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!

CEP 812 Web Conferencing

In your blog create a reflection titled “Web-Conferencing” and discuss how the video conference went, what software you used, and what you would do differently next time.  Also explain how this might be useful in your classroom.

We had our first web conferencing session on Thursday, May 28 at 8 pm. Michigan time.  We used Vyew.  The conference went pretty good despite a number of glitches to start with.  First, scheduling was complicated due to our busy schedules and being on the opposite side of the world from one of our group-mates.  We then discovered a number of technical difficulties with feedback from microphones (solved by having only one person on at a time), pages appearing and disappearing, not all members being able to see the screen sharing and strange incidents of text doubling and tripling as we all were contributing to a document (we just had to live with that and clean it up later).  We also had a few of us who were spontaneously logged out of the conference and then had to come back in.  As we started our conference we found out that Vyew does not record the session for us to include in our blogs (although the meeting notes and everything are still there to go back to so that's nice).

I'm not sure what I would do differently next time.  I think a lot of the issues we had were because of our inexperience with the program, some program issues and maybe some individual computer issues.  Since we had our conference prior to the email recommending using Adobe maybe we would try that program for a future web conference as it sounds like it works better.  


I think this technology could be useful in the classroom if a high school student was working at home (ill/homebound etc.) and needed help or tutoring.  This could work between teacher/student or between students.  Next year my only students using technology on a regular basis will be 5th/6th graders who I have been told have very little computer experience so I'm not sure that this would be something that they could do on their own.  I could see some possibilities of having a guest speaker present through web conferencing though which would give them an idea of what is possible and maybe letting students interact with the speaker.

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part B - Application of TPACK

1. What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

I am creating a website to help increase communication with parents, students, district and community.  The website I have chosen is providing information that I have found through research that parents most want such as homework, links and ways to get in touch with me.  I will also be adding a survey so parents can let me know what they find valuable and what they would like added.  I am starting out with a simple framework to keep it clean and easy to use.  I will be adding some instructional audio and maybe video portions so that there are multiple ways of finding out how to navigate the site and how to access information.

The types of information I am thinking about including are:

 What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

While researching the "best" way to communicate with parents I ran across a lot of information that indicated parents prefer a website to letters, email, phone calls, etc. Since the website will be set up in a simple easy to use format it should be easy for parents (and others) to find the content they are looking for.  I will include links for those who want more in-depth answers and there will be a way for parents to email me directly from the website by filling out a form (one-stop shopping).

The website will improve the lines of communcation by:

• I expect parents will be able to find out what students are doing in school
• Check anytime at their convenience
• Be able to ask questions and provide feedback
• Parents will be plugged into a network by having a blog to contribute and links to other resources
• Making news and announcements available at the click of a button rather than waiting for mail.
• Provide a way for students who are at home ill or who are behind in class to find out what assignments there are, access the assignment and have the option of submitting the assignment electronically to avoid "lost work syndrome".

1. What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

Visitors to my website will have a number of ways that parents and students can access the information that they are interested in.  Students (and parents) will be able to check on what homework they have even if they are at home sick or on vacation.  Parents and students will not only be able to access information and increase communication but will be able to play, explore as often as they want without worrying they are "bugging" me.

The General Purpose of my Classroom Website:

· Providing a general description of the classroom or course.
· Providing a general outline and timeline of the units covered.
· Providing specific information about individual units or projects.
· Providing information about the progress of individual students.
· Providing links to online academic resources.

Website so far:  mspilant.weebly.com

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorm Session

1.  What web conferencing tool did your group use?

We used Vyew as our web conferencing tool.  We made this decision before we found out that recording the session was no longer a part of the free site but with the use of Jing and Screencast-o-matic we recorded a good portion of our meeting. Our meeting was held on Thursday, May 26 at 8:00 pm Michigan time.  The link to our session is at https://www.msu.edu/~rebaemil/wc.flv

2.  What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

The advantages of using the web conferencing tool to discuss the project were that we could bounce ideas off of each other and come to a decision on what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it all in one session instead of having multiple emails being sent back and forth between the group members.  We also had a chance (except for one member) to see what we looked like and to see facial expressions and body language instead of just text.  There were a number of moments of head nodding and laughter as we fumbled with the new technology, met a small pirate daughter and heard dogs and cell phone tunes go off in the background. At the end it felt like a very productive meeting and I feel like we add knew what our rolls were.  Emily recorded the session using Screencast-o-matic and I took a number of Jing screenshots.

3.  What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

The disadvantages of using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project made themselves apparent when we first started trying to come up with a date and time to "meet".  I'm sure one of the reasons we all chose to take this class online was because of our busy and changing schedules so finding a time that would work for us all took some doing.  Between these schedules, having a member on the other side of the world and the weather here in Michigan adding to the confusion made this a challenge.  The next disadvantage was the program itself.  While exploring the program we chose before the scheduled meeting the site looked easy to use and a couple of us logged in early to practice.  As we were navigating Vyew we found that it was not as easy or intuitive as we thought.  We discovered that we couldn't all have our speakers on at once or we had ear piercing feedback and one member couldn't get their webcam to work.  We struggled with multiple people flipping pages, making things appear and disappear which was confusing and comical!  When we worked our way through that we then saw that we couldn't record the session using Vyew.  Since we were all there we decided to continue on and we used a variety of screen captures to record our session.  The final and least disadvantage was the advertisements in the corner, its a small thing but I found their flashing, appearing and disappearing to be distracting.

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part A

An educational need or opportunity. This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational setting.

The educational need or opportunity that I have selected for my Wicked Project is to increase communication between me as a teacher and parents (and incidentally between me and students, the district and the community).  I have identified this as a need over many years where I have attempted to contact parents about what we are doing in class.  The old way of playing phone tag, sending home postcards, letters, progress reports is time consuming and seldom shows results.  The new way of using technology is as an opportunity to make the class work accessible online by having syllabi, course outlines, posting assignments, and providing resource links for further research and practice.  This way parents, students, the district and the community know what is going on in my classroom.  It will be there on days that students are absent or for ones who are working on homework at home to have the documents available so there is no “I left it at school”.

  How you plan to address this educational issue with technology. You need to make a clear and convincing case that your proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible alternatives.

I plan to address this educational issue with technology by creating an easy to access and use classroom website.  I will be using a free website (Weebly) where I will include information about me, my classes, assignments, forms to contact me and a way to electronically submit student work.  I will include links to the Family Access gradebook and other resources for research and practice.  This approach will take less time to maintain once set up than I previously spent playing phone tag with parents or addressing mail.  I also believe that parents will find accessing the website less intimidating than trying to talk to secretaries, leaving voicemail or talking to a teacher that they may not know.  Students will find the ability to look up assignments (and being able to turn them in) not only valuable for my class but a valuable skill for future employment.

Logistics of solution (what is the scope; when and where will tool be used and for how long?)

The website I create will be used by me for the duration of this year with the intention of continued and expanded use next year.  As I work with the website I will be able to modify and enhance it for the remainder of my teaching years.  I am hoping that it will prove to be a model for other teachers who I can encourage to create a website so that it will become routine for parents and students to access them anytime they have a question or just want to know what is happening in the classroom.

          

Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon in your own effort.

There is a lot of research (both old and new) that indicates that parent involvement and communication between parent and teacher is key for student success.  As I will be working with 5^th/6^th grade as well as High School next year I included research for middle school as well.  I found that due to the difference between middle school and elementary school structure, parent involvement tends to decline across the grade levels.  But if teachers in the middle school use appropriate tools to help increase communication with parents that those patterns will continue through the upper grade levels.  A website was shown to keep parents informed of homework and important school dates while fostering independence in adolescent students by not having parents visibly checking up on the students (ie. Being embarrassed in front of their friends by parents showing up in class!)

I have been bookmarking articles using my Delicious account:  http://www.delicious.com/ppilant and Google Bookmarks

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

I will create the website that I will be using after completing my research on what an effective teacher website should include and interviewing potential “clients” (parents, students, teachers…).  After I have the website up and running I will have some test subjects look it over and use the various features that I include.  For the fall I will update the website with my current course information and add website maintenance to my weekly schedule of “things to do”.  I will have the website included on my course syllabus, business card, the bottom of my email (signature) and have a link added to the school website so people will know that it is there and available.

Indicators of a successful project

I will know if my project is successful by the number of visits I get to the site, the number of subscriptions I get to the website and the feedback I receive from parents, students and other users.  Since I will have a different job next year than this year I won’t have a before/after percentage to look at but I will be able to complete a survey during parent-teacher conferences to see if parents and students feel better informed.  Since I will be including a communication form and a homework submit form I will be able to see if that is being used.

CEP 812 My Personal Introduction Movie

So here it is, my first "movie" which took way too long because I kept playing with it!  All this for a one minute introduction!

CEP 812 My Avatar

I created this Avatar of me while playing with ideas for my personal introduction.  I decided not to use it but it was so funny I had to keep it and post it!

CEP 812 My First Audio Podcast--experimental

Here is my first audio podcast created in Audacity.

It's located at:
https://www.msu.edu/~pilantpa/cep812/mypodcast.mp3

CEP 811 Final Reflections

Its hard for me to separate the questions from CEP 810 and CEP 811 since I was taking them at the same time and much of it blended together with only the assignments making a distinction between them for me.  This was actually a good thing as I could apply what I was learning in one course to the other and my studies and readings flowed back and forth between the classes.  So, my answers for CEP 811 are similar to CEP 810 :)

Some of the things that I have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology are:

• to provide guidelines
• to make lessons valuable to students
• to select technology lessons that enhance the curriculum
• to make technology fun
• to not worry about knowing the technology perfectly

Integrating web-based technologies helped me think about and evaluate uses of technology by:

• helping me be aware of resources that I didn't know about (like Merlot)
• helping me think about the quality of the different web-based technologies
• helping me know how to evaluate the quality of the resources

I have met my own personal goals for learning about technology integration by:

• becoming more aware of new types of technology that are available
• learning how to use new types of technology
• implementing some of the new technologies learned for personal use (I have set up my own website) 
• introducing some of the new technologies with students.  I have shown some of my projects to students who then have decided to try them too
• assisting other teachers at my school to use some of the technologies too (they love Google Docs now and one teacher wants me to help her set up an online resume).

My plan for reaching my goals is to complete the next 3 CEP courses I need to get the NP endorsement. My long term goals will be to continue learning about new technologies and search for other opportunities to advance my educational technology education.  Since I already have a MA in Educational Technology I'm not sure what my next step will be but through the networks I am now connected with I will be able to see if new courses, new degrees, or workshops become available.  Also I will be kept up-to-date on what's new in the world of educational technology and can pursue learning on my own which taking this class has reminded me I really love doing! I plan on continuing using my Wiki and my Website for both professional use and as an example for students in my classroom.