I'm back with an update on the purple bathroom! I’m halfway through removing wallpaper in the bathroom right now and hope to see the full bathroom stripped of wallpaper within the next day or so. While researching for this project, (see my first post here) I watched some Youtube videos and then pinned a few different resources on Pintrest. From my initial impressions, removing wallpaper didn’t seem to be all that difficult, but would be more time consuming and potentially frustrating. The main takeaway from the different “how tos” that I read and watched were that I wanted to mix equal parts fabric softener and water and would need to spray the wall copiously and then use the scraper to get the wallpaper off. Those were the basic steps in every source that I used. After surveying my resources, I have found the explicit instructions on to do lists to be the most helpful to me. I like to read content and I went back a few times and referenced the Pintrest pages I had saved when I was in the middle of my process. To me, that was easier than pulling up the Youtube videos and trying to find the exact time I needed and rewatching that portion. I started this project with essentially no home improvement skills, so I think it is safe to say my wallpaper removal skills have improved. However, I am definitely not an expert by any means. The first wall I did in the bathroom is pretty rough, comparatively to the one I just finished. There are a lot of dents and nicks in the wall from where I hit it with the scraper. If you look at the other walls, the marks are less and less as I got better at the scraping technique. One thing I initially found challenging was that when I was pulling the wallpaper, it was coming off in such small pieces instead of these big long strips were being talked about online. I was working around the middle of the wall and just going through a lot of my spray mixture on one section instead of making it last longer. On the first few sections It was frustrating that I was using up the spray mixture before I was done with the chunk of the wall and effectively felt that it was taking me forever to get anything done. I took a break and literally stepped back from the wall to assess the situation and decided that working from the top down would serve as a better course of action because as the mixture runs down the wall, it would coat everything else. By the time I would reach the bottom of the wall, I wouldn’t need nearly as much spray because it would have been soaked through many times already from the runoff from earlier, higher up sections. That logic served me soundly and it has been a lot easier getting sections of the wall cleared - some of them I don’t even need to use a scraper on! I have included some before pictures and some after showing the middle of my progress. The stop motion video is when I started to use my “top down” technique for the spray and wallpaper stripping motion. As you can see, it worked!
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Earlier this week we designed an infographic about a learning theory of our choice. I have always found infographics to be interesting. I also feel like in recent years they have become very “cool” and are a popular way for distributing information to the millennial generation. Infographics are appealing to me in the way they display information visually and succinctly with graphs, colors and pictures. Alternatively, someone would just simply read an article and pull information from there.
Michigan State University’s Sarah Gretter (2016) writes that as a society “we are naturally inclined to “snackable” content.” (Using Infographics for Teaching and Learning) During this day and age, we are drawn to pieces of news, technology and apps that can provide a service almost instantaneously or in as little time as possible. I have found that my students' attention spans are not very long. Delivering news and content to them in an infographic like format is beneficial to them, because it is visually appealing and allows them to quickly read and gather the information they need to work with. Infographics “integrate design, writing, and analysis with the bulk of the information you want to convey.” (Gretter, 2016) “Most people can make sense of visual material much faster than they can absorb what they hear or read. The average person can process visual content 60,000 times faster than other types of content.” (The Benefits of Infographics for Education) This is perfect for students who most often will typically just scan a document or look for a section discussing the main points. A few years ago I made my syllabus into an infographic for students to have at the beginning of the year. It was well received and I thought relayed the information well. Aside from being interesting and unique documents, I have not always clearly understood how infographics might have a role in an educational setting and as continue in this program I would like to deeper explore how I might be able to use and design infographics and repurpose them for my students. The most important concept we have been talking about in year one has been TPACK and how technology, pedagogy and content knowledge can all intersect successfully in the classroom. With discussions we have had this week in our year one class regarding the TPACK, it would appear to me that infographics are a perfect example of a technology being repurposed and used in an educational context. Authors Punya Mishra and the Deep - Play group (2012) state “the TPACK framework emphasizes the importance of teacher creativity in repurposing technology tools for make them fit pedagogical and disciplinary-learning goals” (p. 14) As discussed earlier, it is becoming very common to see infographics being used more frequently in educational contexts. They are being viewed as more than just “fun” documents and hold a lot of valuable information in a unique manner. I don’t believe that the original intent behind infographics was for students to read and interpret them, let alone design their own in on any given topic, but I think the repurposing of them in an educational setting is useful. References Gretter, S. (2016, October 17). Using Infographics for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from http://insideteaching.grad.msu.edu/using-infographics-for-teaching-and-learning/ The Benefits of Infographics for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.copypress.com/kb/infographics/the-benefits-of-infographics-for-education/ Mishra, P., & The Deep-Play Research Group (2012). Rethinking technology and creativity in the 21st century: Crayons are the future. TechTrends, 56(5), 13-16. I have really enjoyed my time being part of the MAET Year One Summer Hybrid Cohort. (That is a mouthful!) As part of our Innovative Learning Project, we collaborated on building a website that explains the technologies associated with Maker Spaces and the Maker Movement. We also each designed a lesson that incorporates ideas used by the Maker Movement so that that can be shared with the Maker and educational community. When designing my lesson, I always had in the back of my mind that there are not a lot of activities available for World Language teachers wanting to use Maker tools and technologies. In my lesson students are using Ozobots to practice story-telling, experience coding and giving and understanding directions. As we know, giving and receiving directions is something important that we do on a regular basis in society. Talking about directions is also part of a larger unit I teach in Spanish 2 about traveling. I am excited that this lesson includes newer technology and that my students will get to experience coding. When the Innovative Learning Project was first introduced to year one students, I was very intimidated by it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what would qualify as an innovative lesson using all these technologies that had been introduced to us, so there was a bit of a panic that happened. However, after we talked about things as a cohort, met with the MAET year 2 students and had some more readings and information that we learned, it seemed like creating this lesson was much more doable. I didn’t know much about Ozobots before creating this lesson, so it was fun to jump in and play with a new technology. I also learned about how to look and design this lesson from a maker viewpoint. I was hung up on students making or creating something because in my mind it needed to be something physical, however, the year 2 students pointed out that by writing/designing a story, students were absolutely creating something - it just wasn’t tangible. The creation of the larger Maker website has been fairly straightforward and user friendly. Weebly has a multiple editor option which has made it super streamlined for everyone in year one to collaborate on building our website about Makerspaces. WIth Makerspace being such a new and emerging movement, I think its hard right now to find lessons that connect to all subject areas, so I am hopeful a World Language teacher somewhere will find our site and my activity and be able to use it in their classroom. I think the website will be something very valuable moving forward. Overall, I think there is value in the Maker Movement. Having students create, question and work with their hands is a great tactile way to make connections to areas of study. That being said, I think the maker movement does probably lend itself to some subject areas better than others. I am not sure the Maker movement has a place in every classroom. I ultimately found what I consider to be a fun and unique way to use Maker technology in the Ozobots, however, I am not sure I could replicate an activity like that multiple times. The biggest take away I have had so far from this program and as a result of this project was redefining my scope of how I look at educational technology. Technology ultimately can be repurposed to fit whatever your needs are in the classroom. Halverson and Sheridan (2004) note that in Maker spaces “the focus in design for learning needs to be on the process and the product, not the tools.” (p. 499) Designing my activity and seeing other’s activities was a really great way to see this represented in a real world, real classroom context. I thought the lesson that was done involving the reforming of cups (check it out here) was a perfect example of repurposing something to fit your needs in the classroom. A cup isn’t typically a piece of technology, but in the nature of this lesson it a very useful technology. With this newfound mindset, as a teacher I will allow my students to question things a bit more and try and design more activities that allow them to question and create within the realm of possibility in my classroom. I have never been an educator who uses technology for the sake of technology (and I still won’t be), but moving forward I am going to try and keep a better eye out for objects and technologies that can be repurposed with an educational lens. For anyone who is interested in using maker tools, I would tell them that the sky's the limit! As long as students are creating and questioning in some way, your activity can be considered to be part of the maker framework. Your student’s creation doesn’t need to be tangible, they can create stories or songs or (more) ideas. I would also recommending erring on the side of time. You can never have too much time when trying new and innovative activities for the first time, especially with students who are enthusiastic about various maker tools. References Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465.
I’m not exactly someone you would consider handy around the house. I have painted a room once in my life, but never actually tried to “redo” a space. My husband and I recently just purchased our first home. We are lucky enough that no major work needs to be done, aside from a few cosmetic updates that we would like to do. The house has a lot light and lighter colors, with the exception of one bathroom. Immediately, the bathroom seemed “off” to me from the rest of the house, because it doesn’t match the aesthetic and it is not my personal style. Upon further inspection, what I thought was deep purple paint, was in fact, deep purple wallpaper with a snakeskin pattern. For my networked learning project, I plan on redoing this bathroom. I’m excited to tackle this project because for me, is it something that is both fun and practical. My goal for the networked learning project is to successfully get the purple paper down without too much of a mess and make it a nice space. I’m also very curious what will be underneath the wallpaper once I get it down. There is a very good chance there could be more wallpaper or even a more bizarre wall color. Typically, I would call my dad for a project like this. He is a property manager and has remodeled and renovated many houses in his career. While I’m slightly nervous, I’m mainly excited that this project will be something I am doing completely on my own. I have already been on Pintrest looking at various resources to use for this project and have found a few different internet guides that people have written after their various experiences with wallpaper removal. I also plan to turn to Youtube and plan on watching a few videos to visually see people do the actual removal and see if there are any techniques that I need to know. I would qualify myself as more of a visual learner. I like to see someone do an activity before I do it or like specific instructions to feel more comfortable as I embark on something new. However, with “do it yourself” projects like this, I tend to favor more written instructions and guides that I can go back and reference quickly throughout whatever I am doing. Learning isn’t something that is easily definable. The study of learning and how individuals learn has greatly changed throughout time. What previously was thought of as “learning” or mastering material is now not the case at all. It was previously considered that someone had learned material when they were able to reproduce certain facts or critical pieces of information. However, with the study of cognitive sciences, it has been found that while having a substantial and solid knowledge base is important, “one of the hallmarks of the new science of learning is its emphasis on learning with understanding” (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000, p. 9). It is how one applies knowledge moving forward that demonstrates learning and understanding and becomes a critical piece of the learning process. To simply possess knowledge isn’t enough. This concept has been something I have been grappling with for a few years now. I am a Spanish teacher and the World Language department in my district has been undergoing the beginning process of reworking and realigning our curriculum. The way some of our current assessments are set up are frustrating, because they are designed to work within the old framework of learning” On these assessments, I have many students that can adequately prove that they have mastered the facts that we discussed in class. However, if I ask them to apply their knowledge in a more “outside the box” manner or demonstrate their knowledge and applicable concepts, they are unable to reach this next step. It is also apparent that defining and assessing learning is dependent on each person as an individual. Students “come to formal education with a range of prior knowledge, skills, beliefs, and concepts that significantly influence what they notice about the environment and how they organize and interpret it. This, in turn, affects their abilities to remember, reason, solve problems, and acquire new knowledge. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000, p. 10) Learning might look different for a Spanish 1 student at the end of their first year of language study versus a heritage Spanish speaker at the end of their first year of Spanish study. We need to make sure we engage these students and really see and understand them. If you gloss over students and treat them all the same and not as individual learners, they will not take an interest in what they are supposed to be learning and might only learn for the sake of a test (if they bother to learn it at all.) Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) provided their opinion on how an expert teacher would function within a classroom, guiding novice students stating “expert teachers know the kinds of difficulties that students are likely to face, and they know how to tap into their students’ existing knowledge in order to make new information meaningful plus assess their students’ progress.” (p. 49) An expert teacher will acknowledge each student individually and be willing to work with their prior knowledge and preconceived notions to help them be successful. Expert teachers can see the bigger picture, even if the student can’t. The framework for an expert and novice educator is no different than that of an expert and novice learner. At the surface level, novices and experts are not that different. When being assessed over basic content area knowledge, there would be very little difference in the factual recall of both learners. However, experts push their learning deeper and can use and apply their knowledge and learning in different areas. Experts can take in the bigger picture of what is happening and make connections between their pieces of knowledge, whereas novices will have substantial information, but might not fully comprehend how it works together or what it is connected to. In my mind, an expert’s view of a situation would look like a concept map where everything is interconnected, whereas a novice might have a lot of the individual pieces, but is lacking the ability to make those connections. Achieving this expert level comes from long-term experience in an activity or content area and an expert learner’s ability to be metacognitive about their experiences. Educational technologies are new and ever changing, similar to learning itself. This is a relatively new, but important facet of education that is still in its early stages. What we know currently about innovative ideas in educational technology could be completely different again in another decade. Studying the theories and science of learning as well as what defines an expert and novice in a field are excellent topics as we delve deeper into these concepts. In our own right, we are all experts in some ways and as we discussed in class might even be “experts at being novices”. As we are learning about this new field of study, it is important to keep that idea in mind. Similar to how the study of learning has evolved, so should our teaching practices. Educators should never be stagnant in their teaching practice and should be pushing for deeper learning and understanding. References Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. |
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