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.

PART B - Storyboard and Script

The storyboard and script were both an entire group effort. I did most of the big idea stuff like putting together the initial structure of the presentation and building the "why use Facebook," "Differences between a Page and a Group," and "Conclusion." However the other group members really fleshed out and added to each of these sections. Slough it was my idea to make a Facebook page, Pam did all the leg work for that, and she did a great job. As for the script, I wrote the concluding script and added in some of the pictures. I invite you to see the results of our work here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wOME3IuH8BHQ_l3Ul-k39orydFnBZOWQh1P1-mvd7_g/mobilebasic?hl=en_US.

For the final presentation, we've decided that I will build it and do the audio since that will make it easiest to do the timings correctly. All the group members contributed screenshtos and pictures to include in the video, so it is ready to be filmed. Dave will make a video for his section and send it to be included in the final product. Tammie and Pam will both put the final edits on it. I'm really excited to see the end product. This is the first group I've worked with where I've felt like everyoneis fully invested and it makes a huge difference.

Wicked Problem Project: Part D - Findings and Implications

• Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

The project definitely did not get implemented as planned. However, I’m not unhappy with the results of the project. I knew that I would have to change parts of it as the project evolved. I’ve consistently found that what I want is always a bit beyond what Moodle has to offer. So when I discovered that only text definitions from the glossary were used to create games, I was disappointed but not surprised. Still, I was able to use the text and (transcribed) audio to create useful review games. The students were also able to learn from each other’s sentences, so I feel the project was a success.

• Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice
• How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

I would definitely tests out all the modules in Moodle first. For this, I tested out the Glossary and Games modules but didn’t check to make sure that audio and pictures would transfer from Glossary to Games. I would also include a lot more examples for the students to see what I expect. Luckily, this session’s students have created some excellent examples so I can recycle them.

• What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

What’s consistently come up in my blog posts is that most people aren’t aware of how much Moodle has to offer. Its rather intimidating interface keeps a lot of people from delving into what it’s capable of. I hope that other teachers are inspired to see what they can do.  Although it’s definitely harder to use than other websites such as Weebly or Google, I also feel like I understand how websites work better and can troubleshoot problems a lot easier. I even added pictures and larger text to my website to make it more user-friendly.

• In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

I would like to do the same project again. However, I will have to separate the text sentences from the audio and the pictures. The text can be used to create crosswords and hangman while the audio and pictures can be used to create flashcards or matching activities. I’ll probably recycle sentences from previous sessions both to increase the amount of studying that the students can do and so that they can see examples of good sentences and pictures.  I had already decided not to do the voting. I would really like to cut out the teacher feedback portion of the assignment, but I’m not sure how to do that yet.

Wicked Problem Project: Part C – Implementation

Click here for an update on my Wicked Problem Project. 
This is an example of a crossword created with sentences from my students.

Mobile Learning

Like most teachers, I like the idea of using cell phones in the classroom, but I’m reluctant to fully integrate because not all students have access to the same tools. I’ve already started using QR codes at my school, but only for optional special events not for classroom activities.

I checked out the discussion “Cellphones in Education” at Classroom2.0. The community, however, seemed not to be terribly active. There were many posts on breaking the ban on cell phone use and developing parent-student-teacher agreements. I wasn’t particularly interested in these topics, so I spent most of my time looking at the tools on the Mobile Learning page in Angel.

One tool I thought was especially interesting was Wiffiti, which allows you to post tweets on screens, jukeboxes, etc. This would be great if we had a scrolling message board outside our school that would let students and teachers tweet about what they are doing in the classroom. Other students and parents would be able to keep up to date on what we were doing inside. I think this would be especially interesting in Korea where all technology seems to move at the speed of light. I also liked the idea of using cell phones for scavenger hunts, but I cringe at how much checking would be involved. Perhaps students could upload pictures to our Facebook page and we could grade the hunt afterwards. I really like the idea as well of creating a video contest where students could post their favorite memories of our school and vote on which ones they liked best. The winners could get a prize of some variety.

Polleverywhere.com is a great tool I would highly recommend for schools. The polls are quick and easy to make and the data is displayed in an easily readable manner. In the classroom, this would work best if you have a lot of students or are asking a potentially sensitive question such as “would you like to change the date of the final?” Some students might want a different option but be shy to say anything in front of their peers. This would effectively sidestep this issue. This would also be a great way to get parental input or play games like Family Feud. However, in my current school class sizes are so small that it’s unnecessary to use cell phones for much beyond that. Nevertheless, it’s an excellent tool and I’d recommend it highly!