Jenni’s Blog

Valenza’s article opened my eyes to the fact that even though I know a lot about using technology in the classroom, there is still a great deal that I don’t.  I didn’t know that there were search engines out there that were leaned toward more “educational” topics and sites.  I knew that my students didn’t always make the best of an internet search, and it showed me that I didn’t always either. 

Our group SIG project was very helpful when it came to finding new strategies for teaching the usual topics.  Educational games, either online or in software, are just another way to reach all the different learners out there.  They work well for some students, but not for others, so you still have to keep a mix of teaching and learning varieties in your lessons.  It was also helpful to get some insight from teachers of other disciplines other than math for a change!

Because of the TechQuest project, I met my goal of learning how to use the Clickers in my classroom.  They will be a great resource for not only lightening my grading load, but for helping me and the students know where help is needed before we get to far into each chapter or unit. 

A goal of mine is to still figure out how to use blogs and/or wikis in my math classes.  My group has given some ideas on how to do this.  Now it is just a matter of me setting up the blog or wiki, and figuring out the logistics of how the students will use it in class and/or at home.  The surveys that we did with Survey Monkey showed me that there are still a great deal of students without computer access at home, so an in class blog or wiki might be my best bet for total student participation.

Even after this class is over with, I will continue to learn about technology in the classroom from the teachers I work with, the MACUL conference and journal, and other professional development opportunities and readings. 

In the short amount of time that I have been using the Clickers, I have partially met my goals.  I am able to grade the quizzes much more quickly, since the program does that for me.  With the immediate feedback, I am able to see right away areas where we need more work, both as a class and for individual students.  What I will have to wait and see on is if the scores improve from chapter 3 to chapter 4, which will take place after the class is over.  This will be hard to evaluate since the material in chapter 4 is tougher than in chapter 3, but they will need to know how to do the skills in chapter 3 to do chapter 4. 

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  • Someone teaching- Using the Clickers has helped me to pinpoint what topics and skills I need to hit the hardest when reviewing.
  • Someone learning- The students will immediately know whether or not they got the questions right and will know themselves what they need to ask for more help on.
  • Some subject matter- Hopefully by catching mistakes students are making early on, they will not repeat them as they use the skills in the chapters that follow.
  • In some setting- The Clickers have made it easy for me to see where the “quiet” students need more help.  The fact that I can tell this quicker from the Clicker quizzes than paper quizzes, helps me get to them faster.  They are usually the students who’d rather suffer in silence than ask for help after class. 

What I am losing by using the Clickers is class time.  It takes longer to give a quiz using the Clickers since you have to wait for everyone to finish before you can move on.  This is class time that could be spent reviewing and moving on.  However, using the Clickers makes it easier for me to know what to review and we are not wasting any time by going over something everyone already understands. 

I gave the following five question survey to my 6^th grade students.

• How did taking the quiz with the clickers make you feel?  Why?

• Did it make you feel different from taking one on paper?  Why?

• When we do the practice questions in class where we raise our hands to answer, would you rather do those with the Clickers?  Why?

• Was taking the quiz with the Clickers harder or easier?  Why?

• Overall, what do you think about the Clickers as a way to learn (and we’re not talking about because they are cool or fun to play with)?  Why? 

My student survey responses:

• Liked it better because you have answers to choose from
• You can take longer to come up with your answer
• The class won’t know if you got something wrong and make fun of you
• You are saving trees by not using paper
• You can go home and work on what you got wrong that night
• No pressure to not be the last one to finish and hand in the quiz
• Some people might not learn well because they will just pick any answer
• Interesting to see what percentage of the class answered what choice

My future plans for this project are to continue using it throughout the school year.  Even if it just helps one student raise their grade, then it is worth it.  There is no money at stake here since the equipment was free for our school.  So unless the students start to abuse the quiz taking situation, the Clickers will be a staple in my math classes. 

My First Podcast

Here are some pictures of my students using the Clickers.

   1. The results of your search 

The result of my clickers research was overwhelmingly positive, both by teachers and students who have used them in the classroom.  Matt Alman, a 2006 MACUL grant recipient, used the grant money for clickers in his classroom.  Alman’s (2007) test “results suggested that using CPS improved the student’s attitudes in class” (p. 41).    It went on to say that, “students felt that using the CPS helped them learn better” (p. 41).  Alman (2007) also stated that tests that he performed with his high school students showed “an overall average gain of 27% from pretests to posttests” (p. 41). 

On the other hand, Margie Martyn also conducted research comparing under graduate college classes that used clickers as an active learning method against those classes that just used class discussion.  Martyn’s (2007) results showed that there was no “statistically significant difference” (p. 73) between the posttest results of two groups.  Although,  according to student survey’s conducted at the end of the course, the group that used the clickers felt that they had learned more from the class than the group who was in the standard class discussion group.

How do students like using clickers as a way to review and start discussions in class?  In a survey done by the University of Milwaukee, the UW-System Clickers Project, students were asked their opinions about using clickers in the classroom.  Some of the responses included:

• They liked seeing what other students responded when they saw the bar graph of responses.
• The clickers helped them stay awake in class.
• They paid more attention and the class was more engaging.
• They felt that they could participate without feeling embarrassed if they got the answer wrong.

Even though these results were from college students, I’m sure that some of the same feelings would apply to my middle school students, especially the comment about being able to answer questions and participate anonymously.  I look forward to comparing my student’s interview responses to those of the college students.

Online I also found a guide from The Ohio State University University with tips for using clickers.  This was very useful for me so that I would know how to approach using the equipment in my classroom.  I had already thought of many of the ideas on the list, but there were some, such as creating good multiple choice questions and discussing the answer options before revealing the correct answer, that will be helpful as I take on this project in my class.

My whole purpose for trying the clickers was to find a more efficient way to give and evaluate math quizzes for my students.  Each article that I read mentioned the fact that one of the benefits of the clicker system was that the “teachers immediately can tell if the class as a whole has learned the material.  If the majority of the class misses the question, the teacher may need to reteach the concept before proceeding to new material” (Conoley, Moore, Croom, and Flowers, 2006, p. 46).

However, what seems to be the bigger benefit is that the students feel more compelled to participate when it is done anonymously and they do not have to worry about being embarrassed if they get the answer wrong.  This type of question and answer session can be more appealing to the shy students, or to the special education students who may already feel out of place in a general education inclusion classroom.  In my own classroom, it is usually those who say the least that need the most help.  And if using this type of system to create a discussion and review something they need more help with, then it is worth the time, effort, and cost to use this resource. 

2. What you learned from performing this search. For example, which search engines did you use?  

I used the search engine Google, the MeL database, and I also searched the MACUL website and Technology & Learning website.

What strategies did you use?

I started out each search by searching clickers, then formative assessment and clickers, student response systems, and finally formative assessment.  When I used the MACUL website, first I did a general search on their site for clickers.  That search did not offer up much, so I went through their online archives to see if there were any articles in their journal about clickers under the name of student response systems.  I did not find anymore than I did on the original search. 

What helped or hindered your search?  

Many of the articles that I found from the Google search just turned out to just be reviews of the different types of clicker systems, or advertisements for buying them.  Plus many of the articles that I found just gave a brief overview of what they were, and not any practical classroom use or advice.  The searches through MeL, MACUL, and Technology & Learning website produced more actual articles and research about the clickers.  There seems to more information out there about using them at the college level, but I did find some more recent articles that discussed their use in elementary and secondary classrooms.

How would you search again next time? 

I would try to use a different search engine that wouldn’t have such a broad area to draw results from, such as one of the search engines that were mentioned in the Valenza article, to see if I could get more articles and journals right off the bat instead of blogs and advertisements.

An educational need or opportunity. This year I went from teaching math to only my homeroom to teaching it to five different classes.  I like to give weekly quizzes to my classes to see how they were doing on a weekly basis instead of just relying on homework, which is hard know if they did it all themselves or had someone help them at home, and a test, where it usually became clear who was having someone at home do their homework for them.  With the weekly quizzes we can review what we are having problems with and hopefully clear up any confusion before we get to the test.  However, the grading of 125 quizzes keeps me from getting the quizzes back to the kids in a timely matter.  By the time we go over them, some have forgotten how they even got to the final answer.  Plus we have already moved on one or two more lessons more.  I need a way to get quizzes graded more quickly so that my students can benefit from why I gave them the quiz in the first place, and correct errors that they are making before they become habits.

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology. I have a classroom set of Clickers that we got during our district math purchase.  I want to use the clickers to give a weekly ten question quiz to each class.  By using the Clickers, the students can see their results immediately, instead of waiting until I get them graded and passed back.  Plus I will have the quizzes graded for me automatically.  Since the answers are given to the class as soon as everyone responds, we can discuss the answer and clear up any misunderstandings right then and there.  You can also set up the Clicker software to import the grades directly to a grading program, saving me even more time that I could use to work on my lesson plans.

Relevant research and resources. From the searches that I have done so far on resources, there is plenty of information out there about using clickers in classrooms.  These are a few of the articles that I have found so far.  There are others out there on ERIC and MeL also that I have found.

·         http://www.theclickergirls.com/Formative_Assessment_Tool.html

·         http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/05/67530

·         http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/07/68086

·         http://0-firstsearch.oclc.org.elibrary.mel.org/WebZ/FSPage?pagetype=return_frameset:sessionid=fsapp14-56658-fmukw18w-rquvpn:entitypagenum=4:0:entityframedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fconnect.educause.edu%2FLibrary%2FEDUCAUSE%2BQuarterly%2FEDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazine%2F40033:entityframedtitle=ERIC:entityframedtimeout=30:entityopenTitle=:entityopenAuthor=:entityopenNumber=:

·         I don’t know anyone in my district that has used Clickers before, but maybe I can get some insight from someone in CEP 812 who has used them to get their point of view.

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.  During the course I will set up the Clickers and use them to give 3 or 4 weekly quizzes when we start the fractions unit the second week of November.  I want to see if these weekly quizzes improve their next test scores from the previous two math tests.  I also hope to learn how to import the grades directly to my grading program during the course, but that might not happen until after the course is over.  Even after the course is over, I will continue to use the Clickers and see if the immediate feedback and frequent checks of their understanding help the students with their overall knowledge of fractions, and the units that follow.

How your project addresses the four common places of education:

Someone teaching As the teacher, I will have to learn how to set up, assign clickers to students, and use the Clickers.  I will also have to figure out how to create and administer the quizzes with the Clickers, test that all the equipment will work from all areas in my classroom, and use the grading software that comes with the Clickers.  I will also have to explain the technology to the students, why we are doing this, how it will benefit them, and how they are to use the equipment.  I will also have to address how efficiently I can get the Clickers passed out and returned during my classes.

Someone learning The students will have to understand that other than our practice quiz, these quizzes are part of their grade so that they have to treat these like they were given on paper.  The topic of exchanging clickers and cheating will be covered.  Also I will need to make sure that students are able to read each question for the TV projection screen from where they sit.  The issue of just guessing on a question instead of working it out will have to be addressed also.

Some subject matter Math builds on what was taught and learned the day before.  Regular assessment is critical to making sure the students understood what we did previously so that they can understand and do today’s lesson.  If a child is getting help with their homework and doesn’t really know how to do the process, then they are not going to do very well on the test.  I think weekly quizzes will help me identify earlier the students who are getting “too much help” at home, and I can get them caught up to speed before they fail a test. 

In some setting I already have the Clickers in my classroom, so the school will not have to pay for me to conduct this research.  My administrators are also very open to using technology in the classroom, so their support will be easy to get. 

Before this year, I only taught math to my homeroom, and now I teach it to five different classes.  Back then, instead of relying only on test scores and daily homework scores, which I didn’t always put much faith into because who knows who is actually doing the work when they take it home to finish, I liked to give weekly or bi-weekly quizzes to see how my students were performing during a unit. 

Now I teach five math classes and have been overwhelmed with the grading of 125 quizzes every one or two weeks.  Plus by the time they are all graded, we have already moved on to the next topic and the kids go a day or two, or sometimes the whole weekend, before they get them back and see how they did.  I think that in order for the quizzes to be effective for the students and myself, they need to see immediate results.  This way both the students and I can start working right away on the areas where they are having problems.  In Brophy’s article, the issue is addressed of how important timely feedback is to students.  “To be useful, practice must involve opportunities not only to apply skills but also to receive timely feedback. Feedback should be informative rather than evaluative, helping students to assess their progress with respect to major goals and to understand and correct errors or misconceptions.”

            I was in my classroom last year for only one year before I had to move up to our middle school.  When I was packing and cleaning out the room, I found a set of Clickers in one of the closets.  From what I have heard about clickers, it seems as though you can create quizzes on them, they can see immediately how well they did on the quiz, and the quiz results from the students are kept in the software.  Plus there is a grade book feature on there that would automatically score, grade, and store the results for each child.  This seems like an opportunity I would like to pursue to see if Clickers would solve my problem of grading their quizzes more quickly so that they can be more useful.

Brabec’s article on teaching strategies for assessment in the classroom supports my idea for regular quizzes with immediate results given to the students.  Brabec says, “Specific, timely, and regular feedback to students enhances their learning. Also, feedback should include an explanation of why an item is correct or incorrect and be criterion referenced. In other words, students should understand where they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill.”  Those concepts can be reached using Clickers to administer my math quizzes in my classes.  With the immediate answer given for each quiz question, we can talk about why someone may have gotten the wrong answer immediately, rather than a day or two later, when a student may not even remember what method they used to get the answer. 

• What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology? I learned that technology can help me with my weaker areas in teaching.  My social studies classes this year are pretty large (30-34 kids) and we tried an in class version of the WebQuest I created for class with just 2 computers and reference materials.  It was hard to get everyone computer time, and the room just got loud from the number of kids working on several different things at once.  I believe that by using my WebQuest for the same type of activity, I could eliminate many of the problems because everyone would have computer access, they’d only be in groups of two and there wouldn’t be any need for them to milling around the room (which can cause much more noise than you’d think)!  It’s also easier to be the facilitator when everyone has all the necessary materials and you don’t have to spend your time making sure everyone is sharing.  Technology can also help you pull off project based learning much more easily since you have the world at your fingertips with the Internet.

• How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?  These projects helped me see that the possibilities of technology use are endless!  When we did our WebQuest evaluation, I saw that there were just so many choices out there.  You can find one on almost any topic and length.  The hard part is researching them all and finding one that makes good use of the technology and is worth your students’ time.  

• How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration? I have started to meet my goals.  I find that I still sometimes use technology in my teaching just to use the technology, and I want to get to the point where I am not doing that at all.  I want everything I do and use to have a purpose.  The StAIR projects opened my eyes to a way to use PowerPoint that I had never thought of before.  I would like to look into more of these types of projects for my math classes next year.  They would be great for center type activities and also for my summer school teaching. 

• Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over? I still want to learn about podcasting in the classroom.  Since I will be teaching all math next year, I want to know if this has a place in my math classes.  I can see its use with language arts and report based assignments, but how about with typical math lessons?  My plan is to do some research online and talk to other teachers about podcasting and for other uses of technology in the classroom.  My membership to MACUL includes opportunities for me to do this through their online resources and print magazine. 

o        Talk about how you could use one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience with your students.  I could use video-conferencing with my students.§         What content could this help you teach? This could be used for all contents.  There are science programs to help with sound and simple machines.  For social studies you could partner up with a school in another part of the country or interview Holocaust survivors or visit museums to see Maya and Aztec artifacts.  In math I’m trying to do a program that ties together baseball and percents and decimals and fractions.  For ELA there are programs where you read a book and then interview the author.  §         What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students? I think the online learning experiences lend itself to more long term idea based projects because of the ability of them to communicate with others easily outside of school hours.  Plus a real life issue or problem could be the focus, and the Internet could be one tool for them to get updated information.  I know that many of our textbooks and reference materials at school are 10 to 15 years old, so they are almost not reliable or useable.  §         What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?  I think that the learning management system would be hard to use with 6^th graders just because I’m not sure how I would set it up and maintain it, and I don’t think most 6^th graders are mature enough yet to try to semi-pace themselves through a course or unit. 

Here’s my reflection on Google Earth for the group project! 

o        Describe your experience as a user of the application. What functions did you like and what functions did you find frustrating? Why?  

Probably the most frustrating thing for me was how fast the maps moved.  That’s good for time, but boy did I start to get a headache.  I had to keep looking away as it zoomed in and out and from location to location.  I enjoyed being able to type in a business (restaurant, hospitals, schools) and then it would point out exactly where they are.  So if students were trying to contact students in other places and needed to find schools there quickly, they could do it this way.  Plus many places also include pictures of the location and/or links to information about it on the Internet.  One stop shopping for research!o        Think about its application in the classroom

§         What knowledge or skills would students need to use the software?

The students would need to know how to manipulate the mouse in order to move on the earth, or sky, to get where they need to be.  When looking for specific countries or nations or states, they would have to have a general idea about their locations so that they would know where to begin looking for them.  They also need to know how to use the navigation controls in the upper right hand corner.  

§         How can you share the products you create with this application

The files that you create with Google Earth can be saved and shared with people through its features.  So you can share what you did with others in your class or other classes or with others in different schools.  You can print, save, and email your views.

§         How could you see the application being used to teach a particular subject matter?  

The sky view in Google Earth would be great for astronomy.  I was amazed at the fact that it showed the constellations in their position in the sky.  The earth view would obviously be perfect for geography skills and social studies when discussing specific places or areas.  Plus this way it seems more real, at least to me, than looking at a paper map in a book.

§         What are some things a teacher could do to help students collaborate using this application? 

The teacher should make sure that the students have a specific goal for what they need to do/find while using this.  Otherwise they may just start going all over the place without a goal.  Also the teacher should make sure that each student understands how to use Google Earth.

§         What sort of organization or managerial considerations will a teacher have to take into account?  

The teacher would have to make sure that they were able to download Google Earth at school.  I know in my school we have to have the Tech Dept download anything for us, and sometimes they won’t download things they think aren’t educational or “safe”.  The movement on here can be fast and sometimes get blurry.  That could annoy some people.  I know it was starting to bug me after a while.  Plus I could see the kids just wanting some time to randomly search with the application before doing the assignment. 

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I think that the deductive approach would work well with a blog.  You can explain the rule, and then show examples to the students, and then give them some practice problems to do and then they could do the problems in their reply back and then you could comment on their results.  The drawback to this approach, and any type of teaching that you do over a blog, is that there is lag time between when the student “turns in” their work, and the teacher sees it and comments on it.  Plus there is always the issue of computer related problems that can delay things much longer (just like when the ANGEL server goes down). 

I think the inductive method would be harder to do over a blog, just because the teacher wouldn’t be there to make sure that they students were on the right track or to provide immediate feedback.  However, anything is worth a try, and you never know how many students would pick up on it this way, so it is worth it even if it helps one student.  Blogging would also be good for scaffolding.  Each day you give less and less assistance to the child for what you are teaching, and their feedback would tell you what they need more help with.  It also seems that blogging would help you see which students were having the most problems with certain areas, and you could form DI groups from the blog information, or maybe have those who are having problems blog with others who are too, to solve the problem, or partner up with someone who understands it so that they could also help them.  For social studies, I could see blogs being used to discuss the topics were are currently discussing (such as, compare and contrasting the cultures and countries in South America and Canada), or to have them form groups and do a group project over the blog.  The blog could also be used as a journal for current events instead of doing one on paper in class.  Plus this way tress are saved! Math is the other subject I teach, and like the bonus question implies, I see this subject being a bit hard to use a blog for.  I really like to give immediate feedback to the students when they are working on problems, and I can’t do that with a blog.  However, I guess I could use the blog as a way to have the students bring up what they are having problems with, or to review topics before a quiz or test.