Module 1: Véjà Du

These are pictures of an everyday household object. Can you figure out what it is?

 

 

 

 

 

Just for fun, here's another:

 





Bio

My name is Emily Campbell. I started out traveling the world as an ESL instructor and ended up an academic advisor at one of the military bases in Korea. I've had a lot of fun adventures, but my husband and I are looking to move somewhere else in the near future. My hobbies are traveling, baking, and learning new languages. Lately though, I've taken up kickboxing and yoga, which I love.

2 months ago, I recovered from severe nerve damage that had been restricting my life for the past 5 years. As a result this week's reading on Enhancing Personal Creativity really struck a cord with me, as I've barely been able to hold down a job let alone think about being creative. This class is going to be a real challenge for me as I'm right now trying to pull my life back together and creativity is the furthest thing from my mind. That said, I'm looking at this as an opportunity to rebuild with new habits.

Lesson Plan Reflection

Purpose

The purpose of this lesson was to teach my staff how to cloud compute and share documents using Microsoft Skydrive.  I chose to teach document sharing because it has the potential to be a very useful tool. Our offices are spread out across Korea, which makes communication a bit difficult. Document sharing would prevent documents from being lost as they are passed from one office to another.

Lesson Overview

As our offices are several hours away from one another, the lesson was carried out online. It was done asynchronously because we were learning during the workday and could not get time off for a lesson. As a result, the instructions were sent to each staff member by email.  

The only change made in the lesson plan was that I decided to attach the video I made rather than upload it to YouTube. Two of my offices don’t have internet, so they stored the video on their computers and watched it there before going to another room to complete the lesson.

Steps

First, there was a link to a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA) explaining how document sharing works. This laid the foundation for the staff members understanding what they were learning and why. Second, there were written instructions on how to sign up for Skydrive, upload a document, share the document and edit the document in Skydrive. There was also a video attached of me demonstrating how to do the same steps. Third, there was a document for each staff member to share. Each staff member had a different document so that it would be clear who had shared which document.

The lesson plan assumed basic knowledge of uploading and downloading documents as well as knowledge of how to sign into a webpage. The staff also knew how to edit Microsoft Excel documents.

The lesson plan appealed to the visual learner with the written and video lessons as well as the auditory learner with the audio track of the video.  The kinesthetic learner could complete the steps while following the instructions allowing for better learning.

There were behaviorist elements as the staff watched me do the steps and then followed. There were also constructivist elements in that the staff can continue to follow the instructions until they feel they are ready to do the steps on their own without the instructions.

The Implementation

Several staff members completed the lesson within 30 minutes of it being sent to them, but a few couldn’t complete it until the end of the day.  Overall, I was very pleased with the ease with which most of the staff completed the lesson. There were very few problems and most were resolved through the staff calling me or each other. I was very proud when I heard that one of the shyer salesladies had called my secretary for help and that my secretary coached her through the whole lesson. This demonstrated that some staff members learned quickly enough to teach someone else.

 The hardest part for most of the staff was signing up for Skydrive, especially typing in the CAPTCHA for the non-native English speakers. We solved that by having them play the audio over the phone so I could listen and tell them what to type.  There was a potential problem in that not all the offices had speakers. Luckily, most of those that lacked speakers didn’t notice because the video was easy to follow.

Reflection

Upon reflection, I wish that I had asked the staff to share a few documents instead of just one. This would have given them more practice in doing the steps of uploading and sharing. Also, it would have allowed them to practice sharing editable and non-editable document, which can be confusing at first. I’m glad that I included the video, as the staff members who had the most difficulties were those who were trying to just follow the written instructions. I’d actually started including screen shots in the instructions, but the instructions started being so lengthy that I stopped. In the future, if I have more time, I will definitely include pictures.  

The real assessment of how the less went will be next week when the staff have to share documents using the new system. However, I believe that having the instructions, the video, and each other to rely on, the staff will be successful. 

This is my Storyboard Project for CEP 800. Please excuse some of the background noise. Our neighbors have been renovating their apartment and there's construction day and night. I've edited out as much as I could. Thank you for watching and enjoy!!

Wicked Problem Project: Final

Script: A Wicked Problem is one which is hard to solve and often requires a creative and innovative solution. The wicked problem I chose to address in my English as a Foreign Language classes was vocabulary acquisition. If you arrive at my classes five minutes before class starts, you’ll most likely see students pouring over lists of vocabulary with Korean translations. While memorization has its benefits, the students rarely learn the exact correct meaning of the words.

To solve this problem, I developed a wicked solution using Moodle’s glossary and games modules. Rather than students using their dictionaries to define words, students would create their own definitions using pictures, audio files, and example sentences – that is sentences from which the meaning can be inferred without a dictionary. Each pair of students would be assigned three or four words and would have to define the words using text, images, and/or audio files. The text files could then be used to create crossword and hangman games from which the other students could study. The audio and image files could be used to create Moodle flashcards which keep track of which words students know and keep drilling them on the ones they don’t. In this way, technology could be used to supplement the student’s aquistion.

As with every technology- integrated lesson, this lesson was informed by my knowledge of the interactions between pedagogy, content, and technology.  We call this the TPACK model. In this slide, you can see the TPACK interactions that informed my teaching decisions. Going clockwise from the top – the technology I chose to use was Moodle. I chose Moodle because the students are familiar with it and use if for their other classes too. In addition, all materials that are uploaded to Moodle can be viewed by the other students in the class. The content knowledge is vocabulary. Rather than having the students only know the (often incorrect) Korean translation for the vocabulary words, I want them to situate the vocabulary words within their already existent vocabulary. I want them to connect the word with its synonyms, antonyms, definition, pictures and example sentences. Finally, the pedagogy used is student-student teaching. Rather than the students using a dictionary or turning to me to help, I’d prefer that they create their own dictionaries so that they can learn from one another.

The project was successful in many ways. The students did a great job of finding pictures and building sentences. I think the knowledge that other students would be seeing their work made the students spend more time building their definitions and example sentences than they might otherwise have done. In addition, the flashcards turned out to be a big hit. The students especially liked using the image files to study. The audio files were less interesting. However, almost all of the students used the crosswords to study and most continued taking them until they got perfect scores.

In addition, I was able to see misunderstandings and correct them before they occurred. For example, one of the vocabulary words was “glamorous.” In Konglish, that is Korean-English, glamorous means voluptuous, so the pictures they’d chosen were of very large-chested women. This was a great opportunity for me to see a misunderstanding and clarify immediately. Instead, I showed them pictures of Victoria Beckham and other glamorous women and discussed why they were a better embodiment of this word.

The final benefit of this project was having the beginnings of a dictionary already in place for my next class. Instead of having the next class start from scratch, I can have them build off the glossary entries that already exist, for example adding pictures or audio to text definitions and vice versa. In addition, they can see good example sentences and learn from the experiences of the classes before them.

The advice I would give to other teachers who want to undertake a similar project would be to be bold! Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment. Although Moodle can be intimidating to use at first, it is an extremely powerful tool and one that is worth using. The other piece of advice I would give is to pay attention to the details. Make sure everything works perfectly and try every step out before you do it. I had seen that the glossary used text, picture and audio files and that the crossword and hangman games pulled from the glossary so I thought that the games would be able to use picture and audio files, but unfortunately they only use text. Luckily, the flash card module uses audio and pictures, so I was able to use those for studying instead. In short, just do it, but do it well!

If you are interested in learning more about this project, there are several papers I would suggest reading. Wang & Turner discuss the use of wikis in the classroom in their 2004 paper. Szedmina et al. address how student-created dictionaries increase vocabulary acquisition. Finally, Szedimina & Robert note that review games have a positive effect on motivation and understanding of vocabulary words.

To see other similar projects, I would strongly recommend visiting Robin Shtulman’s blog “Beware of the Blog,” where she advocates for the use of a school-wide student-created dictionary. For Moodle newbies, Kristian Still, writer of “Kristian Still’s Blog,” discusses the use of Moodle’s glossary and games modules for vocabulary acquisition. Or, as always, feel free to contact me! I love Moodle and want to share that love with other teachers.

Thank you for listening to my project. I wish you luck in solving your own wicked problems!

Group Leadership Project

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the tutorial? Why?
We used a lot of different tools to deliver this tutorial. We used Jing for screenshots because it's easy to use and we're all familiar with it. I also used Word to make some of the pictures again because it's easy to use and can include texts and pictures. We used iMovie and Windows Media Player to create the video because I had a Mac and Dave had a PC. Finally, we uploaded the video to Youtube in order to share it with the rest of the class. Youtube is a great option because it's easy to embed and share the videos.

2. What did you learn during the development process of the final product? 
The major things I learned were how to use iMovie effectively. I especially liked using the Ken Burns effect, which allows for panning across the pictures. I also learned how to match the pictures to audio easily. The best way I found to do this was to listen to the clip after the one you're editing rather than listening to the entire clip you're editing. By listening to the clip after, you can tell where the one you're editing ends and this makes it easier to time the whole movie. Finally, I learned that these projects are a lot easier with group members. I was able to email them and get tips and hints on how to fix any problems I was having.

3. What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?
If I had to develop a similar product again, I would buy Camtasia. While iMovie is an excellent video making tool, it doesn't import most other video files including .wmv, which was the video file that Dave had made. I had to send the clips to Tammie, who put them all together. In addition, I had a lot of problems with the transitions. For some reason, any time I edited any of the clips, all of the transitions would change. After spending an hour trying to fix them, I gave up in frustration. However, I'm very proud of the end result, which you can see here, or you can visit the YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wLMMZ_ZpPg Feel free to sign in and "like" the video or add comments. 

Professional Learning Plan

A professional learning plan is a reflection on the goals you've had in the past, those you are accomplishing now and those you would like to accomplish in the future. It lays out a specific plan of action of how these goals will be achieved. To listen to a podcast of my learning plan, click on the link below.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31577518/PLP.mp3

Here is a script for the podcast:

A major goal of mine going into CEP 810 was to find better games for my students to learn English. I made a lot of headway exploring Second Life and making a friend who offered to give me a fully formed English learning video game that I could tweak to meet the needs of my students. However, due to time constraints at my school – we run in two-month sessions and the death of my friend – I put both those projects on hold. More recently, I switched jobs to become the head teacher at a brand-new program to teach English to the Korean staff at all the military bases in Korea. As most of my students will not have access to computers, I’ve decided that the video games, while interesting and still fun, are not an immediate priority.

One major goals I did achieve was becoming more familiar with what technologies were available. Before starting at MSU, I’d only really known about the tools we used at our school: Moodle, Audacity, Hot Potatoes and Google Apps. Since then, I’ve learned about and begun using Voicethreads, Weebly, Glogster and Podcasts with my students.

The main skill set I would like to increase is learning more about how computers and technology work. It’s very frustrating to try to trouble shoot technology problems when I don’t understand what the problems are. I’d really like to learn some basic programming code and have a better understanding of how computers work. I’ll hopefully be starting my MA in Educational Technology at MSU in the fall, and I’m hoping to be able to take a computer science course as an elective. If not, several schools offer free online courseware that I could take advantage of.  However, with my new job, I know my time will be limited.

As for what I will accomplish this summer, I’ll be building an English program from the ground up. I’ll be hiring, training and evaluating teachers as well as meeting with our clients, performing needs analyses and developing curriculum. My main concern is that while Korea is a small country, roughly the size of Indiana, there will still be a lot of travel involved. Luckily, I’ll be able to implement a lot of the tools I’ve learned about at MSU. I’ve already built a website where teachers can upload and share lesson plans. I’m planning on using web conferencing to communicate with teachers and web cams to observe and evaluate their teaching. Having learned a lot at MSU, I now need to put the skills I’ve learned to practice. I suppose that’s why I’m so nervous about trouble shooting issues. I’ll definitely need help getting a lot of this set up, but unfortunately the school I’m working for has a very limited budget and no interest in increasing the amount of technology they use. Luckily, I have a few friends who are computer geeks and who are more than willing to help me with any issues that I’m having. I’ll be relying on them heavily for ideas and tech support. While the months ahead will be difficult, they will be easier with the tools I’ve learned to use in these classes.