Blog Post 2

    

A study of middle school students whose teachers used cell phones to teach math concepts showed a high level of student engagement in the instructional activities, increased motivation, greater understanding of concepts, and increased innovation in problem-solving. 

First, student learners were able to and encouraged communicate collaboratively via the cell phones and the appropriate applets that enabled the math skills to be practiced and mastered.  This communication and collaboration took place in a setting (outdoors) that made the experience entirely out-of-classroom and re-framed the whole learning experience in unique ways.  Appealing to young people’s learning styles, these activities’ successes resulted from unique and stimulating context.

Second, students used their cell phone cameras to observe in new ways the objects they were asked to measure.  They used the cameras to capture angles and perspectives that in-classroom instruction would not have afforded them.  The complex nature of some of the mathematical tasks were possible only because the students were able to photograph, zoom, observe, study, measure, and record data that would have, otherwise, been unavailable to them.  Their observational skills were stimulated and practiced to higher levels than in typical classroom settings with pencil and worksheets.

Third, the relationship between learning skills and applying the skills in real-world contexts is always a difficult one to establish.  The question of ‘why are we having to learn this?’ takes on a whole new meaning when one is actively using a desired technology to find answers to problems they are standing in the midst of.  The applets used by the cell phones required active problem-solving and creative strategies to reach successful conclusions in a real-world setting.  The knowledge becomes useful and not just more data to store in their mind-banks until test time.

Teachers were able to bring the students closer to their learning goals by giving the guided instruction and practice in the classroom and then transferring the class to the independent learning classroom outdoors armed with their cellphones and applets.  Concepts such as length, height, point, coordinate system, linear function, etc. were all specific concepts learned in different modes:  the traditional low-tech classroom and the untraditional outdoor high-tech classroom.  Students even showed that they changed their learning habits through the use of their cellphones.  Attention to detail, not skipping steps in a multi-step problem-solving strategy, better listening of peer contributions to the problem-solving process, and anticipating the next problem set were all skills and habits honed through cellphone use.

Daher, W. & Baya'a, N. (2012). Characteristics of middle school students learning actions 

     in outdoor mathematical activities with the cellular phone. Teaching Mathematics and 

     Its Applications, 31, 133-152. doi:10.1093/teamat/hrr018
   

Blog Post 1

• Strengths
• Domain 1 (Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity) Performance Indicator A is definitely one of my strengths.  I think most teachers who are 'called' to teach feel like they have the inspired motivation and ability to reach students through their gifts.  Creative thinking and problem-solving is the basis of my lesson cycle each day.
• Domain 3 (Model digital age work and learning) Performance Indicator C.  Through experimentation and exploration, I have reached a comfort level with technology where I can present workshops, lead parent involvement activities, and share 'cool' techniques with peers via digital media.
• Weaknesses
• Domain 4 (Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility) Performance Indicator B is going to be a challenge for me in the setting in which I am presently employed.  Equitable access continues to be a challenge for a majority of our students whose only access to the web is at school or the public library.  Therefore flipped lessons, independent research, homework, parental guidance, exposure to internet/global settings are all limited in scope. 
• Domain 5 (Engage in professional growth and leadership) Domain C.  Time, energy, and resources are always limited for teachers to evaluate and reflect on research regarding emerging digital tools.  Often I find myself experimenting with something I 'ran across' instead of proactively searching for effective tools best suited to my purposes.
  

     Since I am a great teacher (no applause please!) and an inspired problem-solver, I can use these strengths to provide structure and purpose to share my knowledge and expertise with students and peers. 

     Our small district is just now able to provide 4th and 5th graders with mini-laptops.  So providing equitable access for this small population of the elementary school has quadrupled since.  However, I want to find ways to teach the parents how important it is to make home internet access available to their children so they can be participating members of the digital era.

     I truly believe 'there is nothing new under the sun' EXCEPT when it comes to technology and the internet!!  I borrow what I find (with appropriate and legal credit, of course) and share what I know.  I pick brains and websites.  I listen with all ears to teenagers, geeks, teachers, and students.  I take as many professional development workshops as I am able.  I enroll in instructional media courses at UNT.

     I am fascinated with the usefulness of wikis to replace facetime meetings.  I think they are more purposeful, efficient, and collaborative.  I want to learn all I can to persuade my teacher-team to use these for collaborative planning and communication prior to dumping meeting minutes into Eduphoria at the last minute.

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