Unit 6: Academic Search Engines

When it comes to using search engines, everyone has their preference--usually Google, Bing or Yahoo, right? These metasearch giants are great for pulling together a huge number of hits very quickly about any topic you can possibly throw at it-- it seems like there is something on the internet about literally everything. This can be a great thing for me-- an adult who is capable of discerning between an appropriate outlet for information and less credible options. But what about when I want my 9th graders to search the internet for resources? I certainly think it's important for them to be able to decide which sources are appropriate or not, but I know realistically that their impulsive teenage minds will be drawn to the hit that is listed first not necessarily the hit that is the best.

Enter SweetSearch. This search engine is designed for users age 13+ and offers results from 35,000  websites that are prescreened for credibility and appropriateness, according to Common Sense Media's review of the site. The reason I really like SweetSearch is that, when I searched 'how to solve quadratic equations' on the site, it offered several video tutorials at the top of the list, followed by sites with recognizable domain names like PurpleMath.com. No Wikipedia results, only actual math sites, which is pretty cool. Internet research etiquette aside, another reason I like SweetSearch for my students is that there's no opportunity for students to...accidentally... stumble  upon images or materials that are not school appropriate. You can search "the most boring math concepts" on Google and still get a picture of something inappropriate, it seems. That being said,  CSM's review does disclose that some of the prescreened websites are scholarly articles about controversial topics like drugs and sex. For that reason, I would recommend this search engine for an older audience who should still continue to use good judgement in choosing their sources.

There are many other student-centered search engines available, but SweetSearch was my favorite because of it's ease of use, video results, and age appropriateness for my students.

If you are a teacher looking for a good alternative to Google for your students, Common Sense Media has many options that you can filter by age range here.

Unit 5: Digital Images

This unit's technology implement is digital images. To me, the most obvious way to use this in my classroom is as a tool for students to summarize math concepts. Below is an example of a flowchart that has been floating around in my brain for several months, since the unit we taught this year on solving quadratic equations. I think the product that I've made would be a good tool to include in their interactive notebooks (still on paper, playing with the idea of using OneNote in the future) for reference when we practice solving, but I think a better use of the technology would be to let kids create their own infographics for other students-- a product that explains a process or attributes of a math concept. When we talk about levels of thought, being able to describe a process is a higher level than actually following the steps of the process, so this is another step in the direction of meeting the ISTE standards we talk about in class-- being creative in math through technology. I think it would be really cool to do a math-themed "public service announcement" with these.

I created this one using Easelly app on my iPad but I believe they have a browser interface as well. It was super easy to use one of the pre-fab templates, but I also had the option to start from scratch.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear ideas about how you would/have/would want to use something like this in class or in your professional world.  

Unit 4: Podcast

Note: Note: you can’t do things like 15+6 = 21. You have to use the four operations as ‘binary’ operations: ((1+5)*6)7.

Hey everyone! So this unit focused on podcasts as an instructional tool. I'll be very honest-- I was not super excited about this. I actually felt kind of nervous making the podcast and it took my a little bit of time to research how I could use this in my own classroom. Those of you who know me know that I love to talk about everything, so it should have been right up my alley but I wanted the podcast to be math focused. After some digging around, I decided on using the podcast as a supplement to instruction rather than a main focus in the form of a weekly math riddle. My idea is that this can be incorporated into my classes digital "presence" and can encourage students to participate digitally in discussions and such.

AFTER making the podcast (which was super easy by the way), now I'm excited to try this in real life :) Obviously this project is teacher-centered-- I made the podcast for the students, but I can see it being used as another way for students to communicate their ideas and contribute to classroom discussions. That being said, using Audacity to make the podcast took some Googling skills to figure out how to add an audio track, how to turn the music volume down and amplify the speech, but honestly it wasn't anything that your average 9th grader couldn't also google and figure out. I like the idea of NOT giving them a lot of instruction on how to use Audacity or PodOMatic, just directing them to those sources and letting them explore. I sometimes tend to over-direct when it comes to these sort of things, especially if I'm worried about time constraints; but there is definitely value in just setting the students loose and letting them figure it out on their own.

I also like this idea because it didn't take long for me to make. It means I'll be more likely to maintain use throughout the year if its not a huge burden to make and publish, so that's awesome.

Let's hear your thoughts on classroom pod-casting!! How could you use it in your classroom? Have you done something like this before? Did you figure out the answer to the riddle?

Unit 3: Digital Publishing

So this unit's technology implementation is digital publishing-- something I was really excited to play around with. I have no used this in my classroom, but can see so many different applications for it, especially as we try to shift to a project-based learning approach.

Several different outlets for digital publishing were offered, none of which I had any experience using. I chose to use Canva.com because of it's easy sign-up and drag-and-drop feature. The other resources all looked cool, but some of them seemed more complicated to use than others. One of them even required a download, which I wouldn't be comfortable with using in my classroom. Canva is easy to get on and start using right away. It comes with a wide variety of fonts and templates, too, so all of my students' projects won't be identical :)

The product I created as an example is a derivative of a IB-aligned project I did with 7th and 8th graders during my student teaching experience. As far as project-based learning goes, it was my first attempt but it actually went REALLY well. Back then, their projects were handed in on paper and I still have a few student samples packed away somewhere... I would definitely do this project again in my 9th grade class, but would incorporate a digital product element, for sure. In terms of authentic learning, it meets all of the requirements:

• Real world problem-solving- check
• Using marketable tech skills and building digital citizenship - check
• Opportunity to build portfolio and for metacognative reflection on learning experience - check, check
• Aligned to math, process, and technology TEKS - triple check

The idea for this project would be that you give the students the project overview and rubrics at the beginning of the linear equations/systems unit so that they know where their learning is headed. Then, as you work through the skills required to complete the project, you tie those elements in as you go. 10 minutes at the end of class is enough time to say, "at this point, you should be able to write an equation that models the cost of purchasing the item you plan to sell at your fundraiser". Their exit ticket is having their equations checked before they walk out of the room. 

From an education standpoint, this is perfect because the students immediately apply what they've learned to an actual problem and they get immediate feedback and the opportunity to fix mistakes before they turn in their final deal. From a teacher responsibility standpoint, this is also PERFECT. Grading the projects is done over the course of the unit, rather than trying to grade 130 full projects at once, you get to informally and formally assess your students' learning along the way, you can differentiate your class based on project progress. SO MANY THINGS. 

But I digress. The culmination of the project is that the students proudly and professionally display their work using Canva or some other digital publisher. The final projects can be posted in Schoology, on the schools website, on paper in the hallway, and in their portfolios. They take pride and ownership of their learning in a really incredible way-- something they can show off and look back on as a time they were successful in math, much more so than they could with a test they got a good grade on. 

Here is the Canva I made to introduce the project-- not so much a student sample, but an overview/ model of a final project. 

System of Equations Project

Unit 2: Online Assessments

Hey everyone! Thanks again for your awesome responses to my post about blogging! This next unit we are covering in class focuses on Online Tests & Assessment. Those of you who work at CTHS are very familiar with this concept as we use online assessments via Schoology very frequently.

==> One thing I would love to hear your thoughts on is how you feel about assessing online vs. assessing on paper. This is something I go back and forth on all the time, especially when it comes to math. 

We were given a list of potential assessment platforms to discuss this week and I decided to choose one that I hadn't used before: ClassMarker. I chose this one specifically because it offers the option to generate an embed code that I can use to insert an assessment into my Schoology window. 

Link to Product

Please click here to take the quiz

In making the quiz, I liked the ease of use and ability to customize a lot of elements of the test, as well as being able to give my students access to the quiz via embedding or via link. However, there were a lot of features (some of which come for free in Schoology) that I could not use with the standard free account. Being that teachers are not the wealthiest of professionals, it seems like a bad business model to not provide these features for free...because I would rather not use ClassMarker.com than pay for ClassMarker.com or any other assessment resource. Even TeachersPayTeachers kind of rubs me the wrong way-- we are all poor, can't we just share? But I digress...

Here are some screenshots of my test building experience. The first is a picture of all of the features that I CAN'T do because I'm too cheap to upgrade:

The biggest downer for me here is the inability to import questions into my test bank from an external program. I CAN do this in Schoology and it is the best (especially because Schoology's equation writing interface is the worst). If I have to type question after question into ClassMarker by hand...that's going to take forever and I already don't want to use this service again. Additionally, another feature I use heavily in Schoology is the feedback option, another premium ClassMarker add-on. I like being able to provide immediate feedback for students on questions so that they don't get a question wrong and wonder why (and obviously they don't ask me about it later). I wanted to put a question with a graph in the quiz, but guess what....uploading images is a premium feature. K bye. 

As for the actual building of the test, it wasn't hard but I kept my math language as simple as could be. If I needed to type word problems or complex equations, this would not have worked for me. I did like that it printed the students scores at the end with time stamps. I have found that having a printed record of how long a student spends on an assignment is excellent documentation for when their parent calls about their grade. This student earned a 33% but as you can see, only spent 19 seconds total on 3 questions, so... draw your own conclusions here.

 Thankfully, being able to customize the number of tries the student has is a FREE feature (finally!). I would be super excited, but this is obviously also a feature of Schoology.

All things said and done, if you are a teacher who is just starting out with blended learning, doesn't use Schoology, or just wants to give a quick online assessment with no frills then ClassMarker could be a great tool. As long as you don't need to save the results or have them e-mailed to you. For me-- someone who is stingy as well as more well-versed in online learning platforms, this resources is a little irrelevant. 

I can see how this site might also work outside of education for professional training sessions. A business is better situated financially to upgrade to the premium features. Their assessments could potentially be dynamic and embedded within their training modules as checkpoints in the training process. 

Thanks again for participating-- basking in the glow of your intelligent responses and generosity :) 

Until next week, 

Maggie

Unit 1: Blogging

Introduction
First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to look at and analyze my assignment. As many of you know, I'm currently working towards my Masters degree in Instructional Technology & Design, and this assignment is part of an ongoing series of posts about technology implementation in K-12 education. We are taking a community-based approach to this discussion and value any input, thoughts, comments, or critiques you have to offer regarding the product offered in each unit.

This week's unit focuses on blogging as a classroom tech implementation. I remember having a personal blog when I was in high school (and still naively under the impression that my posts were private...). It offered an outlet for me to express myself in a more thoughtful way than just having a conversation with a friend or parent. The idea behind using blogs in the classroom follows the same thought process-- students will have the opportunity to thoughtfully reflect on their learning as well as their personal experiences throughout the course of a lesson or project.

What we know about learning has evolved a lot since the time when I was in high school and the direction of educational theory and practice has shifted to incorporate technology in a way that provides students with a more "authentic" learning experience; in other words, teaching  students core content through real-world experiences. This is a grand departure from the direct instruction model of learning that most of us experienced in school, but we know now that giving students the opportunity to use the skills we want them to learn and also reflect on their own learning significantly deepens their understanding of those topics and also builds problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Technology Product - Click here
My product for this week focuses on encouraging students to express their mathematical ideas and engage in meaningful discussion with their teachers and peers. I think that students in math classes often have performance anxiety that makes verbally contributing in class a very scary activity. By bringing the discussion to a place where they can think first, communicate, and edit their responses before sharing will take away some of that anxiety.

The product will be a unit-by-unit math journal component, where each student will make a reflection post at the culmination of every unit of instruction. Each post will incorporate a teacher-supplied prompt or selection of prompts to which the student must respond, as well as a fully articulated reflection portion. The posts will be graded on a standardized rubric or rubrics that the students will have access to while constructing their responses. An example of the content rubric is offered below:

After viewing the sample blog above, I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and suggestions below. If you are a classroom teacher, have you used something like this in your classroom before? Is it something you would consider using? What changes would you make? If you are not a classroom teacher, I still want to know what you think! How might an activity like this have changed your own learning experience? 

Thank you so much for your participation!