CEP 800: Module 2 Interview

I interviewed one person about the process of electing the president to the United States. As you view the video you will see that I addressed some of the misconceptions.

Gee Chapter 2

What limitations prevent us from solving big, complex problems smartly?

We as humans limit ourselves to certain parameters. We try to solve the problem the best way we know how, often without considering prior experiences and our emotions.  We do not consider that others might be able to guide us through new problems or that having a plan is necessary to solving the big, complex problem.  

In order to solve problems we need to establish the conditions to be smart.  According to the book these conditions are:

1. Initial Mentorship
2. Prior Experience
3. Clear Goals
4. We need to get something out of it/What matters emotionally
5. Opportunity to act/elicit meaningful response from the world

So what does this mean? It means that in order to solve big, complex problems we need to seek help from others before considering prior experiences.  Once we set the foundation for solving our problem we need to establish a set of clear goals. Among those goals we need to answer the age old question, “What is in it for me?” Once we discover what we want out of the solution and take into account our personal emotions, then we can discover the opportunity to act.  Our actions should fulfill our goals and gain a meaningful response from the world or at least the other people involved (i.e the class, school, community, etc).   

At the end of Chapter 2 Gee defines what it means to be SMART.  Smart means:

1. Process of building simulations before acting
2. Acting
3. Assess the outcome in terms of goals met
4. Choose a new action or adjust the old one
5. Act again

I agree with this definition or process for solving problems.  As a teacher I see students solve problems everyday and they do not always solve them in a SMART manner.  Too often students react to a problem or situation, rather than stop to think and assess the problem.  The SMART system as described in this chapter encourages each person to do that.

 Gee says that humans are the only animals capable of simulating time and accounting for it in our simulations for solutions to problems.   With the knowledge that Gee has provided to me, I think it is my responsibility to educate others about this method.  If anything, it provides support for an argument that I already make to my students.  I tell my students that they can choose how they react to situations and solve problems.  No one can make them feel anything or force them to respond.  It is a choice that they need to be aware that they are making. 

I teach in a neighborhood where your reputation matters more than your education.  The standard problem for my students would be that someone has disrespected them or taken something from them.  Their typical solution is to fight and if they end up in jail or expelled so be it.  I keep telling my students that more often than not, someone is just trying to get a reaction out of the other person.  This may not be the same big, complex problems that Gee is referring too but it is one we deal with all too often.

As we as humans become more aware of the problems we face and learn to avoid our natural urge to react based on emotion, we can then advance to solving problems the SMART way.   The more informed we are, the easier it will be to solve problems.  We can work together to find a common solution and think about problems logically with little emotion (other than the satisfaction that there is a solution to our problems).  Overall I thinking this is a wonderful starting point and can be customized and improved on for each individual.  

Explore a problem

For my CEP 812 class we needed to solve a well-structured or ill-structured problem.  I chose the ill-structured.  Where I teach it can be difficult to get students to respond.  They are often shy and don't want to interact unless it is for a grade or if you tell them what to say.  In a perfect world I could walk into my principal's office and tell him that I need 40-50 iPads the WiFi password.  I could then take the iPads and have my students interact with the text digitally first, before sharing in class.  Hopefully soon I can make this a reality.  *I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my new school will have better technology access.*

For more information about Subtext, place check out their website!

CEP 811 Final Reflection

1. What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?  I've learn how to use StAIRs and Webquests and I can't wait to try them out.  I have learned that it is more than using technology for the sake of using technology.  When you incorporate technology into teaching it needs to have a purpose.  I know that I can use my iPad everyday to conduct lessons in my class however it isn't always necessary and it more showing off technology than using it for enriching the lesson.  
2. How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology? Integrating web-based technologies made me realize that is more to technologies assignments than using it to find information for a PowerPoint.  I can task my students with 21st Century skills assessments.  I can ask them to blog for journal points or complete webquests instead of your typical research project.  I can also create class wikis and ask to multi-class collaboration   
3. How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration? I'm definitely  on the proper path.  I think over the next few months I'll be able to develop a good plan for meeting my goal of a blended and paperless classroom.  My goal for the fall semester is to go paperless on all homework assignments.  
4. 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? Integrate and implement what I learn.  As I mentioned above I'd like to have all of my homework be paperless.  At a minimum 75% of the assignments I give will also be available online.  There is nothing I hate more than having students ask for extra copies (when they already have one or two) because they left it at home or lost it.  Go online, locate it and print a copy.  

Teaching Online

What technologies can I use to help my students?  That is a tough question.  Not all of my students have access to the same resources.  They only thing they have consistent access to is basic school supplies.  Now if I imagine what it is like to teach online and know that my students have access to a computer and internet, then I can make some better choices.  

Edmodo is one of my favorite online sources for teaching and learning.  I think I would give Wikispaces a chance for cooperative learning groups.  Between these two I think I could successfully teach History.  The best part about teaching History is that most of the primary sources that you need can be found from the Library of Congress.  

The pedagogical strategies that I would use are: 

•  COIL: Checklist for Online Interactive Learning.  I would create a checklist to help keep everyone involved on track.  
• Webquests and cooperative learning groups
• Google Hangouts
• Video and Text instructions   

What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students/peers? Why? 

Technologies that require me to be online or logged in to the work that they are working on could be harder for me to use.  It can be quite hard to find a time that everyone can work and I'd hate to have to stay logged into something all day just to make sure something is done.  I like freedom and flexibility to work with structure to help guide learning.  My perspective of online learning is that it is or can be mostly student led.  Anything that is too focused on teacher involvement is too teacher centered for online learning.  

How to study History StAIR

For CEP 811 we were asked to make a StAIR (Stand Alone Instructional Resource).  Here is a link to the folder of resources that helped me create this StAIR.  My StAIR is about How to study History.  Many students enter my classroom and don't have a clue to what it means to study History or what I want them to do when I say, "Analyze this primary source.  Then answer the questions"

So here is my StAIR   Most of the information is compiled off of the internet.  I've come to the conclusion that there are few sources that define primary and secondary sources in the same way and in a method that makes since to most people.

You can also find this StAIR posted to Merlot.

Let me know if you have any questions.


FYI!

How to Study History by LStark is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Wiki Spaces

So this week we conducted a lab on the uses of Wikipedia and Wikispaces.  I chose to explore Wikispaces.  First off I want to identify by bias here because I'm not a fan of anything Wiki related.  Just the word makes me want to ignore the site.  So that being said, I was not looking forward to this assignment.  However, exploring Wikispaces opened up the idea that some parts of Wiki world are useful.  I like the idea of using something like this for collaboration.  However I believe that are other ways to do this just as effectively.  We were also asked to find the wikipedia page for our school and make changes on it.  I added to the sports section that our Basketball team won state for the first time.  This is a HUGE moment in school history as this is our first state title EVER! I understand the purpose of this part of the assignment but all it really did for me was prove WHY Wikipedia can't be trusted as a valid source for information.

I think I need to play around with this some more and I might use it for group work in the future.  Will this small interaction lead me to becoming a full supporter of Wikipedia and its extensions, probably not. I'll still give out zeros for using it unless otherwise instructed.