Educational Grant Search

After searching through the directory for awhile, I came across two grants that I am very interested in applying for.  Unfortunately, the grant I am most interested in has closed for this year's applications, so I will save you the time and just mention why I like that without going through my follow up.  The one that has closed and I hope to apply for next school year is the NCTM Connecting Math to Other Subject Areas.  This grant would allow math teachers the funding to find better ways to help students relate mathematics to other subjects and fields (Hopefully answering the everyday question, "When will I ever use this?").  

The grant I will be applying for is the ISTE Outstanding Young Educator Award.  This award is meant for an educator under the age of 35 who uses technology in innovative and effective ways.  The award for this is a $1,000 stipend for travel along with registration to ISTE's annual conference and one-year membership.   I have been interested in educational technology since my undergraduate days, and I have been fortunate enough to experience and learn through through West Chester's Educational Technology courses.  I love to include technology in my classroom in any way that will improve student engagement and understanding.  Although I may not be the most innovative teacher out there when it comes to technology integration, I do my best to continue including it everyday in my practice in a variety of ways.  If I were to be lucky enough to win this, the opportunity to learn and collaborate at the ISTE conference would be invaluable to my future as an educator.

The next steps for me will be to prepare for the nomination and application period that will open up December 1st.  The main items that I will need to have in order are the letters of recommendation and multimedia materials.  I hope to have my department chair and principal or assistant principal write letters of recommendation over the next few weeks.  On my end, I plan to go through my educational technology portfolio that I developed in Dr. Penny's previous class, along with my history of digital materials that I have used in class.  Depending on the number of items and the type of items ISTE is looking for, I will try and select my most innovative and effective pieces to have ready for the application.

Screencast

My apologies for my voice in the video...I am trying to recover from a little cold the past week.  Also, I know I went over the 7 minute limit slightly, so I apologize for making you listen to me the extra minute...I hope you don't mind.

ADDIE Model: Development Phase

After looking into each of the different tools that were provided this week, the one that I chose to use for my project will be Edmodo.  Of the tools that were presented, I have only used Google Sites before taking this course, and although I like that resource, I wanted to try something new.  Between Moodle and Edmodo, I instantly sided with Edmodo.  As I watched the introductory videos, Edmodo seemed simple to use with a very clean interface.  Furthermore, there was something very familiar about the design of the course management tool...it looks exactly like Facebook.  

Not only is that appealing to me, it will undoubtedly be engaging for the students to be able to interact for class on an educational site that feels just like a social networking site.  The site is very simple to use and posting materials, comments, and assignments is extremely easy and quick to do.  Another key feature is the security side of the site.  As a teacher in this day and age, you have to be extremely careful how you communicate with your students (making sure you follow your district's acceptable use policy, get signed consent forms for communication, etc.).  Edmodo makes the security side of things very easy, and it is great to have this real separation between social networking and educational social networking.  Additionally, the courses are by invite only using the course code, so you can easily manage the members and monitor everything that is going on.

For my curricular project, the students will be investigating systems of complex inequalities and eventually creating interactive presentations of their own.  This project will have to be broken down into many assignments in order to accomplish the task, so Edmodo will make it easy to post assignments, deadlines, and grades for the students.  Furthermore, it will allow for students to ask any questions of me or their classmates as we are progressing through the project.

The first thing I will post will be the links and materials necessary for the students to gain the conceptualizations needed to solve these types of problems.  A great resource that I reviewed last week, was Khan Academy and the video tutorials that go along with that.  I will be able to post the videos that I find the most helpful in the best order for the students to work their way through the solutions.  Following this stage, I will be able to post assignments that students will submit for a grade based on the completion and correctness of their practice assignment.  Eventually, when they get to designing their own presentations, I can post helpful links and tutorial videos for how to use Prezi and Vuvox for the students to explore.  I was concerned at first how I could embed Edmodo into my project, but I quickly realized that its a seamless transition to using this course management site for my project.

iPad App Review: Khan Academy

The Khan Academy app is a helpful app that provides mobile access to the educational database compiled by Salman Khan.  Khan Academy is an online collection of video tutorials covering topics and concepts within many content areas (Math, Science, Health, Finance, Computer Science, etc.).

It is incredible how many different topics are covered in the Khan Academy database.  As a math teacher, my focus was on the quality of the mathematics tutorials, and it is really impressive.  The variety of concepts that are covered makes this app an invaluable resource for students of any age that need extra support with their mathematics courses.  Khan narrates the entire time that he is working, and many times the subtitles are included with the video.  The majority of his work is completed using a black backdrop (sometimes with a graph) and he writes with what appears to be a mouse or stylus on a computer screen.  Although it can at times get a little sloppy, the overall quality is good given the circumstances.  The mathematics he uses is sound and easy to follow along with.

When looking at some of the other content areas available it appears that some of the other material uses a similar display to the math tutorials, but many others are homemade videos with real recordings.  All of the videos are well done and provide great insight if a student was to use this as a supplement to their classroom experience.  Furthermore,  it can be a great resources for educators who need to brush up on old and forgotten material that they may be using for the first time since college.

A fun addition that I found on the app was the library of "Lebron Asks" tutorials, where Khan responds to educational questions that Lebron James asks (ex. "What is the probability I make 10 free throws in a row?") A great way to engage the audience that may not have normally used an educational resource like this.

In conclusion, I give this app a 4.5/5.  It is a phenomenal resources for students, as well as, teachers who need any support with new or old concepts in their classroom.  It is easy to use and very informative in each of the videos.  One of the only issues that arise is with the quality of the videos that Khan is writing with what appears to be a mouse on a computer.  Also, on the Khan Academy website there are practice problems that are paired with the lessons, and on the app they have not included that  reinforcement.  If they eventually include the practice to go along with the video library, this would be a perfect app for all of our students.

            

ADDIE- Design Phase

For this project, the focus is on solving systems of complex inequalities through the use of a digital tutorial.  Additionally, students will create their own student presentations of the process for solving the systems and share them with their classmates.  The learning goal will be for the class to increase scores from a pre-test to a post-test by a margin of 15% or more.  Many of the activities included will be completed through the successful completion of the tutorial, and will also be demonstrated through the completion of their presentations on vuvox or prezi. 

I find this method to be really helpful and somewhat surprising. You do not realize how much goes into the instruction of a single learning goal until it is broken down like we have with the action maps.  From the overall goal to the activities designed and the prior knowledge necessary, it is surprising to see how deeply you can dig into just one single concept within the large curriculum.

Curricular Project: Analysis Stage

1. Who is the audience?
• High school students (9th-12th grade)
2. What do they need to learn?
• Goal 
• Create an interactive presentation displaying how to solve systems of complex inequalities using Vuvox or Prezi online presentation software
• Objectives
•  Thorough and complete solution and presentation that can be used by other students to aid in their conceptualization
•  Effective and acceptable use of technology in line with ISTE NETS standards
• Peer review of classmates Vuvox presentations and their use of the technology
3. Create a concept map based on preliminary research
• Products of a series of brainstorming sessions, and are the starting points for the flow charts providing clear directions for the production of the product
4. What are the delivery options?
• Students will use a interactive lesson prepared using iBooks author in order to obtain the concepts covered in this lesson
• Student presentations will be completed using Vuvox or Prezi in order to prepare their interactive presentations to be shared with their classmates
5. What constraints exist?
• The main constraint will be the availability of the computer resources (laptop/macbook cart, computer lab)
• Time will be an issue with the already busy and hectic curriculum that we are asked to cover thoroughly (very limited instructional flexibility)
• Varying levels of learners (mathematics)
• Varying levels of learners (technology)
6. What will the students do to determine competency?
• Peer review of other presentations will be the main gauge for the conceptualization of the instructional goal
• Students will take a quiz following completion of the lesson, and a test following the completion of the unit
7. What is the timeline for project completion?
• The timeline will take roughly 7 classes to complete (90 minute block)
• Completion of Systems of Complex Inequalities lesson in iBooks (2 classes)
• Introduction and Exploration of Vuvox and Prezi (1 class)
• Actual solving of group task - system of complex inequalities (1 class)
• Prepare and execute interactive presentation (2 classes)
• Share and peer review (1 class)
8. What are the classroom/Web learning differences?
• The lesson will not be completed in our traditional teacher and student format.  Students and their groups will be working at their own pace to complete the lesson using the iBooks lesson developed 
• Internet literacy, ISTE NETS standards, Acceptable Use Policy
• Ensuring the proper citation of borrowed resources, images, links, information, etc.
• Monitoring full participation of group members
9. What are the pedagogical considerations?
• Instructions will be presented using a presentation tools (Powerpoint, Prezi, etc.)
• Refresh prior knowledge of inequalities and graphing coordinate points
• Formative assessments will be used throughout class to ensure understanding
• Quiz and test will be developed as a summative assessment of understanding

NMC Horizon Report

As I read this report, I was obviously intrigued by the emerging technologies of the mid-term and far-term horizon, but I was honestly most excited by the technology of the near-term horizon (mobile devices, apps, and tablets).  Although the augmented reality and the video game education is a fun concept that may certainly impact our futures, I am concerned a lot with the here and now, which is why I wanted to write my thoughts about mobile devices and their apps.

It struck a familiar note with me because I have used the same website that they refer to (polleverywhere.com) in order to formatively and anonymously assess my students understanding at the end of a lesson.  However, when I shared the idea with some of the other teachers, I was caught with a lot of hesitation and resistance by the vast majority.  One of the main reasons is due to our school's strict policy on students mobile devices.  They need to be out of sight and silent/off at all times of the day, and teachers are given (and many times excercise) the right to confiscate any mobile device they see during the school day.  Many schools have a similar policy in place, but to me it seems hypocritical and shows our lack of belief in the students responsibility.

Personally, I have my phone on me throughout the day and I know I am guilty of texting, emailing, searching the internet, and using apps occasionally throughout my day.  I use it to get information and communicate with others, and our students are even more experienced doing the same.  Also, in my undergrad and graduate college classes it is common to see everyone with their smartphones out on their desk or being used, and it seems unfair that we expect it to be acceptable for us in an educational setting, but not for a high school student.  Now, I am sure there will be some who abuse their rights, but it becomes a discussion of risk and reward with the integration of these devices.  Not to mention we already reprimand and discipline the use of mobile devices, so it removes that if they become an accepted norm.

There are so many benefits to including mobile devices and their applications in the classroom that they drastically outweigh the negatives.  There number of wallet friendly and effective applications is overwhelming to me.  New research is being completed (some included in the horizon report) that shows the efficacy of mobile devices in the classroom.  There are new educational applications and uses being developed as we speak, and to reject this movement is an injustice.  We have an avenue to peak student interest, expand accessibility, and improve their learning in the process.  It feels like we are delaying the inevitable, which I hope is sooner rather than later.  Our students have access to new information in an instant at their fingertips once they leave the school, why would we want to take that from them in a school?