Evonne Tutkaluk

SKI describes Scaffolded Knowledge Integration.  “WISE is a web-based science inquiry environment designed to promote “life-long learning” in science.  WISE has been created by a partnership of classroom teachers, technologists, scientists, and pedagogical researchers in a US National Science Foundation funded initiative.”  (ETEC 533 MB Lesson 2 Description)

Process Questions:

• What broader questions about learning and technology have provoked this research?
• Describe the authors’ pedagogical design considerations that shaped the development of “What’s on your Plate?”
• How and where was WISE integrated into a larger sequence of activities?
• Analyze the evidence and author’s conclusions. Are the conclusions justified?
• What might be the cognitive and social affordances of the WISE TELE for students? Use “What’s on your Plate?” as an example to support your hypotheses.

 

Other Questions:

• What was the motivation to create WISE?
• In what ways does WISE promote knowledge integration through its technological and curriculum design?
• Describe a typical process for developing a WISE project.  How does this design process compare with the Jasper Adventures?
• What are some perceived limitations, hindrances or constraints related to WISE?
• How could you use a WISE project in your school or another learning environment?  What about WISE would you wish to customize?

My Experiment

I chose “Investigating Planetary Motion and Seasons-Spring 2011 Pilot” for my experiment.  I changed some of the wording on the intro page to make it clearer and I created a research activity about seasons and mood.  It was quite easy to create; however, getting the links to work was another story and as a result the activity creation took longer than I had anticipated.  I do have experience with HTML but I still found editing intimidating.

My Impressions & Analysis

In comparison to the Jasper series I just viewed, WISE has the ‘wow factor’ or ‘bling’ that the Jasper series just didn’t have for me.  I looked at WISE through a few different lenses: that of designer, teacher and student and I have come away with different impressions.

Through a designer lens, as others have noticed, WISE looks like and behaves much like an LMS.  I also had very high expectations for WISE based on the descriptions in the articles.  I must admit that I was expecting to see templates and more direction in regards to authoring and the lack thereof made me a little nervous.  Who decides: what’s acceptable to show online, should there be templates for lessons / activities, where (server in outer space?) is my activity / lesson saved, how long is it saved for, who has the ability to delete it, etc.?  As a designer, I came away with a few more questions than I had anticipated.  If I’m going to invest the time to create and build a project / lesson, I definitely want reassurance that my data is saved, safe and retrievable.  As a result, I immediately pulled out my Bates & Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS Framework to see how much fit.

SECTIONS & WISE

S – Students	WISE is designed with visual learners in mind (I believe).  As mentioned below in the concerns – I think many aspects of learners are not addressed: ESL, learning disabilities, etc.
E – Ease of Use	The interface seems reasonably easy to use for teachers & students (in my opinion).  However, editing could be intimidating as it only offers HTML with a visual representation on the right of a split screen and it may turn others off completely (also mentioned below in the concerns).
C – Cost	Open Source so Internet costs seem to be the only cost other than the TIME it takes to create and build the projects and activities.
T – Teaching & Learning	The types of instructional strategies and activities incorporated in WISE seem to rely heavily on content.  However, the Wise Projects that I checked out were well scaffolded, highly visual and interactive with different types of activities (simulations, graphs, etc.) and lots of opportunities for: formative assessment, making predictions, discovery, reflecting and jotting down ideas.
I – Interactivity	Lots of interaction with content in different types of activities where students have to carry out experiments, some by performing the simulations, but very little were specific to collaboration or community building.
O – Organizational Issues	WISE allows you (the teacher) to create a lesson or project from scratch or edit an existing project from a library list of ready-made projects / lessons to match your specific class.
N – Novelty	It has the WOW factor for kids as it’s highly visual but I think the wow factor would wear off if used too frequently.
S – Speed	Speed doesn’t seem to be a problem.  It is quite quick to edit and change things.

So, we can see that there are a few gaps in comparison of WISE to the SECTIONS Framework (most mentioned below in the concerns).

From a student lens, I think kids will have a blast going through many of the WISE Projects (Novelty & ‘wow factor’).  I know I certainly enjoyed some of the projects.  There are many opportunities for students to check their understanding with formative assessments (drag’n’drops, etc.) and specifically designed activities and simulations, etc. as they progress through the projects.  For example, with a few of the projects, students are asked to relate information to a graph.  If they misplace the variables they immediately see how it affects their graphs and / or equations that are supposed to match the scenario.

However, from a teacher lens, I see WISE as being an excellent tool that encourages a blended system of learning in the classroom and not a tool that is used in every lesson every day.  I really liked the library of pre-planned activities that I could scroll through and select the one(s) that matched my class’ needs rather than re-inventing the wheel.  I could then use the WISE Project already there, or even better, I could customize the project to match my class!  I really think WISE could be an excellent starting point resource for beginning teachers or teachers that have never taught the subject / topic before.  WISE affords the opportunity for professional development collaboration amongst teachers which can be richly enjoyed if/when they design/create/edit a project together.  For this reason, I can’t wait to show WISE to the science teachers at my school as I think many of them would be pleased to have a starting point or another resource, in particular a technology resource that could be used to cover some ICT outcomes that each teacher must incorporate into their curricula.

Concerns

Primarily, WISE is supposed to be based on constructivist principles but this is where I felt it lacked the most.  There seemed to be very little building or constructing knowledge or collaboration that are essential to constructivism, instead the projects are scaffolded and too prescriptive.

Secondly, I think anyone without any HTML knowledge would be quite intimidated.  I think that many teachers without this knowledge base would give up in frustration, quit trying to figure it out and resort to using a platform they are familiar with.  Personally, I find Google Sites and Moodle much more user-friendly and intuitive than WISE.  Moodle gives you the choice to edit in HTML or a visual mode.  I like being able to flip back & forth between modes so that I can understand what the HTML code is doing – I can actually see it and make the connections much easier than just having the only option being HTML or nothing!

Thirdly and similar to others in the class, I am hesitant of spending valuable time learning something new unless there is a real advantage.  As a result, I would opt for using what I am already familiar with (if not already out of frustration) such as: Google Sites, Wikis or even setting up a Moodle course incorporating a variety of tools and applications.

Fourth, WISE doesn’t seem to address or accommodate content for ESL learners and other learning disabilities (that I’ve been able to notice).

Fifth, I wonder about the effectiveness of assessment in WISE Projects as student thinking is embedded in many as part of the project.  How do we assess student thinking and metacognition when the activities/lessons are so prescriptive and scaffolded?

And finally, some of the projects have way too many investigations and activities (in my opinion) that would take way too much class time to do them all, unless some were assigned for homework or skipped all together.  Unfortunately with so much curricula to cover in high school, I can’t see teachers spending too many classes on these investigations.  That said, to overcome the time commitment of these numerous activities, I think teachers could customize the project further by reducing the number of investigations or activities by selecting the important ones as some may transfer over well to class discussion items instead of online activities.

 

References

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success, pp. 77 -105. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Gobert, J., Snyder, J., & Houghton, C. (2002, April). The influence of students’ understanding of models on model-based reasoning. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, Louisiana.
Retrieved Saturday, October 29, 2005 from: http://mtv.concord.org/publications/epistimology_paper.pdf

Linn, M., Clark, D., & Slotta, J. (2003). Wise design for knowledge integration. Science Education, 87(4), 517-538.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.10086/abstract

Williams, M. Linn, M.C. Ammon, P. & Gearhart, M. (2004). Learning to teach inquiry science in a technology-based environment: A case study. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 13(2), 189-206. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=16859055&site=ehost-live