Developer’s Notebook
Amanda Atkinson (Stechschulte)
CEP820 - Spring 2013
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Introduction
The following outlines my journey in creating an online course using Weebly and Edmodo. This course was created with the flipped classroom concept in mind. It is important to note that this course is a work in progress. I am always adding to and changing this course to adapt to my students and the content I am teaching.
Course Audience and Purpose
6th grade Mathematics
Data About Us: In this unit students learn different ways to represent data and how to interpret the data represented in various types of graphs and charts.
This course is for a blended classroom. Students meet for one hour each day in school and the online component will be a place for resources, homework lessons, and discussion outside of the classroom. I want the course to have a flipped classroom feel to it where students are completing assignments and learning material outside of the classroom and completing activities to enrich this knowledge in the classroom. Students will also use the online learning environment as a means for collaborating with homework questions.
The teacher and students will be able to collaborate both in the classroom and outside of the classroom using Edmodo. The discussion board will be used to answer questions on assignments and for students to collaborate. I want students to feel comfortable and enjoy completing homework at home because of the support they will have in the online learning environment.
Students will complete short weekly quizzes to assess basic knowledge of content. Video homework assignments will be completed at home to demonstrate student comprehension of content learned. Projects will be completed in class to assess problem solving skills. Discussion questions allowing students to reflect on learning will be used as an assessment piece as well.
Students will have to learn how to use a discussion board and what is appropriate to post. Cyber bullying can be an issue with discussion forums and social online forums. Students need to be taught what is acceptable and what is not. Also, not all students have access to a computer and internet at home so accommodations will have to be made so these students can complete required work outside of class. Accommodations will have to be made to online content to make learning accessible to all students and levels.
CMP Decision
I am not surprised by the results of my CMP comparison chart because of the experimentation that I did with a number of CMS options. I have used Weebly before and am very happy with what is has to offer for my course. I was leaning toward using Moodle as it is available through my school but did not find it very user friendly while experimenting and was concerned that my middle school students would have difficulty navigating it. I have also used Wikispaces before and find it very temperamental when it comes to editing pages. I like the ease with which you can edit and add content to Weebly pages. I have little experience with Edmodo, but have talked to other teachers that have used it for middle school students and are very happy with the features that it offers.
I decided to use Weebly as a "home base" for my course and Edmodo as a place for turning in assignments and to reflect on learning through discussion. I am familiar with Weebly as i have used it before to house my class website. I love that Weebly is easy to use and there is a lot of flexibility to the structure. It is easy for students to navigate and I am able to embed hyperlinks, photos, multimedia, and my Google calendar for the class. One of my concerns with Weebly is that although there is a blog for discussion, it is not secure. Anyone that sees my website on Weebly can read comments and potentially post comments. There is a way to accept comments so that only students can post, however with the age group of my students I feel more comfortable having a secure place for students to leave comments. Also, students can not turn in assignments on Weebly which is another drawback as I want students to be able to submit assignments online. Edmodo is a secure environment where students can post comments to discussions and submit assignments while enjoying a student friendly structure (the setup is similar to Facebook). Students are not allowed to have email addresses in 6th grade and both Weebly and Edmodo do not require students to have an email address to access the space. At the middle school age students need a safe environment to continue to develop online skills and etiquette and I feel the CMS that I chose will provide that space. By using Weebly and Edmodo in conjunction with one another all of the necessary features I need are available.
Content Development and Course Structure
Students will:
Students will be participating in discussion forums as part of the assessment piece for the course. Students will be graded with a rubric based on creating thoughtful responses to questions, commenting on peer responses, and using proper "netiquette".
Students will also be participating in short weekly quizzes to assess basic understanding of concepts. These quizzes will be completed in Edmodo. Weekly homework assignments will also be assigned and graded in order to assess their comprehension of concepts learned.
In class, students will be completing a WebQuest with a partner and will be assessed on each activity in the WebQuest. A rubric will be used to assess this activity.
I feel that there is a shift taking place in terms of assessment. With the use of technology, information is readily available to students and therefore authentic assessment is important in student learning. I feel that there is a place for all types of assessment just as there is a place for all forms of teaching (lecture, activity, etc.). I think that technology provides us with new and engaging ways of presenting content and administering assessments.
Students will be meeting face-to-face on a daily basis for one hour sessions. In that time, students will be communicating with the teacher and with their peers. During the time they are not in class, students will communicate with the teacher via Edmodo through discussion forums. Students will communicate with each other through discussion forums as well, posting responses to discussion questions and responding to their peers’ posts. Parents will communicate with the teacher via email or the teacher’s class blog by commenting on posts.
I have chosen to create a self assessment rubric for my students. Part of the assessment for my course is the involvement in posting to discussion forums in Edmodo. I want students to evaluate their own participation in class discussions online before I give them feedback on their participation. I feel that self assessments are valuable to both student and teacher as students reflect upon their involvement and learning. My only concern with the self assessment rubric, and some of the other forms used in my course, is the fact that there is no way for me to respond/provide feedback to the student in the form. I have decided that when I assess their discussion participation in Edmodo, I will provide feedback in regards to their self assessment and my thoughts on their participation.
Another key component in assessment is student reflection. I feel that the rubric I created provides students with a means to reflect upon their learning and participation. I also feel that the discussion questions and at least one of the assignments in my course provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their learning.
Final Thoughts
One word that I keep coming back to is change. I created a WebQuest in CEP811 that I am using as a part of my online course and have redesigned it with the idea of not just uploading documents but using other sources, such as Google Forms. When I originally created my WebQuest most of the activities had students downloading a document and then submitting it via email. I have incorporated the use of Google Forms so that students are completing the work directly online (If I ever teach older students, I will use Google Docs as well). I have also included links to interactive sites to replace some websites where students were originally just reading to learn content. It is important to change and adapt to make use of new technologies that come about.
With that, I am reminded that my course is always changing. After reading Interactive Design: Towards the Perfect Paper Plane (Raskin, 2010), I am continually reminding myself that as I improve my design I also have to think about the problems I am trying to solve. In teaching, I am always trying to improve the way I do things and learning that one way of doing things does not always work for every situation and every student. Change is important when creating online. Technology is changing so fast and it is important to adapt online teaching with these changes.
As my course continues to develop and evolve, it is important to reflect. In creating my course it helped that I used a CMS that I was familiar with but would love to experiment with new Course Management Systems to see if others might work better in the future. It’s always important to be a risk taker and try new things and see what works and what doesn’t and always be willing to adapt or change when needed.