CEP 812 Wicked Project - Final

Script:

1.      Hello, this is Pam Pilant and my wicked problem is communication between me, my students and their parents.

2.      I have found that communication in old ways works but I thought there should be a better way using technology that didn’t include long lines, phone tag and “recycled” mail.

3.      So I used TPACK to try to solve my wicked problem

4.      Technology/Pedagogy.  I decided to create a website to increase communication with parents, students, the district and the community.  To do this I did some research to see what a website should include and what parents and students would find the most helpful.  Some of the categories I found important were; contact information, classroom information, news & events, links and student work.

5.      Technology/Content.  My research indicated that parents and students like having a website to find content on their time when its convenient to them.

Through this website they will be able to communicate with me through a variety of ways, find out what is going on in the classroom all at the click of a button with no waiting for a call or for the mail.

6.      Pedagogy/Content.

I have included multiple ways of finding  out information through the website by including text, audio and am planning some future video portions.

Visitors to my website can retrieve information as often as they want and can go more in depth by following links to additional resources

7.      So here is my “work in progress” wicked solution. 

My website has links to the schools I will be teaching at, pictures of those schools and the hours I will be at each school.  I created an avatar of myself that provides an audio/visual tour of the site.  It looks like me and even uses my voice!

I have included pages for the courses I will be teaching that so far include spots for my syllabus and links to assignments.

On the contact page I have a link to my email and an alternate form that can be filled out to contact me directly from the website.  On the bottom of the page is a link for parents to sign up for the district gradebook Family Access.

The Submit Homework page gives the option for students to sent me their completed assignment—no excuse for lost work!

My Links page will include additional resources for students to get extra help, practice and fun educational sites.

I have a calendar page that will provide important dates and events happening in the classroom.

The Blog page will give a new way for visitors to network with me!  I will post questions, reflections and general information in this blog.  I am planning on assigning  a structured question for students as a way to get them used to visiting my website.

Finally, I am including a Survey page.  On this page I can find out what information people want to see on my page and other information that I will want to know as the year progresses.

8.      There are a number of reasons why I think my solution will work. 

·         I will be traveling a lot I will be hard to talk to in person!  This will make me more accessible. 

·         Like many teachers I will be juggling many tasks and a website will put everything in one place for me too. 

·         Websites are accessible from anywhere

9.      The key interactions among the TP & C that make this solution so promising are that my website will

a.      include different strategies for delivering information

b.      have information that visitors will find valuable

c.       use technology to make it easier to find and use information

I think that students will experience this problem differently because they already spend an average of 31 hours per week online so my website will be where they already are, in a language that they understand, in a format they will find interesting.

10.  So, I have discovered many advantages to students, parents, and teachers to having a website and I am looking forward to adding, revising, and playing with it for this fall!

Here are some changes I made based on feedback and comments:

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part A

·         Changed blog color to make it more readable

·         Added a blog to my website for collaborative element

·         Added a survey to begin the year

·         Checked with district about students using web site—okay

·         Week by week assignments rather than daily

·         Will find out what percentage of students have computer/internet access.

      

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part B - Application of TPACK

·         Created a survey to hand out in class in first week about what students would like to see on the website

·         Added more detail about what I would be adding to the website

·         Added how I expect the website to improve communication

·         Added what the general purpose of my website would be

·         Made the font bigger and in general widened the website

·         Made the submit homework require a detailed filename

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part C - Implementation

·         Plan to include a weekly student podcast summarizing what they learned that week

·         Separated submit homework and contact information onto their own pages

·         Planning on using the Blog as a discussion board for “homework help”

·         Checked with district on student image policy (no identification, group only…)  will plan on posting projects only and not photos

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part D - Findings & Implications

·         Checked to be sure the website works with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox (which I was using when I created it)

·         Saved the class emails for future feedback!

·         Plan to consider feedback but still stick to research

CEP 812 Mobile Learning Lab

What tools did you try?

 I tried out a few different tools.  The first thing that caught my attention was using iPods/iPads in the classroom.  Most of my students have an MP3 player and I thought it would be interesting to see what educational resources there were for them to use this device.  I think that having an iPad for doing research at their seat (as opposed to trying to get into the library) was particularly a good idea.  


Also, since we have been doing podcasts I thought that having lectures on their device was something to look into.  I used to take a tape recorder to classes and record the lectures to listen to on the drive home or later for studying for finals.  Using an MP3 would be the next step up!


The other tool I tried was the cell phone's in the classroom since almost all my high school students have phones that I'm trying to get them to NOT be on.  There were some interesting ideas on what could be accomplished on a cell phone.

What ways are you thinking about integrating mobile technology into YOUR classroom?

 I am interested in using mp3 players so that students could listen to podcasts.  I will be having my high school class listen to a number of podcasts and create a journal response.  I also thought the cell phone pop quizzes/polls would be a good addition to the regular paper type quizzes.

What challenges (or inspirations) do you foresee?

I see a few challenges.  One would be that electronic devices are banned for most classes in school.  Occasionally teacher's can get a waiver for students to use their device for educational purposes.  Also, I think that once you have a student using their cell phone or mp3 player they would want to continue to play with it even when the lesson was over.  I have also had students tell me that these devices are the new crib sheets/cheat tools and that a number of students have all the answers put into their devices!  I think regulating their use would be a big challenge.

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project (Final!)

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial?  Why?

We used iMovie to produce the tutorial because Emily who put the movie together because she was most familiar with that program.  We put the tutorial together using clipart and Google Docs Presentation slides along with a screencast video.  Jing was used to capture screenshots and screencasts.  We used these tools because we had practiced using them during the class and thought that these products made the tutorial professional and easy to view.  We uploaded the video to YouTube so that it would be easy for us to share, access, and embed into our blogs.

2. What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

I learned that having a picture of the end product was very helpful.  We were pretty clear about who would be producing what product and how it would look in the tutorial.  This made it smoother to put the end product together.   We found it really important to keep in contact and be organized so we could all contribute our part.  Having an outline, storyboard/script was a good resource to look at when I was working on my part of the tutorial (how to create a Facebook Page and Group) so I could see how long to make it and how to transition in and out of my section.

3. What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

If I was doing a similar project again I think we would make sure that we all either used Apple or Windows products or that we picked an online tool to produce the video.  Emily, Tammy and Dave found that the Windows screencast and iMovie parts would not work together when trying to merge the parts.  There were also a few features that we found we would have liked to include (like links) that the tools we used for the video production would not allow us to include.  There are probably pro versions that have these features but I would definitely want to see what other free tools we could use.

CEP 812 Professional Learning Plan

Here is my "plan"
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27220883/PLP.wmv

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part D - Findings & Implications

Even though I'm still working on my website I decided that I would post my Part D because I have come to the conclusion that I will never really be done!  (Example: I've already changed the site since I took the screen shots at the bottom of this post!  lol)

• Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

The answer to this is no and yes.  I was not really planning on implementing this project for this school year.  The school year is winding down (3 days now) and since next year I will be in different school, teaching different subjects it did not seem to be a wise use of my time to create anything that had to do with this year.  Therefore, the things on the website are all for next fall on classes that I will be creating the curriculum for over the summer.  At this point I have many of the things that I would like to include for next year and some ideas of surveys that I could give to students and parents to see what else they might like to have on the website.  The yes part would be that while I have been working on this website I have had a lot of interest from my current students.  So, I have put the website out there for them to look at, comment on and critique.   

• Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.

My evidence of success is that the students are interested in my project!  It is a good indicator that at least my high school students will be interested in and use my web site next year.  I have also had interest from some of the staff at my school who have been watching the progress of my website.  I know that they have asked questions about how I set it up and how hard would it be for them to set up a website.  Next year when I truly implement my website I will be putting survey questions on the site to see how it is working.  I am also planning on assigning Blog responses for my students to get them used to visiting my site and introduce the concept of an educational Blog.

• How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

The only thing I would change in my approach of another project of this type is that I would like to have my classes in place before trying to set up a website.  Right now I feel like I am creating both at the same time (no syllabus, no course outline, no links, etc. yet) and the things that I don't know have left gaps in the website that I can't fill until I develop the courses.  I would do many things the same; research, start working on the project and get feedback from colleagues, and the intended audience. 

• What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

Some of the lessons I learned that others might benefit from is that you just have to accept that some projects just don't ever reach a point where they are done.  I went into the project thinking that it would be "perfect" and ready to go by the end of this class but I can see now that it will be a changing and evolving process AND that is a good thing!  The most important lesson I learned is that it is essential to get feedback!  I got wonderful insights from my students, daughter, from my CEP group and instructor as they could see things that I couldn't and could tell me what THEY thought was valuable.  I read and heard their comments with interest and then went back to my website with fresh eyes and tried to incorporate their ideas.  I also made a lot of notes to myself about their suggestions to incorporate next year (all on an "invisible" web page)!  

•  In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

I will "complete" this project later in the summer as I add new information and revise some of the information I put on there as fillers.  I will definitely get more people to give me feedback.  I would not attempt a huge project thinking I could get it done in a short period of time.  Fortunately since I now have the framework completed, a lot of great ideas and a vision I think it will be easier to use for the fall and keep up-to-date. 

My website so far:  http://mspilant.weebly.com

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project: Part B -- Storyboard and Script

We are really progressing on our Facebook "Communications" project.  We made rough verbal sketches of where we wanted to go and then took screen shots of potential scenes that we would like to use.  I feel really good about how far along we are and how clean the story board and script look.  Now we just need to find out how long the entire presentation ends up!

• I have been working on the part of the tutorial that covers how to make a Facebook Page and Group.  I put the different parts together in a Google Docs presentation.  I also wrote the script for that part of the tutorial.  I found links about teachers using Facebook and Facebook's FAQ about the difference between Pages and Groups.  I also contributed a couple of FB songs for consideration (and background music). For the final product I will polish up my part and let Emily know that the presentation is complete and ready to record.
• Tammy was in charge of putting a time table together for us, the initial outline of where we wanted to go and setting up the story board in Google Docs.  She also put together some of the "why use Facebook" sections of the tutorial.  She found resources and took screen shots of what we discussed about putting in that section.  For the final product she will be helping keep us on track and help put the finishing touches on the presentation.
• Dave was in charge of the example FB Group.  His role helped us know what things we wanted to emphasize in the presentation.  He has a group that he hosts with students and will be taking us through a tour of what types of activities can be done on FB so there is a visual representation of the benefits of using a Group or Page.  Dave will screen-cast his tour and provide his example of a teacher using FB.
• Emily has been putting the opening and closing scenes of the tutorial together and has also done a lot of the research and screen shots for the story board.  She has also provided proofreading services and helped us with consistency in the project.   Her big role will be putting all of our parts together and providing the "voice" for the tutorial along with Dave's tour section.

Our Story Board in Google Docs

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part C - Implementation

Click here for an audio update on my wicked project aka increasing communication!

The website is coming along!  And as I mentioned in my podcast students seem to be reacting very positively to the idea of using a website and they gave me some good input!