Reflection

Reflection

                In constructing my GAME Plan I wanted to inspire student learning and model digital age work (ISTE, 2008). Using these two ideas I am able to use the idea of a flipped classroom to incorporate real world examples in a way that works with the incorporation of current media technology (ISTE, 2008).  I am then able to monitor the progress of students success with technology by using our school district technology assessment.  To also help my progress I have a colleague doing the same process to their classroom.  The process of flipping a classroom is taking the traditional lecture format and switching it to a media that can be viewed outside the classroom (Saltman, 2011).  I have researched the process through the examples of Paul Anderson on his website www.bozenmanscience.com (Anderson, n.d.).  He has provided many suggestions on how to construct a flipped classroom.  These examples include video editing, post video activities, timing, and format.  I have current started constructing these videos for these upcoming school year.  I am taking PowerPoints from Modern Chemistry and editing their content to fit seven to ten minutes segments of video (Davis, Frey, Sarquis, & Sarquis, 2009).  Using a program called Camtasia I have been able to produce a handful of video lessons.  In turn, I have then matched in-class activities to provide real world experience and hands on learning for this content.  I do realize that there is much more work to be done in order for this format to become a successful part of my teaching paradigm.  I will have students help me analyze the effectiveness of this approach.  Depending on how things work out I may have students help with the process of construction these videos as a form of interactive learning.

            The three strategies introduced in the class of problem-based learning, social learning, and digital story telling have been used many different times in my current classroom teaching.  For example, In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, they highlighted using spreadsheet programs and data collection tools (Pitler, 2007).  Spreadsheet programs can be used to allow students to make connections with information in the proper circumstances (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009).  If students were working with large amounts of data they can use spreadsheets to create data tables and graphs so that they can find connections in the data.  I have used this with many problem solving activities where students collect their data and are able to make sense of their results in a timely manner.  A form of social learning I have frequently used incorporates the use of electronic web diagrams for students to share and create notes about content and examples.  In the past I have also done several different multimedia projects with students.  These examples include PowerPoints, Prezis, and video productions for students to show how well they have incorporated technology knowledge into their content learning.

References:

Anderson, P. (Performer) (n.d.). Reflection on the flipped classroom. Bozeman Science. [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.bozemanscience.com/reflections-on-the-flipped-classroom.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Davis, R., Frey, R., Sarquis, M., & Sarquis, J. (2009). Modern chemistry. Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart, and Winsten.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Saltman, D. (2011). Flipping for Beginners inside the New Classroom Craze. Harvard Education Letter Tech Talk Series, 27(6).

GAME Plan Progress

GAME Plan Progress

            As of the past week I have started video recording my lectures for flipping the classroom.  The Camtasia software that I am using provides a simple interface for this process.  I find I spend most of my time planning each lecture.  To create a ten minute video segment it usually takes me about a couple hours to prep all the materials for the video.  The majority of this time is spent organizing material from provided PowerPoints in our class textbook (Davis, Frey, Sarquis, & Sarquis, 2009).  I have found plenty of information from videos produced by Paul Anderson in how to properly create videos and how to apply them to a blended learning classroom (Anderson, n.d.).  There are no modifications that need to be made at this time.  Besides the fact that it is taking longer than expected to create these videos I haven’t entered too many problems.  I am curious about implementing some computerized quizzes to accompany the lectures to show that students understand the material presented.  Has anyone used a computer testing service or program?

References:

Anderson, P. (Performer) (n.d.). Reflection on the flipped classroom. Bozeman Science. [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.bozemanscience.com/reflections-on-the-flipped-classroom.

Davis, R., Frey, R., Sarquis, M., & Sarquis, J. (2009). Modern chemistry. Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart, and Winsten.

Carry Out GAME Plan

Carrying Out GAME Plan

           To carry out my game plan to inspire student learning and modeling digital age work I plan on using the practice of flipping the classroom (ISTE, 2008).  Flipping the classroom is the process of switching the traditional format of lecture and work (Saltman, 2011).  In this process students will review lecture videos and online material outside of the typical classroom setting and classroom time will be devoted to work and applications.  In order to carry out my plan I will need to modify PowerPoints from Modern chemistry to limit the size and content for each video (Davis, Frey, Sarquis, & Sarquis, 2009).  In addition, I will need video editing software.  The form I will be using is called Camtasia.  This software will allow me to simultaneously record media on my screen and record myself going over the material.  The further enhance the content I will be using a digitizer to be able to write out problems on the screen and an ELMO projector to show calculations via a scientific calculator.  I have been doing research into how to best apply these technologies by reviewing examples from www.bozenmanscience.com (Anderson, n.d.)  Paul Anderson has spearheaded this approach to learning for the past several years and provides many insights on to how to appropriately develop a blended learning environment.  I will also be working with a colleague at my district that is planning on apply the same type blended strategy.  I have already started recording lectures this summer and am currently building a website for their storage.

References:

Anderson, P. (Performer) (n.d.). Reflection on the flipped classroom. Bozeman Science. [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.bozemanscience.com/reflections-on-the-flipped-classroom.

Davis, R., Frey, R., Sarquis, M., & Sarquis, J. (2009). Modern chemistry. Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart, and Winsten.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Saltman, D. (2011). Flipping for Beginners inside the New Classroom Craze. Harvard Education Letter Tech Talk Series, 27(6).

GAME PLAN

GAME Plan

            A solid GAME Plan breaks down into goals, action, monitoring, and evaluation (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  My particular goals for using more technology in my teaching would be to Inspire Student Learning and modeling digital age work (ISTE, 2008).  These two goals can breakdown into promoting innovative thinking through real world problems and collaborative work along with demonstrating current digital knowledge along with content and communication (ISTE, 2008).  The action is to use blogging as an effective means for students to share their interest in current issues in science and using multimedia programs to create video lectures to flip the classroom.  My progress in these goals can be monitored through the application of these two activities.  Students at our district continually take a technology assessment that checks for growth in both areas of the NETS that were described above.  I can further evaluate this progress by comparing notes with a colleague that is doing similar activities in a different subject area.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Reflection

Reflection

My philosophy in education is based primary on constructivist approaches. Several of the lessons I work with focus on student centered guidelines and revolve around using real life scenarios to generate knowledge on particular subjects.  When I first discussed my teaching philosophy at the beginning of this course I focused on constructivist and problem based learning.  The constructivist approach revolves around "The learner being an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011)."  Problem based learning is of the constructivist paradigm but is "an instructional method of hands-on, active learning centered on the investigation and resolution of messy, real-world problems (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011)." I discussed how I use spreadsheet programs to allow students to make connections with experimental data.  During particular activities where students were working with large amounts of data they can use spreadsheets to create data tables and graphs to illustrate connections in the data.  I’ve also used experimental hardware via Logger Pro so students to take precise measurements and find correlations.  I also discussed how I use several different activities from a text called Enhanced PRISMS (Cooney, 2005).  These particular activities are based on a three stage learning cycle that fits constructivist theory with a  variety of physics based real life scenarios.

There are a couple of instructional theories that I have been working more with since the start of this class.  An example is social learning theory via cooperative learning.  As discussed before, cooperative learning is described as a strategy in which students work together for a specific goal (Herrell, 2008).  I’ve created a lesson that focuses on students working together to build their note taking skills.  Once again, in realizing that effective cooperative work requires that students are placed in small groups for a specific task based on ability and this is not their primary source of learning (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007).  Another theory addressed in this lesson was cognitive learning theory.  Cognitive learning focuses on how student’s process information and the goal of the lesson is to increase their ability to make connections and recall and they recall it (Smith, 1999).  In working with a group students can learn from one another about what information is important and how they can create ways to remember content.

            Some long term goals I have with implementing various instructional theory and technology focus on our schools switch to one-on-one laptops.  Many of the activities I plan have multiple links to using technology and making me more as a facilitator rather than a teacher.  I want to create a learning environment that focuses more on a student centered classroom.  I have already started the process of building course websites where students can access information and communicate with each other.  I have also planned another activity for using blogs to discuss various topics in science.  Before switching to blogs, I used to do this activity with students where they would find articles and television shows that interested them in some aspect of science and they would present their ideas and content to the class.  This can be used as a scaffolding activity that was illustrated in Richardson's text about blogging where I can relate postings to classroom material (Richardson, 2010).

References:

Cooney, T.M. Ed. D., Escalada, L.T. Ph. D., Unruh, R.D. Ed. D.  (2005)  Enhanced PRISMS.        Cincinnati, OH: Centre Pointe Learning Inc.

Learning Theories Knowledgebase. (2011). Index of Learning Theories and Models.         Retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.         (3rd ed.). Corwin Press.

Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2008). 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (3rd ed.).    Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom    instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Smith, M. K. (1999). The cognitive orientation to learning. In The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm