Synthesizing « explore. create. share.

07Sep

Deep Dive MAET Style 47 Hour QF

After watching the Deep Dive videos about the design group IDEO (part 1, part2, part3), two “design groups” were formed (7 students in each group) to embark on the longest QF in the history of MAET.

Assigned on Monday morning of the final week of the MAET overseas program, these groups were asked to created the following by Wednesday morning at 8:30:

- Eight Web based multimedia introductions to each of the sections developed on the companion site for our text Sparks of Genius: http://sparks.wiki.educ.msu.edu/
(that is, the introductions could be any technology that can be embedded in a Web page (video, prezi, audio, combinations, etc.))
- These eight sections related to Sparks chapters as follows: Thinking Differently (chapters 1 and 2); Perceiving (chapters 3 and 4); Patterning (chapters 6 and 7); Abstracting (chapters 5 and 8); Embodied Thinking (chapters 9 and 10); Modeling (chapters 11 and 12); Playing (chapters 13 and 14); and, Synthesizing (chapters 15 and 16).

Project specifications:

- Each individual introduction should be one minute or less

- Each set of eight videos for each group should follow the same genre, approach, style, theme, etc. (that is, team 1 was to design a cohesive set of eight videos, and team 2 their own cohesive set based on a different approach)

- Each introduction should be designed to entice, encourage, compel, or otherwise convince K-12 teachers to read that specific section (collection of two chapters) of Sparks and the companion wiki pages

- Ideas for this project were to be focus grouped with year 1 and year 2 cohort students

Team specifications:

- Each team needed to determine a “lead adult” to lean on when guidance and structure are needed

- Each team will had $25,000 to spend in developing their project. This money could be spent on consulting with course instructors, or on focus groups with year 1 or year 2 students. (Creative questions cost $1,000 per question – technical or content questions cost $500 per question. Each 15 minute focus group with year 1 or year 2 students costs $1,000).

Evaluation:

- On Wednesday morning, all sixteen videos will be shown to a panel of experts. They provided a rating for each set of videos based on the following:

1. Overall creativity of the project
2. Creative use of technology in the project
3. Content accuracy based on Sparks
4. “Quality” as defined (or not defined) by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

- Students were told only one set of videos would be selected for integration with the wiki, and that they would be “rewarded accordingly”

Hints given to groups:

- Focus on creativity, technology, and teaching. Don’t forget about the technology piece in your project (both in use and message).

- Because eight sections will be similarly themed, the “idea” for how to present you arguments is critical. Don’t move forward until you think you have that nailed down. Use some of the strategies from Deep Dive to make sure it is a killer idea.

27Dec

Subverting presentations tools

Abstract: In a free-standing or Students utilize Google Presentation to create and post an online presentation that pulls away as far as possible from the traditional bullet-pointed lists of traditional PowerPoint presentations, relying instead on imagery and visuals to get the idea of their choice communicated.

Description: Design an online presentation that breaks the traditional (i.e. bullets and text notes) genre/format of the typical presentations (i.e., the typical PowerPoint presentation). Lest you think this gets away from your ‘bigger picture’ semester web project, you will be designing this presentation with the intention of linking it as an instructional resource on your Big Kahuna website (and, if desired or applicable, for your own teaching). You see, the idea is help each of you think ahead, and maybe provide you one more link for the Big Kahuna project!

By “breaking the genre conventions” of the medium, we simply want you to create a single presentation that applies to some aspect of your subject matter that is a more dynamic, moving, engaging, or aesthetically exciting than typical “straight-text and bullets” presentations that PowerPoint has traditionally employed. Features to include in this might be:

Less text/words than we would typically seen in PowerPoint.
More images: Take advantage of the visual medium here. There are some great image galleries available online, so consider using them, or any images you have captured with your own camera.
Think creatively about the use of transitions (wipes, fades, zooms, etc. etc.) and the pace at which they occur. Each of these transitions conveys different meanings, so the question is how you can harness these effects to powerfully convey your idea.
Possibly use audio or multimedia elements (only if you choose to, this is not a requirement). Narration or a music soundtrack can add an entirely different and creative aspect to a presentation, if it is applicable.
“Anything (well, almost anything) goes” here, so if you have any other ideas on ways you want to subvert the genre and make your PowerPoint more interesting, please feel free to try them.

Two free online tools to make presentation you can use is Google Presentations, launched as part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets or ZOHO Show. You could choose one of these tools to make your presentation and publish your presentation online. In the case of the original CEP 817 course, the presentation was additionally to be posted as a link on the student’s individual Big Kahuna or CEP 817 website space.

There is no slide limit or requirement as length will vary by individual, depending on what you want to teach your audience. It should simply be enough to encapsulate the main idea in an interesting way, but not so much as to overwhelm in a single presentation. This presentation could be an introduction to your big idea, an overview/summary of your idea, or it could simply focus on a particular aspect of your idea and focus on that in more depth.

Note: We realize that an online presentation, out of the context of the live presentation itself, can be a little difficult for the new/outside viewer to understand. If you feel that your presentation could be accompanied by a little explanation/exposition you are welcome to include some separate explanatory text, either on your website or in a separate notes file (posted wherever you like).

Examples of student work:

History of the assignment:

Suggestions for grading etc.:

22Dec

Making teaching suspenseful and post-dictable – A reflection task

Abstract: Guided by exemplifying video clips, students are invited to reflect on their own teaching in terms of the degree to which it builds anticipation and “comes together” in a meaningful big picture at the end of a lesson or course.

Description:

Good teaching is (among a long list of other good things) postdictable, i.e. something that is “surprising initially, but then understandable with a bit of thought.” it walks the line between predictability and chaos, and most importantly makes sense post hoc. See these posts here and here on the idea of postdiction.

Step 1:

Consider the characteristics of “postdictable teaching”:

Postdictable teaching keeps us engaged, keeps us waiting for more, the payoff as it were. And best of all, once all the pieces are in, we can’t wait to go back and review everything again, to see just how beautifully the whole thing holds together. There is a strong aesthetic component to this – a sense of wholeness, closure, elegance, and inevitability. Good poems have this quality, as do mathematical theorems. A well crafted lecture or a lesson plan has this quality as well. In my mind these ideas are closely tied to the Dewey’s idea of experience and to the idea of design. Closely connected to the idea of postdictable is the idea of creating anticipation and suspense.

However making suspense work is difficult. Navigating this line between predictability and tension over the unknown is a fine art. Check out the two videos below, which highlight just how fine the line is between succeeding at creating suspense and anticipation and failing to do so. Both of these videos are interesting and well made – both have pace and rhythm but one of them builds anticipation while the other just happens. One tells a story, the other doesn’t.

Step 2:

View sample videos and reflect on teaching:

Watch both videos and ask yourself which one “works” in this sense and which one doesn’t.

Here’s one…
Blue Thousand and One from Blue Man Group HD on Vimeo.

… and here’s another:

Music Painting by JUL & MAT from JUL & MAT on Vimeo.

So what do you think? Both these videos were cool to watch – but don’t you think the one from the Blue Man Group a tad more interesting, both in its buildup and its dénouement? Even within its short time frame, the video sets up a narrative arc and creates, something akin to a classical dramatic structure. In contrast the second video, though visually interesting through out, loses steam somewhere half-way through. The action begins to seem repetitive and the movie lacks a narrative thrust. It lacks drama.

So what does this mean for teaching?

First, everything we do as educators needs a larger goal (the big picture as it were). Too often we get lost in the minutia of of the project and forget the broader, overarching frame. The structure of our lessons, our semester, our mini-activities needs to have a larger narrative thrust, a dramatic flow. A beginning, a middle and an end. A good science activity can have them all. So can a well designed social studies activity.

Second, every thing we do as educators needs to be subservient to meeting that larger goal. The Blue Man group movie works because each frame (and musical note) is part of a larger story being played out in front of us. Not a frame is wasted. In contrast, you could take away a chunk of the second and I doubt anybody would even notice. The first is design for anticipation, for postdiction. As educators this means that we can’t give our students stupid-work (like most seat work at school) but rather every assignment needs to inform the larger picture and in turn be informed by it.

Step 3:

Written/video/audio Reflection on moving your own teaching toward postdictability:

Take something you teach (whole course, specific module/lesson) and view it under the lens of suspense and postdiction. To what extent do individual activities and content come together to a larger, meaningful whole in the end, as opposed to simply checking off covered units? If your teaching resembles the ‘music painting’ more than the ‘blue man’ video, what are concrete ways in which you may be able to move it from the former more toward the latter? Share your 3 -5 best ideas via a medium of your choice.

Examples of Student Work:

History of the Assignment:

22Dec

Weekly Reader: Social Bookmarking

Abstract: Using the social bookmarking application del.icio.us, students facilitate the flow of data, information, knowledge and wisdom in their area of interest by making a minimum or 4 targeted weekly referrals of sites and links from their RSS feeds.

Description: On a weekly basis, students are asked to dig into their RSS aggregators and to take a few minutes to reflect on an article/link that comes their way. An effective way to manage the incoming content is to open things that sound interesting in a new window, and keep scrolling until one has glanced at everything, and then, to read the 3 or 4 things that really caught one’s eye. These items should be bookmarked and tagged with del.icio.us. For this assignment, this tagging routine is taken one step further by requiring students to fill out the notes field in the del.icio.us site. The notes field allows users to type 255 characters – about 40-50 words. When filling out the notes field, students are asked to answer the following:

“why did you tag the site, why did it catch your eye, how did you find it, why is it useful to you?”

Weekly Assignment Requirements:

-tag a minimum of 4 “things” with del.icio.us

-use the tags – “CEP815″ and “weeklyreader” (so your instructor knows which ones to count towards the assignment)

-annotate the notes field

Steps for tackling the assignment:

Step 1: Make sure everyone in class is in your del.icio.us network. Here are directions on adding others to your network (most of you have already figured this out!): http://del.icio.us/help/network

Step 2: Tag a site “for” someone in class. If you installed the del.icio.us browser tools, you will see your network show up when you click on “tag”. As you are tagging a site, if you click “for:gravesle,” then Leigh Graves will see “Links for you (1)” highlighted in the navigation bar when she visits her del.icio.us page.

Step 3: PLAY!

Lots of outside developers have created websites that interact with del.icio.us to create visualizations of your content – there is A TON OF POTENTIAL to use these in educational settings!!! 3rd party tools can be found here: http://del.icio.us/help/thirdpartytools

Here’s how to get the del.icio.us feed to appear in MSU’s ANGEL system: http://feed2js.org/

Examples of Student Work:

History of the Assignment:

22Dec

Socially Sourced Feedback: The Experiment

Abstract: In this exercise, students are connected to experts in their field for feedback coming from another “expert” beyond the instructor. Using a combination of Jing + Screecast applications, the external reviewers comment on students’ online products (in the original case, modules for an online class).

Description: Ongoing thoughtful instructor feedback without question plays a large role in student learning. However, students tend to appreciate getting feedback from additional people in the field. If available, instructors can tap into their diverse Personal Learning Network (PLN) to match up students with a broader set of reviewers of their work. For example, in teaching “CEP 820: Teaching K12 Students Online” with the culminating project of creating a complete online course module, instructor Leigh Wolf was “lucky to have a large and diverse Personal Learning Network” consisting of “professors, MAET alumni, PhD students, practicing teachers, online learning experts,” and so on. By asking friends and colleagues to access a student course and use Jing + Screencast.com (both free tools) to record their reactions, feedback and suggestions for improvement, an instructor can provide students with an “extra set of eyes” on their work that might be somewhat different from his or her views and preferences. Ideally, one would specifically target people in one’s PLN who would match well with the students’ background or project at hand.

In the case of the student-created online-course modules of CEP 820,online modules were sent to reviewers who’s professional experience and interest matched the content at hand (see examples of such matches below).

Challenges regarding this exercise:

There is a risk in relying too heavily on one’s PLN to provide students with reviewers. At the end of the semester, something like this is the icing on the stress cake. It helps to time the submission of the final project 4 weeks before the official end of the semester to try and alleviate some of this stress.
The process is tedious to manage. Until someone develops a way of making the revier/reviewee process a little more automatic, it has to be done manually. This requires minute attention to detail, making sure the right hyperlinks were going to the right people and making sure no one fell through the cracks. With everyone using different course management systems, keeping track of all the access points can be a bit of a challenge.
Not everyone may turn their assignment in on time. Even understanding instructors who realize that things happen, especially with courses such as CEP 820 where students are working adults, many carrying 2 or more courses plus a full time job will realize that it is not fair to the external reviewers to send them late reviews (as they too have full plates.) In those cases, teaching assistants or gracious volunteers and the instructor may have to fill in for the late submission reviews.
It is unlikely to be able to match everyone up with the “perfect” person — in all likelihood one will have to stretch things a bit when it comes to content experts. This is fine as long as some other relevant expertise can be provided, as in CEP 820 where all reviewers were experts in online/hybrid course creation and pedagogy.

The upsides regarding this exercise:

Students may potentially get connected to AMAZING people they would not otherwise “meet.”
The PLN reviewers are able to experience an alternative form of assessment (using Jing & Screencasts) in a “low-risk” setting, i.e., with students in a course such as CEP 820. In the past, external reviewers expressed appreciation in learning how to use screencasting as a form of assessment/evaluation.

Additional considerations/lessons learned:

It may pay off to be relatively explicit with reviewers regarding the technical side of the reviewing task and to give them some tips on microphone and recording techniques.
Only ask external reviewers to perform one review
Adjust the final project due date even earlier – 5 weeks before the end of the semester? - to avoid the end of semester crunch.

Examples of student work:

Troy’s review of Erin’s “6 Traits of Writing” on Weebly Unit
Jessica’s review of Emily’s “American History” Moodle Unit
Sean’s review of Marc’s “Jared Diamond unit for World History” in Blackboard

History of the assignment: 16 brave souls were willing to participate in the experiment of socially sourcing feedback for students in CEP 820 and graciously offered their precious time to assist in this experiment:

21Dec

Video Voicemails

Abstract: By producing and publishing short video clips on the class website, teachers can create a sense of presence and highlight important class concepts and activities from a distance.

Description: Video voicemails are a great, quick way to stay in touch with students in online or hybrid courses, or when traveling in face-to-face courses, ensuring that students know the instructor is still present in the course. Such brief (roughly 2 minute long) clips are easily created using a FlipCam or the PhotoBooth on Mac to record the video, but any digital camera with video capture will work. The video voicemails help create the connection between student and instructor and are also a nice outlet to reinforce important concepts/theories, address confusion, and create a class culture.

Just remember, keep them short! Anything beyond the 2 minute mark will move it beyond “voicemail” and turn it into a “regular” lecture.

As an assignment, students can be asked to create a fun-and-informative sample video voicemail for a class of their choosing, taking into account the background of their class, the time frame in which it would be sent to students, the topic of the course at the time, and making good choices about what to include and what to highlight given the tight timeframe.

Examples of Student Work: [INSERT THE TWO LEIGH VIDEOS]

Assignment History:

Grading Suggestions:

21Dec

“Playing Tag”

Abstract: This face-to-face activity replicates online social networking without the medium – by “tagging” oneself and fellow networkers in the room using sticky notes, enabling a new perspective on what usually happens online.

Description: Analog Social Networking

Basic steps of the exercise:

Participants in the room are invited to put business cards/ID cards on their chairs
They then tag themselves with keywords on sticky notes
Going around the room, they network by discussing their tags, words in common, and
They add more sticky notes to their own tags and tag each other as well
After everyone’s met a substantial amount of people, debrief

This exercise deliberately takes the technology out of networking in order to highlight different aspects of what occurs online. The National Writing Project Annual Meeting has used this activity originally, recreating a social networking experience by actually socially networking with the people – strangers with a shared interest area – in the room. By doing so, the cognitive tasks of what occurs in online environments became visible in new ways. In online social networking, our interactions may have become so commonplace as to become invisible, whereas taking the online-networking mechanisms (here the reliance on tags) back into the face-to-face world, we become aware of them again because they are now somewhat “strange.”

Thus, going around and discussing one’s tags, participants are able to make new connections and further our own learning, both about content as well as the networking process more generally.

Debriefing can be done with the lens of game[HK1] and play theory, highlighting the risk-taking that is necessary to really integrate something new. Failing[HK2] to master something, especially something challenging, should be encouraged, because it is through failure that we learn. When we learn through trial and error, we make that learning part of ourselves, those neural pathways become set, and we have a new piece of knowledge that also has meaning. Facts and how-to’s are immediately available from a quick Google search, but to integrate that learning into our psyche: that has stickiness. We won’t forget.

Fostering play and risk-taking is important especially for adult learners. Most of us teachers were really good at school and loathe getting “Fs.” But with technology, there are no grades, only the ability to puzzle through a tricky problem and come to a solution. And so we play, we fail, and we try again.’

Examples of Student Work:

Tags picture

Assignment History: Adapted from Paul Allison, Bud Hunt, and Chris Sloan (original session at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting, 2010)

[HK1]Is there a “game and play theory” – don’t game theory and play theory make pretty different claims if taken individually?

[HK2]Does this relate to either of the theories mentioned? Clarification may help.

06Nov

The TPACK Project

Abstract:In this capstone project, students apply the TPACK framework to an actual problem they have encountered in their practice and create a website that explains the TPACK-based solution to the problem they have chosen to pursue to fellow teachers.

Description: The assignment was established to have you identify a problem of practice, use the TPACK framework to address the problem, and create a web-based experience that presents the problem and solution to your peers as well as explain the thinking process that led you to this particular solution as opposed to others. Hence, there are two goals of the project: (a) have students tackle a specific, authentic problem and practice and consider a plan for a solution, and (b) share their problem, plan, and the thinking that went it to with a larger audience (i.e., represent it on the Web).

Within the Web-based experience, you will need to address the content (i.e., what do you want students to learn and be able to do? What are the problems different students might have learning this content?), the context (i.e., what is the specific context? What are the affordances and constraints of this context?), the technology (i.e., what technology seems best suited for the problem? What this is the best as opposed to other options?), the pedagogy (i.e., what pedagogies will work best given the choice of content and technologies? Why this choice over others?), and interrelatedness (i.e., how are the areas – technology, pedagogy – affected by changes in one another?).

Examples of Student Work: Past students have come up with very divergent authentic problems of practice and very creative projects both in terms of applying the TPACK model to their problem of practice and their Web-based ways of representing their problems and “solutions”. For example, John* sought to address how he could help students engage in higher order thinking in an English class when students’ educational conditioning focused on memorization and the idea that an answer is either right or wrong. In applying the TPACK model, John initially began with searching for how technology could be a solution to this problem. However, John realized that because of this exposure to a Year 1 of a Masters of Educational Technology he already integrated a great deal of technology into his teaching. Hence, he concluded he needed to change his pedagogy to work within his context, with this curriculum, and with the technology he was already implementing (see screen shots below).

Another student – Dave* – faced a problem of practice of teaching photographic techniques but without the availability of a dark room. Hence, considering the context, curriculum, pedagogy, Dave concluded appropriate technology would address the challenges, such as utilizing Adobe Photoshop and digital photo printers (see screen shots below).

In the final student example, Liz* also arrived at technology as a solution to her problem of practice – teaching social studies in a why that makes it come alive and challenges just what is written in textbooks. Specifically, she chose to focus on Christopher Columbus for her TPACK project. Using an inquiry-based approach, Liz felt her technology options were limited, but eventually found an appropriate WebQuest which aligned with her pedagogy and curriculum (see screen shots below).

01Nov

The 60 Second Lecture

Abstract: Students create a highly focussed 60-second lecture on a topic in their fields along suggestions made in the context of online-courses.

Description: The 60 Second lecture is a trend that is sweeping through online courses (see this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education These lectures are gone in 60 seconds). As the article says,

“Take a 60-minute lecture. Cut the excess verbiage, do away with most of the details, and pare it down to key concepts and themes. What’s left? A “microlecture” over in as few as 60 seconds.” A course designer for San Juan College, a community college in Farmington, N.M., says that in online education, such tiny bursts can teach just as well as traditional lectures when paired with assignments and discussions. Skeptics, however, argue that lectures involving sustained arguments, such as literary analyses or explanations of complex equations, cannot be boiled down in this way. With these limitations in mind, the goal of this assignment is to create a 60 Second Lecture on a topic in your field. While boiling your topic down to its very essentials, consider the information provided on this page that lists handy tips for creating such lectures.

Examples of Student Work:

01Nov

Picturing Words

Abstract: This assignment asks students to define 10 vocabulary words graphically with a concrete image that captures the words essence, thus breaking out of the infinite regress of using words to define other words.

Description: At the heart of the assignment is an “old school” task: “Define 10 vocabulary words, and learn their meanings.” But, inspired by Michael Hughes (a CEP 818 alumnus), we are adding a “tech” component in that the definitions have to be graphics that illustrate the essence of the words. How about that for breaking out of the infinite regress of using words to define other words!

Gather as much information about the range of meanings of the word to be learned as possible – be sure to get a thorough understanding of the word in order to match it up with the most fitting picture. You will most likely have to make a decision between multiple possible visualizations of the same (more or less abstract) term, such as “eclectic,” but your choice should be a deliberate one. Don’t just go with the first image that “somehow works.”

Post your ten images to your blog – we will discuss your choices and those of your classmates in class/via blog responses, to see firsthand the range of possible meanings a given word can carry.

Purpose: This assignment works on many different levels:

1) Students have to truly understand the word to come up with an appropriate picture.

2) Second, engaging in this activity makes the words (which are often quite abstract) “concrete” in their minds in a powerful kind of way. There is of course an interesting paradox here. Words, these black squiggles on a page are often the most abstract form of representation – receiving their strength from this abstractness. The word “eclectic” for instance is a really abstract representation of the idea of eclectic. Making the word concrete in an image gives it a “here-now-ness” that helps understand its meaning.

3) Third, and the flip side of the paradox, the danger of becoming too concrete via images, is undermined by the sheer variety of pictures that students have come up with to represent the same word, which is why students are asked to view and comment on each other’s work via blog posts and/or in class. This means that students receive a rich range of possible meanings of a given word, and through that the concrete and unique nature of “an” image is broken down.

4) Fourth, the assignment brings a layer of visual literacy to a standard “old school” purely verbal task, pushing students to think about issues related to the strengths of visual versus verbal representation.

5) Fifth, and finally, putting it online means that this assignment and student works can now be easily shared with others (as Michael did with Punya, as his students do with each other, and we are doing now via this website).

Examples of Student Work:

Here are some links to work that his sixth grade students have done. Some of the images the students came up with are just wonderful[H1] .

[H1]Some of these links may need verification

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