New Design Steps and Progress--Incorporating Gamification
My prototype consists of a digital assessment tool for students and a digital instructional library for teachers. It is a truly large endeavor. For the most part, I honestly do not think creating these will be HARD but it will be TIME CONSUMING. I am taking that hit because I truly hope what I am trying to do will be of benefit to my students and colleagues. In my design steps I have decided I may want to gamify my digital assessment tool so I will need to flesh that out more and map out what I will need to do in order to accomplish this goal. I am thinking of creating the digital assessment tool using Class Craft because they have a "content" tab that can house assignments and checking it out, it already has some great capabilities for inputting different kinds of media into it. Unlike Socrative and Mastery Connect, it allowed me to embed images into the questions and answers. I still need to figure out if they have mathematical symbols enabled. There is a way to assign points to each assignment and send immediate feedback which may eliminate the need for Twitter and E-mail for the feedback section of my module. I am all about interactivity and getting meaningful responses and feedback so I do try to minimize multiple choice. That also means a lot of hand-grading of assignments. Google Forms, EdPuzzle, and Mastery Connect, have auto-grade and/or a rubric feature that are handy for hand-grading. Google Forms and Mastery Connect both have add-ons, extensions, or features that allow for easy integration of rubrics and grading. These tools provide data analysis of student assessment data that helps inform instruction. However, as far as I have seen and explored, Class Craft does not have a section that analyzes the data that can be used to inform future instruction. I do not think it auto-grades so that is still a "need to know" and next step for me. If not, can I find a platform to use that encompasses all of the features I am aiming for or can I blend two in a seamless way so students don't have to jump back and forth to different platforms? Dervin and Feedback to Measure Success--Google Form Survey I am really feeling Dervin right now. After working on my "Think Sheet" and prototype revision, I realized that I want feedback from educators on how my digital instructional library has influenced their class instruction. In addition to Twitter and E-mail I would like to include a Google Form Survey asking teachers what problem they were trying to address, what they were looking for, if they found it, if they implemented it or not, how it worked out for them, and how I can improve my module. I also wanted a hit counter on my module to see how much traffic the pages get. I wonder if there is a way to do a hit counter on how many times certain documents are download or clicked on from my page. I think I might extend this to the students section to get their input on what they liked and what was frustrating, what need to be changed or deleted, and what they would like added that is missing. Challenges and Successes Exposure to the different instructional design models has really broadened my perspective of instruction. In particular Dervin, Clark, and Baggio have really influenced my thinking on my prototyping and instructional design in general. Although Dervin was a dense read, her article on sense-making and research was very beneficial for seeing how surveys can be utilized to its highest potential by designing questions that give you the best bang for your buck. Human information is a very interesting subject and it almost feels like it fits in the realm of psychology which is one of my secret interests--probing and understanding the complex minds of humans. Clark had the biggest impact on me because her ISD model really leaves no room for failure if everything is designed accordingly and the execution is done by someone who has experience and support. If I had to describe instructional design in one word, it would be the word "plan." If your plan is well thought out, then learning will surely occur. Baggio has greatly influenced my perspective on visual design. My habit in the past was to be as efficient as possible by squeezing all the information on as little slides as possible. I was worried of leaving things out and minimizing texts on slides was my Achilles heel. I have been converted and now include more impactful and meaningful images that do not distract too much, worked on my alignment and white space for visual balance, and use repetition for cohesion. If I need to give students detailed notes it will be in the form of a handout from here on out. This has made me a more reflective thinker and forced me to be more prepared because there won't be reading off slides anymore.
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Faced with a dilemma, I wondered if there were any simple solutions already out there and if not, what could I do to in order to address it. As a teacher, it is my job to support my students in their journey to gain knowledge and skills that will adequately prepare them for the future. I asked myself what kind of knowledge and skills will my students need to be successful? After much research, I came to the conclusion that students really need three things: critical thinking skills, the ability to set and monitor their goals, and the ability to learn independently as autodidacts. The time for hand-holding is coming to an end and my 8th grade students need to be prepared for it. In addition to those three things, I really wanted my students to build their confidence in their math skills and to master necessary mathematical concepts for academic success.
The answer became clear to me. I immediately knew that I wanted to create a digital assessment tool that would allow for differentiated learning. With a digital assessment tool, students can work at their own pace and at their ability level while still being challenged. By adding notes, examples, visual instructional plans (VIPs), practice problems, and a video tutorial feature, I felt that these features would support my struggling students. Students can choose which chapter and which lessons they want to work on that day and they can easily see what the standards they will be addressing. They can review notes and examples and try problems on their own. They can even get hints, guiding questions, or suggested video tutorials when they do not understand a specific question. They can request feedback from the instructor through twitter or e-mail. The digital assessment tool also has a formative assessment module after each lesson of each chapter as well as a summative assessment that encompasses content from the whole chapter. I like the idea of the formative assessment because it is like game-based learning in which you have to beat each "boss" where the lessons are your missions, and the formative assessments are the bosses at each level. Then that would mean that the summative chapter assessments are the big bosses. I really like this format because the lessons give students practice and confidence, the formative assessment gives them even more practice, and the summative assessment evaluates whether students have truly mastered the concepts and skills for knowledge transfer and easy retrieval. I think procedural fluency is so very important because students should be able to apply the knowledge they have gained to various academic and life situations. Knowledge is useless if it is never used. I am still working on figuring out how I could make the lessons engaging. Gamification and game-based learning are two possible options. I hope to make the lessons and activities relevant to the students to gain and keep their interest but I am sure there must be more that I can do. Although this module is technically for students, parents should also be able to use it. Standards are included as well as tools and tutorials on how to use the tools. Parents wishing to understand what their child is learning or trying to help their child can also access the math help videos and notes. From the lens of a teacher, I knew that I wanted to create a resource for teachers like me, teachers who are tired of searching for GOOD resources and materials for hours only to be left empty handed. At the end of it, I am forced to create my own materials, explore different tools, and try to come up with a user guide for my students. The word for it all is, "time consuming." I hope that the digital instructional library will offer educators different instructional designs that they can use to meet the needs of their students, lesson plans, assessments, tools and materials that can easily be adapted in their class, and project ideas that will engage their students and make them think critically. Overall, I want to save educators time and hopefully provide valuable information or ideas. They will get suggestions on different digital tools, concise descriptions, pros and cons, and even videos and links to resources on how to use the tools eliminating the need to search the internet far and wide for instructions and tutorials. Overall I really liked how my prototype came out. It is a hefty endeavor though as there are many components and because there is a student and educator module, it is like creating two things which means a lot of work. I still have to think more deeply about my audience's prior knowledge and anticipate what they will need based on what is being asked of my students from the CCSS to determine what tools and tutorials need to be included. Nine chapters of content with 62 lessons means that I really need to think through each lesson and come up with good hints, guiding questions, and video tutorials to support my students. I feel scared but excited about my prototype so far and look forward to fleshing it out more. What do I want for my students?
I want my students to be college and career ready. That means that they need to become autonomous learners who are autodidacts. In order to do so, students need metacognitive regulatory skills, meaning they need to be able to pinpoint their goal (task, job, etc.), plan how to achieve it, monitor their progress, evaluate their success and make necessary adjustments. These are crucial skills for higher education and for work. No one will be holding your hand at work or giving you answers when you are stuck. That is what they are being paid to do. My hope is that a digital assessment tool will allow students to work at their pace and level, get the resources they need to overcome learning obstacles, and continue to learn for mastery. In setting their goals, monitoring their progress, and achieving their goals, I hope that they will gain metacognitive regulatory skills that can transfer to other arenas of their lives. What do I want for colleagues and other educators?
I think all teachers want their students to become self-sufficient independent learners. We want them to problem-solve and overcome obstacles. We need to find ways to support our students in doing that but there are few high quality resources and tools. Often times, teachers need to make their own materials and so I hope that the resources and tools I provide will help others create and customize what they need for their students' needs. Most teachers have little time to create amazing engaging activities so by providing available activities and ideas, I hope it will be of great help to them and save them a lot of time. Inspiration, Observation, Reflection, Experiences, Connections, and Dilemmas from the Lens of three ID Models: SITE, ISD, and ARCS SITE Model--Contextual Learning Experiences The SITE model is an instructional design (ID) model that offers a learner centered framework for creating and implementing contextualized learning experiences. It takes into account socio-cultural, informational, and the technical subcontexts of the learner in the design of instruction to create a learning experience that maximizes the chances that the learner will be able to obtain and use the intended knowledge. Problem of Traditional Instructional Designs--Inert Knowledge The idea behind the brilliance of using the SITE model is to address issues of traditional ID such as the problem of “inert knowledge”. Alfred North Whitehead coined “inert knowledge” and is used to refer to knowledge that does not come to mind when it would be appropriate or useful. In traditional ID, the learning experiences tend to be designed in a manner in which knowledge (concepts, principles, and theories) do not get applied in life circumstances because knowledge transfer across a broad range of domains or contexts are very difficult for humans according to cognitive psychologists. It is much more difficult than applying the knowledge in situations that are similar to the context that the knowledge was first acquired. It does not mean that the person does not “know” the information, but rather they cannot connect this information to a situation for where it might be used. This is the problem experienced by thousands of teachers, including myself and is the focus of my research study. Students can obtain knowledge and can apply it but do not know when or why they might use it regarding unfamiliar situations which essentially means that what the students have just learned is information stored in their brains that goes unused and wasted. Hence, the SITE model advocates for Functional Context Education (FCE) and performance-oriented learning in which learning is situated in a context in which learners will apply those skills ensuring that skills can be utilized outside of the classroom. Problems Traditional ID--No Transfer of Learning So, how do we foster the transfer of learning to other situations and contexts? That solution to that question remains to be seen. This is the exact dilemma that my research study aims to address. My driving question explored the connection between critical thinking and standardized test performance but embedded in that question are two subquestions that aim to address whether teaching metacognition or metacognitive thinking skills in a systematic way can foster procedural fluency or a transfer of knowledge to different contexts as well as produce autonomous learners. Hence, the SITE model combined with Clark’s ISD model as well as the ARCS model might offer a viable solution in answering how one might design instruction that promotes the transfer of learning. Combining Three Instructional Designs--ISD, SITE, & ARCS Applying Clark’s ISD model, the first step seems to be assessing the needs of the learner and using that to define what will be taught—the task. The first step should also include the “S-socio-cultural subcontext” from the SITE model and the “A-attention” and “R-relevance” from the ARCS model to assess socio-cultural subcontexts of the learner to aid us in understanding the factors that motivate the learner to invest in the learning process and designing instruction that will grab and hold the learner’s attention. Without some relevance to the learner’s goals and motives, it is unlikely that they will invest themselves deeply in the learning. Applying the ISD model, the “I-informational subcontext” and “T-technical subcontext” from the SITE model, the second step would be analyzing the task to determine the content of the instruction by identifying information and skills required by the task, subtracting students’ prior knowledge. This step will require the instructor to take the mindset of the novice or the mindset of their learners to determine what supports need to be embedded in order for them to gain the information and skills. In this step, the instructor should also define the learning objective and assessment that will be used to evaluate the performance outcomes to evaluate the success of the ID as well as the instructional methods, techniques, and media that will be used to during instruction. Last, applying the ISD model, the “C-confidence” and “S-satisfaction from the ARCS model, one should pilot the instructional design and make revisions before implementation or classroom instruction. Class instruction should help develop a positive expectation (confidence) for successful achievement by clearly outlining the requirements, providing various challenging experiences or practice exercises that create satisfaction through extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for effort, and offering personal control and feedback such as verbal praise, incentives, and constructive comments based on criteria that is supported by instructional media (i.e. displays, workbook, video, etc.). Reflections and Connections--Applications to My Research I believe that these three ID models work together to provide me the best method of designing my instruction for knowledge transfer. Relevance and motivation will ensure student interest and the building of strong schema and hopefully automatization of knowledge by providing opportunities for varied practice of knowledge in different contexts. If the information knowledge is obtained in a familiar situation or context, it is more likely that the learners will be able to recall the information and be able to apply it. Allowing students to practice the skills, concepts, or procedures will lead to concept mastery and exposure to different contexts will create flexible thinking and allow students to see applications of that knowledge to different settings. Procedures are not learned best by rote but through application which is why designing instruction as well as learning objectives that create ample opportunities for practicing these procedures are so important. In chapter 3 "How to Teach Procedures", Clark discusses the ways in which procedures are best learned. She advocates for follow-along demonstrations and exercises that require the learner to perform the procedure supported by memory support such as information displays of the needed steps. One type of information display is an action and decision table. However, Clark continually emphasizes follow-up demonstrations or explicit direct instruction which many educational research studies I came across also support the conclusion that it is a good way of teaching procedures. The “E-education” in the SITE model requires us to develop broader perspectives and understandings amidst the fairly specific goals and techniques in order to develop a whole person and enrich a whole society. At the end of the article on the SITE model, there is increased emphasis on learning to learn or creating learners who are autodidacts—people who learn without the benefit of a teacher. This resonated with me because as I mentioned previously, my research goal is also to explore how to help my students become more autonomous learners which connects to my interest in developing CBE (personalized learning) and a digital concept mastery based assessment tool or system that allows students to track their progress, develop their learning goals, and learn independently with limited teacher support. It is important to remember that there is only one of me and thirty-six of them so utilizing digital tools to empower students to learn independently should be explored as a viable solution. Sense-Making--Discontinuity, Gap-Defining, Gap-Bridging, and the Sense-Making Triangle
In figuring out the Dervin article, my approach was to highlight key words and phrases, reread each subsection and summarize before moving on to the next sections. I also discussed and explained what I read to other people, which forced me to summarize the content in my own words and helped me think through, make sense, and understand the content more deeply. In making sense of the article, I found that Dervin first established the background and problem regarding information and information systems and ways in which it was lacking then introduces how sense-making could be utilized to gather data that was more beneficial for predicting behavior and improving information systems. She established a line of thinking to demonstrate why sense-making as a method for framing interviews, gathering data, and analyzing data was necessary—existence of discontinuity, the individual behavior as chaotic, and the need for the gap idea as a way to frame interviews. She showed how no person is ever able to understand a situation in its entirety because people are subjective creatures who construct their own understanding of each situation which means it is futile to try to establish behavior patterns of people based on characteristics because individuals and their thinking are more complex than one characteristic. Two people of the same demographic will not necessarily bridge a gap in the same way so characteristics do not necessarily have a bearing on predicting behavior information. She then deduced how an individual’s behavior pattern could be better analyzed using the gap idea in which the way in which an individual constructs a situation, how they bridge that gap and deal with the situation to overcome it is more repetitious and telling of that individual’s inclinations. Using the gap idea as a questioning technique and data collection provided more helpful feedback and data than the traditional observer-based interview questions. Observer-based interview questions ask questions about how much the individual likes the information or information system but does not explain why they do not use the system. In conclusion, observer-based interviews are lacking in many ways in gathering meaningful information. I think Dervin’s goal in the article was to teach a process for research data collection—meaningful data. She introduced various ways sense-making can be used to frame interviews to gather the type of information for various research purposes: time-line interview, information need, satisfaction, image, help-chain, and message/q-ing. She provided six exemplars that demonstrated how the data gathered through using sense-making approaches was much more meaningful and useful than traditional interview methods. In order to teach this same reading content to high school students, I think other media like an info-graphic or video clip might be helpful to break the dense content into mind-sized chunks for easier processing. The language is very academic and almost science-like so I think frontloading might be helpful. Blogs simplifying and summarizing the content might also make it easier to process. I am a visual learner so seeing images and a simplified line of thinking works best for me. I personally felt like she explained some concepts in a very convoluted way which could have been simplified and still retained all its original meaning. Detailed Summary of Dervin’s Qualitative Research in Information Management: Sense-making can be defined as a methodological guidance for framing research questions, collecting data, and for data analyses. It is a set of methods for studying human behavior, particularly human information-using behavior. It is also a method for interviewing humans about their experiences. Dervin makes the point on emphasizing the existence of discontinuity between all entities. Hence, information and observations that are gathered and deemed “accurate” are really just subjective constructions by human actors. Dervin goes on to say that the tools in which humans use to assess truth is not based on an external standard but rather a constructed standard created in interaction. Although absolute truth and an objective reality exists, Dervin claims that it cannot be obtained by humans who live in a discontinuous world and “is not directly accessible by human observers whose observations are constrained by time, space, and species as well as personal capabilities” (p. 63). Information and observations are constructed by the human actor who views it from their own lens however, it is not to say that there are no tools with which a more comprehensive and stable picture of reality can be obtained. Dervin also adds that the sharing of information creates a more stable observation although always limited, similar to finding the missing pieces of a puzzle that functions to complete the larger picture. Information and information systems are generally designed from an observer’s perspective, not the user’s perspective and implies that the user should bend to the system rather than the other way around. The information system actually reveals nothing about the user or the utility of the system from the user’s perspective and in some instances cannot make a distinction between success and failure. In short, the information system designs are flawed and do not ask questions that provide helpful information for improvement of the system to truly serve the users. Information research based on state assumptions attempts to predict and explain human use of information and systems based on across-time-space example, topical contexts, or across-time-space characteristics which are expected to explain behavior but actually explain very little. Demographics, personality, skills, resources explain very little about human behavior. The conclusion is that the individual behavior is too chaotic to expect much from systematic study and yields limited results and therefore human information may be better understood using process assumptions instead. Dervin goes on to discuss how “gap-defining” and “gap-bridging” may offer order to the individual behavior that was previously described as chaotic. Individuals define and attempt to bridge discontinuities or gaps in response to situational conditions using information and information systems from past situations or newly created tactics in response to a situation. The gap-defining and gap-bridging can be seen as ordered. Essentially, based on the different gaps that an individual faces at any specific moment in time-space, specific tactics are used. Hence, it is possible to systematically analyze and predict the behavior of the individual based on this gap idea. This gap idea is thus used as a guiding frame for methods of framing questions, interviewing, and analysis. Sense-making is the approach to studying the constructing that humans do to make sense of their experiences. When an individual comes up against a situation or gap, they must somehow bridge the gap and proceed with their journey—each of these moments is potentially a sense-making moment. A metaphor used to describe the sense-making triangle is called the situation-gap-help/use. Sense-making provides a theory of how to conduct interviews and an example of such an interview is called the micro-moment time-line interview where a respondent is asked to reconstruct a situation and describe each step in detail. The description involves the actor’s perspective of the situation, the gap, and the desired help in order to cross the bridge to where they wanted to be. There are three additional types of studies involving sense-making: information need, satisfaction, and images. Depending on the purpose of the research, sense-making is focused on different elements. In terms of information need, emphasis is on the individual’s construction of self as stopped and the process they used to arrive at answers. Studies of satisfaction focus on barriers and the help actors sought to get around the barrier. Satisfaction studies also focus on the actor’s worst, best, most memorable, etc. use of the institution. Image studies examine the actor’s most recent memory of the institution and the ideas the actor saw as a result. In conclusion, it is difficult to fully grasp the reality of a particular situation since we construct reality through our own lens in a moment in time-space. Gaining more information can help complete a puzzle that has missing pieces and give us a more comprehensive picture of the situation. Well-used information and information systems are not designed to provide helpful data on human behavior nor feedback on how to better serve users/actors. The questions focus on the observer rather than the actor which provide answers that are less than helpful. Current studies focus on demographics and other characteristics that do little to explain human behavior. Individuality is more chaotic and hard to pin down. Hence, characteristics like ethnicity do very little to predict the behavior of an individual. However, how someone responds to discontinuities or gaps is more telling than ethnicity. Each individual constructs their reality and reacts to situations using predictable tactics they have used in the past. These gap-defining or gap-bridging experiences are better at providing helpful data. Sense-making provides interview methods that utilize the gap idea to gain helpful data on human behavior and how they make sense of situations. |
Nai Saelee
Middle school math teacher preparing the leaders of the future. Inspiring curiosity, creativity, collaboration Archives
December 2017
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