Unit 13

Hello Everyone! 

I have to first make a comment about the findings in an article from our reading list that I had me thinking for a while.  My first comment has to do with a teacher who felt that the most useful function for online accessibility was the cut and paste feature (Kim et al., 2020). Cut and Paste?  With all the functions that enable students to access, deconstruct, and analyze text, such as highlighting, cut and paste was found to be the most important?  The first teacher was a 2 year teacher, so I thought, perhaps she/he is new to teaching, but another teacher who had 15 years of experience also found the cut and paste to be the most useful.  Images of students cutting pasting to create their essays flooded my mind.  

The fact that the study found that it is seldom that teachers teach their students how to use the various functions saddened me.  How can we still have teachers who do not feel the need to embed technology into their teaching? Further into the article a teacher said that their devices did not have these functions so that is why they didn't teach students how to use them (Kim et al., 2020).  What kind of devices are they using that that they lack accessibility functions?  

How well a student can be accommodated as stated in their IEP, really depends on what those accommodations are.  A teacher can provide those accommodations, but because the student is not within reach, it will depend on the student and perhaps even the parent to ensure the student is being accommodated.  For example, a student may need the accomodation to be moved away from an area where there is too much stimuli.  The teacher cannot ensure that the student is in an area where the student will not be distracted.  

My belief has always been that the majority of the accommodations on an IEP should be a part of a teachers daily practices.  For example, giving extra time to complete assignments or exams, giving students a copy of the notes, breaks between activities, etc, are not practices exclusive to students with special needs, these accommodations should be provided to all students.  My classroom is very inviting to students with special needs because for the large part, all students are receiving the same amodations. Of course, there are some needs that need to be met one on one and not in a large group setting such as dictating answers to the teacher or paraprofessional.  Online, this

accommodation would be best accommodated in a Zoom break room if there is a para available, or with the use of an app such as Flipgrid. The student can record their answers on FlipGrid and turn that in in lieu of the written test. With Few exceptions, the majority of IEP accommodation can be met in an online class, even more so, if there is parent and/or para support.  

As the grandmother of special needs child who has a severe language delay, and incidentally just attended an IEP meeting with my daughter, I can say that it is important to not just follow the IEP as a teacher, but also how important for parents to understand the IEPs and what those accomodations look like when implemented.  Parent involvement is crucial in an online environment. With parental involvement, a teacher can ensure that the accommodations are being implemented and meeting the needs of the student in a online setting. 

 I wish that EL students had IEPs.  That would make it so that teachers would understand how to support their novice ELs.  The accommodations would be very similar to an IEP for a SPED student. 

• Provide visuals and gestures.
• Allow for extra time on tests and assignments
• Modify the assignment so that content is not lost, but the student is able to answer.
• Provide students the ability to read the concept in their primary language and for those who are new to the English Language, to answer in their primary language. 
• Use sentence frames so that student can answer in English.
• Provide academic vocabulary lists with translations.

Carrie

Reference

Kim, A. A., Monroe, M., & Lee, S. (2020). Examining K-12 educators’ perception and instruction of online accessibility features. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(3), 437–468. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1705353

Unit 9

National Standards for Quality

When I first read the instructions for this blog, I wondered if I had the ability to catch any discrepancies that we were asked to observe. However, as I read the standards, I did notice a few things that seem to either be missing, or that were very vague in their description.

The first question concerned the grade level of the standards. I only began to wonder after I read a description that has an asterisk and read below that it was lifted from the k-12 standards. The content standards stated that the online course should be free of adult content. Again, what level are these standards addressing? I had to search on their website to find the answer to this question and found it in the "About" tab. I found this issue ironic considering that the standards address the issue of navigation through a course's content. 

The next thing I noticed was there was nothing concerning the emotional needs of a student. There is nothing stating that instructors should try to connect with their students. I was hoping that after reading the descriptions of the standards, I would find some reference to student's emotional needs.  There is some language that eludes to this need such as "instructor-supported" and "engage in conversation." Yet, when you read on, you see that this is in reference to academic needs.  

Being that this is for K-12, I find it odd that the need for connection is not included as a strong statement within the standards. I kept hearing Rita Pierson in my mind as I searched for something that addressed this need, "Students don't learn from people they don't like" (Pierson, 2013).

References

Pierson, R. (2013). Transcript of “Every kid needs a champion.” www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion/transcript?language=en

Unit 7 Blog

https://www.dal.ca/news/2020/04/09/academic-integrity-meme-assignment.html

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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY - The meme to the left describes what I believe to be part of the reason our students do not understand the concept of "stealing" someone's work.  I see this issue often and not just in the realm of plagiarism, but also in the inability to be create original work.  In elementary, students are praised for their effort regardless of the quality of their work.  By the time they get to middle school, they have been hard wired to believe that it is all about just turning something in.  What does this have to do with the topic of academic integrity?  EVERYTHING.  

If students are given the impression that effort equals turning something in, then it doesn't matter if what they are turning is their own work.  They will copy the answers off of another student thinking nothing about the idea that it isn't their original work because it meets their criteria of effort - just turn something in.  When it comes to tests, they have a similar concept of the importance of turning something in only on a test it means giving the right answers.  Even when I tell my students that there is no reason to cheat on the quizzes I give because I don't grade them, and they are just for the purpose of data - where are they in their mastery of what skill I am teaching.  Yet, at the start of 7th grade, it is a real struggle to get them to stop thinking in that way.  

Think of this - if your creativity is not fostered and expected, then it isn't practiced and not seen as valuable. With this mindset, does it matter if it isn't your work?  The answer is no.  This means that they are not taught the idea of ownership: I created this, and so credit for this original work will be given to me.  Moreover: If I copy my classmate's work, it is not my original work and it isn't right that I will be given credit for something that is not mine.  In addition, using the word "copying" gives that act a different connotation.  It minimizes what the student is really doing: stealing.  

Now let's imagine all of this in an online environment where there is a false sense that you are not being watched and not likely to be caught.  With such easy access to content available online, it is easy for students to not think of using that content within their own as plagiarism (Sidi et al., 2019).  This is especially true for the age group that I teach.  Too much is going on for this age group to understand the nuances and the greater consequences. They are just learning how to cite, and are barely learning how to integrate.  Many are not yet skilled at paraphrasing - they just replace words.  They are a very challenging stage in their learning.  They just came from an environment that complimented their work even if not original, and then come to an environment where plagiarism is given a brief lesson. Teachers, online teachers especially, should discuss digital dishonesty (Sidi et al., 2019).  

Sidi and al. (2019) discuss ethical dissonance and I had to really think about how that applied to my students.  I also did a quick research on the ethical dissonance model (Barkan et al., 2015) and as I understand it there is pre and post dissonance.  Experiencing pre ethical dissonance might deter some from actually committing academic dishonesty because of their moral ethics against doing something dishonest.  Post ethical dissonance is experiencing that after the fact.  Both types can lead to the person, in this case student, to justify the academic dishonesty they engaged in.  I made a connection between what Barken and al. (2015) explains as justifying the act to alleviate dissonance, and the statement that Sidi and al. (2019) made concerning minorities and older students experience high levels of dissonance.  Minority students are often not prepared for academic rigor and I can see why students would justify academic dishonesty.  It saves them from feeling completely inadequate.  The remedy proposed by Sidi and al. (2019) to change this issue is exactly what I try to do in my classroom.  Move away from traditional and outdated practices that focus on the output and not on the input.  If we make the learning more important than the grade, then students would have a different view of an exam.  If we (teachers) allow students to redo and retake and give feedback as to how to improve the work that needs to be redone, then the emphasis on the outcome - the grade - no longer has the kind of value that would entice a student to practice academic dishonesty.  

To leave on a less serious note, I found an interesting website that showcases memes that were created by Dalhousie University students concerning academic dishonesty (Reeder, 2020).  It gave me an idea for a fun project I can do with my students. 

References

Barkan, R., Ayal, S., & Ariely, D. (2015). Ethical dissonance, justifications, and moral behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.001

Reeder, M. (2020). When it comes to academic integrity, Dal students really meme it. Dalhousie News. https://www.dal.ca/news/2020/04/09/academic-integrity-meme-assignment.html

Sidi, Y., Blau, I., & Eshet‐Alkalai, Y. (2019). How is the ethical dissonance index affected by technology, academic dishonesty type and individual differences? British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(6), 3300–3314. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12735

 

Unit 5 Blog

 Many fear the development of AI will be the end of humanity.  Even Stephen Hawkins feared the evolution of artificial intelligence as in that it would redesign itself and supersede humans (Cellan-Jones, 2014).   Considering Hawkins accomplishments, I don't know what to think about his fears concerning AI. They seem a bit off considering that he was assisted by a very sophisticated form of AI that enabled him to communicate.   

OK, so I digress.  Back to the topic I am really here to discuss. 

Great video to watch as intro to the topic of my blog. 

You just have to get passed the cheezy robot voice. 

Artificial Intelligence in Education!                                

Artificial Intelligence is one of my areas of interest, and has been since I first came upon the topic of AI in education. There are so many ways that AI assists in education, so I will only tackle a fraction that just happen to be the ones that most interest me.  

1. Adaptive Learning 

2. Assistive Technology

3. Data and Learning Analytics

4. Writing

5. Gamification

Adaptive Learning

I absolutely endorse the use of adaptive learning. I am not saying that it should be the sole source of learning, of course not.  Nevertheless, it does have it's place in student learning.  Adaptive learning is when a software can adapt to the current skill level of the student and progress from that point.  It continuously evaluates the student's skills so that it goes at the learning pace of the student.  It does checking for understanding and formative assessments, all of which are part of good teaching  (University of San Diego, 2021). FastBridge is an assessment that we use that is adaptive.  It increases or decreases rigor as the student is testing to gage where the student is for the skill it is testing.  

Warning: Not all software are the same.  For those districts wishing to use this type of assessment, they must research and ask others who use the software questions so that they purchase the one that will do what the district is looking for it to do.

Assistive Technology

I have several situations with students that were overcome by the assistive technology included in their Chromebooks. For example, I have a student who cannot read or write at grade level.  He writes and reads at a first grade level, yet his critical thinking skills are beyond junior high.  It came to me one day that perhaps text-to-speech and speech-to-text would over come his issue with reading and writing.  It did and now it is on his 504 plan.  

There is also a feature that will tell students what they are hovering over with their cursor.  For my students who do not speak English, this is very helpful because it can be set to the language that they speak.  

I have one student who has very poor vision.  She uses the screen magnifying feature.  It has helped her tremendously. 

I have heard teachers comment on their dislike for students to use assistive technology especially when it comes to knowledge or language. However, I disagree.  Communication and connection are the catalyst for learning a second language (Krashen, 1982). Without it, a student becomes isolated and withdrawn.  

Warning: While most digital devices provide assistive technology, not all have the same features, and some can be glitchy.  It is best to do research on the one accessibility that you require to find the device that does the best at providing that assistance. 

Data and Learning Analytics

Here are examples of the many ways that FastBridge can 
analyze the scores it gathers as students test. 

As a teacher, I collect and analyze student data often.  In fact, at this moment, I am buried in data that I must make sense of in order to organize small group instruction to target skills needed by individual students.  My students are preparing for the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California, otherwise known as the ELPAC.  The ability for assessments to collect the data for me and allow me to choose how to organize it saves time and energy.  Data analysis enables teachers to make data driven decisions so as to target specific needs and individualize learning as much as possible instead of teaching to the whole class (Sousa et al., 2021). FastBridge is an amazing tool that allows me to make sense of the data it collects (students scores and how they did in each standard that it tests) in various ways (Illuminate Education Inc., 2021).  I can choose to see one students data or groups of students, by standard, strand, or composite scores.  

Writing

Word has outdone itself with how it uses AI to assist in writing (Eoanou, 2022). EDITOR is amazing. It flags not just incorrect grammar and spelling, but also flags the use of passive verbs and weak words.  In addition, it will suggest better ways to express a thought as it flags areas where there may be a lack of clarity, conciseness, and the level of formality,  It keeps track of the number of flags for each category and as you make corrections or additions, iit will change the number to reflect how many you still have left.  One more thing it enables a writer to do is to check for plagiarism.  This is not its best feature though.  It gives you a percentage of similarity and will point out where it thinks you lack a reference, but it is not as aggressive as Citation Machine's plagiarism check (Instant Plagiarism Checker Tool from Citation Machine Plus, n.d.).  I would recommend using Citation Machine.  

Again, some teachers are not proponents of allowing AI to flag errors in students' writing.  Personally, I would

Citation Machine

rather they use their time developing their critical thinking, than to be floundering and stuck on something that AI can correct or flag quickly.

NOTE: Citation machine will not just flag where you are in danger of plagiarizing, but when you hover over it, it will show the source and how it appears in that source.  You can then decide if it truly is plagiarism.  How powerful is that? 

Gamification

I saved the best for last. Learning new vocabulary can be one of the most tedious and boring task for a student to do.  However, thanks to AI, there are games that make learning a fun task.  Two of my favorite educational games, though there are many more, are Quizlet and Gamkit.  

Better than me explaining how to use Quizlet, watch the video.  

Quizlet turns learning vocabulary into games, but also creates study sets of vocabulary (Quizlet, n.d.).  Though students can choose to do the activities out of order, I instruct my students to first take quiz. The quiz will remember which ones the student missed and will focus on those when the student engages with the other activities - you have to love the power of AI.  I purchased the teacher version so my students will not see ads and it also gathers their data and analyzes it.  I have various options for reports that I use to guide my lessons. 

The other game I use when memorization is required or practice such as with grammar, is Gimkit (Gimkit, n.d.).
Once I input the vocabulary and/or questions along with the correct answers, I can choose which game to use to learn the content.  Students get points for each correct answer.  After they gather a certain number of points they can go to the shop and purchase powerups.  This feature gives the students a familiar game feel to the learning.  

How AI makes this game so effective is that remembers the incorrect answers and will ask that question more often than the others.  It also provides them with the ability to see the correct answer for the ones they get incorrect. 

The only downside I see to using GamKit is students do not take advantage of viewing the correct answer before moving on to the next question.  While students will still manage to memorize the information, it just takes longer for them to do so.  Some may get frustrated with how long it is taking them to reach the end of the game.  I hope that some day they add AI bots to level out some of the games.  This would enable students who missed the game to play against an AI player to add rigor to the game.  

Resources

Cellan-Jones, R. (2014). Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540

Eoanou, A. (2022). Introducing new AI enhancements in Microsoft 365: New features coming to Microsoft Editor and more! Microsoft. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-new-ai-enhancements-in-microsoft-365-new-features/ba-p/3643499

Gimkit. (n.d.). South Texas College. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from https://et.southtexascollege.edu/gimkit/

Illuminate Education Inc. (2021). Psychometric Evidence of FastBridge Universal Screening & Progress Monitoring System.

Instant plagiarism checker tool from Citation Machine plus. (n.d.). Citation Machine. https://www.citationmachine.net/grammar-and-plagiarism/

Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 67(2). https://doi.org/10.2307/328293

Quizlet. (n.d.). Stages. In Quizlet.com. https://o.quizlet.com/8rzjJXFK8ufhdd4yHECL7g.png

Sousa, E. B. G. de, Alexandre, B., Ferreira Mello, R., Pontual Falcão, T., Vesin, B., & Gašević, D. (2021). Applications of learning analytics in high schools: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.737891

University of San Diego. (2021). 43 examples of artificial intelligence in education. University of San Diego. https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/artificial-intelligence-education/

Unit 3 Blog

 

11 unread reply.11 reply.

 Online Discussions                       

After reading all the advice on how to engage students in discussion, I had a couple of thoughts. The first is that I wished we had all this information during a time when it was most needed. It may have been out there, but to look for something you have to know what you are looking for. There was no time to plan or even think of what we needed. We were evacuated from our classrooms with no warning. We were scuttled from our classrooms with no time to think of what we should take home. There was no time to prepare for the crisis that lay ahead with the fear that learning would come to a halt.

The second thought I had was that some of the suggestions for initiating discussion online are similar to what I practice in my classroom. Wish I had thought of having my students do research and then initiated a discussion online, like I do in my classroom. I agree with Ng (2020) that you can't expect students to fully engage in a discussion without first having students prepare to discuss that topic. The objective is to have students analyze what they are being asked to read as part of the research so that they can offer a different perspective and apply what they have learned to the discussion (Ferlazzo, 2020). To increase the number of students participating in the discussion the addition of a forum would allow all students to respond to the question or scenario and then respond to other student's responses (Ferlazzo, 2020).

For these reasons, I feel that there should be asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. Teaching a concept would be done synchronously, and then the independent part of the learning would be done asynchronously. The synchronous part of online learning for k-12 is needed as younger students do not have the same level of self regulation to stay the course when devoid of human integration. This was quite evident during the pandemic.

I do believe that online without a human social interaction dismisses. We are human and so designed psychologically to need human interaction. How much we need depends on our age, prior experiences with learning and technology, as well as our cultural norms. 

For example, there were only two classes in my entire 3 years here at TCSPP and no classes in my master's program at Concordia Utah that had me work with my colleagues via Zoom. Nevertheless, those two projects in which I worked with my peers through Zoom was enough social interaction to carry me for the first year. In my second year, I had a couple of one on one Zoom Meetings to assist me with understanding a statistic assignment and a couple meeting with my chair and also with the IRB. Those have been rather recent. There was a very long time where I had no face-to-face contact with instructors. I have yet to have any more social interactions with my colleagues. Not having those makes me feel very much as if I am completing one of those old through the mail courses. Being able to have an academic discussion face-to-face makes you feel connected.

For all the reasons stated above, I would add a discussion forum in which students will be given time to research (Ng, 2020), and through analysis of the assigned readings, provide a different perspective (Ferlazzo, 2020). Once students have answered the prompt in a forum, and students have had time to review at least 3 other students' responses, the discussion would continue online synchronously where I would facilitate the discussion to keep it going (Ng, 2020)

References

Ferlazzo, L. (2020). Effective strategies for using online student-discussion boards. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-effective-strategies-for-using-online-student-discussion-boards/2020/10

Ng, J. (2020). 4 tips for productive online discussions. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-tips-productive-online-discussions

EP773 Blog Discus1

1 unread reply.11 reply.

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reading all the FffffffFadvice on how to eFngageI believe that online learning requires both - synchronous learning to guide students through the learning and then a time to do independent work (asynchronous leaning). students in discussion, I had a couple of thoughts. The first is that I wished we had all this information during a time when it was most needed. It may have been out there, but to look for something you have to know what you are looking for. 

The second thought I had was that some of the suggestions for initiating discussion I practice in my classroom. Wish I had thought of having my students do research and then initiated a discussion online, like I do in my classroom. 

I do believe that online without a human social interaction dismisses. We are human and so designed psychologically to need human interaction. How much we need depends on our age, prior experiences with learning and technology, as well as our cultural norms. 

There were only two classes in my entire 3 years here at TCSPP and no classes in my master's program at Concordia Utah that had me work with my colleagues via Zoom. Those two projects in which I worked with my peers through Zoom was enough social interaction to carry me for the first year. In my second year, I had a couple of one on one Zoom Meetings to assist me with understanding a statistic assignment. However, I have yet to have any more social interactions with my colleagues. Not having those makes me feel very much as if I am completing one of those old through the mail courses.

Unit 1 Blog

Online Learning and Theory

I will start with the challenges that educators faced during the Pandemic because it will set the context on which how I interpret and view the learning theories that I feel contradict the perceived benefits of online learning. 

Share your personal experiences as well as what you learned from this challenging time.

Transitioning as quickly as we had to transition from face-to-face teaching to staring at a screen, we had no time to even imagine what that would be like, let alone plan or research how to teach completely online.  Of course may of us first tried teaching like we teach in the classroom.  That failed for many reasons.  The first is that not only do teachers have to have experience with online teaching, so do the students.  Students treated online learning like they do a sub when the teacher is absent, like an excuse to not do anything.  I had more data on students' ceiling fans than I did on their learning (for those that don't get that joke - students would login to Zoom and then turn their cameras up to face the ceiling so I knew who they were by the type of ceiling fan or if they had even had one).  They would then take a nap (I heard snoring a few times and had to manually turn off their mic) or they would just go somewhere and not even bother to come back at the end of class to log off.  That is how I knew they weren't even there.  Unlike teaching in the classroom, my presence had no authority on Zoom.  Just a look from me would get students back on track.  That did not work on line.  None of the engagement strategies that we used in class worked. Our admin had no idea how to help us. It was a very depressing time.  

Discuss your perspective on how the use of virtual schooling in a time of crisis may have permanently impacted the future of K-12 education. 

Since the pandemic lasted way longer than anyone hoped, the majority of the teachers, those who felt that it was job to figure out what we needed to do engage students, began to research and share what they found.  We learned to lean on each other more.  We sought out apps and engagement strategies that would get students back into learning mode.  LIttle things like taking song requests for the waiting room and in the Zoom room as students signed on.  A challenge question like who wrote this song? When was this song released? etc.  

And just when I was gaining ground, the kids came back into the classroom.  However, all that I learned was not put aside.  My classroom routine changed and now I teach partly online and in the classroom.  I realized that if we do not give students the experience of having to learn online is a disservice to them.  Many will go on to have the option to learn on line.  They must have an idea of how to navigate.  It is also how incorporate and encourage independence but with a little bit of a safety net. If they really get lost, I am there to get them back on track.

Are there any specific learning theories that you feel contradict the perceived benefits of online learning?

As I mentioned before, I started with my experience with the pandemic because I am a proponent and firm believer in constructivism.  Not that I do not see the value in other learning theories, as I incorporate elements from other theories.  Nevertheless, at the heart of my decisions as to what I do for the online learning component of my lessons, is Vygotsky. I have a picture of him on my desk. Ok, I exaggerate, but it gives you an idea how I strongly I feel about constructivism and Social-cultural Learning Theory.  

Let me critique the love of my life when it comes to online learning. When it social-cultural learning is used in the classroom, you can gage how much social is too much for certain students and how much is not enough (Brieger et al., 2020).  Online learning for Hispanic students (I am sure they are not the only socially inclined learners, but they are who I extensively work with), is alien. They need social interaction in order to learn. So how do you create a social means of learning online? Difficult to do, but I am sure that there are some very creative and talented teachers/instructors out there that have found a way.

If learning is completely online, how do you gage their zone of proximal development? This requires the ability to work with students one-on-one in order to know what can they do with help, and what they can do without so that you can tailor their learning (Brieger et al., 2020).  That takes time, the willingness of the student, and the available time the student has. As an adult, family and work can get in the way of having a matching available time. 

Can't wait to read your comments!

References

Brieger, E., Arghode, V., & McLean, G. (2020). Connecting theory and practice: reviewing six learning theories to inform online instruction. European Journal of Training and Development, 44(4/5). https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-07-2019-0116