eJournal 4: Analyzing Instructional Goals

What kinds of thinking do you value and want to promote in your classroom?

There are several kinds of thinking needed to work through the unit of instructions of Coordinate Geometry for 8th grade.  The students have already had exposure to many of the concepts and have experience with the grid.   The new concepts will build on that knowledge and they will be required to analyze the information or problem in parts or by their relationships.

Using Marzano's Thinking Skills Levels I want the students to be able to recognize the patterns and relate them to what has already been taught in previous units or even grades.  The should be able to organize the information in the problem so they can identify patterns that might appear.

I also want them to utilize some critical thinking skills such as developing questions about what they see and to leverage their curiosity to want to find the answer.

Another type of thinking that I want the students to benefit from is reflection.   To contemplate what they learned and what value it might have in their learning or what skill or knowledge did they use from previous learning to advance their understanding of this unit.

The unit provided by the district outlines the TEKS as a categorization of Objectives or Goals.  I believe the following are more goal oriented as it does not provide a specific objective:

1. Geometry and spatial reasoning. The student uses geometry to model and describe the physical world
2. Patterns, relationships, algebraic thinking. The student makes connections among various representations of a numerical relationship. 
3. Geometry and spatial reasoning.The student uses transformational geometry to develop spatial sense.
4. Measurement. The student describes how changes in dimensions affect linear, area, and volume measures. 

I think for the most part those goals are helpful, but I would also add the following: 

• Develop a better understanding of the vocabulary for coordinate planes and mathematical operations
• Recognize and apply various representations of equations to aid in problem solving
• Organize mathematical writing as a strategy for solving problems.
• Reflect on prior learning and how it affected the current unit
• Develop questions and predict possible solutions or answers 

eJournal 3 Analyzing Learners

This goal this week is to further analyze the learners for my instructional design.   The scope to consider for students stretch further than their performance in the topic or supporting skills.  To make better instruction, it is well worth the effort to recognize characteristics that make up the learner and to understand how they affect their ability to learn.

Student population data

Reviewing the enrollment statistics for the state of Texas, it seems half of the student population are economically disadvantaged.   The school that will benefit from my design is a Title 1 school which implies that a majority of the students are on free or reduced lunch plans.  Being disadvantaged economically might have implications of lacking supplies to come to school, or the ability to venture outside of the area to learn about how other people live.  The lack of broad experiences would affect their ability to make connections with the content provided in the lesson.   Parents are not as likely to have higher education backgrounds and may not value education and therefore support the students efforts or hold them accountable.   The ability to bring the student to school for extra tutoring or allow them to stay late and arrange transportation may be a challenge as well.

Another statistic is the number of Hispanic learners in K-12 which also accounts for more than half of the population. Some implications of this statistic could be that parents may not have the language skills to understand the instructions.   Parent / Teacher communication is key to student success and language barriers might keep the parent from partnering with the teacher to support their student's learning.    A interesting metric is the Limited English Proficiency percentage which is 15% of the population.   Considering the difference with the number of Hispanics and other ethnic groups, it seems that the students do not typically language as a barrier.

This information was taken from the TEA web site: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/acctres/enroll_index.html, 2011-12 enrollment report

Characteristics of students

Other characteristics of my learners come from a comparison of child learner and adult learner.  Here are some of the highlights of the report.

• Children are not self sufficient, they look to adults for material, psychological support as well as life management
• They may perceive one of their major roles to be a learner (although it might not always be accepted)
• They learn what they are told and I believe they typically expect to be told everything 
• The grade levels are grouped with the same ages and typically experiences with some variation
• They have limited experience
• They can learn quickly
• They are open to new information and able to adjust their views
• Often externally motivated with rewards, praise, recognition
• Their expectations are typically limited in regard to education as their experience is small
• They are still developing their brain and need time and opportunity to make connections 

The report also discussed needs of the learner much along the lings of Maslows hierarchy of needs.  Children are more likely to have some of these needs unmet at the lower levels which will distract them or prevent them from focusing on education and contributing in a positive way to their learning.

This information was taken from:
http://www.itma.vt.edu/modules/spring11/efund/lesson3/learneranalysis.pdf

My personal observations from the classroom.

They may or may not recognize the importance of a positive attitude and how that affects their ability to learn.  Nor do they recognize how that attitude can affect other students (their learning partners).  The concept of being a responsible learner is not typically understood by the middle school student.  Understanding what type of learner and how to adapt to other forms of information is not readily known by the student.   Reflection may or may not be something that they are familiar with.

Middle school students are beginning to branch out socially and are starting to learn the rules of engagement as it relates to peers and the opposite sex.   They can be competitive and their desire to rise to the top of their environment can keep them from seeing the value of cooperation or team work.

They do not want to be embarrassed or thought of as not knowing something that others already know.  The idea of failure is not comfortable and avoiding questions seem to be a coping mechanism employed by many of the students.

eJournal 2: Analyzing Problems, Analyzing Context

I modified my 5 whys from last week and focus on the student perspective.   Here is the updated 5 why exercise:

The project that I intend to work on is a 8th grade math unit on multiple representations of functions.

1. Why? This is a difficult unit requires the students to shift between the different representations and utilize their knowledge and understanding of word problems, expression building, graphing and deciphering a pattern from a table of data to answer the questions. 
2. Why? Students do not have a firm grasp of several of the representations.
3. Why? They tend to follow along with the lessons but may not take on the challenge of practice or developing their own methods of solving. 
4. Why? Teachers might tend to lecture or spend too much time showing them the method rather than let them get more time experiencing the problems.
5. Why? Students do not fully engage the teacher or lesson and generate questions or develop a confidence that they know the lesson.

Performance Analysis

It is common for students to struggle with the multiple representation unit.  The underlying issue based on the 5 whys is that they may not engage the learning process when learning each of the 4 representations that are taught independently.  This type of unit is type of capstone to functions and they lack a solid foundation or confidence with the knowledge they do possess for each of the components.   The issue is certainly instructional and can be addressed by developing an engaging unit that entices the student to engage a real life problem that is meaningful to 8th graders.  The solution is quite simple, right?


Needs Assessment

The more challenging aspects of multiple representations are graphing the expression or deriving the expression from the graph.   There are fundamental algebra aspects to this problem, but they are not taught slope and offsets until the following year.  Therefore, they have to arrive to the answer through observation.  If they are given the correct type of problems, guiding questions and time to explore and discover the patterns, they should be able to relate the graph to the equation and subsequently to the table and word problem.


Context Analysis

The class size is up to 20-25 students and they are in class for a 50 minute period. They have access to laptops and ipads.   Individual work, pairs and groups can be formed, however, my experience is that many students do not fully understand how to take full advantage of their peers and they get distracted or do not seek help when they do not know what to do or if they have a conflict.  Technology is encouraged by the administrator, however, a student centered, engaged, non-worksheet style of lesson is the only hard requirement by the principal.  The internet at the school sometimes goes out and laptops often requires several minutes to log into the network.    Teachers also like to take lessons and make them their own. If there are parts of the lesson that are critical, it is likely they will respect that part it and leave it intact.

eJournal 1: Project Description, 5 Whys exercise

1. The project that I intend to work on is a 8th grade math unit on multiple representations of functions.  The district provides teachers with a set of stock material to teach the unit and it is up to the teacher to decide the delivery process for the information for their students.  This difficult unit requires the students to shift between the different representations and utilize their knowledge and understanding of word problems, expression building, graphing and deciphering a pattern from a table of data to answer the questions.
2. The challenge for the student is that this unit is a culmination of what they have learned and requires application and analysis which is higher order thinking.   The challenge for the teacher is to find the balance of scaffolding vs. allowing them to struggle through the process of finding the different representations of a function.  The activities and work that the teacher provides need to help the students to learn to reason to find the answers.
3. From the students perspective, it doesn't seem they have a firm enough grasp of each of the 4 representations and how to manipulate the various forms to have the confidence to tackle the challenge.   From the teachers perspective, there might be some timing issues where they are not able to extend or reinforce the underlying skills necessary to solve the problems on their own.
4. The students grasp of graphing, word problems and deriving equations or rules from tables could be better if they were to utilize their time in class better and have a better attitude toward the problem solving.  Often homework is not completed or even assigned for those that need additional practice.    Teachers might be taking too much of the "teaching" burden rather than shifting the responsibility to the student and providing a lesson that is interesting and engaging so that the students want to learn.
5. Creating these types of lessons from scratch for each of the units in a typical year can be overwhelming to a teacher.  I imagine teachers take the material in euphoria, look for interesting ways to present it.  However they have to live with limitations of their own knowledge, understanding as well as time.   They might also lack the ability to adapt what other teachers might offer to their current environment.

The 5 whys technique is helpful in that it helps document a thought process and forces me to articulate what the problem is and dig deeper into why that is a problem.  It is impossible to do this in my head.   If I try to process this in my mind, I can get about 2 levels down, but my mind wanders and I loose track of the major points.   The key for me is to just start typing and work through the process.   The steps and justifications can be edited as I go forward and consider more accurate "whys".

In some ways my scope has broadened because this particular unit relies on the students basic skills with each of the representations. How they are taught from day 1 affects this particular lesson and that is a place that I certainly did not consider prior to this exercise.   It also helped me realize the value of student responsibility and engagement in the process so that I would consider that when looking at the amount of time allotted to teaching this and previous lessons.

Capstone Video

http://screencast.com/t/So7YezEMRk

Section 7: New Direction in Instructional Design and Technology

How I envision applying each of the following in my future position in the IDT field:

Distributed or e-Learning Environments

e-Learning is coming whether we like it or not.  In fact many learning objects are becoming available and students seek and are able to find them for topics they have an interest for.  I imagine leveraging e-learning to help my students become better learners. As the text mentions, rather than dictate exactly what the students will use to accomplish certain outcomes, I will try to grant the freedom to choose from a range of objects and tools that allow them to make meaningful connections (long term memory connections) with the information or concepts.   I imagine that this will not be an easy task as students are trained and conditioned to be fed knowledge and content.  Another benefit of using e-learning is that the classroom can extend beyond the confines of the school.  Parents would have the opportunity to support the learning process if the game plan and options are available to them as well.


Reusable Design or Learning Objects

As a programmer I really connected with this chapter. The benefits of making a reusable object range from the usage to collaboration to sharing or distribution.   The ability to connect to Web 2.0 communities allows these objects to extend their life and usefulness.  One of the points in the text was that some objects might even be used for which it was not even intended.  In fact a learning object might even come from a completely different source unrelated to education.  For instance, Play-Doh was developed in the 1930's as a wallpaper cleaner but eventually made it's way into schools as a modeling compound.

I see myself being a user and a maker of learning objects.  I am bewildered by the resistance of teachers who will record their own versions of content rather than using an object that works perfectly fine.  Even if 10 percent of the object does not align with their pedagogy, that 10 percent could potentially be highlighted, or ignored.  The time and effort savings along with an desired learning outcome for the students is what makes a learning object so valuable.  Teachers are up against a formidable task of balancing time and energy.  Learning objects will be my equalizer.

Using the correct learning object will be the challenge. The temptation to overuse or misuse an object concerns me especially if there is pressure from administration to use tools and technology that they think are appropriate.  I like the old saying of if you always use a hammer, all your problems start looking like nails because it is a good reminder to recognize the task or objective and then find the right tool for the job.


Rich Media

I enjoyed the twist in this chapter about the use of Rich Media.  I support a knowledge base tool at my job and all too often new users think they need to inundate the knowledge document with graphics, grahpics and more grahpics.   I learned from experience that less is more.  Bold, bullets and numbering is generally sufficient enough to document an answer to a common problem.  If the document is difficult to read because of scrolling or the problem described in the text where the focus shifts from the text to the picture and presents information overload, then the purpose of the knowledge document is diminished.

I like the research that was provided for audio and text instructions.  It helps me understand the reasons for delivery methods that will help the brain connect and remember with the information.  I will definitely use rich media in my career and will consider the data and information in this chapter.   Less is more, but I will also use the correct form of media for the learning outcome.  There is a connection back into the learning object, as rich media is one category in that usig the right object is key to success.

One part of the chapter that surprised me and changed my thinking was the seductive details.  I always thought that tidbits or ancillary details of a topic would intrigue the learner and help them engage the task.  I now think that including those items are destructive to the primary objective.  This is a bit disappointing on the surface, but after some consideration I imagine that after the students learn more effectively sans seductive information they will be ready to explore or extend their interest to the interesting facts and tidbits that we wanted to share as teachers.  The seductive details would be like desert after a hearty meal which can be enjoyed much better with a clean palate.


Emerging Instructional Technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybernetics, Web 2.0, virtual worlds, electronic games, etc.

Incorporating emerging technologies into instruction is probably the most challenging of IDT.  While some of these technologies have been around long enough for the education and business world to get a handle on, the book of "best practices" typically has not been written.  A key to applying the technology is to understand how the tool can support the desired learning outcome.

A good application of Web 2.0 is seeking and discovering learning communities or making connections with students in other areas of the district, state or country.   While there are challenges of privacy and support of the tools with the schools IT department, there are enough tools available to satisfy most objectives.

Electronic games can be applied to instruction by utilizing meaningful gaming environments.  Environments that stretch the student and allow them to take risks as they seek the epic win.  The students have probably experienced gaming as a motivation or skill and drill, but careful examination of the game or simulation can shift this paradigm to utilizing for meaningful, student centered learning.

Virtual worlds can afford students and teachers to view interactions a see things that they are not able to witness as a first person.  I was just watching a news story where a virtual environment using a xbox camera painted the avatar that looked like the boy and mimicked his expressions so he was able to recognize how he was being viewed by other participants.  As virtual worlds become more realistic, it will be easier to "play" scenarios in a safe environment.  They will also be able to connect with different participants in remote locations to add different perspectives to the experience.

Section 6: Getting an IDT Position and Succeeding at It

Begin your post for this week with some background: what is your current job, what program are you enrolled in, what brings you to that program, and what do you expect when you graduate?

I currently work as a systems analyst in a Information Technology department for a large company.  I have 15 years of customer support experience and many of those years on a corporate help desk.  The program I currently am working on is Education Technology because I have a great interest in technology.  I get technology and the value that it can bring.  I see gaps in our public education as school districts try to solve the puzzle of integrating technology into instruction.  I expect to make an impact in this space as a long time technologist problem solver.

Next, describe the kind of work that you want to do and the type of organization or institution in which you want to work. Use the WorkMatrixTM in the chapter titled “Getting a Job in Business and Industry” to help organize your thoughts. Do you most desire first, second, third, or fourth level service? Or would you rather design or develop instruction? What features of work are important to you? What economic sector do you want to work in?

Initially I want to join the public education P-12 arena.  I have spent the past 4 years studying to be a teacher while working full time and I am ready and excited to share my experience and most importantly learn from that environment.  I am open to a corporate training environment but I would like to have the experience of developing content and instructional methods to effectively teach.

I also want to study the field of education technology and help solve some of the problems that exist today.  Technology seems to be fitted for a corporate and consumer environment, but to utilize technology in a education realm exposes a new set of problems.  My experience in the classroom should give me a practical perspective so I can contribute meaningful solutions and discussion to the field.

Based on these intentions, explain what you need to learn. What skills and qualifications do you need? Will you obtain the skills you need in the required courses in your program? What electives might you need to take to help you develop skills specific to your aspirations?

The skills that will help me achieve success in the above will relate to designing lessons or instructional units that engage students with the use of technology.  So far the electives that I have taken seem to be helpful, but I realize that a constant search for new information and training is required.  The skill or ability to learn is what I consider the best tool in the box.  I will try to learn as much as I can with research because that will help me shape future opinions and prove new solutions.

I also will take some media design and was glad to see the suggestion in the book to have some experience with those types of system.  I have a good foundation with using computers and programming with my current job, but to use software that specifically relates to the education realm will be helpful to know so I can focus more on content and not the process.

Finally, what organizations would best support your continued learning after you graduate? Do you think you would benefit from joining those organizations before graduating? Explain why or why not?

I appreciate the lengthy list that was provided in the text.  A couple of organizations that I would like to join as soon as economically possible would be ISTE and AECT.    They both seem geared toward helping educators with regard to education and technology.  From journal to standards to books as well as the conferences (which I am excited about planning to attend next year) the resources available are substantial.