Design Experiment 4: PB Works

This week our class explored PBWorks (www.pbworks.com). I went through most of the PBWorks project examples, tools within PBWorks support these projects, and primarily  for education.

I had/have NO experience with any of these and feel I'm a disadvantage for this particular assignment.  I'm going to do my best to get through this assignment and hopefully I can also glean from my other classmates with more experience than me.

First, I created and account to explore what I can do with it.

My reflection of a wiki defined is it's a Web page that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a Web browser and access to the Internet. This means that any visitor to the wiki can change its content if they desire. Wiki's are powerful and is an excellent collaboration tool.  There is a downside to one being it can be manipulated by a group rather than an individual.  This making the first affordance is that it's editable and the web page content can be quickly and easily editable by anybody.  One other affordance is it being a discussion-able document for others to collaborate with and give an alternate view, although I've never set up one for use before.

Wiki's use on TPACK model: Overlap on Content, Pedagogy and Technology.

• Content: What are we teaching?  In my particular Design 4, I'm looking for way to train teachers and support staff to give information to special needs students.  They need plenty of resources and go to places for strategies.
• Pedagogy: What knowledge do we need?  Ways to reach students with special need such as: dyslexia.  What are some best practices to go by?  Best practices would be strategies that work.
• What technology to we need to incorporate to make it meaningful?  We need plenty of videos and hands-on technology.

Vygotsky's ZPD would depend on what learner can do without assistance and what they can do with it.  This would be the variant of completing the assignments given in any of these activities, so the technology influences must be very clear, user friendly and a piece added where the participant can go for help.  Most times, when the assigner is the one holding all the cards and information there should be a virtual reminder or visual pathfinder to keep the learner on task.  Without this important tool, we will have lots of Alice in Wonderland experiences instead of great take-away's of understanding.

Design Experiment 3: Khan Academy

I often hear educators who are developing online or flipped classrooms lament, “I’ve got so much content to develop!” What many of them don’t realize is that a great deal of content has already been developed for online delivery/distribution and is available for anyone to use, particularly for educational purposes.

This week, I explored and experimented with Kahn Academy and it was an exciting experience to say the least.  I created an account for myself and added one imaginary student in order to gain the access to explore.  Subject included Math, Math by grade, Science, Art and Humanities, Computing, Economics and Finance.  I selected for the content I was to explore was Math for 3^rd grade, addition and subtracting, Intro to Place Value and a video came into the screen with a student demonstrating using an abacus.  There is also a transcript of the video to read after viewing.  I followed and read most of the question stems and started another search and repeated this process for about 30 minutes watching the hands-on activities.

I can see this methodology working in the 21^st Century classroom because there is no fear or intimidation of not understanding the concept in front other students who do, then if there are moment when re-teaching is necessary, the video can be replayed up to as many times as necessary.  Also, for convenience purposes the video lessons can be watch through the simple touch of an iPad, cell phone and even on a YouTube video which makes this so very assessable. I’m even a big fan of interactive lessons, that I can individualize and cater to my own needs.  

A+

Kahn Academy is an excellent teaching tool for communities that are experiencing budget cuts because the manipulatives can be seen on the screen.  If you are a traditional teacher that has to start your lesson whole-group, lecture, checking understanding before allowing them to go on to independent practice…this is not tool for you.  Pacing will be the biggest challenge because students are allowed to move and THEIR own pace.  The instructor is now the facilitator, helping students move through the lesson and not the Commander and Chief of who gets to lead and the rest must follow.

I read the Terms and Conditions of using this website and this stood out to me for some reason:  5.6 User Content Disclaimer. You understand that when using the Website …and that Khan Academy is not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, or intellectual property rights …You may be exposed to User Content that is inaccurate, offensive, indecent or objectionable, and You agree to waive…

In my opinion, with this educational website is being provided for FREE there are no guarantees. But, its user friendly with the 'new age' of online discussion forums, students, teachers and parents can connect with others groups to evaluate and give advice or homework help when learners reach a concept challenging to them…welcome to the wonderful world of education. This seems like a program learners and educators can solve problems, teach, and learn at their own pace, choose the subjects they desire and the fear of not having the correct answer all the time is the culture this looks line real online learning to me and I found everything I would need!

Design Experiment 2: Edmodo and Remind 101

This week, I experimented with a free course management system (CMS): Edmodo. I’d never used this particular because I’ve been out of the classroom over the last 10+ years, but I’d heard and spoke with teachers that have. As I explored, I noticed the feature that allow instructors to: to post notes, alerts, assignments, polls, and quizzes for your students.  Parents can also link to their child's account to view his/her activity and use this to post links to videos and learning games that correlate to my classroom concepts.

Remind 101 is a tool that allows for communication through computer and via text message, which seems to be taking the global universe by storm these days.  What I like most is the security of not compromising your personal cell phone number. It’s a texting tool to build stronger lines of communication among teachers, students, and their parents.

The pedagogy affordances of Remind 101 is being this is a mobility implemented tool that allows intersecting practices that occurs through content access, computation ability, and communication affordances.  This is the constructivists approach to the learning process by providing conversation and allowing learners to construct models to solve problems.   

The affordances of this technical teaching tool is it allows learners to learn in communities and teams to solve difficult problems, which is how learning occurs most naturally. And seems to be a good assessment tool, too. It looks similar to Face Book, and safe enough to pattern its look for educational purposes by allowing students to login using their first initial and last name followed by their school number.  This is a #Future Ready was to access classwork, quizzes if they missed school that day, assignment, and they can ask other students about work they weren’t able to attend school that day. the integration of technology in the traditional school system. The pedagogy affordances are based on the belief that learners revolve around learners' conversation for Edmodo to support learners who share knowledge, values and goals. Learners need to explore, articulate what they know and have learned, speculate, manipulate the environment in order to construct and test their theories and models, and reflect on what they did, what they have learned from the activities.

The technical affordances of both is the face they are easy to implement, parents and kids can choose the daily communication, and they can both be connected through the touch of cell phones. 

Google Translate

The objective for this experiment is to play around with a few technologies each week in order to reach a comfort level with it for incorporation purposes because it's difficult to design a technology you're not familiar with. I chose these particular apps because whichever design I choose in the end, I knew it would encompass them and I'd possibly be able to use what I've gained here in real - life and I'd like to gain something and grow from it.

I’ve tried this app when working with a group of new 5^th grade students that were coded Dyslexia-ESL and which was somewhat of a challenge.  They could speak some English, but English wasn’t spoken in their home. I would keep their groups limited to less than 3 – 5 students. 

The affordances of using technologies are they can provide more opportunities for Spanish speaking learners an opportunity to be more active in the classroom. They’re able to use this tool freely as a learning resource for utilizing e-books where learners can assume more responsibility for their learning. This particular app is an interactive tool that assists them while they are learning on their own at home.

Google Translate – app helps students with dyslexia b/c they can be frustrated with difficulties like decoding and understanding written words often get in the way of learning. Apps that read text aloud, especially those that highlight words as they go, can take decoding out of the equation and make reading a more pleasant and more productive experience. It can read a variety of text, such as website articles, stories from news apps, and copy-and-pasted email messages.

The incorporation of Google Translate is helpful with Cooperative Learning Groups because it is repetitive enough for allowing students to summarizing and even note – taking that will help with homework practice.

I always use Google Drive…I wouldn’t say it was by choice, but during a traumatic-laptop-crash-episode.  I later found out from the experts, that nobody keeps a flash – drive anymore.  I started the upload to Google-Drive and this is when I stepped into the 21^st Century – Future Ready atmosphere…Whoo-hoo!

The affordances of using technologies are they can provide more opportunities for Spanish speaking learners an opportunity to be more active in the classroom. They’re able to use this tool freely as a learning resource for utilizing e-books where learners can assume more responsibility for their learning. This particular app is an interactive tool that assists them while they are learning on their own at home.

Cognitive Affordances working in Google Drive is the ability to reason, think, analyze and along with other mental processes when writing, interaction with others, compiling presentations, drawing pictures and forms, processing information, etc., reflecting on your own thoughts and other related activities. Basic affordances allow for ease of creation, storage that can be shared and stored for future use.

   Google Hangouts has been a lifesaver for me in the past and present for that matter…we were in the process of hosting UIL on our campus and was inundated with rain and back weather.  Cancellations were out of the question and no doubt…the show must go on.  We decided to hangout or find a way to swim to each other.  This app allowed up to conference with each other so we could still plan our activity by connecting everyone online, go over our checklist, keep the minutes in chat boxes.  This is one of the best alternatives to Skyping that I know.  Affordances allow for collaboration with others with technology use as simple as logging into a cell phone.