Survey

Summary

I also used the Google Forms to create my survey. I changed a few questions since I was mainly having my friends fill the survey out, and not all of them are students. In total, 8 people between the ages of 24 and 50 filled out the survey.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJZeFAtbmhuRTMxWnR5T0ZpV2FTSEE6MQ

Google Forms was pretty easy to use. One important thing is how to re-edit the form. When you click on it, an Excel file pops up, and you have to click on "Form" "Edit form" to be able to edit the survey.

Another useful point is that when you email the form it gives you the option of including the form in the email. While this is useful because people can fill the form out in the same window, they can't see the pretty background. I decided not to include the form to force people to see the prettier form.

I didn’t like that each scaled question had to be entered individually; however, you can duplicate questions, which makes it easier. The spreadsheet was clear. It allows you to see each person’s individual responses and edit them if need be – my friend Jon chose “female” by accident.  "Show summary" was great because it gave you graphs of total responses. This would be very useful for a presentation on results to the school, parents, other teachers, etc.

Results

For a complete view of the results, use this link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/gform?key=0An-PGaY2awXjdEJZeFAtbmhuRTMxWnR5T0ZpV2FTSEE&hl=en_US&authkey=CP3q0voF&gridId=0#chart. In total, 5 men and 3 women completed the survey. Most of them used and learned about technology at home. Everyone used DSL or high speed cable. The most commonly used technologies were email, finding information and downloading files. Spreadsheets, computer games and blogs were the least commonly used.

While everyone felt comfortable using email, editing papers and downloading files, most people were less familiar with creating videos and maintaining blogs and websites.

The technologies most commonly used outside of school or work were laptops, smartphones, and digital cameras. No one used DVD or CD burners, which surprised me because I know many people still watch DVDs.

The results for how people learn while using computers were varied, which shows the many different learning styles in this group. No one said that they copied information directly from the internet or CDs. Most people seemed to produce better work and be less confused while working on a computer; however, the results were not strong enough to be significant.

Questions

I used an Iframe to embed my survey in my blog. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to include it in a blog?

My First M4V!!!

This was surprisingly fun and easy to make. While iMovie is far from intuitive, it is very powerful, and it's video tutorials are excellent!!! To anyone wanting to use it, I would suggest either knowing what you want to build before you open the program or watching a few tutorials to get an idea of what is possible.

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

The Problem
A major problem we have teaching English in Korea is vocabulary. The Korean education system emphasizes rote memorization of terms rather than focusing on how to use the words. In reading class, we address that by having the students create "Vocabulary Logs," where they write down 1) the word 2) the part of speech 3) the definition or a synonym and 4) an example sentence.

The example sentence is the most important part of this task as the sentence should be written in such a way that a reader should be able to understand the meaning of the word from the sentence. For example, "The room was xxxx," would not be a good sentence since you can't guess the meaning of the vocabulary word (represented here by xs). In contrast, "The room was xxxx; there was nothing in it," would be an excellent sentence. The reader can guess that the vocabulary word is "empty."

Since theses sentences are difficult to create, students are allowed to use dictionaries, the internet, etc., with the understanding that the sentence must convey the full meaning of the word. They are also aided in this task by the "understanding vocabulary from context" activities we complete in class. They are shown how to guess the meanings of words through techniques such as recognizing synonyms, antonyms, and guessing from context. Then they are encouraged to use these techniques when writing  examples sentences. However, even with this amount of support, creating example sentences is difficult, and it's not clear that it's not just another type of memorization.

The Solution
I plan to use the Glossary and Game Modules in Moodle to address this issue. The Glossary Module allows students to create their own dictionary. They can enter in a vocabulary word and define it using text, pictures, audio, and/or video. The Game Module can then be used to create crosswords and hangman games using the definitions from the Glossary. 

This solution addresses the problem as it helps to spread out the workload. Rather than having each student create their own individual log, I will have pairs of students create definitions for half or a third of the words. The students will then vote on which sentences they want to use to study and only those will be used in the games. This provides extra scaffolding for the students as they can receive feedback from their peers and instructor before the quiz. In addition, the students can view other students' work and learn from their examples. Finally, the students will be required to complete the crossword and hangman games showing that they are able to correctly recognize contexts in which to use the vocabulary.

This solution also addresses the UDL principle of allowing students to choose how to define the word (ex: picture, text, video, and/or audio) and which of these they would like to use to study. The definitions that are not chosen for the games will remain in the glossary for students to study with if they wish.

Scope of the Project
This scope of this project is one session - a two-month period. The tool will mainly be used outside of the classroom although classroom time will be used in the first week to introduce the technology and method of use. Unfortunately, as I am sabbatical this session, I will not be able to implement this until after CEP 812 has finished.

Research
Research supports the use of wikis in the classroom. Wang & Turner (2004) found the following:
"Wiki collaboration systems encourage student-centered learning environments ... The class wiki becomes a central repository of knowledge acquired and expressed by students in the class. As a result, the class develops a sense of community ownership of course content, and students become active contributors in each other's learning."

In addition, it has been shown that student-created dictionaries have a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition. Szedmina et al. (2005) showed that
"Often the user does not have a clear idea of the context in which the word can be used, and either goes for the 'trial-and-error' option, or relies on the use of that word in his native language ... sample sentences included in OpenDict will hopefully be of help to users of English in order to avoid using the the right expression in the wrong way."
They also not that "(The Wiki system) is self improving while it is used. When someone finds a better translation for a certain vocabulary item, they can alter the dictionary."

Finally,  Szedima & Robert (2004) note that the use of review games are useful.
"As a user of this multimedia application the student is given to opportunity to work (and enhance his knowledge) by himself. There are two options in the application to choose from, ‘practice’ and ‘test’. When going for the ‘practice’ option, the solutions of the exercises can be immediately checked. This enables the student to set his own learning pace. It is a well-known fact that one’s learning pace is individual, and unfortunately, it is inevitable that the teacher’s teaching pace will be too fast for certain students, and too slow for others. While practicing on his own, the student does not have to take into account anyone else’s (fellow students’) learning pace, but work in his own time."

In addition, similar projects have been done at other schools, demonstrating that other teachers have found this technique useful. For example, Robin Shtulman, in her blog "Beware of the Blog," writes a proposal for a school-wide vocabulary wiki. She highlights the benefits of this project including: vocabulary building, community building across grades, friendly competition, critical thinking, community building across roles, technology skills, archive, and opportunities for kids with different learning styles. Kristian Still also discusses the use of Moodle glossary and games to help students learn vocabulary in her blog, Kristian Still's blog. She says that she edits the students' entries rather than having them vote, which may be a more time-effective strategy although it fails to provide feedback on mistakes.

The tools I chose to use for this project are Moodle Glossary and Moodle Games. I chose these tools because our school already uses Moodle so it will be familiar and easy to access. In addition, I liked that students are able to use pictures and audio to define the words as well as text.

Indicators of Success
The most obvious indicator of a successful project will be higher scores on vocabulary quizzes. This will show that the students studied more and/or had a better understanding of the vocabulary words. In addition, at the end of the session students will be asked on their program evaluations whether they enjoyed using the Moodle to learn vocabulary or not. This will indicate any change in motivation based on the use of glossary and games.

Final Reflection

1. Through taking CEP 812, the most useful thing I learned was how to build web pages. I'd never even thought about designing my own web page and frankly, I was a bit scared. Luckily, the tutorials were very simple, and eventually I felt confident enough to start playing with HTML and even CSS. Since then my newest hobby, much to my husband's chagrin, has been editing Wikipedia. There are a lot of fun projects to collaborate on, and I'm learning how to do cool things like merge pages and copy edit.

2. The main technology I've integrated into my courses has been the use of Moodle Lesson. It was a challenging module to build, and I'm not sure I'll do it again unless I move into blended or fully online teaching. Still, it was great to be able to learn how to do it. In addition, a large part of this course was evaluating the utility of resources. My favorite session was the one on UDL because it really forced me to focus on what I could be doing to better meet my students' needs online. As a result, I've made a point of embedding videos into each of my online lessons to appeal to my many students who (I know) love that sort of thing. I've been keeping up with You Tube's autocaptioning initiative and really wish they would let users help edit the captions. Hopefully, in the future, they will!!

3. My goal for this course was just to build my confidence in using technology.  Although it's easy to feel like I understand something, I get nervous about trying it out for the first time. This class forced me to try things I never would have done on my own.  I'm really glad I had the opportunity to lear how to read and edit HTML. I've even started teaching myself a little bit of code just to be able to do more in Moodle. At this goal at least, I feel like I succeeded. 

4. My new goal is to learn how to read and write basic code. I've been watching MIT's free online lessons and watching these great online tutorials. Between the two, I've been able to write some really, really basic programs. Still, it's more than I've ever dreamed of doing. In the future, I plan to continue following MIT's coding course. In addition, next session I'll be taking CEP 812, which I hope will continue building my technological skills and confidence.  My long term goal is to get a Masters in Educational Technology and get a job in technology integration.

TWICE (Two Way Interactive Connections in Education )

The Michigan Merit Curriculum's Online Learning Experience Guideline document has a great list of online courses, learning experiences, and ways to incorporate online learning into the classroom. My favorite of these was TWICE. It allows you to video conference with other classrooms on collaborative projects. One of my favorite ideas is reading the same book as another classroom and discussing it with them. However, this would be effective if the students simply communicated with other students in English. Monolingual classrooms often fall into the habit of translating because everyone can understand them. Being forced to talk with a speaker of another language would show them how to communicate when they can't slip into Korean.
The main pedagogical strategies I would use would be scaffolding until the students are comfortable using the technology, having the students work together collaboratively to check each other and make sure that they understand, and then having the students do the work on their own. I try to make my lessons as student-based as possible by having them use their own content and ideas.

I'm not sure which technologies would actually be hard to use with my students. In fact, since my students are in university, they're often more comfortable with technology than I am.  The main problem they face with technology is when they can't understand the texts. Therefore, the most difficult tool to use would be an RSS feed. However, there are RSS feeds for websites like breakingnewsenglish.com which might be useful. To be honest, I think all of these technologies would be useful and easy to use with my students.

Wikis

This week's topic was wikis. First, we had to build our own wiki. Building a wiki was surprisingly easy and fun. I wasn't sure what to write so I just started writing about the new apartment we're looking for since that's been on my mind. After that, I asked my friends to edit the wiki. They didn't really want to create new accounts. Luckily, PBWorks has an option for teachers whose students don't have email addresses. I was able to assign them accounts through my "education account" without them having to sign up. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about the result, probably because we were all sitting together while they were working on it. I can see the potential for student projects however - especially for writing collaborative essays. We also have students write scripts for presentations in our speaking classes. A wiki would be incredibly useful for that as well.
See my wiki here: http://missemilyreba.pbworks.com/w/page/39055415/Apartment

I also had to edit my school's wikipedia entry. I edited the UCR academies site rather than building an entirely new site for my school. This task was much more difficult for me.  I felt like the article was well written and I didn't want to add something for the sake of adding something. First, I fixed the broken links at the bottom of the page, most of which were outdated. Then, I edited the wiki to mention that students are encouraged to study at UCR rather than California because that's more truthful. I also added a detail about them getting a discount on tuition because it's something we really try to play up at our school. Here's a picture of the changes I made in the website:

Universal Design for Learning

UDL is the idea that learning school be designed to accommodate all kinds of learning. I'm a strong believer in this idea, so this assignment was both enjoyable and humbling for me. Our task was to take a lesson plan and see how well it stood up under the UDL guidelines. Here are my results:

UDL Guidelines – Educator Checklist Version 2
I.    Provide Multiple Means of Representation:	Your notes
1.     Provide options for perception
1.1 Offer ways of customizing the display of information	Feature: As the information is online, the students can change the size of the text. They can also change the size, color, font, etc in their responses. In addition, each student has a picture that appears next to their post which they can change if they wish.
1.2 Offer alternatives for auditory information	Feature: Instructions for how to use the forums are given in text and video.
1.3 Offer alternatives for visual information	Feature: There is a video with voiceover explaining how to use the forums. Barrier: It includes comments such as “click here,” which might not be useful if a student cannot see where here is.
2.     Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols
2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols	Feature: There is a vocabulary list at the top of each document explaining hard to understand words.
2.2 Clarify syntax and structure	Feature: There is a video explaining how to use the forums. In addition, each forum includes text instructions on how to use it.
2.3 Support decoding of text, and mathematical notation, and symbols	Barrier: There is no text-to-speech.  Feature: There is a list of key terms they will need to use the forum.
2.4 Promote understanding across language	Barrier: There are no pictures. There are no links to definitions of words with pronunciation – although now I love this idea.
2.5 Illustrate through multiple media	Feature: There is a vocabulary list at the top of each forum task explaining difficult vocabulary.
3.     Provide options for comprehension
3.1 Activate or supply background knowledge	Feature: Each forum task is prefaced by an article or blog that the students have to read and respond to. The article provides vocabulary and ideas and shows which topics the students are expected to address.
3.2 Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships	Feature: The instructions are clear and concise. Barrier: No major ideas are highlighted.
3.3 Guide information processing, visualization, and manipulation	Feature: Each step is clearly written in sequential order.
3.4 Maximize transfer and generalization	Feature: The final forum task sends the students out to a forum used by English speakers in Seoul and requires the students to post on a “real world” forum.
II.   Provide Multiple Means for Action and Expression:	Your notes
4.     Provide options for physical action
4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation	Barrier: Since the goal of the class is to improve writing, using voice recording or pictures would not serve the same purpose.

4.2 Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies	Barrier: This is actually completely out of my control. Everything about the computers is controlled by the Korean government. I can’t change any settings, hardware or software.
1.     Provide options for expression and communication
5.1 Use multiple media for communication	Feature: Online forums are being used as a tool for communication. Students can also upload pictures.
5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and composition	Feature: Moodle has spelling and grammar check.s
5.3 Build fluencies with graduated labels of support for practice and performance	Barrier: The goal of this activity is to allow students to practice freely without any pressure to perform “correctly.” However, they all tend to follow the same model since it’s the easiest.
2.     Provide options for executive functions
6.1 Guide appropriate goal setting	Barrier: The students are given a schedule but no rubric.
6.2 Support planning and strategy development	Barrier: This behavior is not modeled for or expected of the students.
6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources	Barrier: Resources for this are not provided.
6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress	Feature: Each task has a list of what they have to do in sequential order.

 

III.  Provide Multiple Means for Engagement:	Your notes
1.     Provide options for recruiting interest
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy	Feature: Although the teacher sets the topic, the students are free to address the topic any way they wish.  The only limit on the posting is that it include 150 words. They can add pictures
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity	Feature: This is a real world task that students do everyday in their native language. Also, the final task is for the students to post on a real forum.
7.3 Minimize threats and distractions	Feature: Online forums have been shown to build community in a classroom. In addition, forums can give otherwise shy students an opportunity to express themselves openly.
2.     Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives	Barrier: I usually expect the motivation for the forums to be intrinsic in the activity itself, but a formal statement of the goals would doubtless help the less motivated students.
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge	Feature: The forums get progressively harder starting with the students talking about themselves, moving to talking about less familiar topics and finally to having discussions with native speakers.
8.3 Foster collaboration and community	Feature: Forums foster community and the sharing of ideas. Barrier: There isn’t any collaboration.
8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback	Barrier: The teacher does not provide students with feedback at any point since the goal is for students to practice freely without worrying about a grade or feedback.
3.     Provide options for self-regulation
9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation	Feature: Students in our program often lack faith in their ability to write. The act of posting on a forum helps to boost their belief in their ability to write.
9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies	Barrier: This behavior is not modeled or dealt with.
9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection	Barrier: Students are not given a rubric, nor are they asked to grade a sample forum post using the rubric.