CEP 811 Maker Experiment #3 and Course Reflection

With my eight-week CEP 811 Masters of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) course at Michigan State University (MSU) coming to a close, I will reflect on key points from the course. Our assignment this week is to focus on assessments and evaluations of our progress/growth, the program, the course, and the elements of the “Maker Education” movement. 

Professional Assessment & Evaluation: 
After deeply engaging with Maker Education for the past few weeks, do you see yourself implementing any of these ideas in your classroom or workplace? Why or why not? If you are thinking of integrating these ideas into your classroom, how will you evaluate their effectiveness? How do these ideas align with your curriculum or job expectations? Speak specifically to the Maker Kit that you chose and offer your own assessment of its effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) in aligning to your work.

“Maker Education” was a concept I was not familiar with prior to this course. Using the MaKey MaKey Maker Kit in this course has challenged me to develop new ways of teaching concepts using it. I have found that it is a very innovative tool. In the future, I hope to use this in my classroom and make my Maker Experiment Lesson Plan a reality. I would like to do this for a few reasons.

 

1. The Makey Makey kit provides an easy set-up for students to create and completely engage in the activity.

2. This lesson would completely shift the focus from a teacher-led learning approach to a student-centered discovery-basedapproach. This allows students to take ownership of the learning process and learn concepts by experiencing the process.

3. The use of the Makers Kit is possible only through collaboration and participation. It is pretty difficult to complete the production method and “add workers” without a group. Each person in the group must participate and discuss production methods in order to move on and achieve the objective.

4. It allows students to hypothesize what they think will happen, question concepts, experiment/create to test their questions, and finally reflect upon what they did, saw, and learned. This is great for retention problem solving and self-assessment.

5. And finally, it is fun! Learning should be fun. When learning is interactive, engaging, and fun, it creates an emotional bond to the content and provides for lasting academic impacts while also achieving the short-term objective.

The Makey Makey lessons are essentially games in your content. It adds the element of PLAYING to the academic setting. James Paul Gee discusses the role of “gaming” in education. He explains that they provide constant feedback and are an excellent assessment tool. 

I believe the same concepts hold true with the Makey Makey lessons. While the instantaneous feedback element is not there with a Makey Makey project, I believe it makes up for it in creativity. The MaKey MaKey lessons give students a great deal of power in their learning and gives students freedom to solve problems in new and creative ways. This way of teaching will equip our students with the 21^st century critical thinking skills, ingenuity, and autonomy they need to be successful in our technological world.

In terms of assessment and evaluating the Maker’s Kit’s effectiveness in the classroom I think you have to approach it in three different ways. The first, is a formative check as they are working, second is a summative check on their reflective blog posts, and finally a project-based format for final evaluation that demonstrates mastery of the objective. I had no problems teaching my curriculum standards using this tool.

 My concerns are getting the funding for purchasing the six Makey Makey kits and getting other teachers who are not familiar to buy in to this method. Also, in teaching seniors, there may be some pushback initially when implementing a lesson like this into the big scheme of my subject. Chances are good that students won’t have been exposed to the “makers movement” style of teaching and anytime there is change it can be met with challenges. In the near future, I hope to get the funding, support, and time to develop multiple Makers activities for my economics class.

Personal Assessment & Evaluation: 
How do you evaluate your own growth and work in CEP 811 (and your MAET experiences so far)? (You may wish to revisit the syllabus to see the MAET statement on evlauation.) How does this statement resonate with your experiences so far? Do you have suggestions for improvement or alternate methods of the evaluation of your work?

Over the course of this class, I have seen much progress and growth in my approach to learning, technology integration, and re-imagining teaching. I have done a great deal of thinking about repurposing and rearranging my classroom to better meet the needs of the 21^st century learner. I have got to experience what it is like to be an inventor using my MaKey MaKey kit. I even made a little song with my Banana Bongos.

I have got to take ownership in my learning and reflect on my assignments right here in this blog. I think this course really challenged me to think “outside the box”. When I first had the task of developing a lesson using the Makey Makey I was nervous and frustrated. I didn’t really understand how I could use this seemingly 6^th grade-level science tool in my 12^th grade economics class. Then working in something from the thrift shop to teach with seemed very strange. This was a challenge. The final result, however, is in my approach to teaching and learning. It has given me creative ideas and helped me find my subject (economics) in so many areas of life. Practically everywhere I go I can find a lesson idea. The development of the Makers lesson really helped me understand the power in discovery-based learning.

I would say one of the biggest takeaways from this course was collaboration and expanding my PLN through Twitter. During our conference proposal project, I got to work with colleagues from this class to develop a proposal about using blogging in the classroom as a tool to measure student growth. This allowed me to research and critically think about what I was doing in my MAET courses at MSU. The use of blogging allows for so much potential in learning and collaborating. I am still just beginning to delve into this tool myself. Measuring student growth and defending the learning goals you have accomplished through this self-reflective tool is something that I look forward to continuing as a student and include in my classroom as a teacher. Thanks to my instructor in CEP 811, Sean. She has been an involved instructor, provided constructive feedback, and been clear on expectations from the beginning. I have enjoyed the course and look forward to my next challenge in the MAET program at MSU.

 REFERENCES:

Edutopia. (2010). James Paul Gee on grading with games. [Video]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/JU3pwCD-ey0

My Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This week in CEP811, we explored the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and how it differs from “Scholarly Teaching”. In this exploration our task was to research and select Five Scholarly Resources that relate directly to YOUR teaching practices and interests. We were asked to visit the MSU library if possible and speak with a librarian. I happen to live close enough to campus and I was able to visit the library in person.

While I have some experience researching at the Michigan State University (MSU) library due to my background as a history major undergraduate degree at MSU, it was still valuable advice and direction to the correct ways to search. The librarian walked me through the ways to find and search for articles on her computer and later I was able to easily find many resources that related to my interests. I was shown the Educational Resources index where I could follow links to the ERIC database and more. I was also able to use the EBSCO HOST system that proved to be a very easy resource to navigate. In the future, I will continue to use these E-Resources at MSU libraries for personal and academic research.

Here is a look at my Five Resources I have selected that contribute to my Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

“An Interpretive Argument for Blended Course Design”

• This resource is perfect for developing a blended course. It lays out many objectives and tools that are necessary for success in achieving objectives in a non-traditional model of education. This resource lays out arguments in favor of a blended learning approach. A blended learning classroom provides much more flexibility than a traditional class environment. It offers many new ways to collaborate and work together with the content. The development of a blended course must have many formative checks throughout the learning process. This is important in a face-to-face model as well, but seems especially necessary in the blended setting due to students’ freedom in access and engagement in the content. Understanding how students will engage and demonstrate knowledge is essential in developing a blended class. The number of students that can be taught in a hybrid course expands dramatically and, if done properly, each student can have an individualized learning experience.

• As a student of Educational Technology and an educator interested in blended learning integration and implementation this resource is extremely rich with information, strategies, and guidelines. This resource does an excellent job of laying out the arguments in favor of blended learning and the best practices in these courses.

An Instructional Model to Support Problem-Based Historical Inquiry: The persistent issues in History Network

• This resource is focused on developing a “problem-based” strategy to teaching history. It deals with assessment and process of learning through inquiry. This resource is extremely helpful in developing an inquiry-based approach to learning history. This student-centered approach focuses on questions that do not have clear answers or clear paths to answers. This promotes research based exploration in learning. This article talks about retention over time and relevance in the learning process. Strobel and van Barneveld (2009) found that in the short-run traditional models were more successful, however in the long-run “Problem-Based Learning” proved superior in long-term retention, skill development, and satisfaction of teachers and students. The “Problem Based Historical Inquiry” (PBHI) model focuses on these principles: Authenticity, Multiple Intelligences, Collaboration, & Scaffolding Instruction.

• This resource especially speaks to me as a social studies educator. Essential questions are vital in the process of learning. This resource shows how it is the teacher’s role to guide understanding and help students discover the paths to their interpretations and answers. This resource shows research behind the pedagogy of inquiry based learning in my discipline. This technique provides students with a more authentic learning experience that will give them historical literacy skills.

“Tweeting in the Classroom”

• Students are entering the classroom with tools in their hands that have capabilities of NASA in the 1960s, yet educators fear this technology. This resource lays out the improvements in engagement and deeper knowledge through using these devices to research, collaborate, and share their knowledge. Specifically this article talks about the learning possibilities when using Twitter. As a social studies teacher, Twitter offers an exceptional way of connecting students with current events and topics in the news that directly associate with concepts discussed in class. Twitter also provides a way to tweet important reminders to students. Twitter also allows students to share their work with other students in different parts of the world. It allows for “real-time” feedback and responses to questions. Twitter also gives students a voice in the classroom and can encourage engagement in subject matter. This resource is fantastic in converting a potential distraction into embracing it as an educational tool.

• Using Twitter in MAET courses has opened my eyes to the massive possibilities and uses of the social media device. At first glance, I saw twitter as something that high school and middle school students used to share pictures, quotes, and random celebrity facts. However, using this as an educational tool myself, I have found how easy it is to connect with other educators and scholars using #hashtags and @Twitter-Handles (@Vinnie_MSU). I definitely see my seniors using twitter probably more than any other social networking tool. I will definitely be using Twitter to connect with my students next semester.

Leading Change and Innovation in Teacher Preparation: A Blueprint for developing TPACK Ready Teacher Candidates

• TPACK preparation is a constant process for me since I started the MAET program. Learning about how to implement TPACK strategies and approach my pedagogy with this mindset is something to always consider and learn about. This article lays out the necessity for the teachers of 21^st century learners to be able to rethink and repurpose tools and teaching strategies. This course and this article provide a solid understanding of the TPACK methodology and implementing this mindset in teaching practices. Integrating the best technology for the objective is essential in TPACK. This blueprint for educational design allows educational technology to stay relevant.

• This article talks about how to implement this TPACK approach in teacher preparation programs and including the design of facilitating learning. Ongoing collaboration and discussion among educational leaders and administrators is essential in this process of changing the curricular approach. I especially find this article valuable because it presents a good argument for implementing TPACK with other teachers. I am interested in becoming a leader in educational technology and a master technology integrator in my school. This article helps give validity to peers who may question the pedagogy, framework, and blueprint for planning.

Learning When Serious: Psychophysiological Evaluation of a Technology-Enhanced Learning Game.

• This article provides a report on an evaluation of a game-based Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) platform, which teaches about soft skills using project management scenario simulations. While I am not operating a business and teaching project management skills, I am a teacher that is interested in the effectiveness of teaching using tech.-games. Learning assessment using game-based training proved to be successful. This article shows the level of engagement through gaming increase significantly. It also points out that increased engagement does not necessarily mean increased learning. The article gives scientific proof of schemas due to emotional and experimental process of “playing a game”. Gaming provides a psychological pattern that increase the users recognition and retention. The practice of using games to supplement learning is something I am very interested in and understanding the science behind it will help me defend this practice. The study did mention the importance of the seriousness of the game in building knowledge. The more “real-world” and practical the game is, the more retention will happen. While simple games are good for practicing, the best way to experience long-term recognition is by providing complex and practical games. This is interesting and provides insight to gaming in the classroom and what it should be used for: whether it be for scaffolding and practice of terms or for learning deeper understanding of concepts. Depending on the game difficulty and set-up of the game will depend on how to best utilize it for student learning.

RESOURCES:

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning vs. Scholarly Teaching. (2013, August 16).YouTube. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eedxoj1CPnk&feature=youtu.be

Gleason, Jesse. December 1^st, 2013. University of Florida. “An Interpretive Argument for Blended Course Design” Retrieved From: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=3376186c-d96d-4561-be2f-505fed97d406%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=eft&AN=93000164

Brush, T. , & Saye, J. (2013). “An Instructional Model to Support Problem-Based Historical Inquiry: The Persistent Issues in History Network”. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 8(1). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1409 Published online (3-1-2014): http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=648851df-484c-4a66-af46-007f371609a3%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=eft&AN=94988272

Journell, Wayne., Ayers, Cheryl A., & Walker Beeson, Melissa. (2014) “Tweeting in the Classroom”.University of North Carolina. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=5750b8dd-2c17-4ad0-800a-da73e538ae02%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=eft&AN=95098704

Thomas, Tommy., Herring, Mary., Redmond, Pamela., Smaldino, Sharon. September 2013. “Leading Change and Innovation in Teacher Preparation: A Blueprint for developing TPACK Ready Teacher Candidates”. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=0cf91a17-3afa-491d-8e59-655b786a6350%40sessionmgr198&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=eft&AN=89941163

Cowley, B., Fantato, M., Jennett, C., Ruskov, M., & Ravaja, N. (2014). “Learning When Serious: Psychophysiological Evaluation of a Technology-Enhanced Learning Game”. Educational Technology & Society, 17 (1), 3–16. Retrieved From: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=3676486d-e6d5-4b99-ad86-109c242c26c0%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=eft&AN=94937813

Maker Experiment #2: Universal Design Modified

Universal: (adj.):including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception; especially:  available equitably to all members of a society. (Synonyms: Comprehensive, All-embracing, complete)

This definition, according to Merriam-Webster.com, describes a term usually used for remote controls, language, emotion, or philosophy. It is not often used in education. CAST describes transforming education through a “Universal Design for Learning” (UDL) mindset. They discuss this as a “blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone” (CAST.org, 2013).

 Universal is such a big term that sometimes it is more useful for me to think about a synonym and plug that into the title of this teaching method. Comprehensive or All-Embracing Design for Learning. This should be how we approach every single lesson. One of the biggest mistakes that all teachers make, usually when in a rush, is to plan a “one-size fits all” lesson. As I have learned, these are always my worst days teaching. The “one-size fits all” approach will simply not work for our students and some students may shut down or find no relevance in the content simply due to the structure in the course. One of the most ineffective ways to teach is by assuming that all learners will learn at the same pace and in the same manner. This is where UDL is extremely important. Providing multiple ways to engage with the content and reflect the material is essential in this process. If done correctly, each student will have a personal connection and experience with the content to reach the desired objective.

This week in my CEP 811 class, we were asked to explore UDL and learn about the most effect ways to implement this in the classroom. The goal at the end was to view our Maker Experiment #1 Lesson through the eyes of UDL, then revise it to make the necessary adjustments and improvements. To understand how to do this, I first re-examine my lesson and took notes based on how well I met the UDL Guidelines 2.0. There is three main categories to evaluate lessons: 1. Provide Multiple Means of Representation, 2. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression, and 3. Provide Multiple Means for Engagement.

I was pleased to see that my lesson did provide a lot of these principles already, but I did find room for improvement. Here is my revised lesson:

MAKER EXPERIMENT #2 (MODIFIED UDL LESSON):

• As mentioned before: This lesson is created as a follow up to the previous Entrepreneurship lesson, but may be used on its own to facilitate learning of these concepts.

Procedure:

Bellringer: As students enter the classroom ask the: How do you know how many workers to hire? Does more workers always mean more output? (Students should write their answers in their notebooks before the class activity starts.)

ADDITION BELLRINGER: Show a clip of an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” in order to give students relevant “real-life” examples of the production questions they should be asking in order to cut costs and get their product to marker. SHARK TANK VIDEO (ADD: 7.2Optimize Relevance, Value, and Authenticity & 2.5 Illustrate through multiple media.

1. Students are in Inventors groups (5 students per group)
2. NEW ADDITION: Add: 5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and composition by showing a video (provide how-to use video recap (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU OR provide the HUMAN DRUMS Video as an example for potential use)
3. Each student must have a role in production/Conducting the charge
4. Students experiment to decide how many workers would be the best to maximize output.
5. Students start graphing:

• In the beginning we have our fixed costs (before we hire any workers).

i.     With 0 (zero) workers we get 0 (zero) output

ii.     Add one worker (labor)– Record data of output

iii.     Add another worker (labor) – record data of additional output

iv.     Add another worker (labor) – record data etc.

v.     Continue until all group members are laborers

• At this time, the addition of the 4th and 5th worker should be decreasing Marginal Returns and possibly NEGATIVE Marginal Returns (If not – continue adding workers with the entire class to show this principle)
  • If not doing the “Extension/Entrepreneurship project”, provide the HUMAN DRUMS simulation. Students must complete a simple beat in 1 minute (as many times as possible)
  • You might even try this activity with something like “Banana Bongos” or “Banana Space bar” and have each student have to add their hands on the banana.

MAIN IDEA: Eventually adding workers will decrease output because there is limited space and “Workers will be in the way of each other”.

5. Students work with group to discover what the ideal number of workers would be to maximize output.
6. Draw Graph and reflect on how we could hire more workers and keep the marginal benefits
   • Only way is to add more resources (more bananas, wires, connections, ect.)
7. Discuss findings and share results with class (include graph and chart)

ASSESSMENT/Debrief

• Students should discover the three stages of production: Increasing Marginal Returns, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Negative Marginal Returns.
• Students should make a chart, graph and reflection on their experiment. In the chart it should look something like this: (The X-Axis will be # of workers, the Y-axis would be output/efficiency)
• NEW ADDITION: Add 8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback by giving students a reflection prompt that they will add to their “course blogs”. This is done to increase retention, encourage metacognitive approach to learning, and provide a formative check for assessing the objective. The question prompt will ask: What the correct number of workers are to maximize profits? And was the groups objective reached for the objective? This is also an addition of 9.3 Develop a Self-Assessment and Reflection.

Some of the UDL strategy guidelines that I was already achieving quite successfully in this lesson were: 3.1 Activating or Supplying background knowledge, 7.1 Optimizing Student Choice and Autonomy, 8.3 Fostering Collaboration and community, and 9.1 promoting expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation. The structure of this lesson is interactive and uses background knowledge because it is a follow-up lesson from a previous project. The entrepreneurship lesson gave students a creative voice and an opportunity to make a product. The lesson used groups of 5 students. This lesson will use the same groups and uses that knowledge to dig deeper in understanding of new concepts in Microeconomics.

UDL design has definitely improved this lesson. The biggest addition to this lesson is the self-assessment and mastery-oriented feedback assessment piece that I added through student blogging. Students’ blogging in the classroom can offer so many benefits that I am just now starting to learn. The options for collaboration are endless. In this particular addition students will be reflecting on their experiment, assessing what happened at each stage of production, and self-assessing their progress.

 

Blogging is also a phenomenal tool to show a formative check of learning. It is a way for students to reflect on learning and create a digital footprint of the experiences from the course. This will also provide for a way to create a course portfolio at the end of the course.

RESOURCES:

Public Domain CC0 (2014) “Blogging” [WEB IMAGE] Retrieved from: http://pixabay.com/p-327074/?no_redirect

CAST (January 6, 2010). [Video]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/bDvKnY0g6e4

CAST. (2011). UDL Guidelines 2.0 – Organizer with links to examples. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/udlguidelinesexamples/

Design Experiment #1: Using SketchUp to Re-Imagine the Learning Space

In the last 40 years, technology has drastically improved and changed everyday life. It has changed how we approach almost every task and has led to fantastic improvements and speed in accomplishing tasks. We experience things much differently and it has allowed for collaboration projects with people from all around the world. We have the ability to communicate with someone across the world in a personal face-to-face dynamic that used to be only possible in our futuristic imaginations via Skype. Overall, technology is a tool that has provided an unbelievable opportunity and potential for improvements to education.

In order for this technology to be useful, though, we have to have the ability to create unique new experiences. This week in CEP 811, we examined the concept of Experience Design. IDEO CEO David Kelley describes this concept in technological advancement products in his TED Talk “Human Centered Design”. David explains that his company is trying to examine behaviors and personalities of their users and infuse those concepts into the products.

This principle of Experience Design can be applied to technologies used in the classroom. The users of the technology are the students; the products in which we should infuse behaviors & personalities in are the lesson plans; the designers of the products are the teachers; and the space to experience the products are the classrooms.

There is one thing, however, that has not changed in the midst of all this technological change. That is the classroom. Although, there have been some different styles of learning with a hybrid approach or online instruction, the standard “face-to-face classroom” has remained boring and unchanged. I am guilty of this as a teacher. My current classroom is set-up in rows and columns with the teacher (me) at the front.

A little background on my classroom: I teach high school seniors economics and government. This is my first year at my current school. The set-up is your typical model. The teacher is in front of the room leading instruction. It is very structured and a basic classroom. Desks and chairs are connected and it does not necessarily promote participatory learning, as much as it does “watch, write, listen to the lecture” approach.

Not to say that this is always bad, but I think there are different ways to re-think this space to better utilize it for learning of all students. A different approach also might encourage students to take charge of the learning in a discovery-based approach. From an outsider looking in, I can’t help be see the current model (the same model for hundreds of years), as somewhat of a stage and the teacher is the show. This approach is much different from a discovery based and experimental learning approach as the TPACK model encourages.

While my pedagogy includes many different approaches including: kinesthetic activities, cooperative learning, collaboration, supplemental reading & lecture, and discovery-based techniques, my classroom lacks this encouraging collaborative space. Trung Le, from Cannon Design, talks about a “school without walls” and writes about promoting learning by changing our learning space. In his article, “Wanna Improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms” he writes educational progress can be changed with “design that promotes reflective, collaborative learning that mimics the way teenagers think, learn and socialize” (Le, 2010). This is a student-centered approach that can change the way we set-up our classrooms.

This may seem like a pretty radical concept, but in fact it has been proven to improve learning for all students. The traditional model provides many challenges to moving in the classroom. In my own classroom, I notice that I do not get around to formatively check-in with students that sit in the back of the room as much as I do with those who are in the front. It is not always the case that the weaker students sit in the back. Maybe it is not the student that is weak, but the model of classroom.

So how can we accomplish this?

This may seem like it would be a long process and you would have to call in a professional to get this shift in the structure of the learning space. This could cost a lot of money that schools simply do not have. However, on the design process, CannonDesign describes the mindset for change is so much more important than the financial concerns with developing a new classroom model. The change should happen through a process and they describe the process in an article by The Third Teacher called “Inside the Inspired Learning Environment”.

“As we’re designing, we’re building capacity within the faculty to tinker, collaborate, and evaluate” (CannonDesign, p.91 paragraph II)

The task for my CEP 811 class this week was to redesign our learning spaces and to make a prototype using “SketchUp Make”. I have just described the current classroom and learning space. I have also given you reasons why a change is necessary to improve engagement, participation, and collaboration. My designed space looks like this:

 

Students will have space to collaborate and work in groups. There is no distinct “front of the room” because the learning is not passed down from the teacher to the student. The learning happens in the space designed to be participatory and engaging.

The yellow seats in the corner are a station that will include: discussion, reflection, video, and creativity. Students are no longer in desks. They are sitting at tables. The tables are round so that it is inviting for discussion and collaboration. Students will be using laptops or tablets at the tables and will have different stations that they will visit throughout the week. The tabletops will be dry-erase material to promote complete freedom and creativity when learning and collaborating.

These Five stations are:

1. Video/Music analysis
2. Article/primary source/Critical readings/ document analysis
3. Games/virtual-quizes
4. Blog Post/Reflections on content
5. Discussion or Kinesthetic Activity (corner yellow beanbags)

The different groups and stations would represent a different part of the learning process. Each station would focus on using the content. One station would be focused on information and content. Another station would be a space to experiment and explore the content in new ways building research skills. A different station would be a formative check and competitive gaming station. Another station would allow students to reflect on their learning and create a blog post. And the last station would be a spot to discuss and share their findings with peers. This sharing would allow for collaboration and give a deeper understanding for the content learned. This discovery based and interactive learning puts the student in control of their learning and changes the learning space to something that invites discussion.

The teacher’s role would be designing engaging lessons and different activities that would scaffold learning and encourage participation. Lessons in this setting would have to be student driven because if the students did not buy in to this approach learning could suffer. Classroom management in a setting like this could become a problem on days when all students were focused on one task. This change in learning space would have to be implemented at the beginning of the school year so that students could have a normal understanding of expectations and accountability. As a teacher I would have two different ways to group students. Each would be used during different times: one group of students on similar academic levels to differentiate learning; another to encourage participation and discussion for stronger academic students to work with low-achieving students.

Students will be placed in groupings of 5 students (two types of groups):

1. With similar learners on similar academic levels
2. With different types of learners on different academic levels

Additional Resources needed and potential costs:

Resources needed would be laptops (or tablets), bean bag chairs, round tables, dry-erase tabletops, and ideally, a Smartboard at the beanbag workstation. To make this a reality, you would need to raise some funds and get some fundraising. The benefits would certainly outweigh the costs.

30 laptops (or tablets): $9,000 – $12,000

5 Bean Bags chairs: $250-500

Smartboard: $3,000

Whiteboard Desktops: $600-$2,000

Interactive and participatory learning space: priceless.

 This design could be implemented in segments or all together. The ideas about the workstation could be accomplished with minimal economic costs or time. The change would be in the learning approach that would come with this “station” based approach. It would be an interesting experiment to see how engagement would change: whether more students would be engaged in the content and involved in their own learning or if the change in environment would cause a distraction to the learning process.

The theory behind this change makes sense and offers a structural change that would go hand in hand with the discovery-based learning. I also see a positive unintended consequence that would undoubtedly happen and that is the classroom community. Students would get to know each other and feel much more comfortable with asking questions and helping others.

 

REFERENCES: 

Kelley, D.  (2002, February).  Human-centered design [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_centered_design

The Third Teacher+. (2010)“Inside the Inspired Learning Environment”. Common Design, p.91 paragraph II Retrieved from: http://digital.turn-page.com/issue/134932/91

Le, Trung. CannonDesign. (2010). Wanna Improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms” Retrieved from: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662178/wanna-improve-education-demolish-the-classrooms

Ultra-Micro MOOC: “How to Invest Your Money like an Economist”

This week in my CEP811 class we got the opportunity to learn about instructional design and how it relates to TPACK (Teaching Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) and excellent instruction. We also were asked to create our own Massive Open Online Course, commonly referred to as “MOOC”. MOOCs are really unique in the sense that they free courses available to anyone in the world. Enrollment is unlimited and these courses can offer opportunity and access to an extremely broad populous. MOOCs offer an exceptional opportunity to get educated and learn new information by simply putting fourth the time and effort.

We examined a number of different resources to achieve our goal of creating one of these MOOC sites. First, we viewed Michigan State University professor, Dr. Yelon’s video on “The Secret of Instructional Design”. And examined the set-up of designing successful units. These successful units begin with the goal/objective in mind when designing the evaluation. It focuses on “real-world” performance and uses this objective to create the assessment and include content steps to meet the “big picture” objective. The acronym used by Instructional Designers is ADDIE standing for: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. This principle of designing units also falls in line with the principles described in Understanding by Design’s “Backwards Design” model of instruction. The strategy of focusing on aligning assessments with the objective and planning your day-to-day lessons based around that “big picture” objective. Utilizing assignments and activities that scaffold the assessment, which is a direct description of the unit objectives and essential questions.

Instructional Design Photo by ADDIE.

 

To examine the MOOC process in action and understand more about this concept, we visited and explored “Peer to Peer University”, P2PU. At P2PU, we explored different courses available online, free of charge. There are a number of different courses available and the instruction is delivered entirely online. Courses vary in subject matter, from web design to learning a musical instrument to history of Germany, but all consist of the characteristics listed above. This is a great, non-stressful, way to learn something that interests you.

Navigating the website was very easy and user friendly. The widespread knowledge and collaborative sharing space make it a growing community. At the website, I went to the course titled “How do I make a P2PU Course”. This course was so easy to navigate and offered great advice for creating a course. The content was extremely helpful and the layout made sense in the way the information was presented. It served as not only great information for creating a course, but also as a model to design your course after.

Another model we looked at that demonstrated this concept in action was the University of Saskatchewan course on Learning Technologies. They call their model “TOOC” and the set-up of this course is extremely open. Anyone can enter the course and collaborate with others in the course. This course uses an “open blogging” concept on wordpress.com and encourages participants to use, remix and share information regularly. Registration in this course is not required for almost 90% of the content. The only part of the course that is reserved for Univ. of Sask. Students the “live-sessions”, using “google hangouts”. All readings, blogs, discussions, assignments, and videos were available free of charge.

The basic take-away from all of these resources is to plan your lessons and units with clear objectives in mind. The goal is to write assessments that allow students to demonstrate the objective. The questions that are laid out in the MOOC (P2PU), UbD, and Instructional Designers are: 

1. Who is my audience and why are they interested in my course?
2. What are they going to “do” or “make” (create) to demonstrate the learning objective?
3. Provide feedback and collaboration to improve and share the different ways of achieving the objective. 
   • #3 tends to be the biggest one that educators forget to include in units and exclude when they are pressed for time. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. In my experience as a teacher, the objectives are much more meaningful to the learner if they have a chance to share and collaborate their “creative work” with their peers. This is why MOOCs and the “open” learning community offers such a great solution to this issue.

Below is a MOOC template that describes the course.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

Introduction:

I will make my “Ultra-Micro MOOC” combining aspects from from P2PU, Dr. Yelon’s video on “Instructional Design”, “Backwards Design” from Understanding by Design, and the “Introduction to Learning Technologies” TOOC website, to make course about savings and investing. The final goal of this project is an investment portfolio that you can use to take to a financial advisor/stockbroker, and explain your risk tolerance and financial goals. The template allows you to scaffold understanding of investment and plug in your own goals into your savings plan.

In my “How to invest your money” seminar course, students will learn basic vocabulary and concepts about saving & investing, risk & reward, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and how to retire rich by completing an investment portfolio and comparing investment choices with their peers.

 

Course Topic:

Students will learn investment vocabulary and key concepts when it comes to savings. Students will apply knowledge of scarcity, choice, cost v. benefit, and risk and reward to budget and save their money. Students will learn how to buy anything they want totally debt free by saving in the proper investment in the proper amount of time.

Course Title & Photo:

“How to Invest Your Money like an Economist”

 The title indicates that the knowledge learned in this seminar will show you where to invest your money to achieve your goals without incurring massive amounts of debt. The “Live like No One Else” part refers to the rising credit card debt in America: According to NerdWallet.com, the average household credit card debt is $15,252.

 

Who is coming to your course? What will attract them? Why would they want to participate in this experience?

This course is for anyone who wants to learn more about investing for big expensive items, including retirement. This course is for anyone who wants to buy expensive items debt free and avoid using credit cards to achieve their financial status. This course is for those interested in how money works and how our economy grows and shrinks overtime. This course will take some individual work, but the end result will pay off and they will end up investing in the proper ways to benefit their needs and personality. This course is for anyone who is willing and able to put fourth time to learn about the economy, stock market, and savings. (I use this course in my high school economics class as an end of the year project for students to apply the content to real-life economics).

What do you want learners to be able to do when they are done? (Connect your thoughts here to the learning theories you explored last week and the design principles you learned this week.) How long is your course experience?

Upon completion of this course, students will create an investment portfolio that is “use-able” to take to a financial advisor. This portfolio will include: the correct terminology, your risk tolerance, three “Big Expensive Items” (B.E.I.s) with research of the cost, your time frame you hope to achieve your goal, and the amount of money you are planning on setting aside each month to achieve the financial goal. This course is planned with UbD (“Backwards Design”) in mind because the day-to-day lessons and activities are all in place to scaffold understanding to meet the final objective of creating an investment portfolio.

This project also will utilize “experimental learning theory” because it is an individual journey and the more you time and effort you put into it, the more successful you will be in the project and consequently the more financial options you will have in the future. Students will have to study the market and investing options low to high risk options: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, savings account, real-estate, IRAs or 401Ks, etc. Depending on the students goals and risk temperament, and desired time frame of achieving the goal, one investment type may be better fit than another. It is important to look at, adjust, and try different options of saving before you complete the investment plan for your B.E.I.

What will peers make?

Peers will make an investment portfolio to complete the objective. This is the final goal of the project and will achieve the desired outcome. Completion of this project will show mastery of the concepts of investment. The investment portfolio will include: research on 3 BEIs (Big Expensive Items: this can be different amounts for different people: I would say over $1000 dollars, but that is just me) that you want to own, their availability and current cost. Portfolio will also include: Desired timeframe for saving, total money needed before inflation, then calculated after inflation with timeframe (just assume the natural rate of inflation 3%), then match the savings goal with the type of investment you will need to achieve it in your time. (TIP: use the market averages to determine your RETURN on Investment). This project will be completed in a folder that you can easily take with you to see a financial advisor and then you will know what to ask for and you will receive what you need based on your goals.

EXAMPLE of GOAL: Mr. L Investment Goal (Retirement)

How do activities hang together as a course?

My course will be set up to encourage participation and individuality. My course will have activities that lead and build upon each other. The course is set up in a four-week layout. Each week is designed for you to understand the next week and lead to execution of the main “real-world” objective. My evaluation and assessment is the “Investment Portfolio” where you will apply the content learned throughout the course. This is the model described in “Instructional Design” because you are interacting with the content using methods with the objective and evaluation in mind from the beginning. One common principle this unit contains is the idea of collaborative learning and assessing. In TPACK, Instructional Design, and experimental learning, it is vital for students to have a voice and interact with the content and each other. The seminar will build in steps to collaborate with peers by categorizing BEIs and investment types for discussion forums. (If you are saving for retirement, you may communicate with others to see what investment worked well for them and when you should start saving). TPACK will be included in the design of the course by providing flexibility and freedom to use the technology to share resources and strategies of saving.

How will peers help each other in the course?

Peers will be encouraged to comment on others work and share their investment strategies. Peers will have a number of categories to discuss. Peers will be able to discuss saving and investing habits with others that have similar goals. Also, they can be subcategorized to discuss and learn from those with similar “risk tolerance” as they have. And finally, peers may look at the timeframe of others and share (“steal”) ideas and thoughts. Peers may post their investment plans and showcase them on a blog. They may comment in a “general” section for basic questions or help or they can comment in a more specific subset about their status.

What is the design architecture for your course. How will each week’s modules be organized and why have you designed it in this way?

I will design the course in weekly modules consisting of four weeks that will build upon knowledge to achieve the final project. It will be more manageable for students and make sense scaffolding knowledge in four chunks.

WEEK #1: Basic Understanding of types of Savings

In this stage, scholars will define different types of investments and savings terminology. It is important to understand these terms and know how to use them in your project and in your life. When visiting a financial advisor, you have to go in with knowledge of terms such as: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, savings accounts, corporate bonds, Roth-IRAs, 401Ks, diversification, liquidity, etc. Knowledge of the above, will help you and the financial planner achieve your goals smoothly.

*Students must also brainstorm THREE Big Expensive Items (BEIs) and research the cost of each. (**BEIs are that require savings: general rule: $1000 and over)

WEEK #2: Risk v. Reward, Savings Timeframe, Inflation & Investing Articles

In this stage, scholars will determine their risk tolerance and “realistic” budgets. Peers must think about what they can actually afford to invest and with that number in mind plan for the desired timeframe for obtaining their BEI. (When they will start saving and when they hope to purchase the item). Peers will also learn about inflation and apply the natural rate of inflation (3%) multiplied with the current price of their BEI and the total number of years saving to determine how much money they will need to have by the desired time. Finally, peers will choose an investment article that provides information on when and how to invest your income.

WEEK #3: Research Investment Types

In this stage, scholars will research different investment types and try to match the investment type with their desired savings goal. Peers are suggested to use the averages to find out the potential return upon investment. When planning for this stage it is encouraged to use the discussion forums to talk about strategy with other peers and determine if you are on the right track to meet your objective. Scholars must research actual investment types to decide whether it is a “low-risk” or “high-risk” investment option.

WEEK #4: Create your investment portfolio

In this final stage, scholars will create the finished product and apply what they have learned in this comprehensive investment portfolio. Scholars are encouraged to post their portfolios on their blog and comment/provide feedback with others. This portfolio should be a practical tool to bring with you to financial advisor meetings to plan out a strategy to purchase your BEI. Peers are encouraged to share their success stories and finished product by tweeting out their project using the hashtag #InvestmentPeers

*Scholars can present their strategy in digitally in the form of graphs, charts, paragraphs, tables, or a different way of their choosing.

 

REFERENCES:

A University for the Web. Built by an open community.. (n.d.). P2PU. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from https://p2pu.org/en/

Culatta, R. (n.d.). Experiential Learning (Carl Rogers). Experiential Learning. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/experiental-learning.html

Understanding by Design. (n.d.). Google Books. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?id=N2EfKlyUN4QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=backward+design&source=bl&ots=gmcDp7VO1v&sig=buNdUrqOhtK8k3Y3fWEtOq9H6JM&hl=en&ei=TPqhTOSPNcP2nAe-kNmIBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEgQ6AEwCA#v=twopage&q&f=true

Yelon, S. L. (2001). Goal-Directed Instructional Design: A Practical Guide to Instructional Planning for Teachers and Trainers. Michigan State University: Self-published, Not in electronic format.

Braunschweig, Dave. ADDIE Instructional Design Model (February 26^th 2014) [Web Photo] retrieved from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Addie.png

Deplo. Steve. [web-photo] retrieved from: Creative commons on Flickr: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4093/5437288053_624c075aa3.jpg