Khan Academy & Digital Nation

Kahn Academy

The life story of Salman Khan was impressive to say the least. It all started with him helping a family member with her math through YouTube.  It's amazing how quick his instruction spread. Bill Gates had a lot to do with it. Khan couldn't believe that Bill Gates was using his video to learn math.  It turns out Bill was just the start.  Kahn Academy is used by millions of people all over the world. The technique Khan uses is a flipped classroom design. 

The flipped classroom model of teaching flips the design of teaching and learning.  For classwork students attend a virtual lecture, podcast or watch a video at home the evening prior to the class, and then come to classroom the next day to do their homework. By flipping the two, students utilize their class time to work collaboratively with fellow students and instructors.   This model allows for hands on learning and instruction during the school day.   The instructor spends less time talking and more time doing. Students come to class prepared to ask questions and work together to find answers.

At CCV we use Khan Academy to help students prepare for college level math courses.  I can see this program working nicely in a flipped classroom.  Students watch videos and tutorials and answer questions at home.  The questions they get wrong, can then be revisited during class time the following day.  This program actually helps students work through missions. Once they master one mission they move onto the next.  It also has the capacity to report student learning information to instructors, to support classroom instruction or lesson planning.

Our Digital Nation

Technology is a part of day-to-day life in America and some children are introduced into it as early as infancy. We have baby monitors, video cameras, visions being broadcast on the ceiling and sounds being transmitted in many children’s nurseries. By preschool many of these children can play games on their parent’s phone.  Digital Nation suggests that technology and the internet are an addiction for many people all over the globe. 

Multitasking was a leading topic in Digital Nation. This video was produced 2010 I wonder if we as a society have gotten better over the past seven years multitasking with technology. MIT professors in this video suggest that our students are living in a short term world due to their constant technology multitasking. They say their student have trouble completing more than just a sentence or even reading a book. Many instructors no longer assign large novels as class work, because students don't read them.  

Virtual reality scares me. In this video people actually meet other people in virtual worlds and end up getting married. They consider their first dates the day they met in a room in virtual reality room.  Drones in our military are the same.  Military personal are sending bombs across the world virtually.  Killing many people while sitting in a desk chair.  There are reports that many of these drone drivers are suffering from PTSD due to their drone activities.

I am confident that our world as it relates to technology is going to change even more dramatically than it has in the past sentence years. I feel that in order to survive and thrive we will need to keep up with these changes.  As scary as some of these technology advances seem I can only imagine that we will see in the future. 

Self-reflection:

Again, Moodle Snoodle!  

My biggest obstacle is the Moodle Classroom.  I do not find it as user-friendly as it is geared to be. I struggle with the grade book, and at this time I have yet to set mine up for the summer semester.  A component of Moodle that I would like to understand and utilize is Turnitin: "Improve student writing with instant feedback as they reviseRevision is essential to great writing. Help students become better writers with specific, actionable feedback throughout the writing process. Engage students in a supportive writing space that extends the reach of instruction and aligns with learning outcomes." http://turnitin.com/  

We can use Turnitin for free and it seems wonderful, but I do not know how to use it.  Once I gave an assignment to my students and used Turnitin and when they were done I had trouble opening their papers, let alone using it as a teaching tool. 

One way I could remedy this and by taking the time to watch a  Webinar on Turnitin.  They do exist, I just never have time. 

Technology Obstacles

Moodle Snoodle

One of the biggest technology obstacles I face as an instructor at CCV is the online Moodle Classroom.  I can manage the basics, but I never seem to have time to explore all the wonderful tools there are to be utilized.  My problem is time, but I believe many of our faculty may find spending time away from a money-making job difficult. I wish that faculty was paid a stipend to pursue professional development as it applies to their specific classroom needs.  If that were the case I believe many of our faculty would explore their Moodle technology options.  

To work around obstacles like this I would like to make the learning opportunity exciting in hopes that the excitement outweighs the cost or time obligation  I would have our most exciting and fun Coordinator conduct a Moodle Tools presentation and provided lunch. Sounds simple, but people like food.

Student, Parent and Community Engagement - Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a free online survey software.  The software provided by Survey Monkey allows you to create many types of surveys from the very simple to the most complex.  It has fifteen questions types and can be sent out via mobile, web or social media.  They also offer hundreds of  templates, a very helpful tool when you are crunched for time. I know many people in my institution use Survey Monkey to survey different groups of people within the organization. 

I think Survey Monkey is a great tool to engage parents, community members, faculty, staff and administration. You can ask parents specific questions about specific areas of concern, or those that you feel might need improvement. For instance, how they feel about the school climate, or maybe questions about the class you are teaching. Polling the community is always a good way to engage people outside of the school building.  Sometimes the community feels left out of decisions that their tax dollars are supporting.  Faculty and staff can benefit in many ways, for instance on how they view their workplace, job satisfaction, to changing curriculum etc. Another great aspect of Survey Monkey is the several survey samples that are specific to the educational community.  These could be very helpful in building your survey as well as enhancing it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/

Student Engagement in the Classroom - To Click or Not to Click

I teach a class called Introduction to College Studies.  My students are in Grades 9-12 and are from a variety of sending schools.  One topic I have discussed with them and with my fellow colleagues is student engagement in the classroom. After much discussion, I feel that technology can be a great source to utilize to motivate and engage learning in the classroom.

We talked in class yesterday about Clickers.  I have had fellow instructors ask me if I knew anything about them, or if I had ever used them.  The answer is no.  While researching Clickers I found that there are many free applications available for use in classrooms. One that seemed interesting was Poll Everywhere.  It is a free application and you do not need to purchase any extra equipment.

Poll everywhere is an application that students can use their phones, tablets or personal computers. It works in real time, and as the students answer the questions the results are broadcasted on a web browser in a PowerPoint presentation. All you need for POLL everywhere is a phone, computer, etc.  I could see it becoming a problem if not all students have a phone or a device. In public pk-12 school, this could be the case. In higher education, most students are expected to have computers. I think the option of using phones and laptops, greatly increases student motivation, because most students have a hard time putting their devices down in the first place.  Also, the Poll Everywhere application can be used at home as well as in the classroom, unlike clickers. With Poll Everywhere you can make comments and ask open questions. The best part is the instructor and the student's receive instant audience feedback.

I have a site I use with my students to help engage and motivate them. It’s not a polling site, or a clicker application, but it is very exciting and fun.  It called Jeopardy Labs.  Her is a link to the site: https://jeopardylabs.com/. You can make your own Jeopardy game and pick all your own categories.  My students love it, they get up and out of there seats, and are genuinely having fun and learning at the same time.