A Web Site for Collaboration among Math Teachers

Overview

The audience for this project is math teachers in DeSoto County Schools (currently focused on middle school).  Their proficiency in using technologies varies; but from my observations, there is usually at least one math teacher in each school that has enough technological knowledge to train other math teachers to use it.  Our district also has a math specialist that visits the schools that will be able to provide support in getting teachers acquainted with this project.

The objective of this project is to help build a collaborative network among math teachers in DeSoto County Schools (DCS), which is currently the largest district in the state of Mississippi with an enrollment of over 32,000 students.  Right now, there is hardly any communication and collaboration between schools (at least on the teacher level).  I believe that we can provide an even better education for our students if we put our heads together and share resources that fit our curriculum and the district’s pacing guide.  My goal is to create a web site that helps accomplish this task by providing an interactive medium with dynamic content that will encourage teachers to regularly visit the site.

Home Page

I designed the web site prototype from scratch using Dreamweaver’s design view in conjunction with hand coding XHTML and CSS to construct the framework.  I created the banner in Photoshop, matching the banner colors with the hexidecimal color codes used in the side bar and in the section headers (which I used cooltext.com to create) of the web site.  The side bar on the left provides links to important web sites and the side bar on the right provides dynamic content based on RSS feeds.  The first feed is coming from the last ten bookmarks added in the Diigo DCS math teachers group and the second one is coming from a nationwide math teacher’s group.  I have already created some predefined tags to make it easier for people to tag pages with Diigo.  Finally, I created a widget at widgetbox.com that feeds in a daily humorous quote from brainyquote.com.  I added this widget in to balance out the right side bar with the length of the main portion of the page.  This widget can easily be replaced later on if a better tool, such as a feed from a discussion board that displays the last three active topics, is created.

The main portion of the page consists of a brief introduction followed by a photo slideshow, which could later be replaced by a video introduction or some other visual medium.  The main idea of it is to create a focal point on the page that catches the viewer's interest.  I like the current slideshow tool, which I created by editing some AJAX code that I found at Google Code (http://code.google.com/), because the photos are coming in from an RSS feed linked to one of my Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com) albums.  This results in fresh content that is easily updated by multiple users (if I set group permissions on the album).

Another part of the main portion is a resources section which briefly describes and provides links to some of the external sites that I will talk about later in my project description.  Finally, the last part is a blog updates section that I created with another widget that generates summaries of my blog posts and places them in a scrollable interface through an RSS feed.  I plan to replace my blog feed with a feed from a blog that I will set up for the math specialist.

External Links

Now I will discuss a couple external sites I plan to use.  The first one is a Diigo DCS math teachers group (http://groups.diigo.com/group/dcsmath) that, as I mentioned before, is responsible for some of the side bar content.  I think this collaboration tool will appeal to users of all levels of technology proficiency.  It is easy to learn the basics and with the unobtrusive browser toolbar, it can at the very least be sold to teachers as a bookmarking tool that can be accessed from any computer with Internet access.  Once they become acquainted with that, they can then advance to using the group features of Diigo which introduces them to the collaboration I hope to achieve.

The second one is a DCS math teachers wiki (http://dcsmath.pbworks.com/), which will function as the core component for collaboration.  I have already created a structure for the wiki, so now I just need to start adding resources.  I hope to have a decent selection of resources set up prior to extending an invitation to teachers.  Resources would include lesson plans, projects, web sites, worksheets, etc. that are organized by curriculum framework strand (e.g. numbers and operations) and then topic area (fractions).  Teachers will be able to edit the wiki and thus share their own content so it definitely is capable of growth.  As we approach our 2 GB file storage limit, I can migrate some of the larger files over to my own website or to a file storage web site (4shared.com looks like the best free option available).  Editing a wiki, though I consider PBworks to be very easy to use, takes a higher technological skill level than social bookmarking.  I see this as a potential impediment to the wiki growing; however, I do have a solution.  Our county is planning on having a series of math leaders meetings this year that will host a representative from each school; I see that as a prime opportunity to hold a training session to familiarize these teachers with using this wiki.  Those teachers can then assist teachers back at their schools in using the wiki.

Future Additions

Three more components that I would like to add on in the future are a discussion board, a tutorial resource page for students, and a best practices page.  The first two are self-explanatory.  The best practices page could have links to media providing information about effective instructional techniques.  The math specialist could even record videos of teachers within the district implementing these techniques, upload them to YouTube or TeacherTube, and then embed them in the best practices page.  Finally, once this site has proven to be successful, a similar one could be launched for language arts, which also has a district specialist.

Justification

Diigo vs. links via email: resource links sent by email frequently either get deleted for mailbox space or get lost in all the other messages since teachers often do not have time to explore new resources.  Diigo links are stored in a searchable archive and users have the option to receive notifications of updates (immediately, daily, or weekly).  Diigo bookmarking accomplishes the same task as link sharing via email but its informal nature encourages more participation from more teachers.  Many teachers are reluctant to send mass emails because they worry that their ideas/resources are not significant enough to warrant informing all of the math teachers about it.  Sharing indirectly through Diigo will seem less obtrusive than sharing directly through email.  Furthermore, the commenting, highlighting, and snapshot features provided by Diigo provide an added set of tools for guiding others through the shared web content.  Even without any of the social features, Diigo can still be used by teachers for better management of their bookmarks which results in increased efficiency.

Resource sharing through wikis vs. discussion boards and email: wikis can be viewed as superior to email and discussion boards based solely on their ability to better organize resources.  They also can be used to share a wider variety of file types than discussion boards and our school district’s email system (which puts strict limits on attachments).  When used in conjunction with a file hosting website or an FTP server, wikis have no limits on file size or type.

Resource sharing through wikis vs. by mail or in-person: there are some resources that can only be shared physically; but for resources that are already in or can be converted to electronic form, wikis provide some advantages.  Sharing resources in electronic form is more cost-effective than by mail or face-to-face.  More importantly, sharing resources in electronic form is nearly instantaneous and those resources are accessible anytime and anyplace when they are located online.

New web site vs. existing web page: currently the math specialist’s web page is built on a page template that is part of the larger district math site.  As a result, it lacks customizability, is not updated very often, and does not include any user-generated content.  The new web site will pair user-generated content with an automated update system (via RSS and widgets) to make a web site that encourages regular visits from math teachers.
 
The best part of this project is that it has a lot of room for growth if it catches on.  Moreover, because the web site serves as a gateway to various web applications rather than generating the content itself, it can be easily redesigned without disrupting the core content.  With adequate training provided to at least one representative from each school, I can see this project developing into an effective resource in my district.

Links

Web page: http://www.northwestms.org/dcs
Wiki: http://dcsmath.pbworks.com/
Diigo group: http://groups.diigo.com/group/dcsmath

Web Tools Review

The first site that I visited was ajaxWindows. I was going to try the demo, but the demo account came back as an invalid account so I watched the introductory video. I failed to see any usefulness in that application based on the video. It looked like a watered down version of Windows hosted in a web browser. Why would I want that? Am I missing something? Unfortunately, right now I’m bogged down with the beginning of the school year in my district. As a result, I did not bother to create an account since I figured I would get more out of looking at some of the other applications.

The second one I visited was Picnik. I did not realize it before going to the website, but I had actually used it before in editing my photos in Picasa earlier in the photo sharing lesson. I found it to be very user friendly. I had used the cropping, resizing, rotation, and auto-fix tools back when I was creating my album slideshow. These features are great for reducing file size and for quickly enhancing the picture’s color. I was able to use them features without reading any instructions due to its ease of use. It also has some great fonts for adding text, better than the default fonts that are a part of Windows (though you can always download new Windows fonts for free). Additionally, it has many photo filters that are comparable to Photoshop’s filters.

I took a quick peek at Zoho, not intending for it to be one of the sites that I was going write about and it looks like it may be worth at least trying it out. It has 23 applications and two plugins for Microsoft Sharepoint and Office. I’m not sure about the depth of the applications but I plan to experiment with them when I have more time. The wiki tool looked interesting until I saw that it has a limit of 250 MB. The free PBworks wiki has eight times that amount of file space (2 GB). It also has an upgrade at a reasonable price ($99/year) that will hold up to 40 GB of data and offers extra security and access controls. Nevertheless, I still plan on at least experimenting with all of Zoho’s features later on when I have more time.

I toured FotoFlexer and Phixr and did not find enough features in either one that made me want to switch from Picnik. Though I would consider FotoFlexer to be on about the same level of quality and feature selection as Picnik, since Picnik automatically is integrated with Picasa, I will probably stick with Picasa for now. Phixr, while it looks like it has a nice set of features, does not seem to be on the same level of quality as FotoFlexer and Picnik.

Finally, there is Google Docs. My favorite part of it is it’s ability to share editing permissions with other users; in fact, it can even be used for simultaneously editing a document. I have used its collaborative function for tasks such as reviewing and making changes to a friend’s resume, working on a joint professional development presentation, and planning activities for my school’s field day with a fellow teacher. This is much easier and quicker than emailing the document back and forth. The only drawback of Google Docs is that its formatting tools and other features are very limited. This is understandable though since it web-based and free. To get around this limitation, I frequently use Google Docs for writing rough drafts and then export it to Word where I can spruce up the formatting. Being able to access Google Docs documents from any Internet-connected computer is also a perk since I have a laptop and three computers at home (not to mention the computers at work that I use) that I am switching between. The presentation creator and spreadsheet tools serve the same purpose for me as the document tool: as a means for working on rough drafts from multiple locations. Like the document tool, these two tools allow for collaboration but at the sacrifice of lacking the robust feature set that Microsoft Office contains. Most notably, the presentation tool lacks the ability to create animated slides and incorporate a variety of slide transitions.

For information about even more office suites that are available, check out the comparison of the features, costs, and capabilities in this Wikipedia article:

Comparison of General and Technical Information

R/D13

My favorite activities that we covered this semester were screencasting and wikis because I feel those can be used in the greatest variety of situations. I have used both Camtasia and Captivate for screencasting and I have found that Camtasia is the most user friendly. While Captivate is good for creating branching scenarios, the recording and editing interface in Camtasia is much easier to use; I figured out the basic process of using it without reading any of the instructions. However, it has enough advanced features to make it very handy for creating professional quality instructional videos. While I already knew how to use Camtasia, I can apply what I learned in this course--theory from chapter 30 in particular--to improving the effectiveness of my screencasts.

I also enjoyed working with wikis quite a bit because I believe that they are one of the most effective collaboration tools in online learning. Wikipedia is a great example of the vast possibilities that a wiki holds. What I like about using wikis is the informal nature of them. It is like writing a rough draft; it is okay to publish an addition to a wiki with the intention of improving it later on. You can focus more on sharing useful content when you do not have to worry about formal structure and organization. Many times I quickly provide links to web sites and uploaded content so that they are available and then later go back and organize them when I have time, possibly moving them to another wiki page or creating a new page for the content.

If I was to only consider activities that were fairly new to me, my favorite one would be social bookmarking (RSS feeds were a close second). Delicious was new to me but I already had a Diigo account set up; therefore social bookmarking was not something I had never seen before. However, I did not use it for much more than a portable list of bookmarks prior to this class. While I do not plan on using Delicious, this activity was still very beneficial because it challenged me to look deeper into what lesser known features were available in Diigo and also how I could integrate it with other web applications to develop rich content. Furthermore, it made me think more about what rationale I could provide to my co-workers to convince them it was a tool worth trying out. That is why I consider it to be “fairly new” to me.

What I found most intriguing in chapter 31 was the section on neuroscience. I think it is neat that by monitoring electrochemical activity within the brain they can determine what part of the brain is associated with “actions such as psychomotor behavior, information recall, and decision making” (329). Most importantly, neuroscientists are examining level of knowledge acquisition and retention by monitoring brain activity and the neural pathways in use. What made this particularly interesting was the ethics debate concerning active manipulation of neural activity. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film, but there are questions about the potential abuse of this technology for mind control.

Lastly, I found the detailed example of advanced performance training to be interesting because they have actually have a facility at UF that is used for this type of analysis. Tim Tebow, University of Florida’s star quarterback, used this technology to improve his passing motion and supposedly it helped him keep the ball up higher (and less likely to be victim of a forced fumble). I think it would be a lot of fun to try this technology out. Maybe someday it will be widely available for a reasonable cost!

R/D12

I really enjoyed this chapter because it seemed to be the most relevant to me. I actually thought it was an easier read than some of the others since it was clear, concise, and interesting.

First of all, I would have liked to see more details about the working memory limit of “seven plus or minus two chunks,” so I could better understand how exactly a chunk is defined. I have heard about it before, but it has been so long I have forgotten the details. I am interested in learning more about how to evaluate cognitive load and how instruction might be modified to fit an individual’s assessment.

The second portion of the reading that stuck out to me was the cognitive processes of learning (the first four in particular) on page 315. It began with attention. Because of the limited capacity of working memory, it is best to focus the learner’s attention on what is relevant. I had not thought about the theory behind it before, but when I design software tutorials in Camtasia, I try to use features such as zooming in, highlighting, and darkening the unnecessary information to minimize the extraneous information. I believe that the zooming in and darkening in particular work very well in improving the quality of a tutorial.

Following attention in the list of cognitive processes was activation of prior knowledge. Although it is common sense, I had not really given much thought to the fact that “the more related knowledge that is stored in long-term memory, the larger chunks working memory can absorb” (314). Applying this to software tutorials, they would be more effective if they incorporated a pre-assessment to help determine the level of instruction that is appropriate for the learner. This would help the advanced learner by eliminating superfluous information in instruction and thus better maintaining the learner’s attention. It would also help the lower-level learner by differentiating instruction in order to avoid cognitive overload.

After that came encoding, which is simply a process of linking the prior knowledge stored in long-term memory to the new knowledge presented in the lesson. As stated before, the more prior knowledge that is stored, the larger the amount of information that can be absorbed.

Next was transfer of learning. This is the process of indexing information in the long-term memory so that it can efficiently be retrieved in the future (positive transfer). Right now in my district, we are implementing an instructional strategy called Thinking Maps. This strategy focuses on using a set of eight concrete visual patterns that represent all the different types of cognitive processes (e.g. compare/contrast, classify, cause and effect, sequencing) to support learning. In other words, visualizing our thinking helps in the process of creating a concrete image from abstract thoughts to aid in indexing what goes into our long-term memory.

This concept ties into a third key concept that stood out in the reading, the Modality Principle, which states that students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text. This is supported by Dual-Coding Theory, the foundation of Thinking Maps, which says that “knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistically and non-linguistically. Research proves that the more we use both systems of representation, the better we are able to think and recall knowledge.” Another interesting fact (that I found in Eric Jensen’s “Brain Based Learning”) is that 80% of all information that comes into our brain is visual. However, as the book says, we can reduce the load on the visual/pictorial channel by presenting words in audio form rather than text. I have found this to be true based on the feedback that I have received on some of my Camtasia tutorials. My co-workers have liked it better when narration was provided as opposed to text boxes that would appear during the tutorial. This reaction supports the Modality Principle.

I found the rest of the information and theory presented in this chapter to be helpful as well. The fact that these are concepts that I could apply to instructional design right away made this chapter an enjoyable read.

Google Sites

I created a classroom web activities site that contains a my Google Maps area lesson and a newly created stock market lesson. The stock market lesson contains an embedded stock price search tool along with some worksheets that go along with the activity.

R/D11

After reviewing the competencies of an instructional designer in Table 27.3, one area that I need to improve on is in designing instruction that reflects an understanding of the diversity of learners and groups of learners. Sometimes I do not design my web content for school so that it is Section 508 compliant. For instance, to save time, I often do not include an alt tag (a caption for content such as hyperlinks and images so that it can be read by a screen reader such as Orca or JAWS) in my HTML code on my class website. I do not currently have any students with vision disabilities, but it would be good to have content ready for that type of student in case I did get one or even for parents with vision disabilities. I could also improve my instructional content to better meet the needs of varying ability levels and learning styles. Sometimes I just take into consideration my own learning style when designing lessons and do not think about the individual learning styles of my students. I could do a better job of varying my instructional methods to accommodate these learning styles.

A second area that I could further develop my skills in would be the identifying and describing the target population characteristics. This provides the foundation for the first area that I discussed. In other words, it is necessary to identify learning strengths and weaknesses prior to designing instructional material tailored to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. Unfortunately, I sometimes do not have adequate class time to do pre-assessments or at least ones that I consider to be thorough enough to pinpoint specific instructional needs. However, in a remedial class that I taught last year, I was able to use computer software to identify individual weaknesses and follow up with a prescribed sequence of lessons. Using instructional technology like this provides me with the information I need to determine the competency of the target population which, in this case, would be the learner as an individual.

Finally, I would like to spend more time examining education journal articles and books so that I could apply this research and theory to my teaching. I have found some very useful information on successful methods of applying various technologies by researching the WMU online library. I hope to use this to improve my instruction.

One area that I am strong in is communicating in visual, oral, and written form. I like to apply dual-coding theory to my instruction and present my information in both visual and verbal form to maximize retention of the material. I found that, paired together, they produce better results than individually. Another one of my better areas is in analyzing technologies and determining how they can be used effectively. I believe that this course has helped me further improve in this area. I try not to focus on simply keeping up with the latest emerging technologies; rather, I also try to look for ways to better utilize already existing technologies. Then finally, I am good about evaluating and assessing instruction and its impact. I keep a daily journal of what worked and what did not work in my lessons. I then use that information to improve my instruction for the next time I teach it. Collecting and analyzing feedback, whether it be feedback from observation, speaking to students, or formal assessments, is vital to success as a teacher.

After looking at the instructional designer, training manager, and instructor competencies, I found that the the ID competencies fit me best. I believe that I am stronger in design than in presentation. Therefore, I hope to find a job that has more of a focus on instructional designer competencies than on training manager and instructor competencies.

Camtasia Assignment: Calculator Tutorial

For my Camtasia assignment, I created a tutorial about how to convert between scientific notation and standard form using the Mode menu on a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator. This could be part of a series of tutorials posted on my Moodle site for access at home or for when we are working on assignments in the computer lab. I created this in response to my school district putting more emphasis on teaching students how to use graphing calculators since they can be used on state tests (and ACT/SAT). To further enhance this tutorial, I plan to use the Moodle quiz module for students to assess themselves and receive instant feedback.

R/D10

The theme that has stood out to me the most in all three contexts is that you have to be a good team player if you are going to be an instructional designer. In the business world, an instructional designer may work as the sole designer on a project, but even in that situation, at the very least there has to be good communication between the designer and the client. Even when the instructional designer is working independently on a project, many times he or she needs to work with a media specialist (e.g. photographer, video editor) during the process of completing the project. On a larger scale project, an instructional designer would definitely have to demonstrate good teamwork skills, especially in effectively communicating design theory in the production of training materials.

In education, teamwork is even more important. On the higher education level, two job duties that seemed to consistently show up in job descriptions were online course design and faculty training/assistance. In online course design, the instructional design specialist has to be able to clearly communicate the theoretical rationale behind many of the design elements. Even with a sound explanation of why a course should be designed a certain way, instructional designers will often work with faculty that are set in their ideas of how course material should be presented. In this situation, an instructional designer must be willing to compromise on some design features. The second duty mentioned, faculty training/assistance, is what I would find most rewarding in a higher education position. Introducing faculty to new technologies and brainstorming ideas for effectively implementing them is an excellent opportunity to use creativity skills. Seeing the person you are assisting have that “a-ha!” moment is exciting.

On the K-12 education level, I think you see even more focus on assisting faculty with generating ideas and helping them develop technology literacy. In my district, I would say about 80% of the daily duties of the technology specialist in my school district involve developing training materials, leading professional development classes, and providing examples of best practices with technology. That is what makes this position the most appealing to me. From my experience, most K-12 teachers are pretty receptive to experimenting with new technologies provided that I make myself available for ongoing support and assist them in developing plans for incorporating them into lessons.

One difference that I see between the three contexts is whether cost of training or quality of training is the priority. In my opinion, in the business world there is more emphasis on finding the most cost effective solution. Instructional technologists often have to sacrifice quality in order to meet deadlines. Corporate leaders look at cost before looking at effectiveness of training materials, partly because it is more difficult to quantify the results of the training. K-12 education leaders focus more on the results of instructional technology than on the cost of it. If a technology is identified as effectively raising test scores, the school district will most likely find some kind of way to find funding for it whether it be through grant writing, private donations, fundraisers, or budget cuts in other areas. The results of instructional technology in a K-12 are more quantifiable simply because state testing is the focus. There is a more direct relationship between school training (i.e. the instructional technology implemented) and state testing than between business training and profits. Finally, I believe that higher education falls somewhere in between these two contexts. Like in the business context, evaluating the relation between instructional technology/training and the end result analyzed, improvement in teachers’ quality of instruction, is more difficult in the K-12 context. However, I view higher education as falling somewhere in between because there is less of a emphasis on cost efficiency than in businesses.

Google Maps Math Lesson

In this lesson, students travel to various locations around the world and calculate the areas and perimeters of various buildings/locations. Placemarks were used to guide students to the locations and lines were used to mark their measurements. I created a worksheet to go along with this activity. Click the link below the map to see a larger view with directions included.

Lesson Worksheet

External link to the map


View Using Maps: Area and Perimeter in a larger map

R/D9

I have honestly enjoyed taking this course. I love multimedia design and tinkering with new technologies so the tasks that involved brainstorming applications of technologies. I found all of the web applications that we learned about to be very easy to use, and I can see many teachers in my school using them with some training and continuing support. I am hoping that I can construct and teach a workshop on one of our professional development days this school year to share some of what I have learned in this class. What I liked about this course is that, while I already knew how to use many of the applications we talked about, it was still a rich learning experience because I learned to better analyze the effectiveness of technology. The article on computer imagination best summed up a repeating theme that I saw in this course: that we, as (future) leaders in the area of education technology need to start seriously evaluate whether a technology is really going to raise the quality of instruction to a new level.

With curriculum frameworks changing, being asked to incorporate new instructional strategies, and having to take on a broad range of other responsibilities, I do not blame teachers for not being quick to warm up to the latest technology. And I definitely do not fault their hesitancy to try out a new technology if they have had a history of being introduced to technologies that served as nothing more than a different instructional medium, “eye candy” as Siegel referred to it. That is why it is so important for us to seriously evaluate whether a technology is computer imaginative before promoting it. Equally important is the process of showing teachers how to effectively integrate the technology into their lessons and to convince them that the long-term value is worth the extra time it takes to make changes to their current teaching practices.

Some of the key areas of technology application that I have grown in as a result of this course are blogging and RSS feeds. Prior to this course, I would have probably never used these web technologies, but what I have learned from experimenting with them and also listening to the great ideas of my classmates has me excited about using them. It also has got me thinking about using Web 2.0 technologies to create mashups (a combination of content and functionality from multiple Web sources) that will generate dynamic content for my class website and for districtwide collaboration websites. I think a website that is constantly being updated with new content will attract teachers to use the website on a more regular basis.

I would say that after having this as my first course in the education technology master’s program, I am optimistic about the quality of future courses I take here. The only thing that I might add to this course is at least one collaborative project. Maybe instead of only creating our own wikis, it would have been helpful to create a class wiki. This would expose us to some of the issues that may arise when students work collaboratively on a wiki so that we can better ensure that the process goes smoothly fro students. I think having students work on the same page and editing each other’s content provides an awesome lesson in teamwork that without a doubt will be used in the workplace. And if a technology can clearly demonstrate usefulness as a tool for developing career-level skills, it will undoubtedly be seen by district administration as a smart investment.

R/D8

I liked the idea of ecological systematic change presented in chapter 21 though I have always thought of that type of change occurring only when the state department of education takes over a school district that has continually failed to make adequate yearly progress. I have never seen an organization go through ecological systematic change up close and the book’s examples are rather vague--which is understandable since it takes more than a couple pages to fully analyze a topic with this level of complexity--so it is hard to have a detailed understanding of the concept. However, I like the idea of reevaluating the entire system and its environment than simply trying to incorporate quick fix programs as a solution to larger problems.

I think that the idea of doing an honest evaluation of an entire school district and including its relations with the community in that evaluation gives everyone a chance to be heard and avoids singling out a certain group as the reason for expectations not being met. It also makes it easier to hold people accountable when they have helped design the system and have agreed upon their role in the system. It is similar to allowing students to assist in creating the classroom rules. Letting students aid in establishing the rules gives them a greater sense of ownership of those rules and a better understanding of why the rules are in effect. Likewise, I believe that if all groups affected by the redesign are included in the redesign process, it will have broader acceptance and will be less likely to end up in a cyclic pattern of change and reversion.

With that being said, I do worry about fair representation. The process needs to be planned out so that it provides everyone affected by it with plenty of opportunity to have their voice heard. I think that the hardest part would be selecting leadership teams, particularly the “starter team” in the GSTE process that depends on only five to seven leaders to represent all of the major stakeholder groups. I also imagine that finding the necessary financial resources to fund this whole process would be difficult. With the current unhealthy state of our economy, there would be a lot of competition for any government funds that would be available for this type of action. I imagine private and local business funding would also be pretty scarce. Plus, a product-based approach to change with a clear end result defined, although it might not be accurate, would probably sound better on paper than a process-based approach when competing for grants.

I was disappointed though that this chapter did not give much explanation about what part an IDT specialist would play in this process. The most specific that it got was to say that IDT specialists understand systems and effective processes and that they also focus on making improvements in the core work of a district: classroom teaching and learning. Who would have guessed?! I am curious what kind of daily tasks that an IDT specialist performed in any of the project examples.

R/D7

According to the 2003 ASTD benchmarking study discussed on page 180 of the textbook, 74% of the technology-based training offered by large companies was delivered via the Internet. This statistic was a higher percentage than I would have guessed but it is not surprising. Internet-based instruction has the advantage of giving trainees flexibility in when they participate and does not require that the training time be taken out of the normal work hours.

I would like to see Internet-based training used more in the CEU programs provided by the state department of education and my school district. Currently my school district does not have any online CEU programs. Teachers often complain about a lack of flexibility in CEU dates and how it is hard to get a spot in many of the courses, which are often offered only one time during the year. The courses are also usually broken into two five hour sessions that follow right after school. That makes for a couple workdays that last from about 7:30 am until 9:00 pm!

What I hope to do in the future is to help the district develop Moodle-based (similar to Blackboard) CEU courses. Obviously, there is a benefit of flexibility. Teachers, many of whom have children to take care of at home, would have less constraint on what courses they can sign up for if the courses were hosted on an instructional delivery tool that features asynchronous communication. I also believe that when teachers are exposed to instructional content at their own pace rather than a lecturer/trainer’s pace, they are more likely to absorb it. My mind often wanders during presentations so it would be nice to be able to rewind to an earlier part that I missed. Another benefit is that having the course materials online also makes it easy for teachers to share that material with other teachers in the school. It would be a lot easier for me to show another teacher a video clip of the trainer, an excerpt from an online article, or a new idea from a discussion board post than to try to reexplain it while retaining the original quality. Finally, I do not think that those extra benefits would come at much, if any, extra cost. In fact, it may even save money since teaching the course online would eliminate the cost of having to provide dinner for the teachers.

The textbook also talked about the need to save time in instructional delivery by using more sophisticated evaluation techniques to ensure training effectiveness. I think that just about every teacher in a state-tested subject wishes they had more time to effectively teach all of the objectives outlined in the state curriculum. I am envious of the sixth grade teachers in my school that get to spend two hours of instruction on math rather than just one. But since we are confined to the state’s instructional schedule, we need to use effective evaluation to make sure that we do not spend more time than we need to on a topic nor go through a topic before students have a good understanding of the material.

To maximize efficiency, classroom response systems (CRS) or “clickers” can be used to provide real-time data on how each individual is performing. An alternative to CRS is using SMS polling. With SMS polling websites such as polleverywhere.com, students can text message their answers to a multiple choice question and the website will tally responses. The teacher can then use this instant data to more accurately determine whether or not it is necessary to devote additional instructional time to the topic being assessed. While SMS polling may not be available in some K-12 schools due to district policies, it could definitely be used at the post-secondary level.

R/D6

Reading Chapter 14 covering the development and evolution of human performance involvement, there were a few parts that stood out to me as applicable to K-12 education:

p.135 “Worthy performance (P_w)” is defined by T.F. Gilbert as “the ratio of valued accomplishment (A_v) to costly behavior (B_c).”

In my school district, we use Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing created by the Northwest Evaluation Association and used nationwide. To apply Gilbert’s definition of performance to the evaluation of this product, I would have to answer question of whether or not the accuracy and usefulness of the assessment validate the cost in instructional time and monetary resources. Based on what I saw in comparing a sample of state test scores to the MAP scores from last year, I would say no. One question that needs to be answered then is “what systematic factors created a gap between desired performance and actual performance?” First of all, the concept of using adaptive computerized testing to accurately predict test scores and prescribe instructional interventions to improve test scores is not problematic; in fact, I believe it is a great idea. Part of the problem was that not all of the questions and not all of the interventions fell in line with the curriculum. As a result, for the upcoming year, the district plans to evaluate which prescribed interventions fall in line with the state curriculum and which ones should be ignored. It will also evaluate whether or not teachers are effectively using the data to design individualized instruction. So rather than redesigning the software, which the district couldn’t do anyways, they are looking at how to improve the process of implementation.

p.136 “The demonstrated ineffectiveness of single-solution, miracle interventions to improve performance has bred mistrust for the next ‘flavor of the month’”

This quote really stood out to me. Every year our district has a new instructional strategy that they try to push: Fish Philosophy, Larry Bell’s 12 Power Words, Thinking Maps, etc. They are exalted as the strategy that has lead to 100% success on state exams. However, they never seem to catch on long-term. Just like instructional media discussed in chapter three, while initial enthusiasm is high, interest eventually dies out and evaluations determine that it had no significant impact. Over time, many teachers tend to roll their eyes when informed about the next districtwide training event that has been planned. I believe that the failure of these training events is not so much due to a failure of the instructional strategy itself or due to an unwillingness of teachers to implement the strategy, but instead caused by the district’s failure to provide continuing reinforcement of these ideas. In other words, the lack of site visits by district staff to observe and support teachers is often the root cause of this failure. I believe that this is where the idea of human performance improvement is applied.

p. 139 “It now became evident that lifelong, continuous learning was a workplace necessity for both worker and organizational survival”

That idea is prevalent today in the education field. To maintain certification in Mississippi, teachers must complete 10 CEUs, outside of work hours, every five years. We also have seven days devoted to professional development activities in our contract.

p. 139 “When the instructional systems designers verified whether learning transferred to the job…they were frequently dismayed”

Relating this K-12 education, businesses and industries often claim that public education system needs to be redesigned because it fails to prepare them for the workplace. Rather than focus solely on the objectives outlined in the state curriculum framework, skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, technical writing, and analysis need to be integrated into the curriculum so that students possess the skills truly needed to be successful in their occupations.

p.141 “...many human performance problems could be solved via means other than training”

Results of state tests are used to indicate “human performance” problems in K-12 education and at schools across the district, test scores were low in the area of language arts. Rather than focusing exclusively on increasing the amount of school time devoted to language arts with solutions like after-school programs, administrators should also consider implementing non-instructional interventions. Some examples of non-instructional interventions would be providing students with incentives for mastering the concepts (e.g. a trip to the movies for those who scored proficient or advanced), improving the process of collecting and utilizing assessment data during the school year, and working with parents to help them provide a home environment that is more conducive to learning.

Podcasting

On the technology applications side of this week's coursework, I learned more about podcasting. I originally thought that a podcast was a type of media that was exclusive to Apple’s iPod. However, the Community, Journalism & Communication Research group at the University of Texas at Austin defines a podcast as “a digital audio or video file that is episodic; downloadable; program-driven, mainly with a host and/or theme; and convenient, usually via an automated feed with computer software.”

From what I’ve seen so far, I personally do not see podcasting as a breakthrough instructional medium, especially at the K-12 level. I do not see a substantial amount of advantages over other media such as streaming video and DVDs. The main advantage I can see is that it functions like an RSS feed. You can subscribe to multiple podcasts and have the media files automatically downloaded and aggregated in an application such as iTunes. However, from my experience, those often end up piling up and taking up space on my hard drive. I usually don’t have time to listen to them and simply end up deleting them. For me it’s just as easy to download media files as needed. It also may make the process of posting them on the Internet, through sites like PodoMatic and iTunes, easier; but again I do not see it as being computer imaginative. However, that’s just my opinion. Do you see any advantages unique to podcasting that have not been mentioned? Do you see it making a significant impact in education or do you think the enthusiasm about podcasting will fade away?

R/D5

According to Chapter 3 in the Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology textbook, instructional technology usually receives a positive initial response but unfortunately history has often demonstrated a pattern of that optimism fading away with the technology having a negligible effect. While the military has historically had success with instructional technology and the business world has seen recent progress in the utilization of instructional media, the education field still has not seen a noticeable impact.

One potential problem I foresee with the use of Internet and Web technologies in education is that it will not be used effectively. In other words, rather than exemplifying computer imagination as defined by Martin Siegel, I am concerned that educators will fail to use Web technologies in a way that “creates an experience that can’t easily be replicated in other media.” This is illustrated by a 2000-2001 survey that revealed that, while 55% of educators reported using technology on a weekly basis, 33% used it primarily for improving students’ computer skills and 29% used it for drill-and-practice activities. Only 20% reported often using it for problem-solving and analysis activities and 10% for Internet research. Furthermore, the results of this study cannot be rationalized with the argument that there is a lack of access to the Internet in schools. A study published in 2005 by the National Center for Educational Statistics found that the ratio of students to Internet-accessible computers was 4.4 to 1 (Trends and Issues p.23). This feeds the doubt that computer technology and more specifically Internet technology will lead to innovation in the field of K-12 education.

However, while use of the Internet in traditional classrooms has not been very promising, the use of Internet to create online classrooms is a trend that is experiencing an explosion in growth. A study published by the International Association for Online Learning has reported plenty of statistics to back this up. Here are a few that I found interesting:

• 45 of the 50 states, plus Washington D.C., have a state virtual school or online initiative, full-time online schools, or both

• Many virtual schools show annual growth rates between 20 and 45%

• 72% of school districts with distance education programs planned to expand online offerings in the coming year

• Data suggest that in about six years 10 percent of all courses will be computer-based, and by 2019 about 50 percent of courses will be delivered online

What is even more interesting is that Michigan and Alabama now have an online/distance learning graduation requirement. Obviously, online education is not going away. Below are a couple charts that illustrate the findings of a study by Ambient Insight LLC that further support this conclusion.

I also believe that Internet use, primarily in the context of online courses, will become more and more prominent in higher education to suit the needs of a diverse student population. This falls in line with one of the core philosophies present in education legislation: that everyone have equal access to education. There are some concerns about online education though.

The Sloan Consortium published a study in 2007 discussing online education statistics in higher education. The publication reported that studies surveying chief academic officers in higher education institutions found that the main barriers to widespread adoption of online education, in their opinions, was lack of student discipline in online courses, lack of acceptance of online education by the faculty, lower retention rates of material taught in an online environment, and higher costs in developing and delivering online courses.

Nonetheless, the report published in 2009 by Ambient Insight LLC that I previously mentioned projects steady growth through 2014. Below is a graph that illustrates their statistics.

Due to my lack of experience in the business, government, and military sectors, it’s hard for me to judge what kind of role the Internet will play in those areas. But if I were to make a prediction, I do not foresee the Internet playing a large role in military training since the majority of the training is done on the military bases. The need for special equipment to be used alongside much of the training software limits online learning capabilities. The sensitivity of the training information could also limit Web access. However, I could see the Internet being used as a tool to connect to officer training programs though, due to their more academic nature.

Due to a lesser need for confidentiality in their training materials, I can see the Internet being used more frequently in the government and business sectors to allow employees to train from the comfort of their home. I also believe that the type of training used in these sectors is more likely to have technological requirements that are within the limits of personal computers. Especially in large corporations, Internet-accessible computer simulations could be appealing based on their more efficient use of human resources in comparison to training conducted by an instructor in a physical classroom.

In conclusion, I would also say that one advantage that instructional technologists have in the business/government sector is that decisions to use Internet-based technologies are ultimately made by corporate leadership, which conceptualizes technologies, while in education those decisions are often left up to the teachers that implement those technologies.

Resources:

This publication focuses on online learning in higher education:
The Sloan Consortium - Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning (2007)

This publication has a wealth of online learning statistics:
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL)- Fast Facts About Online Learning (2010)

This publication contains additional statistics in graphical representations:
Key Findings from the Ambient Insight Research Report (2009)

The Department of Education published a report analyzing 46 studies on online learning which found that it has had a positive impact on education. You can find a summary of the key findings starting on page 16:
U.S. Department of Education - A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

Google Maps: Graceland Too!

Everybody knows that Memphis is famous for Graceland, Elvis's home, but there also exists a lesser known Elvis shrine out in Holly Springs, Mississippi: Graceland Too. Sure, it's a little shady but it will definitely be a memorable experience. The best part about it is that you can go visit anytime because Paul McLeod, who single-handedly runs Graceland Too, never sleeps and never leaves the house. In fact, the last time I took a tour I went at 2:00 AM; going at nighttime just adds to the twisted atmosphere. And if you want the deluxe tour, just bring him a 12-pack of Coca-Cola.




View Larger Map

Podcasting

This podcast was created using PowerPoint for creating the visual sequence, Camtasia Studio for putting in the audio and converting to iPod Touch format, and PodOmatic for publishing it.

Static Image: Portrait of Me

One of my former students created a portrait of me. I'm part teacher, part rock star with a little ninja mixed in.

Posting YouTube Videos

This first one is for anyone who teaches English. It will inspire students to learn their punctuation.



The second one is a cool inspirational video with a message of not letting failure hold you back.

R/D4

Reading chapter two, “What is Instructional Design?,” I was able to draw a few parallels between developing educational lesson plans and systems theory, defined on page 11 as a postulation “that a system and its elements are interdependent, synergistic, dynamic, and cybernetic.” The idea that elements of a lesson plan are interdependent is exhibited by examples such as the fact that an effective lesson requires that students’ prior knowledge be assessed to determine whether a lesson is ready to be introduced, that students should receive guided practice before they complete independent activities, and that assessments are required to determine appropriate remediation. Synergy is demonstrated in using assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of how a topic was introduced. Without an assessment, it would be hard to determine what remediation. You could reteach a lesson without an assessment or assess student knowledge without remediation, but to do one without the other severely weakens the effectiveness of these as individual elements. And lesson plans are dynamic in that observations by the teacher during independent practice can determine the need for adjusting the amount of guided practice used. I did have trouble relating lesson plans to systems theory in that it’s hard to view components of a lesson plan as cybernetic, which means that they efficiently communicate among themselves.

I found the core elements of ADDIE much easier to directly relate to the development of lesson plans than the initial definition of system theory. ADDIE is an acronym representing analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Analysis is defined by the book as “conducting a needs assessment” or “identifying a performance problem.” In lesson plans, pre-assessments along with the “know” and “want to know” components of KWL are used for identifying the needs of an individual student. The design element relates to the bulk of a lesson plan: measurable objectives, planned learning activities, and identifying materials needed (i.e. specifying media). Development is used in lesson planning as described in the book: for “preparing student and instructor material as specified during design.” Implementation is equivalent to teaching the lesson a classroom. And finally, evaluation is the assessment used in a lesson. Just like in the evaluation stage of ADDIE, lesson assessment involves looking at the data collected and determining what may need to be retaught in a lesson; unit testing functions as a summative assessment. Another way of relating lesson planning to the instructional design model is illustrated in Figures 2.1 and 2.2. Neither lesson planning nor instructional design can be viewed as a linear process. Both require revision along the way.

As I mentioned already, specifying media is an important part of the design phase. One instructional medium that I was asked to evaluate this week was photo sharing. As the reading on Dale’s Cone of Experience suggested, using multiple instructional media can help students develop a better understanding of a concept. Photo sharing is a great tool for combining verbal symbols with still pictures to enhance vocabulary lessons. For instance, my pre-algebra students could use a photo sharing site’s commenting tool to create a visual dictionary of geometric terms. They could also use photos to illustrate a real world math problem, such as sharing a photograph of a Starbuck’s menu and writing about how to use unit rate to figure out the best value per ounce in their coffee sizes. In a botany class, a teacher or student could upload photos from a nature hike to a photo sharing site and have other students post the plant species in the comments section. On a class trip to a historical site, multiple students could capture photos, upload them to their individual photo sharing accounts, and tag them with a unique keyword shared by the group. A teacher or student could then search that keyword and see all the students’ photos aggregated into a single viewing page. Photo sharing is also very easy to integrate with English. For instance, a creative writing teacher could link to a photo album containing a sequence of five photos. Students could then be asked to write a short story based on the photos. A teacher doing a lesson on descriptive writing could post an album of photos from which students would select one and then write a detailed description of that photo.

Photo sharing has many possibilities and I do not foresee many behavior problems as long as acceptable use guidelines are laid out ahead of time. In fact, I would be more concerned about students respecting each other on discussion boards than students posting inappropriate photo content. The real question is whether photo sharing sites can be used more effectively than other web tools such as wikis and blogs. Most wikis and blogs allow you to upload photos directly to the wiki/blog site. Could the additional tools that these media offer provide a more enriching experience than a photo sharing site? Or does the simplicity of a photo sharing site make it more effective by reducing time spent trying to learn how to use it? What do you think about this?

Diigo Presentation

Here is a good presentation on Diigo that I came across:

Dig Deeper with Diigo

View more presentations from Jennifer Dorman.

R/D3

When asked to define instructional technology, I think of it as being composed of two main parts: theory and application. When I mention theory, I am referring to the study of how behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and multimedia learning theories are applied to instruction. It involves analyzing how people think and what should be present in or removed from a learning process to maximize the efficiency of learning. Application involves optimizing the process through the integration of technology. It centers on utilizing theory to make decisions about the design and implementation of different instructional media. Application not only requires theoretical knowledge, it requires technical knowledge. I agree with the Robert Reiser when he says that the name “instructional design and technology” better defines our field than “instructional technology” because I often use the latter term interchangeably with the term “instructional media.” One part of instructional design and technology that I have not thought as much about is the management function, which involves project, delivery system, personnel, and information management according to the 2006 AECT definition of technology. Naturally, I tend to think of instructional technology and design more from a teacher’s perspective than a technology coordinator’s perspective and forget about the management aspect.

One application of instructional technology that I was asked to evaluate this week was social bookmarking. Social bookmarking is defined by Wikipedia as "a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata." In contrast to the standard bookmark tool built into the web browser menus, social bookmarking websites allow access to the same set of bookmarks from any computer with Internet connectivity. And instead of trying to sort standard browser bookmarks by placing them in individual folders, social bookmarking essentially lets you place them in multiple folders represented by keywords, a process referred to as “tagging.” You can later recall bookmarks by using those tags to search your bookmarks. Social bookmarking websites also typically allow a user to join (or create their own) groups where people with common interests share bookmarks. Additionally, many social bookmarking sites allow you to follow an individual user’s bookmarking activity.

Two social bookmarking sites that I’ve tried are Delicious and Diigo. Both sites have all of the standard bookmarking features described above, a user-friendly toolbar add-on for your browser, and the option of public or private bookmarking. But Diigo hosts many additional features that Delicious lacks. Diigo lets you highlight content on web pages and pin comments to the content with the option of this markup being either public or private. Other Diigo users can then view and respond to your markup. It also has tools that let you capture images from web sites, import/export bookmarks, simultaneously save bookmarks to delicious, and automate a daily/weekly blog post of your bookmarks with comments. And if that’s not enough to convince you that Diigo is the way to go, Diigo has premium educator accounts with these features:

• creation of class set of student accounts (email addresses are optional) with a few clicks

• automatic set up of Diigo groups organized by class

• privacy settings where only teachers and classmates can communicate with students

• ads limited to education-related sponsors

I should also mention that Diigo offers tools for use on the iPhone, iPad, and Android!

So where could Diigo be used in education? At the very least, it can function as an enhanced bookmark organization tool for an individual. But then that wouldn’t be social bookmarking so the easiest social bookmarking application is to use it for following education leaders and innovators, checking out the resources that they bookmark. Of course it can also be used for networking with educators on a school, district, or state level. One use with students would be to mark up a subject-related website with sticky notes containing questions about specific parts of the content. Students could then post responses to the question on the sticky note. Another application is to assign online readings to students in which they highlight words that are new to them and define them in their own words with the comment tool. They could also use the comment tool for any kind of literary analysis such as paragraph summaries or questions they have about parts of the readings which other students could then respond to. Furthermore, the Diigo toolbar could be used in conjunction with Google Docs (or blog posts) as a peer editing tool. Finally, there is an obvious application to online research assignments. Diigo makes it easy to bookmark, annotate, and organize online resources.

So while I would say that Delicious would be good for independent research and sharing resources with peers, I believe that the extra tools provided by Diigo significantly expand social bookmarking’s range of applications.

Resources:

Diigo Educator Accounts

Getting Started With Diigo

Diigo, Delicious, Picasa, and Flickr

In the side bar you will find links to my Diigo, Delicious, Picasa, and Flickr pages. The side bar also includes examples of a Delicious RSS feed, a Photobucket slideshow, and a Picasa slide show.

Wiki Creation

Check out my wiki over at PBworks! In the past, I have used Wikispaces and Wetpaint for creating wikis, but I think that PBworks probably has the best balance between available features and ease of use. Plus there aren't any banner ads!

R/D2

I will admit that in the past I have not had the most favorable opinion of blogs. Part of this is due to my first exposure to the world of blogging, Xanga.com. I was introduced to it by my sister when I asked her what she was up to on her computer. She showed me her friend’s blog on Xanga, in which she let loose a tirade about the guy that broke up with her best friend for another girl. Then she showed me another friend’s blog in which she gave a detailed recount of her experiences shopping for a prom dress. She showed me a few more blogs and I walked away with the perception that blogs are little more than egocentric drivel devoid of any reading value.

However, in the past couple years I have warmed up a bit to blogging. I often find helpful educational resources and links located in blogs created by teachers reflecting on their classroom experiences. I have even started subscribing to blog updates of a few interesting speakers from education technology conferences that I have attended. But I still have had some issues with blogs: they are often filled with extra fluff, they are not consistently updated with new content, and they do not always contain topics that fit my interests. One solution to this is to be able to browse a large amount of blog content in a reasonably short amount of time. That’s where RSS feeds come in.

I must admit that up until this week’s lesson on RSS feeds, I have largely ignored this web technology. The only time I had set up an RSS feed prior to this week was when I created one for my Moodle demo course. Even after creating an RSS feed in my blog to display the latest update from a few of my favorite sites, I still wasn’t sold on the idea of using an RSS feed…but then I tried Sharp Reader. I really liked how I could have multiple feeds coming into one application organized neatly by folders. It was very easy to quickly scroll through all of the latest news stories and blog entries without having to click through a bunch of links. It kind of felt like reading through email; while I had a lot of feeds coming in, it was very easy to sort through them and delete ones that were irrelevant to my interests.

Now I will apply this to the classroom. Let’s say you have 150 students and you want each student to create a blog. Imagine the headaches of traveling to 150 blogs to check for updates. Used alone in this situation, blogs would not be feasible. However, using student-created blogs in conjunction with an RSS feed aggregator is what I believe to be an example of “computer imagination.” Compared to students handing in assignments written on paper, the blog and RSS combination has these advantages:

• Obviously it saves paper.

• Rather than requiring a teacher to keep track of a stack of papers, it is much easier to have writing assignments in blog form where they can be accessed from any location with Internet access. The RSS feed aggregator further simplifies this process by providing a tool to neatly sort these blog entries in a central location, thus eliminating the pains of hopping from one blog location to another.

• In addition to the teacher being able to read and respond to students’ blog entries, students have anytime-access to read and comment on any of the 150 student submissions. They are no longer limited to evaluating the papers of students in their same class section or restricted to the time limits of the class period. Students also have the option of using an RSS feed aggregator to make it easy to respond to topics and opinions that they are most passionate about.

• Students are not limited to words in their blogs. They can easily insert images, video, sound files, and links to web sites into their blogs, giving students the opportunity to create media-enhanced documents that touch on multiple parts of Dale’s Cone of Experience.

• When students can display their work to the world on the Internet, it gives them a greater sense of ownership and accomplishment.

To further expand on this idea, why not get even more “imaginative” and combine blogs and RSS feeds with a web page? You could design a web page to look like a newspaper with different sections being composed of stories fed in by RSS feeds. With students each being assigned a section, what they write in their blogs could automatically feed into the newspaper, creating a dynamic publication that updates automatically.

Another web technology that came up in this week’s lesson was wikis. I have always loved the concept of wikis and believe they are a great collaboration tool. Wikipedia is the best example of a widely used wiki, frequently appearing at the top of my results when I use a search engine. I find that it is a good starting point for researching a topic because it often provides a nice summary of the topic in addition to links to websites and publications that relate to the topic. While some might criticize the reliability of Wikipedia’s user-generated content, the fact that articles are required to cite references (otherwise other users will flag unsupported details) and face peer-scrutiny makes the vast majority of Wikipedia pages a trustworthy source of information.

On top of using Wikipedia, I have also used wikis for collaborative note-taking in my classes. When I was teaching high school geometry online, one of the wiki projects that I assigned required students, in pairs of two, to summarize one unit on a wiki page. Each group, assigned a different unit to summarize, took the theorems, postulates, and definitions that they felt were important and added them to their wiki page. Since my geometry course required students to write a lot of proofs—rationale for the steps in solving a problem—they found this reference, which they created themselves, to be invaluable. In addition to this example, I also helped an English teacher set up a wiki for students to collaborate on chapter summaries for a book. It was touted as their student-created version of Cliff Notes. Then there was a history teacher who used a fill-in the blank wiki to assist students in note-taking and encourage students to add additional web content that they found to be interesting. Wikis have many other uses as well, such as functioning as a web resource link exchange for teachers, an FAQ section for an online course, and a repository for notes and snippets from the Internet.

To answer the question of which parts of Dale’s cone of experience do you think each tool lends itself best to, I would say that the most obvious part that pertains to all of these would be verbal symbols. However, as the reading on the Cone of Experience stated, “we should remember, however, that media often interact with each other” (p.133). And “verbal symbols…are used together with every other material on the Cone, though they themselves are abstractions” (p.128). Instead of limiting a blog or wiki to a bunch of text that creates the challenge of not “falling asleep at your keyboard,” liven it up by creating a rich media experience that incorporates other parts of the Cone, such as visual symbols (maps, diagrams, charts); still pictures and radio (podcasts); television and motion pictures (Hulu clips, YouTube videos, CNN video broadcasts); and demonstrations (how-to videos, videos of lab experiments). The reading also explains that “the success of any instructional representation—any device on the Cone—will depend to a large degree on the imaginative involvement that it can produce in our pupils” (p.119). So get creative! Instead of just writing a summary of the events of the Civil War, have students use a blog to journal what they might experience from the perspective of a soldier fighting for the Confederacy. The possibilities of blogs and wikis are endless!

References:

Siegel, M. (2003). Falling asleep at your keyboard: The case for computer imagination. Unpublished manuscript.

Dale, E. (1969). Audiovisual methods in teaching. New York: Dryden Press. Chapter 4: The Cone of Experience

Additional resources:

RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators by Will Richardson

RSS: The Next Killer App For Education by Mary Harrsch

Weblogg-ed Wiki maintained by Will Richardson (great collection of resources on wikis, blogs, and other educational technologies)

Wiki Pedagogy by Renée Fountain (this is an extensive but reader-friendly intro to wikis)

Wiki Ideas for the Classroom