Wicked Problem Podcast

The second part of our Wicked Problem assignment is to expand upon the written description and produce a Podcast of this expanded material.  

My Wiciked Problem is providing technology training, specifically on iPads to a wide range of teachers and their even wider range of technology comfort. 

Here is one part of a 3 part series on Wicked Problems... for the entire series, check out my Podcasts on www.EdTechQuickTips.org.

Wow! This is exactly what I have been looking for. Our school, Redwood Christian Middle/High School is in the first year of our iPad integration with all juniors, seniors and faculty getting them in August 2012.

We decided upon a couple school wide apps that we would supply to all teachers and students and would train the teachets on in PD sessions last August. One was Noteability. This was seen as a place students could take nots on classroom lectures, do assignments, etc.

Now... I found Nearpod and I think that we should implement this schoolwide next year. It allows a teacher to import their presentation (powerpoint, etc) into nearpod and add assessments, polls, etc. and share it across all the iPads in the classroom. The teacher can have it on their iPad and show it on the projector, but also have students login with the class pin number and the presentation shows up on their iPad live. Then for the assessments, they can choose answers to the short quizzes or polls and the results show up on the teacher's iPad so they can see how the class is doing and if they understood the last material presented... this can allow the teacher to go back over a section if the class is now showing they, on the whole, are getting it. You can also present a blank white screen and have the students write their input on the screen and the results show up on your portal.

Very cool platform and they just released a School Version. I am inquiring on the discounted cost of this new version, but I think that this should become my next goal for the school technology wise.

Wicked Problem Description

As the Educational Technology Consultant on staff at Redwood Christian Middle and High Schools, I am faced with the goal of helping classroom teachers integrate technology into their classrooms both as a tool for creating and presenting curriculum, and as a means for exciting and engaging students in the process of learning. Our school is in the first year of a 1:1 iPad integration with all juniors, seniors and Faculty receiving iPads at the beginning of this school year.

Educational Opportunity

I have been tasked with working on two fronts; creating and presenting Professional Development [PD] seminars on technology subjects, and working one-on-one with teachers to help them solve their technology problems. These two short term goals are challenging as I have a wide range of knowledge and experience with technology represented in my faculty. I have first year teachers who have been heavily influenced by and their education is saturated with technology. For these teachers, my challenge is to slow them down and to examine their pedagogy to see if they are following best practices in creating their curriculum. We need to ask questions like, is this the best way to present the content? Technology should not be a hindrance to good pedagogy. I also have veteran teachers whose primary technology during their teacher training, some four decades ago, was a felt board. The younger teachers are eager to use and learn about technology. The veteran teachers, on the whole, only learn what they are forced to by the principal. For these teachers, the pedagogy is heavily invested in the low-tech and showing them that technology can and should begin to influence their pedagogy is a real challenge. The diversity I am faced with, both first year teachers and veterans with nearly four decades of experience, will make my wicked problem quite difficult.

Another complication is though we are primarily talking about iPads as the primary technology tool, every teacher has a different subject matter and emphasis, so finding standardized applications is difficult, and achieving mastery of dozens of applications as the trainer is unlikely.

Technology-Integrated Strategy

My wicked problem is complex and has issues that are hard to define. First, and most important, is the integration of technology into pedagogy. The understanding of this concept is varied. Many would say it is good enough for a teacher to use technology to create and present their content. My argument is that if you are simply using technology to lecture, through a different medium, then you have missed the point of technology integration. “We need to be creating activities that seamlessly integrate technologies into the existing curriculum” (Transforming, 2008, p.11).

Technology needs to be used in a way that engages the student, allowing them to collaborate, critically evaluate, create, and publish as a method for showing content mastery (NETS, 2012). This is a concept that is lost on many of my faculty, particularly the veteran teacher. “Adult learners will have a high level of motivation for learning what they perceive as relevant to their needs. Conversely, adults will be disengaged from learning activities that are not perceived as needed and relevant” (Knowles, 1980). So my challenge is to make the integration of technology relevant for all my faculty.

Lack of professional development for technology use is one of the most serious obstacles to fully integrating technology into the curriculum (Fatemi, 1999; Office of Technology Assessment, 1995; Panel on Educational Technology, 1997). But traditional sit-and-get training sessions or one-time-only workshops have not been effective in making teachers comfortable with using technology or adept at integrating it into their lesson plans. Instead, a well-planned, ongoing professional development program that is tied to the school's curriculum goals, designed with built-in evaluation, and sustained by adequate financial and staff support is essential if teachers are to use technology appropriately to promote learning for all students in the classroom (Cannon, Kitchen, Duncan & Arnett, 2011)

Logistics of a Solution

My strategy is twofold. First, I am going to develop a series of PD seminars that I can offer during the lunch periods on a monthly basis. These will cover a variety of technology subjects, iPad applications, and technology/pedagogy integration. I will present them using different presentation methods including Powerpoint, Prezi, and video presentations (Direct Instruction). In addition, each of these lunchtime PD presentations will be put into three to five minute video or Screencast formats and will be available on my website for teachers to refer to and watch at their leisure to reinforce the material. We will also video the entire 30 minute face-to-face portion of the PD session and post that to the website as well for faculty who are unable to attend the session. “Professional development for technology use should demonstrate projects in specific curriculum areas and help teachers integrate technology into the content. In particular, professional development activities should enhance teachers' curriculum, learning, and assessment competencies and skills as well as classroom and instructional management competencies and skills. Specific content can help teachers analyze, synthesize, and structure ideas into projects that they can use in their classrooms (Center for Applied Special Technology, 1996).

During these PD sessions, I will incorporate different instructional strategies, modeling best practices during each session so teachers can experience how they would use the session with their students. The topic or application will be introduced briefly (3-5 min of direct instruction or video presentation) then we will move into small group collaborative exercises (problem based learning) to get the teachers working together to solve a series of problems that I will develop either about or with the application (cooperative learning groups, problem solving, inquiry, collaboration, peer coaching). Each session will end in an open time of reflection about the problem solving session and a Q&A time about the application (Reflective Discussion, Didactic Questions). I will follow each session with a post about the training on my school EdTech Blog and a tweet. This will provide opportunity for other teachers, who were not in attendance, to find out what they missed, have a link to the content video, and provide a place for teachers who did attend to post their comments or reflections (Reflection).

Second, I will work with teachers in their classrooms, one-on-one, to help them learn and understand the technology tools and applications that they can use. (coaching, problem solving). By holding these sessions in the classroom, the teacher is able to work with their own equipment, in the environment they are comfortable teaching in. I will work as a coach and facilitator allowing the teacher to be hands on to reinforce the information that we are working with. I will encourage them to begin to slowly integrate technology and to update their lessons to allow their students to use technology to seek out information on the subject matter and present it to the teacher and the class in a many different formats. “To positively affect teacher action in the classroom, teachers must be convinced that these new instructional technologies (IT) will actually lead to increased student learning. Once a teacher has created a

personal goal of using technology, learning new technical skills is one thing, but learning how to effectively teach with IT is something entirely different” (Transforming, 2008).

Indications of Success

It will be difficult to measure successful completion of my goals. I will be able to document that time has been spent with each teacher, but this does not equate to mastery of the technological tools that they have access to, nor successful integration into their pedagogy.

I will be able to present one PD session during the course of this class and will be able to reflect upon the success of the session and how well it was received. I can also reexamine my presentation plan and modify for future sessions.

I have agreed with the principal of the high school that making direct contact with all 40 teachers by the end of May 2013 and documenting the time spent will satisfy one of our short term goals. The creation of a library of short video seminars, available on my website, will provide a foundation of knowledge that can be referred back to as necessary by the teachers, and will fulfill another of our short term goals. Finally, I will work with my Principal to create a list of standard applications that he would like to see used in every classroom. These will be our focus in the 2013/2014 school year. These will include a note taking application and an ePortfolio platform. I will track visitors to the website and blog and will determine if there is an increase in interest for the videos and blog.

References

Borthwick, A. & Pierson, M. (2008). Transforming classroom practice: Professional development strategies in educational technology. . (1st ed.).

Cannon, J, Kitchel, A, Duncan, D, and Arnett, S. (Spring, 2011). Professional development needs of Idaho technology teachers: Teaching and learning. Journal of Career and Technical Education, Vol. 26, No. 1

Fatemi, E. (1999, September 23). Building the digital curriculum. Education Week on the Web. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc99/articles/summary.htm

Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress. (1995). Teachers and technology: Making the connection. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1995/9541.html

Panel on Educational Technology, President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. (1997, March). Report to the President on the use of technology to strengthen K-12 education in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/k-12ed.html

 

CEP-812 Screencast Introduction

Spring has sprung and I am back in class.  One of my classes,  Applying Educational Technologies to Practice started the class by challenging each of us to create a 1 minute video introduction of ourselves and our passions regarding technology. I created a screencast using Educreations on my iPad2.   Check out mine at...

 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/vid-intro-craig-conley/4009927/

Learning with Webquests

We worked on producing the STAIR lesson plan we created earlier in the class.  I choose to do a lesson on using webquests as a teaching tool.  I was able to put together a short video to explain what a webquest is, some examples of effective webquests in several different subjects and then we walk through using the webquest template on zunal.com.    It runs about 11 minutes plus some short quizes.   

You can check it out at http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=715329&newcontribution=1#.UL99NlPLq4o.twitter

Wikis

This week we are learning about Wikis and Wikipedia.  In our lab assignment we were to search for the school where we work.  Once found, we were to make a notable entry or edit an existing entry to update some information.   My school is a small private school and did not have their own Wikipedia entry.  I wanted to change that but it will require a bit of time and research to put together suffecient quantity of information to make the Wikipedia entry worth while and not immediately slated for deletion.  I did find a mention of our school under the general Castro Valley, CA page listed under the Education subsection.  In this section, it says that Redwood Christian Schools has two campuses in Castro Valley, Crossroads Elementary at Neighborhood Church and Redwood Elementary at the Redwood Chapel Community Church.  This was inaccurate as 4 years ago the two campuses combined at the RCCC site.  I updated the entry to reflect that Redwood Christian has one elementary (K-5) campus in Castro Valley, CA. 

 

In addition, I created a Wiki of my own to relegate my adventures while Scuba Diving.  You can find my wiki at CA-Diver.wikispaces.com



Universal Design

This week we have been learning about Universal Design for Learning.  This concept basically asks a teacher to go back through their curriculum and strip it down and examine it in the context of its ability to reach every student.  How can we identify and then eliminate barriers to learning within our curriculum?  What new information, technology or delivery method can we employ to allow all of our students to benefit from the knowledge we have to give them.  Maybe we need to present the same lesson three different ways over the course of a week to ensure that the concept is caught by all our students.

We examined the UDL checklist and saw how this tool can give us a framework for examining our lessons.  As a practical exercise, I took a lesson plan that I recently created and looked at it in light of the UDL checklist.  Take a look at the lesson plan and the comments that I made in response to the checklist.  The UDL checklist is reproduced at the bottom of the lesson plan to tie he comments together. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SAXEFq1P7ybE9NH0JIv_do_TEtLsyZrw6VcqOzArKbo/edit