Skill: Create 3.1.1 Open Educational Resources and Creative Commons Quest

Open Educational Resources may be found across nearly all subject areas, but understanding methods of integrating these resources into instructional activities remains a best practice. For this quest, create an entry in your blog in which you develop a definition of open educational resources and explain the various Creative Commons licenses one may encounter when searching for these resources.

When I first started detaching at GaVS, I really did not know the difference between Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons (CC). I assumed, as I had heard from all of my colleagues in my face to face to school, “If it’s for educational purposes it’s OKAY.” While I was applying in the spring of 2016 for a Development position I was able to learn more about what could be used while developing a course and what I could not. According to the article Education/OER Creative Commons (CC) strives to make as many resources available to educators by breaking down barriers between people who create resources and those in education.

According to OER Commons, “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.”

OER allows for materials to be used freely. It is best practices in action – sharing resources that are good, collaborative teaching for the good of students. Being able to reuse good materials helps educators and students alike and it the cores of Copyright and educators have a clear understanding of where they stand. Full regulations can be found be found here.

In it’s pursuit of OER CC allows the following to happen for education:

• CC enables translation of educational resources into different languages. 

• CC enables educational resources to evolve and be improved through peer and student     edits

• CC enables easier discovery of educational resources on the web. 

Creative Commons is the license that developers palce on their work to indicate how it can be used. There are various licenses that are placed on work, which dictates how it can be used. Fortunately for educators (as seen by the image below) if used correctly almost all CC material is free to use.

Attribution – requires that users give credit to the source in what ever method was requested

Share Alike  - allows others to copy, paste, transform, etc upon the resource for commercial purposed.

Non-Commercial – free use and copy as long as it is not for commercial use.

No derivatives – may only use in its original form.

Image can be found here

Skill: Create 2.1.3 Using Web 2.0 Tools to Differentiate Student Assessment Quest

by Randy Rodgers

Using the resources as a guide, isolate one Web Tool that aligns with differentiation and student assessment. Then, post the tool to your blog and include information, suggested student use, and instructional practices.

Assessment is key in student learning. Formative assessment allows teachers to gauge student learning before the ‘summative.’ I believe that formative assessments should not count against a student’s grade, should be easy to grade, and provide almost immediate feedback to students. 

There are many Web 2.0 tools that can be used for differentiation and assessment.  One that I have run into with this Quest is Show Me. Show me is an app for iPads, which can make it limiting because students would need to have access to an iPad, but my face-to-face school has several iPad carts. Share Me is a great way to create and share lessons.

Teachers can use Show ME, to record lessons on the iPads like the one found HERE on photosynthesis. This can be great for differentiation because it can allow students to work at their own pace. Teachers could also record various levels of content, or search teh every growing library, and students could self select the level that they would like to learn the material on.

Assessing students by using Show Me is a great tool as well because students can record anything they are doing on the iPod. They can record them taking a quizlet, they can record them drawing out an explanation, or they can record their thinking in completing a concept map (as seen below). Whatever the activity, it gives teachers the opportunity to look at student learning and set a course of action to correct misconceptions or further it.

Image can be found HERE

Skill: Create 2.1.2 Using Web 2.0 Tools to Differentiate Teacher Instruction Quest

by Randy Rodgers

Spend some time exploring articles and Web 2.0 Classroom tools that highlight educational strategies and introduce differentiated learning activities for students. What tools best align with the instructional goals associated with a progressive, online learning environment? Are the tools innovative, user-friendly, and representative of higher level thinking?

Whether a class is face-to-face or online using Web 2.o tools is essential for students success. Using the right Web 2.o tools can help make learning student centered rather than teacher centered.  Various tools can be employed to teach the same subject and students can choose which tool they would like to use to learn the material.  Using Web 2.0 tools can also motivate students to want to learn more about a subject. Using these tools also helps prepare them for a work that is rapidly becoming web based.  With so many tools out there it is hard to know what are good one. In doing this quest, I found the Web Guru’s Top 20 Web 2.0 Must haves for Every 21st Century Classroom which also had lists for sites that included communication, assessment, desktop publishing etc. Here are a few that I have used or are excited to use in the future:

I have used:

Wordle - I have used wordle to create texts of science words in a unit. I love the freedom it gives me to make some bigger, colors, and even shapes!

Prezi – I love using Prezi’s, but I am not good at making them!  I love that they are public and free to use. There are several teaches whom I follow, and I will offer these resources up to students when I feel they need a different approach to learning or are absent like these on evolution

Voki – I will use Voki’s to introduce vocabulary words or directions including this one HERE

YouTube: With so many videos out there for demonstration in science, reviews, songs, etc YouTube offers a wealth of information. Like with any tool a teacher should preview the video prior to class!

Others that I looked and have ideas about how to use include:

Screencast-o-matic which can be used to record what ever I am doing on the computer. This is great of I need to show a specific process of the computer. In my face-to-face class we teach seniors how to work with their data in excel. If I can record that beforehand, students who are faster or slower leaner’s can listen at their pace so they can get the material that they need.

Padlet – I have let students use this before but I never have for delivery of information. I think it will be great as another way to organize information and place links in so that students can further their understanding of materials.

Chartle Allows users to create simple interactive graphs and charts online. Will be great for student presentation of data. 

Skill: Create 2.1.1 Web Tools Quest

Free use from Pexel

Exploring at least a portion of the Web 2.0 tools available is an excellent way to assess the value to the online classroom and the numerous options available to users. In an effective online learning environment sharing resources, such as Web 2.0 Tools, provides a definitive list of resources that all teachers can reference, regardless of academic discipline.

There are so many resources out there it is hard to know which ones have value are ‘worth your time’ and which ones are not.  Another concern for teachers and students alike are those resources being free or at least have a trial period. Here is a couple that I think any educator or student would be able to use:

Presentation Tools

Prezi Is a nice break from traditional PowerPoint’s. It is a FREE service that is public. Both teacher and students can get accounts and make presentations, which can easily be downloaded as PDFs.

Flipsnack – Can turn PDFs (notes or PPs or Prezis) into a movie. Great way to share large or short amounts of information. There is a fee involved.

Slide Share Great way to post presentations for other people to have easy access it.  There are free accounts available and ones that cost money.

Toondoo Can present information in the form of a cartoon. Can be used by bother teachers and students.

Sharing:

Padlet This is a virtual bulletin board where links and ideas can be shared. This can be used by both teaches and students for several reasons: projects, discussion, information etc

Glogster: A place to create digital posters or sharable scrapbooks for students and teachers.

Explanation:

Voki:  Teachers and students can create avatars to share information through text.  This can be used for definitions, directions, and encouragement.

Makebelifcomix: Online comic strip generator. Comics can be created for instruction, project, etc and shared easily with others.

Vocaroo:  Easy for students or teaches to create a voice recording that can be downloaded and shared. Teachers could use this to provide feedback.

Assessment:

Quizlet:  Is a great site where teachers can put in specific content and it will generate quizzes, games, so that students can review or be assessed.

Poll Everywhere:  Multiple choice and open-ended question can be asked and student can type their answers. Teachers will get responses.

Socrative Allows students to compete with one another in an online multiple choice quiz give by teachers. Great for formative assessments.

Skill: Create 1.1.3 – Appearance Quest

Explore learning modules from various online organizations and describe the benefits of layout, media, and appearance. Please identify ten instructional sites, and isolate five sites, which exemplify sound design ideals, and five that do not adhere to these standards and document in your blog.

Appearance in any document weather it is printed or online has a great deal to do if the reader will actually read the content. Text size, style, color, and position are all important when design anything that you want some one to read. Though I love design, I am a purest at heart and really am drawn to clean simple designs. I think when designing instructional sites for teenagers there is a fine line between being too ‘cutesy’ and to ‘grown up.’

Here are some sites that I think offer sound design ideals for science:

IB Bio Ninja This is a teacher created site that helps students prepare and study for the OB Biology test. It is easy to navigate, has great font choice and colors, and has just the right amount of balance between cute graphics and non-cute graphics.

Digestion System Animation This is an animation geared toward 6-9 graders and I think it is very appropriate in terms of colors, graphics etc. I use it for 12^th grade science as an introduction and it borders on to ‘babyish’ for my kids, but they do get a kick out of it.

The Biology Corner Simplicity at its best. This site has clean lines, great pictures, and simple consistent colors. It is easy to navigate and is a great resource for both teachers and students alike.

BioED Online This site offers a variety of resources, simple design, good use of color, and very easy to navigate. It is a WIN!

Bozeman Science This site speaks to me, though I know it is way to simple for most people. The organization of the resources along with the minimalistic approach is good as the content is all videos!

Not so sound design for science:

Understanding Evolution While the information presented here is really good – the lack of color, confusing layout, and overwhelming amount of text makes this site hard to navigate.

Explore Biology This site is no longer maintained and offers great information and resources. I think for its time it offered sound design but there not a variety of resources as only text and documents are offered here.

Amazing Biology Resources This site is hard to get through. I do not visit often as the colors and graphics are overwhelming and makes the text get lost on the page. There are too many colors and the clash.

Biology Resources and Links A good sources for websites BUT the fon

Biology resources The font is crowded, small, and it is lacking space which makes the text hard to read. Also the color scheme is almost too monochromatic which takes away from the visual appeal.

Skill: Create 1.1.2 Creating a Content Map Quest

Consider the topic isolated in the beginning of this quest. What should be included in the Content Map? What aspects of online learning are essential to integrate in the process? Using a format explored above, create a Content Map for the chosen topic. Post the completed Content Map in your blog.

A concept map is a way to help students organize ideas in a graphic organizer. They start with a main idea/concept and each branch demonstrates how the main idea can be broken down into specific steps or concepts. The great thing about concept maps is no two are exactly alike because no all students think alike. In an online environment a concept map is great to do with students in a synchronous session as a group, or as a formative assessment to gage student thinking.

For this Quest I am using the concept of cells. There are a lot of standards that relate to cells, so a concept map is a great way to review the material with students. I used Bubble.us yto create teh concept map:

Skill:Create 1.1.1 – Time Management Quest

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”  ― Harvey MacKay

Time is essential in this world - and there never seems to be enough of it! Managing your time can help you keep and manage this precious resource. After reading the article 10 Proven Time Management Skills You should Learn Today I realized that I employ a bunch of proven time management skills – even though I was just creating a system that allowed me to function. Here are my top five management tools to me manage my time in both my professional (PRO) and personal (PER) life :

 

1)   Keep a Task List (PRO & PER) When ever I feel I have a bunch to do in a certain time frame I take a piece of paper and portion it out to the parts of my life, personal, face to face school, GaVS, church, family, and any other category. Under the heading, I bullet the things that need to get accomplished and by when. This helps me prioritize what needs to be done and helps me figure out how much time I might need. I also like to scratch through the list to see my ‘To Do List” shrinking.

2)   Schedule Tasks (PRO & PER) I have found that scheduling certain task at certain time it increases my efficacy and sets a dedicated time during the week to complete tasks. Example, the Friday morning after every due date, I get up an hour earlier to add zeros in the gradebook, and send out the “Ooops you missed an assignment” email. This way I know it gets done before I got to my face-to-face school and students are informed early on Friday so that they have a chance to submit the work. In my personal life I have to schedule exercise so I know that I get it in. My son has soccer practice twice a week for an hour and a half. I know that on these days, I can run and train for my half marathons while he is at his own training.

3)   Minimize Distractions – (PRO)  Most of my professional needs are done on a computer. I find that I get distracted, just as my students do – facebook, instagram, email, etc. When I sit down to work for a period of time, I try and put y phone away from me so I am not tempted to look at it. I also only open up my Safari browser, which is only used for work. Nothing personal is on it – so I am not as tempted to check email, facebook etc. I find this gives me my allotted time to complete what I need.

4)   Set Time Limits (PRO) I find that I can get lost in work and when that happens my productivity often goes down!  So I will set time limits – I will grade for one hour stop and do something else. I will clear out the drop boxes Tuesday and Thursday night and quizzes Monday and Wednesday. This makes sure I am not always on the computer and I spend quality time with my family.

5)   Reward Yourself (PRO & PER) Rewarding yourself, even if it is just with a piece of chocolate, for completing a task goes along way in keeping the motivation going!

Skill: Communicate 4.3.1 The Synchronous Session Quest

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Giulia Forsythe on Flickr

Reflect upon the importance of utilizing a synchronous session to “create a true classroom culture” online. How does integrating synchronous learning sessions within the online environment assist in developing a learning community for students? Discuss this question at length in your blog.

For the online teacher, the synchronous session is where the ‘teaching’ comes. It is where we share our enthusiasm for our subject matter. Often there are times I did not care about a subject, but learned to love it because of the teacher’s enthusiasm and love expressed in the classroom. Using synchronous sessions can be more than delivering power points to a class. Teachers should use these sessions to help bring one-on-one in real time interaction between teacher- student and student-student.  This real time interaction can go a long way in helping to create a collaborative community. Putting interactive components, like questions, songs, quizzes, games will help students with engagement,  practice-using concepts, and bring students together into a community. When students feel as though they are a part of a community, they will often feel more motivated to be successful in their class.

Synchronous sessions are not mandatory in GaVS. There are times I encourage participation by offering extra credit, doing a quick review trying to get attendance up– but I get that the time might not be best for everyone. But as surveys have found, students who do attend the sessions have found them useful. The same is true for students who have listened to them afterwards. So even if I am often speaking to myself, asking, and answering the questions – at least students are utilizing the resource.

I wonder:

·      Perhaps the next semester I will take a poll as to what date and time is better for a majority of students to attend – maybe that would get more participation?

·      If in the GaVS survey we can ask if students attended or listened to sessions and how useful were they?

Skill: Communicate 4.2.3 Discussions Quest

• What role or purpose do discussion forums serve in the online classroom and are they effective?

I must admit when I was doing my Master's program online I hated the discussions. As a student (even though I was a teacher) I did not see the value or purpose of it - it was just 'something' I had to do - so I did it. As an online teacher I found the value of discussions. Often in an online environment stunts can feel alone and isolated - and discussions offer the opportunity interact and get to know students in an asynchronous way. Discussions offer a chance for students to inert act with other students. It is a safe place for students to express opinions, ask questions, and to start fitting the pieces of the learning together.

• How do discussion forums function as a teaching tool?

Discussions forums can be used several ways:

l) Extend the learning environment 

2) Engage students and preparing them to have them get familiar with new topics

3) Online discussions can reach different types of leaners. It can give introverted thinks time to create a response and extraverted thinkers time to collect thoughts before they post.

4) Students can reflect not only on their own learning and understanding, but other students as well.

5) Discussion forums can also be where instructors bring in outside resources to facilitate learning - articles, videos. etc 

• How could they be used effectively and ineffectively? Furthermore, what are some best practices for facilitating forums online?

While there are benefits to discussions in an online environment, but there was they can be ineffective. To be effective, there needs to a variety of activities - "pre-assessments, What if questions, article reviews, to name a few." Instructors need to be active in the discussion board, monitoring, responding, and encouraging student participation. Ineffective discussions boards happen when there is no interaction between students, when the posts do not happen within a specific time, when the discussions happen too frequently or too infrequently. If students do not for follow netiquette guidelines, then participants may not feel comfortable to step out of there comfort zone. 

Skill: Communicate 4.2.2 Digital Feedback Quest

Using the examples above as a point of reference, create three digital resources that could be utilized when evaluating student work and discuss in your blog how these resources would enhance the level of specific feedback offered to students.

1)   'Stamps' have been introduced to me in my GaVS PLs training over the years I have been introduced to 'STAMPS.' It refers to an image that can be used over and over again. Some STAMPS are just images that say things like 'Great Job." There are some courses where students take check up quizzes that don't count for a day or check for basic understandings. Often there is not feedback I can give them to help them improve so I might leave one of the followings STAMPS. I think it shows them that I am proud of them and that I recognize they have done a good job. 

1 2) Outside Resources There are many times I will send students to other resources outside of the content to review the material. Here are a few examples of feedback I have given to students in an A&P class:

1

• Good work. Here is a fun song over the material. Review before the final exam HERE!

• Review hormones before the test HERE.

• This is a great web activity to show digestion. Try it HERE.

2) Sound bites I find that leaving a voice message about the work especially if it is had dot explain in writing often engages the listener. Sometimes I just leave a quick sound bite for celebration - like a Whoop Whoop if they did a good job. There are many places to get such sound bites like here:

• Free Sound Clips HERE

Skill: Communicate 4.2.1 – Feedback Quest

Choose three standards for area of study, create an assignment, and method for assessing students work, utilizing one of the mediums discussed. Ensure the tool demonstrates an instructor’s employment of effective feedback.

Standards:

1.    Student will know what ATP is.

2.    Understand how energy is generated in the human body.

3.    Explain how ADP makes ATP and vice versa.

ASSIGNMENT

            - Draw and label your understanding of the ATP/ADP cycle.

Questions Asked

1) List at least three types of energy you are familiar with. For each one - answer: Can you use this energy for your life processes? EXPLAIN.

2) Where does your body directly get its energy from?

3) What do you use the energy for? At least two examples.

4) Draw the ATP and ADP molecules in a cycle (page 101).

A. What is similar and different between ATP and ADP? 

B. On each side of the  cycle - label; is it a 'charging' side or 'using' side?

C. Why can ATP be compared to a rechargeable battery?

Rubric