Coppolino+Notes

= Sera's Notes =

Scaffolding: Does this improve teaching/learning? Does this save time?
 * __ Day 1 __**

Can use Wikispaces to make a course website rather than using CHIP. IDEA: Have students do something each day- do not necessarily grade every assignment.
 * School would care about names and photos.
 * Can make this private.
 * If it is public, the students do not need to register to edit.
 * i.e. writing for 5 minutes "Did you agree with last night's reading?" "What did you think of last night's reading?" "What was the main thesis of the reading?" "What did you think was most interesting about last night's reading? Podcast? Video?"
 * Do a calculation problem: predator-prey graphs, Max sustained yield, energy questions
 * Mix these with iClicker Questions
 * Think about whether I would like to have separate APES courses to make Clickers easier to grade- so that there are not the zeros.
 * Would be interesting assignment to have students compare a scientific presentation of an idea vs. "Fox News" description.

400 550 Step1: What do I want my students to learn?
 * What do I want my students to get out of this class?**
 * Expose students to the broad topics in biology
 * Prepare them for the SAT II in Biology
 * Be literate in biology so that they can make decisions about their health, families, environment
 * Would like them to understand the scientific process- what questions does science answer, what questions are not answered by science (moral, ethical, because we ca is different than should we?, recognize the intersection- how science could help you arrive at a moral/ethical decisions)
 * Expose them to the topics/material they will need to be prepared for the AP exam
 * Expose students to a broad range of environmental issues
 * Demonstrate how the physical, biological, and chemical processes work in nature and are interconnected with social, political, economic, and cultural phenomena
 * Recognize their role, contribution and impact on their world- global and local.
 * Session 1: Where does technology fit into my course?**
 * Tell them what the game plan/topic is for the day.
 * What are the goals to show that they have learned it.
 * Use specific observable language: describe analyze, argue, solve, create, compare
 * Goals of knowing and understandable are valuable but vague
 * What would a student do to demonstrate their knowledge/understanding
 * Esoteric and quantitative goals

Step 2: Identify the best teaching strategies
 * writing and discussion
 * faculty-student contact
 * collaborative work
 * feedback to students- DO THIS ON A REGULAR BASIS, for discussion, in lab techniques
 * explicit standards and criteria- good to have some quantifiable and some "fuzzy"
 * problem/questions/issues as sources of motivation- Great for ES, these are the questions of the day
 * assignment-centered course

THE BACKGROUND DESIGN PROCESS Identify desired results --> Determine acceptable evidence --> plan learning experiences and instruction

Technology fits in places where we think, "this is a place where I need to do more" "this is a place where students' learning can be enhanced, reinforced, assessed, evaluated for progress" Find ways to integrate technology so that it makes what we do better..... really it is a discussion about what is good teaching.

Help students organize materials Use audio and video to deliver
 * Session 2: What are the best designs for online courses**

//Design for students//: As few clicks as possible; condense assignments/handouts by putting the assignment with the submission button; also combine Audio/Visual; eliminate maps- subsume in images; lab resources and handouts; Make the extras fun!!!--- maybe show in class on occasion when there are a few extra minutes.


 * IDEA!! Have students grade their own assignments before handing them in. This could be the 5 minute writing assignment for the day--- "Tell me what grade you would give this piece of work and why? What is the best thing about the paper? What is something that you think could be improved?"

Search engine: www.ant.com A different, more "social" search engine.

Time Today 9-3:15

DAY 2: Session 3**: Online Assessments Course design is important on paper and online If you want people to understand you need to provide them with visual representations that they can easily interpret. If you use PowerPoint hand out the slides. BOOKS: Tufte- researcher on this topic. __Envisioning Information__ __The Big Test__ about standardized tests and the impact on education, implications for future success __The Bell Curve__ about correlation between intelligence and culture, ethnicity, race

Respondus: Converts word or other documents to online questions for assessments online.

DyKnow- sit in on Jim Phelan's trigonometry or precalculus class. Do everything on the computer. Sort of like Blackboard.

TIMELY Feedback is critical to making improvements. Will online testing improve this? Maybe- they can get immediate feedback on some types of questions.

iRubric- rubric generator

If you do online assessments as a homework assignment then you can tailor your lesson to whether or not they understand the material. So a good use of Respondus technology would be as part of the homework assignment.

At end assign a group/partner participation grade and self-assessment.**
 * IDEA: randomly assign (barnyard animal game) students to lab partnerships and groups for the term. Learn to work with others.

Consider Times and Spaces for Learning
 * Session 4:** iClickers and continue discussion of teaching well using Technology
 * Invest teacher time in the most difficult aspects of learning--- spend time on analysis and extension, not on dates, names, information from the reading the night before.
 * IDEA--- Maybe have a few days in class where we read and take notes???

GoogleDocs- need to have a google account or gmail account GapMinder at gapminder.org Demographic data, time series graph,
 * Day 3: Session 5:** How to find good content on the web?

David Weinberger- thinktanker about the internet Web 2.0 - interactive web
 * Session 6**

Story telling--- send in the article from Wonderful WV about field notes versus nature journal. VoiceThread- can create a slideshow that you can narrate Potential project for summer? This is another way to substitute class if I can't be there. Create slideshow and tell the students that they must comment on each slide. - REALLY COOL!
 * Day 5: Session 7**