EDLD 5364 Week 5 Reflection

This week was a good week as we wrapped up this course and completed our team project. Each member contributed to the project and it is great to work with the group of professional in my team. This week’s videos were very enlightening. This week I watched a video from Professor James Paul Gee about gaming as a form of assessment. I never really looked at games as a form of assessing a student’s knowledge or looking at it as a form of higher-level thinking and problem solving. However, after listening to his talk I have a better appreciation of those that use games. He stated that gaming is a process of problem solving where the student gets immediate feedback to their game experience. If they fail at a level it takes them back to their last known place marker and lets them try again. The student experiments with the game until they figure out the problem and can solve it to pass to the next level. Education should be the same. Students should use gaming to solve problems. As Professor Gee stated, “chemistry class is a game where the students learn the game of chemistry”. It would be great if we could make all classes run in this manner. All the other videos were taking about how gaming is becoming a new way of learning. Teaching should be about learning how to solve complex problems using a game based format. I now have a great appreciation of those students that game. I also let my students use a program called Study Island that has a gaming section that once their daily and weekly work has been completed, they are allowed to play on the game side. I think that they students are learning more because it is making them think in the way they look at life in the gaming world.

EDLD 5364 Week 4 Reflection

This week there was no web conference with Dr. Borel. However, my team and I had a web conference for almost an hour as we summed up the projects we are each going to do for this week’s assignment. I am going to make a video about the natural resources of Canada for the social studies/geography for my part of t he project. I have already found the pictures to use and will use iMovie to make the movie with voice over on the pictures. The reading were interesting this week about how schools are able use technology to enhance their students learning. Through the use of UDL, Universal Design for Learning, educators are able to develop a comprehensive learning strategy that takes students from the ordinary to the extraordinary. This is both an awesome thing to look at and at the same time, depressing because I am unable to do the same things. The reason that it can’t be done is because as a teacher I am required to teach the students what they need to know to pass the state mandated performance exam. I have to teach the test rather than teach the students what they need to know to succeed in this changing world. Even if I could find away around teaching the test, I would not be able to do so due to the filters in place on the computers. WE are unable to even do the basics of learning using the blogs, wikis, and document sharing for collaboration. That is the frustrating part is that I could do so much but the “system” will not let us because we have to “teach the test” instead of teaching the children. Link to my video for this weeks project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0Nuhm25sY

EDLD 5364 Week 3 Reflection

This week was a good week albeit a very busy week. The web conference was very good and informative. The bugs and issues from last week were worked out and Dr. Borel was able to get the message about this week’s lesson and secrets to success out. The assignments this week is complex and involves much more thought and work to complete. We are continuing to work on our group project and finalizing most of the work. There is some confusion about exactly what we are supposed to submit and on what but after our team web conference we have figured out the requirements. The major issue and drawback with the course assignment to date is the website for the project. The site is difficult to work with in setting up and formatting the pages. Once that is complete then submitting our work next week will be easy. The most interesting part of this week is the electronic book we had to create and share. I completed mine in about 3 hours and found that I actually had a good time doing it. This will be an excellent tool to have the students do and to also show to our students. I could see where this tool could be used for the lower grade levels since it has the interaction of the character as the students learn and read along. file:///Users/RTC/Downloads/Water_Cycle_Dude/start.html

WDLD 5364 Week 2 Reflection

This week’s web conference was an utter disaster. Something was wrong with someone’s microphone that caused a feedback loop. My sound was similar to the Emergency Broadcast System message alerts. I was unable to hear anything that was said by Dr. Borel. The best part of this week’s assignment was from the Google® Hangout with my team. We spent nearly 90 minutes going over strategies for the group project. We decided that we would use a cross-curricular approach to the assignment using the book “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen. I will be doing the Social Studies part of the lesson for 4th grade. In our readings, we continued to discuss and work on UDL to develop technology in our lessons. I have found that this approach is very similar to military strategy planning. In my military service, we used backward planning and forward execution for all mission planning. This is basically the same approach that UDL uses. Now that I understand this, the lessons are much easier. I have done this for many years, it just was not explained in this current context or verbiage.

EDLD 5364 Week 1 Reflection

This week’s assignment was interesting and frustrating. The most interesting part was the readings about how students learn. Through the readings, we learned about constructivism and connnectivism. These talk about how students learn either through the shared knowledge of others or through the experiences in life. I personally feel that this is a combination of both. Children learn at an early age about life or a subject through interactions with others and at the same time they learn on their own. They can be told not to do something but until they experience the lesson does not take hold. The other part of the readings and videos we learned about cyborgism. This was interesting and at the same time a bit scary or freaky. I realize that as technology grows our access to it will become part of us. I am not sure I am ready for it to become actually “part” of me. Having implants put in me is not something I am ready for. The frustrating part of this week’s assignment was the transition from EPIC to Blackboard. I had just gotten used to EPIC and understood how to make it work for me and then we changed. We are still not able to upload our discussion board due to a technical glitch in the system. The highlight of the week was that I get to work with an awesome group of educators on a group project. Our group works very well together and our strengths compliment each other. The web conference this week mostly focused on the introduction to the course and discussing the switch over to Black Board.

EDLD 5366 Self Reflection

“Critical reflection has been elevated to the major objective of adult education in the work of Mezirow (1990)”. (Atherton, 2011) By using critical reflection, a student can assess their work to see how it applies in their current work place. Using Peter Pappas’ “Taxonomy of Reflection” is a great way to explain how a critical reflection could be used and implemented in the classroom. (Pappas, 2010) Pappas’ first critical reflection is “Remembering: What did I do?” During this course I have learned numerous ways of incorporating Digital Graphics and Website Design into the K-12 classroom. While some of lessons I had knowledge of, it was a fresh way of looking at how these ideas could be utilized. The most notable lesson was the use of making digital graphics. This was a new experience for me; to develop a method of showing students how to make the movement of an object or pattern into something entertaining. This simple lesson can teach students the mechanics of movement and flow as a problem solving exercise. Using the acronym “C.R.A.P.”, contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity, it is easier now to distinguish quality works of graphic design in books, posters, and website. This was a new concept to me. Using this acronym with my students will help them in other areas of media production as well as spatial relationships in math and science. Next comes “Understanding: What was important about it?” The importance of this course was to gain an understanding of how all the critical elements of graphics design and a website can lead to better teaching experiences for students and educators. In today’s world of visual stimulus, what we do, think, and feel is interconnected through visual input. Mike Parkinson states, “What we see has a profound effect on on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. Through experience and experimentation, we continually increase our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by it”. (Parkinson, 2012) By understanding how to make a presentation more visually stimulating and engaging, students will learn easily and their attention will stay on the subject. Sharing this knowledge with fellow educators will increase learning across all grade levels. Pappas goes on to the next level of taxonomy with “Applying: Where could I use this again?” I have designed and implemented several websites over the past several years, however, with this new knowledge I could have made those websites and designs much better. I can now take the knowledge I already had and couple it with the new strategies from this course to make the next website design far better. This joining of old and new strategies could be used to assist my school with reaching out to students and parents to engage them in learning and further studies. Next in the higher order of taxonomy from Pappas is “Analyzing: Do I see any patterns in what I did?” I used my peers and group to help with this concept. I found that patterns help to reinforce visual statements or to concentrate on a specific item. Making the personal logo was a challenge for me but with the help of my wife and my teammates’ input my logo fit my personality perfectly. I used the patterns of spheres going from large to small to represent the things in education I like most. This repetition, or pattern, emphasized the overall concept of education and the pattern that each of the other areas making up the whole. My peers gave me great insight to this and made the experience more enriching. Pappas’ next to the last level is “Evaluating: How well did I do?” I did exceptionally well in this course. I am not an art driven person, but with the new concepts I learned in this course, I have developed a better understanding of what would make a presentation more visually appealing and would make the reader want to learn more. Regardless of the grade, I have made great strides in understanding what makes a presentation better. “Students can become better language learners when they engage in deliberate thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it.” (NCLRC, 2004) Pappas’ last and highest level of taxonomy is “Creating: What should I do next?” I will take this new knowledge and apply it to my teaching. Through the use of visual graphics and effective visual aides, I will be able to have a much better presentation in classroom instruction when using the computer or printed media. I can take the knowledge of this course and share it with other faculty members to enhance their classes. Using a website to communicate with students and parents is another way to extend my classroom. Websites offer a way to share events, ideas, and thoughts to the students/parents and by using polls and surveys, can have them communicate with me concerning the classroom activities. Bibliography Atherton, J. S. (2011). Learning and Teaching: Critical Reflection. Retrieved August 16, 2012, from Learningandteaching.info: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/critical1.htm NCLRC. (2004). Assessing Learning: Peer and Self Assessment. Retrieved August 16, 2012, from The National Capital Language Resource Center: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm Pappas, P. (2010). A Taxonomy of Reflection: Critical Thinking for Students, Teachers, and Principals (Part1). Retrieved August 16, 2012, from Copy / Paste: http://www.peterpappas.com/2010/01/taxonomy-reflection-critical-thinking-students-teachers-principals-.html Parkinson, M. (2012). The Power of Visual Communication. Retrieved August 17, 2012, from Billion Dollar Graphics: http://www.billiondollargraphics.com/infographics.html

EDLD 5363 Video Posting

You can find the video for hour group project on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/JtFI2hF8x3k. My sincere thanks goes out to my teammates for this project Mary Angel, Tanya Henslee, and Ericka Turner. You guys were a great group of educators to work with. Thanks for all your hard work and cooperation. Randy

EDLD 5363 Web Conference Updates

The Week Two web conference was very enlightening. It helped solve some issues of what was to be done for this week’s assignment. There were issues with the courseware due to loading by EPIC. Once the web conference was over those issues were solved. The main issues of the we conference was how to do our podcast and ways to make it better. I was very upset and disheartened before about the assignment but afterwards I felt better and was able to make the podcast without any problems. We also covered how to go about choosing our groups for the final week’s project. By the end of the web conference I had my group and we had already started the initial meetings to decide our course of action for the project. The web conference for Week Three was good. It answered a lot of questions about the assignment and discussed areas we had not thought about. It gave us a few ideas about how to make our project better. We took those ideas and ran with them. Our final product should be one of the better ones. I have a great team to work with. We also discussed issues with the paperwork and exactly what needed to be turned in. Week 4’s web conference finally cleared up most if not all of the issues about the final product. Mostly it was the wording of the assignment. There were cases in the rubric that the wording didn’t match the assignment requirements. But Dr. Abernathy cleared those up and the assignments were more clearly understood. Week 5’s web conference discussed what was required for turn-in in TK20, our wiki, and the blog. Dr. Abernathy stressed that we must keep up with our course embedded hours and competencies. She stressed that we should not wait until the last moment to start to work on these. If we wait and everything is not complete it could impact our graduation and completion date.

EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology Week 3

We spent week three prepping with our group about our team video project. We decided to do 6th Grade Science TEK 6.2B and the Scientific Investigation Process. Each team member had a role to play with me doing the editing and shooting of the final video part. This was a really good experience since I have never done this before. I have turned my garage into a studio and have set it up to run a green screen application on the video. This will truly be a new experience for me, one that I hope to do in the future with my students. This week will be the shooting phase of the video. I hope this turns out the way I want it to. The web conference was good. It answered a lot of questions about the assignment and discussed areas we had not thought about. It gave us a few ideas about how to make our project better. We took those ideas and ran with them. Our final product should be one of the better ones. I have a great team to work with.

EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology Week 2

This week's assignment was easy once the directions were clearly understood.  We were given the assignment to create a podcast about a free video editing software found on the net.  The guidance was not clearly given on purpose so that we would have to collaborate with our fellow students to figure out what was expected.  After a great gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, I finally figured out the assignment.  I made a podcast about iMovie and how a general overview of the program was done.  I now know that I have to give clear guidance to my students when assigning a project.  This was a valuable learning experience for me.

http://rtclements.podbean.com/



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EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology Week 1

This week’s assignment was a great event.  I got to work with iMovie for the first time and then produced my first movie.  The movie was entitled “All About Me: Clements’ Family Military Heritage”.  It was about my family’s military heritage for the past four generations.

            Luckily for me, my district was conducting a Computer Tech course week for teachers and administrators.  One of the courses offered was iMovie.  I took this course and got a good general background of how to use the program.  Then I played with it, making mistakes and corrections until I got the final product to where I wanted it.  It was not perfect but this is to be expected.  The purpose of this course is to learn and experience new technology.

            This class has been very enlightening for me.  This is a subject that I have wanted to learn so I can use it in the classroom.  I am hoping that we will be able to do more with the programs and put them to other uses.  This is going to be a very exciting class.

Action Research and MDMP

A significant reflection of this course I found there was a similarity to the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) when it comes to Action Research.  The steps to an action research project follow the same guidelines as deciding on a strategy and action of military operations in both combat and peacetime.  This plan is called the Operations Order or as it is commonly known as, the OPORD.  The OPORD format and the MDMP follow closely the Force Field Analysis model.

The OPORD format follows the set methodology of Receiving the Mission, Mission Analysis, Course of Action (COA) Development, COA Analysis (aka Wargaming), COA Comparison, COA approval, and Orders Production.  The Force Field Analysis model follows the path of Describe the current situation, Describe the proposed change, Identify the current situation if no action is taken, List all forces driving the change toward the desired situation, Determine whether change is viable and Discuss how the change can be affected.  The two models are the best way for me to effect a change in any desired situation.   

Action Research Update

The conference with my site supervisor went well.  She was happy with template and had no issues with the plan.  She reminded me that I should talk with the PEIMS director and assessment director for our district.  She stated they should have information I could use for the action research project.  I found I have some of the information already in my files from the previous years TAKS testing, however, I have the scores for all those that took the Math TAKS on the days they were administered.  What I do not have is the knowledge of is of those that tested which ones count against our PEIMS snapshot date.     I made arrangements to meet with the district PEIMS director and had an hour-long meeting with him.  I conveyed to him what my action research project was about and what I was attempting to do.  He seemed enthusiastic about the project and stated he would be happy to help with obtaining the data.  He stated the data would not be difficult to obtain, a simple matter of running the campus through the PEIMS database for the timeframe requested.  His concerns were once I had the PEIMS snapshot data, was correlating it with the assessment results.  He was worried that the data comes from two different databases and whether or not these will work together.  He stated that once he had the data he would contact me and have me work with him in collating it.  The other issue would be tracking of those students who left our campus and went to another school within district.  This would take going through each year group and then cross referencing them with their number to see if they remained in district or left.  This would be time consuming, however, since our campus is one of the smallest in the district, it should be easy to check out the names.  At the end of the meeting he told me he would contact the TAKS assessment director to get the data I requested and to talk with her about how they could combine their respective databases to get the results needed.  He stated that since it was about to be the STAAR testing dates, both of their respective offices were going to be extremely busy for the next few weeks.  He told me that he should have the results as soon as they reached a lull in their schedules. I reported back to my site supervisor with the results of my meeting with the PEIMS director.

Action Research Project

     The goal of this research investigation is to look at how mobility affects the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for 5^th grade math students.  The objective will be to examine the data of students who have been in class all year and see how they compare to students who move into or out of the school prior to the test administration in the March/April timeframes.  Results for the past four years will be the desired area of research.  Once the data is obtained, devised plans for supporting students that enter the classroom midterm and not counted against the campus pass/fail rate. 

Action Planning Template
Goal:  What is the effect of student mobility on school performance scores as measured on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKStm) in fifth grade math?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.  Meet with campus principal/site manager to discuss action plan.	Maureen Adams Principal/Site Mentor	Start: March 2012 End:  May 2013	Draft Action research Plan	Notes and suggestions taken from initial meeting.
2.  Obtain 2007 – 2011 TAKS math scores for 5th grade at West Ward Elementary School.	Randy Clements, Maureen Adams, Cliff Holder, Jeffery Heckathorn, Anna Flores, Timothy Tidwell,	Start: April 2012 End:  May 2013	Campus TAKS data for 2007 – 2011, Internet, computer with Microsoft Excel.	Study data and review.
3.  Meet with PEIMS staff to obtain data for mobility students.  Track those that remained within district.	Randy Clements, Jeffery Heckathorn, Anna Flores,	Start: April 2012 End:  May 2013	Date/Time group for appointment with PEIMS personnel, computer, internet access and	Note and suggestions taken from the meeting.
4.  Collate and analyze data.  Look for patterns for mobility students.	Randy Clements, Jeffery Heckathorn, Anna Flores	Start: May 2012 End:  May 2013	Computer with Microsoft Excel.	Study data and review.  Evaluate all data gathered and summarize results.
5.  Research and compare result from other campuses on TAKS results for 5th grade math to see if there is a correlation of data.	Randy Clements, Jeffery Heckathorn, Anna Flores	Start: July 2012 End:  May 2013	District TAKS data for 2007 – 2011, Internet, computer with Microsoft Excel.	Study data and review.
6.  Discuss student results with principal and 5th grade math teachers.	Randy Clements, Maureen Adams, Teresa Garvin, Chelle Blaize, Nancy Fisher, Allison Farrow	Start: September 2012 End:  May 2013	Computer, internet.	Summarize results to staff and begin development strategies to support students.
7.  Introduce strategies for supporting students entering classrooms outside the PEIMS dates for TAKS formalized testing.	Randy Clements, Maureen Adams, Teresa Garvin, Chelle Blaize, Nancy Fisher, Allison Farrow	Start: October  2012 End:  May 2013	Eduphoria, Cscope,  time to meet with faculty and 5th grade math staff and special staff.	Introduce strategies for supporting new students and supporting them prior to TAKS/STAAR testing for 2012-2013 school year.
8.  Implement changes and track progress for the following year’s STAAR testing.	Randy Clements, Maureen Adams	Start: December 2012 End:  May 2013	Collected data, computer, time.	Plan on-going professional development opportunities.

Data and Action Research

      I learned this week that no matter the action research project, they are very much data driven.  With the advent of more sophisticated data collection capabilities, i.e. surveys, spreadsheets, databases, etc., data is more readily available for conducting researches.   Many action research projects will involve heavily the use of these means of collection and collation to develop courses of action.   The data can come from many sources, not only from within your organization, but from others as well.  Correctly collated, this data becomes extremely important to someone's research.

Blogs in Action Research

Blogs are an effective tool to use as an interactive journal and reflective tool for action based inquiries.  Blogs become a reverse chronological online diary of a series of thoughts, data, results and findings, and ongoing concerns that can be addressed during an inquiry in an open forum.  Additionally, these findings can be shared with others to gain different points of view or findings in a collaborative sharing of information. The owner of the blog may gain other knowledge or ideas about their research, leading them to additional ideas they may not have considered.