FV_Option #3 AR Pitch

Final Video - Action Research Pitch

I took this opportunity to try to convince my current employer to sponsor a local school as children are our future pipeline of talents.  I had a great time working with my son to put this video together and hope you enjoy it.  Here it is  FV Option #3

W4_Reading

Mind map using Simple Diagrams


References

Bowman, R. (2007).  How Can Students Be Motivated: A Misplaced Question?. Clearing 

     House, 81(2), 81-86.  Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.  

D’Aloisio, A. (2006).  MOTIVATING STUDENTS THROUGH AWARENESS OF 

     THE NATURAL CORRELATION BETWEEN COLLEGE LEARNING AND 

     CORPORATE WORK SETTINGS.  College Teaching, 54(2), 225-229. Retrieved 

     from Academic Search Premier database.

Hannafin, R., & Foshay, W. (2008).  Computer-Based Instruction’s (CBI) Rediscovered 

     Role in K-12: An Evaluation Case Study of One High School’s Use of CBI to   

     Improve Pass Rates on High-Stakes Tests.  Educational Technology Research and  

     Development, 56(2), 147-160. Retrieved from ERIC database.  

Shroff, R. & Vogel, D. (2009).  Assessing the Factors Deemed to Support Individual 

     Student Intrinsic Motivation in Technology Supported Online and Face-to-Face 

     Discussions.  Journal of Information Technology Education, 8, 59-85. Retrieved 

     October 14, 2010 from http://informingscience.org/jite/documents/Vol8/JITEv8p059-

     085Shroff416.pdf

PE6 Google Presentation

Google Presentation

I have completed this Practical Experience with Google Presentation and tested it with one of my Critical Friends.  I have completed a first draft of a presentation that I plan to give at the opening session of my Cycle 1 Action Research Project with the students at Riverside High School.   I will use this tool to explain to them the purpose of my Action Research project and the role they will play in it.  It has embedded links to the Google Doc survey I created last week to measure their level of motivation prior to conducting this study.  I will also include another embedded link to walk them through the post exercise survey.  I have links to the corporate sponsor's website where I will play a video explaining to the students the companies missions and why they are assisting the school.  It is a brief presentation but will be a good way to get the activities started.  I plan to link my corporate sponsor critical friend to the presentation when the time comes so we can all be together.  

Click on the following link to view the draft presentation:

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dvdssnp_7d2xqmcnc

PE5 Google Presentations

Google Presentations

I have continued to advance with my Google presentation to introduce myself, my Action Research project and the schools new corporate sponsor.  I was able to select a good video posted on my companies global website that provides a comprehensive overview of what bioMérieux does in the healthcare industry to introduce the students and teacher to their new corporate sponsor.  This has been integrated into the Google doc presentation and is working well.

My company will be sending guest speakers to the school as a part of my Cycle 1 activity.  These speakers are professionals in biostatistics and software algorithm development that apply daily the mathematical concepts the students are currently learning. They will explain how they use these mathematical concepts and technology within the Medical device world to improve patient health.  One of the goals with my action research project is to increase student’s motivation to learn math through integration of technology and corporate sponsorship to highlight real world applications.   I will finish this presentation and post the link to the final project for you to see as my PE3 blog post.

PE4 Google Presentations

Google Presentations

For my last practical experience assignment I selected Google Presentations as the tool I will discover.  I have never used this and only have experience with Microsoft power point.  I plan to use Google Presentations with my Action Research project as a way to introduce myself to the Advanced Functions and Modeling math students at Riverside High school in Durham North Carolina.  These students along with their teacher will be assisting me in introducing technology into their classroom curriculum.  I will experiment with embedding video’s, website links and sound for what I hope will be a dynamic presentation.  Stay tuned for my progress…

W3_Reading

SimpleDiagrams Mind Map

References

Durmus, S., & Karakirik, E. (2006).  VIRTUAL MANIPULATIVES IN

     MATHEMATICS EDUCATION: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. Turkish

     Online Journal of Educational Technology, 5(1), 117-123.  Retrieved from 

     Education Research Complete database.

Hounshell, P., Hill, S., & Swofford, R. (2002).  Using Laptop Computers to Improve

     Performance of Minority Students: A Pilot Project.  Journal of Science Education 

     & Technology, 11(1), 101-103. Retrieved from Education Research

     Complete database.  

Mendicino, M., Razzaq, L., & Heffernan, N. (2009).  A comparison of Traditional

     Homework to Computer-Supported Homework.  Journal of Research Technology in

     Education, 41(3), 331-359.  Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Middleton, H., Pavlova, M., & Roebuck, D. (2002). Implementing technology education

     in a high school: A case study.  Retrieved October 10, 2010, from             

     http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/1429

BP11 Comment on Jessica Coffelt's blog

Dance Mat Typing

Dance Mat Typing is not just for kids, it could be great for the older generation who still have difficulties typing on PC's.  See my comments to Jessica's blog by clicking on this link.

BP10 Comment on Kelly Baker's blog

For those of us who are hands on Lego fans, you have to check out Scratch.  I see possible applications within a high school engineering program with use of motors and sensors from Lego's MindStorms.  See my comments on Scratch on Kelly's blog.

BP9 Go!Animate

Want to be an animator and create high quality cartoon videos?   Well, I have just the Web 2.0 tool for you, Go!Animate.  You can create, watch, share and rate animated videos on your Go!Animate site.  It can be used to create personal, school or corporate messages and training materials in a short amount of time.  You create your character(s) or choose from ones available in the tool and select or import your background or theme.  What is really cool is that the characters can talk, walk and open their mouths as well as have attitudes.  You just select the voice you want and type in a text box what you want them to say.  Add music to the video and you are all set to go.  It can be a great way to introduce students to their new classroom as well as give you as an educator an opportunity to show them how media can be used to learn. If you do not want the characters to speak, you can import these movies into iMovie and speak for yourself.  There are a lot of different uses for a tool such as this.  It was fun to learn and I am sure your students will enjoy it as well.

If you are ready to have fun click the link!

Go!Animate Web 2.0 Tool for school!

BP12_OMM Go!Animate

GO! ANIMATE Web 2.0 Tool

PE3 Google Doc Forms

All fun must come to an end at some point and unfortunately for me it is now.   I really enjoyed this practical experience exercise with Google Doc Forms and me.  And guess what?  It really works!  That's right, the Student Motivation Survey form I created and sent out, worked like a charm.  I sent the survey via email to some of my friends and what was really exciting was that Google doc's automatically filled in the Google doc spreadsheet with all the responses to all questions as they were submitted.  

There is a really nice feature that I discovered called Summary of Responses.  To access this you go to the spreadsheet and select Forms then Show Summary of Responses and next thing you know, you will be presented with the following bar charts:

These charts display each question and the results from each participant.  You can visually see the distribution of responses and percent of each response overall. 

I love this tool and will use it when I perform my Action Research Student Motivation Survey during Cycle 1.  It was easy to create, monitor and interpret.  Gotta love Google!

PE2 Google Doc Forms

For my second post (PE2), I have completed the Google Doc survey form.  If you would like to help me test this tool, please go to the following  link  and pretend you are back in a High school math class and have fun filling out my survey.  If all goes well, I will look at the data this weekend and see if it worked!

  

Thank you in advance if you helped me test it.

Completed Google Doc Survey Form

PE1 Google Doc Forms

Google Doc Form 

I have decided to try setting up a survey to be used with my Action Research Project, which I have called Student Motivation Survey.  I decided to try to use Google Docs Form to begin establishing my baseline survey.  My Action Research project is on improving student’s motivation to learn High school Mathematics through the implementation of Technology and corporate sponsorship through real life applications.  I will establish this survey to see what motivates them to learn and will ask them to take this survey as part of Cycle 1 activities.   These questions are based on my literature reviews around motivation. 

For my second post (PE2), I plan to have the completed survey and will add the URL in case anyone wants to help me test it by contributing data.  For the final post (PE3), I plan to have "test" results as a form of validation of the tool and to see how the tool analyzes the data.  I am looking forward to seeing if it works.

W2_Reading

Week 2 Reading Concept Map using SimpleDiagrams

References

Frye, N., & Dornisch, M. (2008).  Teacher Technology Use and Student Evaluations: The   

     Moderating Role of Content Area.  Journal of Educational Technology Systems,

     36(3), 305-317. doi:10.2190/ET.36.3.g.

Pan, W., &Tang, M. (2005). Students’ Perceptions on Factors of Statistics Anxiety and

     Instructional Strategies.  Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(3), 205-214. 

     Retrieved from Education Research Completed database.

Sedig, K. (2008). From Play to Thoughtful Learning: A Design Strategy to Engage

     Children With Mathematical Representations. Journal of Computers in Mathematics

     & Science Teaching, 27(1), 65-101. Retrieved from Education Research Complete

     database.

Taylor, J., & Galligan, L. (2006). Mathematics for Maths Anxious Tertiary Students:

     Integrating the cognitive and affective domains using interactive multimedia.  Literacy    

     & Numeracy Studies, 15(1), 23-43.  Retrieved from Education Research Complete  

     database.

BP7_Comment to Brenda

Follow this link to my comments on Brenda's blog.  She has introduced me to a really nice tool for drawing that I didn't want to stop playing with.

BP6_Comment to Amanda

Prezi

A fellow EDMT Full Sail classmate Amanda has given a new meaning to learning math definitions with her use of Prezi, Jing and Elluminate, all Web 2.0 tools that will rock any math class.  Check them out.

Follow this link to my comments on Amanda's blog.

BP5_Glogster EDU

Web 2.0 Glogster EDU Glog Poster Tool Screenshot

Remember the days of those awkward large paper poster boards overflowing with magazine clippings and Elmer’s glue, posters that you carried in an oversized plastic garbage bag to avoid damage when running into school on a rainy or snowy day?  Well, those days could be gone forever thanks to Glogster EDU. 

Glogster EDU promotes digital literacy in a digital learning environment.  It can be used in K-12 Education, in University, or Corporate learning environments.  Students and teachers alike learn technology in an easy to use scalable format that results in a multi-media electronic poster. A Glog is an interactive visual platform in which students create a “poster or web page” containing multimedia elements including: text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, and data free from glue, construction paper and magazine clippings.

Glogster EDU fosters problem-solving skills in a way that allows the students to express independent and creative thought to become competent and confident problem solvers for any curriculum objectives.  Its application can be used in any subject area.  It creates an innovative learning environment for all learners, regardless of learning style. Students can work independently or as a part of a team to solve problems through media of their choice such as graphic galleries, images, video, audio or text, uploading, linking or grabbing images, use of Web cams, animation, selection and layout of poster and page wall as well as use of drawings.  The student selects the means in which they demonstrate what they know.  This engaging tool taps into the learners’ interest, offers appropriate challenges, and increases their motivation.

Teachers can easily create a private virtual classroom with students by registering for a teacher administered account.  This generates student accounts with safety in mind.  Student accounts are created without providing email addresses or using any personal contact information. There are logins and passwords and teachers can monitor all activities during the Glog learning process.  When Glogs are completed, the teacher can share students work in a variety of educational settings, embedded in a blog, wiki, or web page depending on the schools regulations.  

It is now time to throw away that big plastic garbage bag, Elmer’s glue, scissors, paper poster boards and magazine clippings, as Glogster EDU is the way to go.   Visit this amazing electronic poster 2.0 Web tool at http://edu.glogster.com/

BP8_OMM_Glogster EDU

As educators we need to foster digital literacy.  

Implement Web 2.0 tool Glogster for multimedia posters and she what can be...

BP4

Week 1 Discovering Web 2.0

W1_Reading

High school students are having difficulty applying mathematical knowledge learned and staying motivated to learn.  If I integrate technology into the class curriculum than it will improve knowledge application and students motivation to learn. This is my Action Research problem statement along with a brief summary of what the articles I have selected are about.

In an article by Nancy Drickey (2006), she highlighted the fact that The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), recommend that school mathematics instructional programs should use technology to help students understand math in order to prepare them to use it an our increasingly technological world.  In a study she assessed the effectiveness of physical and virtual mathematics manipulatives on middle school students’ visualization and spatial reasoning skills as well as attitudes toward math compared to traditional mathematical instruction.  Results of the study showed that students enjoyed working in the virtual or physical manipulatives and stated this was fun and easier to understand which made them want to learn.  The study also highlighted the challenges for implementing technology into mathematics curriculum and recommendations for classroom practice to enhance mathematics instructions.

I looked into research, which focused on digital game-based learning, computer supported collaborative learning and animations for instructional use related to mathematics to see if this technology increased student motivation to learn.  I came across a development article by Dr. Fengfeng Ke (2008), who performed a study that examined if computer games were more effective in facilitating comprehensive math learning outcomes compared to the traditional paper and pencil drills.  The results indicated that computer games were significantly more effective in promoting learning motivation as compared to the paper-and-pencil drills.   It was also interesting to see that cooperative goal structures enhanced attitudes towards math learning over competitive and individualized program structures. 

Many have studied technology integration into mathematical curriculums, as it is not without problems.  Gardner, (2004) published on article on her High school experience as a Media Specialist where she painted a rather complete picture of how two math teachers moved away for the daily practice drills and memorization routines to integrating technology into their math curriculums.   Teachers identified the key teaching problems they had and then looked for technology-based projects and tools that would help them to resolve these problems.   Once the tools were selected based on the needs, integration technology plans were created and teachers were trained on the tools.  The article discussed a lot of different math tools and projects that were created to encourage the students to apply the knowledge they learned in real life situations while increasing their knowledge of technology. 

In a study conducted by Mark Neill and Jerry Matthews (2009), results showed that there was a 22% increase in the number of students who met or exceeded state-mandated growth targets in math after the first year of computer-assisted learning interventions for grades 7 and 8.  The study brought to the surface the fact that; teachers’ technology skills and their use of technology in the classroom had an impact on how much of an increase studies like this show.  

                                                         References

Drickey, N., & College, L. (2006).  Learning technologies for enhancing student   

     understanding of mathematics.  E-Journal of International Journal of Learning,

     13(5),109-115. Retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://web.ebscohost.com/

     ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=22&hid=15&sid=92b57148-cb12-414a-887e-

     bba4179953e5%40sessionmgr4

Fengkeng, K. (2008).  Computer games application within alternative classroom goal  

     structures: cognitive, metacognitive, and affective evaluation. Educational       

     TechnologyResearch and Development, 56, 539-556. doi:10.1007/s11423-008-9086-5

Gardner, J. (2004). Technology + planning + math = integration.  Knowledge Quest,

     32(5), 26-29. Retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/

     pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=28&hid=15&sid=92b57148-cb12-414a-887e-

     bba4179953e5%40sessionmgr4

Neill, M., & Matthews, J. (2009).  Does the use of technological interventions improve

     student academic achievement in mathematics and language arts for an identified

     group of at-risk middle school students? Southeastern Teacher Education Journal,

     2(1), 57-65. Retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://web.ebscohost.com/

     ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=19&hid=108&sid=92b57148-cb12-414a-887e- 

     bba4179953e5%40sessionmgr4

Photo clipart retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/

BP3_Diigo Group

FunMath Diigo Group

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

iGoogle Home Tab

iGoogle FSO Tab

iGoogle AR/CBL

iGoogle ETC Tab