Wicked Problem Project Final

Here is the link to my Presentation!: wicked_problem_project

As a world language teacher, many teachers face the problem of the most important component of language acquisition also being the weakest for their students. This component that I am talking about is speaking. In research from Georgia State University, 2/3 of students thought that speaking was the most important component of language acquisition, but only ½ felt comfortable to do so. The problem that teachers face is that students are not comfortable speaking in the target language with an authentic accent in front of their classmates.  Students cannot become fluent the language unless they are proficient at all components of language acquisition: speaking, reading writing and listening. The other problem is that the teacher does not have enough time in a 40 minute class period to individually ask each student to have a meaningful conversation that can be graded.

In order to solve this problem and maximize instruction time as well as increase oral proficiency, I have researched tools and found tools that allow teachers to create web-based assignments as well as submissions that students can make in the comfort of their own home. These tools allows for teachers to re-create conversation as well as give students an opportunity to speak more in the target language since many students only speak in the target language during class time. 

In order to implement this plan, I created a wikispace that served as a resource for teachers. I was able to share my wikispace with friends who went to school to become a language teacher as well as current world language teachers. On my wikispace, I identified the 7 resources that I used : Voicethread, Audio Dropbox, Conversations, Lingt Language, Vocaroo, Voki and Blabberize. I was able to create separate pages for each tool. I gave the teachers a brief description about the resource, how it could be used effectively in the world language classroom, provided an example of the tool being used as well as a start-up sheet on how to use the resource.  

I created a survey on survey monkey to infer about the success of my project. I asked teachers to answer questions about language acquisition, the resources that I shared with them and the components of my wikispace. All the teachers strongly agreed that the tools would make the students more comfortable speaking, which was one of the main goals of my project.

In regards to the TPACK model, I believe that the interaction of technology, pedagogy and content makes the solution to my problem promising because the technology is enhancing the content as well as creating a safe environment for students to be successful in. Students will better succeed in an environment that allows for them to feel safe to express themselves and think openly.  In relation to technology and pedagogy, the resources allow teachers to create authentic and meaningful speaking situations for the students that allow for personalized responses. In regards to the technology and pedagogy in my implementation, I was able to model for the teachers how to effectively create an assignment for students using the technology.  In relation to technology and content, the tools allow for the resources to increase the rigor by having students speak outside of the classroom, giving them a deeper understanding of the content. In regards to the teachers, the content becomes more accessible and the teachers can better understand more about selecting the proper technology for each goal by reading about the resource and viewing the start-up sheet.  In regards to pedagogy and content, students have multiple ways and tools to represent their knowledge and teachers have multiple meanings to give a speaking assignment. Through the tools students can take part in a simulated conversation with the teacher, create an avatar or photo that speaks using the students’ voices, submit an online assignment that uses oral responses or submit a recording of themselves. Teachers are able to select the resource that they would like to use based on the goals that they have.

If I were to complete this project again under the same circumstances, I would have asked the teachers to complete a Google doc as well. I would want the teachers to be able to give me opinions about each resource as well as ideas for how they would use it in their classrooms. I would also want to have the project be extended longer so that I could ask teachers to implement it into their lesson plans and help them to do so effectively. Overall, I think that my wikispace is a worthwhile resource to look into. The tools that I have found allow for teachers to grade each student on their oral proficiency, increase oral proficiency, create a safe environment for students to speak in, allow teachers and students to reflect on their oral progress, extend language use beyond the school setting and provide opportunity for personalization. The start-up sheets are a convenient resource that allow for all teachers to learn how to use each tool. In regards to what this project did for me for me, the wikispace helped to build a foundation of resources that I can share with my colleagues at my new long term sub job.

Professional Learning Plan

I took 810 earlier in the semester along with 811. My major goals of my personal growth plan were to: implement technology 3 times a week in my future classroom, learn more about cutting-edge strategies such as flipping the classroom, learning more about web 2.0 tools and share these tools via blogging or a website. 

I was not able to meet the goal of implementing technology 3 times a week because I still do not have a teaching job. I have a few interviews next week for long-term sub positions, so hopefully something can come of that. I am also applying to an area high school to be a technology integration specialist! I have learning more about flipping the classroom through my group leadership project and web 2.0 tools through my SIG project from 810 and my WPP from 812.  I have been able to blog a lot in 812 and I also created a website resource for 812. I have also been updating my online portfolio from 811.

Here is the link to my Prezi: My Professional Learning Plan 

Professional Learning Plan on Prezi

Group Leadership Project

Our group's specialty was flipping the classroom. We used the resource WatchKnowLearn.org as the resource that we would create our professional development tutorial. To create our tutorial, we used the resource Adobe Presenter. We used this resource because it allowed us to easily add voice narration over a pre-existing powerpoint. It is very user-friendly for the creator and those who are watching the presentation.

Through working on this project I learned about two new technology tools. I learned about Adobe Presenter as well as Popplet. Popplet is a great mind-mapping tool and it is something that I would use with students. It allows users to easily organize and color coordinate different popples as well as connect the popples. It reminds me of Prezi, except you are able to see everything at once. We used Google Docs to create our script and this was an easy tool to use to collaborate and share the script.

Overall, the project was great for learning and I think that our presentation came together really well. My group worked so well today, it was such a pleasure to work with Heidi and Jamin. We were able to meet all of our deadlines, meet online and communicate effectively. In regards to the presentation  Heidi did all of the editing and she was the leader in organizing everything and giving our individual deadlines. I created the powerpoint presentation and Jamin put it into Adobe Presenter and did the voice narration as well as the final production. Working with Heidi and Jamin gave me the feel of the Personal Learning Community that I am missing by not having a teaching job. We were so supportive and helpful to each other, it was fantastic!

During the project, I learned more about working with a group. This was the first time that I worked with classmates, that I had never met face-to-face in real life, online and that were not in my content area. We were all at different points in our teaching careers, but we were all able to make it work. I learned that it was very important to have an overall idea of what we would like to accomplish as a group in a reasonable time frame. It really helped by having a group timeline so that we could give each other enough time to complete our parts. I also learned that it is important to keep in close contact via text, email and google hangout. We texted Heidi and Jamin almost daily and I would talk to Jamin on the phone a lot. I have never met my group members but I had to trust them and support them to effectively and collaboratively meet our goals.

If I had to do a similar project again, I would not change much if I were working with the same people because we worked so well together. By having the timeline, it really pushed me not to procrastinate because I had to finish my part so my group members could finish theirs. I would like the project to not be as long because I felt as though it was longer that it needed to be, but I am only in 812 during this session and I do not have a teaching job. I felt that Part A and Part B and all the work leading up to the final presentation was very spread out and then the presentation creation was not as long. Aside from that, I do not have any complaints about the project. We were able to learn about a great resource, WatchKnowLearn, that is in an area of Educational Technology that interests us. It was a great project!


Here is the link to our presentation, using adobe presenter: Group 4 Project

Mobile Learning Lab

Classroom 2.0

I have been following classroom 2.0 on twitter for about 9 months now. They are one of the first people that I followed on my student teaching twitter and they always tweet great resource, especially during #edchat.

This is what I posted in the group on the site:

I think that we obviously need to adapt our teaching to the students that we are teaching. Young people are attached to their phones and their whole lives are on their phones. While I was a technology intern at a high school outside of Pittsburgh, they were on board with using personal devices as much as possible in the classroom. Not every single school is as supportive as this school. I think that using cell phones in school depends on the school culture and how it is educationally beneficial as well as if it is properly implemented. The school that I student taught at was not a school that I would want to use cellphones in the classroom a lot with. The high school students would take calls during teachers' classes and be on their phones all the time in other teachers' classes. The teachers never said anything and could not control it. I was lucky and was able to talk to them and set boundaries with repercussions before I started teaching. The worries of many are that the students aren't actually doing something productive because you can not see their screens, they are doing inappropriate things during class time and it is a distraction. I was able to do an activity with my students and their phones using google maps and they really liked it. While I was a technology intern the teachers and students liked using their personal devices and the students respected the limitations of using the phone in class. There also needs to be thought that not every student has a smart phone that is capable of accessing the internet. I think that if it is implemented appropriately, cell phones are a good thing to use in classrooms. There are many educationally friendly applications and web-based resources.

Survey-Poll Everywhere

For my survey, I asked people what their favorite season was. It was a survey that anyone would be able to take. I posted it to my facebook and twitter and I had 11 participants. 5 people said their favorite season was summer, 5 for fall and 1 for winter. 

I think that poll everywhere is a great tool to use in schools. I would use it to check comprehension as well as get feedback from students of things they are struggling with. It does not tell you who the text is from so students can feel comfortable sharing their opinions without their names. I know that it is something that many teachers are beginning to use and I think it is great! I do not think that it is something that should be used all the time, but maybe one of two times per unit.

PART D - Findings and Implications

Formative:  I think that my project was implemented as well as it could have been under the circumstances that I do not have a teaching job and have never had a teaching job.  I created a wikispace that I shared with world language teachers and my friends who went to school to be world language teachers. On the wikispace, I created individual pages for each resource. On each page there was a description of the resources, ways that it can be used in the world language classroom, an example of the resource being used and a start-up sheet. The start-up sheet was a “how to” use the resource for any content area teacher. I then created a survey that gave me feedback about the specific tools in regards to their friendliness as well as teachers’ opinions about language acquisition and the resources on the wikispace. I hopefully addressed a problem that I know many world language teachers face. I hope that I was able to give ideas for teachers to give more opportunities in safe environments for their students to speak in.

Summative: The survey helped me to get the opinions of the teachers. In regards to the resources, the teachers ranked Lingt Language, VoiceThread, Audio Dropbox and Conversations to be the most student-friendly. I agree with these rankings. The students do not have to email anything or send it like they would in resources like Vocaroo, everything goes to the teacher through the tool. The teachers ranked Conversation, Audio Dropbox, Lingt Language and VoiceThread the most teacher-friendly resources. I definitely agree because while I think VoiceThread is a good resource, it can be difficult for some to create a presentation. Tools like Voki and Blabberize do not allow the teacher to come up with too many creative ideas that are very rigorous. All of the participatnts would definitely use some of the resources in the classroom and they would also share the wikispace with their colleagues. All of the teachers agreed that the start-up sheets helped, which is something that gives me gratification because I may not be there to help teach them the resource, but I was able to help them to understand it better. 

It was also gratifying to see that the teachers agreed that the resource would increase oral proficiency and that the resources would help to extend the language use outside of the classroom. The teachers strongly agreed that the resources would help make students more comfortable speaking in the target language, better assess oral proficiency, monitor student growth and increase the rigor of the class. In regards to students, it is very important to me that they feel comfortable speaking in the target language. Not all classroom environment are "safe" and many teachers can be discouraging. After being a very comfortable speak in high school and the beginning of college, I had a professor like this and I eventually stopped speaking in class. I think it is something that many students struggle with, especially trying to speak in a near native accent. It was important that the teachers could assess oral competency, monitor student growth as well as increase oral proficiency.  

I am glad that I asked this question and I was surprised to see that the description of the resource was the most helpful component, followed by how to use the resource and then the start-up sheets and examples earned the same ranking. I know that I learn best by giving a description of the activity, what is expected and then seeing an example of it. I am sure that the description helped because the teachers were able to see what the resource was about briefly and then it intrigued them. They were probably more interested once they saw the ways to use it and then the start-up sheets and example helped to tie everything together. 

I think that if I were to complete the project again, I would try to figure out a project that would be more conducive to not having a job. I am not sure how realistic this is, so I would want to be more focused and specific with my project from the beginning. I think that my project did not gain specificity until Part C and I was not able to explain everything as clear as I would have liked to, especially in Part B.

I think that trying to help teachers was the best route for me since I do not have students to work with so if I were put into the same situation in my current situation, I would have done the same thing. I would want to address my problem and solution completely at teachers of not necessarily one content area. I would like to find a problem that many different content teachers have and figure out a solution that would help more teachers.

I think that there were many lessons learned. I think that the more specific and concrete you can be in your vision for the project and the steps along the way, the better the project will turn out. I think that I was able to find a variety or resources that shared some similarities, but I do not think that seven was too overwhelming of a number. I think that it was better to find fewer resources and go more in depth with them than finding many resources and being too brief. If I had 20 resources, I would be very overwhelmed as a teacher looking at them, especially if I wasn't familiar with any. The teachers were able to get a feel and understanding for the resources because of the examples, description, ways it can be implemented and the start-up sheets. I know that teachers do not have all the time in the world and they would not be able to sit down and look at 20 tools with all of the supplemental resources and be able to make sense of it all.

PART C - Implementation

Transcript of My Podcast: 

I first researched tools that could increase oral proficiency by giving students more opportunities to speak outside of the classroom. I wanted to try to re-create opportunities that would allow for the teacher to access the assignment and tools that would save the assignment so the teacher could review it and the student could reflect on it. During my research I found that the following tools would be suitable for the solution to my problem: VoiceThread, Lingt Language, Audio Dropbox, Conversations, Voki, Blabberize and Vocaroo 

I then decided that to implement my WPP, I would create a wikispace that would house all of the information about the resources. I shared the wikispace with world language teachers and friends who went to school to be a world language teacher. For each resource I wrote a brief description about the resources, gave some ideas on how world language teachers could use the resource in their classroom, created a start-up sheet which was a “how to use the resource” ,

(Screenshot of Start-Up Sheet)

gave an example, if it was possible, about how to use the resource in the world language classroom and gave links to any other helpful resources about the tool, if I found it suitable. I thought that creating a wikispace was a good idea because it would allow me to have a good foundation of tools to share and would give me a starting point to add more tools. 

(Screenshot of VoiceThread page on Wikispace)

I then created a survey on surveymonkey .I asked 10 questions about the wikispace, tools that I found and opinions of the components of language acquisition. I was very surprised to see that all 7 participants strongly agree that speaking was the weakest component of language acquisition  and 6/7 deemed it as the most important component.

There were also a few more surprises. It was difficult at times to create start-up sheets for all of the tools because tools like VoiceThread have many different components. I tried to create start-up sheets that would allow any content area teacher to be able to use the resource.  

There were also some things that I would revise.  While I thought that the survey was a good idea to get feedback and have the teachers rate the tools on their friendliness, I think that it would be beneficial to also have teachers fill out a google doc about their likes and dislikes in regards to specific tools. I would also ask them how they would use the tools in their classroom so I would be able to acquire more ideas. If a teacher had a strong opinion about a tool or a lot of experience with a tool, I would be made aware of it through the use of a google doc.

While I would revise this part of my Wicked Problem Project, I do think that there were some things that went well.  I think that creating a wikispace was a good idea. The wikispace helped me to better organize the information for myself as well as the teachers. It allowed the teachers to easily navigate through the pages and it is compatible with embedding, adding links and pictures.  The wikispace allowed me to better organize the information for myself as well as the teachers. The teachers knew what to expect: a description, ways to use the tool in the world language classroom, an example (if applicable and possible) and a start-up sheet that teaches the basics about how to use the resource for any teacher.

I think that the project would have been better for me if I had a teaching job and my own classroom. While it was good to be exposed to and to learn about many resources that I could share, I think I would have benefited more if I could have seen some of these tools to put into action with students. I would also be able to experiment with the resources with my colleagues and share the sources with them. It would have been more meaningful to implement the resources with actual students and see how it helped their confidence in the target language as well as oral proficiency. 

Link to podcast: https://www.msu.edu/~slifersa/partcwpp.mp3

Link to wikispace: http://senoritatecnologia.wikispaces.com/

Link to survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L35QVD3

Recording and Editing Lab

To implement my project, I created a wikispace that housed information about the resources that I used as well as start-up sheets. I then shared the wikispace with my friends who went to school to be language teachers as well as language teachers that I knew. I then had the teachers take a survey. This is the link to my podcast:  https://www.msu.edu/~slifersa/implementation.mp3

I had trouble in session 1 to have my podcast come up on my itunes. I subscribed and tried all the tips that my professor gave me and I was still not able to hear my podcasts. For some reason information from 2 random blog posts come up.  I am not sure why this is happening. 

I also have my feedburner in my blog to enhance to RSS feed. The screen shot shows that it is my feedburner.