My WPP around equity in remote learning stemmed from my own experiences at the end of the year. Working in Chicago Public Schools as a Computer Science/Technology Coordinator thrust me into a position where I made decisions and support for everything technology. As my school transitioned to remote learning, it amplified many issues of inequity. It was important to me that I spend time identifying ways of improving these inequities.
Stemming from my question, I created a survey meant for teachers on their experiences with remote learning when implemented last March. There is a significant amount of uncertainty and frustrations as we look towards the upcoming school year. Gaining insights into how we can improve remote learning and identify some of the most significant challenges is the only way to start prioritizing next steps. The survey consisted of both questions on a scale from 1 to 5 and optional written responses to elaborate. You can check out the survey below: Equity in Education Survey As we continue working through the remote learning, we are faced with difficult decisions. Through my Wicked Problem I have been able to both wrestle with these decisions and identify critical areas for improvement. We must look to the future of education while keeping equity at the forefront of our decision making. I have included my interactive presentation here: Interactive PearDeck Presentation and an embedded copy below.
References
Curtis, H. (2013). A mixed methods study investigating parental involvement and student success in high school online education. Unpublished Dissertation, Northwest Nazarene University. Kennedy, K., Ferdig, R. E. (2014). Handbook of research on K-12 online and blending learning. (p. 303-323)
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My wicked problem is: How do we ensure equity in remote learning? The push to remote learning in the wake of Covid has been difficult for everyone. However, the most sensitive of our student populations were affected at a significantly higher rate. The growing disparities in education as we moved online are issues that need to be understood and addressed.
In creating this survey, I am seeking to gain insights into how remote learning has affected teachers and their students. Creating this survey involved many iterations and various attempts at structuring. My most significant design issue was limiting my use of open-ended questions. According to Survey Design Best Practices: How to Write a Good Questionnaire by Market Research Guy (2020), open-ended questions are "more taxing on respondents." I needed to find a balance between convenience and the encouraging completion of the survey. My way of addressing this issue was to ask questions on a 1-5 scale and additionally give the ability to answer as a written response for more information. Therefore, reducing the total time and overwhelming feelings that may be associated with the completion of the survey.
References
Market Research Guy. (2020, July 07). Survey Design Best Practices. Retrieved August 02, 2020, from http://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/survey-design-best-practices/
Reflective:
I approached the question quickfire process by starting with the guiding question: "Why is remote learning so much more difficult than in-person instruction?" Along this line of questioning for a continuous five-minutes, contextual inquiry led to significantly better questions (Berger, 2014, p. 97).
At the beginning of the exercise, I attempted to have completely different questions. However, as I began struggling, I started using "smart recombinations" of previous questions (Berger, 2014, p. 104). I began following a line of questioning regarding the different people that support remote learning, leading me to how the community could impact remote learning. Thinking about people within the community, opening up physical space or wi-fi access to help through remote learning led me down a different line of inquiry. Overall, the question quickfire process was a great exercise that I look forward to putting into practice in the future.
Technical: It was my first time creating a sketch note style video and is now another tool in my toolbox. I had the advantage of previously using iMovie software for video editing, allowing me to create a recorded screencast of Padlet question organization. Then I edited the speed of the question organization and overlaid my narration. Initially, I thought this was going to be much more complicated then it ended up being. The ease of creation makes this a viable option for me to use going forward. ReferencesBerger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA. To question is to be human. Paul Harris explains in A More Beautiful Question, “Unlike other primates, we humans are designed so that the young look to the old for cultural information” (Berger, 2014, p. 16). Questioning is part of human nature and is essential throughout our developmental process. Pre-school aged students begin asking questions to make sense of the world around them and seeking an answer that they are satisfied with (Berger, 2014, p. 42). As we gain access to technological resources, we find that the knowledge at our fingertips is immeasurable. What’s more important now is what it means to question. “There’s never been a better time to be a questioner…” (Berger, 2014, p. 28). As I approached this weeks assignment to write down continuous questions for five minutes on the topic of my professional practice. I centered my questions around, “Why is remote learning so much harder than in-person learning?" Today’s current climate in education and my experiences over the last three months of the school year, this question has been weighing heavily on me as Fall is quickly approaching. When considering questioning myself for five minutes straight, I thought it was going to be much more difficult than it actually was. In practice, my probing question gave me much to think about. This question of remote learning in the age of Covid-19 has been an issue that I have been concerned about for some time now. After reviewing my questions and how they developed, it is apparent that towards the end of the five minutes is when I made progress in my questioning. Most of what came out at first was top of mind for me, but it was as I kept digging that I found my questioning the most insightful. I began following a “How can [fill in the blank] support remote learning?” line of questioning. It was the question of, “How can the community support remote learning?” that shifted my thinking. It’s not a line of questioning that I’ve given much thought to. But as Berger explained, “You don’t learn unless you question” (Berger, 2014, p. 24). The conversation that has dominated the news cycle lately is putting such an onus on parents and schools. But, what about the community? What could the community do to help support these students? Could neighbors or local stores share wifi login for students that don’t have access? Could we take a community center approach more seriously to fill the void of food and health services that students so desperately need? I found this line of questioning lent itself to a more divergent way of thinking. As I was preparing to do this, I initially was going to use paper and pen. However, I felt that this would be a great opportunity to try a different piece of educational technology that I’ve heard about but never tried. I steered away from Padlet in the past because it is a paid platform and, not wanting to like it too much, stuck with free technology tools (Padlet, 2008). The free trial allowed me to test out some of its features without requiring me to pay. I found the amount of formatting features and ease of navigation to be clear affordances of this technology. A few constraints were its inability to quickly create a new note, requiring either to double click on the screen or click the plus button at the bottom of the screen. It’s a small thing but I wish there was a shortcut for this when attempting to stream consciousness. Another clear constraint is the price of using this service, which seems very high for what you are actually getting. Unless there are features that I am completely missing, it seems like most of these features can be found in free software.
References Padlet [Online Software]. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.padlet.com. Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury. pg. 1-70. Link to Google Document
Nearly 85% of the school community identifies as Latinx. Seeing every student in the school as a computer science specials teacher poses many language challenges in my day-to-day instruction. Emergent Bilingual Learners (EBL) is a student population that I don’t feel my pre-service teacher preparation program spent enough time preparing me for. After reading “It’s Not Really My Job”: A Mixed Methods Framework for Language Ideologies, Monolingualism, and Teaching Emergent Bilingual Learners by Chris Bacon (2020) highlights how, especially pre-service teacher preparation programs, hold “[English] monolingualism as a language ideology in U.S. educational contexts.” I often felt inadequate in my ability and available resources to address issues that would arise in my classroom, especially with younger students.
From grades K-2nd, one classroom from each grade level was designated as a bilingual classroom but when students would come to my room they did not have the same language supports, in part because I do not know Spanish. While I was able to pick up certain words and phrases, it was not at all sufficient. There is also the added challenge of many students being pre-readers and not just simply being able to provide them with a text translation of my instruction. Both of these factors contributed to a significant challenge in my teaching. Using Google Translate on an iPad, could give my students the tool they need to better understand my instruction. While somewhat anecdotal evidence, research from Benjamin Van Praag and Hugo Santiago Sanchez (2015) illustrates a general educators negative outlook on the individual student’s use of mobile devices in classrooms. Their findings are consistent with my experiences in the classroom but the Google Translates capability of conversational translation could significantly change the classroom. For this to be done successfully it will require a great degree of scaffolding and targeted interventions for students that need it. However, I can foresee many teachers and parents arguing for full language immersion as the only way to get EBL students up to speed. I caution this argument on the basis of a productive struggle. As an educator, we are tasked with providing our students with what they need to be successful. Some students may benefit from a full language immersion approach but, there will be students that need added supports that Google Translate use in the classroom can provide. References Bacon, C. K. (2020). “It’s Not Really My Job”: A Mixed Methods Framework for Language Ideologies, Monolingualism, and Teaching Emergent Bilingual Learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(2), 172–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487118783188 Google Inc. (2016). Google Translate Logo [png]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google_Translate_Icon.png Van Praag, B., & Sanchez, H. S. (2015). Mobile technology in second language classrooms: Insights into its uses, pedagogical implications, and teacher beliefs. ReCALL : The Journal of EUROCALL,27(3),288-303. doi: http://dx.doi.org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1017/S0958344015000075 The idea of forming a habit, so often, refers to negative things in your life. Among the many interesting examples from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, the habit-forming of exercise was intriguing to me (2012). The cycle of cue, routine, reward as a way of creating a habit made me think differently about how I’ve approached habit forming in my own life. Especially in the time of Covid-19, it is a constant challenge to match the activity levels that I’m used to having in exercise and work. Much of my activity level relied on access to a neighborhood gym and walking around my classroom all day. Covid-19 has drastically shifted the habits I had formed before social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Creating new positive habit-forming routines is difficult, but being intentional with the cycle of cue, routine, and reward, it will help me adapt to my new normal.
Performing a behavior analysis from a scene out of Harry Potter was an engaging way of critically looking at behaviorism. Dolores Umbridge's teaching presented an opportunity to see behaviorist concepts in action. In the scene, she focuses on the wrong way to handle classroom management. Through her example and the use of behaviorism, it is possible to see clear red flags as to why her techniques are not working. In an attempt to control her class, she perfectly illustrates the many pitfalls of using continuous positive punishment (Cherry, 2019). It’s not uncommon to see less extreme versions of this, attempting to be used to shape student behavior. When looking at my classroom management, it is crucial to be intentional about the types of operant conditioning used. Consistently striving for a more variable ratio or interval schedule for positive reinforcement is proven to be more productive. The use of positive punishment to shape student behavior is reactionary. At times, a way of trying to change a behavior that might be dangerous or harmful quickly. Preemptively accounting for possible problem areas of classroom management through more efficient operant conditioning concepts can go a long way for both your students and you as a teacher. Revisiting operant conditioning concepts of reinforcements and schedules is interesting when thinking about classroom management techniques (Cherry, 2019). When first introduced to these ideas in undergrad, I lacked the classroom experience to make real connections to these concepts. Now when thinking about a positive reinforcement with a variable interval schedule in my classroom, I think about my kindergarten classes. As a K-8 Computer Science teacher, I must adapt to my changing grade levels quickly and frequently. Giving my middle schoolers positive reinforcement with a variable ratio is effective. However, with kindergarteners, I’ve found my tendencies for reinforcement to be different. Finding a way to incorporate positive reinforcement in a variable interval or ratio schedule would improve the classroom environment for all of my students. Overall, unit 2 gave me the opportunity to revisit concepts that I hadn't interacted with in quite some time. Behaviorism, more specifically operant conditioning concepts, have very interesting applications to classroom management and everyday life. References Cherry, K. (2019, September 5). What is operant conditioning and how does it work?. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/operant-conditioning-a2-2794863 Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random House. Imagine for a minute that you are in a US suburb, at a manufacturing office park. The building’s grey aluminum siding is almost as depressing as its windowless interior. It’s the dead of summer in Michigan, temperatures during the day reaching 90 degrees. Your job is quality control and packaging of plastic injection molding parts. You won’t be doing this a couple times throughout the day, but somewhere close to 4,000 times that day.
This rapid fire mentality was efficient and yielded great profits for the factory that I worked in during my high school summers. However, this factory job did not lend itself to opportunities in design thinking. In fact, design thinking was discouraged. It was a job of productivity. The most important factor to my day was how many parts I had successfully packaged. Would you be surprised if I told you that not once did I talk to the mechanical engineer that oversaw this production? Probably not, because why would he? My role as the operator was to churn out as many parts as I could and not make a mistake. But what if, for a minute, I was able to use design thinking. What if that mechanical engineer had spent thirty minutes each week checking in with me, maybe explaining the process or things he was noticing? What do you think may have happened if this engineer approached me with a design cycle. It’s possible that our collaboration could have saved the company time or money or both. As a society we are focused on productivity with no time set aside for design thinking. Since reading the article, The Psychology of How Mind-Wandering and “Positive Constructive Daydreaming” Boost Our Creativity and Social Skills (Popova, 2016), I started to reflect on myself. Thinking about my many different jobs and how productivity was valued above all else in all of them. The societal expectation for constant productivity is an idea that I undoubtably grew up with. Ideas are not always valued the same as productivity but they are just as important. This idea of productivity above all else becomes ingrained and it impacts how I do my work as an educator today. The stifling of design thinking over productivity doesn't just happen in a factory, it happens in our schools. As an educator, a constant productivity mindset doesn’t give time to step back and solve problems effectively. Taking my experiences in this course, I have made steps to change this about my work. Making time to be intentional about my problem solving and looking at it through a different lens has been immensely beneficial. My biggest takeaway from this course was the implications that design has within education and my work as an educator. My ability to take the Stanford design cycle (Stanford, n.d.) and apply this to solving a problem in curriculum development, for example in my Problem of Practice during this semester, is extremely powerful. The ideation process of brainstorming and incubating from the design cycle have been useful concepts in this chaotic time of Covid-19. The idea of brainstorming in different ways and applying strategies has had the most impact. Having the knowledge and reassurance that grinding through a problem may not always be the best method. As my school’s computer science teacher and technology coordinator I am responsible for my classes, along with managing and troubleshooting the school's technology. This, as you can imagine, has not been easy given the school year has ended and my district has shifted to a remote learning initiative till the end of the school year. I am now being required to make some tough decisions and support frustrated staff with digital learning implementation. Teaching in the age of Covid-19 is going to need design thinking and the design cycle. During a digital meeting with teachers in my school, many of which are veteran teachers, a 20 year teacher began explaining how she felt like a first year teacher again. She explained that the stress and frustration of adapting her teaching to digital learning brought anxiety that she hadn’t felt since the beginning of her career. As she said this, the other five teachers shook their heads in agreement. This statement shed a light on just how powerful a moment we are having in education right now and the part design has to play in it. Moving learning to digital and online formats is not going to be an easy task, but through the right design we may be able to create something better than before. Technology gives us the ability to reach students in a different way. An example of this from this semester was our class use of Flipgrid. It was a great resource for getting a gauge on people and their ideas throughout the course. In an online course, circumstances dictated a different way of communicating with classmates and I found Flipgrid to be beneficial. It gave flexibility that video conferencing, for example, cannot provide for people in different time zones or different working hours. I saw value in the small professional learning community within Flipgrid. In a way they just made me feel less isolated from classmates. Just hearing others’ sentiments on a particular reading or video was beneficial to my learning. These ideas in the world of digital learning have extended past this course and found a place within my professional world. I have used this experience with other educators as a way of still connecting with their students in these difficult times. Project based learning, differentiation, collaboration are all still possible within these digital formats. Education will look different, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have the same impact. In fact, it may be an opportunity to have more of an impact than our previous educational system. Being intentional about design in everything that I do has helped me be a better educator. Approaching each lesson or curriculum by way of the design cycle of empathizing with my students, defining my problem, brainstorming ideas, developing a prototype and testing. Design is already changing my work for the better. As I continue helping other educators, it will impact more than just my own student’s learning. Granted, my computer science classroom looks very different from a homeroom elementary class, my class structure hasn’t changed much. Since the beginning of the year, I have been using a classroom website and Google Classroom to facilitate nearly every lesson with my students. For me, it was a fairly smooth transition for my students. Being able to share these designs with other educators and support has made the best of a terrible situation. The concept of ideation, the idea of brainstorming and incubation of ideas, has had the greatest impact on me in the last couple months. Through all the changes taking place in my school it has been the brainstorming of ideas and problem solving that has had the greatest impact. Being more intentional about the way I brainstorm has made me a better educator and support system for my school. Along with active brainstorming, I have been using the incubation process in my work. Being able to focus on ideas and intentionally walking away from them so that I can come to a better understanding or find what I may have overlooked. Throughout the chaos, there have been some good things. Teachers are looking at their lessons and more importantly their students in a different way. Seeing veteran teachers that resisted the use of technology, now problem solving and adapting. Administrators are coming from a place of “How can we do right by our community?,” instead of the next round of test scores. Parents are taking positive ownership over their children's education. All these examples give us the chance to design and innovate. People get complacent, the same is true for education. Out of tragedy there is an opportunity to persevere. New methods and structure will undoubtably be hard for some students at first, but many will thrive. I have seen examples of students that were silent in the traditional classroom group setting, now coming alive in this digital format. Students finding a voice is empowering. As life goes on for everyone, we are now looking at a new normal. Instead of looking at this with dread and despair, we can shift our focus toward an opportunity to do better by our students, parents and community. Designing a curriculum that is engaging, collaborative and promotes student ownership. References Control, V. (2019, June 13). 5 Steps of the Design Thinking Process: A Step-by-Step Guide Blog Voltage Control. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://voltagecontrol.com/blog/5-steps-of-the-design-thinking-process-a-step-by-step-guide/ Popova, M. (2016, June 13). The Psychology of How Mind-Wandering and "Positive Constructive Daydreaming" Boost Our Creativity and Social Skills. Retrieved from https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/10/09/mind-wandering-and-creativity/ Stanford d.school. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://dschool.stanford.edu/ Google Doc Introduction For my Problem of Practice, I am looking at the challenge of developing a computer science curriculum for a younger audience. I set out to design a more inclusive, rigorous computer science/technology curriculum for my kindergarten through second grade students. Being a first year kindergarten through eighth grade computer science teacher brought many challenges. From previous experience, I had the content knowledge to feel confident developing my upper elementary and middle school students curriculum. When it came to kindergarten through second grade, it was more challenging for me. For context, the format of my class is sixty minutes once a week for all K-8 classes in the school. My classroom is a computer lab with built-in rows of tables and limited floor space. Not conducive to the way that I would like to teach, especially for younger students. Working with some of these limitations and circumstances to develop a curriculum for a younger audience was my goal. Navigating the design cycle to empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test for my Problem of Practice helped develop a viable solution. Empathize Creating a character profile for my students and school using school data gave me insights to help empathize for what my students needed. The student population demographic information included 84.7% of students having hispanic heritage. The demographic data correlates with 48.2% of students having limited English proficiency. Since this data is representative of K-8, there is a larger concentration of limited English proficiency in the lower grades. This has posed a significant challenge for me this year and has affected nearly every aspect of my teaching with lower elementary. I catch myself sometimes shying away from trying new things in anticipation of language barriers. Another aspect of the student population is that 92.7% are coming from low income households. This provides new insight into technology access among my students. Technology is expensive and having a personal computer is most certainly a luxury item. This is a contributing factor for students coming into the computer lab with limited exposure to technology outside of school. This significantly impacts the starting point of my curriculum and how I am introducing technology. Rounding out my character profile for my K-2 students gave insight into what my students need most from me to be successful. While nothing I found in the data of my students was surprising, it was a good way of refocusing my attention and seeing my student’s needs through a different lens. Define My Problem of Practice is defined by my challenge to develop a computer science curriculum for a young audience. Performing a root cause analysis through reframing and drilling down into my problem provided a more comprehensive understanding of my problem. Performing a 5 Whys, Why-How Ladder and Point of View Framework activities from the Design Thinking Bootleg (2018) helped give insights in defining my Problem of Practice. The most helpful of the activities was the Point of View Framework. In this activity, I answered prompts related to my problem including; “We met, We were surprised to notice, We wonder if this means, and It would be game changing to.” It brought me closer to the information that I gathered from the Empathy Report, putting it in terms of a specific student. Drawing on personal experience with a student, there were times that I was surprised at how easy some logical sequencing activities had been. It made me wonder if this could be generalized for the rest of the students in the surrounding age band. Finally, it would be a game changer if I was able to implement these complex concepts to the rest of the age band. If students were grappling with these complex logical sequences then I should have been, at the very least, entertaining the thought of other students ability to do the same. Ideate In the ideation stage of the design process, I spent time brainstorming and incubating ideas around my newly defined Problem of Practice. This took the form of a fifteen minute brainstorming session with a friend posing my defined Problem of Practice: It is challenging to develop a computer science curriculum for a younger audience. Some key takeaways from the brainstorm were the importance of developing my own resources for my curriculum, Spanish support, ease of access and younger students' shorter attention span. These new insights did not completely shift my focus but highlighted some important considerations. Out of the brainstorming session, I considered coming up with a Google translated script for Spanish speaking friends to read and host on my classroom website. Giving students the ability to choose what works for them. Building off this idea, the resources need to be either read by me or recorded in audio so young students can work through the content independently for nonreaders. Giving sufficient amounts of time to moving around the room and not just sitting in front of a screen is important for taking attention span into consideration. The incubation process was less successful. I do see its value in this process but it was difficult to stay consistent. With more practice I could see this being a useful tool. Prototype My prototype is an Understanding by Design framework and corresponding classroom website for the K-2 computer science curriculum. The framework highlights four main categories of teaching including computer operation, algorithm/sequencing, data analysis and technological impact. The vehicle for the content will be a Google Site that I create. My students are familiar with our current classroom site and have modeled it’s structure. Working through the prototype process, helped develop my ideas and resources for the curriculum framework. It also made me realize the amount of work I have ahead of me to develop a curriculum that I am satisfied with. The areas of my curriculum that I don’t touch on in my UbD is the Spanish resources that will need to be developed. It would be premature to build out the Spanish resources before having a good base on the rest of the curriculum.
Test My problem of practice is solving the issue of computer science curriculum development for kindergarten through second grade. Helping solve this problem, I have developed Understanding by Design curriculum framework and website as prototypes. Due to the coronavirus, I had planned to be able to test in my Friday kindergarten class. But since school has been canceled for the foreseeable future, I sent the curriculum website to a few adult friends. While not ideal, they were able to provide insights to structure, content and visuals. Using the curriculum website in a classroom setting, the tiles (each week's lesson) would be hidden until I want students to access them. This would help prevent students from visiting the wrong week's lesson. Respondents were instructed to view the UbD curriculum framework, then navigate the website through the eyes of a kindergartener. Once respondents had completed the initial viewing, they were prompted with the following questions. Respondents Questions: Structure Was there anything you found that may be confusing for a kindergartener? Is there anything that you would change? Content Based on what you think a kindergartner is capable of, do you feel this is age appropriate? Is there anything you think could be added? Visuals Is there anything, stylistically, that could be improved to aid a kindergartener? Testing Results Respondents were overall satisfied with the structure, content and visuals that were provided within the prototypes. I did not sufficiently explain to respondents my intention to introduce and guide students through the information before having them try it. The material that I have put together is not meant to serve as a standalone e-learning curriculum but material that I teach first. Another observation from a respondent identified was navigation issues. It was my goal to keep the site as simple as possible to eliminate potential confusion. In doing so, I left out clear functionality to get back to the main page. The user would be able to click the top left text to navigate back but this was unclear. Moving forward, I will be including a clear consistent back button that I can identify with students at the beginning of the lesson. Conclusion In retrospect, I found the feedback valuable in helping identify things that I overlooked. Being so involved in the development of curriculum and lesson resources brought about some blindspots. Having a few people look it over and force me to explain my thought process pointed out things like first learning how to use a mouse but expecting students to be able to scroll. A fairly small oversight but one that would be crucial in the navigation and function of the lesson. A solution to my Problem of Practice is far from complete but this process has brought me much closer to achieving my goal for developing a new K-2 computer science curriculum. References Chicago Public Schools: Corkery Elementary. (2019, September). Retrieved February 2, 2020, from https://schoolinfo.cps.edu/schoolprofile/schooldetails.aspx?SchoolId=609870 Corkery Elementary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2020, from https://www.greatschools.org/illinois/chicago/1016-Corkery-Elementary-School/ Holcomb S, Doorley S, Klebahn P, et al. (2018) Design Thinking Bootleg. In: Stanford d.school. Retrieved April 22, 2020 from https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/design-thinking-bootleg LINKS Curriculum Website UbD Curriculum Framework Final Report Google Doc
This video shows protocols and a walkthrough for my Problem of Practice prototypes. Both the developed UbD curriculum framework and website are featured as I explain the testing process. My Problem of Practice is developing a computer science curriculum for a younger audience. Finding curriculum resources for my Kindergarten-2nd grade students is difficult and even more so for my ESL students. Creating my own curriculum and resources will allow my students to have greater accessibility to computer science concepts. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances I was unable to test with young students. Instead, I sent this out to colleagues and friends to help get feedback. Testers were given instructions to look through prototypes through the eyes of a kindergartener and then answer prompts including questions around structure, content, and visuals. While this prototype is not a complete curriculum, it is on its way to being a valuable computer science resource for reaching younger students.
https://youtu.be/77tRgwRWnwA Testing Video Reflection_Google Doc Curriculum Lesson Website Computer Science Curriculum UbD Framework My problem of practice is solving the issue of computer science curriculum development for kindergarten through second grade. Helping solve this problem, I have developed Understanding by Design curriculum framework and website as prototypes.
Due to the situation of coronavirus, I had planned to be able to test in my Friday kindergarten class. But since school has been canceled for the foreseeable future, I sent the curriculum website to a few adult friends. While not ideal, they were able to provide insights to structure, content and visuals. On the curriculum website, two weeks have been completed. Using this in a classroom setting, the tiles (each week's lesson) would be hidden until I want students to access them. This would help prevent students from visiting the wrong week's lesson. The events of the coronavirus has also impacted my ability to provide language translation resources for non-readers. Respondents were instructed to view the UbD curriculum framework, then navigate the website through the eyes of a kindergartener. Once respondents had completed the initial viewing, they were prompted with the following questions. Respondents Questions: Structure Was there anything you found that may be confusing for a kindergartener? Is there anything that you would change? Content Based on what you think a kindergartner is capable of, do you feel this is age appropriate? Is there anything you think could be added? Visuals Is there anything, stylistically, that could be improved to aid a kindergartener? Testing Results: Respondents were overall satisfied with the structure, content and visuals that were provided within the website. One respondent posed a question about the student’s ability to scroll on the page. This was a great point and one that I will go revisit and address. Something that was not explained beforehand to respondents was my intention to introduce and guide students through the information before sending them on their way to try it on their own. The material that I have put together is not meant to serve as a standalone e-learning curriculum but material that I teach first. Another observation that another respondent identified was navigation issues. It was my goal to keep the site as simple as possible to eliminate potential confusion. In doing so, I left out clear functionality to get back to the main page. The user would be able to click the top left text to navigate back but this was unclear. Moving forward, I will be including a clear consistent back button that I can identify with students at the very beginning of the lesson. Conclusion: In retrospect, I found the feedback very valuable in helping identify things that I overlooked. Being so involved in the development of curriculum and lesson resources brought about some blindspots. Having a few people look it over and force me to explain my thought process pointed out things like first learning how to use a mouse but expecting students to be able to scroll. A fairly small oversight but one that would be crucial in the navigation and function of the lesson. No matter the problem, collaboration with others can show aspects to your potential solution that you can easily overlook. UbD Curriculum Framework Curriculum Website Google Doc_Testing Report |
AuthorMy name is Ryan MacLeod and I live in Seattle, WA. I am currently a K-8 Lab Coordinator. I have a passion for educational technology integration and curriculum design, especially when it comes to the social sciences. Archives
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