ETEC 533 Inquiry e-folio

Networked communities offer a means of delivering quality science and math education for students in rural locations. I teach in a remote area of British Columbia in a school that is cut off from many of the amenities that are offered in an urban centre. Our population is quite small and as such our students benefit from close interactive teaching where their needs are recognized through extensive differentiated instruction. However, the remoteness and small population of our school limits our ability to offer a breadth of curriculum options (especially for grades 8-10) that would occur in a city centre school.

During my investigation of networked communities I discovered that there are many options for my students that offer meaningful science based learning experiences that they would otherwise not be able to participate in. Virtual field trips and web-based science expeditions, San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum (online), and the Intra-Laboratory Network (ILN) all provide opportunities to increase the quality of science education in rural and remote communities.

While perhaps not a replacement for real field trips, virtual field trips and web-based science expeditions could bring my students to real investigations around the world where they can view real photographs, chat with explorers, and analyze real data. I have many opportunities to take my students on field based trips in our own back yard, but the reality of taking them to the ocean, or to an active volcano site is beyond our most valiant fundraising efforts.

Similar to web-based expeditions, San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum offers an online tour of many of the exhibits they showcase in the actual museum.  I perused a link to Climate Change: Global Warming, and was pleased to find an interactive site that thoroughly examines climate change, and how researchers conduct their investigations. A teacher could easily use this platform to design engaging learning experiences for students.

An emerging technology called the Integrated Laboratory Network allows students to access and use specialized laboratory equipment through the internet. I am fortunate to have tried this technology through Western Washington University (WWU) where I ran chemical samples through a gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) machine. Without ILN technology I may have never been able to use such a machine unless physically present where the equipment is located. As ILN technology becomes more accessible, students in rural locations could participate in scientific investigations that they would otherwise not be able to.

I believe one of the paramount aspects of good use of technology in the science and math classroom is accessibility. These examples of networked communities exemplify this quality and have outstanding potential for providing learning experiences for students regardless of their location.

Stephen

Information Visualization Technology

Technology has enabled educators to draw upon a plethora of digital tools designed for information visualization where conceptual ideas in science and math (or any subject) are represented visually for students. This seems to provide a visual authenticity to concepts that might otherwise be left up to student imagination to provide a visual context. Many students may not be able to visualize particular concepts and are left with little to formulate an understanding of the concepts they are studying.

The Jasper series addresses this idea as it takes mathematical problem solving and creates actual video footage of the “real-life” problem. Students receive visual context for the problem and are able to “see” what is being described in the problem. TELE’s like Jasper that capitalize on visual techniques to provide authenticity to learning are similar to information visualization technologies that are available for knowledge representation of concepts in science and math.

I presented David Whizzy’s periodic table applet to our class as an example of an information visualization technology that can significantly assist students’ understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations (orbitals). Students are able to view both the nucleus or shell view of a select number of elements where the subatomic particles are visually animated. Considering the difficulty students can have with understanding atomic structure and electron configuration, this tool provides a great visual conceptual model.

In addition to cognitive affordances provided by information visualization technology, many of these technologies foster social discourse of conceptual ideas. Students can provide reflective feedback for student created visualization models, or evaluate the applicability of an existing design.

I have used David Whizzy’s periodic table to invite social conversation of the concepts and found it to be a great launch into meaningful conversation (e.g., comparison of elemental groups). In conjunction with a discussion of atomic structure and electron configuration, the periodic table applet can be viewed and manipulated by a group with the use of a projector. Students can request different elements to be analyzed and can also manipulate the interactive software themselves.

As with many digital technologies, information visualization tools can motivate and engage a learner by providing a visual authenticity to concepts, and can provide a relevant platform for inviting social discourse.

David Whizzy’s Periodic Table: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/a2.html

Mini-Assignment 2: Bryan Funk, Glenn Goslin, & Stephen Hawkins

March 4, 2009

We have identified that summative assessment can hinder the learning process for students. Black and Wiliam (1998) clearly state that these types of assessments promote rote and superficial learning, harm the learning process, and provide little reflective feedback for the student or teacher. Our technology enhanced learning environment will address this problem by incorporating assessment for learning strategies within the design. The design will ensure that the learning becomes visible with descriptive feedback so both student and teacher can proceed in a feed-forward progression of learning.

Our design is geared for junior secondary (grades 8-10) mathematics and science curriculum. We will utilize WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment) to develop a learning project involving data analysis and the environmental impact of climate change. Our goal is to develop a unit of study where students will analyze their own effects on climate change through an exploration of their consumption, waste, and contributions to carbon emissions. This cross-curricular project is relevant to students’ lives as it will enable students to analyze data and reflect throughout upon their personal environmental impact.

WISE’s pedagogical principles will enable us to address our problem, that of summative assessment. The four basic principles that guide WISE project design are “make science accessible for all students, make thinking visible, provide social support so that students can learn from each other, and promote autonomy and lifelong learning” (Gobert, Snyder, & Houghton, 2002, p. 2-3). Accessibility relates to relevant curriculum design that we can differentiate to suit individual levels of ability. Making thinking visible, by utilizing metacognitive strategies, allows both the student and teacher to understand the progression of learning. Providing social support, which is supported by constructivist and social constructivist theory, will enable students to learn from each other’s visible thought process (Gobert, Snyder, & Houghton, 2002). Our project design and topic will undoubtedly promote lifelong learning whereby students can continuously reflect on their environmental impacts, and will be equipped to manage various forms of data.

The WISE principles fit very strongly with assessment for learning (formative assessment) strategies. It is important that students are involved in the creation of, and have a clear understanding of, the learning intentions, expected outcomes and criteria for success of the work they are being asked to do. Assessment for learning will make the student’s learning visible and will enable both the teacher and learner to reflect and adjust the learning process. The learners play an active role in understanding and monitoring the scaffolding of knowledge and skills as they approach the outcomes. Students partner with their teacher to continuously monitor their learning and set goals for what to learn next. Students communicate evidence of learning to one another, to their teacher, and to their families at every stage along the learning journey, not only at the end.  These strategies will ensure that students are inside the assessment process, watching themselves grow, feeling in control of their success, and believing that continued success is within reach if they keep trying.

Assessment for learning not only provides descriptive and reflective feedback to guide the learning process, but also empowers students to control and dictate the direction of their learning. This also meshes well with how WISE is implemented, giving students the opportunity to follow their own path in developing their understanding. Purposeful use of AFL will enable students to experience metacognition whereby they engage and reflect on their learning experience. “Intelligent thought involves ‘metacognition’ or self monitoring of learning and thinking” (Shepard, 2000. p. 8). Black and Wiliam (1998) clearly state that formative assessment, in this case through a WISE unit, will enable greater student achievement and a higher standard of learning. We will incorporate computer adaptive assessment within the design so that regardless of instructional preference, students will receive regular assessment and monitoring of their learning.

The learning theory that we are utilizing in our design is social constructivism.  In order to construct new knowledge and understandings learners have to interact socially through conversation and in activities with other learners that may possess more or less knowledge and skills. Vygotsky (1978) believed that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition and he argued that the full potential for cognitive development in individuals depends upon the “zone of proximal development “.  This means that the necessary prerequisites for learning new knowledge and skills have been fulfilled. It is the zone where students are “ready” to learn. Ensuring that new knowledge and skills is within each learner’s zone of proximal development depends upon full social interaction. Through this social interaction, in the form of peer collaboration or teacher/adult guidance, the range of knowledge and skill that can be developed exceeds what can be attained alone.

The role of ongoing and descriptive feedback in social constructivism, when the goal is to assist learners to construct their knowledge, cannot be overstated.  Our design will utilize the power of computer adaptive assessment (CAA) as a form of AFL. Depending on the level of mastery of the outcomes by the student, they will receive specific feedback as to what outcomes they have mastered, and specific outcomes they will need to spend further time on in order to move forward.  By dividing the course material into manageable units or outcomes we are also able to incorporate scaffolding or assisted development.  The student will receive feedback and will self-assess on four key questions:

1.                   What am I capable of on my own right now?

2.                   What am I capable of with guidance and help right now?

3.                   What will I be capable of on my own later?

4.                   What will I be capable of with guidance and help later?

Framing these learning goals with “I” statements empowers students with the sense of control over their own progression. Our design, with the assistance of computer adaptive assessment will make our students learning visible so that teachers, peers and self can engage in critical discourse to determine the individual’s mastery of the outcomes and help to scaffold the construction of knowledge (feed-forward learning). The scaffolding of “what I can do” with “what I am not yet able to do yet”, within a social learning environment, is critical to social construction of knowledge (Pear & Crone-Todd, 2002).

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment [Electronic version]. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2). 139-44. 32

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper series as an example of anchored instruction: Theory, program, description, and assessment data. Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-315. 27

Driver, R., Asoko, H., Leach, J., Scott, P., & Mortimer, E. (1994). Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom [Electronic version]. Educational Researcher, 23. 5-12. 32

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 February 23, 2009, from http://mtv.concord.org/publications/epistimology_paper.pdf 48

Koehn. (2008). Together is better (BCTF Teacher Inquirer). Retrieved February 18, 2009, Web site:http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Publications/TeacherInquirer/archive/2008-09/2008-10/Koehn.pdf 53

Pear, J. J., & Crone-Todd, D. E. (2002). A social constructivist approach to computer-mediated instruction [Electronic version]. Computers & Education, 38(1-3). 221-231. 32

Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture [Electronic version]. Educational Researcher, 29(7). 4-14. 32

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment)

WISE is an online learning environment where students can engage in critical inquiry into various phenomena. It was initiated in 1996 at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus of capitalizing on the potential of the internet to create a novel learning experience within science (Linn, Clark, & Slotta, 2003). WISE utilizes the potential of the internet to engage students in a web-based inquiry approach to learning where learning becomes “visible” to peers, teacher, and self (Gobert, Snyder, & Houghton, 2002). This enables a feed-forward progression of learning where students and teachers can easily adjust the learning process as necessary.

The interface provides the students with a flow chart indicating what step of the inquiry process they are engaging in. Students work together and provide each with critical insight into their learning. Prompts are provided for students to reflect on their learning, and the process includes utilizing scientific models, simulations, and other computer generated tools.  There are many projects available from WISE that teachers can use in their classroom, or a teacher may wish to use the WISE platform to create their own.

Our design group (E) is considering using WISE to create a project that focuses on mathematics (data analysis), and environmental impacts on climate change. The target group will be junior secondary students (grade 8-10) and the project will involve direct examination of individual student’s waste and contribution to carbon emissions.  We are utilizing formative assessment strategies within our design that is based on the learning theory of constructivism.

I am really excited to be working with our group and look forward to seeing what our final product will look like.  We aim to create a project that we can actually utilize within the classroom. 

Linn, M., Clark, D., & Slotta, J.  (2003). Wise design for knowledge integration.  Science Education, 87(4), 517-538. UBC library: full-text available online

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 February 23, 2009, from http://mtv.concord.org/publications/epistimology_paper.pdf 48

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.  Full text available online at UBC Library.