Last summer, I decided to "flip" my secondary technology integration class. This decision resulted in a whirlwind semester in which I created screencasts on the use of various technologies that we utilized in the class, as well as the creation of a problem-based instructional paradigm. After teaching Educational Psychology exclusively in the Fall and Spring semesters, I am now teaching that flipped class again, and am thus far very please with the results.
On the first day of class, I welcome everyone and congratulate them on having been hired at Cox High School. I indicate that the class is their New Teacher Induction technology workshop and we get started with an academic controversy lesson on the pros and cons of technology in the classroom, after which the students create an Animoto video. For homework that night, they watch the first set of flipped classroom screencasts and create a basic class website using Google Sites, including a home page, a Teacher Info page, and an Announcement page.
On the second day of class, we explore a variety of Google tools and the students respond to a VoiceThread prompt about their favorite tool. For homework, they watch screencasts and continue to work on their class websites, creating a Google Calendar and embedding it in a page in the site, creating a Google Form and embedding it on a page in the site, and creating a Links and Tools page for which they explore the websites and technological resources available for their various content areas and create a page explaining how those sites and tools will be used in their class. They also create a screencast of one link or tool using Screencast-o-Matic.
The third day of class is a WebQuest on Internet Safety and Cyber Ethics. Students get in groups and explore various Cyber Ethics issues. Each student researches and creates a Go Animate! video for one issue, and they all add a page to their websites about Internet Safety and Cyber Ethics including guidelines, links to curriculum, explanations of and links to the videos about the issues they researched, and more.
Next, we explore mobile apps. Students examine the apps available for Apple and Android devices for their content areas and for education in general. They then create (on iPads) Educreations presentations about their favorite app and add three apps to the Links and Tools page on their class websites.
We then discuss the benefits of using an LMS over an open class website and students use online tutorials to create free Instructure Canvas courses. They invite two peers and myself to the course as students and they all complete each other's assignments, discussion board prompts, quizzes, etc., so they can see an LMS from the teacher's perspective. At this point, we really start to see the benefits of the flipped classroom model as they are able to work on projects in class with me there to help, rather than having me standing at the podium saying, "Click here" and waiting for everyone to catch up for the entire class period.
Halfway through this class, I set an alarm on my iPhone and announce that we're having an earthquake and everyone needs to get under their desks. First, this is an interesting exercise as people realize that the computer lab is not the safest place to be during an earthquake! Second, this sets up the problem-based learning environment for the rest of the semester. After the "earthquake," I tell them that I will call to check on our new high school to see if there is any earthquake damage. That night, I release an announcement that the school has been damaged and we will have to start school a week late. Rather than miss days of instruction, the district has asked us to create online units to begin the school year. Each unit must use the WebQuest model and have a digital story as the summative assessment.
I have created a Unit Development WebQuest to walk them through this process, which includes the creation of a podcast, a basic presentation, scaffolding for the WebQuest, the digital story, and the WebQuest itself. Students work in groups on the WebQuest, but all of the pieces listed above must be created individually. The rest of the semester is largely spent creating this WebQuest, using my tutorials and others that I have found or that they find to gain the skills they need and using class time to work with their groups on creation and collaboration. We also have part-days devoted to presentation guidelines (with an Inspiration mindmap as an assessment), an Answer Garden of their muddiest points for the assignment, a wiki in Canvas of the cool tools they find (e.g., Keepvid), etc.
This semester, I am surveying the students to determine the effectiveness and the students' satisfaction with this course design. Generally, it is being received very well, though those students who are more reluctant/late adopters of technology are not huge fans. However, even those students admit that it's "different," but not necessarily bad. Final surveys and projects will be in next week, after which I hope to publish some results and insights.
From the instructor perspective, this has been a much better way to teach technology integration, though there is definitely room for improvement.
Seven Mind Mapping Tools to Try This Year
2 years ago
