip was obvious: he took numerous gorgeous photos and was driven to create a six-minute screencast for his students explaining a particular aspect of what he had learned at the workshop.

He arranged a few of the photos he took showcasing the "rustication" on George Washington's house and created a voiceover that taken together present a thorough lesson on this method of building that was used in Washington's time. While still at the workshop, he had his sub show the screencast to his class. Thus, he managed to teach his class while away; not only this, he managed to allow his students a taste of the travel experience that he was able to enjoy.

More importantly, however, I believe that by revealing to his students his own affinity for being a lifelong learner of history, he modeled intellectual curiosity in a powerful and inspiring way. Furthermore, his screencast allowed students a glimpse at "doing history." Students are used to reading history textbooks which present historical events in a way that takes for granted the methods historians use to acquire such knowledge. In fact, the act of broadening our understanding of history is an inquiry-based, piece-by-piece process. By focusing the screencast on a rather limited subject: the material used to construct the house, and presenting it in the form of an inquiry/discovery, he showed his students the method used by historians to learn about the past.

I have not yet received a response from Eric. After using screencasting last week for the webinar project, however, I was excited to see an application of screencasting in a middle school classroom. I'd be curious to know if he has used screencasting since this September blog post.

Using Voice Thread in the Classroom

I was interested by the digital storytelling tool Voice Thread, presented by my classmates as their Tech Tools in Use project. For whatever reason, it took me some time to understand the purpose of such a tool. But, now that it has been a few weeks since the presentation, I find myself valuing the tool.

When I consider myself as a learner, I certainly learn best via conversation. In preparing for my own U-M classes, I generally read the assigned readings quite thoroughly, highlighting the sentences I consider to convey the main points. By the time I get to class, I have a vague idea of the purpose/main points of the readings. But, once I am able to discuss what I learned with my classmates, the act of a) considering the ideas more actively, b) putting my ideas into words (in order to convey them to classmates), and c) hearing myself and others speak the ideas helps me to retain them.  

Additionally, I notice that images stick in my brain quite reliably. Thus, when a teacher shows an image that captures my attention and simultaneously speaks the significance, I often have an easy time recalling what was said. My mental representation of the image helps me to recall what the teacher had been saying.

It seems Voice Thread is the perfect technological substitute for these two in-class activities I just discussed. Voice Thread can provide a virtual vocalized presentation of images that serve as attention-grabbing illustrations. And, similar to real-life conversations, ideas may stick in audio-oriented students’ brains, while the capability for student questions/comments allows for active engagement and participation.

Changing media of learning can often function as an attention-grabber for students who are becoming bored with the norm. In general, I feel that in-person discussion and in-person presentation/lecture are superior to a digital storytelling presentation. This is because in person, the presentation can and does change slightly to match the interests and personality of the particular class period. However, Voice Thread could serve as an excellent medium for work to be done either at home or during a sub day. While I certainly don’t think it should serve as a substitute for readings, I do think it could serve as an effective complement to ideas presented in readings.

Thoughts on Tom Ward's Presentation

I was thoroughly inspired by Tom Ward’s presentation on how he uses technology in his high school classroom. He showed the video he took of the JV point guard shooting a free throw; the video focused on the parabola the ball followed on its way from the player’s hands toward the basket. Tom explained how he used the video in class to ask the students to use math functions to figure out whether the ball eventually made it into the basket, based on the parabola function it followed. Later, he discussed how he has the students use their cell phones to complete Vine-style (short) video assignments to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a concept. These assignments are completely open-ended and creative: it is up to the students how they want to demonstrate their knowledge. He justified the usefulness of such an assignment with a quote that he projected as part of his presentation; the quote was along the lines of, “Imagine the depth of understanding required when you can convey a concept in only six seconds.”

I love that these assignments demonstrate the connection between math and the real world, and that they require students to use the content taught to create something. I think it is so important that students grow up expecting that they will need to think outside the box, that the answers will not be given to them, and that they need to use whatever resources they can think of to find their way to “the answer.” In general, it seems the norm in schools is for all the answers to be given to students, either in the textbook, or in a teacher-given handout/outline, or in a teacher’s lecture/directions. While of course there is a time and place for the knowledgeable teacher to share his or her knowledge with the inexperienced students, there is also a time and a place for inexperienced students to gain “how-to,” problem-solving experience by trial and error. To me, it seems these Vine-style assignments ask students to do just this: produce a video that conveys this concept; the specifics of “how” is up to you.

I’d love to recreate this sort of project in my future history classroom. I really loved the idea that extreme conciseness demonstrates thorough understanding. I think in history there is certainly something to be said for longer, detailed stories. But, when it comes to history concepts the same “conciseness=understanding” rule can be applied. Thus, perhaps I could ask students to create Vine-style videos that convey history concepts such as change over time, comparison/contrast, contextualization, sourcing, and primary vs. secondary documents.

Thoughts on CAD

I looked over Holly, Stephen, and Matt's lesson plan on teaching linear functions. It seems that in addition to teaching traditionally how to plot points, graph a line based on a given linear equation, and derive the equation given it's graph, the group decided to allow students to use the app Geogebra.

I quickly looked over the Geogebra website; it seems it provides a way to manipulate graphs of functions in a far easier and more fluid fashion than basic pen and paper allows. The app reminds me of my college statistics course, which used a number of computer programs or websites that allowed for similar manipulation of data. In my experience, these sorts of simulations can be enormously helpful in understanding otherwise abstract concepts.

In addition, these sorts of computer manipulations provide a certain "fun" aspect to math problems. For me, clicking around on a computer screen and watching the effects is just fun on a very basic level; when this activity is connected to a mathematical equation (that would otherwise seem quite dry on the paper) this computer-based fun converts to educational computer-based fun.

I envision that this lesson would take place in the school's computer lab. Already, the act of hosting class in a different location than the norm makes the class exciting for adolescent students. By adding visually stimulating software to the lesson, this basic algebra class could be especially engaging.

Organizing Myself via online new-fangleD gadgetz

As part of our last class of the semester, we were assigned to present to our fellow classmates on how to use one of three online organization/teaching tools. While I wish I could write a long excited post about how useful these websites will be, how I'm thoroughly inspired and can't wait to learn more about how to bring myself into the future via web-based magic, I just don't find myself feeling this way.

The idea of going paperless, the idea of having new websites inspire creative streaks in me that I never knew I had, the idea of creating for my classes presentations so visually pleasing they look as if they were professionally done by graphic artists...these ideas are all so appealing. And yet I feel as though I am just simply deaf to the beckoning of new technologies and the world wide web.

Maybe I'm just still not comfortable and skilled enough to enjoy using web-based applications to create lessons. Maybe with time I'll get the hang of it and enjoy it more. But I can't help but feeling as if all these technologies are simply details to a teacher's practice that will neither make a mediocre teacher great nor will the lack of their use make a great teacher mediocre.

I believe that with interesting material to present and an understanding of how to engage my students, my teaching can be effective and inspiring. I still feel that the best methods of learning are simply conversation and discussion (i.e. interpersonal sharing of ideas). In my experience, fancy presentations never engaged me in a boring lesson; only dynamic teaching did. And a dynamic teacher with minimal visuals certainly did not bore me.

So, I'm happy to learn about up and coming technologies and the pervading philosophies regarding the presence of these technologies in the classroom. I like to live in the present; I like to know about the new-fangled-gadgets that surround me. I'm just not personally interested for my own use.

Video Games in the Classroom

When I was a kid, I had two older brothers who loved playing video games. As the littlest kid and the only sister, I had no choice but to sit down next to them and watch. I remember my brothers playing a range of different types of games over the years: I have a memory from perhaps age 5 when my brothers played some shoot-the-ducks game on the original Nintendo with a console controller shaped like a large hunting gun. Later, I remember my brothers being excited about Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros on N64, Mario Party, and finally Dance Dance Revolution on PS2. Once I myself became an adolescent, I remember going to my friend's house to play the Sims.

As recently as last month, one of my housemates in my college group-house brought from home his collection of perhaps 30 PS2 games that he had built up over the years. He hadn't played them in years. Inevitably and immediately, though, a group of 5 guys in my house gathered around and entertained themselves for hours with those darn games.

My brothers spent countless hours of their childhood on these games - clearly they're not the only ones. If education could be conducted through a system that stimulates as much internal motivation as video games do, we'd end up with a highly (and happily) educated population.

Currently, there are countless games on the internet meant as "educational." I played the BBC Interactive History game on Iron Age Life. I found this thoroughly underwhelming: this game was nothing like the games that consumed my brothers. You could hardly call this a game. As the "player," you clicked around on artifacts that you thought people from the Iron Age used to create a fire. If you guessed correctly, text would pop up that would explain to you how this particular item was used. Once you correctly guessed all 7 items, the game would demonstrate how they all fit together to create a fire, and you could later take a multiple choice quiz on this same information to test your resulting "knowledge."

I don't call this a game and I don't call this educational. To correctly be considered a game, I say an activity needs to genuinely challenge the player to creatively problem-solve. There was no creative problem solving here - only educated guessing. And to correctly be considered educational, I say an activity needs to guide you through a new method of thinking; this "game" did not.

So, when video games are sufficiently complex as to create an entire mini world in which multiple courses of action are available to achieve a multi-step goal, they can certainly be educational, and as a result they certainly belong in the classroom. When "games" are simply a series of mini webpages that present information passively to the student, however, they do not belong in the classroom.

When games aide students in actively constructing knowledge, I fully support their use. When they do not, they belong in the garbage heap with all the other passive methods of "gaining" knowledge.

Thoughts on Standardized Testing

As part of class this past week, we spent some time clicking around an online practice test of the Smarter Balance Assessment. I found it nothing exceptional: with the exception of its online format, it struck me as just the same as any of the standardized reading comprehension assessments I took back in high school.

What I find more interesting to consider is how many thinking processes this sort of test doesn't assess. It doesn't test creativity. It doesn't test ability to work with others to share ideas and collaborate. It doesn't test emotional intelligence (i.e. awareness and understanding of both one's own emotions and the emotions of others). It doesn't test fortitude. It doesn't test sense of self and accompanying resistance against conformity. And it doesn't test orientation toward working for the greater good.

I'd say all these qualities taken together play a larger part in determining one's ability to effectively and positively contribute toward our nation and our world than simple reading comprehension. And yet the quality of our entire education system is evaluated based on students' reading comprehension and basic math abilities.

Honestly I can't envision a time in the near future when the public's focus will be drawn away from standardized testing as a method of evaluating effectiveness of education. If anything, we are currently witnessing a cultural shift toward standardized testing. This is mind-boggling: standardized testing is boring, single-dimensional, and confining.

I guess it's up to individual teachers to introduce into their own classes all the dimensions of learning which standardized testing ignores.

Dewey and Using the Internet for Self-Directed & Exploratory Education

I find it inspiring to consider John Dewey’s philosophies of what education should be, and I find it exciting and overwhelming to consider how we can use new technologies to bring his philosophies to reality. Essentially, John Dewey argued that education is necessarily a social process that occurs inevitably and unavoidably starting at birth, and, as a result, schools and pedagogies should be structured to mimic this natural process. Mimicry of this process means that students must be directing their own learning; learning really only occurs when students actively pursue something that piques their interest. Thus, any sort of passive learning, such as lecturing, studying, or unengaged reading is dismissed as ultimately ineffective.

Before the days of the Internet, allowing students to explore the world around them was limited by what is contained within the classroom. Now, the Internet allows numerous and expansive aspects of the world to be accessed from within the classroom, and this allows the possibility of Dewey’s ideal educational system to be realized.

However, envisioning how this system would be realized is overwhelming and certainly requires creativity. When allowed free access to a computer (or smart phone or tablet), adolescents typically do not use it to explore varied topics. Based on my experiences with Scarlett students, adolescents are interested in using technology to play games, watch YouTube videos (many times featuring slapstick humor), listen to music, and access social media. In other words, they use it as either an escape from daily life (i.e. entertainment) or as a way to connect with their peers. I’d argue these activities do not provide them with a sufficient education.

So, clearly teachers must provide guidance in order for adolescents to use technology to create for themselves a meaningful education. But I too generally use my computer for social media, music, word processing, and research. I find that my own use of my computer is quite limited; I often find myself bored even when I have my computer (and therefore the whole world via the internet) right in my backpack. So clearly I need an education on how to use the Internet creatively if I am to convey this to my students.

And it seems to me the best types of lessons involve externally guided personal projects. And on that note I’m excited to start this blog.