Author Archives: wincherella

Reflections on Video Cases

After reviewing all of the video cases presented, there were a few things that stuck with me. The first one is that the more things change, the more the seem to stay the same. I was surprised to see that pre-service teachers had little exposure or teaching regarding technology and its use in the classroom, in spite of this being an important aspect of the need for 21st century learning skills, and that, when they were shown how to use various programs and hardware, they were still reluctant to incorporate this into their classroom teaching and learning plans. Particularly in Case 4, many of the teachers acknowledged the the integration of technology is important, and what they were learning was interesting and engaging, they stated that they would still be reluctant to use it in their own classroom because they were not “experts” and it would take too much time to implement it. I still find it odd that there are people who still consider themselves not “tech savvy”. To me this is like saying you are not math smart. Everyone is math smart and everyone can be tech savvy, it is a learning experience, not an innate talent. This tells me that there is not enough technology education for educators to allow them to feel competent about including this as part of their teaching. Many of the teachers using the technology in the classroom stated that they had educated themselves by taking classes, or learning from others, or just trying things out on their own. Many pre-service teachers seemed to be not willing or able to put the required time in to learning or using technology with their students.

Technology should not be used for the sake of using technology, it should be integrated as seamlessly as possible into the daily routine of the classroom, as a tool, not as a special event. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is impossible due to the lack of available devices. If a teacher has to sign out the devices well in advance it becomes a logistical nightmare to arrange the curriculum to be at the point when you can get the devices. Many projects require the devices to be available every day for most of the day, which is impossible in the sign them out scenarios. In a lot of cases, teachers will forgo using the technology and revert to older ways just for ease of use. This is one of my issues in the classroom. I would love to be able to teach my students how to use a variety of programs as the need arises, and as they would do in their future lives. You need to use programs, software, and devices for specific purposes and times. My computer is on all day with usually about 5-10 tabs open at any one time. I am constantly switching between programs and platforms as I go about my day planning, grading, researching, and creating. These are skills that my students need to learn also, but it would require a 1:1 classroom, which is impossible at the moment. This means it is very difficult to move into the 3rd stage of integration where students are using the tech to learn at their own pace. It seems to me that although there is a push from the ministry and school boards to integrate technology, there is not the equipment or training available to make this a reality.

The last thing that caught my attention was that a lot of the technology being used seemed to be older technology. In particular I was surprised to see Clickers being used in the post secondary classroom. I used them when they first came out and agree with everything the professor was saying, they do engage the students more as they are being made accountable for their learning in a large environment, it is easy to participate as they are anonymous in that they are numbered instead of names, however it is important for everyone to participate because you can see when someone has not responded. However, Clickers would be an expensive proposition for a class of 100 students, especially when there are programs like Kahoot or Plickers that utilize phones and personal devices to do a very similar activity. Of course, Clickers would likely be a one time expense and could be used very effectively for a number of classes over many years.

Overall, it seems that technology is advancing at a great rate in terms of its applicability to the classroom and the variety of programs and platforms available to use, but technology education, training, and understanding seems to continue to lag behind. I think that there should be a mandatory course or courses for the education of pre-service teachers in the use of technology in the classroom. This is the future.

Exploring Assumptions

Digital technology can be used in a variety of ways to support and enhance student learning, especially if it is utilized in a meaningful way and not just as an add on to a regular lesson. Having said that, there are many teachers who have difficulty figuring out how to use technology to enhance learning and not use it just for the sake of using it because it is there, or is the most recent initiative from our Board. There is still quite a notion that using computers in the classroom is only for playing games.  Although it can be viewed and used as a time filler, most digital technology is much more than that.

In order for digital technology to be effective it must focus on the concepts that are being taught in the classroom to build accurate understanding and reinforce learning outcomes. Depending on the purpose of the technology, it can be used as a way to activate prior knowledge with a quick minds on activity, or it could be used more fully as an introduction to a new topic. This could be accomplished with a variety of games sites, but it could also include a video clip, a song, a 3D model of something which could be manipulated to show different perspectives and aspects of the model, it could provide an interactive task such as dissecting a frog, or exploring an animal cell to engage and intrigue students.

Digital technology is a great way to differentiate instruction levels and abilities for different students. Many programs offer the ability to tailor questions or tasks to specific students. One math program that does this is Prodigy, which allows you to choose the grade, the strand of math, the specific concept, and the students to whom you are assigning the tasks. You could do the whole class on the same level, or you could assign different grade levels of the same concept for students with an IEP or who may be struggling and need more practice at a lower level. Technology also allows students to present their learning and understanding in different ways. Those who may not be comfortable presenting in front of the class could create a video presentation and have the class view that instead.

Good digital technology is user friendly, easy to navigate, and accessible in more than one place or format. I know my students appreciate Google classroom and Edmodo where they can find their assignments on any device and can access them without having to be in the classroom. No more lugging heavy text books, or papers that are easily lost in the black hole of their backpacks.

I think that our biggest hurdle as educators in this digital age is to teach our students how to use the technology responsibly and effectively. This is difficult as students still see technology as something special in the classroom because of the availability constraints. It would be much easier to integrate digital technology seamlessly and effectively in the classroom if each student was equipped with their own device in a 1:1 classroom.

Anne

 

Conceptions and Misconceptions

Watching A Private Universe (Shneps & Sadler, 1987) I was astounded that not only did so many of the graduate and high school students have misconceptions about the seasons, but also that they all seemed to have the same misconception. It was then that I started to question my own knowledge and understanding of the reason for seasons, checking my information by researching the question. The information that the students were giving about the reason we have seasons was logical and made sense given their initial information and the representative drawing from the text. I was enlightened when the video manipulated the drawing from the text from the side view to the bird’s eye view, demonstrating how the elliptical orbit could be misconstrued. I had never thought about this aspect before now.

Not being a particularly strong student in math or science, I have always felt that I would not be a very strong teacher of these subjects also. “Teachers cannot help children learn things they themselves do not understand” (Ball, 1991). As an elementary school teacher I am required to teach both of these and cover quite a quantity of concepts within the year. In science we cover chemistry, physics, matter & energy, and biology within two terms, which can be daunting for someone who made it through most of high school and university with little or no math and science instruction. In my early years of teaching I relied heavily on the science text books, trusting that they would allow me to impart the information and knowledge that the students were required to know. As I read the articles and watch the video I am left wondering how much my teaching contributed to some of the misconceptions my students may have had regarding science and math. Since then, I have developed my own knowledge through experimentation, research, and additional courses.  I have realized some of my own misconceptions and with that have been able to identify some of my student’s misconceptions. Now that I am much more competent in my science and math teaching, it is easier for me to seek out student misconceptions in order to design lessons and activities to help students adjust their thinking.

In a research paper conducted by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the relationship between teacher knowledge and student learning was studied, and concluding that student learning is directly related to teacher knowledge. “If teachers hold such misconceptions themselves or simply are unaware that their students have such ideas, their attempts at teaching important concepts may be compromised” (Sadler et al, 2013). These leads me to two questions: How can teachers identify their own misconceptions and how can they better understand and identify misconceptions of their students?

Confrey notes that “children develop ideas about their world, develop meanings for words used in science, and develop strategies to obtain explanations of how and why things behave as they do, and that these naive ideas cannot be easily ignored or replaced” (Confrey, 1990). It is important for teachers to be able to tease out these misconceptions by probing a student’s conceptual framework using direct questioning allowing them to develop effective lessons and activities to provide opportunities for students to discover new information and correct their misconceptions. Previous research on student’s misconceptions shows that student’s have difficulty assimilating and acquiring scientific knowledge if their misconceptions are ignored or not adequately addressed. One way for teachers to address this gap is to consider that an emphasis on identifying and remediating holes in the teacher’s knowledge may be more helpful for the science teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom (Sadler et al).

Providing hands on activities and experiments for students to work through will allow them to interpret their results as opposed to arriving at an expected result. Technology such as virtual experiments, could be used in a classroom setting where the resources are inadequate for real experimentation. Programs such as Skype can be used to visit high school or college labs and see experiments performed live and allow the students to ask questions directly to the teacher or students performing the experiment. I have done this with our local high school science teacher, who was very enthusiastic about participating, and the students were fascinated with the results. The key is to allow the student to discover the science in order to add to their knowledge and understanding to help dispel misconceptions.

References

Confrey, J. (1990). A Review of the Research on Student Conceptions in Mathematics, Science, and Programming. Review of Research in Education,16, 3. doi:10.2307/1167350
Kambouri, M. (2014, April 16). Teacher’s and children’s misconceptions in science [Scholarly project]. In ResearchGate. Retrieved January 05, 2017, from www.researchgate.net/publication/261639123
Posner, G. J., Strike, K. A., Hewson, P. W., & Gertzog, W. A. (1982). Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change. Science Education,66(2), 211-227. doi:10.1002/sce.3730660207
Sadler, P. M., Sonnert, G., Coyle, H. P., Cook-Smith, N., & Miller, J. L. (2013). The Influence of Teachers’ Knowledge on Student Learning in Middle School Physical Science Classrooms. American Educational Research Journal,50(5), 1020-1049. doi:10.3102/0002831213477680
Science teaching reconsidered: a handbook. (1997). The National Academies Press. Retrieved January 09, 2017.

Common Misconceptions

I came across this recently and thought that it was very apt for what we are exploring in the first lesson. It was tagged as “me in every math lesson” which corresponds to how I felt in high school math, and how many of my middle school students feel when we start a new concept in math or science.

I thought it was interesting that even when shown proof that they are the same, he still did not get it. It is difficult to dislodge preconceived notions even in the face of proof.

Coding Encounters

My first experience with computers as a tool in the workplace, was when I took a computer course at Sheraton College in the early 80’s.  Desktop computers had recently made inroads into the office workplace, and this course taught the basics for office use, such as word processing (Wordstar* and WordPerfect), spreadsheets, and programming languages such as BASIC and Fortran. I loved learning the tricks of word processing and this was valuable later in life when Microsoft Word became the default program. I also remember being completely baffled by Fortran, however, a little more competent at BASIC. I loved the way I could program the computer to do something I wanted it to do, but got extremely frustrated when it didn’t work because I missed a step in the command sequence. Fast forward to today, and I see similar frustrations and elations when my students are coding using programs such as Scratch. It gives me pause to reflect on how far we have come in making it easier for people to create using computers, and how similar the learning experience is now as it was for me then, and I wonder what programs or platforms we are using now that might become obsolete, and what the advances might be for use in the classroom.

Greetings To All

Hello everyone, my name is Anne Winch and I live just north of Barrie, Ontario. I am an intermediate teacher (7/8) in the Simcoe Country District School Board and have been a classroom teacher for 15 years. This is my 9th course in the MET program, so just one more and I will be done! I am hoping to complete this and be done by the end of this year. As I work with older students in an elementary setting (I teach all the subjects) I am hoping to find ways to integrate science and mathematics into other areas as well as integrating technology within the subjects. Over the years I have found many programs and ideas that have helped me move my teaching practice forward with this, and that have engaged the students in their learning practice.

Teaching is a second career for me. I am married with two adult children. I love to learn new things in different ways, read copious amounts whenever I can, enjoy the outdoors – both summer and winter – and have a variety of hobbies from oil painting to crochet. I am looking forward to meeting new people, seeing familiar classmates, and continuing my learning.