Web 2.0 for My Classroom

2020 Vision: What is your vision of what the world could be like in 2020?

I think our role as a country has already began to change in the present.  We are no longer a super-power fueled by producing goods and materials.  We outsource these types of jobs for the cheaper labor.  We will be more of a data moving and manipulating country (which is bad for the little guy).  In the future we will continue this trend, however we will not be the #1 super-power in the world.  I believe China will eventually step up to the plate and take on that role soon.

 How will changes in the world affect education, and how will changes in education affect the world?

I think this generation is going to see some major changes in both the educational system and the technology that will drive it.  In general I think students will only be tied together by a single hub school that is assigned to monitor student progress by benchmarks and every student’s IEP.  The network that will pull it all together will be the technology with minimal traditional class time.  These changes will be fueled by the world needing more users of technology to move information rather than people manufacturing materials and goods.  This will force our society to become even more prolific at moving information in order to remain as one of the larger economical powers.  Those who can will remain in our society those who can not will move to a society that better reflects their abilities or parish.

 How will your choices and innovations in the classroom affect others?

The more I can infuse my classroom with the use of technology, the more prepared my students will be in the world.  If my students become lifelong technologically inclined independent learners the more successful they will be as people.

How will being a teacher be different in 2020 than it is today?
The teaching occupation will continue to change in that the traditional classroom assignments will be to facilitate what the students will do outside the classroom.  The larger assignments will become more important because now longer will a student go home then be cut off from everyone else.  They are tied together now by the use of technology and the read/write web.  Students are more capable of communicating with many other students to collaborate on projects than ever before.

By using both of these tools together I can have students show their understanding of physics concepts by cataloging the concepts using pictures.  Flicker may help them publish their photos and Picnik will help them enhance the photos to truly show each concept in a more effective manner.  For example a student might take a picture of a roller coaster traveling trhough a loop for circular motion, but the photo includes many other sites.  In order to focus on the roller coaster the students may need to crop the coaster, improve the focus, and highligh the people seated on the coaster.

How would a paperless class change your role as a teacher? My role as a teacher would become more efficient.  I would become a better facilitator of a learning community because I would have less work to shuffle through as I check papers.  Also, the feedback and revision portion of grading would be sped up considerably because to the quick and convenient access to assignments.  This would allow students to revise and correct mistakes or misconceptions more effectively as well. How would paperless classes change learning?

First, the students would have an easier time using a medium that they are more comfortable with to turn in assignments. Second, the teachers would be able to return assignments faster with quicker and more effective feedback.  Finally, the students could then revise assignments in order to show understanding of the feedback they have received.  All of these ideas would help make the learning process more effective and efficient.

 How would you measure learning in a paperless class?

The learning can be measured more effectively measured both formatively and summatively.  The formative can be instant feedback on survey questions or proof reading rough drafts for papers on a wiki and quickly assessing the results.  Summatively, the grades could be instantly graded using test generators or formal papers.  Together these tools can produce a more effective community where the students become more responsible for their growth as an independent learner.

 Would a paperless space make it easier or harder to build a learning network? Why?

A paperless space would make a much more effective learning network for several reasons.  First the medium used by both the teachers and the students would be more convenient and powerful.  Next the communication network for this medium is already in place and is worldwide not just local.  Finally, the time saved can be used to communicate more within the learning community.

The idea of this shift is that schools do not hold to the old code of owning the material and presenting it to the students usually via a textbook.  Instead schools are apart of a learning community that shares and develops the information through out the community.  This includes more outside resources that are more readily available through the Web and other resources.

 How has this shift affected your teaching practice so far?

I have always supplemented or even developed my own alternative resources for my course.  Since I re-wrote the curriculum the textbook represents a minor role as a supplement.  In general, I present various sources that demonstrate the knowledge in more effective ways than merely just reading the section on the topic.  These resources may represent myself, streaming videos, websites that contain applets, and more recently podcasts, screencasts, and vodcasts.  I am definitely looking into wikispaces as a way of making the students become a resource as well. 

 How do you expect it might affect you in the future?

I believe the more interactive the classroom the more effective the learning community.  Therefore I will continue to grow and add more effective resources that include the students and other sources in the learning community.

 Have your views changed since you started this course?

I have always been dissatisfied with the textbooks provided by publishing companies.  They either have too simple of explanations and problem sets or too complex explanations and problem sets.  Therefore I have been using multiple sources to help enhance my course since I started teaching.  This shift just explains the process I use to improve my course and recommends some ideas to help improve my current strategies.

 How can you use technology to facilitate this shift in your own classroom?

Technology is a powerful tool that can be used to enhance the educational process in many ways.  It can bridge some gaps that exist in the educational process by connecting individuals that are not sitting next to each other in the classroom.  Many times the most effective lessons occur outside the classroom when students reach out to each other to get help.  By providing a working space such as a blog or wiki these students can bridge that gap more effectively and include more students in the future.

It’s a two hour delay and I am taking my time going into work and listening to the radio.  There seems to be a continuous chatter about how our school system is failing.  Many times the argument turns to how so many students have turned towards the private schools, charter schools, home schooling or cyber-schooling.  Other times it seems the teachers are not performing up to snuff – or are getting into way too much trouble.  Also, schools have too many legal issue that do not allow them to work properly to keep a safe environment.  Finally, the people running the schools are allowing things to go awry.

If this is the case then what would you change that would improve the public school system as a whole? 

Is Connectivism a learning theory?
The group goes on to state the principles that support the idea that it is a learning theory. First, the statement is made that learning theories describe the principles we use to describe why and how people learn. Next, the group introduces George Siemens’ theory of connectivism as an attempt to understand how people learn in the digital age. In addition, they list the principles of connectivism as follows:

Principles of Connectivism:
Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
Decision-making is it a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Counter Argument:
After reviewing this response I find several misconceptions about this idea. First, learning is more than the process of connecting specialized nodes, but more so the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. The use of non-human appliances is merely a description of the use of tools that may enhance the learning process. However, these innate objects do not contain knowledge, but a means to gather the knowledge that is necessary for learning. In this fact, then it would not matter if the tool was digital or physical it still only a tool to enhance learning.

Similarly, a social network itself may be a means of gathering much knowledge in a single place which can enhance the chances for educational experiences, but it is the individual who must experience these moments and process them in a meaningful way to increase learning.

Finally, knowledge has always been the result of current outlooks and a by-product of the learning experiences. Knowledge can be agreed upon by a specific set of educational experience at one time, then changed due to a new set of educational experiences, but is the learning process that is important to learning theory. Many concepts in science change due to person interpretations or changes in technology, but the process of reaching those interpretations do not change. Scientist still follow the basic scientific method to get to the new results, the data is still interpreted by the individual (even if a new technology is used), and the results may or may not change the networks understanding of the knowledge.

The difference between the classical interpretation of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism versus connectivism is that the classical interpretations describe solely the method an individual handles a learning experience to produce knowledge where as connectivism describes the social processes and the use of tools at which knowledge is agreed upon within a network. However, I do not view knowledge as learned material, but information that needs to be processed by an individual to form the individuals understanding. This may result from communication with a network or by using powerful tools, but these merely enhance the individual’s opportunity to process information to learn.

 My Skype Experience:

I had the chance to observe many of my colleagues using Skype for part of a CFF class recently.  Their assignment was to use Skype to discuss how they have used their newly learned technology in their classrooms.  Most of these conversations where only text dialogs on their newly issued laptops.  I asked them about trying to incorporate the use of Skype in the classroom, but most of them stated that they probably would not try it.  However, many of them enjoy the idea of using to discuss ideas with their colleagues and a few stated that the best opportunities were for the language teachers or computer science teachers to use it appropriately.  This left me with a challenging task of developing a physics lesson where I could use Skype effectively in my classroom.  Then I came up with an idea… 

My Inspiration:

My idea for the use of Skype in the classroom I developed from an activity I read about in the book The Teaching Gap.  In this book researchers traveled to Germany, Japan, and other nations to determine what made their students perform at such a high rate.  The stated many of the ideas American teachers have stated as disadvantages we have like the legal right of every citizen of the United States to receive a public education.  However, they also picked up on some teaching techniques that these teachers used to improve critical thinking and comprehension at a higher level.  One of my favorite ideas was the technique of student generated problems for a math oriented class. 

The Traditional Lesson:

Once a chapter is near completion or even after a test, the teacher would give a list of problem types the students would need to construct on the front and solve on the back.  These problems could be as easy or hard as the student wanted to make the problem, however again they must be able to solve the problem as well.  Once all of the problem sets were completed the students exchanged their problem set with another member of the class who had done the same.  Each student would then solve the new set of problems on the front of the page.  At a given time when everyone had completed the problems the students would get together and check their work.  If there were any discrepancies the students would work together to find which solution contained an error.  You will find that if you do this in your classroom that the students tend to make some very difficult problems and tend to try harder to solve a problem constructed by their peer.  Also, with a larger set of problems more questions may arise that can be a learning moment. 

The Improved Lesson Using Skype:

I have used this idea in my classroom, but I think this would be an even better lesson if the people of different time zones or even cultures could do the same.  In order to do this the schools would need to set up an agreement to work together over a period of time at agreed intervals.  The teachers would prepare their own class to all objectives, expectations, and regulations the students would need to follow.  This could be done to their own classes or the other teacher’s class through a conference meeting.  The students would need time to develop their problem set; the teacher may need to review them before they were presented to the other class.  Then on a given day the students would be introduced to their counterpart through Skype probably using some predetermined activity.  This would exchange problem sets and say good–bye for the day.  Each student then would solve the problem set to the best of their ability.  The next day the students would present the solutions and ask their counterparts to discuss any discrepancies or errors then may have had.  I believe this activity would give each class a different point of view on how the other group solves the physics problems.  Imagine the teaching moments that could occur from different cultures or time-zones. 

Resources:

Hiebert, J., & Stigler, J.W. (1999). The teaching gap.New York: The Free Press.

Flickr is a photo publishing software that will allow a user to place photos on a site for others to comment on or use depending on the licence.  I believe this could be used in a variety of ways in my classroom.

The most efficient way would be to have students catalog physics concepts each week or month as the class covers them and add them to the class blog. This would force students to apply their new knowledge outside the classroom as well as test them for understanding of the concept.

The second way I could use www.flickr.com would be for me to pick a photo, use the annotation tool to describe some conditions (velocity, height, force, etc.), and have the students solve as much as they can about the physics situation presented. This method is more open ended and can be extended to the degree of understanding each individual student has on the subject. Also, the differences in understanding may strike up important peer teaching opportunities between students of different or similar levels of understanding.

Example: In the photo below describe all the forces acting on the object. Describe which forces are greater than other forces or identify if the object is at equilibrium.

Image Citation: RR. (18 August 2007). Great White Shark Jump. reno.ramsey’s photostream. Retrieved on February 12, 2008 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/9745377@N04/archives/date-posted/2007/08/18/

 I use a similar idea with magazines and newspaper articles occasionally, but that requires too much time on my part to keep the conversation going. In a blog format it would require less time and would be easier to continue the dialog about the subject presented.

In my classroom there are many complex mathematical processes that must be mastered, such as taking the derivative of a simple function, computing the vector cross product of two unit vectors, or constructing a complete free body diagram and using it to derive the correct solution to a force or work problem.  Many times my lesson is not enough of a demonstration or students forget steps over the course of the day.  Usually these students come back after school to ask me to review the lesson.

In my opinion this is a perfect chance for the use of podcasts in the physics classroom; more specifically I would use a tool called www.sketchcast.com which will allow my lesson (or a student’s lesson) to be voiced over a video of the process as a mini lesson.  The video would be what the students would see myself (or another student) write on the board.  This way if a lesson was missed or needs reviewed they can imply download the lesson to their iPod and view a mini lesson whenever they need help.

Specifically I would want my AP Physics students to produce a mini lesson for both other AP students and my General Physics students as well.  This would benefit both the presenters because they would need to make sure they understand the lesson completely in order to explain it to someone else.  Also, many times students may not initially understand me due to more advanced or formal terminology so when another student explains the process they may use terms that are more on the other students’ level.

Is there a particular example of a classroom wiki which inspired you?

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/

I liked this wiki for me to start with because it is simple and easy to follow.  It is also on www.wikispaces.com so I was familiar with how to use the site.  Also, when I watched the wikispaces tutorials I got a better understanding how to use the space manager to personalize the page.

 What was most challenging about creating a wiki together as a group in Activity 5-C-1?

The most challenging part or creating a wiki for me was using the hyperlink buttons.  I had never done that before so I asked some people who were more familiar with it.  However, they could not explain the process in layman’s terms so it took me a while to work through it.

 What did you learn from the group wiki project?

As usual working with groups is challenging and rewarding.  The challenging part is understanding the expectations and objectives of everyone in the group and incorporating that into the planning and executing.  I had never collaborated over the Internet before so it was a true learning experience, but one I learned a great deal and would like to share with my students.

 Has your opinion of wikipedia changed at all this week?

I have learned a lot this week about wiki’s.  I like the idea of small controlled wiki’s rather than larger open wiki’s.  However I have always used wikipedia as a starting point rather than a scholarly resource.  It’s more of layman’s terms and sometimes may lead to misconceptions, but the good overshadows the bad in the end.

 Are you encountering resistance to using wiki’s in your class, either from others or from yourself?  If so, how do you plan to respond?

I was probably the biggest resistive force in my wiki, but only due to my limitations in understanding the use of the text editor and hyperlinks.  Other than that the only resistance was the pace at which people were willing to work.  These types of resistances are to be expected and it makes for a good learning experience outside the class assignment as well.  Thanks to my group for making my first wiki experience a success.