As I continue to work towards my GAME plan it is clear that a conscious effect needs to be made to constantly seek new information. The effectiveness of my actions ran into a few issues due to technology limits by students at home and approval by administration. The main access the class has to technology is my teacher computer or a lab that is booked mainly by a career and computer class. My principal likes the idea and is behind the initiative of creating a class site that students can collaborate and share ideas. The support definitely leads me to think that it will work out.
After our graduate wiki was set up, the tutorials sent to my email helps build my confidence in the potential of implementing one in the classroom through Wiki Help. There are many ideas to improve and create other options for students to show what they know. I have learned that you can add audio and video to the page and a calendar to keep students current on when assignments are due. The discussion tab is one aspect of a wiki that I think will improve students’ learning, because it provides a good way for students to reflect on what has happened or to negotiate with each other (Richardson, 2009).
I still need to learn to show students what it means to be a part of a process. Being a part of a wiki and showing the enthusiasm for working together to create information as a group. Sometimes teachers work in their rooms and are busy getting the daily tasks done that little collaboration takes place until the one in-service day or meeting where some group effort needs to happen to accomplish a goal. The wiki takes the time issue away, so I am looking forward to collaborating with other teachers through our lesson plans. It is great to have some other insight into a lesson. Some additional questions come from helping students grasp and interact with different representations, such as diagrams or graphs including percents. They have the concept of percents and discounts, but being able to graphically represent the increase in costs of items over time is missing. The further exploration of the concept is necessary for students to actually understand the material. The other thought is tools that are too complex can also present a problem for students with no background experience, so balancing this issue seems challenging (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).
The focus needs to remain on adjusting to the needs of my students for the digital world and engaging them in technology to improve their understanding of mathematical concepts. The idea of using problem based learning as a way to challenge the students in their understanding of percents should promote high order thinking skills, so this will be my next step along with improving my skills using a wiki.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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Theo to Heather:
ReplyDeleteWith having difficulties with my own school's administration in regards to implementing my ISS class blog, I can empathize with the problems you have been having. I also appreciate the other difficulty that you mentioned: booking computer labs. In most of our Walden videos, I have the impression that, while the teachers and the students are authentic, the schools are located in very affluent areas that can afford to have computers placed in most classrooms. For those of us who teach in schools that can afford to have only one computer lab for an entire school, using many twenty-first century technologies on a regular basis is not feasible. Often, this obstacle is not mentioned in our classes, and that concern is a very legitimate one. Thank you for bringing attention to it.
Quoting Cunningham, Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) relate that the wiki is the "simplest on-line data base that could possibly work" (p.58). After briefly experimenting with wikis during the course of this week, I began to appreciate their potential with students, and can understand why you would want to incorporate them into your math teaching practice, and also with other teachers for collaborative purposes. After instigating some searches on the Internet for more information on wikis, I came across a few sites that you may find helpful as both and educator and math teacher. TeacherFirst (2010) has wiki information for every major subject. for math, they have wiki ideas for calculus, geometry, applied math, pure numbers, and mathematical procedures. 21st Century Learning (2010) has a lot of general information for web 2.0 applications, and and CTAP Region 4 (2010), which may be the most useful one for you, had many links to math applications for web 2.0, including wikis. I realize that you, like all of us, have many requirements to fulfill for this course. However, after the course, when you have more free time to explore the sites that I have mentioned, you might discover that one of them will assist you with further developing your wiki skills, or inspire you with an idea to use with your own students.
Theo
ISS MS
References
Cennamo., K., Ross, J., & Ertmer P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
CTAP Region 4. (2010). Math web 2.0 resources. Retrieved from http://www.ctap4.net/projects/middle-school-math/resources/web-20-tools/124/resources/107-math-web-20-resources.html
TeachersFirst. (2010). Wiki ideas for the classroom. Retrieved from http://teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm
21st Century Learning. (2010). Retrieved from http://21stcenturylearning.wetpaint.com/
Kelli’s Response to Heather:
ReplyDeleteHeather your game plan sounds like it is going in the right direction even with the little bumps in the road. The idea of the wiki or a blog sounds like a great concept in the classroom; however my question is how are you going to ensure academic honesty? The reason I ask this due to experience. A colleague has set up a blog and students post their responses to discussion on the blog. This is great way to reduce paper work, keep track of due dates etc… It was not until after reading these responses that students were copying ideas from one another. As Cennamo, Ertmer, and Ross (2009) suggest “students will need guidance on what and how to post. The blog you use in your classroom may be different than a personal blog as it will have to meet instructional purposes”( p 74). Even though my colleague did as Cennamo et al., suggested, still academic dishonesty occurred. I just wanted you to be aware and see if you had any suggestions that you will be utilizing with your class wiki?
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteYou post sounds alot like me. It encourages me to know that I am not alone in the seraching for answers. I realize like Dr. Ertmer has said it is okay to not know all the answers and searching through multiple sources such as students,other teachers, trial and error, etc. is okay (Laureate Education Inc., 2009). I am understand the frustrations of lack of in class computer time, even though I am blessed to be at a school that has multiple labs, we have a large enrollment which makes it difficult as well.
In my private class blog my students have access to the blog at home, is that possible for your wiki with your students? If not, I cannot imagine the project working with so limited time in classroom to work. I love the discussion tab, it has been a real source of information for me. I polled my classes and nearly 70% of my students are participating in the discussions weekly. The goal I have in the remaining weeks of this semester is to get all involved. I have scheduled several days in the lab and we will pose questions that they must participate in with the goal to try and further motivate my students to want to particpate away from the classroom either at home or in the media center before and after school.
The collaboration with colleagues is a point of emphasis by our school system. We are starting to communicate with the blog as teachers within my department, slow but coming.
Good luck and I will follow your blog for ideas and support.
John
HS Health
Kelli,
ReplyDeleteI agree that academic honesty can be an issue, even when students write information for a report in a Word document. The same applies for a wiki or blogging. Students must site sources and as the evaluator and connector of information. It becomes my responsibility to share and highlight good points in each response. Students don't have the time to read every post, but I plan on selecting one and sharing what is good about it as an example. Then weaving in the other students responses. I will probably start small by just posting a question and have students provide a response. Thanks for the heads up,
Heather S.
MS-Math