Week #3 Blog Post - Tamara Tamez

Looking first at Khan Academy I was not able to find any useful content for the subject area that I am certified to teach, which is Advanced Spanish.  Khan Academy geared for more of the math and science subject matters.  So I moved on to the MIT Opencourse page and was able to find the subject matter that was more relatable to the subject matter already mentioned.  MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is  described as an “initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses online, freely and openly available to anyone, anywhere. MIT OpenCourseWare is a large-scale, web-based publication of MIT course materials.  The initiative has inspired more than 250 other institutions to make their course materials available as open educational resources through the Open Education Consortium. As of December 2015, over 2,300 courses were available online. Some courses also included interactive web demonstrations, complete textbooks written by MIT professors, and streaming video lectures.

            I was amazed of how many great advance courses were available in for the Spanish language learners!  In order to become familiar with the site, I focused on one particular course : Spanish for Bilingual students, which is described as Spanish course for for bilingual Students at an intermediate level designed for mostly heritage learners, but which includes other students interested  in specific content areas, such as US Latino immigration, identity, ethnicity, education and representation in the media.

Linguistic goals include vocabulary acquisition, improvement in writing, and enhancement of formal communicative skills. Students, who come from diverse backgrounds, engage in structured group activities that offer opportunities to reflect on values and assumptions related to their linguistic and cultural heritage. Films dealing with Mexican Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Colombians are viewed through this course, as well as team projects are planned and undertaken entirely by students. The first is the creation of a class Web site that focuses on literature, history, politics, music and art.

Each time this course is given (spring semester every two years), students form groups and choose one of two projects. Work usually begins during the last 4-6 weeks of the term and the project is presented the last day of classes. Because of intellectual property issues the projects themselves are not available through OpenCourseWare, but I brief description is available:  One group collaborates on videos in which they interview MIT foreign students from Spanish-speaking countries as well as immigrants who live in the Boston area, such as a cook from the Dominican Republic working in a local restaurant. Students ask questions related to the cultural, sociopolitical and economic issues studied throughout the course. The second group creates a web page that addresses similar topics. Each web page is linked to that of the class two years earlier, so the effect is cumulative, as if it were a single ongoing project. In 1997 students describe the course and include general topics and individual research reports. The 1999 web page opens with photos of César Chávez, an Olmec statue, a couple dancing the tango, and the author Esmeralda Santiago, who visited MIT and read from her works. Topics include Nuestra Literatura, Nuestras Raíces, Nuestro Cine, Nuestra Comida, Nuestra Música, and Nuestra Educación. The 2001 web page, which opens with an animation of the title of the course, features biographies of the students and topics such as Cultura Latina and Latinos en EEUU, the latter with various subtopics, e.g., Bilingüismo, Inmigración, Papel del Hombre, and Papel de la Mujer. A portion of a famous Frida Kahlo painting dominates the opening page for the 2003 online project. Topics of individual student presentations reflect their ethnic backgrounds and particular interests, such as Argentina, Nicaragua, República Dominicana, La Leyenda de Pancho Villa, Fútbol Mexicano and Bailes de Salón Latinos. Students continue the practice from previous years of providing information from the US Census as well as links to relevant local and national student groups at MIT, including the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAEP) and the Latino Cultural Center.

I will definitely be using this web-site to build on many areas of my final project.

Design Experiment 2: Edmodo and Other CMSs - Tamara Tamez

Comparison between EDMODO and Cengage Learning : MindTap.

I decided this week to take a look at the Edmodo system an investigated another CMS system that was not as well know and selected the Cengage educational developed system called MindTap.  

Prior to the comparison of both platforms I consider a Learning Theory that would connect well with the analysis of both these CMS platforms and selected Conversation Theory by Gordon Pask.  This Learning Theory focuses on “that learning occurs through conversations about a subject matter which serve to make knowledge explicit. Conversations can be conducted at a number of different levels: natural language (general discussion), object languages (for discussing the subject matter), and metalanguages (for talking about learning/language).”  In order to facilitate learning, Pask argued that subject matter should be represented in the form of structures which show what is to be learned.  These structures exist in a variety of different levels depending upon the extent of the relationships displayed.  The critical method of learning according to Conversation Theory is "teachback" in which one person teaches another what they have learned. Since both these platforms that we are about to review have the ability of blogging as well as thread communication, it facilitates the objectives singled out by Pask theory.

Mindtap is described as a “highly personalized, complete online learning solution” that is “more than an eBook and different from a learning management system.” Using MindTap, instructors are able to personalize the learning experience by adding their own content in the system’s “Learning Path” through apps that integrate with learning management systems. Though not a LMS itself, it’s certainly a product that can enrich the LMS experience.

Edmodo is described as a secure, social learning platform for teachers, students, schools and districts. It provides a safe and easy way for classes to connect and collaborate, share content and access homework, grades and school notices. Edmodos’ goal is to help educators harness the power of social media and to customize the classroom for each and every learner.  Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. A teacher can assign and grade work on Edmodo; students can get help from the entire class on Edmodo. It is a safe environment. There is no bullying or inappropriate content, because the teacher can see everything that is posted on Edmodo. Also parents can join the class to bring a level of transparency that is difficult to achieve without technology.

What I like best about Edmodo:

Students seem to like the interface and find it easy to use. It has a feel of a social network such as Facebook, which most students are familiar with.  Due to the similarities with social media, students feel as if I am communicating with them in a way that they relate to and understand.  Unlike facebook it does not  lack the controls or management tools necessary to be a strong management system; Students can comment on posts and see other post that are important in discussions, but students cannot just send messages to other students since the teacher maintains control. A teacher can allow other teachers in as co teachers; this is a great feature for aides, student teachers, co teachers, and learning support.

Some of the affordances of Edmodo are that teachers can communicate, organize, create small groups, create, assign, and grade quizzes, create resources and folders for classes, assign and check homework within edmodo.  Other affordances are to send out quick reminders to students, utilize apps or tools that are connected to edmodo such as :Zaption, edpuzzle.   In addition, to all other classroom aspects, as an educator, I can connect with other educators, participate in discussions, get ideas and participate in professional development opportunities. Some of the best features of Edmodo are the blog and how open it is to have users be involved in sharing, the best part is that Edmond is FREE! There are apps that have fees such as the Snapshot feature,  it would be positive that the tracking and report component in the pay version were available for free. But overall, Edmodo allows students and teachers to communicate, administer, evaluate, and collaborate all in one place!

What I like best about Mindtap?

When you open MindTap, you can review recent progress of your students on the dashboard. The dashboard consists of the Week View, the Unit View, and the Date View. The App Dock is the central location for accessing the student and instructor apps in MindTap. Some of the affordances of The AppDock View:

• provides access to assignable homework like Aplia and CengageNOW
• includes the Progress App to review individual student and class standings
• gives students a one-stop shop for organizational study tools like the MyNotes app, Luvo, Search, and ReadSpeaker

The Message Center app helps instructors quickly and easily to contact students directly from the MindTap platform.  Any message posted in the Message Center is e-mailed to each student enrolled in the course.  The Progress App helps track student progress in the course:

• allows you to track student grades, progress, and the level of engagement in real time
• gives students the opportunity to review grades and levels of engagement relative to their peers
• helps with early intervention and adaptation of lecture and content to improve course outcomes

Student engagement data is calculated based on:

• time spent,
• activities engaged, and
• pages accessed relative to other students in the same course.

The Overview Tab provides a bird’s eye view of the course content and how the class is engaging in the content:

• shows all assigned materials, the average grade of each, and the number of student completions

The Analytics Tab provides a snapshot of student engagement, time in course, and activities accessed relative to other students in the course:

• helps improve outcomes by focusing on material that may require more attention
• shows students how their activity and time in course relates to the class averages

The Gradebook Tab shows grades for every student in the course. Students can see their own grades from this view:

• provides a high level view of student grades
• gives instructors a bird’s eye view of every activity and every grade for every student
• is both downloadable and sortable
•  

With the Categorize Tab, you can organize and prioritize assignments:

• lets you create categories to best reflect your syllabus and lectures
• allows you to weight assignments to reflect their importance in the course

student grades can be exported to other spreadsheet programs or imported from other sources with a few clicks from the manage button.  Integration with major LMS platforms is also available.

          All in all MindTap is an excellent platform for higher Education, but it has a cost to acquire it.  In my opinion Edmodo offers all the great features and more as MindTap but for free.  Edmodo would be the selection that I would choose for my classroom platform environment.  

Blog Week #1 - Google Apps - Tamara Tamez

I am glad we had the practical opportunity to experiment with Google classroom.  I’ve in the past use some of the google aps but never played with as many, as the opportunity given in week 1 of our class.  Exploring first as suggested, I brainstormed the learning outcomes and pedagogical approach prior to selecting the technology that aligns with the outcomes.  Researching learning theories that are align with instructional technology I chose to focus on:

The Learning Theory of Anchored Instruction by (John Bransford) 

Anchored instruction is a major model for technology-based learning that has been developed by the Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) under the leadership of Dr. John Bransford. While many have made contributions to the theory and research of anchored instruction, Bransford is the principal promoter, so he is given the credit for this theory. 

`The initial focus of the work was on the development of interactive videodisc tools that encouraged students and teachers to pose and solve complex, realistic problems. The video materials serve as "anchors" (macro-contexts) for all subsequent learning and instruction. As explained by CTGV (1993, p52): "The design of these anchors was quite different from the design of videos that were typically used in education...our goal was to create interesting, realistic contexts that encouraged the active construction of knowledge by learners. Our anchors were stories rather than lectures and were designed to be explored by students and teachers.”

Anchored instruction is close related to the Situated Learning Theory and also to the Cognitive Flexibility Theory in its emphasis on the use of technology-based learning. 

Key Principles:  

·         Technology based learning

·         Development of interactive videodiscs

·         Designed around an “anchor”

·         Encourages the active construction of knowledge by the learner

After selecting the Pedagogical approach the next step is to approach the learning objective that will be utilized with this lesson.

Learning objectives for lesson utilizing Anchored Instruction:

This is a learning tool designed for 9th grade learners.

Students should be able to: 

·         view and understand the videodisc

·         identify information needed to solve the problem

·         create a hypothesis or set of potential solutions to the problem

·         organize the information in a manner that logically supports their solution

·         independently conduct productive discussion within their groups

·         collaborate within their group to develop a solution to the problem

·         exchange ideas and prior knowledge within their group.

The classroom would be set up so that the students would be working in groups. Depending upon the size of the class maybe a large circle or series of work stations which would promote discussion and the exchange of ideas.  The problems require the students to discuss and debate various options and procedures that the anchor reinforces. the Problems can be complex and more than one solution may be correct. Regarding assessment, student are free to respond with whatever they produce as long as the students can justify their solution in reference to prior instruction and the anchor.

The role of the teacher would be to provide the “story” and explain the activity to the students. Educators provide the question(s) or problem(s) the students are to solve utilizing the information contained in the story. The activity should be student-oriented (the students take ownership), and the teacher should only act as a guide or facilitator.

If the students have not done this type of activity before, the teacher should model an example response to the problem showing how to employ information from the anchor to solve it or apply it to the assigned task. Educators serve as the role model for the activity’s method. Teachers should demonstrate an entire example response; subsequently, the educator remains available to help them distinguish between information needed to solve the problem and extraneous facts.

               

 For the technology used I picked 3 that were relevant to the objectives and learning theory selected:

A) Google Hangouts

Hangouts is the instant messaging and videoconferencing service from Google. It can be accessed through Google+, Gmail and mobile apps for iOS and Android.  Chat histories are saved online, allowing them to be sync between devices. A "watermark" of a user's avatar is used as a marker to indicate how far they have read into the conversation. Photos can be shared during conversations, which are automatically uploaded into a private Google+ album. Users can also now use color emoji s symbols in their messages. lt can also perform a group video chat with up to 10 users at a time.

B) Google Translate:

Google's free service instantly translates words, phrases, and web pages between English and over 100 other languages.

C) Google Maps:

Google Maps is a desktop web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions (Google Traffic), and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle. 

D) Google News:

Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world byGoogle News.The service covers news articles appearing within the past 30 days on various news websites. In total, Google News aggregates content from more than 25,000 publishers.^[6] For the English language, it covers about 4,500 sites;^[7] for other languages, fewer. Its front page provides roughly the first 200 characters of the article and a link to its larger content. Websites may or may not require a subscription; sites requiring subscription are noted in the article description.

References:

Bransford, J.D. et al. (1990). Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. In D. Nix & R. Sprio (Eds), Cognition, education and multimedia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Bransford, J.D. & Stein, B.S. (1993). The Ideal Problem Solver (2nd Ed). New York: Freeman.

CTGV (1990). Anchored instruction and its relationship to situated cognition. Educational Researcher, 19 (6), 2-10.

CTGV (1993). Anchored instruction and situated cognition revisted. Educational Technology, 33 (3), 52- 70.