PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

Background:
Currently we teach one course that is split into two, developmental disabilities and mental wellness. In this course the two swap students every four weeks. Each will have about 20-30 students. These students are then split into research groups, in which they will compile information about their assigned physical disability or mental health issue. After the four weeks, the groups will swap, be assigned to new research groups on a new topic covered in their new rotation, and again compile their research data and findings. The research project is based on a questionnaire that will cover FAQ's, daily living information, and information on advocacy groups for the disability.

The issue:

How can the projects be compiled in a collaborative group setting, published in a single place (platform), archived for later review once the groups swap, and be rebooted for the next course rotation?

This issue is more commonly expected at the end of a normal course semester, when the instructor or an admin archives and re-establishes course templates in an LMS or CMS type of environment. Our situation is different as we don't currently use an LMS or CMS due to budget, though we do have access to Google Apps for Education, and the student rotations are fairly often in this course.

The solution(s):

With cost, available resources, and time in mind, I plan on using Google Docs, Video and Sites as the platforms on which students can collaborate to collect their research, store notes, and publish their findings. Docs will be used as place where they can access a questionnaire shared by their teacher with their group. In Docs, the students can also store resources such as links, and other notes regarding their research. Docs allows group members to work on a document simultaneously, from different computers. Google Video will allow those students that wish to use videos they have found or they have edited themselves and uploaded to the school's Google Video account. Finally, Sites will be the final compilation of their efforts, showcasing what they have learned, and their skills in using various technologies.
The supporting technologies would be a laptop cart to enable student research, flip cams to allow students to film if they decide so, iLife software to edit the videos, and the student's school assigned Google accounts to enable access to the online tools.

The Sites tool will host a site created and designed by the teacher. It will contain three main sections, a home page with a description of the site's purpose, developmental disabilities, and mental wellness. The latter two are the two that will swap student groups. These two main categories will contain sub pages listing their appropriate disabilities. It is here where the students will publish their work. Enabling the site to become a central resource containing all of the information regarding any topic covered in the course.

The students will be granted edit rights to the site, that way their group can make edits to corresponding page. Sites will allow multiple users to make edits simultaneously, this is optimal for this type of project, where there are different groups, in different classes, at different paces. The course will run every four weeks. The way to reset the website would be to create site and page templates that can be applied to the site to start fresh. In order to keep an archive of the work from a previous rotation, the site can be copied entirely onto another with a different URL, thus enabling the work to still be accessible via a descriptive URL. The main site that will be rebooted every four weeks will maintain the original URL. To provide students an easier to remember URL, a URL shortening service, such as Bit.ly, will be used.

Every four weeks, this process will be repeated, using the Google Apps for Education platform. The plan is to provide training during the second week of their research on how to edit the site, this will provide students some knowledge as to what to expect once they are ready to publish. I should be able to implement the project within the duration of this course, CEP812. As the course will rotate at least twice during this time.

As the project is implemented, I will analyze how the students collaborate in assigning roles and infuse creativity into their topic page using different types of media.

Thoughts and expectations:

While I have some experience with Google Apps at our school, this will most likely be the more intensive project because of the time restraint, and the number of different student groups that will need to be supported. The success of this plan will be measured in the interaction that the students experience with both each other and their research content. I have piloted individual portfolio websites for our ninth grade class, and that has shown promise as they have added their own content. Though this will be a true test as many different content from different perspectives will be housed under a single site.


Resources:

Here are some links regarding Google Apps for Education, and some examples of Sites in use.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/
http://edu.googleapps.com/
http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153055
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRYRbPCHTck

Funny Thing Happened With Technology

Technology in the classroom is a great way to support student learning. In my funny moment, shared in the link below, I like to think it helped focus a student's attention to be more productive :)




Podcast link: https://www.msu.edu/~gonza473/funnymomentcast.mp3

Here it is embedded, to play from this site.

FunnyMomentCast by agonzalezojeda


You may also subscribe to my podcasts via iTunes. Copy the following link into your iTunes, or other podcatcher:

feeds.feedburner.com/AlejandroGonzalezCepCoursesBlog

Short Biocast

In this first week of session one of course 812, we were exposed to the many different types of casting. Here is a link to my short bio in form of a video cast. I used a mix between Garageband for audio recording and editing, ScreenFlow to record my cast, and Mozilla Firefox for the webclips.
I went a little overboard with the transitions, but only to show some that are available in ScreenFlow.

Here is my clip, enjoy.


http://msu.edu/~gonza473/ScreenCastSession1.mov

CEP 811 Reflection

Robert Wechsler, School desk, chrome rear view mirror, 2004

CEP 811 opened up my eyes to different aspects of teaching with technology. Incredible insights into effective teaching strategies were shared with us and gave me the ability to practice some of these in implementing technology with the teachers I support. The theories and guidelines that have made an impact in my approach to integration, have been with initially assessing what the needs, objectives and goals are of the lessons and outcomes for both the teachers and students. With the UDL guidelines, I learned how to open up the lesson plans to a wider audience, and in doing so providing students with different learning styles to take advantage of the content in a way that best fits them.

Along with UDL, web technologies have offered me a way to better evaluate what is best for different students and teachers. Having used the various platforms such as social networks, blogs, glogs, wikis and webquests, allows me to better suggest a platform for teachers depending on their content and overall style of teaching. Getting to know these platforms, along with the different teaching strategies, empowers me to know how it is best to deploy in a classroom depending on the class demographics. 

With these things in mind and newer knowledge about best practices and expectations, I have been equipped with more resources that have furthered my understanding about edtech strategies and tools than when I first began this course. As a main support for technology at the school I support, It has been very valuable to me to acquire to benefit both my students and teachers, and the overall improvement of the school's learning environment.

By taking these new methods and strategies, I would like to keep advancing my understanding of lesson design. I think I can improve as a resource for teachers if I have a better understanding of how they expect their lessons to unfold in their classrooms. I would like to plan some more time to meet with teachers and assess their current lessons and activities, to see how I could help improve them and learn from their experiences with successes and failures.

Tools and Functions

Ethernet Noose by Dan Solo http://www.flickr.com/photos/donsolo/2855854548/

My experience so far with applying technology in an educational environment has lead me to the conclusion that in order for the technology to impact the student's learning, it needs a well structured lesson plan and adequate supporting content for it to stand on. While technology plays an important role in what is used to interact and engage the students, it is not necessarily the motivation or the how and why it is used in a specific content area. The class and content goals would dictate the latter. With that in mind, it is easier to narrow down the options of what technologies are able to help us achieve these goals. It would help determine which online or offline tools will help in innovating a lesson that will motivate the students into cooperating to achieve learning.
As a technology coordinator, my role has been to study the different arrays of technologies available, and help facilitate instructors in incorporating the appropriate one into their lessons and help improve the students develop their skills. So far my contributions have been in multiple content areas, each requiring different functions from technology. One size does not always fit all, therefore I keep an open mind when suggesting technologies, but maintain objectivity to ensure the lesson's goal is not blurred by the bells and whistles of the "tool".

Each of the resources mentioned in the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline have offered me, at one point or another, a platform on which to help teachers plan engaging activities in their different content areas. Wikis and electronic portfolios have been the two that I believe have been more effective. Wikis, in my experience, have been a great way for students to participate in collaborative group work, where they engage their content directly by doing research, organizing content, and publishing their cumulative work. This has specially been helpful in science courses. The electronic portfolio has been a way for students to publish their best and strongest proof of their work. Using Google Sites has facilitated this at my school, allowing each student to initiate a log of their work from when they enroll, until they graduate. Currently this is implemented in ninth grade, where students incorporate work from various content areas, although it primarily promotes literacy and reinforces knowledge taught in their English course.

Through the use of wikis and electronic portfolios, teachers can practice a multitude of strategies. Scaffolding is an important part of wikis, where students are made to think further about the topics they are involved in, and synthesize from their research and experiences. It is also a great way for students to work on similarities and differentiation from their research, a great way to help them compile their final thoughts on a topic. In helping students design and create their online portfolio, modeling and independent instruction are prevalent as teaching strategies. Modeling to the class by either metaphoric or by hands-on example are common ways to broadcast the information to large groups, while independent instruction is more effective for those target students that need additional attention. Both are teaching strategies that are familiar to non-tech teaching.

I am not sure that there is a specific resource listed that would be harder to implement from the other. Each online resource has a different function and might not fit all required aspects of a specific content. Since I float around from one content area to another, I have to assess the strengths and weaknesses depending on whichever content I am focused on at the moment. Though for all intents and purposes, I would say that online projects in general offer obstacles. Whatever the platform, wiki, online research, online simulations, or interactive online collaborations all offer their own characteristics that can come with obstacles that can make it hard to incorporate initially.  Planning how to educate the students on their proper uses and practices would be a key component in deciding which tool is the more difficult to implement. By focusing on the needs of the content area, it is more possible to better choose the right tools for the job. Hence, not allowing to get wrapped up in a technological noose over instruction.

Wikis

Wikis have become an incredibly popular term in the ed tech community, and at first it was a something that educators steered their students away from as valid references, because of the lack of authenticity. Though as time has passed the security measures taken to ensure that the information is valid, have changed the way some educators look at these resources. While the wiki plays two roles at once, a collaboration platform and an information resource, it also promotes some much more important principles, honor and trust. The ability to be, if I may, "open-sourced", makes the users rely solely on trusting one another with both their work, and their credibility.

I personally use wikis as both a source of information, and a way to allow students and teachers to work together on common projects.

Here are a few screen captures of this week's labs:

The university I attended before MSU had a focus on computer science degrees, though they have now expanded their academic reach by opening a charter high school with curriculum centered around technology. I visited the university's wiki page, and saw that there were no links to their new venture, so I added it under "External links". Here is a link to the page: Coleman University's Wiki

Without link

Wikipedia's "Edit Page" interface

New "External link" added

I chose to create a new PB workspace as I have used it a bit in the past. Hopefully I will keep adding more material to this new one. http://mrgonzalezedtech.pbworks.com

UDL

Learning about UDL this week was an incredible mind opening experience. I particularly loved how we dove into how the brain works and how it processes different types of information and how it is vital that this is taken into account when creating a lesson plan to engage a diverse student population with varying learning styles and disabilities.

I enjoyed revising my lesson plan and seeing where it could improve to provide a better experience to these diverse learners. Here is a link to my check list listing where I think the lesson is strong and where it lacks strength.

http://msu.edu/~gonza473/GuidelineEdChklstAGonzalez.doc