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.

Integrating Computer-Based Instructional Objects in Learning

Computer-based instructional objects, such as StAIR projects and WebQuests, are technological tools that involve active learning by the students which begin with a base knowledge then go through several sources and concepts that build upon one another in order to master understanding of the next.

WebQuests typically have a target audience to ensure that the content is appropriate and effective for the students putting it to use. They include educational goals that are to be mastered by the student by the end of instruction and should also address curriculum standards of their respective content area.

The reading level of the text should be appropriate for the intended audience and the content should be legible with no interferences with the readability. Getting through the lesson should be relatively simple. If the format is confusing it can distract the learner from the main goal. Instead of focusing on the content, he or she will focus on getting from one page to another or finding his or her way back to a point.

There are additional factors consider when creating computer-based instructional objects for students. Because students are using these tools independently, the WebQuest should initially make reference to prior knowledge, give an introduction that prepares the reader for what is to be learned and then begins linking the two together and ensuring that each of the steps and activities are significant to one another.

An example of effectively integrating this concept of scaffolding is a WebQuest for secondary social studies & language arts students titled Never Again! Again?, which goes through with a student that is learning the eight stages of genocide and determines what can be done at each stage to stop this vicious cycle. This WebQuest defines genocide and from there builds onto the concept. It also contains image resources which are helpful in contributing to the understanding of the concepts, ideas and relations of the content being instructed.

There should also be factors of motivational effectiveness that is relevant to the learner by relating to his or her interest or by having social importance. It is likely that more will be achieved in a lesson that has significance to the students lives or that requires the students to become involved by taking a position rather than simply retelling information found on the web that simply requires the answering of factual questions. For example, Nueva Europa is a WebQuest that allows secondary social science students to examine the 25 European Union Countries as they enjoy traveling through the countries and even get a chance to design their own holidays throughout Europe.