Reflection on Unit Redesign:
This lesson involves students learning about place-value by using base-ten blocks to create pictures. Before the redesign, the lesson contained no technology. Students simply created a picture using paper, crayons, and cutouts. The pictures would be hung around the classroom and students would take turns guessing and explaining their picture’s value to the class. Students could only present one at a time, and there was no way for students who were absent to participate in the activity at a different time. There was also no choices for how the activity would be done.
With the redesign of the lesson, the lesson was transformed into one where students had many different options for how to create their pictures and present their information. With Voki, students had a wide variety of choices, creating characters unique to them. Students could also work in small-groups at their own pace, going through the art gallery. The activity lends itself to differentiation, with higher-level students making higher and more complex number combinations, and choosing pictures with more complicated base-ten blocks to add up. For example, the advanced student group guessed the value of pictures that involved regrouping and hundreds, tens, and ones. The teacher was able to direct students to pictures appropriate to their skill level, or students could seek out artwork that they were interested in, and because groups could work simultaneously, there was more time for students to go through the activity. Using the Vokis, students were not only more engaged in creating their artwork and explanations, but also in looking at other students’ artwork and scanning the QR codes to check their answers. With the redesigned lesson, students learned about using technology to convey their own words and communicate with fellow students.
In terms of the SAMR model, the old activity was not on the model, because it did not involve technology. In the redesign, the activity falls primarily under augmentation and possibly modification. Each individual aspect of the lesson falls under augmentation. Using Kidspiration to make the base-ten art allows students to change the colors and sizes, and combine and separate base-ten blocks electronically. It also creates a saved copy, which can be changed and used later on. The explanations could have been done verbally, but using the Voki allows for a variety of student choices. Students who are shy are more comfortable using Voki to generate their explanations than they would be speaking out loud to the entire class. The Vokis are also saved, allowing students to watch them outside of class, or to use as a review, or even just to listen to a second time. The teacher can put them into a math center to be used in future learning. Finally, making the Voki linked with a QR code engages students’ ability to drive the lesson, giving students a way to self-correct, and modify their thinking based on the information they receive.
This learning activity meets and touches upon many ISTE Teacher and Student standards. The standard most addressed was ISTE-T #2a: Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Students had QR codes for self-correcting and Vokis for self-expression. It also assisted as an evaluation tool for the teacher to determine what the next step for instructions should be. By allowing students to go through the art gallery, make their own guesses, and check their own answers at their own pace, the activity became a student-driven activity.
The lesson could be improved further and meet more of the ISTE-T and ISTE-S standards if there was more of a collaborative assignment. The way the lesson is written now, collaboration happens only minimally when students are correcting each other in the beginning of the assignment, and they are not working together in larger groups until the end of the activity. It would be a more powerful lesson to have students create their artwork or Vokis together. By having collaboration at the forefront of the lesson, it would have transformed the lesson to a higher level on the SAMR model.
The biggest barrier for this lesson was the need for one-to-one technology. When this lesson plan was designed, it was meant to give each student the option of creating their artwork using Kidspiration. However, because we did not have access to the computer lab due to school scheduling, and we did not have access to laptops, only a limited number of students could create their work using Kidspiration. Students also did not have access to microphones, so the teacher had to record students’ explanations for them. This caused the activity to take more time. The other barrier came from using Voki itself as the expressive tool. Voki only allows for recordings up to a minute, which meant some students had to shorten their explanations, or were cut-off in order to fit the Voki. There was also a struggle using QR codes with Voki, because Voki requires flash, and most smart phones and tablets use a browser that does not support flash. This did not affect student involvement, but from the perspective of the teacher, it was more work to find a way to convert the videos to a format that was supported on most handheld devices.
On review of my lesson, I learned a lot about how to use technology, like Voki and QR codes, to make a lesson more exciting and engaging to students. I look forward to seeing how QR codes can open new possibilities for student engagement and how Voki can be used in future lessons to bring the subject matter to life.
This lesson involves students learning about place-value by using base-ten blocks to create pictures. Before the redesign, the lesson contained no technology. Students simply created a picture using paper, crayons, and cutouts. The pictures would be hung around the classroom and students would take turns guessing and explaining their picture’s value to the class. Students could only present one at a time, and there was no way for students who were absent to participate in the activity at a different time. There was also no choices for how the activity would be done.
With the redesign of the lesson, the lesson was transformed into one where students had many different options for how to create their pictures and present their information. With Voki, students had a wide variety of choices, creating characters unique to them. Students could also work in small-groups at their own pace, going through the art gallery. The activity lends itself to differentiation, with higher-level students making higher and more complex number combinations, and choosing pictures with more complicated base-ten blocks to add up. For example, the advanced student group guessed the value of pictures that involved regrouping and hundreds, tens, and ones. The teacher was able to direct students to pictures appropriate to their skill level, or students could seek out artwork that they were interested in, and because groups could work simultaneously, there was more time for students to go through the activity. Using the Vokis, students were not only more engaged in creating their artwork and explanations, but also in looking at other students’ artwork and scanning the QR codes to check their answers. With the redesigned lesson, students learned about using technology to convey their own words and communicate with fellow students.
In terms of the SAMR model, the old activity was not on the model, because it did not involve technology. In the redesign, the activity falls primarily under augmentation and possibly modification. Each individual aspect of the lesson falls under augmentation. Using Kidspiration to make the base-ten art allows students to change the colors and sizes, and combine and separate base-ten blocks electronically. It also creates a saved copy, which can be changed and used later on. The explanations could have been done verbally, but using the Voki allows for a variety of student choices. Students who are shy are more comfortable using Voki to generate their explanations than they would be speaking out loud to the entire class. The Vokis are also saved, allowing students to watch them outside of class, or to use as a review, or even just to listen to a second time. The teacher can put them into a math center to be used in future learning. Finally, making the Voki linked with a QR code engages students’ ability to drive the lesson, giving students a way to self-correct, and modify their thinking based on the information they receive.
This learning activity meets and touches upon many ISTE Teacher and Student standards. The standard most addressed was ISTE-T #2a: Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Students had QR codes for self-correcting and Vokis for self-expression. It also assisted as an evaluation tool for the teacher to determine what the next step for instructions should be. By allowing students to go through the art gallery, make their own guesses, and check their own answers at their own pace, the activity became a student-driven activity.
The lesson could be improved further and meet more of the ISTE-T and ISTE-S standards if there was more of a collaborative assignment. The way the lesson is written now, collaboration happens only minimally when students are correcting each other in the beginning of the assignment, and they are not working together in larger groups until the end of the activity. It would be a more powerful lesson to have students create their artwork or Vokis together. By having collaboration at the forefront of the lesson, it would have transformed the lesson to a higher level on the SAMR model.
The biggest barrier for this lesson was the need for one-to-one technology. When this lesson plan was designed, it was meant to give each student the option of creating their artwork using Kidspiration. However, because we did not have access to the computer lab due to school scheduling, and we did not have access to laptops, only a limited number of students could create their work using Kidspiration. Students also did not have access to microphones, so the teacher had to record students’ explanations for them. This caused the activity to take more time. The other barrier came from using Voki itself as the expressive tool. Voki only allows for recordings up to a minute, which meant some students had to shorten their explanations, or were cut-off in order to fit the Voki. There was also a struggle using QR codes with Voki, because Voki requires flash, and most smart phones and tablets use a browser that does not support flash. This did not affect student involvement, but from the perspective of the teacher, it was more work to find a way to convert the videos to a format that was supported on most handheld devices.
On review of my lesson, I learned a lot about how to use technology, like Voki and QR codes, to make a lesson more exciting and engaging to students. I look forward to seeing how QR codes can open new possibilities for student engagement and how Voki can be used in future lessons to bring the subject matter to life.