Baggio - The Visual Connection
My biggest take-away from the Baggio text is the idea presented in chapter 11 that your learner must always come first; even before your own desires, ideas and even content; the learner is the priority. As teachers we often think that the goal of our profession is to impart understanding of our particular content area. We worked for countless years to attain a level of mastery in our field so when we get into the classroom it is natural for us to believe we are the most important delivery system for information. Baggio argues, understanding the needs of the learner and putting those needs before our own is the only way for learning to take place. Knowing our audience and following the visual guidelines, like CRAP, that are outlined in The visual Connection helps to reduce the cognitive load that our students are suffering and facilitate the processing of information through working memory, into long term memory. It is paramount for instructors to build an idea of our students needs, truly viewing them as the end user for any instruction material that we create, so that we can effectively structure their learning experience to aid in long term memory transfer. Clark - How to teach processes The Clark chapter that is most relevant to my DQ and, in general, where I am in my instructional practice is chapter 6. This chapter explains that process is a more meaningful application of procedure and when learners understand procedure and the systems under which that procedure operates, they can access process. Clark also explains “remember” and “application” levels of learning in this chapter. My DQ is concerned with reducing a students cognitive load by increasing the preparation they receive before coming to class, using a blended learning model. I noticed that many of my students were not able to access process or application level learning because they were not able to move information past working memory. I believe this is because they were not practicing enough with the content and procedure I was teaching via homework. In class, their cognitive processing ability was too low because they were still struggling to understand procedure. By using a blended learning model I am hoping that I can engage students with tutorials and instruction that focuses on procedure, at home, so that they are more able to build process understanding in the classroom through direct instruction, focused note taking and repetition. The SITE model and how it applies to me and my students The SITE model is a framework for determining how appropriate something is for the audience that it is intended for. In every step of the design process of my DQ and instructional elements related to my DQ I must always consider the end user and their needs. My students must benefit from any instructional tool I create so I have to constantly weigh the effectiveness of my tools based on its ability to be used by my students with ease. As a masters candidate my research will add to the existing body of knowledge for cognitive processing, math anxiety and the use of a blended classroom model. Eventually my peers in academia may use my research to springboard from and the SITE model provides an organizational framework that ensures effective communication of information.
4 Comments
For this week's assignment I wanted to create 3 new google forms to address needs in my instruction and coaching life. I am a complete beginner when it comes to google forms but in exploring the various blogs, add ons and youtube videos concerning google forms I have begun to see how powerful of a resource it can be as an educational tool.
Form 1 - Homework Survey This form is being used to collect data for my capstone project. I wanted to explore the number of students who are doing homework on a regular basis and get feedback from them on what useful, effective homework looks like. This was my first google form creation and it is a very basic collection of multiple choice questions, slider questions and short responses. Student responses from this survey will help to inform my research on flipped classroom models and the creation of more effective homework assignments that better prepare my students for learning. Form 2 - Sample branching homework assignment This form was inspired from the work of Alice Keeler and her branching quizzes in google forms. I wanted to create an assignment that focused on providing students with help if they were not able to correctly answer a homework question. I created a form with multiple sections and intentionally selected the section that students were brought to, based on their answers to the homework questions. Correct responses bring them to the next question and eventually to the form submission screen, while incorrect answers bring them to a tutorial page with an instructional video that will then loop them back to the question they missed. I also used the add on - EquatIO in order to incorporate mathtype into my form. This add on is an absolute must for math teachers as it allows so many ways for you to add equations into your forms including writing the equations out by hand and even speaking the equations into life through your mic. Eventually I will be able to create homework assignments like this for every section and use them in my exploration of a blended classroom model where students review material at home before we cover it in class. Form 3 - Cheer candidate evaluation This form was created as a means to reduce the amount of paper generated from traditional teacher evaluation forms during cheer tryouts. With 50+ candidates that require 6-7 teacher evaluation forms each, I become buried under a storm of papers that must be organized, reviewed and evaluated. This google form allows me to compile everything into a gorgeous google sheet that will then easily let me organize data by cheer candidate. Through conditional formatting I am also able to color code the responses from teachers based on value (1 = red, 2-3 = yellow, 4,5 = green) to easily allow me to determine the best candidates for our cheer squad. I have never played around with conditional formatting but Alice Keeler’s blog made it simple to figure out and experiment with. I attempted to use the add on AutoCrat in order to compile individual scores for each candidate into a visually uniform output/template but after watching a couple youtube videos, I decided that I need to continue experimenting with the possibilities of the add on as it too advanced for my current level of use. I am excited to reduce my paper consumption this year and get teacher evaluations through google form! When thinking of the challenges related to the creation of an instructional resource aimed at sharing my research with my colleagues I want to refer back to my major takeaways from the Clark readings this week.
Chapters 3-6 in the Clark reading highlight the different technical aspects of teaching procedure, concept, fact and process. My major takeaways from each of these sections follow: Procedure
Concept
Creating a resource for the concept of a blended classroom model will include the use of examples of what different classroom models are available to teachers. Most of my colleagues in the math department are only familiar with two different instructional models: the direct instruction model which is very teacher focused, and the PrBL model which, if done correctly, can be student focused. Building conceptual understanding of a blended model requires that they understand the purpose of the classroom and have clear intentions for the instructional model they choose. I hope that my resources will allow them to see that a blended model allows for each interested party, teacher and student, to have a hand in the learning of material. Fact
When I think about the presentation of fact I refer to the Clark readings explanation of fact being unique pieces of data. My resources will include hard data as to the effectiveness of the blended instructional model I am experimenting with as well as any relevant facts related to the use of a blended model. Such facts will include things like: - Homework will look different using a blended model - Students will be front loading information at home before they take notes in class - Front loading information before lecture provides students with prior knowledge Process
Resources related to process will include a flowchart that explains the learning cycle in a blended classroom. The resource will explain the process of students watching videos at home and trying one practice problem, coming to class and taking guided notes on the concepts related to the video they watched the night before, and then doing what is traditionally called “homework” in class with teacher aid. This process then repeats for a new concept. The deeper the understanding my colleagues have for the blended classroom model the more likely they will be to attempt it and employ it correctly. When considering the usefulness and consequences of using social media as an educational tool I cannot help but refer back to a quote from one of this week’s readings.
Social media can be used to build people up or tear them down. It’s not the tool but the user of the tool that makes a difference. - Jennifer Casa-Todd Social media is a powerful tool. Like any other tool in a teachers arsenal it is up to us to determine how to best utilize social media as a mechanism for helping our students bridge gaps in their understanding. The ethical issues that come with the utilization of social media may seem completely foreign to those who have never used social media in their own lives but when more closely examined I would argue that the issues we face are more familiar. Teaching students how to use tools in positive and respectful ways is nothing new. Given a pencil and paper, some students will focus on taking notes and others will commit to distracting others by drawing inappropriate pictures. Teachers have been helping students to interact in positive and respectful ways since the onset of education; now we are simply changing the platform through which they engage with one another. As a millennial I had the extreme fortune of being in high school in the early 2000s. The tech boom had taken place and many of my peers were fluent in the language of technology. This was the pre-IPhone era, a magical time before students were constantly carrying personal computers in their pockets. Despite a lack of such technology students found ways to pass notes in class, write cheat sheets on the reverse side of their water bottle labels and even pre program their TI-83 calculators with video games so we could play Tetris and Mario in Calculus class. Technology and more specifically social media was not the means to distraction, it was something intrinsic in students. If given a tool to distract oneself and placed in a situation where the student is not stimulated by the activities in the classroom, students will find a way to misbehave. Using social media in our classrooms comes with the caveat that students must be shown how to properly use the tool. Time must be spent familiarizing students not only with the use of different social platforms but also how to engage with others in positive and respectful ways. Teachers must be intentional in their instruction and realize that full digital fluency requires digital citizenship to be at the forefront of every social interaction utilizing educational technology. Social media is a wonderful way to foster communication between students who would normally not be able to collaborate. Thinking of my ELLs and their hesitation when it comes to speaking in class, the use of online platforms that let them communicate digitally using translation software, has given them the confidence to share out ideas in class. Social platforms can also allow students to give feedback to one another in ways that are meaningful to them; likes, comments and shares often to more to boost students confidence than the reward of a high mark on an assessment. Video sharing platforms like Youtube are an amazing way for students to show skills or to learn from skilled posters. There is a world of information online and our students must be shown how to access that material in and outside the context of our specific content. A point to consider when using these platforms as instructional tools is: students are who they are perceived to be by the online community; they sometimes do not have the benefit of being known IRL (In Real Life) so what they post, like and RT speaks volumes about them as people. All to often students forget that their online persona is forever linked to their actual self and is sometimes a more accurate representation of who they are. Students should be held to a different standard of communication because their conversations are eternally preserved online and derogatory comments will follow students far longer than they will remember making them. If I came across inappropriate activity taking place on one of my students profiles outside of the classroom I would make the same considerations as if I were seeing this activity take place in front of me in any other public forum. What is the danger? Who can be negatively affected? What message is the student conveying about themselves? If the student’s activity is not appropriate I would have a conversation with the student, discussing the danger of posting such inappropriate material in a public space. Depending on the severity of the students actions and the potential danger it poses to others, parents and other authorities should be made aware, then it would be up to them to decide further punishment. Effective teaching through visual design and development of technical training principles...3/2/2019 All of the readings this week connect to the sense making that our students are constantly doing as they decipher and make sense of the learning activities that take place in our classrooms. While we, as instructors, find value in the content that we are teaching, it is up to us as designers of learning experiences to make engaging and relatable materials for our students (users) so they can effectively process the chunks of information we are disseminating, with the end goal of moving through working memory and into long term memory transfer. Dervin explains how our students reach gaps in understanding and through effective instruction we can help them to bridge those gaps through learning events. Both Baggio, through visual design principles, and Clark, through effective structure of technical training modules, speak to the effective design elements that are required to design teaching tools that will ensure our students are learning at high level on a consistent basis.
Key Points of each reading Qualitative research in information management - Brenda Dervin Underlying Assumptions and Theoretic Foundations
Chapter 4 - What impacts learning?
Chapter 1 - The technology of training
|
Brandon DeJesusMath Archives
July 2019
Categories |