Lessons Learned From a Semester of Personal Technology Integration

Some of my aims for the Fall 2016 semester were to record my lectures and upload them to youtube, to embed simulations in my classes for student use, and to consider Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS). 

First, from my participation in the DISCOVERe course in the summer at Fresno State, I had planned to use the Explain Everything app so that I could record my lectures and upload them to youtube for students to review.  This at first was quite a daunting task, but something I thought might be beneficial to students.  However, after about five weeks of recording the lectures I stopped due to a number of issues.  Students appreciated it more when I would use the physical boards in the classroom, as there was better readability from the boards than the tablet projection. Students could also easily refer back to previous examples I had completed on another board when solving the next problem.  Further, as an instructor, my writing on the Explain Everything app was not particularly tidy and there was limited room to write on each slide.  More concerning however, was the lack of connection I felt with students compared to previous semesters.  In using the tablet, I made less eye contact with students and was focused more on writing on the tablet.  It felt like the tablet that I was holding was acting as an instructional/physical barrier between the students and I. After five weeks of using the tablet, I felt that I could recognize less students in the classroom than I had in previous semesters.  As a result of these issues, I stopped using the tablet for my explanations and went back to a combination of the classroom boards and Google Slides.  I think this was helpful in that quite a number of students commented positively on the change.  Having reviewed my youtube uploads, most of the videos were viewed less than 50 times by students (I had 122 students!), despite the links being provided to students through Blackboard.  I still think Explain Everything is a good app, but I would only use it in future when I cannot meet students face-to-face.

Second, an improvement I wanted to make in my lectures through the DISCOVERe program was to embed simulations within student activities in class.  I used several simulations throughout the semester (PhET simulations, Molecular Workbench, ChemCollective) and students generally responded positively to using these simulations. Tablets are fine in the classroom as long as it is mostly the students using them and not the instructor! Despite providing scaffolding to guide students through important features of the simulations, some of the simulations were still somewhat challenging for some students to figure out. However, I was proactive in moving around the room and helped students address such issues. My initial use of these simulation activities has been valuable for student engagement, but I will continue to consider ways to improve the scaffolds I use with these simulations.

            Lastly, as part of an aim for Affordable Learning Solutions for students, I recommended free books for students to use as a substitute for the prescribed text and also moved homework from an online homework system requiring a payment (from students) to Blackboard.  I feel that such changes did not negatively impact student outcomes for the class, but students did appreciate the option of not having to pay for a textbook or for an online homework system.

Over the course of the Fall 2016 semester, I spent considerable time determining effective ALS for my courses through discussions with certain faculty, discussions at the department level, and discussions with staff in the Center of Faculty Excellence at Fresno State.  As a result of these discussions, I have made a number of substantial and important changes to the course for Spring 2017 semester.  We are:

(a) trialling a free Introductory Chemistry textbook from OpenStax.  The material in this textbook is better organized than the previous textbook the students used.

(b) moving away from a fee-paying online homework system as a homework tool, instead using end-of-chapter Diagnostic Assessments for students to determine where they are having difficulties with the course material.  This change alongside the change in textbook will save students $141.  I also hope it will encourage students to concentrate on communicating the process through which they solve problems rather than just the solution.  I will also receive better insight into student thinking as an instructor.

(c) removing the use of iClickers and instead having students upload PDF documents of their lecture notes to Blackboard as part of their participation. An issue I had from Spring 2016 and again for Fall 2016 was that some students would not satisfactorily participate in the iClicker questions and would select any response, as they were not accountable.  This switch to a lecture notes upload should hopefully result in better student engagement in class.  Again, like the Diagnostic Assessments, the participation uploads will give better insight into student thinking and where they may have difficulties with the material.

(d) using Concept Maps/Mindmaps to encourage students to make effective connections across the different topics for the course.  A concern I had during Fall 2016 was that the material can at times be very fragmented and that students struggle to realize how all the material links up.  Concept Maps/Mindmaps should help students develop more coherent conceptual frameworks for the topics.

(e) using Discussion Forums to encourage students to ask questions and to also answer questions from their peers.  Students often send me e-mails that I think would be better suited to a Discussion Forum, as many students have very similar questions.  As such, I am encouraging students to post such questions to a discussion forum so that the responses are visible to all students.

Embedding Useful Tools Within Science Lectures

As part of the DISCOVERe tablet initiative at Fresno State, I have been considering ways to take advantage of a 1-to-1 (computer to student) classroom environment.  There are some particular websites and simulations that I have included in my classes that I believe have been mostly enjoyable and beneficial for students.  However, beyond anecdotal accounts, I do not have a holistic view of how students are using these resources outside of class time as a supplementary resource to my instruction.  I will use an exit survey at the end of the course to get a better sense of students' use of resources outside of class.

I consider the resources I have used so far to be well-described by the SAMR model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition; Figure 1).  The first two parts of the SAMR model, substitution and augmentation, focus on the enhancement of current pedagogy, while the latter two parts focus on the transformation of pedagogy.  The tools I have used so far this semester can be usefully classified and reflected on as either enhancement-based resources or transformation-based resources.

Figure 1 - SAMR Model (Taken from: goo.gl/zbi7GI)

Some examples of enhancement-based resources I have used are a scientific notation calculator, significant figures calculator, specific heat capacity data, and scale of the universe.  These resources have been mostly integrated as part of existing tasks within my courses.  I think these resources are very helpful supports for students, but a concern is how students may become over-dependent on them as opposed to using them exclusively to solve problems.  I encourage my students to solve the problems first by themselves and then use these tools to validate their answers.  However, if students do not follow my suggested learning approach, then these resources may be ineffective, if not problematic for student learning. The SAMR model fails to illustrate that substitution is not always necessarily an enhancement.

Some examples of transformation-based resources I use are simulations and name games such as Build an Atom, Build an Isotope, Making Compounds, and Naming Compounds.  The tasks I can now have in class allow students much greater ownership of the content, as opposed to me demonstrating the simulations on a data projector.  While students complete such tasks, I have found it beneficial to walk around the class and observe where students have difficulties so that I can elaborate on such examples to the whole class.  It also provides me with a better opportunity to interact with students as opposed to being centered at the top of the room for an entire class.  In some instances, I have students complete a Socrative questionnaire that provides me with additional insight on their learning for the particular resource being used that day.

I have a number of technology resources, both enhancement-based and transformation-based, that I plan to use during the rest of the semester.  I am hoping to keep my use of new technology on the latter end of the SAMR model, but I am also keeping in mind that some of my existing tasks are fine the way they are, with or without technology.   The SAMR model allows for wide interpretation in that the movement between different parts of the model is highly instructor-specific.  For instructors that use many teacher-centered approaches, any technology use by students could be transformative. For instructors that use many student-centered approaches, it is difficult to find technology that is transformative.  I like to think that my current teaching is mix of both student-centered and teacher-centered approaches. Hence, I can still target both sides of the SAMR model.

Integrating Student Tablets Into Lectures

Over the spring semester and a week in the summer I completed a professional development course at Fresno State for an initiative known as DISCOVERe.  The purpose of the DISCOVERe program is to support faculty in redesigning their courses to leverage the benefits of tablets, so that students can improve their conceptual knowledge while also developing their technology skill-set.  I will be teaching my tablet-supported General Chemistry class starting next week with over 100 students.  I hope to share some of the things I learn over the course of the semester through blog posts and to gain insight from others.

Before taking the DISCOVERe course I was a little skeptical about students using tablets within a lecture-based approach.  From my research, I know many ways that educational technology benefits students' learning.  However, using tablets in lectures presented me with a mismatch of what is typically a teacher-centered approach and the student-centered approach that using tablets would require.  I realized that DISCOVERe was asking me much more than to simply use tablets.  DISCOVERe was asking me to question my role and my students' role within my classes in order to effectively leverage the benefit of tablets.

In terms of Chemistry Education, there are great and open-source simulations that help explain many microscopic concepts such as the atom, concentration or pH.  Such concepts are difficult for students to grasp given that such phenomena cannot be seen with the naked eye.  Some examples of helpful simulations to support students include PhET simulations, Molecular Workbench, and Chemcollective. Before the DISCOVERe program, I was using these resources in a mostly didactic manner through demonstrations, despite a Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) approach.  Students would make predictions about a phenomenon through iClickers, I would demo the simulation, and then I would call on individual students to offer explanations. 

The prediction part of my POE approach was fine, but the advantage of using tablets this semester is that my students can now simply follow a link to observe and explore the simulations, as opposed to being bored by observing me do a demonstration.  My role can now switch from demonstrating to ensuring all students are able to use the simulation on their own.  Further, through the DISCOVERe program, I had the opportunity to trial Socrative, which allows for students to submit open-ended responses.  I previously had obvious difficulty in getting a response from all students in a large lecture class given time constraints, but through Socrative all students have an opportunity to participate and share their ideas on the simulations.  I will be able to view student responses in real time to get a much broader sense of their understanding than before and know what conceptual challenges to target.

I am looking forward to thinking about other ways to take advantage of tablets in my course throughout the semester.  I can already see from the activities I am developing that there will be better opportunities for student engagement.  I think what might be challenging is if students are ready to see their role as taking more ownership.  Much of this responsibility can reside with individual students, but I can help this process by setting clear expectations of students' role at the beginning of the semester and by consistently using activities that align with such expectations.

Simple Ideas for Scientific Discoveries

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10 Reasons to Use WISE as a Science Teacher

The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) is an inquiry learning environment that encourages student exploration in scientific investigations.  WISE is the product of over 20 years of international research and has an ever-expanding community of students, teachers, researchers, and software developers across the world.  If you are unfamiliar with WISE, here are 10 reasons you should consider using it as a science teacher!

1. Inquiry-based learning. WISE units engage students in the methods of real scientists. Through various activities and scaffolding tools, students collaborate to explore issues of social importance; they pose relevant questions and make predictions; they experiment with computational models; they work to evaluate and distinguish discrepant information; and they construct evidence-based explanations through reflection and discussion.  
2. Free and open source. WISE subsists on generous support from the National Science Foundation, which means it is available for anyone with a computer and internet connection to use.
3. A growing library of classroom-tested units. The WISE library offers a collection of units that address key conceptual difficulties students encounter in biology, chemistry, earth sciences, and physics. These units are designed to supplement teachers’ core curricular scope and sequence, and each has been iteratively refined through classroom-based research, and demonstrated improvements in students’ understanding. So whether teachers decide to use all the units or just one, WISE's library offers a rich and reliable resource that is being continually expanded and improved with modern and up-to-date technologies.
4. Standards-based science. WISE library units have been carefully crafted to fulfill core US national standards in reading, writing, math, and science at the middle and high school levels. What is more is that units can be easily adapted to address local standards. Units take a multidisciplinary approach to science so that even as students learn inquiry by interacting with simulations and visualizations, and by interpreting and articulating scientific evidence, they do so through activities that emphasize essential skills in reading, writing, and multimedia literacy.
   
5. Comprehensive instructional support. A WISE teacher account offers a suite of integrated tools for teachers to monitor students’ real-time progress, to facilitate grading and giving feedback, and to automatically score embedded assessments. These tools are continually refined through collaborations with practicing teachers, who understand the real challenges of managing modern classrooms. By facilitating these necessary but time-consuming tasks, teachers are free to focus on what makes them indispensable: Providing quality instruction to individual students.
6. Based on research, refined through practice. Through collaborations with teachers, technology designers, and education researchers, WISE has refined a set of principles, which guide the design of all WISE curriculum materials and tools.  These principles ensure the most effective use of technology, as they are advised by real teacher and student experiences.
7. Powerful learning technologies. WISE researchers collaborate with software design experts to create innovative curriculum-integrated technologies. Interactive visualizations and simulations; applications for drawing, diagramming and animating; and tools for collaborative brainstorming, discussion, and idea management, are each designed to develop in students the inquiry skills important for lifelong learning. Teachers can find them in the existing classroom-tested WISE library units, or they can add and customize their own through the easy-to-use WISE authoring tool.
8. Makes science meaningful. WISE units introduce students to complex science concepts through personally and socially relevant topics. Students determine the structure of detergent molecules by helping to clean the Gulf oil spill; they come to understand mitosis by investigating candidate cures for cancer; and they explore orbital and projectile motion by optimizing a path for deorbiting a space shuttle. Each unit uses a classroom-tested pattern of instruction that values the ideas students bring with them, helps them connect new information to their personal experiences, and integrates their various ideas into a coherent understanding of science.
9. Supports diverse learners. Individual students differ in their experiences, their interests, and their abilities. Some may excel at writing, while others may have a penchant for drawing. Some may speak multiple languages fluently, while others may be learning English as a second or third language. That is why WISE provides a variety of tools, activity patterns, and instructional scaffolds that afford multiple ways for expressing and assessing understanding. That way, no students’ abilities go unrecognized, and all have the chance to succeed.
10. Increases participation in science. WISE gives more teachers and students the opportunity to do inquiry-based science. Units often put students in the roles of scientists, and make difficult concepts accessible both for teachers to teach, and for students to learn. With tools and activities to support inquiry, WISE helps students see themselves as capable of doing science. It allows students to realize that no matter their backgrounds and abilities, science can be a potential future career.

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