Today I got the result of my first cycle of my action research project and things are looking good. I used something that I learned this month, in the e-learning book, to see if I could effect the students level of engagement with the science content and help them be better prepared for the test. Today they took the unit test and they should over 15% of improvement over their average scores on the last two unit tests. This is quite a huge amount of growth and it seems to validate the use of guided practice on worksheets over the traditional use of worksheet as individual work. I also gave students a survey to test whether the students felt that the use of guided practice helped them to be more engage with the content and better prepared for the test and although I have not formally evaluated all the data, the preliminary data show the over 80% of student believed that the guided practice did help them with both their level of engagement and the test preparation. So the survey seems to say that the students felt more engaged and better prepared and the test results seem to validate that they were better prepared. This is all good information that I can now share both in my action research and with my fellow teacher. This is a great chance for me to effect change in what seems to be a positive way. It is a small step but I believe a step in the right direction.

Week 4 - Blog Posting #8 -Reflection on Blogging

Here is my video blog for this week, it is a

reflective look at my blogging experience as

well as my thoughts about web 2.o tools.

Week 4 - Blog Posting #7 -Second Life

My personal experience with second life is much like that of Taylor who said in her blog, "I don't see the awesome." I agree with most of what Taylor said, I to found myself very frustrated by the platform and the difficulty with both navigation, as well as communication in this collaborative environment. I have not spent a great deal of time in second life, maybe about 6-8 hours, I feel this should be enough time with a well designed collaborative tool to get through some of the learning curve and see some productive use of the tool. This is not even close to enough time in second life for me to even figure out the basics. With this month’s course I have used quite a few new web 2.0 tools, with many different collaborative uses and I have found all of them useable with the first couple hours of playing with the tool. I feel that students have far too many demands on their time to spend hours and hours just getting started in second life. I have difficulty getting my students to try new things that are very simple to use and second life is anything but simple. To be honest most of my time in second life is spent standing around wondering what to do next.


I want to add to my discuss for second life further by saying, that I see it as a dangerous place for students and even adults to spend time. The reason I use the words dangerous is second life has a huge amount of very sexually explicit avatars running around. Just last night while I was on second life for this assignment I ran in to a avatar that was completely nude. I understand that these are cartoonish character but this one did not look very cartoonish. She was very life like and very nude. As I continued to explorer, on Explorer Island (a PG location according to it's description), I kept running in to one after another of either partially nude or very scantily dress avatars. I feel with the growing problem of internet pornography, to expose my students to this kind of environment is at the least unprofessional/inappropriate and could be very dangerous. If as Bruner says, “Some concepts of social learning theory are applicable to education taking place in Second Life - observational learning, imitation, and behavior modeling (Bruner, 1990; Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976), then we should really be asking, is this the kind of behavior that we want our students imitating, and is second life the best place for our students to get good modeling, because what I saw was not good modeling.


http://academicwanderings.blogspot.com/2009/09/week-4-blog-post-7-second-life.html

Bruner, J. (1990). *Acts of Meaning*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Campusin3D.com (2009). Second Life. Retrieved July, 2009 from http://www.campusin3d.com/en/second-life

Week 3 - Blog Posting #6 -Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice like Tapped In, are spring-up all over the web, as the growth of web 2.0 takes off companies are seeing the benefits of not only allowing but encouraging their employees to be involved in these communities of practice.

What makes communities of practice any different then any other social network, like facebook? It is as Wegner points out, "Knowledge is shared with the community, which gives group members a sense of identity." (2002). It is the sharing of knowledge that sets apart communities of practice from other social networks. The almost instant since of belonging and identity, that one gains from being a member, makes these communities of practice very appealing. This is not to say that communities of practice are not social because they are, Wegner even points this out when he says, "Learning is social. They talk about their lives, interests, and ambitions. They even mentor and coach each other". The advancements in web 2.0 applications have given these communities of practice a power to effect change even greater then they have ever seem before. Now professionals can work together, doing things over the internet and in the process learn not only from hearing and seeing but from doing and teaching others. Learning through doing and teaching others is far more powerful when it comes to retension of information, in fact according to William Glasser, we learn 95% of what we teach as apposed to only 10% of what we read(1998). So the real power of communities of practice comes when these communities combine the knowledge and skills of the people with-in the communities with the power of web 2.0 applications.

Through the graduate program at Full Sail I feel like I belong to a very strong community of practice. That of the community of students, course directors and other support personnel. It seems clear to me now that this is, and alway has been, one of the primary goals of the program. Even as I joined Tapped In, I noticed a group for action research. I have not looked into this group yet but I love the fact that I noticed this group right away and felt a connection to this group even before I joined the group. To feel a since of connection to a group of people who I have never even met is quite different for me but I really like it.

Glasser, William. (1998) Retrieved from FSO Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

Wegner E. & Snyder, R. (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice McGraw-Hill Europe

Week 3 - Blog Posting #5 -Social Media

Social media is a force that has the power to change lives. This weeks TED.com video, Wiring a web for global good, by Gordon Brown points out quite dramatically the power that Social Media has to change lives on a global scale. But what has occurred to me as I have researched this topic, is the changes that social media has made in my life. Here are just a few examples. Last year on my class syllabus, under teacher contact, I had my district email, this years class syllabus has my district email, personal email, facebook, twitter, blog, class website, and my ichat. I make it a regular habit to check my netvibes, home page at least twice each day. Last year I had no idea what I netvibes account was. I always thought of myself as a fairly technically educated person but the first four months in this graduate program has exposed me to a world that I had no idea was out there. Now I find myself wanting to expose my students to this world and it is a challenge since what I teach is science. But the personal change is not limited just to exposure to the new forms of media and social networking but more about the understanding of the power that these new forms of media have. I can learn more in ten minutes through the social media connections I have then I could in ten days of searching on my own. Many of my fellow teachers are hesitant to try this stuff because they believe it will be a major drain on their time but I believe that when used correctly my social networks save me far more time then they have cost me to set up."In a network people act independently, but that doesn't mean alone. A person defines their place in a network by what is important to them. Networks share problem solving. Most research in group dynamics suggests that groups of five to seven members working together get the best results." (Downes, 2007) All of these factors allow social networks to solve problems and find solutions much faster and better than working alone. I was amazed by the story of the gold mining company, this company was ready to close it's doors because even with all the companies resources the company could not find gold. So they put the problem out there for the world to solve by publishing their geological findings and then having a contest to find gold. The company turned a five hundred thousand dollar investment into 3.4 billion dollars worth of gold. This is an amazing story of the power of social networks in business but even more dramatic are the multiple stories from the TED.com video. When people are made aware of social problems and motivated to help, amazing things happen.

So I will leave you with this, I work with students everyday that are being left behind because they are not allowed access to this amazing world of social networks. I feel almost helpless to do anything about it. I need your ideas and your resources to effect change in this environment. Will you help me?

Brown, G. (2009, July) Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good [Video File]. Video posted to http://www.ted.com/talks/gordon_brown.html

psbobj (2007, May) Collective Intelligence - The Vision [Video File]. Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQe8dWTbE2U

Downes S., (2006) Groups Vs Networks retrieved Oct, 2008 http://choicelearning.blogspot.com/2006/09/group-vs-network.html

I might get FIRED but it"s OK

Today in class I showed the student a little of what science and school could be like if the district had the resources it needs to have and students had the access they need to have and this class of digital native lived it. It was the most excited I've ever seen a class of high school science students. They were saying things like, "shoot maybe I need to become one of those science people", and "that was so cool". It was so fun to teach student what their future could be like and what education in a modern science class could be like. But the truth is, I broke several rules to do it. Many in the district would have issue with how I was teaching. I was using technology, that's all. I was using the power of technology to teach student science without paper and pens. I was teaching live, active, real, science. The science of their future. It was powerful, I wish I would have recorded it so I could show all of you. I will record it next time. I cross my fingers that I don't get in to much trouble for bending some of the rules but I can no longer sit by and let more student fall through the cracks because our education system is so out of date. I will need to have some good data to back me up, when the day comes that I get called out for doing things different then all the other science teacher. That day will come but my hope is that by then I will have enough hard science data that I can justify my methods. Wish me luck as I go out on this limb, in the name of the future of education and for the sake of my students.

Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

Is there a connection between 21st century skills and lifelong learning. At first for me the connection was not clear, but then I read Krinsten's blog on this subject and the connection hit me. Kristen said in her blog, "I didn’t finally start to enjoy school until my first five minutes at Full Sail" She goes on to say that it was this first experience that brought her back to the gradated program. So a great educational experience created a lifelong learner out of someone that might not have become a lifelong learner without it. So this got me thinking about the experiences of the digital natives in my classroom. Am I giving the kind of experience that is going to create a lifelong learner or am I turning someone off toward education because, most of the time I'm stuck settling for teaching styles that are less than what my students need. My fear is that the later is the truth and I find myself very frustrated by an education system that is so slow to change that every year we lose more and more students to boredom. My frustration comes at the very hand of my personal lifelong learning. I love Full Sails program but honestly the things that I'm learning about now I can't use now. My classroom does not have the technology to create the environment that my education teaches me my students need. So tonight I learn about how great teaching could be in a digital world and I know that it is true. I know the power of technology to change students learning. But tomorrow I will go to school and give out yet another paper worksheet. This is creating in me quite a moral debate. So what can I do to make the students in my classroom get even a small taste of what learning could and should be like. I have started with a plan to change. I plan to create a learning environment that more closely resembles the learning environment that digital natives learn best in, the world of gaming. I believe that if I can get students to understand the educational power in the video games that they play everyday then I can reach students that would have never consider learning science. I face two big challenges, one, convincing the students that they can learn science in games and two convincing my administration that students can learn science in games.

According to Squire and Jenkins in, "Harnessing the power of Video Games",

"Games are not simply problems or puzzles; they are microworlds, and in such environments students develop a much firmer sense of how specific social processes and practices are interwoven, and how different bodies of knowledge relate to each other. In that sense, they resemble classic word problems, where students are invited to separate out the data they need from a much more complex field of information and then apply it toward specific tasks".

This kind of learning is at the heart of all good science. If I can only convince the administration of this fact, then I believe they would be more then willing to help me create an environment where I can engage students in this kind of learning for every curriculum area.

But for now I will work on the students, I will be forced to ask students to learn outside of my classroom and hope to make the learning so engaging that I can get students to engage on their own time. I will not stop fighting for what I know is right. I only hope that my students of today can forgive an outdated education system for the pain it puts both them and myself through while we wait.

Source:

Squire, K., Jenkins, H. (2004). Harnessing the power of games in education. Insight, 3 (5), 7-33. Retrieved September 14, 2009 from http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/insight.pdf

http://kritwill33.blogspot.com/2009/09/week-2-blog-posting-4-21st-century.html

BuyGitomer (2008, April 2008) Life Long Learning [Video File]. Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh6yd6wfCgU

Week 2 - Blog Posting #3 - Media Literacy

Media literacy has a whole new meaning going forward into the 21st century. In the past media literacy was more concerned with your ability to access, analyze and evaluate media(Considine 1995). Media literacy in the 21 century is much more focused on a collaborative participation approach to media literacy. We must focus our attention on teaching student how to critically think while they are creating media. Teachers need to help students create media that they have critically thought out so that students may begin to understand the real power behind the web 2.0 movement. According to the center for media literacy students need to consider five key question both in analyzing and creating media. Here is a link to those five key questions

http://www.medialit.org/pdf/mlk/14A_CCKQposter.pdf

Although all of the five key question have value, I would like to focus this blog discuss only one, the question of why are they creating media or for what audience are they creating the media.

The information this week gives quite a few different reason why student might create media. But most of my students give little thought to the purpose for creating media. If students don't stop to consider things like, the likely audience of the media, people who may read or even contribute to the media then how can they make a valuable contribution to the collaboration world that they are engaging in.

Many times through out my program here at Full Sail I have heard fellow collaborator talk about making your media interesting and worthy of the time someone is spending interacting with your media. Whether that be tweeting , blogging , face booking , or some other form of collaborative web 2.0 media, if you do not spend time considering your audience then you are not only wasting your time but the time of the audience that comes across what you have produced. I will give you a personal example:

My father, who I love dearly, is always sending me emails of (jokes, ads, pictures, ect), I know he means well and it is my father so I look at them, well some of them. He's got way more time then I do, so he forwards almost every thing he runs across, I'm not even sure he reads all of the things he forwards and I'm sure that he does not consider who he is sending things to because he has, on more than one occasion, forwarded very inappropriate things to me.

One the other hand, many of my classmates here at Full Sail have great information and seem to be very aware of the audience. It make a huge difference. We all have people that we pay close attention when they send something to us to look at and we all have other people that are like my father.

Considine, D. (1995). An Introduction to Media Literacy. Retrieved September 12, 2009, from Mastering the media at Appalachian State University: http://www.ced.appstate.edu/departments/ci/programs/edmedia/medialit/article.html

Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

The videos on the Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 are some of the most powerful messages about education that I have heard in a long time. To know that there are those out there who understand what the American education system needs, the way that these people who have created these videos understand, gives me hope for the future. They also send a clear message to teachers, if teachers don’t change the way we are teaching and reaching today’s digital learners, we face the worst plague to hit this country since the black plague. We will face the plague of a generation of leaders without the skills to make good decisions. We must reach into these new learners’ worlds to guide them through the maze of information and help them to turn the technology that they play with, into tools that they learn with. We can no longer pretend that education has not changed.. It is time to open your eyes and see the new world that is everywhere. Welcome to the www (whatever, whenever, wherever) of learning. The big question to be answered is if teachers must change, then what should they change into. If education must change, what should it change into?

I heard two things in my research this week that make since to me, the first one was made by Ken Robinson in the video from TED. (Video posted to http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html) In this video Robinson says, “we must see are creative capacities for the richness they are and see our children for the hope that they are”. He says our education system has strip mined our mind for a particular commodity, that of logic and reason. As a science teacher, believe me I understand the place for logic and reason, but I agree that logic and reason alone will not due. We must have the creative thinking that comes from children free of the standardize test world of today schools. This brings me two the second thing that I heard this week that struck me as profound, this time it was said by Yong Zhao, in a video titled, “No Child Left Behind and Global Competitiveness”. (Video posted to http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/21stcenturyeducation/films/film-yong-zhao.html)

Today’s students are passionate about technology. They are the digital natives. If we are to reach these digital natives we must come to them on their terms and in their world. We need to stop trying to control our children and start trying to educate our children.

Check out this great video that I found on the students of today’s classroom.

Produced and Directed by Ken Ellis posted on http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-project-overview-video

© 2009

• The George Lucas Educational Foundation
• All rights reserved.

Week 1 - Blog Posting #1 - Web 2.0

When you consider the use of web 2.0 technology in the classroom, you will have a lot of challenges. You will face the challenge of not enough technology, not enough access, not enough support, not enough time, and so on. But for me the best part of web 2.0 technology is that these problem can be solved by the world, not just by you. Many times I hear form teacher that they don't have time so they need to pick their battle and these problems are just too big for them to solve. I would say to those teachers, "you are right, these problem are to big for you to solve by your self", that is why you should not try. If you embrace this new web 2.0 tools you can access a whole world of collaboration to help you solve these problems. Today I learned about a web 2.0 tool that will solve a problem that I have had in using music in my classroom. The problem is that the music available out there is not useful for my content area. I teach chemistry, and I would love to use music to help students learn and memorize the very challenging chemistry content. I would love the have songs like the one I grew up with like, "I'm just a bill" and "conjunction junction".

Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill becomes a law. Posted on youtube October 03, 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

Those songs have stuck with me throughout my life and if we can come up with songs that help students learn then I feel that administrator will welcome the use to music in the classroom. The problem is finding these songs. Well today I found a web 2.0 tool that allows you to collaborate with musicians throughout the world to create these content base learning songs. The web 2.0 tool is called http://www.bojam.com/ check out this video for more information

Bojam - launched at TechCrunch50 conference in September 2008 posted on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ZoyDl3w64

So using bojam, I could access the world of musicians to help me create these educational songs. I think musicians would love to be a part of something that could change the way chemistry is taught.

So here some interesting new of a somewhat personal nature. I found out yesterday that I have a sports Hernia. It is not deadly or anything but it is something that has to be fixed with surgery. It turns out it is something that I likely had since birth but i recent interests in getting fit and working out may have progress faster so cause me to need to deal with it sooner rather then later. Not really the point I wanted to make. This personal issue has caused me to have to miss school on the day before and the day after a holiday. These are RED X days in my district. This means it is a big deal if you miss school these days. The district will dock your pay if you don't get the absents approved by the campus principle. This was not an issue for me because I'm having surgery but I find it interesting that district have this policy. (and I understand that most districts do). What is the message that districts send to teachers with a policy like this. I understand the need to have enough staff to handle the school but to tell everyone that certain days are RED X days and all the other days are ok. I'm not sure why they feel the need for this. Maybe someone can help me out on this.

Today, I went to FSO and posted my blog and then set myself up as a follower of all my classmates blogs. I don't know if this is good or not but I think it will be fun to see what everyone is up to with their new blog. My blog it turns out is not as new as I thought. I had it already when I created my google website. Since, "educational games in the classroom" is my Action Research, area of interest, I decided to leave the blog name as Educational Game in the Classroom. I kinda like it.

Tell me what you think.

I love the feedback

Thanks