EDLD 5352 - Week 5 - Reflections Part 2

Week 5 – 5.2 – Reflections & Status Report

·      Reflections/Status Report of Tech Skills/Knowledge gained in this course: 

o   This course was helpful in allowing me to have my technology toolkit refreshed.  We were required to review Web 2.0 tools and share this information with our team members.

o   Google Document – we were required to use a Google document on which to collaborate with our group members.  I can see that this would have been useful to a person who had never used a cloud based storage to share documents with peers.  It is very similar to the Dropbox account I have been using for a while.

·      Campus-Supervised Internship Activities –

o   This summer, I have completed one task on my internship plan.  This task was the creation of my three year professional growth plan which I completed during my last course.

o   I am nearing the end of my internship and have 7 more tasks to complete.  With school starting soon, I have no doubts that I will quickly finish these 7 tasks.

·      Action Research Project –

o   My Action Research Project is almost finished.  The actual “project” portion is complete.  I must now review the data, evaluate the outcome and finish writing my Action Research Report.  I began writing the ARR during the last course I completed.

EDLD 5352 - Week 5 - Reflections

Week 5 – 5.1 – Web Conference Reflections

·      Web Conference Reflections –

o  I am afraid I do not have very many positive things to reflect upon regarding our web conferences.  I have attended three conferences.

§  Conference 1 – week 2 – this conference was frustrating for all involved because we had many technological issues.  The first 40 minutes or so of the conference were spent troubleshooting audio problems.  The remaining time was spent in a Q & A format, but because audio was poor, I could only hear every fourth or fifth word, so I had to do a lot of inferencing to figure out what the instructors were saying.  I noticed this web conference was never posted for students unable to attend the live conference.

§  Conference 2 – Week 3 – this conference was also extremely frustrating, but for different reasons.  The professor started to review the week 3 assignment which many students had questions about.  He started to review the assignment, but only got as far as the learning outcomes.  Once he came to the actual instructions for the assignment, he stopped reviewing and began asking random discussion questions.  It gave the impression that he was unfamiliar with the week 3 assignment. He refused to answer questions about the assignment and, instead, told us to contact him after the web conference for clarifications on the assignment.  I saw no point to this web conference.  This web conference was also never posted for students who were unable to attend the live conference.

§  Conference 3 – Week 4 – this conference was much better.  There were minimal technological difficulties and the professor (a different professor) was open, friendly, and willing to answer any questions posed by students.  This conference was posted for students unable to attend.

Update of my Action Research Plan....so far, not bad...

My Action Research Plan is to answer the question:  Is Think Through Math and effective intervention for math?  The State of Texas is furnishing public school students interventions in Reading and Math through the Student Success Initiative (SSI).  They have funded the use of Think Through Math and iStation for public school students in grades 3-8. 

Getting Think Through Math (TTM) started was not as easy as I anticipated.  The software appears highly motivational and fun on the surface.  However, I am not sure the company was quite prepared to be launched state-wide when it was released.  There are many components that are still works in progress – some components are highly important, such as reports!    The few reports that are available on the website do not have a printable view option – we must export them to Excel, then “doctor” them to make them look decent.  Without good report data, it is difficult to establish if the program is effective.

I have been in contact with the people of TTM many times in getting started and troubleshooting problems we face. I have attended two web conferences to learn more about the program.  The consultants answer my questions without really answering them, if that makes sense.  I feel like they are trying to gloss over the problems and, instead, draw my attention to the flashy parts.  The program is web-based, and we have found that it is quite “glitchy” with frequent system freezing and errors.  The TTM support staff assure me that it is an error on our end, however, schools all over our district are having the same problems.  Frustrating. 

My campus is using TTM and iStation both as a part of our tutoring programs.  For example, our 5^th graders who are in need of intervention are asked to arrive at school a half hour before school starts to work on these programs in the computer lab.  The teachers call it “Breakfast Club” because on Fridays they reward those who attended faithfully with donuts!

I am considering modifying my action research topic to also include iStation since we are using both of the programs provided by SSI. I’m not sure if that’s allowed…??  Our students MUCH prefer using iStation because of the kid-friendly interface.  They feel like they are playing a game rather than completing lessons.  The iStation program also has not had all of the glitches.  Our students look forward to “playing” iStation.