Tech Chopped Project Paper
DETC 630 - March 25, 2014 (Group Project)
Group Members: Lyra Hilliard, Thabiso Matshaba, Britta Zawada, and Eric Belt
Author's note: This was by far the most interesting group project I took part in; the problem created by our instructors was unique, creative, and captivated my interest thoroughly. I was unfamiliar and unaware of some of the tools we used within our project; however my, and my team's, commitment to the work is another example of how good communication yields a positive collaboration and contribution.
Proposal document for NewTechWorld High School: A new teaching and learning model
Scenario
In the last ten years, NewTechWorld High School has been adversely affected by increased costs, a growing student population, and falling test scores. The influx of students has put a strain on physical resources like desks, books, and supplies and operational resources ranging from transportation costs to energy use. Moreover, due to state budget cuts, the school has been unable to fund the additional staff and teachers necessary to keep up with the student population growth.
More students and less teachers have led to larger class sizes, most of which now average between 35 and 40 students per room. This in turn has put an enormous strain on teachers who are unable to manage their classrooms or tailor their teaching to students’ individual needs. New teachers do not last long at NewTechWorld; the average retention rate is just three years. More and more disciplinary issues are attributed to the large classes and the high turn-over in the staff.
Not surprisingly, students’ test scores have dropped significantly over the last few years, so much so that NewTechWorld has recently been labelled a “failing” school. NewTechWorld has two years to improve student learning outcomes; failure to do so will result in closing the school completely.
This proposal is intended to present a new teaching and learning model to the board of NewTechWorld High School.
Solution
After extensive research into current educational theory and best practices, it is the recommendation of this international team of highly qualified consultants that NewTechWorld High School adopt a blended mode where students come to campus three times a week and face-to-face classes are delivered in a flipped classroom model. The following proposal will define these key terms and explain how this solution will rectify NewTechWorld’s most pressing problems.
Definitions of key terms
Blended Mode: The blended mode is a combination of face-to-face and online learning environments. The face-to-face, brick and mortar classroom is supplemented by Internet-based learning-management system for access to learning resources, test taking, assignments, and grades (Moore & Kearsley, 2005). The blended mode will enable students to more effectively achieve learning outcomes through individualized, self-paced learning; will assist teachers to provide research-based, differentiated introduction; and, because of increased reliance on open educational resources and reduced time in the physical school, will reduce transportation and building expenses (Vaughan, 2007).
Flipped Classroom Model: The flipped classroom model is a reversal of traditional teaching. Instead of in-class lectures followed by homework activities, students will gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually through reading or lecture videos. The activities that used to be completed as homework will instead be completed in class, where students will benefit from direct assistance from the teacher and possibly teaching assistants when needed. Teaching assistants in the form of e-tutors can be used to assist and monitor student activity while they are working online at home. Many individual homework activities will be replaced with in-class group activities that are proven to be more effective in gaining content mastery. These in-class group activities will be conducted both in the face-to-face classrooms and in the online classroom environment through the use of wikispaces and ooVoo, both of which will be explained in more detail below.
Passive learning versus active learning
Currently, teachers are unable to manage their classrooms or tailor their teaching to students’ individual needs. Research shows that lecture-based teaching is largely ineffective: students may not have the requisite existing knowledge to make sense of the lecture (Fink, 2013, pp. 3–4). The literature on blended learning cautions against overloading learning materials with too much content, as doing so risks “send[ing] the message that the goal is to assimilate information” (Garrison, 2011), as opposed to reflecting upon and engaging with it. To this end, video lectures will be short, averaging 6 to 8 minutes.
More advanced students are often bored in class as the teacher targets the lecture to “average” or “below average” students. This leads to classrooms in which the majority of students cannot take full advantage of the lecture because they are either underprepared and frustrated or over-prepared and bored. This in turn can lead to behavioral problems.
In the flipped model, teachers will move their lectures online. In essence, this means that teachers will create short video lectures that students will watch from home. The advantage of video lectures is that students can review the lectures as many times as needed to gain mastery of the content.. Research shows that short videos are best; so video lectures will be short, averaging 6 to 8 minutes. A teacher with an 18-20 minute lecture will divide that lecture into three to four short videos.
Fourteen-year-old students benefit from hands-on, project-based learning that empowers them to take responsibility for their own learning and solve problems as a team. Learning activities will be oriented to strengthen students’ ability to think critically, communicate with others in a small group or with the entire class, express ideas through their own writing, give and receive feedback, and reflect upon the learning process.
Students will have watched the lectures at home, on the online class days, and will therefore be prepared to engage in active learning activities when they come to class on the face-to-face days. Instead of sitting in silence while the teacher lectures, students will do the talking, working together to apply what they’ve learned to group projects and individual assignments. Teachers will spend the class period listening to and assisting groups when needed.
In the online environment, at home, students who are well prepared can move through the material at their own, faster pace and can be given additional resources to keep their interest and attention. Students, who come to the class underprepared, can move through the material at a slower pace, and additional scaffolding can be built into the material to assist them. The additional resources for the faster learners and the additional scaffolding for the underprepared learners can be packaged in a similar way, therefore not stigmatizing the underprepared students. Additional reading (of additional resources) and writing exercises in the form on reflective journals will benefit all students.
Personalized learning
While teachers will still design their video lectures for the average students, with a particular focus on the specific learning outcomes of the class, the fact that the lectures are online enables teachers to focus on the two groups of students who are hurt the most by lecture-based classes: struggling students and advanced students. Freed from daily lectures in the classroom, teachers are now better able to provide personalized assistance to both sets of learners. Advanced students may be given different video lectures to watch, like those offered by TEDx or the Khan Academy. Struggling students may benefit from increased one-on-one assistance, and they may also be given different video lectures to watch if the main lecture video is not working for them. In addition, on online days, struggling students may be paired with advanced students in a peer-tutor relationship over Oovoo. The struggling student will benefit from the additional assistance, and the advanced student will benefit from gaining more mastery over the content through the process of explaining it to someone else.
The students will be able to plan their learning needs in a way that is suitable for their daily environment. Moreover, the quality of their learning will be shaped by their experiences, personal traits, interests and aspirations. Online learning of subject matter will develop students’ digital literacy, a critical skill for educational and professional success in the 21st century. The increased reliance on technology will enable students to become more autonomous through self-paced individual learning activities. At the same time, the technology tools that will be adopted will enable students to work collaboratively on online days. Doing so will allow students to work on group projects in the face-to-face and online learning environments, which will in turn provide continuity throughout the week.
Teachers need to be given the opportunity to do what they do best: teach. In the current NewWorldTech School, external circumstances are preventing teachers from doing this at a satisfactory level. Putting the lecture content online will enable teachers to turn their face-to-face classes into active, productive learning environments in which every student is equipped with the tools he or she needs to succeed. Giving the teachers two days in the week where they do not have to focus on all 40 students sitting in front of them will enable them to focus on those who have particular needs.
Parents may be concerned at leaving 14-year olds at home on their own, for two days of the week perhaps without supervision, whilst they are at work. Teaching assistants will be allocated to each group of 10 students and will engage students on the online home days through social networking tools to ensure that they are engaged and are actually online and studying. Teaching assistants can communicate with students in a group of 10, for example, first thing every morning for them to log in and to ensure that they are there in the online classroom, or they may communicate with them individually via a chat facility. Even the teachers themselves will be available for discussions via Twitter to the whole class for the whole day.
Tools
The blended, flipped mode will enable the school district to cut building and administrative costs in the following way: A class of 40 students will be divided into two groups, each of these two groups will come to school and use a class designed for 20 students on 2 days of the week (Group 1 on Monday and Tuesday and Group 2 on Wednesday and Thursday); on the third school day the whole class will be in a classroom designed for 40 children. Instead of crowding 40 children into a classroom designed for 20, the class can now be managed optimally for the 20 children, assisting with group work and interaction. The class designed for 40 children, on the other hand will be free from Monday to Thursday to be used by other larger groups.
In the meantime, the school will also be saving money on textbooks. Learning materials will be digitized and accessed online. In addition, several free educational technology tools will be used to facilitate collaborative learning in the digital environment as will be described below.
Wikispaces is an effective educational tool because the service is free, ease-to-use, and free of advertising. Wikispaces is based on the “collaborative construction” concept of wikis; the most notable being Wikipedia (Jakes, 2006). Wikispaces work well in the education sector because the pages created are private, and only members can contribute. The privacy feature allows educators to create a secluded learning space, away from public contribution. In addition, educators/administrators can monitor the contributions of the class for any inappropriate content (very important in a 9th grade setting). Lastly, learning how to operate, set-up and control a wikispaces is easy and requires a minimal time investment, or as Jakes (2006) states “Wikispaces is a good choice for teachers getting started with wikis” (p. 2).
As with any online learning environment, both teachers and students need a “home-base” of operations. A majority of higher education institutions utilize Learning Management Systems (LMS) that house the classroom interactions and provide the meeting place between students and teachers; some example LMS are Blackboard, WebTycho, & Desire2Learn. NewTechWorld High School does not have the time or money to invest in such an elaborate software system; however there are plenty of free online tools that can meet the needs of NTW High School. Wikispaces is capable of providing a “home-base” for blended learning in a flipped classroom model of instruction.
Every LMS offers an asynchronous discussion board to class members; wikispaces can work in the same way. Teachers can use this tool to post topics and foster collaborative/active learning. In addition, teachers can equate participation points with active contributions to the wiki. The asynchronous nature of wikispaces is ideal for blended learning because students know where to go to keep up-to-date with their respective class when they are at home, and students can access the wiki at any time from any device. In addition, the large class size is conducive of an effective wiki, or as Bower, Woo, Roberts and Watters (2006) state “…in a wiki all contributions can be reviewed at once, at the students own pace. The larger the group, the greater the temporal gain in reviewing efficiency that wikis will afford” (p. 9). Students and educators will need to take some time to be familiarized with the wikispaces technology, and it is important for educators to nurture/foster the collaborative communication amongst students.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how wikispaces will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egyq4HsJ5soojIYU1nTmbufnJI2fWbbbXWR-pagZE5U/edit
The demonstrations of wikispaces can also be found at:
Part 1 - http://www.screenr.com/y6UN
Part 2 - http://www.screenr.com/2JUN
Part 3 - http://www.screenr.com/SJUN
ooVoo is free software that can be downloaded very easily. It has the following features that can be used on a teaching and learning environment: free video chat with up to 12 people online (with simultaneous viewing of YouTube videos, or screen sharing); instant messaging, recording of video calls and chats (so you can listen to the conversation again and again, which is ideal in a teaching setting). It can also be used to send large files. ooVoo uses cloud-based servers (which makes it fast) and has a connection lock, which apparently assists in connections not being dropped easily in the middle of a call (which should make it reliable).
There is an extensive part on Privacy Settings, which is important for Grade 9. One can use this as a basis for teaching digital literacy, e.g. how to download software and open accounts, but also how to set the Privacy Settings so that the children are secure.
The use of ooVoo in a school setting is scalable because it is free, once the students have devices and connectivity. A class of 40 students can easily be divided into smaller groups in various ways. For example one can have 4 groups of 10, with the teacher and the tutor (to make 12). But the groups can be changed easily so that one can alternate and move the children around, e.g. in an anatomy and sex education class one can have all the boys and girls in separate groups for some parts, but then put them together for other types of discussions. ooVoo can also be used for setting up a group between teacher, tutor, students and parents, and could be a great way of bringing parents (that are working full-time away from home) back into the education of their children.
Teaching assistants may be linked with a group of 10 children and may log in to ooVoo with their group every morning to ensure that they are awake, at home, at their devices and are ready to study and work on their learning materials. Teaching assistants can log into the group at intervals during the day to ensure that all students in their group are on track.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how ooVoo will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11rcQupQ-A-3lzFPAbPjcybKKcP_epEuyeeK-N7SViN4/edit
Blogger is a free web log tool managed by Google. The interface is easy to use and is ideal for beginners. Students will have accounts made for them using the email issued to them by NewTechWorld High School. Each student’s blog will be set as “invitation-only,” which means that only members of the NewTechWorld community will be able to access the blog. Specifically, students’ blogs will be accessible to fellow students in the class, teachers, tutors, administrators, and parents.
These privacy settings protect students from unknown visitors while teaching them about digital literacy. Lessons early in the school year will teach students about proper Internet etiquette that may differ from the way they present themselves on social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Students will learn about one’s “digital footprint” and will understand that everything they post online has the potential to be viewed by people outside of their intended audience. Students will read and analyze public blogs published by a wide variety of writers, including journalists, professionals, media critics, teachers, and students. Through these lessons, students will be able to distinguish between appropriate blogs and questionable blogs. Using an invitation-only Blogger will enable students to create a professional digital presence in a private environment, which will provide them invaluable lessons on how to conduct themselves online.
Students will use their blogs to reflect on the material they are learning in their classes. Extensive research has shown that reflective writing is a highly effective learning method. In E-Learning for the 21st Century, Garrison (2011) notes that “writing has long been used as as both a process and product of critical thinking” (16). In an online, asynchronous environment, students produce work “at a higher cognitive level than in a face-to-face verbal context” (Garrison, 2011, 17). Recent experiments in implementing more writing into high school classes have been met with great success. Two particular school districts stand out: New Dorp High School in Staten Island, New York (Tyre, 2012) and Brockton High School in Brockton, MA (Fitzgerald, Hochholzer, Love, & Szachowicz, 2010). Both schools were considered failing schools, and both of them saw a dramatic increase in student achievement after implementing a “writing across the curriculum” requirement (Fitzgerald, Hochholzer, Love, & Szachowicz, 2010, p. 279). Students at NewTechWorld High School will benefit through the regular, “low-stakes” (Warnock, 2009, 72) writing that they post in their blogs.
One way of tracking student participation and activity is to ensure that each students write a minimum number of words in their blogs every day. Composition research shows that continuous writing activity, with students commenting on each other’s work (on content and meaning rather than on form) rather than red-pencil corrections of grammar by a teacher, are more successful in improving writing in students at all levels.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how Blogger will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aWzpwL3kBXwney8GZTXU3WJL-Gun3JL_fy0M3iWAzOc/edit
A demonstration of Blogger can also be found at:
http://screencast.com/t/N7t2lHtRZoX
Screenr is a free screencasting tool. Screencasting technology has significantly impacted the field of education as an effective, easy-to-use technology for delivering direct instruction in a mobile and computer based learning environment. A screencast is a video capture of computer screen activity, with audio narration. Recorded videos are delivered as video files, usually via the Internet (Mohorovičić and Tijan, 2008). Screenr is a new screencast recording tool. This tool allows teachers and their learners to record 5-minute long screencasts and publishes them. Teaching lessons can be done through screenr as it is completely web-based and there is nothing to install or to buy installation software before you use it. According to Wu (2005), screenr as one of the screencasting technologies, has become one of the most powerful e-learning tools for teaching purposes. Using this tool, the teacher can create teaching lessons, comment on assessment (s) and share anything that is instructionally related with their students. As this tool is free, teachers and students at NewTechWorld High School will simply use the computer, iPad or any technology based devices to record every aspect of the computer screen to deliver instruction.
Screenr has provided many advantages to the teachers and their learners. Teachers are able to select the size of the recording frame to suite the content of the discussed learning area, the video can be published instantly or published directly to YouTube. Through this tool, NewTechWorld High School students can also provide feedback on the quality of the video and instruction and lessons provided from their teachers. Key advantages of screenr are that it is free, the recorded lessons are accessible at any time to absent learners and those who need the repetition of seeing it again, students can also share their presentations via this tool on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
One drawback to Screenr is that recordings are limited to five minutes and cannot be edited. Screenr is a good tool for tutorials and feedback, though it may not be ideal for video lectures because of its limitations. We suggest a combination of Jing and Adobe Connect for this. Please see the following links for more information on these tools:
Screenr Demo (Demo of AdobeConnect): http://www.screenr.com/BcUN
Jing Demo #1 (AdobeConnect Demo): http://screencast.com/t/vP51KHmShh
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how Screenr will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lG6HdPI4phAB6zsb4IqFNqpZcZVw1boceEjR060eiJs/edit
Implementation
This model would begin the first year with 9th grade, and subsequent grades would be added to the model each year thereafter. As digital natives, students are expected to embrace the blended model. Experience (and current research in progress) at the University of South Africa has indicated that, once students experience teaching and learning with Web 2.0 tools, they resent going back to traditional modes of learning (Mischke, 2013). It is therefore very important that this model is followed through to higher grades with the same group of students.
To ensure that teachers have the requisite time to 1) restructure their course for the blended, flipped mode, 2) redesign their lectures into a series of mini-lectures ranging from 4 to 8 minutes, 3) to find appropriate Open Educational resources to support the content part of their courses, such as e-books, and 4) to create quality video lectures, it is recommended that teachers be given adequate training and ongoing support before and during the implementation. It is strongly recommended that teachers begin preparation 9-12 months in advance. It is also recommended that teachers be put in mentorship relationships with other teachers (preferably in the same subject area) who have already made the switch to the blended, flipped model.
Before this model is implemented, affected students and their parents will have to be informed of the new model, and parents will have to be consulted. Both students and parents will have to be trained on the tools, as well as on the expectations and requirements for students, and for parent interaction in this model.
Evaluation
In order to establish whether the main goals of this proposal have been met, clear and continuous reporting to the Board of NewTechWorld High School will take place on a regular basis on the following parameters:
Conclusion
This proposal describes a new model of teaching and learning to solve the current problems at NewTechWorld High School, problems with overfilled classes, which lead to poor student success, low teacher retention and many behavioural problems at NewTechWorld High School. All these problems may, in turn, lead to funding problems. The new model is based on blended learning in a flipped classroom model where the content is given to students in digital form to study at home for two days, and where they then come to the classroom prepared in terms of content in order to work with the teacher on face-to-face hands-on activities with the teacher being able to teach individual in a more focused way. The concept utilizes free online software to enable teachers to put their content online for students to study at home, and also for students to interact with each other, with the teaching assistant as well as with teachers, and even participating parents.
References
Bower, M., Woo, K., Roberts, M., & Watters, P. (2006, July). Wiki pedagogy - A tale of two wikis. In 7th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET 06), Sydney, Australia.
Fink, L.D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
Fitzgerald, T.J., Hochholzer, N., Love, C.J., and Szachowicz, S. Designing literacy initiatives for whole school improvement in grades 7-12. New York: International Institute for Leadership in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/Desiging%20Literacy%20Initiatives%20excerpt.pdf.
Garrison, R. (2011). E-Learning for the 21st century: a framework for research and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Garrison, D. R. and Vaughan, N.D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass–Wiley.
Jakes, D. (2006). Wild about wikis. Technology and Learning, 27(1), 6.
Mischke, G. (2013). Unpublished report on the implementation of the signature courses at the University of South Africa. University of South Africa Senate Report (confidential).
Mohorovičić, S & Tijan, T. (2010). Using screencasts in computer programming courses. MIPRO 2010 Proceedings. Croatia, (4), 268-272.
Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: A system view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Stieglight, B. (2006). Informing students, shaping instruction. ALAE Journal of Education Technology and e-learning: 13(2), 58-62.
Tyre, Peg (2012). The writing revolution. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/.
Vaughan, N. (2007). Perspectives on blended learning in higher education. International Journal on Elearning. 6 (1), 81-94.
Warnock, S. (2009) Teaching writing online: how and why. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Wu, T. (2005). Innovative strategies and tools for Chinese E-learning. Journal of Distance Education. 20(1), 1-20.
Group Members: Lyra Hilliard, Thabiso Matshaba, Britta Zawada, and Eric Belt
Author's note: This was by far the most interesting group project I took part in; the problem created by our instructors was unique, creative, and captivated my interest thoroughly. I was unfamiliar and unaware of some of the tools we used within our project; however my, and my team's, commitment to the work is another example of how good communication yields a positive collaboration and contribution.
Proposal document for NewTechWorld High School: A new teaching and learning model
Scenario
In the last ten years, NewTechWorld High School has been adversely affected by increased costs, a growing student population, and falling test scores. The influx of students has put a strain on physical resources like desks, books, and supplies and operational resources ranging from transportation costs to energy use. Moreover, due to state budget cuts, the school has been unable to fund the additional staff and teachers necessary to keep up with the student population growth.
More students and less teachers have led to larger class sizes, most of which now average between 35 and 40 students per room. This in turn has put an enormous strain on teachers who are unable to manage their classrooms or tailor their teaching to students’ individual needs. New teachers do not last long at NewTechWorld; the average retention rate is just three years. More and more disciplinary issues are attributed to the large classes and the high turn-over in the staff.
Not surprisingly, students’ test scores have dropped significantly over the last few years, so much so that NewTechWorld has recently been labelled a “failing” school. NewTechWorld has two years to improve student learning outcomes; failure to do so will result in closing the school completely.
This proposal is intended to present a new teaching and learning model to the board of NewTechWorld High School.
Solution
After extensive research into current educational theory and best practices, it is the recommendation of this international team of highly qualified consultants that NewTechWorld High School adopt a blended mode where students come to campus three times a week and face-to-face classes are delivered in a flipped classroom model. The following proposal will define these key terms and explain how this solution will rectify NewTechWorld’s most pressing problems.
Definitions of key terms
Blended Mode: The blended mode is a combination of face-to-face and online learning environments. The face-to-face, brick and mortar classroom is supplemented by Internet-based learning-management system for access to learning resources, test taking, assignments, and grades (Moore & Kearsley, 2005). The blended mode will enable students to more effectively achieve learning outcomes through individualized, self-paced learning; will assist teachers to provide research-based, differentiated introduction; and, because of increased reliance on open educational resources and reduced time in the physical school, will reduce transportation and building expenses (Vaughan, 2007).
Flipped Classroom Model: The flipped classroom model is a reversal of traditional teaching. Instead of in-class lectures followed by homework activities, students will gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually through reading or lecture videos. The activities that used to be completed as homework will instead be completed in class, where students will benefit from direct assistance from the teacher and possibly teaching assistants when needed. Teaching assistants in the form of e-tutors can be used to assist and monitor student activity while they are working online at home. Many individual homework activities will be replaced with in-class group activities that are proven to be more effective in gaining content mastery. These in-class group activities will be conducted both in the face-to-face classrooms and in the online classroom environment through the use of wikispaces and ooVoo, both of which will be explained in more detail below.
Passive learning versus active learning
Currently, teachers are unable to manage their classrooms or tailor their teaching to students’ individual needs. Research shows that lecture-based teaching is largely ineffective: students may not have the requisite existing knowledge to make sense of the lecture (Fink, 2013, pp. 3–4). The literature on blended learning cautions against overloading learning materials with too much content, as doing so risks “send[ing] the message that the goal is to assimilate information” (Garrison, 2011), as opposed to reflecting upon and engaging with it. To this end, video lectures will be short, averaging 6 to 8 minutes.
More advanced students are often bored in class as the teacher targets the lecture to “average” or “below average” students. This leads to classrooms in which the majority of students cannot take full advantage of the lecture because they are either underprepared and frustrated or over-prepared and bored. This in turn can lead to behavioral problems.
In the flipped model, teachers will move their lectures online. In essence, this means that teachers will create short video lectures that students will watch from home. The advantage of video lectures is that students can review the lectures as many times as needed to gain mastery of the content.. Research shows that short videos are best; so video lectures will be short, averaging 6 to 8 minutes. A teacher with an 18-20 minute lecture will divide that lecture into three to four short videos.
Fourteen-year-old students benefit from hands-on, project-based learning that empowers them to take responsibility for their own learning and solve problems as a team. Learning activities will be oriented to strengthen students’ ability to think critically, communicate with others in a small group or with the entire class, express ideas through their own writing, give and receive feedback, and reflect upon the learning process.
Students will have watched the lectures at home, on the online class days, and will therefore be prepared to engage in active learning activities when they come to class on the face-to-face days. Instead of sitting in silence while the teacher lectures, students will do the talking, working together to apply what they’ve learned to group projects and individual assignments. Teachers will spend the class period listening to and assisting groups when needed.
In the online environment, at home, students who are well prepared can move through the material at their own, faster pace and can be given additional resources to keep their interest and attention. Students, who come to the class underprepared, can move through the material at a slower pace, and additional scaffolding can be built into the material to assist them. The additional resources for the faster learners and the additional scaffolding for the underprepared learners can be packaged in a similar way, therefore not stigmatizing the underprepared students. Additional reading (of additional resources) and writing exercises in the form on reflective journals will benefit all students.
Personalized learning
While teachers will still design their video lectures for the average students, with a particular focus on the specific learning outcomes of the class, the fact that the lectures are online enables teachers to focus on the two groups of students who are hurt the most by lecture-based classes: struggling students and advanced students. Freed from daily lectures in the classroom, teachers are now better able to provide personalized assistance to both sets of learners. Advanced students may be given different video lectures to watch, like those offered by TEDx or the Khan Academy. Struggling students may benefit from increased one-on-one assistance, and they may also be given different video lectures to watch if the main lecture video is not working for them. In addition, on online days, struggling students may be paired with advanced students in a peer-tutor relationship over Oovoo. The struggling student will benefit from the additional assistance, and the advanced student will benefit from gaining more mastery over the content through the process of explaining it to someone else.
The students will be able to plan their learning needs in a way that is suitable for their daily environment. Moreover, the quality of their learning will be shaped by their experiences, personal traits, interests and aspirations. Online learning of subject matter will develop students’ digital literacy, a critical skill for educational and professional success in the 21st century. The increased reliance on technology will enable students to become more autonomous through self-paced individual learning activities. At the same time, the technology tools that will be adopted will enable students to work collaboratively on online days. Doing so will allow students to work on group projects in the face-to-face and online learning environments, which will in turn provide continuity throughout the week.
Teachers need to be given the opportunity to do what they do best: teach. In the current NewWorldTech School, external circumstances are preventing teachers from doing this at a satisfactory level. Putting the lecture content online will enable teachers to turn their face-to-face classes into active, productive learning environments in which every student is equipped with the tools he or she needs to succeed. Giving the teachers two days in the week where they do not have to focus on all 40 students sitting in front of them will enable them to focus on those who have particular needs.
Parents may be concerned at leaving 14-year olds at home on their own, for two days of the week perhaps without supervision, whilst they are at work. Teaching assistants will be allocated to each group of 10 students and will engage students on the online home days through social networking tools to ensure that they are engaged and are actually online and studying. Teaching assistants can communicate with students in a group of 10, for example, first thing every morning for them to log in and to ensure that they are there in the online classroom, or they may communicate with them individually via a chat facility. Even the teachers themselves will be available for discussions via Twitter to the whole class for the whole day.
Tools
The blended, flipped mode will enable the school district to cut building and administrative costs in the following way: A class of 40 students will be divided into two groups, each of these two groups will come to school and use a class designed for 20 students on 2 days of the week (Group 1 on Monday and Tuesday and Group 2 on Wednesday and Thursday); on the third school day the whole class will be in a classroom designed for 40 children. Instead of crowding 40 children into a classroom designed for 20, the class can now be managed optimally for the 20 children, assisting with group work and interaction. The class designed for 40 children, on the other hand will be free from Monday to Thursday to be used by other larger groups.
In the meantime, the school will also be saving money on textbooks. Learning materials will be digitized and accessed online. In addition, several free educational technology tools will be used to facilitate collaborative learning in the digital environment as will be described below.
Wikispaces is an effective educational tool because the service is free, ease-to-use, and free of advertising. Wikispaces is based on the “collaborative construction” concept of wikis; the most notable being Wikipedia (Jakes, 2006). Wikispaces work well in the education sector because the pages created are private, and only members can contribute. The privacy feature allows educators to create a secluded learning space, away from public contribution. In addition, educators/administrators can monitor the contributions of the class for any inappropriate content (very important in a 9th grade setting). Lastly, learning how to operate, set-up and control a wikispaces is easy and requires a minimal time investment, or as Jakes (2006) states “Wikispaces is a good choice for teachers getting started with wikis” (p. 2).
As with any online learning environment, both teachers and students need a “home-base” of operations. A majority of higher education institutions utilize Learning Management Systems (LMS) that house the classroom interactions and provide the meeting place between students and teachers; some example LMS are Blackboard, WebTycho, & Desire2Learn. NewTechWorld High School does not have the time or money to invest in such an elaborate software system; however there are plenty of free online tools that can meet the needs of NTW High School. Wikispaces is capable of providing a “home-base” for blended learning in a flipped classroom model of instruction.
Every LMS offers an asynchronous discussion board to class members; wikispaces can work in the same way. Teachers can use this tool to post topics and foster collaborative/active learning. In addition, teachers can equate participation points with active contributions to the wiki. The asynchronous nature of wikispaces is ideal for blended learning because students know where to go to keep up-to-date with their respective class when they are at home, and students can access the wiki at any time from any device. In addition, the large class size is conducive of an effective wiki, or as Bower, Woo, Roberts and Watters (2006) state “…in a wiki all contributions can be reviewed at once, at the students own pace. The larger the group, the greater the temporal gain in reviewing efficiency that wikis will afford” (p. 9). Students and educators will need to take some time to be familiarized with the wikispaces technology, and it is important for educators to nurture/foster the collaborative communication amongst students.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how wikispaces will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egyq4HsJ5soojIYU1nTmbufnJI2fWbbbXWR-pagZE5U/edit
The demonstrations of wikispaces can also be found at:
Part 1 - http://www.screenr.com/y6UN
Part 2 - http://www.screenr.com/2JUN
Part 3 - http://www.screenr.com/SJUN
ooVoo is free software that can be downloaded very easily. It has the following features that can be used on a teaching and learning environment: free video chat with up to 12 people online (with simultaneous viewing of YouTube videos, or screen sharing); instant messaging, recording of video calls and chats (so you can listen to the conversation again and again, which is ideal in a teaching setting). It can also be used to send large files. ooVoo uses cloud-based servers (which makes it fast) and has a connection lock, which apparently assists in connections not being dropped easily in the middle of a call (which should make it reliable).
There is an extensive part on Privacy Settings, which is important for Grade 9. One can use this as a basis for teaching digital literacy, e.g. how to download software and open accounts, but also how to set the Privacy Settings so that the children are secure.
The use of ooVoo in a school setting is scalable because it is free, once the students have devices and connectivity. A class of 40 students can easily be divided into smaller groups in various ways. For example one can have 4 groups of 10, with the teacher and the tutor (to make 12). But the groups can be changed easily so that one can alternate and move the children around, e.g. in an anatomy and sex education class one can have all the boys and girls in separate groups for some parts, but then put them together for other types of discussions. ooVoo can also be used for setting up a group between teacher, tutor, students and parents, and could be a great way of bringing parents (that are working full-time away from home) back into the education of their children.
Teaching assistants may be linked with a group of 10 children and may log in to ooVoo with their group every morning to ensure that they are awake, at home, at their devices and are ready to study and work on their learning materials. Teaching assistants can log into the group at intervals during the day to ensure that all students in their group are on track.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how ooVoo will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11rcQupQ-A-3lzFPAbPjcybKKcP_epEuyeeK-N7SViN4/edit
Blogger is a free web log tool managed by Google. The interface is easy to use and is ideal for beginners. Students will have accounts made for them using the email issued to them by NewTechWorld High School. Each student’s blog will be set as “invitation-only,” which means that only members of the NewTechWorld community will be able to access the blog. Specifically, students’ blogs will be accessible to fellow students in the class, teachers, tutors, administrators, and parents.
These privacy settings protect students from unknown visitors while teaching them about digital literacy. Lessons early in the school year will teach students about proper Internet etiquette that may differ from the way they present themselves on social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Students will learn about one’s “digital footprint” and will understand that everything they post online has the potential to be viewed by people outside of their intended audience. Students will read and analyze public blogs published by a wide variety of writers, including journalists, professionals, media critics, teachers, and students. Through these lessons, students will be able to distinguish between appropriate blogs and questionable blogs. Using an invitation-only Blogger will enable students to create a professional digital presence in a private environment, which will provide them invaluable lessons on how to conduct themselves online.
Students will use their blogs to reflect on the material they are learning in their classes. Extensive research has shown that reflective writing is a highly effective learning method. In E-Learning for the 21st Century, Garrison (2011) notes that “writing has long been used as as both a process and product of critical thinking” (16). In an online, asynchronous environment, students produce work “at a higher cognitive level than in a face-to-face verbal context” (Garrison, 2011, 17). Recent experiments in implementing more writing into high school classes have been met with great success. Two particular school districts stand out: New Dorp High School in Staten Island, New York (Tyre, 2012) and Brockton High School in Brockton, MA (Fitzgerald, Hochholzer, Love, & Szachowicz, 2010). Both schools were considered failing schools, and both of them saw a dramatic increase in student achievement after implementing a “writing across the curriculum” requirement (Fitzgerald, Hochholzer, Love, & Szachowicz, 2010, p. 279). Students at NewTechWorld High School will benefit through the regular, “low-stakes” (Warnock, 2009, 72) writing that they post in their blogs.
One way of tracking student participation and activity is to ensure that each students write a minimum number of words in their blogs every day. Composition research shows that continuous writing activity, with students commenting on each other’s work (on content and meaning rather than on form) rather than red-pencil corrections of grammar by a teacher, are more successful in improving writing in students at all levels.
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how Blogger will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aWzpwL3kBXwney8GZTXU3WJL-Gun3JL_fy0M3iWAzOc/edit
A demonstration of Blogger can also be found at:
http://screencast.com/t/N7t2lHtRZoX
Screenr is a free screencasting tool. Screencasting technology has significantly impacted the field of education as an effective, easy-to-use technology for delivering direct instruction in a mobile and computer based learning environment. A screencast is a video capture of computer screen activity, with audio narration. Recorded videos are delivered as video files, usually via the Internet (Mohorovičić and Tijan, 2008). Screenr is a new screencast recording tool. This tool allows teachers and their learners to record 5-minute long screencasts and publishes them. Teaching lessons can be done through screenr as it is completely web-based and there is nothing to install or to buy installation software before you use it. According to Wu (2005), screenr as one of the screencasting technologies, has become one of the most powerful e-learning tools for teaching purposes. Using this tool, the teacher can create teaching lessons, comment on assessment (s) and share anything that is instructionally related with their students. As this tool is free, teachers and students at NewTechWorld High School will simply use the computer, iPad or any technology based devices to record every aspect of the computer screen to deliver instruction.
Screenr has provided many advantages to the teachers and their learners. Teachers are able to select the size of the recording frame to suite the content of the discussed learning area, the video can be published instantly or published directly to YouTube. Through this tool, NewTechWorld High School students can also provide feedback on the quality of the video and instruction and lessons provided from their teachers. Key advantages of screenr are that it is free, the recorded lessons are accessible at any time to absent learners and those who need the repetition of seeing it again, students can also share their presentations via this tool on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
One drawback to Screenr is that recordings are limited to five minutes and cannot be edited. Screenr is a good tool for tutorials and feedback, though it may not be ideal for video lectures because of its limitations. We suggest a combination of Jing and Adobe Connect for this. Please see the following links for more information on these tools:
Screenr Demo (Demo of AdobeConnect): http://www.screenr.com/BcUN
Jing Demo #1 (AdobeConnect Demo): http://screencast.com/t/vP51KHmShh
Please follow this link to a dedicated document with further explanations and demonstrations of how Screenr will be used in NewTechWorld High School:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lG6HdPI4phAB6zsb4IqFNqpZcZVw1boceEjR060eiJs/edit
Implementation
This model would begin the first year with 9th grade, and subsequent grades would be added to the model each year thereafter. As digital natives, students are expected to embrace the blended model. Experience (and current research in progress) at the University of South Africa has indicated that, once students experience teaching and learning with Web 2.0 tools, they resent going back to traditional modes of learning (Mischke, 2013). It is therefore very important that this model is followed through to higher grades with the same group of students.
To ensure that teachers have the requisite time to 1) restructure their course for the blended, flipped mode, 2) redesign their lectures into a series of mini-lectures ranging from 4 to 8 minutes, 3) to find appropriate Open Educational resources to support the content part of their courses, such as e-books, and 4) to create quality video lectures, it is recommended that teachers be given adequate training and ongoing support before and during the implementation. It is strongly recommended that teachers begin preparation 9-12 months in advance. It is also recommended that teachers be put in mentorship relationships with other teachers (preferably in the same subject area) who have already made the switch to the blended, flipped model.
Before this model is implemented, affected students and their parents will have to be informed of the new model, and parents will have to be consulted. Both students and parents will have to be trained on the tools, as well as on the expectations and requirements for students, and for parent interaction in this model.
Evaluation
In order to establish whether the main goals of this proposal have been met, clear and continuous reporting to the Board of NewTechWorld High School will take place on a regular basis on the following parameters:
- The students’ grades in comparison to their own grades the previous year, as well as to the previous years’ grade 9 students
- A student satisfaction survey
- A parent satisfaction survey
- A teacher satisfaction survey
Conclusion
This proposal describes a new model of teaching and learning to solve the current problems at NewTechWorld High School, problems with overfilled classes, which lead to poor student success, low teacher retention and many behavioural problems at NewTechWorld High School. All these problems may, in turn, lead to funding problems. The new model is based on blended learning in a flipped classroom model where the content is given to students in digital form to study at home for two days, and where they then come to the classroom prepared in terms of content in order to work with the teacher on face-to-face hands-on activities with the teacher being able to teach individual in a more focused way. The concept utilizes free online software to enable teachers to put their content online for students to study at home, and also for students to interact with each other, with the teaching assistant as well as with teachers, and even participating parents.
References
Bower, M., Woo, K., Roberts, M., & Watters, P. (2006, July). Wiki pedagogy - A tale of two wikis. In 7th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET 06), Sydney, Australia.
Fink, L.D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
Fitzgerald, T.J., Hochholzer, N., Love, C.J., and Szachowicz, S. Designing literacy initiatives for whole school improvement in grades 7-12. New York: International Institute for Leadership in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/Desiging%20Literacy%20Initiatives%20excerpt.pdf.
Garrison, R. (2011). E-Learning for the 21st century: a framework for research and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Garrison, D. R. and Vaughan, N.D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass–Wiley.
Jakes, D. (2006). Wild about wikis. Technology and Learning, 27(1), 6.
Mischke, G. (2013). Unpublished report on the implementation of the signature courses at the University of South Africa. University of South Africa Senate Report (confidential).
Mohorovičić, S & Tijan, T. (2010). Using screencasts in computer programming courses. MIPRO 2010 Proceedings. Croatia, (4), 268-272.
Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: A system view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Stieglight, B. (2006). Informing students, shaping instruction. ALAE Journal of Education Technology and e-learning: 13(2), 58-62.
Tyre, Peg (2012). The writing revolution. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/.
Vaughan, N. (2007). Perspectives on blended learning in higher education. International Journal on Elearning. 6 (1), 81-94.
Warnock, S. (2009) Teaching writing online: how and why. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Wu, T. (2005). Innovative strategies and tools for Chinese E-learning. Journal of Distance Education. 20(1), 1-20.
