Final Project--6th Grade Hybrid

Well here it is. It is hard to believe this class is over. I have really enjoyed the class. It has gotten me excited about the possibilities of elearning as we move forward. I am looking forward to the next class. Thank you Dr. Newberry.

Before I present my project, I received some exciting news:

“It is my pleasure to inform you that you have passed all sections attempted of the Winter 2010 Comprehensive examination for the Instructional Technology option.” In other words I did it :)

Now my project. This is a hybrid class for 6th Graders that will be meeting in class.

Final Project
Discussion of technologies (One/Two way, Media Richness and Social Presence as well as Appropriateness).

Motivation

      As I was listening to Dr. Newberry discuss student motivation on Thursday, I was thinking a lot about my class. Dr. Newberry discussed how people could chage up the format to make it so that the assignments are scaffolded and build on each other.  Students are encouraged to discuss ideas if possible in a chat or blog format.  Dr. Newberry stated that grading is very important for students because that can be a form of feedback.  I was intrigued by the breakdown of differences in classes by differences in content, differences in students and differences in instructor preferences.  That gave me some insight on how to help my new classes.
     In two weeks I am receiving a new crop of classes. Most of them will be 6th Graders that had a computer last trimester that focused on the use of Photoshop and basic computer skills. Many of them are GATE and have two teachers who really do not use the computer. The question I am dealing with is how to engage them and get them excited about using computers for projects. In the past I have created simple assignments for them utilizing PowerPoint and Movie Maker, but I think these students are past that.

     This leads me to questions about how to I get these students excited about technology and how to use it to share information. My final project is geared towards that. I think it is important to expose them to different technologies that will allow them to be creative. My project has the students be introduced to different programs to share what they have learned. All of these mini projects will then be tied together in creating web pages with links to what they have done. I was thinking about using Google Sites for the students to create the projects and upload them to the Internet so they can be viewed, but I am having problems using it and it would just be another headache so they will do their pages in Microsoft Word and save them as web pages with links to the folder. After creating the web pages with the active links, one of the first projects is to create videos to serve as tutorials on different skills as we prepare for the CSTs in early May. I am excited to see what they are able to come up with. By having a purpose to the video, I think the students will take off on the project.

     Besides the 6th graders, I am thinking about my 8th graders who have taken my class already as 7th graders with the same curriculum. How do I get them to buy in? I watched the 8th graders I had last trimester take the comfortable road by doing projects they did last year, so they were bored. How can I get them to take the skills they have learned and use them differently? My plan is to talk to the core teachers for each grade level and find out different ways that I can help them with the curriculum. After finding different topics, I will create assignments that integrate the different ways to share information (i.e. podcasts, video, Storytelling Alice, and Scratch) with students. As long as I still let them make their CO2 cars for a project, I think I can get some good results by assigning them different topics and they being allowed to figure out how they are going to share it. Honestly it is all rattling around in my brain as I type this. I still have two weeks to figure it out.

I am including a few links to articles that I found interesting this week as I looked for articles about motivating students. Take a look for some ideas.
Who is school for?
Making the case for Social Media in Education
Interactive Activities

Final Project (in process)

     This project is a basic outline of what I am going to teach my 6th Graders for the third trimester. I will have four sections that have some computer experience. This is a hybrid class in that I have the students 1 period a day in the computer lab. I am having them create a website that will link projects together to show as an e-portfolio. I plan to try to have them utilize Google Docs and Sites if possible or will have them create the web pages in Microsoft Word and save them as web pages. They will link to the other pages and will save it all in one folder on their share drives.

I am currently working on the outline, but thought I would share what I have now so you could check to see if I am on the correct track.  If you have a chance, any feedback would help.


Project Outline (work in progress)

ADA Assignment

Name of evaluator: Chris Fisher

URL of page being evaluated: http://southridgems.org/ourpages/users/Fisher/web/techcore1.mht

Explain your procedure:
I guess if I was going to critic anyone’s webpage, I needed to look at my current class’ page. I saved my page as an MHT and uploaded it to our school’s website so that you could view it. I am using Claris Homepage to edit the pages and had just changed from the Olympic page. This is a filler page for the week before we go off track.

List Any Problems Found:
Oh where to start. The colors for the page are wrong. The background makes it hard to read because you cannot have a consistent color for the text. The power point said to avoid red-green-blue combinations. The page has links that are hard to find because of the background washing away the text. The font is easy to read but some people would say that it is too small.

Explain How to Correct These Problems:
To fix my website, I would have a solid color for the background. I would change the color of the text so that it is something that would contrast the background such as white background with black text and red links. I do not use many animated gifs but I do watch to make sure that they do not flash or are annoying.

Assignment 2: Planning for ADA compliance.

Power Point – Using Dr. Newberry’s example, I would have the power point with a creative background and a plain background so you could select which one to use. I avoid using pictures as backgrounds because the colors bleed through. The font must be easy to read without many colors that make it harder to read. I stay away from animating the text using custom animations because it makes the reader lose focus and takes away from the presentation. There should be no flashy transitions. I like the 6 by 6 rule for power point slides because we run into problems with too much text on a slide or the text is either too small or too large.

Podcast- I create podcasts to use for my class at least once a month. When I create podcasts, I create a list of points that I want covered as I record. After recording the podcast, I also post a transcript of the podcast online to go along with it. The transcript would have a plain background with the text in black with a clear font.

I really wanted to try the third option but as of tonight I was having problems downloading the software for my computer at work.  As soon as I can, I plan to play with the Closed Captioning.

Annotated Bibliography

Hello on this Comps weekend.  I am taking a quick break from reading to post the bibliographies.  First of all I would like to thank Bill for keeping me company on Thursday as we prepared for tomorrow.  The articles that I chose focused on online assessment and how we can utilize them in our classes.  I'll let you know how Comps went after tomorrow. 
I am looking forward to playing with the closed captioning software that Dr. Newberry suggested.  I downloaded a sample video clip and am planning on putting the captions in on Sunday.  This one will be more for fun than actual instruction.  Stay Tuned.

Articles


Ketterlin-Geller, L.R. (2005). Knowing what all students know: Procedures for developing universal design for assessment. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 4(2), 4-22.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5xhz2x_10ftwfjtc4



Scalise, K. & Gifford, B, (2006). Computer-Based Assessment in E-Learning: A Framework for Constructing “Intermediate Constraint” Questions and Tasks for Technology Platforms. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 4(6), 4-44.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5xhz2x_11ds4r9sv9



O’Dwyer, L. M., Russell, M., Bebell, D., & Tucker-Seeley, K.R. (2006). Examining the relationship between home and school computer use and student’s English/language arts test scores. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 3(3), 4-44.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5xhz2x_12cx65znd4



Kim, D.H., & Huynh, H. (2007). Comparability of Computer and Paper-and-Pencil Versions of Algebra and Biology Assessments. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 6(4).

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5xhz2x_13gfw52kfg



Lawless, N., & Allan, J. (2004). Understanding and reducing stress in collaborative e-learning. Electronic Journal on e-Learning, 2(1).

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5xhz2x_14hr6c7cf2

Online Assessment

Hey all. It’s been a super busy week as I get ready for Comps next Saturday. Online assessment is a great tool for my class. I have played with OARS at our site and I like the ability to create a test and have my students take it online. It is nice because the district sets up the accounts so the teacher only has to print the usernames and passwords for the students. The students like the online format but I discovered that they still wanted scratch paper for anything doing relating to math. Of course then you have the issue that they do not have a pencil for the class. Leah brought up the issue of Standards in her blog and that is an issue for the core classes. I am “lucky” because I do not have State standards. I use the NETS which gives me some lee way. I have created OARS tests relating to the Language Arts Standards regarding technology.


I enjoyed reading the blogs on Study on the Beach this week. There were many great ideas. I liked the discussion on security but would probably avoid the webcam  Thank you for your responses to CSTs Online and rubrics. I have been working on my annotated bibliography and have been looking at several articles focusing on assessment in the classrooms. We are going off for 3 weeks and then will be getting ready for CSTs. It is always frustrating watching the students take the tests and know it really won’t affect the rest of their year so they shut down for the rest of the year. I like the idea of giving it right before the end of the year and getting the results back quickly.

Response on Assessment and evaluation From Study on the Beach:
What are you experiences with assessment and/or evaluation and/or grading in eLearning?


Face to Face- My class as it stands right now is a Middle School Elective. Students come in for a trimester to take a computer elective. Students are expected to complete projects independently by reading the instructions on web pages created for the projects. As they go through the ten day project, they have assignments that are due. On day 10, they prepare for grading, they open the rubric created in MS Excel which has them graded on days attended and assignments done. After we grade it, I record their scores. For other assignments for Sixth Grade, I create rubrics for the assignments that tell them what is expected and give them points based on completion.

OARS- Our district is currently using OARS for testing. Teachers are able to create multiple choice tests and print out scan sheets for the students to bubble in the answers. The scan sheets are scanned and uploaded to OARS where teachers can pull the data to class results. This format is used for common assessments and district tests. OARS also has an online component that allows a teacher to create a test and have the students take it online with a user name and password. Teachers are able to control when the test is available and the duration of the test. The teacher is also able to set up how many attempts the student can have. I have used this in my class where I give the students the user name and password and they complete the test during class. They logged in and completed the test. When the classes were done, I was able to print out the results and place them in the grade book. It worked pretty well. My next step would be to assign it and have them take the test when they have a free moment at home, library or class. Cheating can become a concern but at this point I have created basic skills tests.

Teachers are also able to create their own answer sheets for a test that they have generated. This is harder online because you would need to have the tests on a web page for the students to view and mark their answers. It would work better if they had the paper scan sheet in front of them to mark the answers and then maybe bubble in the answers online. It is not efficient but that is the only way I can see it being done now.

Moodle- Last term I started playing with Moodle. I had the students create an account and let them into the class. They were able to view assignments and post work. I tried several ways of grading and evaluating work. Moodle allows you to create online tests for the class. I have used Hot Potato to create web based quizzes for class and you are supposed to be able to upload the tests for students to take and grades would be reported into Moodle gradebook. I didn’t work for me last time but this is a great tool. I plan to try again.

I created a rubric for a power point project that the students completed and uploaded. The students were able to view the rubric and grade each other’s project based on a pull down menu on the Google Form. I saw the results on a spreadsheet and compared them as I graded the uploaded power point that could be viewed through Moodle. As I graded the projects, I was able to post the grade and comments to Moodle for the students to view. It would also transfer the grade to Moodle’s grade book. I did not like the Moodle grade book so I would have to transfer the scores to my grade book.

How will you address these issues in your courses?

As I think about how I would grade students using e-learning classes, I would focus on the tools available using Moodle. The program is web based and the software is all internal so you do not have to struggle with software issues. If I had a student turn in work, I would either have them use Microsoft Office or some open source software saved as a standard Microsoft format (doc, ppt, pps, xl). I may also look at Google Docs for the projects because it opens as a web page with the published link. I would create quizzes using Hot Potato or QuizPort when they switch. Moodle also has an online activity to create a quiz. Students are also able to upload their projects to Moodle to be viewed at your convenience. As the instructor you can create the window to take the tests or upload the assignments.

Moodle has a function called workshop that allows you to view peer’s projects and grade them based on a rubric for the assignment. Students are also able to leave comments on other student’s assignments. I have just started reading about It but it controls the grades, assessment elements, categories in a rubric as well as number of attachments expected and allowing for resubmissions. To get more information go to http://docs.moodle.org/en/Workshop_module .

I have long struggled with the problem of cheating on tests and plagiarism on assignments. In class I have the control of having the students take the tests in class with me monitoring it. I would not give that many points to an online test and the focus would be on reviewing what has already been covered. I think I would have a window of opportunity for students to take the tests. I would control how long the test can be open so that students cannot be looking at the book as they answer the questions. I would also not allow them to retake the test if they scored poorly. I am not sure how else you can control it at this point.

When it comes to plagiarism, I am currently using the poor man’s check. Copy and paste a sentence that you think is suspect into Google and it can tell you where it came from. It works for me now because my Middle Schoolers are not that devious. I know that there are programs out there that can scan submitted documents to find the references but it is cost prohibitive at our school right now. We do run into problems with parents completing projects for students but they can be pretty easy to discover.

Questions I posted:
I was just reading about assessments being used on line and was wondering if there would ever come a time where CSTs would be online? Imagine the savings in paper, scanning and a faster return of results. I know you would need to set up so that students would have a computer and a moderator would have to be going around a lab setting to make sure that students do not go to other resources or it it possible to turn off the rest of the internet and store the results until they could be all uploaded. I don't know, I am just thinking. We could also do the CAHSEE.

How do you set up rubrics for projects and presentations for your classroom? Do you set it up step by step like a checklist to see what it is done? Do you give specific things that you are looking for or do you use a standard one that is broad?

Created for class this week:
Test: This quiz was created to go along with a copyright lesson I use with my students. They take notes on the material and when they are ready, they take an open note test. Ok this one lost me. How do you make it so you can open up a quiz to the public after you have assigned it? I wanted to create the link so that all of you could do it but I don’t know how. Any ideas?

Link to Cyberbee: http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

Quiz: http://quizstar.4teachers.org/indexs.jsp Then click on cyberbee quiz



Rubric: One of the projects I have for my 7/8th Graders is to use Storytelling Alice to take one of Aesop’s Fables and take that story and retell the story using the program. There need to find a story that has a moral and flows. They need to take that story and make it into 3 different scenes where they show the story and moral of the story. Along with the 3 different scenes, they are to have the camera move to follow the characters. It is a challenge for the students but they are amazed when it is done and they have retold the story. This is my first attempt using this program so I am still working out the kinks.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1866963&

Ning---Week 5

 

Ning

http://elearningcertcsusb.ning.com/

    Ning allows groups to create an online community with the creation of members and groups.  Ning allows members to create groups which allow the members to focus on a topic or class.  The members are able to create blogs and discussion groups.  The site also allows you to upload pictures and videos to be viewed by their members as well as the ability to comment on them.  Ning also has a chat room so all of the members can chat or just the groups.  Since the site allows the integration and collection of blogs, discussion boards, chats, pictures, and video as well as the text, it is a great clearing house of the resources.  I have found that Ning is easier to control than Moodle in adding and controlling the media. Moodle is a great CMS/LMS but I have found that Ning is more friendly to adding text and multimedia.  The format is easier to view for the members and the links seem to flow better.  As an instructor, I have more control over Moodle in where I place the text and links while Ning just places the information in the tabs.  Ning does allow for one way communication utilizing blogs, discussion boards, email and comments and also has two way with the chat.  When you comment, Ning sends you an email to let you know that someone has commented on your post.  I would still use Moodle to teach my class but Ning would be a great resource to discuss the concepts and share ideas and resources.  It is a shame that my district has blocked Ning because I could see this being used at our school in classes.
     Another New Media tool could be considered Twitter.  Twitter is an online site that allows people to link to homepages and blogs and post 140 character messages to people.  One interesting way that I am seeing Twitter used by groups is creating hashtags of different topics that can be followed by readhers.  You are able to reply to the tweet or retweet it to get the message out to other people.  If you copy and paste a link, it automatically shortens the link and hyperlinks it. I am currently following people that discuss the new media technologies and how school could use them.  

          Last week I discussed the creation of document and presentation using Google Docs by 6^th Graders.  They would be using Google Docs to create and edit the projects between the partners using the collaboration tools.  While the groups would be using Google Docs to edit and publish the page, Ning could be used to show the published sites and comment on what was done.  What I had planned to do was have the students fill out a form that would have links to the document and presentation that would be shown as a spreadsheet that could be shared with everyone.  Ning would allow the groups to publish the links on the discussion board and have different groups to comment and grade the projects.  There could also be discussions about the appearance of the documents and presentation.  So Ning could work if it was not blocked by the district.
     Twitter would not work well in this instance.  You would be able to share the links and comment on the different projects.  I find that Twitter works too fast for a group to follow along and it does not allow for much discussion.  I think the students would be frustrated using this tool.  We also have the problem that districts block Twitter because of the access that people could have.  140 characters (even though it is like texting) is more of a toy than tool if used.