Author Archives: Mary Grant

The ability to reach more…

What evidence exists regarding anchored instruction? What are some important nuances of the research that are pertinent to your practice? What further inquiries or questions does the research reported in the articles raise for you (e.g. regarding evaluation, professional development, disabilities and/or the content area you teach or would like to promote etc)? Finally, in what ways might a current technology for math (Eg. Mathletics, CTC Math, IXL, Dragonbox, or others) address in part this question?

I might be dating myself, but I was the teacher who consistently rolled the TV and VCR into the classroom to set it up before my students came into the class. It was not uncommon for students to give a fist pump and a cheer when they saw the TV was on with the words pause on the bottom of the screen.  Walking into a classroom today, most elementary lessons, have an anticipatory set that includes some form of digital video to introduce or support a concept. Which could be from  YouTube, Discovery Education, Vimeo, other streaming application.  Barron, L., et al. (1993) suggests the use of video technology has the potential to reinforce context and facilitates active learning (p. 475). Moreover, video can be as good as an instructor in communicating facts or demonstrating procedures to assist in mastery learning where a student can view complex clinical or mechanical procedures as many times as they need to. Furthermore, the interactive features of modern web-based media players can be used to promote ‘active viewing’ approaches with students (Galbraith, 2004).

According to Alberta Mathematics Program of Studies (Alberta Education.2016). “Students learn by attaching meaning to what they do, and they need to construct their own meaning of mathematics. This meaning is best developed when learners encounter mathematical experiences that proceed from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract… At all levels, students benefit from working with a variety of materials, tools and contexts when constructing meaning about new mathematical ideas. Meaningful student discussions provide essential links among concrete, pictorial and symbolic representations of mathematical concepts” (p. 1). With class sizes reaching 25 or more at the elementary level, it is especially difficult to make an impact for those students with learning difficulties.  Hasselbring, T. S., Lott, A. C., & Zydney, J. M. (2005) suggested anchored instruction for all students to support the transfer of knowledge to a variety of math problems. The problem lies in differentiating these instructional videos to best meet the ability levels for each individual learner.

In my opinion, such technological applications like Mathletics has the capability to provide individualized instruction, simplified exemplars and informative videos to enhance math achievement. More importantly, the learning is contextualized through their engaging realistic instruction to reinforce the learning process.

References:

Alberta Education.(2016). Mathematics (K–9)2007 (Updated 2016)[Program of Studies]. [Edmonton], Canada.

Barron, L., Bransford, J., Goin, L., Goldman, E., Goldman, S., Hasselbring, T., … & Vye, N. (1993). The Jasper experiment: using video to furnish real-world problem-solving contexts. Arithmetic Teacher, 40(8), 474-479.

Galbraith, J., ( 2004), ‘Active viewing: and oxymoron in video-based instruction?’, Society for Applied Learning Technologies Conference, designer.50g.com/docs/Salt_2004.pdf

Hasselbring, T. S., Lott, A. C., & Zydney, J. M. (2005). Technology-supported math instruction for students with disabilities: Two decades of research and development. Retrieved December, 12, 2013 from Google Scholar as a pdf.

View of Teaching

Image source

I found Shulman’s (1987) view of teaching profounding enlightening; he stated that “teaching ends with new comprehension by both the teacher and the student” (p. 7). In other words, the priority of education is not just for student learning, but equally significant is the teacher’s comprehension. I could not agree more; teaching should involve presenting ideas that both student and teacher can make constructive meaning. Shulman (1987) argues that teachers do not need be expects of the knowledge, rather “the key is distinguishing the knowledge base of teaching lies at the intersection of content and pedagogy[PCK] p.15). This reminds me of a particular student teacher I had who had a degree in engineering and worked in the corporate world for several years before pursuing an elementary teaching career. They understood the text and it fueled their lessons, unfortunately they lacked the aspects of pedagogical reasoning. For instance, the student teacher had difficulties adapting and tailoring to the diverse needs of the students, did not allow for discovery or inquiry learning, and was not open to new understandings of the content. Clearly, this student teacher needs to do critically analyze their performance and the experience of the students.

This is one the first time I have seen TPACK during my MET journey, as it is an educational framework for understanding technology integration for both teacher and students. The central ideas around TPACK are; Technological knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Content Knowledge, as they work together to support good teaching practices. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006) “[argues] that the TPCK framework [allows teachers] to guide curriculum design and [helps] create conceptually and epistemology coherent learning environments. [They] call [this] approach learning technology by design” (p.1034). I have attempted to create a flowchart of my TPACK teacher experience, where students needed to use their persuasive writing techniques to create a video to support their agreement whether fidget spinners should or should not be allowed in the classroom.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. The Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.

Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching. The foundations of a new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1)1-23. 

Equal Contributors

I am currently finished revising my resume and cover letter, which includes my teaching philosophy. Moreover, it includes my technology philosophy, as there are countless reasons why technology is a key aspect of learning in today’s schools. I found that David Jonassen definition of technology to be similar to my own philosophy, where teachers should focus on being a facilitator of knowledge, and the technology helps the educator to specialize individual instruction. Furthermore, I believe technology will allow the learner to be involved in student-centred and project-based learning, which contributes to students to apply problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

As a special education teacher, Technology-Enhanced Learning Experiences (TELEs) should involve scaffolding knowledge for students with diverse needs and the technology is there to help the students complete tasks and bypass an area of difficulty. For instance, assistive technology tools such as Read&Write for Google empowers students to be more independent learners without the presence of their teacher and enhances the opportunity to be equal contributors with their peers.

Girls full STEAM ahead!

I am fortunate to be included in a STEAM cohort with my school division, Rocky View Schools. This community of practice group of teachers, teachers assistants, librarians, and learning specialists meet on six full days throughout the 2017-2018 school year. Additionally, Dr. Gina Cherkowski from http://stemlearninglab.com  and her team of STEAM specialists are present to offer ways to include highly engaging, hands-on STEM and STEAM projects like coding, robotics and Maker Education. It was difficult for me to select one or two individuals for this STEM interview, therefore I made my interview questions available to the whole group. We met on Friday, January 19th at a local school which has a STEAM lab classroom.  We began our day discussing Virtual Reality Animals cards and ways to integrate them into a ANIMAL DESIGN CHALLENGE. Thereafter, I was given the floor to introduce my questions, we deliberated as a whole then broke up into smaller groups to discuss it further. I made myself available throughout the day if anyone needed further clarification. Their answers were recorded in a Google document. For the remaining of the day we broke into groups to learn Adobe Photoshop for Educators, CnC Machine-Shopbot and reverse imagery with paint.

An ongoing conversation we have in our cohort are ways to increase the number of girls in STEAM programs. For this reason, I posed my questions around this topic.

  • Gender Equality- My interviewees believed that women have not been encouraged or felt welcome in these programs and less confident in their abilities. Traditionally, gender roles and expectations have an impact on career and schooling choices women have made. And some women are just are not inclined to take those courses or have an interest in them – their interests lying more in the arts. North American gender roles continue to dominate what is/is not appropriate for women. By high school, math and sciences become a “stereotype” and the idea of being good in science or math is a “nerdy” thing! And carrying over from the past, there continues to be a lack of opportunity for younger women as those who are wealthy enough to provide bursaries may “assume” this is not an area that would interest young women, and because of lack of opportunity for these girls in the past.
  • Empowerment-  One of the teachers explained when she took Engineering at SAIT, she was one of 2 girls and there was virtually no female instructors.It is important to have strong female role models especially in the engineering field and as more women are entering this field. Traditionally, it was frowned upon for women to enter these fields and women were often treated much differently from the men in these fields. By creating more STEAM opportunities for girls at an early age and encouraging women to enter these fields there will be a gradual shift. Another teacher believed that including “girls only” technology and engineering options in high school could peek their interests and allows them the opportunity to see what careers are available to them. She also felt having female teachers in the roles of higher science courses as opposed to having all males in those courses makes an impact to see that girls can do what they put their mind to it.
  • Exploration- Girls are tinkering with technology! The teachers have introduced coding with robots, scratch, micro bits, little bits, cubelets. Furthermore, some schools Furthermore, Coding apps, STEAM based building projects, ipads, computers with 4D imaging, 3D printers, SMART boards, technology-based diagnostic tools, especially in the medical field.  Most teachers are finding it was costly and difficult to come up with the new ideas. Another challenge, the time to build the curriculum the way they want it to look like in regards to STEAM.

A couple of months ago RVS offered a GIRLS STEAM day, where girls throughout the division were involved with hands-on, creative summer activities that enable the girls to explore different digital technologies, have fun while they learn new skills and make new friends. Another day is planned for next month. Here is a video clip from the first day.

 

Outside these four walls

Case 5: The clip is of a lesson on space exploration with a grade 6/7 split class. Includes Teacher A, B, C, and students reflections

Case 8: This video is of elementary teacher candidates learning how to use “slowmation” to model processes in science.

I chose to discuss the content in video 5 and 8, as they were the closests to a lower elementary classroom. Most of the these applications used these (Kid Pix, Stop Motion, garageband, Apple photo books) I have used with 7-9 year olds.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Teacher “A’s” interpretation of her experience with technology in the classroom, for instance,  she was “surprised to see the results but more surprised how good the results [were]”. This constructivism approach and technology can work together to aid this learning process. As Teacher “A” stated, learning with technology “promotes understanding “ and the enjoyment of learning transcends into other subjects. Furthermore, she found ELL students had difficulties with the language component of the assignments, but with the assistance of technology these students are “able to express their understanding other than written language.” I appreciated Teacher A’s ability to release the responsibility and to be able to coach and scaffold her lessons. She is very passionate about educational technology, and the many things it can do for education is apparent.

On the other hand, Teachers “C” and “B” were both reluctant to embrace the influence of technology on students learning. They articulated the need for more time to learn the functionalities of the technology and their inability and inexperience to troubleshot to help their students. I understand that some teachers harness this powerful tool for our classrooms, just as there is technology is challenging to work with. But some are amazing! Teachers can knock down the walls of their class and ask for assistance from colleagues and other students to expand our knowledge. As teachers, we need to model how to seek help with technology and discuss ways to troubleshoot.

In case 8, the elementary teacher candidates are already learning that educational technology is the tools that we integrate into classrooms as part of empowering learning. You can see the excitement using slowmation and they realize how technology can enrich the students learning in any subject area. They are first hand experiencing how technology can get more students engaged, improve collaboration, and most importantly make learning fun!

Access for All

 

Interestingly, I am writing my cover letter for my resume, in there I have included my teaching and technology philosophy. Here is my “vision” of good use of digital technology in the classroom.

Technology Philosophy– The future teacher should be expected to concentrate on the “facilitation” of factual knowledge that can be easily accessible by most students.  In other words, teachers are focusing on being a facilitator of knowledge, and the technology helps the educator to specialize individual instruction. I believe technology will allow the learner to be involved in student-centred and project-based learning, which contributes to students to apply problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

As a special teacher, I see how technology can differentiate for all learners abilities. For instance, Google Read & Write allows the user to hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting.  It also supports speech to text.

Ahmad, F. K. (2015) advocates that all learners should have “access to information, awareness, mainstream education curriculum, learning materials, assistive devices and the necessary support services can help students with disabilities in learning at par with their non-disabled peers in the common classroom, breaking down all barriers which prevent them from having equal access to quality education (p. 73). Technology allows for disabled students be engaged and empowered to be more involved in mainstream curriculum.

The challenges I face when implementing personalized technology tools is to find time the time train staff and students on the features of the tool. In saying that, school boards and administrators are beginning to give more time for training. Additionally, a few of the specialized apps or technology required further authorization from school boards to access them. Finally, sometimes I find these “new” tools become a fad or toy rather than a tool to help students access information or to communicate better.

Ahmad, F. K. (2015). Use of assistive technology in inclusive education: making room for diverse learning needs. Transcience, 6(2), 62-77

What are the sources of misconceptions?

The idea of the human mind as originally an empty vessel or a blank slate has a long history dating back at least to Aristotle. Over the years, this notion has been argued and debated by many learning theorists, for instance Dewey believed that two essential components in education are the experience of the learner and critical inquiry (Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. 1960). In the video Private Universe, Heather’s errors and misconceptions occured because she has the wrong or inappropriate generalization of Space Science. Driver et al.,1985 argues “experienced teachers [need to] realize that students do have their own ideas about phenomena, even if at times these ‘ideas’ may seem incoherent at  from the teacher’s point of view” (p.2). There is no doubt that Heather’s misunderstanding or interpretation came from another source which made an impact on her learning.

According to Cordova, J. R. et al.,2014  there are several affective and motivational variables that may lead to misconceptions.   

Confidence prior knowledge– “refers to a retrospective judgment of whether one’s current understanding of the topic is correct” (Cordova, J. R. et al., 2014, p. 165)

Self-efficacy-”prospective judgment of one’s capabilities to learn about a specific topic” (Cordova, J. R. et al., 2014, p. 165)

Interest– Situational interest is a short-term form of interest generally facilitated by something in a person’s environment.  Individual interest- internal, and long-term form of interest that is less dependent on an environmental cue being present (Hidi, 1990).

Role of learner characteristics– With respect to gender differences does account for a difference in learner conceptual understanding.

Knowing that students enter the classroom with the conceptual understanding of a topic, as educators, it is important that we tap into those understandings to reveal an inconsistency. Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992) researchers did an excellent job of investigating students knowledge about the shape of the earth. Unlike Heather’s teacher, these researchers considered asking questions about the topic before explicitly teaching the lesson. The following are teaching techniques to retrieve pre-conceptual understanding.

Concept Inventories

Concept inventories are multiple choice or short answer tests that target fundamental concepts within a domain.

Concept maps

Concept map activities can reveal the underlying structure or organization of students knowledge of a concept or constellation of concepts. These are very helpful when the kinds of causal theories and relations among ideas are critical to them understanding the course materials.

Self-Assessment Probes

Self-assessment probes are indirect methods of assessment that ask students to reflect and comment on their level of knowledge and skill across a range of items.

References:

Cordova, J. R., Sinatra, G. M., Jones, S. H., Taasoobshirazi, G., & Lombardi, D. (2014). Confidence in prior knowledge, self-efficacy, interest and prior knowledge: Influences on conceptual change. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39(2), 164-174.

Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. (1960). Knowing and the known(No. 111). Boston: Beacon Press.

Driver, R., Guesne, E., & Tiberghien, A. (1985). Children’s ideas and the learning of science. Children’s ideas in science, 1-9.

Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60(4), 549–571.

Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992). Mental models of the earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood. Cognitive psychology, 24(4), 535-585.Available in the course readings library.

80s Technology

Growing up in the 70s and 80s had many new digital advancements, I guess I am dating myself!

I was fortunate to experience many of them.

My walkman: Making mixed tapes!

My Typewriter: Always making mistakes and needing to start over AGAIN!

Beta Machine: Recording a movie, then accidentally recording over it! 🙁

In the early 80s, my very first digital technology experience was when my brother and I got our Intellivsion II! It was a Christmas present and parents had my relatives from the USA to ship it here to Canada! We were one of the first to have one!! We played it for hours!!

Today I am not a gamer and I have very few games on my iPad, but having something before anyone else still is a part of me. I am the “gadget girl”! I am the person in the family who always have the latest and greatest digital technology. It has also filtered into the classroom, where I am the teacher who asks the administration for the “techie stuff” and I know my students appreciate the innovating digital tools to enhance their learning.

Images:

console: http://www.8-bitcentral.com/mattel/intellivisionIIImages.html

games: https://www.retrogamer.net/top_10/top-ten-intellivision-games/

Let’s get the party started!!

Hello other ETEC 533ers,

My apologies for the late entry, as I was en route coming back from holidays in BC yesterday.

Skiing @ Revelstoke

Picturesque view from our cabin on the lake

I live in Airdrie, Alberta with my husband and 2 teenager children. I am a busy “taxi mom”; between hockey, track and teenager social outings! My teacher career has made it possible to participate in 3 teacher exchanges (2009, 2012, 2014) to Australia. We also took advantage of this opportunity and in 2012 we travelled the world for 6 months.

I have worked for Rocky View Schools for 18 years (already that long?!). I have mainly taught at the elementary level, but currently looking into teaching higher grades. I have taken the following ETEC courses, 500, 565A, 512, 511, 531, 565M. This semester I am simultaneously taking ETEC 533, 510 and 580 (self-directed project). My project is to work collaboratively with RVS to help students (K-12) be safe, confident explorers of the online world by integrating formal and informal learning environments. Most of my ETEC classes have provided me with exceptional resources and discussions on this topic and I have no doubt this class will be very beneficial for further research. I am also involved in a School Division Community of Practice on STEAM, which explores different technological integration. I have noticed some familiar names/faces in the introductions and looking forward to working with everyone.