Well, it has been a process of losing my voice so not being able to record audio and losing some work because my computer decided it needed to restart but I have finished my summary of learning! I didn’t sing, and you don’t want me to, but here it is!!
Category: ECI834
The end is near….
Well, the end of the semester is upon us and this is my last official blog post for EC&I 834 and a final reflection on the development of my course prototype and I have to admit, I will enjoy having a bit more free time with the nice weather, but I will miss the conversations and topics of this course!
My course profile was originally posted as a blog post. After reading the feedback provided to me from my amazing EC&I 834 classmates, I have decided to migrate it to a Google Doc and integrate some of the content into my actual course prototype. I will be working on doing that over the next couple days as well as I will provide my students a link to the document as well. Although many of my students probably will not look too far into it, it was mentioned in my feedback that this course would also be beneficial to other instructors who would be more likely to benefit from access to the profile.
The following are links to my blog posts that discuss some of the aspects of planning and development of my course:
Reasoning and motivation for choosing Calculus 30
Reasoning for choosing Canvas as an LMS
Experimenting with recreating interactive videos
Considerations for interaction between teachers and students and students and students
Final thoughts on the course profile and wrapping up the design
I must admit, when I received the email that contained the link to my feedback, I was a little nervous. It’s not that I didn’t think that I had made a good course, I just wasn’t sure what to expect and the courses I reviewed were so different than mine I hoped that I was on the right track! For those of you that reviewed my course, thank you! I appreciated the feedback and there was no need for me to be nervous at all!
Course Shell Feedback
In terms of my course shell, the feedback I received was very positive. The reviewers liked the format of the course and found it easy to navigate. They mentioned that the student syllabus was beneficial to help with pacing for students and that the simplicity of the platform nicely contrasted the colourful, busy templates of a Google Classroom. They mentioned that it would be a good scaffold to a post-secondary level course and liked the personal touches of the picture of my math shoes (some of my prized possessions!).
The critiques of my course shell included a concern that students would not interact on the platform other than to ask questions of their peers. I agree that this is likely to be what happens in the course but, as this is blended with a face to face component, I believe that the relationships will be developed in class. Another thing to consider that I had not previously mentioned is that many of the students that I have in this class hang out on weekends and participate on the same sports teams even though they are from different communities as we have a regional hockey team and a co-op football team based out of Broadview School. Also, given the smaller class sizes of a rural school (we have 22 graduates this year), many of my students know each other very well before they walk into my classroom. There was also a concern that the video cut off in the lesson, after going back to review the videos, they ended where they were intended and there was no cut of content. The reviewer who mentioned this stated that they do not know Calculus and was not sure if this would be an issue. After review, I feel that the video does not need to be altered based on the lesson.
Course Module Feedback
I had several suggestions in terms of my course modules. The first was to limit the amount of writing done in the videos. I agree that these have LOTS of writing and have been looking at how to ensure that we minimize the amount of writing while still providing students with enough worked examples to be address many of the different situations they may experience when presented with a Calculus problem. There was also the comment that the videos were a little dry and that maybe having a “pause and try yourself” would be beneficial. I agree with these observations and in the future would maybe use more EDPuzzle to make the videos more interactive and have the videos give feedback to how the students are doing like I would in class. I usually prompt students to work all problems in examples when I am teaching face to face and I feel that using something like EDPuzzle would help to integrate this into the online setting. There was also a comment that I had a heavy reliance on the videos. In order to address this, I will also post worked notes which may address additional learner preferences and help those with poor internet access.
I have added a suggested link to Flipgrid on the lesson and agree with the comment I received that it would be useful but would also have had students (hopefully) download the application to their devices and bookmark our class code.
Another concern was whether cheating would be an issue on the quiz. Although students may choose to cheat, I designed the quiz to be a formative assessment for the teacher AND the student to figure out if they are understanding the content. I have found in teaching Calculus 30 that they are motivated students and are determined to understand the concepts for themselves and have never had this issue. As it is not for formal grades, I do not think this would be an issue, it would only be the student selling themselves short of an opportunity for additional help.
It was suggested that maybe students would receive a participation mark for their work on the quiz and Flipgrid. I am not a fan of participation marks in senior level classes as it is not a reflection of a students’ understanding of the outcomes. I do take in homework for my grade 10s and give them a grade of 10 but this does not affect their mark at all (it is weighted as “zero” and is primarily used to help justify exam marks). From experience, I know that not every student needs to do the same amount of questions to achieve mastery of a topic, some will need less, some will need more, and assigning a grade that may lower a final mark based on participation does not seem fair to me if the student is demonstrating their competence in the course. This is a suggestion that I will pass on.
The last suggestion was to include the types of instructor feedback on the syllabus. This has been added to the syllabus page.
Course Profile Feedback
One of the suggestions was to integrate the course profile into the home page of my course. As described earlier in this post, I will be making this change in preparation for my final assignment submission.
Other concerns were that I did not have considerations for EAL or learning disabilities. One reviewer commented that the lack of EAL considerations would make sense due to the limited written language used in the math course but there are word problems like in other math courses. My current demographic that I designed the course for does not have many EAL students, and those that are EAL usually have stronger math skills than my non-EAL students. If I had a student was experiencing difficulty, I would work with them in the face to face sessions to help demonstrate the concepts and bridge any language gap. To be honest, my experiences with EAL is limited and we do not really have EAL supports in my division so this is definitely an area that I can work on improving with further reading in the area. In terms of learning disabilities, the most common ones I would see with a student enrolled in Calculus would be auditory or reading disabilities. I feel that the video lessons would aid students with auditory disabilities and, with limited written language as mentioned above, the reading disabilities can be addressed through the audio of the videos as well as the student is not required to read the question, only listen and perform the mathematics. As this is the highest mathematics course offered in the Saskatchewan curricula, I do not feel I would have a large number of students with learning disabilities in my class.
One reviewer mentioned limited access to technology and internet at home as an area that I need to address as well. I feel that I did address this within my address of access to devices by referencing that although students may not all be in my building, they all have access to computers during recess (yes we have recess right to grade 12) and noon hours for students to access the course. I believe that adding the worked notes as well will help benefit those with poor or no internet at home as they will be able to print the worked notes as well.
Other
I did want to make a mention in my final reflection that my initial plan was to utilize Google+ in order to create a more interactive feel. As I was putting together the content of my course, I was finding that it was too much and repetitive as I was posting the same content to both Google+ and Canvas. For this reason, I decided to ditch the Google+ community and focus on Canvas and integrating the discussion forums and Flipgrids for each unit to encourage the interactions I had initially envisioned happening on Google+.
Overall, I have really enjoyed the process of creating, evaluating, and responding to feedback on my course prototype and feel that this has been a great experience to jump into the world of online and blended learning from a teacher/instructor perspective!
Now to finish work on my Summary of Learning and hope my voice returns to me so I can record my audio (I am really not impressed with having a head cold/sore throat right now!)
I can’t wait to see everyone face to face on Tuesday!
Piecing it all Together
This week, our prompt is to blog about putting the final stages of the prototype together. When it came to finalizing the Course Profile, I found that it was actually easier than I was expecting as I could find most of the information within my various blog posts throughout the semester and could take what I had already written and summarize it into a more formal format. So that was nice, I was getting a little worried about coming up with all of the information.
The course itself I found pretty easy to come up with and structure which scares me a little. I’m really hoping that it is just because I have thought about how to move this course to be more online to support my students who are out of town for a few years now and am comfortable with the course content and have spent time thinking over how to move it online. This course has made me much more comfortable with creating digital content, especially videos, (thank you screencasting tools!) and the ideas of how to integrate digital portions came without a ton of thought because I based my ideas on the areas I had experienced difficulties in the past and thought “how can I make this easier for my students?”.
Canvas was a no-brainer for me to use when setting up my course because it fit the structure of what I would like as a student and I found that it was easy to organize from a teacher or instructor point of view. In the future I would like to play more with platforms such as FreshGrade or Seesaw as I feel that they would have maybe integrated the video sharing that i am using Flipgrid for right through the platform more smoothly, based on listening, reading, and talking to classmates on how they use these applications in their classrooms.
I am excited to finally be able to see how everyone else’s prototypes have turned out and look at how they have adapted the online platform to their courses of choice!
EC&I 834 Course Prototype Profile
Course: The course that I chose to create a prototype for was Calculus 30.I teach the Calculus 30 course for my magnet grouping (where students travel to another school to have access to additional courses) and have had to adapt an academic course into a 2-hour block where (not all) students are not able to stay for extra help if needed. I have had to come up with alternative ways of aiding students, typically this means they email me questions, I work them out, and email an image of the fully worked solution back. This is not the ideal way to receive additional support in mathematics and therefore, I would like to create a space where students are able to interact with each other and with myself to work through their challenges in the course. Calculus is often thought of as the study of change, and so I feel will be a great place for me to start my journey into online and blended learning.
Target student population and demographics: This course is the highest level of mathematics offered in the regular K-12 curricula in Saskatchewan. Students in this course are typically in Grade 12 and need several prerequisite courses in order to register for the course.
Course Format: This course is designed to be a blended course where students attend class on a regular basis and some of their assignments and tasks are located on an LMS. This course will have both synchronous and asynchronous aspects.
- Synchronous: in-class sessions, activities housed in LMS that will be completed in class
- Asynchronous: review videos, discussion forums, access to notes and other posted materials
Course Toolset: I have chosen to house my course in the Canvas LMS system. Within the module that will be evaluated, I have used EDPuzzle to create an activity that students are to complete and Flipgrid to provide a summary of an activity that was completed in class.
I chose Canvas because I liked the way that I could organize the modules (in this case chapters) and that I can publish each module separately so I can regulate the speed at which my students can have access to the content in the LMS. There are also discussion forums, assignments, and quizzes in Canvas. I intend to use the discussion forums as a platform for students to ask questions and support each other. My assignments and quizzes are formative assessments and are assigned in Canvas but are limited due to the course content and the specialized type that students would need to master in order to record their answers. Most assignments will be submitted either on paper or through Flipgrid.
I decided to include Flipgrid because it allows for students to video themselves which would allow them to describe the steps they have taken as they go over a worked solution.
EDPuzzle was chosen because I liked that I could use a pre-made video and insert the questions that helped guide my students’ thinking in the general direction that I was intending without requiring a set answer from them. It allows them to analyze as they observe.
Course Content and Learning Objectives:
The module that I will be submitting for evaluation for this prototype is Module 3 (Chapter 3: C30.3). This module covers content from the Calculus 30 Saskatchewan curriculum and the following outcome:
C30.3 Demonstrate understanding of limits and continuity.
Suitability to Students:
When thinking about whether I would like to be learn this way, if this works for me as a student, I believe I really do like the set-up which is a major reason why I chose to use Canvas. I was also able to ask my current students what they thought, and have asked several of my Sr. Math colleagues and we all seem to agree that this is a user-friendly set-up that is easy to understand and find information on. Because I teach this course to Grade 12 students, I was able to be more formal in the setup and I feel this will help my students as they transition to their post-secondary educations.
Considerations for common Concerns:
Access to devices: My school does not have ample access to devices but many of the activities can be completed on a cell phone (which very few do not have) or by utilizing the SMART Board in my classroom. All students in my class, including those from other schools, have access to computers throughout the day if they wish to catch up or review and do not have a device of their own.
Attendance concerns: I feel that this format for a course, being blended, will aide students who are missing as they are able to watch the video lesson and access the course content from home or anywhere they have an internet connection.
Wide Open Spaces….or should they closed?
This past week has been HECTIC! I cannot wait for course registration and course registration parent meetings are done with for the 2017-2018 school year so I can move on and stop tabulating and checking that students are registering for the appropriate/correct number of classes, not to mention trying to convince Grade 11s that if they don’t register for courses next year, they are not going to graduate….oh the joys of being Career Counsellor!!
This week we were asked to blog about how creating an open space might change the way in which we set up our online/blended learning courses and activities that we complete in our classes. In reading the various posts from our EC&I834 classmates, I was reminded of an experience that I had as a teacher several years back (although I have no idea how I forgot it!).
I was travelling with another teacher and students to Europe on an EF tour and we were to be visiting several different concentration camps from World War II. As “homework” for the students who were travelling with us, we had our students read two books written by a Holocaust survivor who lived in Toronto, Vera Schiff. These two books, Theresienstadt and Hitler’s Inferno told about life in the Holocaust and Theresienstadt told Vera’s story of her time in the camp. The students read the books and were engrossed in Vera’s experiences and the horrors she experienced. Then, we had the opportunity to Skype with Vera. Students came up with questions and we were able to ask her about her experiences “first hand”. To top it all off, by chance she came to the University of Regina for a speaking engagement and we were able to take some of the students travelling to meet her and have coffee with her. Less than a month later, we were walking through the remains of Theresienstadt, nothing could have been more authentic than the experience that these students (and I) had, being able to meet someone who lived through the horrors and then visiting the place where this had happened.
I think that it is fair to say that those students will forever have a deeper understanding and respect for the Holocaust than many their age because of the opportunity that they had to meet Vera and talk to her face to face. This is not always the case but I believe that creating forums or blogs that are open for our students to interact with those that are experts in their field is an amazing way to encourage our students to create a positive digital footprint and learn how to interact with others online, following the proper netiquette. Just as Danielle has been able to interact with the author of her textbook, how amazing would it be if our students could interact with the author of their favourite book or someone who is a primary source for a specific topic, someone who was there and can explain things first hand.
Megan hit on an important point in introducing an open platform for our students to interact with the outside world, we need to scaffold them to being able to do this. Our students, although completely submerged in our current digital age, need help to understand that once you put something on the internet, it cannot be taken back. Nicole, Chalyn, and Aimee discussed this in their posts as well and this can be a difficult thing to understand, that what we post to the internet will be there forever and will reflect on the student….forever.
We also cannot be introducing technologies into our classrooms for the sake of introducing technology. As Graham stated, technology does not equal better learning, it is only a tool that, when used properly, has the ability to create better learning. We need to start with who our students are and, based on their personalities and comfort levels in posting online, integrate technologies as we see fits our students. These technologies will change with the subject of the course (Math will be different than English), the age of the student (more versus less open depending on age) and the comfort level of the those that will be doing the posting (will we share with the world or be intimidated by this process) as well as of our administration and the parents involved in the process. There are so many factors that educators must consider, there is no “one case fits all” for the level of openness your classroom may have.
Ideally, and based on my personal experiences, I would love to have a completely open, online course where outsiders can help contribute to my students learning through blog comments or forum posts. I have seen how being able to talk to or meet someone who witnessed history has changed a students’ perception of the importance of the history and would love to see this insight in more students across multiple subjects but I understand that my students, my administration, and the parents of my students probably have a little ways to go in their comfort levels of this. For now, I have my prototype as a closed course, where my students would be able to interact with each other where they feel safe and not intimidated by the whole of the internet reading their thoughts, questions, and ideas. In the future….wide open (learning) spaces!
I think I might be addicted to change….
At the beginning of this week, I was working on one blended learning course, Calculus 30, that would be used as my prototype for #ECI834. Then Wednesday hit….and I decided why not jump right in and start a flipped classroom with my Foundations and Precalculus 10 students, I could use a little change! (And increased prep work I suppose!)
This is not the first time I have pitched a flipped classroom to my students to see if they would like to try it out with me (I have tried several times with Precalculus 30, a HUGE course content-wise, but never received any interest) and I expected the same response: “Ummmm………no.” So what’s different this time? Almost half of my students are in band which is a “pull-out” program in our school meaning that they miss my math class once in every six-day cycle to go to band class. This same group of students missed Friday and will be away on Monday as they are in Banff for a band trip. A good chunk of these students are going to be missing for four days in April as they are going to Europe on an EF Tour to attend the 100th celebration of the Battle at Vimy Ridge. These students miss a lot of instructional time and view the flipped classroom as a way to minimize what they miss and provide them with an efficient way to catch up.
So, Wednesday night, I was creating and videoing lessons, referencing those that already use a flipped classroom such as Ashley, coming up with formative assessments, and deciding how this was going to look (check out the blog site I created here). Thursday, we watched the lesson as a group and filled out the skeleton notes I had provided them. I felt it was important to model what they should be doing at home and answer any questions about the process, I do not want them to be disengaged because they are having difficulties with the process, as mentioned by Seethamraju in this week’s reading. This process was slower than it would probably be for most students watching the videos at home, but, I feel (hope) that it was valuable to them to go over it together. We then went over the formative assessment I created on Google Forms where I have asked them to answer 3 questions so I can see if they “get it” or not. I am hoping to use this to help decide if I need to address certain students individually on their understandings or if I need to reteach something as a large group. The big test of the process will be how many students have prepared and watched the lesson in advance of Monday’s lesson…….
This flipped classroom does not have a lot of online interaction outside of grabbing the appropriate links and going (much like Nicole mentions about her Weebly page), but I get to see these students every day and I set it up from scratch in one night. If we (the students and I) agree that this is effective, I will continue the flipped classroom beyond this unit and hopefully grow it into a more interactive community.
My Calculus 30 prototype does have these interactive aspects. Melinda mentions that she had not given much thought to interactions between students and with the instructor prior to the blog prompt and I find that I was the opposite. This is, in part, to the fact that I am already teaching this as a distance-ish course and have regularly received emails in the past of a picture of a question asking how to complete it. I am a big believer in encouraging collaboration within my classroom and will often direct students to each other to help them understand. One of my professors in my undergrad described that teaching demonstrates the deepest understanding and that has stuck with me and I have found that it usually is true. The image above is somewhat similar to what was shared with me so long ago.
My prototype is on Canvas and Google+ (at the moment, I’m thinking of changing that up a little) with the Google+ community where I see online collaboration occurring. I would encourage students to post questions they don’t understand or ask questions of each other and myself and come up with solutions and understandings together, instead of from the teacher who stands at the front of the room.
I have thought about using the discussion board feature within Canvas but my own experiences with discussion boards have been poor. I have experienced the feeling of frustration when others dominate the discussion and post so often I feel that there is nothing left for me to add that will be valuable and unique. This is a concern that arises often and needs to be addressed according the edutopia handbook, Mastering Online Discussion Board Facilitation and this is deterring me from wanting to use them. I like the more informal version of discussion we have in our Google+ Community as I feel it better encourages the development of relationships. I fear, like Logan, this is not as cut and dry as it is in the classroom, it needs more work in an online platform. Benita mentions the “5 R’s” from Schwier’s Shaping the Metaphor of Community in Online Learning Environments: “rules, roles, rounds, rituals, and ringers”. This gives a great place to start thinking about the tasks that you could assign in the discussion board of your LMS and has caused me to sit back a bit and think of if/how this changes my personal feelings about discussion boards. I’m not done this thinking process and am still grappling with how I would use it.
A common theme from this week’s posts (Melinda, Adam, and Kelsie to name a few who talked about it) has been the use of Flipgrid and, as I haven’t checked it out yet, I decided that maybe now it was time. After playing with it a little, I think this is more in line with what I would like for a discussion board, something that is more interactive and personal. So maybe my thinking is changing….but I think I need more time.
What have your discussion board experiences been like? Do you prefer the traditional typed version of a discussion board or the interactive one of tools such as Flipgrid?
Blended Learning in Mathematics, I’m not the only one doing it!
This week we were asked to explore an aspect of online/blended learning that we are interested in. As I am working on building a blended Calculus 30 course, I felt this would be a great time to read into how others are structuring blended learning of the mathematics variety. I should also warn you, this is a long post but, if you get through it, you will find my favourite definition of blended learning (thus far anyways).
In my searching, I found a series of articles written by Birgit Loch, Rosy Borland and collaborative authors Liam McManus and Nadesda Sukhorukova for the annual ASCILITE conference. Their papers discuss a variety of ideas, implications and challenges around creating a blended mathematics course. In their first article, The transition from traditional face-to-face teaching to blended learning – implications and challenges from a mathematics discipline perspective (Loch & Borland, 2014), the authors discuss how mathematics is often overlooked for moving to a blended format for three reasons:
- Limited resources and cramped curricula.
- Instructor reluctance to move from the traditional “chalk and talk” as they have never experienced an alternative method of learning.
- The belief that mathematics is different from other disciplines and it doesn’t need to be re-invented through another method of instruction.
I have to admit, I am not going to argue any of these points but I may use them to help plead the case for blended learning. We have discussed in class about the cramped curricula and, to me, that is the ultimate reason why we SHOULD be moving to blended learning, allowing our students a better opportunity to have access to the teachers to help them with their learning. What better reason to try something new as “I’ve never seen anything else done”, I hardly think that “this is how it is has always been done” is a good enough excuse to not move to blended learning. And mathematics is definitely different than many other disciplines, Loch and Borland mention that mathematics is “complex due to the visual nature of the discipline” and recognize that the digital typesetting of mathematics can be difficult for students and instructors to communicate in short response times. With applications such as SeeSaw and FreshGrade where students are able to post pictures of their work, I’m not sure that this is completely valid, although I definitely think that timely feedback is still a challenge digitally. They also discuss the technology requirements for both students and instructors as well as a fear that by focusing on the online submission of assessments, “the development of deeper mathematical understanding that occurs during practice may be impacted as students may be ‘doing’ less mathematics because they no longer write it out” (Loch & Borland, 2014).
Loch and Borland go on to discuss the use of the flipped classroom and how it has developed a more active classroom, where students are able to “do” mathematics with the support of the instructor as opposed to this time being used for lecture. This allows for the concepts to be developed deeper. Within the flipped classroom, they recommend using audience response systems (such as Kahoot, Mentimeter, or Plickers) to help gauge student understanding and misconceptions but they question whether students with low prerequisite knowledge are truly capable of learning in this manner. Interestingly, they found that students that were in active learning classrooms were 1.5 times less likely to fail than those in traditional lectures (Freeman et al, 2014 via Loch and Borland, 2014).
While in the classroom, Loch and Borland discuss “board tutorials” where students work a problem together on a whiteboard, effectively “doing” mathematics together and collaboratively. This comment made me think back to my undergrad and Math 223 where we would often go to office hours and have our professor, Douglas Farenick, find us a large chalkboard to work the problem as a group. This course was one that challenged my thinking and caused me to struggle in mathematics (something that was new to me at the time) but when asked for help from a student, I look back at that and try to emulate it, as I find it was one of the most useful exercises I have done (thank you Doug if you read this).
The article is summed up with seven questions that the authors feel need to be further researched:
- What can we do to ensure students engage with both online content and classroom activities?
- How can we encourage school leavers enrolled in first year mathematics units to self-regulate their learning?
- How can we build in redundancies, eg. enable students to recover if they have not watched a video beforehand or have not attended class?
- What technology is needed to enable effective online communication and collaboration to support learning in Mathematics?
- What technology is needed to support deep learning of mathematics? What new technologies might be on the horizon? What impact can learning spaces have on student engagement?
- On a departmental level, what is the best approach for supporting teaching staff (including sessional staff) to develop and implement innovative pedagogy approaches, promote digital content creation and use technology to enhance learning and teaching outcomes?
- How do we measure the success of a flipped classroom?
The second article by these authors, Implementing blended learning at faculty level: Supporting staff, and the ‘ripple effect’ by Borland, Loch and McManus (2015) discusses question #6 above and the supports needed to implement blended learning at an institutional level and discusses many of the common themes that come up in our #eci834 discussions such as cost, accessibility, and professional development. What really jumped out at me from this article was the definition of blended learning that they chose to follow:
“an understanding of blended learning as being an approach which increases opportunities for students to engage with content and resources online in order to make more time available in face-to-face classes for active learning” (Borland, Loch, & McManus, 2015)
This definition really resonates with me, I value the face-to-face connections that I make with students and I like that their focus was to increase the effectiveness of this time, taking the lecture out of the face-to-face sessions and focusing on the student and their needs.
The third article, How to engage students in blended learning in a mathematics course: The students’ views by Loch, Borland and Sukhorukova (2016) addresses questions #1 and #3 from the above list, and do so from the perspective of the student. They state that students in blended learning courses need to be self-directed and self-regulated learners (they could use the skills from Twana’s post on online learning success strategies). Students in this study stated they like the face-to-face sessions because they were able to ask questions and gain further clarification on topics and it was found that students reacted positively to interactive and technology-enhanced classrooms where they were able to contribute in discussions with their peers (Donovan & Loch, 2013 via Loch, Borland, & Sukhorukova, 2016). Students were also honest, stating that they do not always watch as many recorded lectures as intended or even never watch them at all, students cannot be forced to engage in teaching activities of any sort if they do not want to. I appreciate this very open, honest, and abnormal statement in the article as too often we focus on being able to reach every child when, we know deep down, some are just not ready to be reached.
An aspect of a blended course that I did not think of until reading this article was the ability for the instructor to incorporate additional information on the “why” we are learning this, with students in the study stating that they enjoyed being able to get deeper into why we focus on a specific concept and its general use outside of the grading scheme for the course. This is a common question in my classroom and I like that blended learning provides a non-mandatory platform for students to pursue their interests in this way to gain a deeper understanding.
In discussing the motivation for watching videos ahead of class time, a variety of ideas were provided. The one I disliked the most: providing marks for watching the videos. Signing in to watch the videos does not mean that students are actually “watching” the videos, they can hit play, mute, and walk away, never gaining the understanding they should and receiving grades that do not reflect their understanding accurately. The one I like the most: recap the content at the beginning of class, using one or maybe two examples, and provide a plan for each class so that students know what they are missing if they have to. Recapping with a couple of examples helps instructors know where their students are in their understanding and allows for further instruction, if necessary, before the daily task is started.
One major fault in blended learning as addressed in this article is that math is very hierarchical, constantly building on the content previously learned. If, when watching a video example, a student does not understand an early step, the entire video is lost, as is the time dedicated to it. This is something to consider in making videos for a blended learning course as you need to ensure you are being detailed enough that the weakest student in the class will be able to follow along, an perhaps may need to provide a review of prerequisite knowledge to help all students ensure they are confident in their solutions.
If you are still with me, congratulations, this has been a very long post and I am not quite done yet. In reading this, I am inspired to change not just my Calculus 30 course but by other mathematics courses as well, although I will wait until the fall semester to ensure I have had the time to adequately prep and organize my ideas in a meaningful and effective manner. In general, this is how I think I would like to set up my classes:
- Flipped classroom: Students are required to watch video of the examples with notes to follow along with before coming to class (such as how Ashley has described she runs her flipped classroom).
- At beginning of class, have a Plickers activity to determine how students are doing. This will require them to tell me if they are confident, need some clarification, or have no idea what happened.
- One to two examples on the board, so I can gauge where my students are. This will be followed by students asking specific questions on their current misconceptions.
- Group “Board Work” where students will be given a enrichment question and will need to come up with a solution collaboratively. I would like to play around with a presentation method similar to the interactive notebooks that Andy uses in his class, with some modifications.
- Work time for an practice questions. Or more time for enrichment. I am a firm believer in not everyone needs the same amount of practice to understand a concept and therefore do not require them to do all assigned textbook questions.
Well, I think that is it that I have to share, what do you think about this set-up for high school mathematics classes? Have you done something similar to any of the parts? What do you think of the findings of the articles? Let me know in the comments!
Feeling Alone on Audio- Island
This week, we were asked to reflect on Tony Bate’s chapter on the different types of media that can be used in the classroom. Initially, I thought I was right on board with many others such as Kelsie, Ashley, and Liz and that I prefer and learn best from text but as I was reading through the various other posts by our eci834 classmates, I realized that maybe I learn better through audio than I had thought.
I would like to address what Bates calls the unappreciated medium of audio. I love audio, and not just of the musical sort. About 2 years ago, I was encouraged by my sister-in-law to listen to the podcast Serial (Season 1) and I was very tentative to jump on board, I didn’t think that I would like just the audio. I had always had text in front of me before, I was sure I wouldn’t want to just listen to someone talk. The long, and uneventful drive from my home in Kipling to Regina that I was making at least once a week for classes was the reason I decided to try it out…and I LOVED IT! Now, it is a very interesting, even addicting, story (you seriously need to listen) which probably helped keep me interested but it made me think that this might be a good way to stay more up-to-date on my growing “to read” list. So, I downloaded Audible and decided to tackle a massive series, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, all 201 hours, 41 minutes of it, and my love of audio was fully confirmed. Since finishing what has been published of that series, I have started to listen to some of the more classic works on my list, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and I am just about finished The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
My love of audio goes further than just listening to content. I find I focus better when I am listening to something, even if I am trying to read. While reading Bates’ Chapter 9 for this week’s class, I was listening to Spotify’s Intense Studying playlist., it helps keep me focused and minimizes the distractions around me.
Even though I enjoy audio, when I comes to what may be considered more academic reading, I still think I prefer text. Andrew‘s approach of which medium is the best for him is probably closest to my overall views of media. It depends on mood, topic, and the quality of the resource. Liz mentioned that she often writes and highlights all over text that she reads and I do the same. Last semester I took EADM 814 and found that I had notes, questions, and definitions jotted everywhere to ensure that I understood the cases we were studying. In this course, I struggle not to print the textbook readings so that I can make my notes in the sidelines. Luckily, I have found that Evernote is helping me break free of my not so eco-friendly habits.
Video is, of course, an amazing media to use when teaching as it can incorporate the audio and the text features along with visuals. Angela and Chalyn describe the way that video integrates all of these mediums.
What do I use when I teach? I use a blend of all three. I agree with Jannae that in teaching math, especially at the high school level, there is a need for text in the form of mathematical symbols. But I also describe what I am doing in each step of my work as we go through examples and I encourage my students to do the same. Bates references this stating that “explaining or ‘talking through’ materials presented through text, such as mathematical equations, reproductions of paintings, graphs, statistical tables, and even physical rock samples” can be “particularly ‘potent'” (Bates, 2015, 7.3.2). At the end of a concept, I try to incorporate a video that is well done and applicable. Much like Logan, I think I integrate both the text digitally on my SMART Board and the audio in the form of lecture and video.
It seems I am a part of a very small group of audio-lovers. Are you tentative like me to jump in or have you had a bad experience? Would you consider it for the “right” topics?
Rapping Math Concepts – WSHSmath Video Review
For this week’s blog, we were asked to either critique a unit of instruction done by someone else, or to use one of the content creation tools that we discussed to create our own content. I have decided to do both.
Like Andrew mentioned in his post Crash Course – 7 Thumbs Up!, I also like to use videos in my teaching for both learning a new concept as well as for review. I am a huge fan of the Crash Course videos as well as I use historyteachers as they present the information in a unique manner and give students another perspective or way of viewing things that help the importance of what we are discussing sink in.
As a math teacher, finding videos that are not super cheesy but that are mathematically sound is not an easy task. I also try to stay away from videos that fall into the “math is not cool” or “wow that person is a nerd” stereotype such as Mathmaticious. That is why I was pumped when I stumbled across WSHSMath‘s channel. They only have 7 videos but they are QUALITY. They are created by a group of teachers at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio. The next video that I will be using in my classroom is the factoring video.
I love that they remake popular songs and sing/rap about mathematics concepts. This is Teach Me How to Dougie by Cali Sway District, but they also use Yeah! by Usher, Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It by Will Smith and Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. They have their students in their videos as well. I find that this helps my students relate more as they can see people their age involved and engaged in the content (not to mention, some of them have some sweet dance skills).
These videos are catchy and educational, I will often hear students in the hallways humming the melodies after watching the video in class. (I am sure they are not thinking the “math lyrics” but a teacher can only hope!)
So, how hard would these be to recreate by the “average” teacher?
Personally, I do not have a singing voice nor am I very good with the remixing of the lyrics. To recreate an entire song would probably take me weeks or months of trying to make it work and sound good. I would say that these three gentlemen are masters of the parody of lyrics, but, that doesn’t mean it is out of reach for the average teacher, just maybe for me.
Their students are amazing. I am pretty sure that I could convince my students to join me in making a video such as this if I had the right “motivation” (which could be as simple as a candy at the end). If you are passionate about your project, I think that most teachers would be able to gain a dancing posse for videos such as these.
So what about the graphics? This is where I am going to try to out a new tool! I am going to try to recreate some of the graphics in the video Teach Me How To Factor (above).
The Difference of Squares example
I did not rap, but I did go over the example in a (not very catchy) way. The graphics were not very difficult. I used SMART Notebook and SMART Recorder to take the video.
Overall, I think that this would be an achievable goal for many teachers. And, knowing how my students react to these videos, I think that it holds a lot of value for students. It is not a lesson in itself as many of the videos glaze over some of the key things that are needed for understanding but as a review, I feel that they have done an amazing job of their videos! What do you think?
When I started to recreate the graphics, I really tried to used Screencastify but it repeatedly froze my computer for some reason. I will try again in the future but for now, I will settle for using SMART products instead of more “open” options. I am also very intrigued by Audacity for my Social Studies classes I did record myself reading out of a mathematics book that I own A Curious History of Mathematics by Joel Levy and will probably be playing around with that in the near future.
UPDATE: I have figured out Screencastify and have made a how-to video of me uploading files to Canvas in the modules. More work to come on organizing the course!
Yet another on the Canvas….
I am jumping on board the Canvas-wagon along with many others in ECI834 such as Carla, Sarah, Nicole, and Andy. (I would love to say that was an intentional pun, but I didn’t realize what I had done until after I had typed it….).
All enthusiasm for making this decision aside, I am not feeling 100% confident with the choice as I am not sure it will be as interactive as I would like it to be. When we were first given the assignment to create a blended/online course prototype, and seeing how our course was set up in Google+, I was excited to try and set up my course in a similar fashion. Then, after being inspired by Carla’s post Inspired by Something New, I decided to look at Canvas…and now I am torn.
I have had some time to “play” in Canvas and have set up a REALLY rough course (I’m talking, the text/content is along the lines of “asl;dkgal;skdfha;” and not even a nice lorem ipsum) and I have come to the following conclusions:
1) I like the Calendar. I am a big fan of planning using a calendar and, if you were to see my long-term planning for this semester’s Calculus 30 course, you would see I have every class planned as to what I will be covering. This does not mean that there is no flexibility but it is my way of ensuring that I cover the entire course, and I like to give students an outline of when all of their exams will (likely) be the first day of class, especially because it is essentially a distance course.
2) The Modules allow for easier navigation than what I was thinking Google+ would provide. This is probably one of the more important aspects that is driving me towards using Canvas as I feel my students will use it ONLY if it is easy to use, I plan to set up my units/outcomes as my modules so that students can easily find what they are looking for.
3) The Quizzes feature allows for more detailed feedback than a right/wrong. Kyle discusses this further in his post this week. Because of the content and delivery method this course has typically had for me, I only grade the unit and final exams to determine the students’ grade. (I know, not the “best” but this was actually a request from the students as assignments were “too much course load”). I would like to use the quizzes as a way to bridge the gap between the students that REALLY want the assignments and feedback and the ones that have enough on their plate with their daily practice.
4) I can post the Outcomes right within the course….although I am not sure about the rubric/grading yet. Until I have a little more time to figure that aspect out, I probably will not use it extensively but I look forward to be better at it. I also like that you can connect/link these outcomes to specific assignments. Although I did not find the Saskatchewan Curriculum outcomes, this is something that can be added.
Overall, I find the platform to be easy to navigate and use. I am not done experimenting with some of the aspects and look forward to having it “in-action” with my students like Sarah, and Carla are intending to do and, much like Carla, I have a group of students that will not be shy in letting me know if something isn’t quite right.
“The Learning Management System. The LMS. Or in the UK, the VLE. The Virtual Learning Environment. Even though the latter sounds much less foreboding and controlling than the former, I confess: it makes no difference. I am not a fan.” – Audrey Watters on her blog
After all of my experimentation, I then read Audrey Watters’ post Beyond the LMS. As stated in her post, the LMS is about management and not about the students. Students (and teachers) often lose their work after the course is complete and are no longer able to access what they have created. This takes me back to Google+ and creating a space where the students can continue to be connected AFTER the course is done (if they choose), and maybe even help each other as they move forward into various post-secondary pathways.
So, back to square one. In all reality, I think that I am going to use both. Canvas to house the “meat” of the course, and Google+ to encourage the interactivity between my students and as a quick place they can go for answers. Or maybe, with the right convincing, I will be bold enough to leave the Canvas behind and go Google all the way…..
Kara Taylor's Blog 
