Emily assisted me with my podcast today. I did a podcast on how to use a scientific calculator to enter numbers in scientific (exponential) notation. This is a question I get routinely from my sophomores. They get incorrect answers on their problem worksheets and it usually ends up being how they entered the measurements in scientific notation into their calculator. They do not know what the EE, EXP, or 2nd Func keys are - or at least they say they don't know - they have probably forgotten from previous years, right, math teachers? :) Emily and I did experience some difficulties saving the podcast, so she is checking with Gene about the issue. I hope I will be able to add my podcast to my blog at class on Wednesday regardless.
I did attempt to download Audacity on my home computer but did not have success. I kept getting an message that said the "system administrator" has to download it. So I suppose I will be using Audacity and doing podcasts solely at school unless Becksfort or someone can troubleshoot for me.
I do not have an iPod or iPhone (Keep It Simple is my mantra, folks!) but did download iTunes at home. Unfortunately, I could not get into any iTunesU sites. I clicked on each of the universities listed at iTunesU but kept getting the "cannot display this page" message. Perhaps I did not download iTunes properly. I already knew iTunes had music, movies, movie trailers, audiobooks, and TV shows, but did not know there were also podcasts and courses there as well. I will definitely be trying again to access iTunesU. I will have to ask someone in class if iTunesU is the "free educational stuff" that we were supposed to locate on iTunes.
I went through the VoiceThread tutorials and looked at several examples on VoiceThread. I really cannot say that I find VoiceThread too terribly exciting or interesting. Perhaps that is because there are not a lot of high school science examples available for viewing at this time. Also, I had a hard time even thinking of an idea to use VoiceThread for. I did see a VoiceThread on variable stars (astronomy), one on the water cycle (7th grade science), plus a few others. I was not particularly impressed with the quality of the recordings (volume, images, etc) nor could I see a pressing reason why the information presented was more well-suited to VoiceThread than some other media tool, like plain old PowerPoint, for example. I thought that the pop-up comments were sometimes annoying as well. I did have a vague idea, probably too closely related to the variable star VoiceThread I viewed, that could be a collaborative teacher-astronomy student project on the Sun after we finish studying the Sun later this semester. Not too terribly original of an idea and I cannot say that I am really itching to get started on it either. Anyway, although I cannot picture myself using VoiceThread in the near future, I am open to ideas for teacher-student collabortaive projects from all of you out there. I teach Astronomy, Geochemistry, Biology (occasionally), and Anatomy & Physiology, so if something pops into your head, please let me know.
So far, I think I can see myself most comfortable with and using Skype, screencasts (I have more planned), and podcasts for educational purposes.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy
The Bloom's Digital Taxonomy article was a new way of looking at and thinking about the "original" Bloom's Taxonomy taking into consideration the digital tools and technologies that must be incorporated into today's classroom in order to help students achieve, recall, understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate what they learn, and create products. The information in this article was helpful because, as I was reading page 7 of the article, I noticed most of what our students do with technology when left to their own devices is located on the lower end of the scale (LOTS - remembering and understanding): texting, instant messaging, twittering, e-mailing, and chatting. The article served as a reminder that it is our duty as teachers to assist students in "climbing" this heirarchy of skills (moving upward to the HOTS - applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating) by assigning appropriate tasks and projects. There was a definite focus in the article on students as collaborative learners in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Our students are already using some of the collaborative tools such as Moodle and GoogleDocs mentioned in the article for assignments and projects, but are they using them to achieve HOTS? Collaboration should facilitate the achievement of HOTS, but can only do so through carefully structured projects and assignments.
In Astronomy class, students prepare an article summary every quarter. They choose a recent article from a scientific or astronomy journal regarding a subject or topic in astronomy that they are interested in and summarize the article for the other class members. Students *may* include posters or PowerPoint slides to their presentation if they wish although it is currently not required. Perhaps requiring a PowerPoint presentation to go along with their verbal summary of the article would encourage HOTS (specifically analyzing, evaluating, and creating). They would have to be judicious about what images they include in their presentation to concisely convey information. A maximum presentation length (number of slides) as well as a review of website evaluation (choosing images) would assist students in the steps of analyzing and evaluating. A review of appropriate design parameters would assist them in the creation of the presentation. With these changes in the requirements of the project, students would certainly learn more than if they were simply to recite the article to their classmates.
As I read the Bloom's Taxonomy article I kept thinking about how the school district's research scope and sequence fits into/with this taxonomy. Students do Boolean searches to gather information about their topics, prepare website evaluations of potential sources, write, edit, rewrite, in some cases collaborate and provide feedback to peers as they write and ultimately create a project or paper, hopefully enhancing their learning experience and relating their project to classroom work. I know this is what we aim to do with the Bioethics paper in Biology. Students are certainly asked to step out of their comfort zone in terms of topics as well. They must learn about what ethics *is* then apply what they know about ethics in general to a specific topic, then discuss both (or all) sides of the issue in the paper they create. Perhaps to add to this experience students could post their drafts of their papers online (Googeldocs?)inviting a select number of classmates to constructively review and comment on their work. Students would be required to review and comment on a specific number of peers' work. Some of the rubrics provided in the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy article could be used or amended to provide a tool with which to grade students' feedback to their peers. I will have to ask Mary H. if this is a viable addition to the project.
I was amazed to see in the article the vast number of digital collaborative tools available to teachers and students. I was happy to see the addition of rubrics associated with these tools as well. Coming up with a rubric from scratch could perhaps deter a teacher from using any one of these tools. It is a mind-numbing thought to try to think of ways to incorporate all or most of these tools into the curriculum. Instead, I should choose a select few (Moodle, Skype, Googledocs) to incorporate. Baby steps, right?
As a side note, the spelling, grammar, and puncuation errors in the article were a bit distracting for me. (How about some of you English teachers??) I thought it was amusing that the author made these errors even as he prepared a rubric which deducted points from the tudents' grade for the same errors. Someone, please, get this chap a good editor! :)
In Astronomy class, students prepare an article summary every quarter. They choose a recent article from a scientific or astronomy journal regarding a subject or topic in astronomy that they are interested in and summarize the article for the other class members. Students *may* include posters or PowerPoint slides to their presentation if they wish although it is currently not required. Perhaps requiring a PowerPoint presentation to go along with their verbal summary of the article would encourage HOTS (specifically analyzing, evaluating, and creating). They would have to be judicious about what images they include in their presentation to concisely convey information. A maximum presentation length (number of slides) as well as a review of website evaluation (choosing images) would assist students in the steps of analyzing and evaluating. A review of appropriate design parameters would assist them in the creation of the presentation. With these changes in the requirements of the project, students would certainly learn more than if they were simply to recite the article to their classmates.
As I read the Bloom's Taxonomy article I kept thinking about how the school district's research scope and sequence fits into/with this taxonomy. Students do Boolean searches to gather information about their topics, prepare website evaluations of potential sources, write, edit, rewrite, in some cases collaborate and provide feedback to peers as they write and ultimately create a project or paper, hopefully enhancing their learning experience and relating their project to classroom work. I know this is what we aim to do with the Bioethics paper in Biology. Students are certainly asked to step out of their comfort zone in terms of topics as well. They must learn about what ethics *is* then apply what they know about ethics in general to a specific topic, then discuss both (or all) sides of the issue in the paper they create. Perhaps to add to this experience students could post their drafts of their papers online (Googeldocs?)inviting a select number of classmates to constructively review and comment on their work. Students would be required to review and comment on a specific number of peers' work. Some of the rubrics provided in the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy article could be used or amended to provide a tool with which to grade students' feedback to their peers. I will have to ask Mary H. if this is a viable addition to the project.
I was amazed to see in the article the vast number of digital collaborative tools available to teachers and students. I was happy to see the addition of rubrics associated with these tools as well. Coming up with a rubric from scratch could perhaps deter a teacher from using any one of these tools. It is a mind-numbing thought to try to think of ways to incorporate all or most of these tools into the curriculum. Instead, I should choose a select few (Moodle, Skype, Googledocs) to incorporate. Baby steps, right?
As a side note, the spelling, grammar, and puncuation errors in the article were a bit distracting for me. (How about some of you English teachers??) I thought it was amusing that the author made these errors even as he prepared a rubric which deducted points from the tudents' grade for the same errors. Someone, please, get this chap a good editor! :)
Skype
Santa brought me a webcam and before I could say "21st Century Skills", my daughter had the webcam ready to go and began her Skype account and away she went! I set my account up several days later with her help (there are a *few* advantages of having a teen in the house!) She also took my photo and we attached the photo to this blog and my Skype account. I have already contacted a number of people in this course to request that they be added to my Skype account "contact list" (my daughter *denied* my request). :( Hopefully, I will have better luck with the rest of them!
My daughter likes Skype because she doesn't have to text or call (costs $$) her friends to chat or collaborate with them on school projects (although Skype-ing does require setting up the session in advance using a text or phone call). In the event a mic or camera doesn't work on either end, there's also the text option. We have out-of town relatives who have Skype accounts, so my daughter is eager to keep in touch with her cousins using her account. Also, a niece here in town has been battling leukemia and has been quarantined in the hospital for weeks at a time during her therapy. Since we cannot visit her (her immune system is compromised), Skype would be a great way to say hello and actually *see* her when sending our well-wishes. I am definitely going to have to talk with my sister-in-law about this option.
During winter break, the Biology students had to work on their DNA model project. While my daughter was working on hers, she was communicating with a friend about the project. I was able to use Skype with the webcam to answer her friend's questions about the model and *show* her exactly what I was talking about. This is a definite improvement over students simply e-mailing questions and me replying, hoping that they will get the meaning of my answer(s).
I know Julie B. is using Skype to communicate with a former student teacher, now teaching in England. What fun!
I am eager to use Skype to communicate with the Cincinnati Observatory Center. We have not quite worked out the details yet, but I am thinking we could use Skype to ask COC staff members to answer questions students have, for the Observatory staff to personally invite students to COC events, for follow-up sessons to our field trips to COC, and for astronomy mini-lessons.
I am also trying to develop ways in which to use Skype for my Anatomy ccourse as well. Perhaps Skype-ing physicians regarding a particular organ system we are studying, or to clarify information from the textbook, or contextualize information from the textbook? I will definitely have to develop a list of contacts.
I think Skype has already became a fixture in our home and I hope I can use it to full advantage in the classroom as well. I will have to ask my daughter and students for their ideas!
My daughter likes Skype because she doesn't have to text or call (costs $$) her friends to chat or collaborate with them on school projects (although Skype-ing does require setting up the session in advance using a text or phone call). In the event a mic or camera doesn't work on either end, there's also the text option. We have out-of town relatives who have Skype accounts, so my daughter is eager to keep in touch with her cousins using her account. Also, a niece here in town has been battling leukemia and has been quarantined in the hospital for weeks at a time during her therapy. Since we cannot visit her (her immune system is compromised), Skype would be a great way to say hello and actually *see* her when sending our well-wishes. I am definitely going to have to talk with my sister-in-law about this option.
During winter break, the Biology students had to work on their DNA model project. While my daughter was working on hers, she was communicating with a friend about the project. I was able to use Skype with the webcam to answer her friend's questions about the model and *show* her exactly what I was talking about. This is a definite improvement over students simply e-mailing questions and me replying, hoping that they will get the meaning of my answer(s).
I know Julie B. is using Skype to communicate with a former student teacher, now teaching in England. What fun!
I am eager to use Skype to communicate with the Cincinnati Observatory Center. We have not quite worked out the details yet, but I am thinking we could use Skype to ask COC staff members to answer questions students have, for the Observatory staff to personally invite students to COC events, for follow-up sessons to our field trips to COC, and for astronomy mini-lessons.
I am also trying to develop ways in which to use Skype for my Anatomy ccourse as well. Perhaps Skype-ing physicians regarding a particular organ system we are studying, or to clarify information from the textbook, or contextualize information from the textbook? I will definitely have to develop a list of contacts.
I think Skype has already became a fixture in our home and I hope I can use it to full advantage in the classroom as well. I will have to ask my daughter and students for their ideas!
K-12 Online Conference
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, I viewed the archived K-12 Online Conference presentation "Self-Driven and Classroom-Based: Professional Development in the 21st Century" (http://k12onlineconference.org). Two things about the title caught my attention, first the professional development part since this is why we are all taking this course and the 21st Century part of the title since it ia also part of the course title. I thought, perfect! The presentation lasted about 30 minutes during which I dutifully took notes. I think that the idea of these conferences and presentations is pretty cool since it is an effective way to bring educators from all over the world together, to find out how educators in the next town, state, country, or continent teach, what tools they use to do the teaching, and how they formulate and evaluate their ideas and practices. Also, the conference presentations are archived which allows for viewing at any time. Another benefit is that the presentations, in addition to being worldwide, are multicultural. Sure, it isn't face-to-face communication which is probably what we all prefer, but live conferencing with all of these educators would be a horrendous financial burden. So the online conferencing is the "next best thing to being there."
The presenter was Konrad Glogowski from Toronto. He based his presentation on Guy Claxton's statement that "schools become communities of practice where...the 'elders' of the community are themselves exemplary learners" (Claxton, 2002). To cite the presentation description/abstract:
"If students today are to benefit from schools where they can acquire the learning dispositions that will allow them to build and transform future societies and address global challenges, teacher professional development must be reconfigured to allow teachers to focus on examining and learning from their own professional contexts. The 21st Century demands that teachers investigate their practices on a regular basis, learn to design new approaches, and quickly and effectively respond to the ever-changing knowledge society. Classrooms must...become sites of inquiry where teachers engage in practice that is perpetually experimental."
In Glogowski's presentation he states that teachers need to establish a "personal learning network" because connecting with other educators is necessary and meaningful. Teachers should learn *with* rather than learning solely *from* other teachers. "Learning with" means building knowledge by working with colleagues (contextual learning), rather than learning from colleagues in an observation-delivered mode (de-contextualized learning). "Learning with" allows teachers to focus and reflect on themselves and the contexts in which they teach while "learning from" teachers simply follow their colleagues' practices. In the "learning with" approach, the focus is on knowledge-building and helping students to become inquirers of knowledge as well as critical thinkers.
In classroom-based professional development, teachers reflect upon their practices which in turn leads to professional growth and meaningful development. Classroom-based professional development foocuses on who we are as individuals and what we do in our classrooms on a daily basis. In this particular 21st Century course, we are doing exactly that. We are learning abour different technologies, sharing them with our students, incorporating them into our practice, and reflecting upon those changes primarily using our blogs, therefore making our experiences meaningful and contextualizing what we learn and share. Ultimately, teachers are not providers of information, but we are learners ourselves along with our students.
Classroom-based professional development has a democratic engagement component as well. Students can give feedback to teachers and critique teaching so that the teacher may change whatever practices necessary. I have done this numerous times in the past, especially when teaching a new course or teaching from a new textbook. I ask for students' feedback on activities, pace, et cetera, and change if the students and I believe the change is essential to maximize their time and learning experience. An important part of reflective practice (which is an essential part of classroom-based professional development) is for teachers to ask themselves questions such as "how can I improve?" and "why am I teaching this way?". Only when we discover what limits us as teachers can we then work to effect the change necessary. Reflective practice allows teachers to be able to identify areas of weakness and improve those areas with the assistance of colleagues and students. After all, as Claxton stated, schools are *communities* of learning.
The presenter was Konrad Glogowski from Toronto. He based his presentation on Guy Claxton's statement that "schools become communities of practice where...the 'elders' of the community are themselves exemplary learners" (Claxton, 2002). To cite the presentation description/abstract:
"If students today are to benefit from schools where they can acquire the learning dispositions that will allow them to build and transform future societies and address global challenges, teacher professional development must be reconfigured to allow teachers to focus on examining and learning from their own professional contexts. The 21st Century demands that teachers investigate their practices on a regular basis, learn to design new approaches, and quickly and effectively respond to the ever-changing knowledge society. Classrooms must...become sites of inquiry where teachers engage in practice that is perpetually experimental."
In Glogowski's presentation he states that teachers need to establish a "personal learning network" because connecting with other educators is necessary and meaningful. Teachers should learn *with* rather than learning solely *from* other teachers. "Learning with" means building knowledge by working with colleagues (contextual learning), rather than learning from colleagues in an observation-delivered mode (de-contextualized learning). "Learning with" allows teachers to focus and reflect on themselves and the contexts in which they teach while "learning from" teachers simply follow their colleagues' practices. In the "learning with" approach, the focus is on knowledge-building and helping students to become inquirers of knowledge as well as critical thinkers.
In classroom-based professional development, teachers reflect upon their practices which in turn leads to professional growth and meaningful development. Classroom-based professional development foocuses on who we are as individuals and what we do in our classrooms on a daily basis. In this particular 21st Century course, we are doing exactly that. We are learning abour different technologies, sharing them with our students, incorporating them into our practice, and reflecting upon those changes primarily using our blogs, therefore making our experiences meaningful and contextualizing what we learn and share. Ultimately, teachers are not providers of information, but we are learners ourselves along with our students.
Classroom-based professional development has a democratic engagement component as well. Students can give feedback to teachers and critique teaching so that the teacher may change whatever practices necessary. I have done this numerous times in the past, especially when teaching a new course or teaching from a new textbook. I ask for students' feedback on activities, pace, et cetera, and change if the students and I believe the change is essential to maximize their time and learning experience. An important part of reflective practice (which is an essential part of classroom-based professional development) is for teachers to ask themselves questions such as "how can I improve?" and "why am I teaching this way?". Only when we discover what limits us as teachers can we then work to effect the change necessary. Reflective practice allows teachers to be able to identify areas of weakness and improve those areas with the assistance of colleagues and students. After all, as Claxton stated, schools are *communities* of learning.
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