Patterns…Patterns Everywhere! Part One

Explorers embarked on expeditions across land, oceans, up and down rivers and over mountains. One of the glaring patterns that can be seen here is that explorers found hardships with geographical obstacles. Whether it be the Atlantic Ocean, which explorers say was teaming with sea monsters let alone the brutal water conditions, or the the rugged terrain of Westward Expansion explorers hardly had a simple navigation. Weather, terrain, and obstacles certainly proved to hinder some expeditions. This particular pattern allows us to see that explorers were adventurous, courageous, brave and a slew of other character traits.

Another pattern that explorers dealt with was Native Americans. Explorers who came to North America routinely ran into natives. Encounters ranged from a simple acknowledgement to bloodshed. Depending on the date, explorer, and location the encounters were either helpful or far from it. Explorers were able to trade and learn new tasks whereas other explorers were out for blood or found it. Regardless of the outcome, the pattern remains that explorers dealt with natives.

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.desktopimages.org/preview/222873/2560/1600/o

Perceiving Lewis and Clark Expedition

Perceiving an object, topic, or idea is one of many tools used for understanding. Synthesizing, a neurological term,  allows us to experience multiple sensations at once. Pondering the idea of synthesizing and perception while zeroing in on one topic opens the door for creativity.

A topic of interest is the Lewis an Clark expedition. Lewis and Clark were assigned the task of exploring westward and detailing what they saw in journals. An initial observation brought about a few things. First, I felt the fear of the unknown adventure they were to embark on. I also felt excitement as they were the first to travel westward in an attempt to document everything they saw. Sensory experiences fell between the smell of the open jungle they explored through to the sights of untouched, uncivilized land. Lewis and Clark were asked to document their findings in journals. It is at this point where I began to re-imagine their expedition.

Lewis and Clark were far from spelling bee champions but could have received a solid B+ in art class. They were tasked with drawing and documenting everything they saw. For example, the first time they saw an animal they were supposed to draw it and describe it. This task is most certainly not an easy one. Perceiving this task brought me to two re-imagined conclusions. The first is that Lewis and Clark were the inventors of a game most of us have all played before. They were on a Pictionary Expedition. I imagined that they were given a real life scenario of Pictionary. Instead of getting the card that tells what them what to draw they were simply given the object and told to draw it for the first time. Then, once they came back from their expedition it became a giant game of Pictionary trying to determine what each drawn object is. The second is that Lewis and Clark were playing Exploration GO (a Pokemon Go remake). They were walking and traveling around in the wilderness looking for anything and everything. They were trying to capture images in pictures of everything they saw and kept them in journals (similar to the Pokedex in Pokemon Go).

Ultimately, perceiving something such as the Lewis and Clark expedition in a new way is quite entertaining. In an attempt to get creative as possible the mind travels in many directions. For once, that is a good thing. Doors are opened and new ideas flow through. I found that contemplating over the idea over a long period of time helped me sort through the stuff that didn’t really make sense and aided in coming up with the information above.

 

 

 

How do I Love Thee? Veja Du…

Here are my three pictures. Happy guessing!

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Passion and Curiosity

 

Wicked Problem Solutions

Throughout the last three weeks we have been discussing our wicked problem projects. Balancing our connected and unconnected lives in regards to technology has been an interesting topic to discuss. The discussions we had in our Think Tanks were creative and effective.  Discussion was fueled mostly by questioning the wicked problem at hand. Once the data was complete, the surveys were out and the presentation was complete it almost seemed as though we had been working side by side rather than miles apart. With Zoom sessions and Google software communication was simple and effective.

One of the first steps to this project was to conduct research and create an infographic. The experience was intriguing because the wicked problem we have is so prevalent in the modern world. Technology has consumed the minds and time of young adults and my infographic made that clear. The process behind the infographic was to simply ask the questions without prompting solutions. This process was ideal because it provided sufficient time and resources to dive deeper into the wicked problem we are facing.

After doing research, creating surveys, and designing presentations it became clear that their are certainly some solutions. In order to find a balance in our connected lives we must first bridge the gap of generational differences. Older generations are generally more put off by technology and use it far less whereas the younger generations embrace technology and use it far more. To create a balance, my group created a wicked problem solution multimodal presentation. In this presentation we discuss just how to balance our connected or unconnected lives.

Click here to see our wicked problem solution!

InfoDiet/Multimodel Element

After adding new resources to my information diet I began to see instant impact from the LEARN and EXPLORE sections of Week Five. These sections dive right into the limitations put on technology as  result of affinity spaces/filter bubbles and the mindless consumption of information.   While perusing the new twitter feeds I added to my information diet, I found that filter bubbles had an effect on the information I was seeing both on the twitter feeds I was looking at and on the ads that accompany the site. For example, I found that ads were geared toward professional sports teams that I like to watch as well as things I have searched for on Amazon or ebay. In his video, Beware: Online “Filter Bubbles”, Pariser (2011) claims, “There are 57 signals that Google looks at to personally tailor your inquiry results.” Pariser (2011) is alluding to the fact that technology has algorithms that affect our search engines regardless of consent. I found this rhetoric to apply while searching for new twitter feeds to add to my information diet. In addition to recognizing the effects of filter bubbles, I found correlation to the mindless consumption of information as well. According to a video, The Economist Interview, Nicholas Carr states, “ There have been studies that show that simply finding a new piece of information, regardless of what is, releases dopamine in our brains. Dopamine is fundamentally a pleasure producing chemical to encourage us to do whatever activity it is that produced the initial surge of dopamine.” Regardless of the topic, I found that I can consume information regarding educational technology for hours simply because it sparks my interest with little knowledge that I neurologically had no control over what I was doing.

 

It never ceases to amaze how technology can add the smallest of insights that have the biggest of impacts. This week’s LEARN and EXPLORE sections has challenged me as an enrolled graduate student in an Educational Technology field to think more critically towards technology. There is a case to be had for the pros and the cons of technology. On one hand we have the positive affects of technology. When I think of the filter bubbles previously discussed I think that they can be a good thing. Filter bubbles open opportunities to uniquely personalized technology experiences. However, the negative as seen is the video by Pariser(2011) is that information can be filtered out of our technology experiences as well. Previous to this week’s lesson I am not sure that I take into account the positive and negative effects of filter bubbles on this wicked problem of the internet.

 

My PLN has always been a wonderful resource. First off, they are mostly educators with more experience than I so their words of wisdom are like gold to me. I have utilized my PLN numerous times. Most recently, I have been discussing with my grade level team our plans for this upcoming year in regards to planning, events, and other school related details. They have helped with my wicked problem project by completing a survey that helps me to understand more about balancing our connected and unconnected lives. I also use them for things outside of the school realm such as personal advice so they are well used and very helpful. I seem to add to my PLN on a daily basis. Whether it is a new teacher at the school, a new friend I meet out somewhere, or a new social media feed I follow I try to add to my PLN consistently. When adding new members I try to be diverse. For example, I try to find the devil’s advocate to everything I enjoy solely because I try to understand both sides of the coin in an unbiased way. It goes back to the idea of mindless consumption detailed previously. All in all, utilizing and adding to my PLN is a daily occurrence.

https://prezi.com/embed/disz7gkr7g6m/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI5eW9TSlBYeGZsWWxaOXhjc01vNTVHOVBBPT0&landing_sign=-HXittJXEtglphh6u1SDl0z6EA9LwsG8RjzQuI4c3X0

 

Question Formulation Technique

Chapter Two of Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question poses questions in regards to why we stop questioning. There are numerous answers and they may all be correct. However, I wanted to focus on an interesting topic that I came across. Berger (2014) describes Boston area high school teacher Ling-Se Peet’s lesson using the Right Question Institute’s “Question Formulation Technique”. He begins by givers her students a provocative statement: Torture can be justified. The lesson goes on to allow small groups to create questions from a variety of angles. The students come up with a great amount of questions. The part of the lesson that struck me as fascinating can be found on page sixty-one of Berger (2014). Berger states (2014), “Then the students were directed to the second stage of the exercise: They were instructed to change open questions to closed ones, and vice versa…”. Students are exposed to a multitude of standards across the board that allows them to express their creativity, cognitive skills, and social skills. The lesson is designed beautifully in a way that it levels the cognitive playing field. According to Berger (2014), “You don’t have to know the answer to ask a question, so the smart kids don’t dominate.” Rothstein and Santana of the Right Question Institute observed the lesson and stressed the importance of constantly moving the discussion forward. Berger (2014) writes, “They feel it is not enough to encourage students to toss out questions endlessly; to question effectively, they must learn how to analyze their own questions and zero in on ones they would like to pursue further.” This lesson provides higher order critical thinking, ownership of work, and inference skills that will undoubtedly apply to in-and-out of school experiences.

 

As a fifth grade language arts teacher I can relate to this lesson. However, I can only wish to be as effective as this lesson was. Berger (2014) states, “By the end of the session, Rothstein observed, some of the kids “looked spent”. When students are visibly spent you know you just taught a good lesson. This lesson relies heavily on inferencing skills. In my district, end of grade exams consist of fifty-six percent inferencing skills. Regardless of the passage, students can bank on having a few inferencing questions. The part that I loved about the lesson above is the connection between open ended questions and closed ended questions through hands on experience. Students are secretly scaffolded into a lesson that cannot be taught verbally. They can see the connection between a right there in the text question and an inferencing question. I happen to find teaching inferencing to be one of, if not, the hardest standard to teach. The lesson above creates a scenario for students to use the skill and apply it. I can count on one hand how many times in my two years of teaching that my students looked visibly spent. The students were so engaged and intrigued by the lesson that it made learning easy.  

 

Sources:

Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA.

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2016, from https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZVceV8SV6IJ9WOY0W6fZ5YNACcg-dCQ6TMsPJh_a7Xls-r5S85Bdz2A

 

Week One – Problems of Practice

Students with learning disabilities may have trouble keeping quiet, sitting still, or keeping their desk from looking like a garbage can.  Learning disabilities open the door to frustration and disappointment. However, with the right tools and the right attitude educators can take that frustration and turn it into fun, engaging learning.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can be marked by difficulty paying attention, remembering information or completing tasks on time.  Students with ADHD may have significant problems with executive functions that cause attention deficits, hyperactivity, or developmentally inappropriate behaviors. According to G.W. Lauth et al (2006) ” An intervention study done by Dupaul and Rapport (1993) found that children with ADHD participates in 55.7% while the control students participated in 80.3% of the lessons.” Students with ADHD may struggle to put what is in their mind onto paper. They have millions of ideas and thoughts bouncing around their brains, yet, they struggle to get them out in an organized way.  This kind of problem is called an ill structured or complex problem. An ill structured problem as defined by Spiro, Coulson, Feltovich and Anderson (2004) states that ” ill-structured problems involve a whole bunch of important variables that must be considered, in context, at the same time. The solution, in the end, will require the application of a set of variables in whatever way makes sense, given the situation, but probably not in the same way they were applied previously, even to problems that, ostensibly, are “the same” type of problem.” Educators present students will ill-structured problems on a daily basis. Reading, writing, arithmetic, learning a new sport and even creating art can all open the door to an ill structured problem. For example, writing has unlimited solutions, yet, can cause complex problems that require simultaneous consideration of multiple variables. When addressing students with ADHD, students struggle to get organized and stay focused while completing the task. Combining thoughts inside the students brain and getting them onto a piece of paper can cause havoc and frustration for a student struggling with ADHD.

Technology has taken the world of education by storm with apps, tools, and SMART technology. As previously stated, students with ADHD struggle to maintain organization in their efforts. Citelighter has tools that help students do just that. Citelighter states that their program will help  ” Eliminate those blank screen blues. Simply drag and drop your thoughts and watch as a perfectly organized outline appears to help you see the Big Picture before you start composing.” This is an effective tool for those ADHD students who struggle with numerous thoughts and organization. The program allows you to collect all the thoughts, ideas, and concepts in one organized place. Once all the ideas are written down, a student with ADHD would be able to collect them and compose a far more organized paper.  Also, Citelighter can help keep a students with ADHD on track for an assignment. Using the Instant Replay feature students can see how they approached a particular assignment. Students with ADHD often struggle to keep organized, however, Citelighter will allow the educator to input a template that the students can type right into holding their organization.

Below, you can watch a screencast to see how Citelighter will help students with ADHD with this ill structured problem.

CiteLighter Video

Sources:

Lauth, W. G., G. B. Heubeck, and K. Mackowiak. “Observation of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity (ADHD) Problems in Three Natural Classroom Contexts.” British Journal of Educational Psychology 76.2 (2006): 385-404. ProQuest. Web. 12 July 2015.

Spiro, R.J., Coulson, R.L., Feltovich, P.J. & Anderson, D.K. (2004). Cognitive flexibility theory: Advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In R.B. Ruddell, N.J. Unrau (Eds). Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (5th Ed., pp 640-659). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Creativity in Assessments

As an educator charged with the assessment of student learning, I would assess creative problem solving during maker-inspired lessons in the following ways…

Assessment of student learning comes in many shapes, forms, and sizes. Rarely do we see creativity on a rubric or summative assessment. In order to assess creativity in Maker education, we must first define how we are going to assess such a broad, opinionated topic. What I may see as a creative idea may be seen as a bland idea to someone else. Grant Wiggins states that “students easily understood the difference between “engaging” and “not engaging” and accepted the assessment criterion as common sense.” When looking at Maker Education I believe that is important for the end product to be engaging. It should invite the reader or viewer in. I also believe that Maker Education should follow a Likert Scale that way we can clearly outline what we are looking for in a detailed manner.

The design of these assessments is justified by the following connections to learning theories, and/or to the ideas presented by Wiggins, Isselhardt and Gee…

Wiggins speaks about impact over content and process. He states “The point in any performance is to cause the appropriate effects in a performance, i.e. achieve the purpose of the performance.(Wiggins 2012)” Educators would seemingly be unanimous in saying that the end of game is more about the impact on the learner rather than the process  or content pedagogy. If a student fully understands a lesson their creativity will do all the talking.

Isselhardt speaks to transforming a regular curriculum to a full blown school wide PBL process. He speaks about what they have learned after the first week of the study and I thought to myself that during Maker Ed, this is just as important with students as it is staff. Isselhardt states (Isselhardt, 2011) “Throughout any given project, we must be able to informally touch base at any time.” Collaboration amongst teachers during Maker Ed must have constant feedback and communication. However,  I think it is just as important to have conferences with students during Maker Ed as well. We need to be able to relay exactly what we are looking for and allow a students creativity to take the lead in their learning.

James Paul Gee discusses videogames and their correlation to creativity. When listening to his Youtube video on Grading with Games I was touched by his comparison to a video game manual and an assessment. He speaks about how when reading a video game manual he felt as if he was reading a textbook. That is the last thing you want when trying to figure out how to play a game! You are most likely already frustrated and upset and when you turn for help you are directed to a textbook. I think it is important that we speak to the terms that our students will understand. Yes, we can push for instructional level and I am 110% about challenging my students. I just want to make sure that we aren’t confusing them when they need help the most.

Citations:

Isslehardt, E. (2013, February 11). Creating Schoolwide PBL Aligned to Common Core [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/PBL-aligned-to-common-core-eric-isslehardt

Wiggins, G. (2012, February 3). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/on-assessing-for-creativity-yes-you-can-and-yes-you-should/

Info Graphic for How and Why to Implement Maker Education

Maker Education should be used in education. Attached in the info graphic,  you will see 3 reasons why Maker Ed should be implemented. Reason one is simply the creativity that comes with the kits and Maker Ed materials. Students have the ability to use creativity to fuel their learning and understanding. Sir Ken Robinson states  “My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” Reason two deals with immediate feedback. In Maker Ed, feedback is given immediately. For example, Circuit Stickers has a kit that enables you to create circuitry to light up LED lights. Instantly you will know if your creation has flaws. If it your creation does not have flaws, you are still given feedback when the light is illuminated. The final reason why Maker Ed should be implemented is that Maker Kits provide hands on learning. Ben Franklin knew how important hands on learning was long before it was immersed with education. He states “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

If Maker Ed is implemented into a curricula it must be done carefully. Most importantly, teachers should go to workshops, visit websites, YouTube, Pinterest, Tweet, or even explore Facebook to in turn learn how to use Maker Ed to positively affect their students. It is equally important that teachers relate Maker Ed to their standards and create an individualized plan to attack implementing this movement.

You can see my info graphic here: http://easel.ly/infographic/tyxw3r

Reference list:

Creativity in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://cupublic.chw.org/media/BestPractices/BPClinicalEducation/Creativity.html

Makey Makey – An Invention Kit for Anyone. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f082/

Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/482800022524013384/

Raspberry Pi Accessories. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.farnell.com/pi/

What, How and Why People Share on Social Media [Infographic]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/why-people-share-social-media-infographic/201546