INTRODUCTIONS
Raj-REminds us that there is a lot more to TELS--teacher dev, etc.
Barbara Taber- Can't get a project to run. Plate Tech and Wolf Ecology. Time is a problem. Concerned about the tech issues in POrtsmouth VA-"void of the technology".
Richard Purman RElease- Airbags, Electricity (chen), Thermodynamics--probing (WISE 3.0 in the spring). Has overcome firewall issues, "I have really enjoyed being a part of the project for the last few years." Wants to make sure that the support remains as this project moves forward.
Barrington Ross- Middle school level TELS, -now teaching in community college. (USE THEM FOR CAPA???), Meiosis, Hanging with Friends. Wants to expand TELS into community colleges, yee-haw!
Mary-Fran-Igneous rocks (too much reading) and global warming (likes manipulating model and dynamic graphs). Technology issues in Acton. Running fewer computers at once. Time is an issue, chock full curriculum. Wants to do this next year, interested in the future.
Chris Clinton- Wants to integrate technology deeper into the curriculum. Likes the interactivity and hasn't had technology problems.
Daron Moore- Electricity, Airbags, love them. Loves our support! Interaction "Such a wonderful exchange to see what the researchers are getting out of it. Love the interactivity of the models, moving the sliders. Really brings in experiemental design and critical thinking excercises." Haven't had too many technology problems- other teachers in the school have trouble.
Alan Warner- Liked the Global Warming program. Very computer literate students, liked the interactivity. Needs to learn more about the programs before using them. Needs to set up better expectations for the kids. Also wanted to be able to get more data out of WISE to assess the kids.
Mike Sullivan- Wants to keep running the project.
Nick Fornaro- Chemical Reactions and Global Warming, enjoys watching Trudi and Ken run around like psychos. Likes to show the kids the interactivity.
Shelly Nason- LIkes being able to see the student comments. Cannot take the number of days required. Reimaging problem, the tech team will wipe computers but not update Flash, etc. "More of them, that are shorter!" 90 mins and you are DONE! More topcs, less time.
Heather Smith-Igneous rocks, plate techtonics, likes the new global warming because of manipulatives and graphs that change right there. Want the pre adn post assessments online and not paper. Wants to see the results for the classroom AND to see the actual data statistics. What happens after the tests are submitted. Kids need immediate feedback. Time issues.
THE FUTURE-AS TOLD BY PAUL HORWITZ
Expanding? Is there life after TELS?
All projects are funded by NSF, etc. 1) We have applied for a suppliment (up to 50%). How likely are we to get that? The feeling is positive that we will get the suppliment, because we are generally seen has having done a good job. 2) Other proposals related to TELS, similar but not the same. A few of these have been submitted, we hope to get them. 3) LOOPS did pass!
Discussion:
Try to integrate our stuff with people who write the state curriculum. We haven't done a lot about that that in this project; we are going this with CAPA (more on that later).
Try to introduce other teachers into the mix, like English teachers (Raj is doing integration in Virginia).
About 200 TELS teachers in all.
WISE 3.0 DEMO and QUESTION
We just did a demo of Wise 3.0 for the teachers. THEY LOVE IT!!! Now, they are logging in and looking around. Here are the questions that just came up.
1) Will student drawings appear in the PDF of graded work? Can teachers grade the drawings? (They want to.)
2) When dragging students around, what happens to the grades you already gave them and the work they already did? We dragged Peter from the Peter/Greg team to the Jan group. We already graded Peter/Greg... does Peter's work and grades both follow him?
3) Can you drag kids from one period to another?
More questions...
4) For multiple periods running the same project simultaneously, can you grade multiple periods at one time? (They want to.)
PROBE AND ITSI DEMO WITH CAROLYN
Barrington Ross, "I like this is better than WISE. It is more real life for students. Gives the students more flexibility to explore." (This means the hands-on probes.
Teachers want to integrate more hands-on stuff into WISE.
Jeanne Goulet, Wants to autoscale each individual dataset as it is generating.
LOOPS AND BEYOND BY STEPHEN
Reporting-What data do teachers want?
What information would you like DURING the class, after the class, at the end of the week?
Circuits and CAPA by Paul
GLOBAL WARMING AND CHEMICAL REACTIONS PROJECTS
Current Issues: Global warming will LET the kids change more than one variable at a time. They should NOT be able to do this because it sends a mixed message and isn't clear. Worksheets need improvement. Let them have a play with the buttons. Even high school kids had trouble with the drawing the model part. Kids go off on these tangents, they need to be reminded what they are supposed to be doing.
Formative feedback and allow students to go reflect, go back and revise their methods. Give the feedback EARLY in the process. Instantaneous like a GPS... "Do a uturn NOW!" More spots with multiple choice to "catch" things.
Everyone loves the challenge questions and eliminates a lot of the guessing.
The "tone" is that there is global warming and this is bad. Instead, let the model and evidence speak for itself. Send a letter to the congressman, the writing of the letter is supposed to be apolitical. Is science in a vacuum? Nope. One student's parents wouldn't let her do the project because it was imbalanced. Loved the global footprint (was used as a homework assignment).
Redirect group on the fly (between sessions). Blasting one grade to all groups. Select a group to respond to. On the grading tool--you are responding after class. Some teachers show the grading tool projected to the class. This raises the bar and sets expectations.
Kids can create a multimedia presentation on what they learn--a summative tool. Showcase what the kids did for a week. Taking 5 days of computer time is a hard sell without an end product to show. Something to showcase and display. This can be a homework assignment to make the connection at home. Each day they have an article to bring to class. Mary Fran did this and it worked well.
How can you connect GW to probes. It draws out the unit that much longer. Earth science goes back to global warming a lot so expanding it for more days isn't good.
Also used Chemical Reactions to reinforce chemistry projects.
Albedo was difficult to grasp. Perhaps probes can be used to show black and white and temp.
Vocabulary is a problem.
Rollover and pop up over certain vocab words--they want it! Then hyperlink to a pop up.
Reports are miserable. The columns are too small. Would rather see it as a spreadsheet. Kids on the Y and questions on the X axis. Little boxes like a grade book. Call it a grade book! Everyone grades 1 question at a time for all kids. The comments are really difficult to grade (fixed by Wise 3.0). The phase change one--25 hours of grading for 2 classes!!! Should have maybe 4 notes that are KEY.
Look at the summative assessment (online) so that teachers can see which points are missed and which topics need more instruction. So, the post-tests need to be online and the researchers need to think about how it works in the classroom. Teachers want feedback after they do the post test.
Different levels of hints, internationalization, need spanish in there, too.
Watch the vocabulary for younger kids. Need test readers to read aloud.
Need more instructions about the graph running in global warming (takes too long).
For students who need hints to write the answers (like in UDL), don't give them so much. Likes to start the sentence thing.
MORE COMMENTS ON THE FUTURE
Pretest should inform the content of the activity.
Feedback should pinpoint the issues. More resources should be available for teachers to add to help students learn the problems.
The system needs to tell the teacher WHAT the kids don't know BEFORE the post-test.
Need quantifiable data, numbers and a pie chart.
Want to use materials in an assembly (kids can create activities with our materials).
Need a publicly sharable product at the end. Physical materials (HOLDABLE things) are important.
Posted by at Jan 06, 2014 06:28
