Week 5: Design a device using the internet of thingsIn my pursuit to design a IoT device that can benefit my classroom, the hardest part was thinking of something that hasn’t already been created. I began to think of the hardest issues I have in the education world. The first that came to mind was school-home connection. My top 15% kids who succeed in school are the ones who also (typically) have involved parents. It is the 85% that I want to reach. Luckily these days, 90% of millennials are on social media and are becoming the parents of the students I teach (Parent Today, 2016). This is a statistic educators should be taking advantage of.
I am well aware that children who have a more challenging school to home connection or lack of parent involvement experience this for many different reasons. Many parents work late hours, raise many young children, or lack the ability to help with academics. Social-media and digital communication is the bridge between this gap. “As the Millennial Generation comes of parenting-age and joins the ranks of the Generation X parents, teachers are increasingly turning to digital tools to connect with today’s technologically savvy parents (Parent Today, 2016).” The internet of things allows data collection and diagnostics in order to perform with the most efficiency. My idea would allow the lessons taught during the day to be synthesized and in student language for the evening. It would come as a small device that is attached to a backpack (or anything regularly going home). This device would automatically listen to the subjects taught in the day and search the internet for key words that come up. Then, these main ideas/topics will be stored in the cloud so that when a student goes home they can easily access all material that was covered (in age appropriate content). Then the question arises, how does this hold accountability-- the main issue? Any family with tough evening hours would agree that in order for any such device to be effective, it needs to be efficient and user friendly. With that in mind, the device would become very futuristic using technology like holograms. Even if a parent is not at home to help with homework, the “teacher” hologram could help support the student’s home learning. In the article, 8 Classroom Uses for Holographic Technology, it says holograms could extend teacher reach. Instructors could deliver lessons and lectures to multiple classrooms, across the globe, simultaneously (ISTE connects, 2015). Holograms are the future of education and are based on the mixed reality concept. “Mixed reality literally allows for the real and digital worlds to be combined, and with holograms you can almost feel the science at your fingertips,” he explains. “This is absolutely a revolutionary way to transfer information and enable collaborative work. It makes the process of learning clearer, more interactive, and more interesting; therefore, more effective (Bonasio, 2016).” My other problem is that some parents are incredibly hard to reach. These parents are the ones that need to be the most involved in their child’s education. The school to home device could act as a message recorder as well. Any information that I need to relay could be sent home on that device, and any questions or concerns the parent has could be sent to school in that form-- all they need to do is talk into it. I could also track from my computer the amount of home usage, whether parents are using/listening to it, and the diagnostics would help show how I could better support my student. Bonasio, Alice. 2016. Making Holograms in the Classroom a Reality. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/3150963/education/making-holograms-in-the-classroom-a-reality.html ISTE Connects. 2015. 8 Classroom Uses for Holographic Technology. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=271. Parent Today. 2016. Keeping connected in today’s classroom: Teachers utilizing digital tools to better communicate with parents. Retrieved from http://www.parenttoday.org/keeping-connected-in-todays-classroom-teachers-utilizing-digital-tools-to-better-communicate-with-parents/
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Week 4: What is the pedagogy behind a MakerSpace? What are the benefits of this pedagogy to students?The lingo around Maker Space has been growing ever rapidly. This past year I was able to experience a Makerspace session and then heard about it frequently. However, never once did I ever ask myself, what is the importance of Makerspace? It sounded so great from the start that I didn’t take the time to analyze it for myself.
It didn’t take long for my opinion to become validated after reading various articles this week. As put by the article, What’s the Maker Movement and Why Should I Care? She says, “her experiences constantly remind her that children are capable of powerful ideas. One student said the time spent in Maker Space helps us understand what we are capable of (Stager, 2014).” The education in 2017 focuses on how can we get our students to take ownership and accountability of their own education? Maker Space promotes this philosophy with every project or idea (Stager, 2014). With all the micro-controllers and Maker’s Space technology around, I can’t help but feel a little intimidated. I am realizing that if I feel like this then my students will be feeling the same way too. This inspires me to familiarize myself as much as possible so that I can teach my students with confidence. The article, Learning with Arduino and Microcontrollers, only tapped into this a little bit. It helped me see the potential of these technologies such as, “flying through the air in drones, rolling around the floor in giant R2-D2's, even powering a four foot tall LED grid (Patterson, 2016)” Yet, the question still remains-- how can I do this in my classroom? My research continued to reading more about implementing these technologies in the classroom. First and foremost, the environment plays the key role in whether Maker’s Space is a success or not. As quoted by an Edutopia article, “They'll (students) thrive in spaces that perpetually rekindle their desire to make meaningful contributions toward personally relevant issues, ideas, people and interests (West-Pucket, 2013).” Teachers should foster the environment they want their students to emulate. The next important point I found was to make it solely interests-based. Just like any curriculum we put on our students, if they find little interest in the topic they won’t internalize it. Keeping Maker’s Space choice driven and geared towards what they are interested in will make the learning meaningful. Circling back to the main question, what are the benefits of this pedagogy? Relevance, desire, and intrinsic motivation, are just a few experiencers during a Maker’s Space for many students. The benefits, as many educators would see, are that students finally come to school gaining knowledge through their own discovery and creations. Patterson, S. 2016. Learning with Arduino and Microcontrollers. Retrieved from http://www.teachercast.net/2016/03/01/learning-with-arduino-and-microcontrollers/ Stager, G. 2014. What’s the Maker Movement and Why Should I Care? Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3758336 West-Puckett, S. 2013. Remaking Education: Designing Classroom Makerspaces for Transformative Learning. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-makerspaces-transformative-learning-stephanie-west-puckett Week 3 Reflection This week was extra exciting for me because I love finding an emerging idea and think of ways I can incorporate it into my classroom. Genius hour was something I have read a lot about, but pushed to the side during my first year. Reading about it again inspires me to tackle this idea this fall with more confidence.
Andrea posted a great video about 2nd graders talking about their genius hour experience-- very inspiring! I know that this idea will take off in my classroom and the amount of natural learning will be worth every ounce of energy on my end. I think genius hour would be especially meaningful if students start reaching out to community members and taking their project outside of the classroom. Erica talked about this idea in her blog saying that, “Students learn that they can glean and synthesize information from a variety of sources, and they develop the autonomy to go out and search for those sources.” As Erica eloquently put, our goal as educators is to create experiences that, “go beyond education.” Genius hour is the pinnacle of this movement, and in my eyes should be a constant goal every day with every lesson. Week 3 I have heard of both MOOC and Genius hour, so I began my research with flipped classroom. The idea is that more independent learning elements (reading a chapter book, learning a simple math concept) should happen outside during homework time in order to leave more interactive learning for the classroom time. This sounds great-- but for an older crowd. I felt like doing this with elementary students would leave many lost and behind. My research took me to looking more into genius hour-- a very doable option for my 2nd graders. It is exactly as it sounds. It’s a block of time dedicated to giving students the chance to explore anything that interests them (genius hour). The first question I had was, how do I start this with my 2nd graders? A lot of blogs mentioned showing the teacher’s passion first, or just giving students time to build something with no restrictions. This way, students get the idea that genius hour is meant for creating/developing. Managing genius hour can take the form of using a website/blog to track students progress, folders, or a class bulletin board. In many classes, genius hour looks like, “Genius Hour is Tu/Th for 30 minutes each day w/ time to research, create, and make. Students on computers, looking at books, and using building supplies” and “organized chaos (Genius hour in primary grades).” My only concern is how do you engage students who just do NOT want to participate in genius hour? None of the research I did answered this question so I know this will be a trial and error part of genius hour. Genius hour allows students to experience a unique learning environment that is rare in a public school setting. For 2nd graders, I would limit it to 30 minutes and do some modeling with them beforehand. Once students get the gist of all the possibilities, I could see how productive this emerging pedagogy would be. Genius hour in primary grades. Retrieved from http://www.geniushourguide.org/genius-hour-in-the-primary-classroom/ Genius hour. Retrieved from http://www.geniushour.com/what-is-genius-hour/ As with any technology, strategy, idea, or concept, balance is key. I think a world using only open learning is a world full of misinformed and unreliable information. Balance is key.
Open Learning can be as simple as using Google to inform research or as complex as Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) for higher education (O’Byrne). These formats provide more flexible and progressive learning tools, but if used in excess, can be burdened by it’s challenges. One example of this is the influx of new, and perhaps, false information. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision (O’Byrne). I further researched this by looking at what is offered online through a simple Google search, “open learning.” One site I looked at called the, Open Learning Initiative, wrote it’s philosophy big and noticeable at the homepage saying, “The Open Learning Initiative offers online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach. Our aim is to combine open, high-quality courses, continuous feedback, and research to improve learning and transform higher education (Open Learning Initiative).” My initial thoughts on this were that this sounded really appealing and a great option. It is grant-funded through Carnegie Melon University- a highly trustworthy and notable college. My concerns would be, once you learn this quality material, what can you do with it? Where can you go? It seems at this point the learning occurs without any promise of a degree or certificate. However, someone who needs a degree and can’t afford commercial courses, this option still doesn’t give them the degree. I see this as potential to get somewhere great. Once these courses can offer more tangible credentials, the appeal to learn in this setting will rise. Prior to reading about this week’s question, I assumed emerging technologies were those that were not quite mainstream but starting to gain popularity. I thought of Maker’s Space, Ozobots, coding, VR, and other popular (not widely used) technologies.
To my surprise, I now understand that emerging technologies aren’t always:
Emerging technologies should embody excitement and curiosity. These technologies, whether electronic or not, should be explored to their full educational capacity. I see a lot of talk about robots, coding, and gaming in the classroom and this brings excitement to me. Emerging technologies don't just enhance the content we are teaching. These days, emerging technology should give us new and different opportunities that weren't possible before the technology. Our content can be shaped and transformed into new and more relevant ways to meet the needs of 21st century learners because of these emerging technologies. |