Project « explore. create. share.

27Dec

Investigating new technologies

Abstract: In small groups, students develop a report on one of several Web 2.0 applications, their uses, and their potential for education. As individuals, they reflect and report on the application’s potential use they perceive personally for their teaching/work/professional website.

Description: This activity is designed to be done in two parts over a two-week period: the first with a small group during the first week, and the second part working individually during the second week. As will become clear, you could begin thinking of the individual part as you are involved in the group work.

In a different activity (“subverting presentation tools”), we explored how a pretty common software program (PowerPoint) could be used creatively. With this assignment we shall try to look at some emerging technologies. Each group will be assigned a particular technology (see below). Each of these technologies is part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Web 2.0 technologies refer to “a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways” (source: Web 2.0 article on Wikipedia). Here’s a presentation specifically aimed at Web2.0 for Education.

Research and report on the technology we assign to your group by due date (…)
-Cloud Computing (Writeboard, Google Apps, Zoho etc.): Group 1
-Social Bookmarking (such as del.icio.us, Furl, or StumbleUpon): Group 2
-Social Software (such as FaceBook & MySpace) : Group 3
-Social Libraries (such as LibraryThing & citeyoulike.org): Group 4
-Social media (such as the photo annotation tools on Flickr, Video annotation on Voice Thread etc.): Group 5

-other technologies (___________________): Group 6
First: Introduction to a specific Web 2.0 technology.
Your group should do some research to find out about the assigned Web 2.0 technology. Share and discuss as much useful and reliable info as you can, and then, as a group, develop a written report about it. This report should focus on the following:

1. What is the technology? i.e. what is it about? what does it do?

2. What is it being used for? i.e. what are the most common uses? what are some of the more creative and interesting uses? what are people saying about it?

3. Provide some concrete examples of this technology in use (links to sites, examples etc.), particularly in the area of education

Remember this is the web, so don’t feel like you have to create everything from scratch. Feel free to use quotes (with appropriate citations, of course), and links in an intelligent manner.

After you’ve put together this report, post a copy of it on your website. As you are doing only one report as a group, this can be posted on any or all of your group member’s web spaces, as you choose. A draft of this should be completed by the following due date (…).
Second (if applicable): How would you use this technology in your final project (here, the big Kahuna)?

The next step in this assignment is to consider the Web2.0 technology assigned to your group and think about how you could use it in your own teaching/work/website. How would you do it? Would it even work? Then write up your plan, format it as a webpage and post it to your work-space.

Note: Just in case the technology assigned to your group does not make any sense from the point of view of your topic please feel free to choose any one from the other groups. [You do have to stick to one of those we have listed.] Of course, you can get a quick refresher course in the other technologies by visiting the websites and draft reports created by the other groups.

Final versions of the group report and the individual reports should be posted to your websites by (…).

Examples of student work:

History of the assignment:

Suggestions for grading etc.:

27Dec

Key topics Wiki

Abstract: Students work in groups on an informative multi-tiered WIKI on a provided topic, working either in class or as a distributed work team.

Description: Students are assigned or chose groups of 3-4. Each of the groups will be assigned a topic (see sample topics for the courses CEP 800, 815, and 822 below). The task as a group is to develop a WIKI on this given topic. Students should think of themselves as being “experts” on this given topic who are introducing this topic to the other groups in the class via this WIKI. These topics provided will be relevant for the overall assignment (in the case of the original courses, CEP 800, 815, and 822 the development of a lesson plan) as well. The WIKI should consist of a series of pages, broadly described below:

A summary page on the front end of the WIKI that offers an introduction to the topic at hand. This page should address general issues of definition, categorization, broad themes etc.
This broad description should link to a set of sub-pages that offer an annotated list of key online resources about that topic. The goal is to not link willy-nilly to any resource out there but rather quality resources that could be useful to someone seeking to learn more about the topic (or sub-topics) brought up in the first page.

The topics (from CEP 800, 815, and 822) are:

Developing information literacy, technology skills (in students)
Meeting the diverse needs of your students, assistive technologies, particularly through the idea of Universal Designs for Learning (UDL)
Social and ethical uses of technology (particularly digital equity, intellectual property, and copyright) and healthy practices in the use of educational technology
Using Technology to Facilitate/Develop Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in Students
Using Technology to Engage in Professional Development & Leadership

Examples of student work:

Assignment History:

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

Cool i-Images

Abstract: Students choose a “cool” idea in their area and create an i-Image for it using open source or self-generated text and image that, as a combined product, create a “wow”-effect in the viewer.

Purpose: As teachers, does our own passion for our subject still come across? After all, most of our subjects taught are full of fascinating ideas that may get too little attention in the hustle for covering the curriculum. Therefore, “our purpose is to make school ideas cool. Cool ideas spark the imagination and stir our feelings. They cause us to stop what we’re doing, look more closely, share with our friends, and, perhaps, be forever changed. If an iPod can become something that everyone talks about and enjoys being with, why can’t an idea do the same?”(from David Wong and Regina Carey’s website ideasarecool.com).

Description: One vehicle for bringing out the coolness of ideas are i-Images. As David describes them, i-Images are “professional, provocative images that seize the viewer’s attention and, more importantly, spark their imagination.” They capture the cool idea in a joint form of image and text that synergistically create this powerful effect. See section below for some examples.

For this assignment, find a cool idea in your area and create an i-Image for it using open source (creative commons?) text and image (Flickr?), or text/images created by yourself, that, as a combined product, create a “wow”-effect in the viewer. To do so, go beyond the obvious and highlight some aspect of your discipline that is rarely consciously thought about but that illustrates the imaginative reach of the field.

Examples of Student Work :

Summer 2011

29Oct

Digital Footprints

Abstract: In a two-pronged submission (visual product and written commentary), students reflect on their personal and/or professional use of different technologies over a period of time to illustrate the evolution of different touch points with technology in their lives.

Description:

Visualize your use of technology over a period of time. You may choose to focus from birth – present. You may choose to focus on only your use of technology in a professional setting (classroom, work, etc.) You may choose a 5-year chunk of time (say 2005-present)

This assignment has two purposes:
The first is to have you take a step back and reflect upon how your life intersects with technology, personally and professionally. The second is to give you an opportunity to explore your creative side and to give you a chance to explore new technologies.

Inspiration and Examples

Here are a few blog posts to get you started thinking:
http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/2008-toolssitesextensions-i-use-list/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/01/2008-web-20-companies-i-couldnt-live-without/

When you are making your personal timelines, don’t forget about the detritus – the stuff that “fell off” your list or that you ended up not using – those things are important to think about too.

Here are a few sites that will really stretch your imagination:

Fernanda Viégas has done some amazing work in the field of technology use visualization

Mountain:
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/projects/mountain/index.htm

Post History:
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/posthistory/index.html
Edward Tufte is the king of visualization!
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi’

Information Aesthetics is a great site for data visualization

How just how do I expect you to this?

This is the part where you let your imagination and desire run wild. The beautiful thing about this is that you are being graded on an individual basis – it is not a competition among peers. If you are new to this – run up to the corner store and buy a new box of crayons – draw out your visualization on paper and scan in your creation. If video is your medium, make a video. If Excel is your thing, make charts and graphs. It is an opportunity to explore new technologies (Camtasia, videocasting, podcasting) or to push the boundaries of technologies you already know (digital cameras, PowerPoint, Word.)

Grading and Expectations

This assignment is worth 30 points and 20% of your overall grade in the course.

You will be graded on three areas which are fully articulated in the Rubric [H1]

Commentary (10 points)
This is the written part of the assignment where you articulate exactly what you have done AND what you learned about your personal history. Justify the time period that you chose and the methodology you used to create your visualization. Explain any new technologies or techniques that you learned to produce the product. If you felt limited by your skills, explain what additional skills you would need to do exactly what you wanted to do. Go beyond the surface and talk about how this reflection process made you see yourself in new ways or confirmed prior suspicions. (The commentary should be between 500-1000 words.)

Design and Aesthetics (10 points)
Don’t let this category scare you. It is included so that you pay attention to how form and style impact your message.

Originally and Content (10 points)
Don’t let this category scare you either! Emulating or copying the STYLE of others is completely acceptable – taking something and just inserting your content, is not.

Word of Caution

You have about 2 weeks to complete this project. Thus, keep your plans manageable. I am not expecting a 20-minute podcast or documentary film. Try to bundle things in a sensible sized package. Alternatively, don’t wait until the last minute! It will take a reasonable amount of thought and work to produce a solid product.

How to submit

Submit your commentary (.doc file) and product to the drop box below. Your product must be in a digital format (picture, video, audio, etc.)

Examples of Student Work:

[H1]Rubric would have to be made available via fresh link

29Oct

Create your own Manifesto

Abstract: This assignment requires students to look very deeply into their own professional practice in order to create a “guiding document” that summarizes (or visualizes) the vast nebulous cloud of knowledge necessary to do their job.

Description: Read the Personal MBA Manifesto at http://personalmba.com/. Well…now it’s your turn to make your own manifesto! This task requires you to look very deeply into your own professional practice and create a “guiding document” that summarizes (or visualizes) the vast nebulous cloud of knowledge necessary to do your job. Technical knowledge, disciplinary knowledge, management, organization, the list could go on and on.

Now, this assignment may not be what you traditionally think of as an “evaluation” but as you have figured out by now, this class is not about traditional thinking! Think of this document is a rubric of sorts – a statement that you must have certain bodies of knowledge to understand and perform your job.

We are all at different stages in our careers – and we may not have gathered all of the knowledge or experience necessary to perform our jobs. Your manifesto should reflect this. I’ll use technology as the example here – say you have a rudimentary understanding of how your workplace network functions, but you do not understand TCP/IP, routers, and the like. As technology leaders, this is something you will need to understand. So, I would like to see a networking book or two on your “required readings” list.

Document organization and presentation
I would like you to follow the format of the Personal MBA Manifesto (thanks to the creative commons license!) You do not have to stick to books for your reference materials – you can refer to websites, art, software, technical manuals, TV shows, movies or other media.

How long should it be?
The Personal MBA has 21 different organizational “areas.” I would not go over this number. I would shoot for 10-20 topics, with a handful of resources below each.

What is the thinking behind this assignment?
My goal with all of our “major assignments” is for you to create meaningful artifacts that live beyond CEP 815. I envision the product of this exercise as something you will be able to share with colleagues, supervisors or potential employers and as a document that will grow and evolve along with your career.

Examples of Student Work:

Take a look at the[H1] student gallery from 2008 to see examples of how other students conceptualized and executed this assignment.

[H1]Link didn’t work when I tried it

29Oct

Sparks of Genius – Multi-Media Edition

Abstract: Over the course of the semester, groups of 3-4 students are assigned two or three chapters from the book Sparks of Genius for which they construct their own “essential multi-media companion book” by interlinking their work with other groups’ coverage of different chapters.

Description: While the Root-Bernstein book is excellent, the limitations of its print medium are obvious. Examples are restricted mostly to text (with only a few gray images). The medium of print denies us the full use of the possibilities of the new media ecology we live in (a world of images, video, simulations, games, activities, resources all freely available online). Our task in this course will be to address these limitations.

This is a group project. Each group (each with 3 – 4 people) will be assigned one of the modules, and will be responsible for the two or three chapters that we review in that module. We will provide a basic skeleton for each of the chapters and your task will be to select more passages from the book, annotate them with online resources provided by your classmates. The may be examples, images, activities, movies, and any other media. For instance, when you read the book the authors may mention a particular work by Picasso. Your companion book could link directly to an image, an expert discussion, an interview with the artist and so on, in short, anything that can elucidate that item. Enrich the examples in the book but do not stop there. Find others. The authors give a list of additional resources that can be explored, but the limitless resources available on the Internet can be tapped for this assignment, or you can create your own and share them with the class.

Of particular emphasis in this assignment will be the interconnections among all of the class groups. The nature of this book is such that these interconnections can be made explicit (through hyper-links), and you will be asked to do so.

The multi-media multi-perspective examples that are provided make these ideas come to life in unique ways for both the class that provides them and for classes yet to come – see “Examples of Student Work” section.

The multi-media companion has two goals. First, it helps the students themselves understand the key features (key to them) from the course text. It is important to note that we asked students to post three resources. Often, students posted more than three resources in multiple blog postings. This exercise engaged the students with often highly abstract ideas. At the same time, it provides us with a database of candidate resources to eventually provide the best of the best examples to make these ideas more accessible to a wider audience or just more manageable for future student in the same course.

Examples of Student Work: When discussing dimensional thinking and modeling, students provided over 30 blog entries with multiple suggestions each for resources that explicate the concepts. These include links to doll companies (related to the text’s discussion of modeling the human form), research on a computer program that transforms 2D images to 3D, and a how to for building a scale model of the universe. Video of students modeling math equations with manipulative, games to practice dimensional thinking, and a comedic look at misconceptions about scaling, mapping, and perspective (key ideas in the text), were provided. Other examples provided were “a virtual ride through the work of Escher” and an article entitle “Chess, What is it good for,” among many more[H1] .

[H1]Leigh offered a gallery of screenshots to be inserted here

29Oct

Big Kahuna

FILED IN High | Medium | Project | Synthesizing No Comments

Abstract: In this semester-long website design project, students integrate links and materials for teaching a topic of their choice from a multi-faceted perspective, using the affordances of hypertext to create a teaching tool that encourages a cognitively flexible approach to the topic.

Description: After tackling a series of eight micro-design tasks ranging from writing a 55 fiction (a 55 word short story) to subverting presentational dogma, to examining how common Web 2.0 technologies can be repurposed for educational goals,students assemble the elements into the semester long project we call the Big Kahuna. This is a website design project, where students create an educational website that can be used to teach a subject-matter-specific idea or concept. An important aspect of this is that students create a website that teaches this idea from a multi-faceted perspective, using multiple representations and forms in order to communicate the idea chosen to teach to the website users/audience. Therefore, these sites are more than just web pages describing an idea, but rather explore other resources in order to represent the subject matter idea in multiple representations and formats.

It is important that students understand the value in multiple representations and their significance in this project, which is closely related to designing good Web pages. Different representations have different advantages for presenting and communicating information. For example, images may useful for visualizing, timelines or graphs could help to organize a chronology or a relationship, tables of attributes might be useful for revealing difference, or outlines could be useful for showing narratives in a holistic sense. Student sites might use all of these approaches, or completely different ones. By using multiple modes to teach about a single idea, students are virtually “criss-crossing” the landscape of their idea to explore the different ways it can be instantiated to the learner. In other words, in the context of learning, it is useful to have more than one depiction for showing different aspects of the same information. Ideally in a learning tool, the external representations are interlinked so that a learner can switch back and forth between them to clarify and deepen their understanding.

Examples of Student Work: Our students use most of these projects in their classrooms. The topics are wide ranging. For example: civil rights (screenshot)[H1] ; using the novel Damals war es Friedrich to teach advanced language students (screenshot); teaching fractions (screenshot); the genre of fairy tales (2 screenshots); and, exploring the geometry of bridges while building your own truss bridge (screenshot). The content, structure, technologies used, and pedagogical choices are all specific to the context of each in-services teacher’s classroom and subject matter. In this way, the experience is personal, authentic, and meaningful.

[H1]Insert screenshots if available

29Oct

Dream IT Grant Proposal

Abstract: Crafting an actual grant proposal for a particular technology in the classroom, students combine technological vision with extant theory on teaching and learning to make transformative learning in a particular area a reality.

Description: Originally conceptualized as the final project for the MSU MAET summer sequence of courses, this project asks in-service teachers to write a technology based grant proposal that is intended to facilitate transformative learning. They are asked to write synthesis of the ideas from the summer session to present how they would intelligently integrate new technologies to help develop students’ understanding in their subject area. In the proposal, students are required to outline the transformation they would like to see in their teaching and their students’ learning; indicate the role technology is to play in this process; and, describe how to measure the impact of this transformative technology integration on student learning.

The project serves two purposes. First, it requires students to consider the range of learning theories and technological affordances that can serve as the foundation of t grant proposal and present them in a unified argument for transformation teaching. Specifically, the notion of transformation scaffolds the necessary consideration of teaching theory, technology, and content. That is, students have to specifically address how the affordances of their desired technology would deepen student understanding (or address misconceptions) for a specific topic in ways that traditional teaching environment do not allow. Second, the situated nature of the project is intended to provide in-service teachers with text that can be used in a variety of actual technology grant applications. In many cases, ideas that resonated well with past MSU MAET students could not be applied in practice without the particular technology right in their classrooms. With very little modification, these final papers can be used for local, regional, and national grant to get that technology. And they have been used successfully: To date, five different grants have been provided to our students based on this project, ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

The emphases of our proposal paper have much to do with this success. First, by having the students present sound theoretical arguments for their technology requests, these proposals address the common shortcoming of technology grant proposals, which are largely atheoretical and merely speculate as to the impact the technology will have on teaching and learning. Second, our emphasis on using the concepts of creative teaching and transformation as core features of the paper make them appealing to grant making bodies as well. Just as the number one ISTE standard for students is to “demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology,” this project asks in-service teachers to do the same such that their practices will model and facilitate the same in their students.

Examples of Student Work: One student, who teaches K-4 emotional impaired students, sought to transform her classroom in the following ways:

The transformation I want to see in my teaching is moving more towards project/inquiry-based learning. This means I am giving less direct instruction and that students have more control over the direction the learning goes in. I will need to be more flexible in my leading of the learning focus and timelines needed to complete the project. I have not taught these concepts before or used LEGOs in my instruction. I will be learning right along with my students. The transformation I would like to see in my students will encompass academic and behavior growth. The skills and understandings I want my students to have as a result of integrating technology in my classroom are as follows:

I want my students to have a basic understanding of what a robot is and the capabilities of a robot.
I want them to gain confidence in themselves as problem solvers and learners.
I want them to learn the give and take, trial and error experiences that come with solving problems and working with others.
I want them to increase their knowledge of gears, motors, and programming.

Based on her proposal, she was award a set of Robotics Project Activity Sets to do just that.

29Oct

Understanding Understanding Video

Abstract: In this multi-level project, students devise a small-scale qualitative research project on their own students’ preexisting knowledge structures and conceptions that need to be taken into account when teaching and present key findings via a video and a website.

Description: In this project, we focus on how students come to classes with a large number of entrenched, well-developed naïve conceptions and knowledge structures. These structures often interfere with what they are taught in school. We ask in-service teacher groups to select a certain topic and document student understandings and misunderstandings of the topic through interviews. Each group is given tasks that together make up the assignment:

(1) examine prior research of the common conceptions or alternate conceptions of their topic;

(2) develop research questions and an interview protocol;

(3) select and interview a variety of students to demonstrate understanding and misunderstanding from different ages and perspectives;

(4) edit the videos and creatively incorporate them into one group video that will show a variety of people’s understanding of your topic; and

(5) create a web page for this research project that includes the relevant research examined, a statement of the group’s research questions, the video, and a summary of what the group learned about the others’ conception and misconceptions of the topic.

The project follows a very specific design process in its unfolding, in order to encourage the in-service teachers to do the same with their own teaching. At the same time, we emphasize creative construction of a Web-based summary of the project as well as creative editing of the video clips. The project highlights various affordances of digital video that make the final presentations more easily understood and compelling to its viewers[H2] .

Examples of Student Work: During past projects, groups have interviewed subjects in age from 3 to 17 on a range of topics, where shadows come from, thunder, the color of blood, and how people view money. Based on these interviews, a creative video is constructed to demonstrate the concepts of misconception and contradiction[H3] That is, it was clear that students between the ages of 2 and 7 were able to contradict themselves regularly in their explanations, a development the group determined to be an invaluable lesson for teaching this age group.

For instance, in the project about shadows, research into common misconceptions lead to the following strategies:

To determine various individuals’ understanding of shadows, we interviewed 8 people, ranging in age from 2 to 29 years. We not only interviewed by asking questions but we also had them draw a picture of their own understanding of the concept of shadows.

The questions we asked were:

Where do shadows come from?

Do objects/things have shadows all the time?

Do you have a shadow at night? How about in a dark room?

Can you touch or step on your shadow?

*Often additional questions were prompted based on the responses of the interviewees.

We then asked them to draw a picture showing how a shadow works. We gave them markers/colored pencils and a piece of white computer paper and had them explain what they are drawing[H4] .

[H2]Is additional information on how to achieve these effect available? (for people who are doing this outside of the current class’ context)

[H3] Insert screen shots here

[H4]Insert graphic sample materials here

Links to Student Work:

Digital Footprints

Create your own Manifesto

Sparks of Genius – Multi-Media Edition

Big Kahuna

LESSON ARCHIVE

DESCRIPTIONS

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