Wicked problem Project Final

The Problem: 

Last year during October there was a severe flooding situation in Bangkok, and we had to close school for about six days. At that time, we had to use our school’s website to create as much e-learning opportunities for our students as possible. In addition to this, at our school, students often miss classes due to involvements in athletics and/or other extra-curricular activities. Providing students with opportunities for e-lessons is becoming more of a necessity than an option at this point.

The Solution:

Using the internet and various technologies available is definitely the best way for me to address this educational issue. My plan is to create on-line lessons for the Algebra 1 course that I will be teaching during the next school year. Each lesson will include some form of review/notes of the skills that are needed to be successful in learning the lesson, some type of teaching video and/or screencast in which the lesson will be delivered, an interactive activity such as StAIR for students to confirm their understanding of the lesson and practice the skills they are being taught, as well as additional modeling and practice resources that can be posted through the internet. There is definitely a very wide scope for this tool. It can be used by all students taking the course. In fact, it can be used by students in any math course who need some algebra review. Once it is set up, this tool can be visited by students over and over again for learning, reviewing, and/or reinforcements.                                                

I intend on using a lot of the resources and tools that were introduced and taught in CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812. Youtube, Khan’s Academy, Merlot are some of the various resources for teaching and learning math that are available on the internet. I realise, however, that I would need to carefully evaluate the tools/videos and select the one that will support the mathematics, concepts, and learning methods that I am focusing on in the classroom. It is crucial to pick the “right” resource and not just “any” video. I will also be creating screencasts and/or videos of "teaching the specific lessons." The curricular resources that I plan to use will come from my school's course curriculum to ensure that it ties in to my course.While performing these researches, I realized that doing this well needs time and clearly defined goals. There is so much available on the web that we, as teachers, may not need to "reinvent the wheel." However, it is important that we carefully select and only use what we are specifically searching for if we want to make our point clear and our learners focused on the concepts/topics/ideas that we are teaching. It also means that we may need to add our personal resources in the form of videos/podcasts/screencasts to link all the technology tools that we employ. During this course, I am hoping to create e-lessons for the first two lessons of the Algebra 1 course. After creating these two, I plan to continue with as many lessons as I can during the school year itself. I am hoping that they will get somewhat easier after I have gone through the first couple of e-lessons and taken care of the basic technology glitches that accompany most of these kinds of technological implementations. I plan to implement them with my daughter since school is presently closed.I intend to post these lessons on the school site as soon as school starts in August to allow students to have access to them as early as possible.I will know if this works, how well it works, and how I can make improvements on it, once my students have access to these lessons, start using them, and providing me with feedback on them. If more than 50% of the students access the lessons and the resources, and spend quality time going through the various tools, I would think that I am off to a good start. This should be sometime in August and early September. 

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 Knwledge 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.” Below I have listed the technologies that I plan to incorporate in my TPACK solution and how it supports the teaching strategies and methods that I have chosen.                           

Website: I have decided to use the google site Algebra 1 that I created while taking CEP 811. Using this technology gives me the “place” or “platform” for students to go to find out about what happened during the lesson that they missed or simply want to visit for reinforcement. This site has a variety of tools for me to imbed links, videos, pictures, and various teaching resources that I plan to use to make the e-lessons for my course. In addition, our school also does the emailing system through google. Using google site then will be more familiar for the students, parents, and teachers that may want to visit. Having this site available for students to use will provide them with opportunities to learn and go-over what took place in the lesson as often as they need to. In reality, it opens up the doors of classrooms and allows learning to take place “outside” as well. 

Webquests: In CEP 811, I explored and evaluated some webquests that were very useful and engaging. I plan to select one, maybe two, that are applicable to the concepts and topics that were are working on as a different way to deliver the ideas that were taught during the lesson. This may end up being an extension of the lesson since we might not always get to it during the class time. With mathematics at this level, it is crucial to present information in a way that students understand and are able to follow along. I pan to include webquests that follow very closely with my teaching strategies. Where some webquests may use a different approach, I plan to make that clear to students in order to ensure that there is no confusion in their understandings of the concepts. 
My Video: Having made a video of myself at the beginning of CEP812, I am thinking of creating one for each lesson. The video will basically provide the agenda of the lesson and help students follow through the entire e-lesson using all the resources provided. It will outline my expectations. This is actually very close to what I do in the classroom at the beginning of every lesson. From my experience in the classroom, I noticed that when I make my plan and expectations for the lesson clear, students are able to learn and follow through more effectively.                                                                                                         Pictures/Notes: In this site, I am able to easily include classroom notes, pictures of examples, and worked-out solutions for problems being assigned. It also allows me to highlight the important part of the lesson. Students can then clearly see the main ideas. Another teaching strategy that I use regularly in the classroom is connecting the concepts we are learning to ideas that were discussed in previous lessons as well as making connections with real-life examples. I intend to convert my classroom notes from the SmartBoard into a pdf format that can be uploaded to the e-lesson.                                                                       More Videos: As an additional resource I plan to including videos from other resources that are available on the internet. This includes videos from Khan’s Academy, Youtube, and Robswartz. This will allow students to see the same mathematics presented in a different way. This can enrich their understanding of the mathematics being taught in the lesson.

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.”        
Webquests: While exploring some of the webquests in CEP 811, I was able to find ones in which the topic of the wequest matches almost perfectly with the content of the lesson. Here the technology itself helps in the teaching of the lesson. In the study of algebraic functions, we need to see how the different representations of functions (as an equation, as a table of values, as a graph) are connected. This is where webquests can play a major role. It can help students see the connections and relationships immediately. Furthermore, it can help in the deeper understanding of how the changes in the equation of the function impact the relationship between the variables and what it really means.               

Geogebra: This is a graphing tool that allows students to graph functions easily to develop a better and clearer understanding. The study of functions is one of the main concepts of Algebra 1. This tool allows students to “play around” with various functions and to visually see what they look like and how they can be related to one another. We are planning on using this program with our Algebra 1 students next year. The link for this tool and clear instructions can also be a useful resource to include in my e-lessons when it is applicable.

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…” This knowledge is very deeply connected with the type of student body that we have in our classroom. The Algebra 1 e-lessons that I am designing are for the average Grade Nine students. These students do well when concepts and ideas are delivered in different ways. Some students learn best taking notes and watching the teacher model and example; other students learn well when they are constructing and exploring to figure out the mathematical “rules” or “concepts”; another group may need to see a visual representation or a model to develop an understanding before they can start solving problems; and yet some students learn best when concepts are linked to real life applications. Similarly, some students prefer to work independently, some with a partner, and others in a group of three or four. Creating e-lessons allows student to experience and learn the math concepts in different ways using various resources. After learning more about web conferencing, I am considering to incorporate it into some of the e-lessons to give a chance for students to discuss and ask questions. This may be helpful in the review lesson before an assessment. It will also give an opportunity for students who learn best in a cooperative environment to maximize their understanding.

WPP Part 1: http://screencast.com/t/5g0eso3bI

WPP Part 2: http://screencast.com/t/0pMcG1S5

WPP Part 3: http://screencast.com/t/B5hKqjcL

Professional Learning Plan

Professional Learning Plan

View more presentations from seemagoghar.

Group Leadership Project

Here is our group's stand alone professional development tutorial:

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

Our group decided to use VoiceThread to deliver the PD tutorial. We started our project by sharing a PowerPoint Presentation on Googledocs, and VoiceThread is a tool that can be easily used together with our project/presentation. VoiceThread also allows us to individually add our explanations and comments to the slides we created. Personally, I have never used VoiceThread before working on this project, but have heard of the tool. I was excited to explore and to try using it. It turned out to be relatively easy to use and very effective in the kind of on-line group work that we were doing.

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

The one thing that was clear was how easy technology made it possible for the four of us to work collaboratively and create a project together. This was really amazing! Edmodo was a new resource for most of us. I had, in fact, never even heard of it. We divided the sections equally between the four of us and each person was responsible for creating the presentation slides of the topics that we were presenting. The PowerPoint Presentation was then delivered using VoiceThread. Another thing I learned is how easily the PD tutorial of a relatively good quality was created when the four of us worked together. If I were to create something like this on my own, it would have taken me many, many more hours than the total amount of time the four of spent on this. This is the power of collaborative work and technology.

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

Overall, I think we all did a great job with this project. If I had to do this again, maybe I would have liked to explore Prezi , Jing, and/or some form of video or screencast to see if there was another way to present the project. The aspect that I felt we could improve on was to find a way in which we could demonstrate how to use the tool “live.” For example, when I was doing my slides on “Grades”, I could be clicking with my mouse to demonstrate what I was saying in the slide.

PART D - Findings and Implications

Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

Since we are in the middle of our summer holidays, I was not able to implement the lesson with my entire class. I do intend to do so when school begins in August this fall. As I stated in PART C of this project, I “tried out” this project with my daughter.

Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice

The clearest evidence of success is that she was able to go through and follow the lesson. She was able to gain understanding of the concepts being taught and to begin work on the assignment.

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

Another way to approach this project is to create a screen cast or video record the lesson and discussions as they are taking place “live” during the class session and then creating a blog post of the course for students to access. This would allow students who were absent from the lesson to have access to what took place in the class, and at the same time, students who were present in class could also go back to see and reinforce what was being taught.

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

The main lesson was the time involved in creating something of this scope. It may be better to start with creating e-lessons on days where the topics being taught in class are of the nature that your students have great difficulty with in general. For example, if I were to choose to create e-lessons, I would begin with lessons that involve graphing. Our students, in general, struggle with this.

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

I think creating something like this is invaluable to teachers and students. This is an on-going project. It could even be something that I can collaborate with my peers, who are teaching the same courses as me. Once created, however, it can be modified and revised on a regular basis. Due to the time involved with completing something like this, I may have to create a timeline to make it more manageable. 

Mobile Learning Lab

Mobile learning can be very effective. I tried looking at the Poll Everywhere tool. It is actually pretty amazing. Below are some of the screenshots of the poll I created and results I received.

From the articles I am reading as well as what I am able to observe in my classroom, it is evident that mobile technology does come with many, many advantages. Using it as a survey poll can really be beneficial. I can use it to survey for ideas, student reflections on how effective they thought a specific lesson or activity was, a pop quiz (non-graded),  “as a digital or video camera to accompany school projects, publishing, etc.”, and as a way to educate students on acceptable and appropriate social use. I will probably start gradually and slowly because it is a new territory for me. In fact, our high school is offering an elective course called Mobile Applications. In order to keep up with the technology of the world today and to benefit most from what we have in front of us, it is not a matter or choice but of necessity to integrate mobile technology in our classrooms.

Despite the many advantages and positive learning enhancements associated with mobile learning, there are many challenges lying ahead. The first being the “fairness aspect.” If we were to really incorporate mobile learning in the classroom, we will have to ensure that all students have the same opportunity at success. What I am trying to say here is that with the various brands, models, and applications of mobile phones today, it is difficult for all students to work with a “common denominator”. The other challenge is basic classroom management, whether it is during the class lesson our outside the classroom. This would mean keeping students accountable for completing the “mobile assignment” on time and giving out consequences if they are not able to do so. This could be really tricky and complicated, as well as time consuming. The exciting aspect would be that once the applications are set up, and I have become familiar with it, it should get somewhat easier. I am also hopeful that as using mobile applications becomes a classroom routine, it would be much simpler for me as well as out students. The main goal, then, would be to see how mobile technology can actually improve student learning.

PART B - Storyboard and Script

Our group decided to do a presentation on the classroom website, Edmodo. For our storyboard and script, we created a powerpoint presentation on google docs. Each of us was responsible for three aspected of the tool. I was responsible for creating the slides and script for Grades, Support Communities, and Summary of Edmodo. We have invited you to the google docs presentation so you can view the entire completed storyboard.


Please click here to view our published presentation. This presentation, however, does not include the notes for each slide which we will be recording in our final presentation. You an view the full storyboard with complete notes through the invite we sent out.


For the final product, we have decided to each do the voice recording on the slides that we created. Once we are done, we will publish and put them together using a tool such as voicethread.

PART C - Implementation

Please click here to listen to my podcast. Below are a few pictures of the e-lessons I created.