Final Wicked Problem Project

Text of your problem: 

The important educational need that I am seeking to address is parent involvement and communication. Parents are partners in education and it is fundamental that they are involved and aware of what is going on in the classroom with their child. It is a teacher's job to have constant communication with the parents to they are aware and involved in their child's education


 Text of your solution:

I teach in a district where almost all families have computers or cell phones with internet access. This year in my class all parents had internet access. Parents that that email would be the most effective way to communicate with them throughout the school year. After thinking about this I thought that a classroom website would be an effective form of communication. Parents would be able to check it often and refer back to it when needed. My plan was to create a website where I could give curriculum updates, list important dates, and also show parents what their child has been working on and doing at school. A classroom website would increase parent communication.

 Text of the TP, TC, & PC

TP Knowledge is “knowledge of the existence, components, and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in teaching and learning settings, and conversely, knowing how teaching might change as the result of using particular technologies.” The technology that I have chosen to support the methods of parent communication is a classroom website. A classroom website will help parents up to date on what is happening in the classroom. Parents will also be able to use it as a resource to help their students with their education. There will be links and information provided about ways for them to support their child.

 TP Knowledge is “knowledge of the existence, components, and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in teaching and learning settings, and conversely, knowing how teaching might change as the result of using particular technologies.” The technology that I have chosen to support the methods of parent communication is a classroom website. A classroom website will help parents up to date on what is happening in the classroom. Parents will also be able to use it as a resource to help their students with their education. There will be links and information provided about ways for them to support their child.

 PC is “concerned with the representation and formulation of concepts, pedagogical techniques, knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn, knowledge of students’ prior knowledge. At curriculum night next year, I will model and explain how to use our classroom website. This will give parents an understanding of how the site will be used and will also guide them in how to use it. After modeling how to use the website to the parents, I will also show the students where they can find resources to use. Students will be able to find and use the resources on their own. After modeling how the website will be used, parents will be able to email or talk to me about any questions they have about how communication will take place in the classroom.

Professional Learning Plan

Here is a link to my Professional Learning Plan.

Group Leadership Project

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial?  Why?

We choose to deliver a tutorial on how to create a blog.  The tool that we used to deliver this tutorial is Camtasia.  We thought this would be a great program that we could use screen shots to teach how to use a blog.  It worked very well to compile all of the parts together. 

2.  What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

Before completing this project I was not very familiar with Camtasia.  This assignment helped me to learn how to use the tool and how it is pretty easy to use.  I have thought of ways I can use this to teach students.  

3.  What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

If I had to do develop a similar product again, I would explore more of the features that Camtasia has to offer.  I feel like I was just beginning to learn how to use it and am excited to try different things with it.   

How to use Blogger

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Wicked Project Part D

•                Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

The project did get implemented as planned.  It was a tough project to complete with such little time left in the school year. I had to quickly create a website that parents would be able to use to keep updated with the classroom happenings.  After creating the website I had to communicate with parents how to use the site and what the site would be used for.  After parents were aware of the website they begin using it to find information. 

•                Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.

When talking to parents about their thoughts of the website, I heard very positive feedback.  They felt like they were up to date, in the loop and knew what was going on.  They told me they thought it was an easy way to be informed.  Parents liked that all the information was in one place and did not have to look in many places for the updates.  Parents were happy with the use of a website. 

                          

•                How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

I would approach another project of this type differently giving myself more time to implement in the classroom.  I felt rushed and felt like I could have been more detailed for the parents.  More time would help me to concentrate and develop the project before implementing it.  

•                What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

It is important to have a backup plan for your project so that it will benefit it all people.  For example, if the parents in my class did not have access to a computer I was planning on sending home a paper copy of what was on the website has on it. 

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do

I will create a website to use at the beginning of the year to support parent communication.  Starting at the beginning of the year will show parents what to expect.  I will be able to explain what to expect and how to use the website at curriculum night with all the parents.  I am excited to start the year out with open communication and using a website to communicate with parents.  

Wicked Part C

Here is a link to my podcast about the implementation of my Wicked Project.

Part B: Storyboard and Script

Our group used Google Presentation in order to create our storyboard and script.  Here is a link to our storyboard

Each person has a different part of Blogger they are focusing on.  Here are the different parts each person will focus on:
Aubrey: Setting up a new account, starting your blog, and design options
Nancy: Creating a new post
Lisa: Adding links and images
Kim: Adding comments and sharing

We will each use Camtasia to record our section of the project.  After completed we will send them to one group member who will put them all together for the final product.

Mobile Learning

Mobile Learning

When I think about mobile learning i think it would be awesome in middle school and high school where a very large number of students have their own personal cells phones.  Students are eager to use their cell phones and teachers could support this by having them use them in an educational way. 

As a first grade teacher I do not see mobile learning as being as valuable as with older students.  Yes, all first graders know how to use a cell phone but they do not all have their personal cell phone to bring to school (at least not yet!)  I would find it difficult to use mobile learning with first graders for this reason.  The only way to use mobile learning in my classroom would be for the district to provide the technology and I am not sure how likely that would be to happen. 

I spent some time exploring Poll Everywhere and found it to be an awesome resource.  I think that students would be engaged doing an activity like this.  The first way to use Poll Everywhere that popped into my head was for a review game.  Teachers could use polls to review concepts for a test.  Teachers would easily be able to tell where students needed more instruction and immediately reteach concepts.

I think that mobile technology will become very popular in schools in the near future.  I can’t wait to see how early elementary teachers use it in their instruction.   

Wicked Project Part B

1.             What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

TP Knowledge is “knowledge of the existence, components, and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in teaching and learning settings, and conversely, knowing how teaching might change as the result of using particular technologies.” The technology that I have chosen to support the methods of parent communication is a classroom website.  A classroom website will help parents up to date on what is happening in the classroom.  Parents will also be able to use it as a resource to help their students with their education.  There will be links and information provided about ways for them to support their child. 

2.             What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

TC knowledge is “knowledge about the manner in which technology and content are reciprocally related.” All the parents in my class have a computer with Internet access.  Also many of their phones have internet also.  This technology decreases the likelihood that papers will get missed placed, lost or never make it home to the parent.  Parents will always have access to updates and resources to use to support their child. 

 

3.             What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

PC is “concerned with the representation and formulation of concepts, pedagogical techniques, knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn, knowledge of students’ prior knowledge.  At curriculum night next year, I will model and explain how to use our classroom website.  This will give parents an understanding of how the site will be used and will also guide them in how to use it.  After modeling how to use the website to the parents, I will also show the students where they can find resources to use.  Students will be able to find and use the resources on their own.  After modeling how the website will be used, parents will be able to email or talk to me about any questions they have about how communication will take place in the classroom.  

Group Leadership Project Part A

My group chose to focus our project on how to create a blog.  The technology that we will be using to teach about blogging is Camtasia. 

1.            What web conferencing tool did your group use?

The web conferencing tool that our group chose to use was Yvew.  This was the first time that I have used this tool and found it to be very useful. 

2.            What were the advantages to using the web

conferencing tool to discuss this project?

There were many advantages of using this tool in order to discuss the project.  One advantage was it was free to use.  One person from the group set up a meeting and sent the link out to everyone else.  When we arrived in the “room” we had the choice to use video, voice, or a chat feature.  We choose to just use the chat feature for this meeting.  Another advantage to this tool was that everyone could edit the document that we created during the conference.  Each person was able to add to the document and participate in creating the way to present our information.  I found this conferencing tool to be simple to use and very effective for our purpose. 

3.   What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project? 

One disadvantage that I found when using Yvew was when I was exporting our entire conversation and the pages we created.  Some of the formatting changed and it was unreadable.  In order to solve this problem, I had to copy and paste our conversation into a word document. 

 Here is a summary of what we talked about during our meeting:

Here is a link to our entire conversation from our meeting.