2016 East Lansing Tech Camp: Day 2! 7/19/2016

2016 East Lansing Tech Camp: Day 1! 7/18/2016

2016 East Lansing Tech Camp! #517edtech #MichEd

Dear #MichEd,

We’re pleased to announce that East Lansing Public Schools will be offering a 3-day tech camp style PD on July 18th, 19th and 20th where teachers and staff will have the opportunity to come earn up to 15 hours of DPPD in various areas of technology. The purpose of this event is to bring educators together from Michigan K-12 schools to model how to use technology in instruction to support teaching and learning.

We see Michigan educators as leaders of using district technologies and would love to see you share your experience and knowledge with the ELPS and MichEd communities. Click here to join us in presenting!

We also encourage you to pass this on to anyone who may be interested in presenting a great session at East Lansing’s tech camp. The deadline to submit is Friday, June 3. All submissions will be peer reviewed by our technology department and classroom teachers. You will be notified if your proposal was accepted shortly after. Stay tuned for a complete schedule with session descriptions by Friday, June 10.

Julie Bungard: Supporting Linguistically and Culturally Diverse ELL Learners at East Lansing!

There are 47 countries currently represented within Glencairn’s classroom walls where every day is an extraordinary celebration of cultural diversity. Each classroom supports the growth of linguistically and culturally diverse learners in English education in its own unique way. This month’s teacher spotlight highlights Julie Bungard, an outstanding Glencairn teacher that has gone above and beyond to bring technology into the ELL classroom as a means of integrating rich cultural content into teaching.

Tell us a little about yourself? My name is Julie Bungard and I am currently working in the Glencairn Elementary building. This is my second year at Glencairn. During my first year in East Lansing I worked as a part time kindergarten teacher at Red Cedar and a part time ELL teacher at Glencairn (it was then a five/six grade building). After that first year, I became a full-time ELL teacher at Red Cedar. I have now been in the district for eight years. Tell us a little about the ELL technology used at your school? Two years ago, when I was working as the Title III coordinator for our district, I learned about a software program that was innovative, research based, individualized, and kid friendly. The name of the program is Imagine Learning (If interested, go to this web address: http://www.imaginelearning.com. The program is aimed to improve literacy for all students and is particularly useful for ELL students. After much investigation, I was able to use Title III funding to purchase licensing for our ELL students. Students can log-on to an iPad app and use this program in their individual classrooms to help them learn English. Teachers were beyond excited! They now have tools to help them with the English Language Learners while they are in the classroom. This program may be used on iPads, laptops, and desktops. How was this technology brought into the school? Title III is under the umbrella of Title I, but its funding is specific for Title III or English Language Learners (ELL). Under this government funded program, I was able to purchase for our district, licenses from Imagine Learning, iPads, and laptops to help with students in grades K-5. In the 6-12th grades, students are also using iPads and technology from this grant. What was the educational need that inspired this project? During our shift from classroom instruction to more explicit instruction - 90-minute reading blocks, intervention, and good fit work, ELL students, especially beginners, needed supplemental materials to help in the classroom. During ELL conferences, I asked other ELL teachers what they used in their schools to supplement ELL students in the classrooms and this program was often recommended. What made this technology (ELL iPads) a particularly good fit for your student population? Not only can ELL students use the iPads and programs in their classrooms, but teachers can access the program on-line by logging in and learning about the strengths and weaknesses of each student. How do you see the students using this technology in your building? ELL students log in to Imagine Learning on a daily basis for 30 minutes a day. If the teacher is consistent, most students who have used the program more than twenty hours during the school year, grew at an accelerated rate. Students scored 20% higher than those who have not used the program. This program can also be used at home and this function will be better utilized next year as we grow and develop. How have the students responded to this technology? Most students absolutely love the program. Some want to use it all day long. It’s game-like structure allows students to progress at their own rate. What are some specific programs used on these devices and how do they benefit your student population? Not only can our students use these iPads for Imagine Learning, they can also use them for numerous iPad apps helpful for ELL students like: Kids A-Z, Bitsboard PRO, Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader, Little Story Creator, Word Hippo, Green Screen, Google Translate, Stack the States, Noodle Words, and many more. The Middle School and the High School are also utilizing this technology by using TumbleCloud (http://tumblebookcloud.com). For the elementary level, Tumblebooks is a program that you can get through the ISD for free, but TumbleCloud is not available for free from the ISD. This program is extremely vital for students in grades 6-12th grades. TumbleCloud is an online collection of ebooks, enhanced novels, graphic novels, videos and audio books, which offers students and adults of all reading levels access to an amazing range of content. This means that ELL students who struggle with reading massive amounts of material can listen to a shorter version of the story and still get the gist of the book, using an iPad to do it.

ELPS Teacher Spotlight: Will Paddock // Microsoft Office Mix

Will Paddock first heard about Office Mix early last year and thought it sounded like an interesting (and relatively easy) way to get information to students. One snow day he decided to make an OfficeMix to send to his students.

East Lansing Technology & Media Services' September 2015 Teacher Spotlight

Check out how ELPS teachers are applying tech tools learned over the summer in their classrooms this fall! Click here to view them in Technology & Media Services' September 2015 Teacher Spotlight

#ELPSPD Day 3: 2015 East Lansing Tech Camp

#ELPSPD Day 2: 2015 East Lansing Tech Camp

#ELPSPD Day 1: 2015 East Lansing Tech Camp

East Lansing Public Schools Technology Bond Promotional Video

In February 2013, the ELPS community supported the passage of a $5.3 million Technology, Security & Communication bond. Since that approval, the District has been very busy updating and improving on projects that were advertised, including structural technology that directly impacts the classroom. Please watch the following video and direct your attention to the Bond Updates webpage on the ELPS district website for more information. Stay tuned for more information on the technology advancements in the district!

http://content.screencast.com/users/TechSmith_Media/folders/ELPS/media/5d401bd9-d976-4a38-95e2-d7950cf187aa/East%20Lansing_GoestoELPS_Final.mp4

East Lansing #EdTech Teacher Spotlight

Last month, Amy Sayers’ Pre-Calculus class had the opportunity to speak face-to-face with Pardis Sebeti, a Harvard Professor at the Center for Systems Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at Harvard School of Public Health.

“We have been watching her videos about Statistics and Probability this semester in my Pre-Calculus classes. She has a series of videos on Annenberg Learner titled ‘Against All Odds.’” - Sayers

A student in the class, Savannah Sodeman contacted Pardis to see if she would be willing to Skype with her Pre-Calculus class. Pardis and Sayers began a correspondence of setting up a Skype call for the Pre-Calc class.

On Monday, October 27, the class Skyped with Pardis using their Epson document camera and projected the conversation onto their classroom whiteboard. Amy and her class said it was great to see her on the big screen. They were able to move the document camera around the room for Pardis to meet the entire class and Pardis could hear them clearly through the microphone.

“As I told Savanah, I was so thrilled that she reached out. I so enjoyed speaking to Amy and her class. With everything going on, it was just such a great joy to see smart, fun, and just great students. It really really made my day! And it was so clear that Amy is a wonderful teacher. They are very lucky to have her.” – Pardis

Pardis is a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She is well known for her current research work on the Ebola virus in Africa.

“The students learned a lot more than just statistics from her; they learned how she has been working on the Ebola virus and other viruses in Africa, and predicted this outbreak was going to happen a few years ago. She is working with the CDC and is in the news often about what she is finding. She even told the students to be aware of another virus called the Lassa virus which should be making news headlines soon. It was a great way for my students to see how math concepts can be applied in real world scenarios.” – Amy Sayers

We're Comin' at You #SBAC!

E.E. Knight students in Mrs. Travis & Mr. Powell's classrooms got creative with their persuasive essays today by collaborating and sharing in Google Docs and incorporating multimedia content into their story. We love our Chromebooks!!

#BlendedLearning in the Classroom

Mr. Nodarse is one of 9 Ovid-Elsie teachers enrolled in "Blended Learning in the Classroom," a professional development course offered by the REMC Association of Michigan. This is an extremely rigorous course that these teachers have voluntarily committed to that takes up a considerable amount of their own personal time outside of school.

Here is a picture of Mr. Nodarse's Spanish 1 class doing a blended lesson using Chromebooks and Schoology, our district's new learning management system. Mr. Topping (OEHS), Mrs. Buza (Leonard), Mr. Ford (Admin), Mrs. Kirby (OEMS), Mr. Tokar (Admin), Mrs. Keck (OEHS), Ms. Root (Ed Tech), Mrs. McCormick (OEHS), Mr. Harger (OEHS), Mrs. Acre (EEK), Mrs. Anderson (OEHS), Ms. Hoffman (OEHS) & Mr. Whiting (OEHS) are also participating in this course.

Well done to these teachers and well done to this classroom!

The World’s Most Successful [Definition of] Ed Tech… by Rick Hess

Thank you Rick Hess (@rickhess99) for setting all buzz talk aside in your article below to focus on real definition. Let's do this. What is educational technology?

For the purpose of understanding by design, my attempt to reduce educational technology down to what I feel it truly is and what it isn't is intertwined. 

The World’s Most Successful Ed Tech… by Frederick Hess

It’s hard to talk about schools today without talking about technology. Enthusiasts celebrate the wonders of tablets, virtual schools, and “blended” learning.  Skeptics recall a litany of overhyped, underwhelming past efforts. 

News accounts whipsaw between breathless tales of digital learning and horrific accounts of troubled virtual schools.  Last year, Forbes ran a cover story, “One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education.”  But we’ve been there before, plenty of times.  Indeed, in 1922, Thomas Edison proclaimed, “The motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system…In a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks.”

Edison’s enthusiasm is a familiar phenomenon. In 1931, U.S. Commissioner of Education William Cooper established a radio section in the U.S. Office of Education.  By 1932, nine states were broadcasting regular educational programs and Benjamin Darrow, author of Radio: The Assistant Teacher, touted radio as a “vibrant and challenging textbook of the air.”

Similar stories can be told about TV, the desktop computer, laptops, and much else.  As Bror Saxberg and I write in our new book, Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age, we know of only one learning technology that has actually transformed teaching and learning.  When first introduced, educators found it disconcerting and dubious.  Over time, though, they came to cherish it for its two great strengths. First, it gave students access to experts from around the world; they were no longer dependent solely on their teacher for learning.  Second, no longer reliant on teachers to tell them everything, students could learn at home or on their own. This “flipped” the classroom, allowing teachers to spend less time lecturing and more time explaining, mentoring, and facilitating.

What is the wondrous technology that made this all possible? It’s your friendly, familiar book.

Not open to argument or further discussion, the textbook is the most successful educational technology tool in the world. 

The book first became available to the masses after the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s.  Previously, teachers and students had relied on painstakingly hand-inscribed parchment.  As statistician Nate Silver has observed, “Almost overnight, the cost of producing a book decreased by about three hundred times, so a book that might have cost $20,000 in today’s dollars instead cost $70.” The number and availability of books skyrocketed.

As advancements in technology were made, the education world moved closer & closer toward equal access to new, more effective learning tools.

Educators today have expressed plenty of questions about new technologies; it’s useful to recall that educators also didn’t exactly welcome the printing press. Schools were predominantly church-run affairs, and religious leaders worried about the lack of moral and interpretive guidance for learners left to their own devices. There were also fears that printed books would be a poor, cheap substitute for the rich experience of reading a scribe-written book.  In 1492, abbot Johannes Trithemius fretted about the loss of “devotion to the writing of sacred texts…. Printed books will never equal scribed books, especially because the spelling and ornamentation of some printed books is often neglected.”

Despite these concerns, the book’s merits won out. The book made it possible to rethink the teacher’s role and launched an “information revolution.” Before books, a student could learn only as much as their own teacher could convey. "The book made high-quality content readily available to anyone, at any time, day or night." This allowed teachers to focus on tasks other than reciting content. Students could master content and concepts outside of school, learning even when a teacher wasn’t there to tell them things. (Think of Abraham Lincoln working his way through Shakespeare and the Greeks alone on the Illinois prairie.)

Let me digest what he just said about textbooks.

"The book made it possible to rethink the teacher’s role and launched an “information revolution.” Before books, a student could learn only as much as their own teacher could convey. The book made high-quality content readily available to anyone, at any time, day or night. This allowed teachers to focus on tasks other than reciting content. Students could master content and concepts outside of school, learning even when a teacher wasn’t there to tell them things."

This sounds A LOT like a flipped classroom. 

Indeed, today, it’s hard to imagine schooling without the book. Observe a typical classroom: today the shape of a teacher’s job is wrapped around the book.  Teachers ask students to read textbook chapters or novels at home, and build classes around discussing or applying what students have learned. The bottom line is that books didn’t change schooling by themselves; books mattered to the extent that educators used them to rethink how they taught and helped students learn.

Books enable students to move at their own pace and to re-read passages as needed, permitting the kind of reinforcement that learners need. Books made it possible for students to learn in the evening, when they’re ill, or even when assigned to an inept teacher.  In each case, of course, books may well be inferior to a lesson delivered by a phenomenal instructor. But for most students, books are a huge improvement over the alternative, such as lectures delivered by instructors of uneven knowledge and skill.

Now, books are no magical cure-all. There are plenty of classrooms where students sit hunched, doing busy work out of tedious textbooks.  There are too many classrooms where instruction consists of teachers parroting the textbook, or having the class take turns reading passages from a textbook aloud. The presence of the book matters less than its quality, and how it’s used. And the same can be said for tablets, smartphones, smartboards, and any other eye-catching new technology.

The book didn't change the schooling. The books "mattered to the extent that educators used them to rethink teaching and content delivery to help students learn more effectively." 

The book provides an invaluable template for how to best think about digital learning. Promising education technologies won’t “fix” schools or replace terrific teachers. Instead, they make it possible to reshape the teacher’s job, so that teachers and students have more opportunity for personalized, dynamic learning.

How can we capitalize or expand on the book’s educational transformation/success? Well, the book has real limitations. Students learn best when eye and ear work in tandem–but books are a silent medium.  Books are fixed, providing the same experience to every reader, every time. The material and language will inevitably be too difficult for some readers and too easy for others.  Books can’t offer a live demonstration or a new explanation to a confused reader.

New technologies make it possible to do things that the book cannot. Online materials can be rapidly updated, customized to a student’s interests and reading level, and feature embedded exercises that let student apply new concepts and get immediate feedback. Virtual instruction makes is possible for students to access real, live teachers unavailable at their school; while online instruction turns out to be a haven for some students, especially those reluctant to ask questions in class. Researchers have found that intelligent, computer-assisted tutoring systems are about 90% as effective as in-person tutors, making affordable and available the kind of immediate, customized assistance that a book can’t offer.

Educational technology did not emerge as a concept with the release of mobile devices. Is the flipped classroom (or any other method of instruction) an entirely new method of pedagogy? Chances are no. But it is a variation of it. The tool may be different, but it's goal has always been the same as the textbook.

In today's flipped classroom, the video "matters to the extent that educators use them to re-purpose their class-time to drill down on active learning through hands-on techniques."

None of this is a question of buying iPads or mouthing platitudes about “flipped classrooms.”  Rather, it requires getting three crucial things right.  First, new tools need to be used to rethink what teachers, students, and schools do, and how they do it.  If teaching remains static, sprinkling millions of hardware into schools won’t much matter.  Second, technology can’t be something that’s done to educators.  Educators need to be helping to identify the problems to be solved and the ways technology can help, and up to their elbows in making it work.  Third, the crucial lesson from those getting digital learning right is that it’s not the tools, but what’s done with them.  The leaders of high-tech charter school systems like Carpe Diem and Rocketship Education, or heralded school districts like Mooresville, North Carolina, brush past the technology in order to focus relentlessly on learning, people, and problem-solving.

Educational technology is a continuous cycle of innovation that will repeat as long as we are in classrooms. The tool may change but the reasons we innovate never will. 

All of this is too often missing when tech enthusiasts promise miracles and tech skeptics lament that technology is an “attack on teachers.” What to make of such claims?  Just remember that the book didn’t work miracles or hurt teachers. It did offer allow us to reimagine teaching and learning, even if we’re still struggling to capitalize on that opportunity five centuries later. Here’s hoping we do better this time.

-Rick Hess(@rickhess99)

Note to self (understanding by design): persist daily to focus on improved instruction. Use that goal as a driving force to re-imagine individual classrooms and the new learning that will soon be taking place within them. Select technology tools that fit the very specific goals and needs of this vision and implement effortlessly. 

Ed Tech Rhymes

Sometimes I have #thrive days, an occasional #killmyvibe day. And sometimes? When I'm very, Very lucky.. an #everythingisright day. #edtechrhymes

Word To My Teachers

Today feels like the official start of Ovid-Elsie Middle School's Deploying Flipped Learning Project! It was the first collective meeting between myself, the five district teachers participating in this project and their principal, Jason Tokar. I never feel compelled to write, but today I did. I had high aspirations for this group but it never ceases to amaze me how downright inspiring great educators can be. I couldn't wait to share our experience here but before I begin, word to my teachers...

Bryan, Karle, John, Jeremy, Andy & Jason,

First and foremost, thank you SO much for the effort you put forth today. I feel a huge sense of gratitude and responsibility after watching you work together for the first time. Gratitude for being able to do what I love and incredibly grateful to witness the amount of energy and seriousness you are putting into this project. I also feel responsibility as I want to give my 100% best support to you. A special thank you goes out to Jason (for lunch of course!) and for being there to support your teachers by rolling up your sleeves & learning the Camtasia software right alongside them. That is awesome and I'm positive we will come to see that your support plays a huge role in this project.

Thank you again - you are true champions!

Kali  

Thanks to MACUL's support, these educators have been provided the opportunity to flip their classrooms in order to change the way their content is delivered and how their students learn. A big part of this project is the inclusion of TechSmith's Camtasia software being used to create and produce direct instruction video content. We want our students to capitalize on the growing access to technology resources in home environments as well as classroom environments. Through the use of screen capture software, our teachers will demonstrate concepts and simulate a classroom experience that is available for our students to access when it is right for them - at any time and at any pace. They will see an increase in the amount of one-on-one time they get to spend with their students inside the classroom which will allow them to get to know their students better, personalize learning and assessment and improve student skills and understanding (Pearson Education, 2013) by working together collaboratively in the classroom on the application of concepts.

In this paper titled Valuable Professional Development to Support Technology in the Classroom, Chelsey Skogerbo focuses on the reasons why it is so important to supply educators the ample amount of professional development on technology combined with instruction:

The use of technology within the classroom is evident. What is not so evident is the professional development to support teacher’s instructional use of technology for student achievement. Whether or not technology should be used in schools is no longer the issue in K-12 education. Rather, the issue is guaranteeing that technology is used effectively to create new opportunities for learning and to promote student achievement. The problem is that “most teachers have not had adequate training to prepare them to use technology effectively in teaching” (Office of Technology Assessment, 1995, p. 2). “In general, teachers have little in the way of technology support or training available at their schools” (Office of Technology Assessment, 1995, p. 25). The lack of professional development focused around technology is a serious barrier affecting the fully implemented classroom with technology.

When it comes to student achievement, teacher quality is most important. That being said, it was crystal clear from my perspective as an educational technologist that the primary focus of this project would be the support of my teachers in every way, shape & form, beginning with professional development at TechSmith's headquarters in Okemos, Michigan. (p.s. Words cannot express my gratitude toward my colleagues at TechSmith who have encouraged and supported this project from the very start).

Megan and Dave spent several hours with Ovid-Elsie teachers this morning going over the basics of Camtasia Studio software through hands on activity & creating video similar to the content they will soon be making for their classroom. Everyone was great and I was incredibly touched by the readiness I saw in these teachers. Their willingness to learn new tools & experiment with different learning models all for the betterment of our students was moving to see. I also admire how supportive their administrator has been throughout this project. He may not be using Camtasia software to create his own direct instructional videos but he was nonetheless right beside them at his own workstation today learning their software. I am so eager to witness the meaningful impact that this group will have on their students!

More on our progress:

After the training, we also discussed some possible issues that could arise next semester when these teachers actually begin implementing their flipped lessons. We touched on the physical/philosophical redesign of schools & the mental shift that comes with the flipped learning model. I wanted them to listen to 3:45 - 9:15 of this previously shared 2013 MACUL BrainShare that covers the flipped classroom sessions that were held by Brian Bennett. This conference - Brian's sessions specifically - is what inspired me to pursue a flipped learning project. He flipped his classroom as a science teacher before joining TechSmith and has some great insight on the questions that they brought up. I like the thought of them hearing this from a fellow teacher. In today's communication, I shared an article with them titled 5 Flipped Classroom Issues (and Solutions) for Teachers (I am here to help with #3!) and because that didn't touch a whole lot on getting their students to actually watch their videos outside of class (their #1 concern) I also shared a discussion forum link (from www.flippedclassroom.org) titled 'Students that don't watch lessons' where, again, fellow teachers discuss their solutions & what they found to be effective. This professional learning community is a great resource for them to hang on to as they develop their flipped classroom.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th. The goal for this meeting is for each teacher to establish a personal timeline and also capture some documentary footage of their thoughts up to this point and expectations for the future. All I've asked of them for now is that they be thinking of their personal goals/aspirations in the meantime. :)

Between now and Tuesday, I will be working with them 1:1 to get their workstations up to par and Camtasia software installed where they feel they will be working most effectively. I have (5) Windows software keys that can be applied to (2) workstations and we have extra Mac licenses that the district is willing to share from a Mac lab. They will each receive a district iPad to use in support of their efforts and I plan to have those configured by our meeting on Tuesday with the following apps: Educreations, Coach's Eye, Knowmia, Edmodo and Google Drive.

My first funded grant!

It's an incredible honor to announce and share the details of my very first funded grant. I wrote and submitted a grant project titled "Deploying Flipped Learning" to the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) at the end of the 2012-2013 school year as an Educational Technologist at Ovid-Elsie Area Schools and was informed earlier this month of it's approved funding.

The purpose of the MACUL Grant Program is to encourage and support the efforts of promoting effective instructional use of technology in the classroom. Between August 2013 and January 2014, I will be conducting a pilot project called "Deploying Flipped Learning" with a group of 5 Ovid-Elsie Middle School teachers. Students in these classrooms will experience a way of learning that capitalizes on the growing access of technology resources in home environments as well as classroom environments. This pilot project will compare student achievement in the pre-flipped classrooms with student achievement in flipped classrooms.

Click here if you're interested in reading about the complete project details!

The school and I are very excited to implement this pilot program and look forward to sharing how our project unfolds at the 2015 MACUL conference in Detroit, Michigan. 

2013 MACUL BrainShare

I had the opportunity to attend my first MACUL conference this year! It was held from March 20 - 22, 2013 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. Here is what I brought back to share with the technology team at Clinton County RESA:

Out-Of-School Learning

How can teachers use ideas from research on out-of-school learning to improve their instruction? Here are a few suggestions from research pulled from several articles (identified by author) from Module 6 of CEP 800.

Museums excel at presenting examples, allowing learners to connect concepts with real life. Brown, Collins & Duguid compared the method of teaching children vocabulary out of a dictionary vs. the way vocabulary is normally learned outside school. Just like words, a lot of content that is taught in schools is content-dependant. Teachers should be responsible for teaching students how to apply what they’re learning (through examples and activities in the classroom) to real life.

As Crowley & Jacobs state in their article, much of learning is highly planned and intentional but much of it can be driven by opportunistic “noticing” on the part of the learner. Although Crowley & Jacobs focus on this type of learning occurring at home between children and parents, the same type of “noticing” can occur through problems solving with the application on concepts to real life examples in the classroom.

According to Semper, the learning experience that occurs in museums often occurs within a social context. Social construction occurs when there is a great deal of nurturing interaction with other human begins. “Peer interaction in learning can be an important support for education, and it is one that formal schooling often mitigates against.” (pg. 3) Perhaps, based on the learning success that occurs within museums, teachers will follow the lead of allowing more interaction.

Resnick also emphasizes the importance of collaboration in learning. The dominant form of school learning and performance is individual, students are ultimately judged on what they can do by themselves. However, much activity outside school is socially shared. Each person’s ability to function successfully depends on how their mental and physical performances mesh with others. Even just these three articles, we see a good amount of professional work that encourages problem solving through application of content in example work among students learning in schools.

Other lessons to be learned from the Semper article would be to incorporate intrinsic factors into lesson plans & content that will strike curiosity. Curriculum should also address different learning styles. “Exhibits often use interesting kinetic experiences, play on words, spatial relationships and interesting sounds as well as text and images. Because of this richness, museums and exhibits have the opportunity to connect with many different learning modes that people use.” (pg. 5)

We can also draw a quick piece of advice from something that Frank Oppenheimer (founding director of the Exploratorium) once said, “No one ever flunked a museum.” Museum goers don’t take tests or receive grades. Not to say we should throw away the grade books, but we can piece this with what we learned in Module 2 on behaviorism and reinforcements. Success generates more success. Accomplishment itself functions as effective reinforcement, where on the other hand, failure generates more failure. By keeping tasks at the correct level of difficulty, success is more likely to occur and will generate more success.

Sources:

1) "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning," by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins & Paul Duguid

2) "Building Islands of Expertise in Everyday Family Activity," by Kevin Crowley & Melanie Jacobs

3) "Science Museums as Environments for Learning," by Robert J. Semper

4) "Learning In School and Out," by Lauren B. Resnick

K. Reedal - Piaget Theory Article Review

“Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory in Mathematics Education” is a paper written by Kristin E. Reedal of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ripon College. She gives a thorough introduction to Piaget, his theory and it’s stages. She also applies Piaget’s theory to the learning in mathematics and questions his theory based on some criticisms.

She gives weaknesses of his theory based on the opinions of critics that feel his contributions rely on observations without scientific support. They also say Piaget has failed to offer a complete description of a child’s stages and why. He just labels each stage with an age group only which indicates that the stages could be misapplied. She questions based on these criticisms whether we are pushing students in our educational system through this developmental process too quickly.

Reedal leaves out many criticisms of Piaget’s theory that could be helpful to her question and how students actually fit into the developmental process. Piaget studied only his three children and a small sample of children of well-educated professionals of high socio-economic status, so his finding don’t properly represent an entire population, which may or may not include the development of the math students that Reedal is discussing. Piaget also argues that children will automatically move to the next stage of development as they mature. Reedal does mention that Piaget believed that the amount of time each child spends in each stage of development will vary based on the individual but neither take into account or discuss developmental factors such as environmental factors or capital or cultural class. So while Piaget may have oversimplified the developmental process, Reedal doesn’t go into much depth on it either.