Gamification is something that I used mildly when teaching middle school. Kids dug the use of Class Dojo, as it made being on task fun and instantly rewarded. Class Dojo really helped cultivate a culture where collaboration and communication were honored, all within an easily managed phone and website app. In addition to Dojo, I would use an analog tracking system with stars (yes, those old school charts) that worked very well with my 6th graders who were enrolled in my math support class. As I have made the move to high school (and increased the use of technological fluency) this paper chart was transformed into a shared Google Spreadsheet that lists assignments that have been completed as well as those that are currently in progress (our gradebook could serve the same function but is bulky to for students to use).
As a math teacher, I have aways looked to games to increase fluency with foundational skills. Some sites that have been used over the years are Khan, Math180, Kakooma, Manga High, PBSkids and NCTM to name a few. Recently, I have been using games such as dominos, Yahtzee and various dice games with my small skills class to build in basic mental operation fluency at the high school level. When students start to see the "learning game" as just a game, learning becomes so integrated into the process. Noticing how students work with games that seem contrived in relation to those games that are authentic in their design makes a world of difference. Over the past month I have been experimenting with using DESMOS for their activities. This is new to me. Having used DESMOS for many years as a graphing app resource, I was delighted to see the build-out of their class activities. These activities are grounded in math and do not attempt to be "jazzed up" to allow students to try and relate.
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Our site has a major need for units that can be accessed independently, involves student choice, allows students to use new technologies and allows us as teachers to work with students one-on-one or in small breakout groups rather than lecture an entire class. Starting at the end of last year, I spent a lot of time thinking about web-based units that were big picture. The online programs our site has access to are not only difficult to maneuver but also extremely boring. Our students, most of which are reluctant learners would become frustrated with the online courses and simply not do them. The programs are very text heavy so literacy skills were a prerequisite to being able to access the content, which didn't fly for everyone. I knew that there has to be a better way to meet the needs of our students who might not be able to come to school everyday but still has the desire to keep pace and work towards graduation.
Transliteracy is a term that is fairly new to me, but something I have been working towards this current year. During this shift my goal is to create a product that allows students to access information and content in non traditional-ways and the ideas of being transliterate and tech flexible emerge. Picking the brains of students yields so much information. Often times I ask where they got their information from and often times the response is a video (through various platforms). Why haven't I created more videos in the past as a learning tool? Using Google Classroom as a base platform to present content allows the information and tasks to be accessed digitally, from anywhere. That is step one. But how do we put students in charge of their own learning? Transparency has been a word I have tossed around with staff lately. I want students to be able to envision the end product, to know what we are asking them to do, be able to personalize it and know why we are asking them to do it. A jump off point for our students was the idea of digital portfolios. Since we have been credit-based for the last couple of years (no grades are given) we need a way for students to show off their learning in other ways than just a number attached to their GPA. The prototype of a digital portfolio was born and what better resource to use than one that we has Cohort 14 are being asked to use, Weebly. Some concerns I have moving forward with this unit design is:
Tech tools are dope! Exploring new tools to create videos, lessons, assessments is exciting. I feel as if somebody unlocked a drawer filled with a lot of cool stuff and the more you play with one item, the more you want to play with others. I only wish my students approached the tools with this kind of attitude. I get it though, learning a new app, website or tool is different and if you are not in the right state of mind, different can be frustrating, irritating and annoying. The more tools that are weaved in and out of our lessons, the more students gain confidence and the more their skills with being tech flexible (transliteracy) emerge.
In the flipped classroom lesson, I knew I wanted students to preview content for our lesson on solving equations with fractions using Fraction Busters (yes, it is semi-algorithmic but a VERY useful tool nonetheless). Also, instead of completing a large problem set of fraction-containing equations, giving an opportunity for students to go deep with one equation allows students to write about each step and really start to break down why Fraction Busters works. The process went down like this. I first created a digital whiteboard video using AWWAPP (free) but after reading Jon Bergmann's writing in Flipped Classroom 101, I knew I had to do something more than just have students watch a video of me solving/explaining the use of Fraction Busters. EdPuzzle provided the technology for questions to be inserted during the video which I believe will keep the viewers engaged and focused on the specific aspects of the video that are important. As students came into class, the information from the video was then put into question form within our daily Padlet writing. This gave me a quick understanding of how students were thinking about multiplying whole numbers by fractions (yes, high schoolers need reminders of this) and the process of using Fraction Busters. The application portion of the skill came in the form of a task card created using Google Docs (hyperdoc) that ended in students creating a digital poster to post to our class Padlet as we concluded with a digital gallery walk to look at each others work. This process worked well, mostly. There is definitely (in my experience) a push against using videos to understand. Quite a few students still wanted to be guided directly through the process. When this situation arose, I gave my spiel, it went something like this, "The great thing about the video, created by yours truly allows you to have the flexibility to pause and think, go back to understand or skip it all together if you already understand. I wouldn't want to bore you with explaining something you already understand". Most students get his reasoning and will give the video another shot. If the students still have questions, I probe for specific questions on the process rather than just reexplaining what was in the video. Side track. Our upcoming unit involves having students create a digital portfolio using Weebly (much like we are doing in the Touro program) and we plan on using blogging as a means of getting students to write and critically think about relevant issues surrounding their community and selves. While scanning Start a Reading Revolution: Flip your Classroom with Blogs, I couldn't agree more with Brian Sztabnik about allowing students to write in their own voice to gain, as well as show understanding. I really have high hopes for this end of the year unit and like always I will blog about it when it happens. I don't know if I have ever thought so hard about how others make sense of information. Though, my last 10 years have been spent planning for exactly this. Listening to Punya Mishra talk about the landscape of education is both exciting and terrifying. I believe the root of terror is the unknown or the breaking up of what was comfortable. Wearing pants when you are that person who wears shorts 24/7, terrifying. Equally terrifying, creating a digital task card when your comfort zone has been the printed word. While these situations might be hyperbolized, altering what you have done previously is not an easy feat. In the math class, altering the mainly direct instruction approach years ago led me into a more facilitator type role rather than the acting oracle of the classroom. As my context has changed so has my ideas on technology, content and pedagogy. Talking with students about how they engage and how they best learn can lead to some pretty powerful discoveries. Seeing students show one another how to access information, whether it be digitally or not is flat out heart-warming. This context shift is discovering that information is no longer a commodity and being able to assist students in being independent learners is more important (to me) than any content standard. Mishra's image of the drop of water out of the faucet compared to the fire hose in terms of how information is shot at you is so accurate.
This is in my mind as I prototype. Can I create a product that can combine all these other tools into a non-formulaic approach to growing independent learners while engaging them in standards-based content? What I am struggling with the idea that this is not new. A quick search leads to many sites devoted to digital portfolios (some of them are pretty cool). Will the end user get a kick out of this as much as I get a kick out of thinking about it? Are students going to want to access these sites independently? Will these digital portfolios actually be used post high school? Will employers care to see a student created website the highlights their accomplishments? Will students value the design process, not just the end product? These questions circle my mind as I design and think and put a plan into action. Exciting and terrifying at the same time. |
AuthorHello, I'm Joe. Welcome to writings about my thought process throughout the journey of Touro's Innovative Learning Graduate Program. Archives
July 2018
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