Contemplations on my Multimedia Lesson Plans

To be very honest, this was the second lesson plan I have ever made, so I do not believe it to be very thorough.  In all honesty, I think that because of the situation of all my classes this was perhaps one of my most rushed assignments for this class. But, because of the nature of this assignment, I believe that in not taking the proper time to really consider all the aspects of the ASSURE model scrupulously that one cannot truly complete this assignment correctly. Although, I’ve taken quite some time to debate over the content of this lesson plan, I believe that I have spent too much time on pondering the content, and not enough considering the students, media, or methods I would utilize. In the following, I will discuss my thoughts in general on this project and perhaps how I might have improved it.

This project was geared towards planning a lesson that incorporated many times of media in order to enhance the learning experience of some sort of set of students. And, I think that the objectives of this lesson is plainly pointed out in NET*S standard II that states that “Teachers plan and design effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology” (“NETS”, 2000, II.)  It sounded easy enough, but when it came to the actual planning it was actually much harder than it seemed. Once I had gotten the content somewhat down I felt somewhat lost with where to go from there. How could I analyze learners that did not exist? Do I fabricate a class along with their characteristics and needs? I disliked the idea of fabricating the characteristics, abilities, and needs of my class and kind of wished it was randomly fabricated for us. I felt as if it would be all too easy to fabricate my class in such a way that I would have no big problems with teaching them. Although, it was fun imaging and contemplating the demographics of my class, it just felt unfair that I could choose them. So, you could say that creating a fake class was my favorite and least favorite part of the assignment, because after I had fixed the setting of the class to be as simple as possible for me, the rest of the lesson plan seemed simple enough. And, I will admit that I did not make an effort to make the scenario or lesson too complicated.

 If I had included students with disabilities that were a bit more complicated to deal with, such as ADHD or autism, I think that I would have to change my lesson to include a bit more creativity such as making a song or skit to demonstrate how to combine monomials and polynomials (Collins 2005 Sec.1-2). But, considering the content I felt it somewhat excessive to include such activities. Perhaps I feel this way now because the methods of my current math professors are rubbing off on me, but hopefully in the future my feeling will be more compassionate towards my students. I think that because my students in this scenario are fictional I cannot bring myself to truly make an effort to understand them. But, I feel as if, if they were real, I would make an effort to try to make learning working with polynomials fun. When it comes to using something like the ASSURE model, I believe that it should be used with a particular scenario in mind already, because you cannot create a customized lesson for a class that does not exist. Nor, do I believe that it’s simple to simply create one lesson plan and apply it to all classes. I believe that it should be fitted to each and every class, and done differently with each and every class. An honors class may do very well with the lesson plan that I created, but a more varied class may be bored to death of it. In the case of the more varied class, I would probably assign the skit and make a point to do a majority of the work in class, rather than leave them to work at it on their own at their own pace like I would let an honors class. If I wanted to challenge an honors class, I would probably ask them to make their own digital tutorials utilizing zooburst as a tool. For the more varied class, I would probably do a fast paced game with them.

All in all, I felt rather confused and somewhat flustered with this assignment. I had little problems with the lesson plan content, but I felt somewhat put off at the fact that I had to fabricate the class myself, because the type of class would determine the methods and media I would utilize with the class. So, because I could manipulate the characteristics of the class I kind of felt distanced and did not feel the need to challenge myself or cater to the students, since I had fabricated students that met my standards. Under more realistic situations, I am sure I would have approached the situation completely differently.

Collins, J. (Dec. 8 2005). What Are the 13 Categories of Disability For Special 

           Education  Eligibility?. 

           Retrieved November 30, 2011, from Ezine Articles website:
      http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-the-13-Categories-of-Disability-For-Special-Education-Eligibility?&id=1762111
International Society for Technology in Education. (2000). ISTE National
      Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators For
     Teachers.Retrieved October 6, 2011, from:
     http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2000.sflb.ashx

Multimedia Lesson Plan: Working With Monomials and Polynomials

Analyze learners:   

General Characteristics:

7^th grade class age range of 10-13 years of age

Total class size: 25

12 Filipinos (8 girls and 4 boys)

8 Chamorros (5 girls and 3 boys)

3 Micronesians (2 boys and 1 girl)

2 Asians (1 Japanese girl 1 Chinese boy)

Two students are asthmatic

5 students are from high SES, 8 students are middle SES, 12 students are upper low SES

5 students have English as a second Language.

All students have access to a computer and internet.

Entry Competencies

Majority of the class grasp the concepts of “terms”, “like terms”, “monomials”, and “polynomials”. The entire class has mastery of basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication skills. Some students have trouble with the Distributive Property.

Learning Styles:

8 out of 25 of the students are visual learners

5 out of 25 of the students are a combination of auditory and visual learners

6 out of the 25 of the students are auditory learners

4 out of the 25 of the students are a combination of visual and tactile/kinesthetic learners.

2 out of 25 of the students are tactile/kinesthetic learners.

State Objectives

The 7^th grade pre-algebra students will be able to combine monomials and polynomials using addition, subtraction, and multiplication and be able to accurately answer at the very least 18 out of 25 questions accurately in a time span of 20 to 30 minutes.

 

Select, modify, design Methods, Media, & Materials

Media Selection:

     Dry Erase Board and Markers

     Teacher created website

     Worksheets provided in class and online as well

     Quiz administered online

     Online Digital Tutorials and videos

Utilize Methods, Media, & Materials

First, I will explain the lesson in person using the Dry Erase board and markers. Then I will give some practice problems in class to solve in groups. Then, for homework I will give worksheets and assign a quiz to be taken online. Prior to this lesson, students have had experience accessing a website created by me that includes a text and graphic representation of the lesson that I taught in class, copies of the homework, and a link to their online quiz, which they will e-mail the results to me. Also included on this website are tutorials created by me that employ text, graphics, and audio. Additionally, I also link useful videos that demonstrate various examples and concepts.

Require Learner Participation

The students are able to retake the online quiz multiple times and are able to access the results of their quizzes each time. This gives them time to practice and review the concepts of the lesson. When they are satisfied with their score they are to take a screenshot of their results and e-mail it to me.

Evaluate and Revise

I will give an in-class 30 minute test of 25 questions concerning the lesson covered. In order to see if my methods were effective, I will see if a majority of the class get at least 18 or more correct out of the 25 questions. So, obviously if a majority of the class do not get at least 18 or more questions right, then my methods are ineffective.

Here is a link to a psuedo version of my class website still in progress:
http://www.wix.com/katie6711/mathclass

These are a Few of my Favorite Technological Tools ~

The following will be my assessment of 8 tools using 3 criteria. I will be rating the tools on a scale from 1 to 5 for each criteria, and a tool's final score will be the average of all three scores.

The ratings for each category are as follows:

• Efficacy

1. Does not meet purpose of tool
2. Some what meets purpose of tool
3. Adequately meets purpose of tool
4. More than adequately meets purpose of tool with limitations
5. More than adequately meets purpose of tool with little to none limitations

• User-Friendliness

1. Extremely hard to work with or extremely hard to figure out how to work
2. Hard to work with or hard to figure out
3. Somewhat hard to work with or somewhat hard to figure out
4. Not very hard to work with or not very hard to figure out
5. Easy to work with or easy to figure out

• Ease of Access

1. Very hard to acquire or access tool
2. Somewhat hard to acquire or access tool
3. Not that hard to acquire or access tool
4. Relatively easy to acquire or access tool
5. Very easy to acquire or access tool

The ratings for the final score are as follows:

5- Extremely Useful   4- Quite Useful    3- Useful    2- Hardly useful    1- Not useful

Tool # 1

What is Moodle?

(Video found from the Moodle main website (www.moodle.org)

My assessment of Moodle based on three criteria :

Tool # 2

What is Mozilla Firefox?

(video from mozilla foxfire main website)

 

My assessment of mozilla firefox based on three criteria:

 Tool #3

 What is Google Apps?

Google accounts is a "unified sign-in system" that allows you access to many google products and services, such as g-mail, google docs, blogger, youtube, and many more. There are so many features that are included with this tool that it's really difficult to really find any fault with it. However, when navigating between features, it is somewhat confusing; usually in order to navigate through features easily, one must already know where what one is looking for to begin with in order to really get any where.

Here is my assessment on Google Apps:

Tool # 4

What is Speech Recognition?

Speech Recognition is basically a speech recognition program that has been built into windows operating systems since windows vista. The most recent version of this can be found in windows 7 if one navigates to the control panel and looks under the "Ease of Access" section. This can be used to conduct task on your pc utilizing preset verbal commands, but is most useful in dictating documents. There are various applications for this program, and is a useful tool for people who are unable to use a keyboard or a mouse. Although some set up is required, and is somewhat tedious and troublesome to go through, it works quite well when considering that it came free with your OS (operating system). 

Here is my assessment on Speech Recognition:

 

Tool # 5

What is Zooburst?

Here is my assessment of Zooburst:

Tool # 6

What is Prezi?

Here is my assessment of Prezi:

Tool # 7

What is Voki? 

(message from the voki website's main page)

Here is my assessment of Voki:

Tool # 8

What is Windows Live Messenger?

Windows Live Messegner is an instant messaging client that provides not only instant text messages sent via web, but also as text messages to user's cellular phones. It also includes audio chatting and video chatting services. It can also send documents, and allows you to share photos simply by dragging them into the chat window. It is attached to an e-mail (whether it be hotmail or others) and will notify you immediately of new e-mails. This is a very useful tool for communicating with others via internet. 

Here is my assessment of Windows Live Messenger:

 

Digital Safety Awakening

I have only had constant internet access for the last two years or so, so I have not had a lot of experience with many things online, however, I have had some experience with a good portion of the topics covered (such as with my topic of phishing and farming and some cyber bullying issues).  However, there were a few things that I felt were odd about the way that the topics that were presented and the relevancy of the topics themselves. So, in the following I will discuss what I think needs improvement in terms of the presentations and I will also address how I would teach my future students about keeping themselves safe on the internet, and lastly I will describe how I felt about the assignment itself.

 I was legitimately shocked at how much I learned as a result of this project and from the other presentations as well. However, I felt as if the order in which they should have been presented should be switched around so that the flow of topics could make more sense.  I believe we went from Textual Harassment and Sexting to Digital Safety and Privacy to Pharming and Phishing to Fair User Practices (FUP) and Copyright Issues, and ended with Cyber Bullying. I know that order seems a trivial thing, but I believe that they should have been ordered in such a way that they could build upon each other. It felt like we were just jumping around topics. If we were presenting these topics with the intention of teaching an audience about these issues, I believe that presenting them in a coherent order is important. Otherwise, the information might be hard to process all at once.

If I were to teach this to my students in the future, I think that I would probably teach them the topics in this order: Digital Safety and Privacy, Phishing and Pharming, Cyber Bullying, and Textual Harassment and Sexting. In terms of presentation tools, I’d like to use prezi and make it an interactive presentation and assignment as well. However, I don’t believe I would go into all these topics in the same day. I would probably section it off to one or two topics a day, and only combine topics that are similar to each other. I would probably not include the copy right issues, but would address them later under a different context because I feel as if those issues are in a completely different category from digital safety.

I felt that while the Fair User Practices (FUP) and Copyright Issues were important to address, this particular topic did not feel relevant. I felt as if the theme of most of the presentations was about keeping you safe online, but I did not feel as if this topic resonated the same theme. It felt more like something that you should be wary of, rather than something to protect yourself from. Perhaps it may have been just because of the way that the group presented the topic; they just explained what fair use practices (FUP) are and pointed out some copyright issues. But, I wish that they illustrated the consequences of not adhering to the copyright law or fair user practices. Maybe if they had emphasized the consequences, I would feel more urgency.

Also, although they mentioned what actions constituted as a violation of these laws, I wish that they illustrated some big examples of these infractions. I remember in my introduction to mass communications class, when it came to this issue the textbook mentioned “Peer to Peer” file sharing, which are sites where people share files of everything, whether it be their intellectual property to share. In terms of this topic, I felt as if addressing these sorts of sites is important because the people who typically run these sites are typically very smug about finding a way around copy right laws. I feel so strongly about this that below I’ve included a link to statements from a very popular sharing site called the Pirate Bay. They have been accused of breaking copy right laws and they blatantly mock it. They’ve compiled e-mails they’ve received from various companies concerning the distribution of their material and included their responses. They have also been raided by the Swedish and American government, but somehow have survived the ordeal basically unscathed.

 

Stats from the The Pirate Bay

Here is their About Section.

Here is where they compiled threatening e-mails and their responses.

Here is their website for the documentary they made “Steal this Film”

In terms of the other topics, I wanted to mention that I particularly enjoyed the textual harassment group’s interview with BJ Cruz. I like the fact that they looked at their topic from a local perspective and illuminated that there are local laws concerning this issue. I had no idea that we even addressed issues like this, so this was a pleasant surprise. However, it is sad that although it has been put into law, it is not being enforced.

I felt as if this group project was slightly easier to do, compared to the last one, because this time I knew who I was working with. Unfortunately, the workload was not equal ( I had set up the prezi, did the content research and e-mailed it to everyone in the group, wrote half the information on the prezi, and put together 2 out of the 3 activities at the end. Jem did the videos (edited, voice acted, and edited the original script) and wrote the other half of the information on the prezi. Cathleen helped voice act the video scenes, and Roque did the short quiz at the end.), but at the very least the presentation came out much better than our first one. It was hard meeting up, even on the internet, but luckily with prezi we (Jem and I) were able to edit it separately and concurrently. Google chat and cellphone texting was our main means of communication in addition to e-mails. If I could change anything about this assignment, I would change it from a group project to an individual project, because it seems to me that whenever there’s a group project (perhaps this only relevant to my experiences) only really one or two people do the work. What I would also change is perhaps point out specifically which concepts concerning each topic should be mentioned in order to illustrate their importance.

Overall, I feel like these presentations were very informative and changed how I will now go about using the internet. In the past, I think that I had been quite careless with my information, but luckily I have not been attacked in anyway yet. I think that just the one topic I mentioned is the only topic that I felt somewhat irrelevant in this context and should be considered as something else completely all on its own.  It’s something that I feel very important to address, so here I’d like to share a song by Weird Al concerning this issue and part 1 of the documentary mentioned above.

Steal This Film part 1 (it may contain some cussing. I haven't watched it completely through)

My Reaction to Enabling Dreams

To be honest, I do not have much experience with students with disabilities. I have had maybe only one or two encounters, so I am not very familiar with what it’s like to have them in a classroom, but I can imagine it’s not easy for them to integrate with other students in a normal classroom. And, it might be a bit difficult for the teacher to be able to cater to their specific needs as well. However, the video Enabling Dreams made me aware of the aid available to help improve the experience for these students to the point where they are on somewhat level ground with a normal student. And, like so many people, I was completely unaware that such aid was available. I have not seen nor heard of such aid being utilized in the Guam schooling system, but that could possibly be attributed to my limited experience and exposure to students in such situations. However, if these assistive technologies were being utilized, I’m sure that students that normally would have been segregated and neglected because of their disability would have the opportunity to actively participate in class in a way they were unable to before. In the following, I will attempt to explain how assistive technology should be applied to a classroom, what to consider for my lessons when taking a student with disability into consideration, and my experiences with assistive technology in general. 

Although I am not aware of many disabilities, I believe that typically, students with disabilities have difficulty with communicating in a way that’s coherent to other people. So, I think that one of the best ways to incorporate a student with disabilities in a classroom is to plan lesson plans that call for a lot of activities that call for feedback from the students.  With the help of assistive technology, it will enable such students to communicate with not only the teacher, but with their peers as well. This communication is very important because it lets the teacher know where they are in a lesson, and what they may need help with. Also, this allows the disabled student to become more sociable with their peers. In the video, this was demonstrated in some of the clips where the teacher would personally talk to the disabled student. 

If I were to adjust one of my lesson plans to include a student with disabilities, I would have to first evaluate what exactly the student’s capabilities are, and plan around that. With their abilities in mind, I would try to appeal to whatever they were most capable of, or something that they are capable of but still somewhat struggling with perfecting. And, to assess whether or not an activity is appropriate, I would ask myself questions like, “Is the student capable of doing the task? Is the student being challenged? Is it too challenging, or not challenging enough? Are the goals expected from this activity realistic considering the student’s capabilities? Will the student enjoy the activity? Will the student learn and retain information?”, and try to use the assistive technology in such a way that caters to their needs (“NETS”, 2000, III. B). However, I know that usually if you have a disabled student in your class, you are typically given a report on the details of their disability and a “Letter of Accommodation” on how you should accommodate them, so this is also something that I would also take into consideration (“Responsibilities of Instructor” para. 1). 

Like I stated above, I do not have much personal experience in terms of dealing with a disabled person, let alone dealing with one in an educational situation requiring assistive technology. So, I can’t really say that from first-hand experience that I know for sure that using assistive technology will improve their educational experience, but I do know that does not matter. Anything that can help anyone is always better to have. And, I think that it goes without saying that many people do need assistive technology in order to do what is difficult for them, but second nature to others. I do have some experience with assistive technology in general, just not in terms of education. I once spent a winter break with a friend of mine in Seattle, and his dad was disabled. He was partially blind and had a foot condition that prevented him from walking easily. He utilized a power chair to move around, and it was a huge help for him.  It enabled him to be a bit more independent; he was able to do things for himself, like cook food and clean. This was very important to him because he was a very independent man that always wanted to do things for himself. Even though he was in a position where he had to rely on his son to certain extent, such as helping him with his machines and dialysis treatments, he was able to still do things for himself. In this instance, assistive technology improved his quality of life. And, I’m sure the same applies to assistive technology in terms of education. It enables those students that many may have previously believed unable to do anything for themselves, and allows them the ability to prove what they are truly capable of. 

In this reflection, I know that I was rather vague, but this is due to the fact that I really do not have much experience with this particular situation/ topic. However, I do have a good idea of what I should do when I find that I am a teacher with a student that has disability. However, although I may struggle a bit adjusting to the student and trying to find a good pace for them without trying to be too lenient on them, I will know how to provide aid to the student to improve their experience in my class. I haven’t had much experience of this yet, but I’m sure that in the future I will encounter it and hopefully, at that time, I will be able to help those students. 

International Society for Technology in Education. (2000). ISTE National
      Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators For
     Teachers.Retrieved October 6, 2011 from:
     http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2000.sflb.ashx  

Summer, Caroline. (2011, September).  Responsibilities of the Instructor. Retrieved
     October 5, 2011, from Disabled Students' Program:

     http://dsp.berkeley.edu/TeachStudentsWithDisab.html

Looking Back on the Online Educational Game Project

This group project was not the best experience, but it was not wholly a negative one either. During the entirety of the project process I would have to say that I have gained a lot of experience in terms of new technology and dealing with different kinds of people. This project was centered on creating a rubric to assess an online game that our group found educational. Although, the task that we were assigned seemed simple enough our group had quite a bit of trouble completing the task. In the following, I will describe the process we went through when devising our group's rubric, the efficacy of the game in general and in terms of my content area.

For our group it seemed a bit difficult for everyone to agree on whether the rubric should be in general or catered specifically to our game. Unfortunately, in the end our group ended up with two rubrics, but the less specific rubrics was turned in. In terms of the criteria, we had a relatively easy time agreeing on what to include, with the exception of one criterion. We had decided on four basic criteria to consider in assessing the educational game: Interaction, Creative Appeal, Progression, and Educational Value. We derived these criteria from what we thought were the best aspects of our game. In the less detailed rubric this was blatantly apparent. Actually, these aspects and their corresponding components in the game are listed in that version of our rubrics. In the second rubrics we incorporated the same criteria, but in a more generalized way so that they may be applied to other games as well. Also, in the second rubrics, we tried to describe exactly what a high or low score in each criterion would entail. I am not satisfied with the rubrics that we turned in, but I do believe that the aspects addressed in both rubrics were appropriate even if they were not completely comprehensive.

The game that we chose was Bookworm, and to be honest, initially I was skeptical about the efficacy of this game. Perhaps, this is because I have seen a copious amount of similar games proliferated throughout the internet. Its only redeeming quality was the fact that it would occasionally give definitions to the words that you spelled, which I found good for expanding vocabulary. It seems like something that could be quite useful, but only to a somewhat narrow group of kids; kids who have English as a second language or certain disabilities, like dyslexia, may not benefit much from this game. The reason why I believe that kids who have English as a second language (ESL) might not benefit much from this game is because the game does not read out the letters you select, the words you spell, or the definitions it displays. For ESL students, it might only be useful for them if they are already intermediate English speakers.

In terms of my content area, this game would not be particularly helpful or very relevant. Even if I challenged my students to spell math related vocabulary words, it is more than likely that if given the definition, the math related definition would not pop up. If I were to ever use an online game as an assignment for my students in the future, I think I would only use it as addi-tional practice, or perhaps use it as a way to appeal to different kinds of learners (“NETS”, 2000, II. A). According to an online article by Terry Farewell the learners that would benefit most from learning in a “traditional” classroom environment would be auditory learners, however, I have heard that most people are visual learners (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Learners, n.d., para. 5). So, for most students, it might be hard to learn math in a traditional classroom setting. Maybe instead of homework I would utilize a game that not only presented a math problem in a much more visual or concrete way that still incorporates the use of audio.

This Project was a very enriching experience. Although our group had some disagreements, overall we agreed on the criteria for our rubrics, which we derived from the highlights of our game. Our game was not relevant to my content area in particular, so I am unable to use this particular game in my class in the future. However, there are games out there that I am sure I can utilize and hopefully use to appeal to different types of learning styles.

Farewell, T. (n.d). Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Learners.
      Retrieved October 6, 2011, from Family Education website:
      http://school.familyeducation.com/intelligence/teaching-methods/38519.html
International Society for Technology in Education. (2000). ISTE National
      Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators For
     Teachers.Retrieved October 6, 2011, from:
     http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2000.sflb.ashx