Category Archives: Learning

Book Review: You Look Like a Thing and I Love You

October 5, 2020AI in Education, Engineering, Learning, STEM, Teachers & Researchers, Written by: Judi FuscoJudi Fusco

By Judi Fusco

During CIRCL Educators’ Summer of Artificial Intelligence (AI), I read the book You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How AI Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place¹, by Dr. Janelle Shane. I got the recommendation for it from fellow CIRCL Educator, Angie Kalthoff.

I found the book helpful even though it is not about AI in education. I read and enjoyed the e-book and the audio version. As I started writing this review, I was driving somewhere with one of my teenagers and I asked if we could listen to the book. She rolled her eyes but was soon laughing out loud as we listened. I think that’s a great testament to how accessible the book is.

Teaching an AI

Many of us use AI products like Siri or Alexa, on a regular basis. But how did they get “smart?” In the book, Dr. Shane writes about the process of training machine learning², systems to be “intelligent”. She tells us how they certainly don’t start smart. Reading about the foibles, flailings, and failings that she has witnessed in her work helped me understand why it is so important to get the training part right and helped me understand some of what needs to be considered as new products are developed.

Dr. Shane starts out comparing machine learning and rule-based AI systems, which are two very different types of AI systems. Briefly, a rule-based system uses rules written by human programmers as it works with data to make decisions. By contrast, a machine learning algorithm³ is not given rules. Instead, humans pick an algorithm, give a goal (maybe to make a prediction or decision), give example data that helps the algorithm learn⁴, and then the algorithm has to figure out how to achieve that goal. Depending on the algorithm, they will discover their own rules (for some this means adjusting weights on connections between what is input and what they output). From the example data given to the algorithm, it “learns” or rather the algorithm improves what it produces through its experience with that data. It’s important to note that the algorithm is doing the work to improve and not a human programmer. In the book, Dr. Shane explains that after she sets up the algorithm with a goal and gives it training data she goes to get coffee and lets it work.

Strengths and Weaknesses

There are strengths and weaknesses in the machine learning approach. A strength is that as the algorithm tries to reach its goal, it can detect relationships and features of details that the programmer may not have thought would be important, or that the programmer may not even have been aware of. This can either be good or bad.

One way it can be good or positive is that sometimes an AI tries a novel solution because it isn’t bogged down with knowledge constraints of rules in the world. However, not knowing about constraints in the world can simultaneously be bad and lead to impossible ideas. For example, in the book, Dr. Shane discusses how in simulated worlds, an AI will try things that won’t work in our world because it doesn’t understand the laws of physics. To help the AI, a human programmer needs to specify what is impossible or not. Also, an AI will take shortcuts that may lead to the goal, but may not be fair. One time, an AI created a solution that took advantage of a situation. While it was playing a game, an AI system discovered there wasn’t enough RAM in the computer of its opponent for a specific move. The AI would make that move and cause the other computer to run out of RAM and then crash. The AI would then win every time. Dr. Shane discusses many other instances where an AI exploits a weakness to look like it’s smart.

In addition, one other problem we have learned from machine learning work, is that it highlights and exacerbates problems that it learns from training data. For example, much training data comes from the internet. Much of the data on the internet is full of bias. When biased data are used to train an AI, the biases and problems in the data become what guide the AI toward its goal. Because of this, our biases, found on the internet, become perpetuated in the decisions the machine learning algorithms make. (Read about some of the unfair and biased decisions that have occurred when AI was used to make decisions about defendants in the justice system.)

Bias

People often think that machines are “fair and unbiased” but this can be a dangerous perspective. Machines are only as unbiased as the human who creates them and the data that trains them. (Note: we all have biases! Also, our data reflect the biases in the world.)

In the book, Dr. Shane says, machine learning occurs in the AI algorithms by “copying humans” — the algorithms don’t find the “best solution” or an unbiased one, they are seeking a way to do “what the humans would have done” (p 24) in the past because of the data they use for training. What do you think would happen if an AI were screening job candidates based on how companies typically hired in the past? (Spoiler alert: hiring practices do not become less discriminatory and the algorithms perpetuate and extend biased hiring.)

A related problem comes about because machine learning AIs make their own rules. These rules are not explicitly stated in some machine learning algorithms so we (humans aka the creators and the users) don’t always know what an AI is doing. There are calls for machine learning to write out the rules it creates so that humans can understand them, but this is a very hard problem and it won’t be easy to fix. (In addition, some algorithms are proprietary and companies won’t let us know what is happening.)

Integrating AIs into our lives

It feels necessary to know how a machine is making decisions when it is tasked with making decisions about people’s lives (e.g., prison release, hiring, and job performance). We should not blindly trust how AIs make decisions. AIs have no idea of the consequences of its decisions. We can still use them to help us with our work, but we should be very cautious about the types of problems we automate. We also need to ensure that the AI makes it clear what they are doing so that humans can review the automation, how humans can override decisions, and the consequences of an incorrect decision by an AI. Dr. Shane reminds us that an “AI can’t be bribed but it also can’t raise moral objections to anything it’s asked to do” (p. 4).

In addition, we need to ensure the data we use for training are as representative as possible to avoid bias, make sure that the system can’t take shortcuts to meet its goal, and we need to make sure the systems work with a lot of different types of populations (e.g., gender, racial, people with learning differences). AIso, an AI is not as smart as a human, in fact, Dr. Shane shares that most AI systems using machine learning (in 2019) have the approximate brainpower of a worm. Machine learning can help us automate tasks, but we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that AIs don’t harm or damage people.

What are your thoughts or questions on machine learning or other types of AI in education? Tweet to @CIRCLEducators and be part of the conversation.

Thank you to James Lester for reviewing this post. We appreciate your work in AI and your work to bring educators and researchers together on this topic.

See a recent TED Talk by author Janelle Shane.

Notes:

Read the book to find out what the title means!
Machine learning is one of several AI approaches.
Machine Learning is a general term that also includes neural networks and the more specialized neural network class of Deep Learning. Note also, a famous class of ML algorithms that use rules are decision-tree algorithms.
Some algorithms “learn” with labeled examples and some without, but that’s a discussion beyond the scope of this post.

Formative Assessment

August 24, 2020Assessment, Learning, Written by: Sarah HamptonSarah Hampton

By Sarah Hampton

In my last post, I talked about how artificial intelligence can improve standardized summative assessments. In the next three posts, I want to: 1) consider how focusing on formative assessments could be even more helpful, 2) explore why AI is well-suited for it, and 3) showcase how one AI tool is using formative assessment to transform math homework.

For this post, let’s begin by comparing summative and formative assessments and the value they bring to the education table.

High stakes standardized summative assessments and end-of-course exams are designed to give states, districts, and schools broad data based on average scores of many students to help them evaluate program effectiveness. While these assessments may also give a snapshot of a student’s overall understanding in a course and hold value for student placement the following year, the resulting data is not intended to help students learn more about the subject. For example, Jonathan Supovitz states in his article, Is High-Stakes Testing Working?, “These studies have typically found that data [from high-stakes assessment] provide general information about student performance but lack the nuance to provide fine-bore instructional guidance.”

On the other hand, formative assessments are designed to give a snapshot of a student’s specific content understanding with the goal of improving student learning based on the results.

“Teachers and schools can use formative assessment to identify student understanding, clarify what comes next in their learning, trigger and become part of an effective system of intervention for struggling students, inform and improve the instructional practice of individual teachers or teams, help students track their own progress toward attainment of standards, motivate students by building confidence in themselves as learners, fuel continuous improvement processes across faculties, and, thus, drive a school’s transformation.” Maximizing the Power of Formative Assessments

Note: End of term or end of the year grades given by a teacher are also a summative assessment, but are different than standardized tests and have different issues. Those issues are beyond the scope of this post.

While reading more about types of assessments, I realized one of the reasons I feel the tension between teaching for students and teaching for tests is because we [policy makers, administrators, teachers, families, etc.] keep focusing on summative assessments to do a job they were never intended to do. If our goal is to improve student learning, then we should use the tool designed for that and leverage more formative assessment. As stated in chapter five of New Assessments and Environments for Knowledge Building, “Assessment reform requires a radical shift from a ‘summative assessment which ranks individuals’ to a ‘formative assessment of the learning environment that helps all the students reach the next level of learning.’”

Formative assessments are really powerful when used the right way. Take a look at these two studies.

The authors of Using Formative Assessment and Metacognition to Improve Student Achievement share, “In a series of landmark review articles, Black and Wiliam (1998a, 1998b, 2009) dramatically highlighted formative assessment’s contribution to precollege student learning. They concluded that achievement gains generated by using formative assessment across a range of content domains were among the largest ever reported for education interventions. Notably, the largest gains were realized among low achievers.” Of the over 250 publications Black and William analyzed, approximately 20 demonstrated effect sizes that would represent “a gain that is roughly double the average growth U.S. children in the upper primary to lower secondary grades would be expected to make on standardized tests in a school year.” (The Impact of Formative Assessment and Learning Intentions on Student Achievement)

Similarly, the authors of Formative Assessment and Next-Generation Assessment Systems: Are We Losing an Opportunity? highlight a review of 196 studies on feedback (an essential component of formative assessments) which “reported that feedback had an average effect size of 0.79 standard deviation – an effect greater than student prior cognitive ability, socioeconomic background, and reduced class size (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 83).”

Notice that I said when used the right way. According to Black and Wiliam (2009), effective formative assessment involves all of these:

teachers making adjustments to teaching and learning in response to assessment evidence
students receiving feedback about their learning with advice on what they can do to improve
students participating in the process through self-assessment

In addition, Valerie Shute explains in Focus on Formative Feedback that feedback should be:

non evaluative
supportive
timely
specific
valid
objective
focused
clear

Dr. Shute goes on to give an analogy comparing formative feedback to ‘a good murder’ that made me laugh: “Formative feedback might be likened to ‘a good murder’ in that effective and useful feedback depends on three things: (a) motive (the student needs it), (b) opportunity (the student receives it in time to use it), and (c) means (the student is able and willing to use it).”

Effective teachers continually use different strategies for formative assessment. “All too often, the term ‘formative assessment’ conjures images of quizzes and tests, while in reality, formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning.” (Formative Assessment and Next-Generation Assessment Systems: Are We Losing an Opportunity?) Formative assessment could be something as quick and simple as reading body language and then intervening with prompts or asking good questions and then offering constructive feedback. At times, it might be more sophisticated like analyzing data from an ungraded quiz that incorporates student regulated components and then using the results to determine what content will be taught the next day and how it should be approached.

I feel empowered knowing that there are many ways I can impact student learning daily by incorporating formative assessments. This is something within my control that’s been shown to work!

As part of completing lesson plans at my school, teachers are encouraged to plan the types of formative assessment they will use throughout the week. I appreciate the reminder to intentionally incorporate different strategies. These links are a few of the practical resources I like.

7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment
56 Examples of Formative Assessment
Focus on Formative Feedback (specifically the tables on pg 177-181)

In addition, you may find Kip Glazer’s recommendations particularly helpful for virtual learning in her post called Why Assessment?

In the next two posts, we’ll look at how AI can be used for formative assessment and then explore ASSISTments, a successful AI math homework tool.

Thank you to James Lester for reviewing this post. We appreciate your work in AI and your work to bring educators and researchers together on this topic.

The photo in this post is by Tamarcus Brown on Unsplash

Why assessment?

August 9, 2020Assessment, Guest Author, LearningPati Ruiz

by Kip Glazer Ed.D.

Summary

In a distance learning environment, assessment can become much more challenging. This article makes six suggestions as to how a high school teacher can assess students effectively to improve student learning.

Introduction:

In my first article, I made four suggestions to support our staff in a distance learning environment. This article will focus on the importance of assessment and how we should leverage that in the new era of learning, sometimes only remote and sometimes without large-scale standardized assessments. I suggest teachers consider six different ways to leverage assessment to improve student learning:

Ask your students to create tests and quizzes
Integrate student-created tests and rubrics
Focus on critical assessing skills
Give students a place to interact meaningfully
Leverage peer evaluation to scaffold student learning
Create consistency in grading across all similar courses

Background

Many teachers are trained to create learning experiences for our students known as teaching. Especially for secondary teachers, teaching includes creating lesson plans that deliver specialized content to our students and then giving the students assessments (i.e. quizzes and tests) to gauge what the students have learned. However, in an online learning environment, traditional assessments such as quizzes and tests are not as effective due to altered learning environments.

In an in-person learning environment, many teachers rely on the publisher’s test bank or textbook questions for assessment for a variety of reasons including a teacher’s desire to align his or her assessment to the approved curriculum that a teacher is asked to deliver. Others use them to save time; some use them because they don’t feel confident enough to create their own assessments. Over the years, I have worked with many teachers who were not terribly thrilled with the quality of the publisher’s assessments yet used them because they felt that they were not skilled to create test questions. Even if a teacher is well-trained in generating effective assessments, they often struggle to create them as constructing valid assessments takes time and expertise. Furthermore, high school teachers have the added pressure of preparing students for high stakes standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, or AP that are created by experts. Even if a teacher knows and wants to implement skill- or competency-based assessment, the pressure to prepare his or her students for standardized tests can create tension. I personally experienced this as an AP English Literature teacher for many years.

Scope

Having only had high school teaching experiences, I do not presume to know a lot about how this article will apply to the K-6 setting. Although some of the suggestions will likely be applicable to the 7-12 setting, I do not presume to be an expert in every subject being taught in secondary schools. I intend to provide a few examples and strategies that are grounded on sound learning theories so that the teachers can augment their instructional practices should they find this article useful.

Needs

High school teachers need their instructional leaders to provide a clear and concise standard for instruction and assessment as the results of assessment lead to grades that are reviewed by the colleges as a factor in the college-admission decisions. Variability in assessments, therefore, is directly related to many practical and long-lasting consequences. Furthermore, having a clear understanding of what is being assessed and how it will be assessed can guide instructional practices. Having good assessments is vital in measuring the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

Suggestions

In order to maximize the impact of the assessment, I suggest 6 assessment practices. The suggestions are rooted in Papert’s Constructionism.

Learning, according to Papert, is both situated and pragmatic, and the construction of artifacts to demonstrate learning are not only useful but imperative (Papert & Harel, 1991). I argue that we focus on moving towards more student-created assessments.

1. Ask your students to create tests and quizzes

I suggest that the teachers use fact-based and time-bound quizzes and tests as learning tools rather than as grade-bearing assessments by allowing your students to create them.

In an online environment, students tend to have more resources available on their fingertips including their peers. It is not uncommon for your students to have additional off-line conversations while they are in your class, known as the “dual-screen interactivity” (Nee & Dozier, 2017, p.5). Examples of dual-screen interactivity include searching for additional information in addition to looking at the primary screen, connecting with others who are interacting with the same content, and creating external posts such as social media posts or memes. (Nee & Dozer, 2017). In fact, a teacher should expect this behavior to happen. Rather than fighting against them, I suggest you leverage them for learning.

For example, consider giving a group of students a section of a textbook to create multiple-choice, true-false, or sequential questions. I used this strategy often when I taught social studies where the knowledge of facts is very important. Not only did each group have to create the quiz questions, but each group also had to explain why they chose the topics and the content to be included in the test. Once the students created the questions, I had others in the class take the quiz to verify that the questions were of high quality based on the justifications provided by the authors of the questions. Then I as the teacher chose questions that I thought were great and added them to the official assessments. This practice allowed my students to interact with the materials multiple times without having to listen to a lecture. Also, this taught the students to look for critical information rather than focusing on obscure facts to trick each other. Finally, this allowed me, the teacher, to leverage the four out of five principles of game-based learning, such as competition and goals, rules, choices, challenges, (Charsky, 2010) as students to compete for the coveted position of becoming the author of the final assessment. Even if a group chose to find the questions online, they had to figure out the justifications and answers, which was harder to copy.

2. Integrate student-created tests and rubric

If you are teaching a course such as English, where foundational skills development becomes the center of the course rather than acquiring more discrete information, I suggest you encourage your students to create the rubric that they can use to grade their own learning as student-created tests and rubrics can improve student agency in learning. I used to have my students research various rubrics and evaluate them and create their own to evaluate each other’s work.

According to Garrison and Ehringhaus (2007), students learn best when they are involved in the assessment process. By allowing the students to be a part of their rubric creation, a teacher can not only improve student learning but also assess what they know about the skills that they are being taught.

3. Focus on assessing critical skills

When I say skills, I mean quoting, citing, summarizing, paraphrasing, and video creation. Because students have unrestricted access to additional resources, being able to create new content to demonstrate what they learned is becoming increasingly important. No matter how much teachers try to secure their assessments, a student can always take a screenshot and share it with other students. If the test only requires recalling facts, it is likely to be ineffective in measuring the authentic level of learning. Rather than spending time to limit access to additional resources, I suggest teachers encourage students to add in new information and then the teachers should examine the new information to understand why the students thought it was important to include in their final products.

Mathematics teachers can also encourage students to find the problems online that assess the procedures and content of the lesson and ask the students to explain why a question should or should not be included in a future assessment. They can also take it a step further and ask the students to create an instructional video and have them evaluate each other’s video to see which one provided the clearest instruction.

4. Give students a place to interact meaningfully around the subject matter

I also suggest using a discussion forum as an assessment tool. According to Balaji and Chakrabati (2010), a robust online discussion forum has a significant positive effect on student participation and learning. However, the forum should not be used as one more place where the teacher can ask questions of their students. An online forum should be a place where students pose questions of others. Also, teachers should not consider the number of posts as the indicator of student engagement and learning (Song & McNary, 2011). Instead, teachers should encourage the students to pose better questions to each other based on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (1997, 1999 & 2005).

5. Leverage peer evaluation to scaffold student learning

As teachers leverage peer-to-peer interactions to improve earning, I suggest that teachers leverage peer feedback as a component of every assessment.

For example, I used an embedded feature of the star rating system when I used the discussion forums. Rather than posing questions for my students to answer, I asked my students to create 2-3 questions each week based on their reading. Then they would be required to answer 2-3 questions that were posed by other students in the class. If they discovered that the questions were similar or identical to what they posted, they were to post one additional question to indicate that someone else already posted the same question, which encouraged them to get to the forum quicker than the others. As they answered each other’s questions, they were also encouraged to critique the quality of the question by giving them 1-5 stars. Once again, they were to provide feedback as to why they gave the stars based on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (1997, 1999 & 2005). After a few rounds of questioning, I asked the students to justify why they felt that DOK level 1 and 2 questions were necessary for some context.

6. Create consistency in grading across all similar courses

Finally, I suggest leveraging the Professional Learning Community (PLC) to create consistency in grading across all similar courses. Even more so in a distance learning environment, parents and students may feel that their students are not being fairly assessed based on their personal feelings and perceptions rather than what is actually happening in the class. I strongly suggest that each PLC creates common practices around the type and frequency of assessments for the benefits of all PLC members to reduce subjectivity among all its members in regards to how their students are being assessed. In a distance learning environment, sharing expertise and saving time around assessment is not only useful but also vital to all of us as it will allow us to preserve our most precious commodity: our time.

Specific considerations for Educators

As we discuss assessment, we should consider the following:

Even though a grade can be an indication of student learning, we must look at assessment independent of grades as there are many ways to assess student learning without assigning a grade.
Unfortunately, many high school students will not take an assessment seriously unless there is a grade attached. Therefore, any discussion around assessment in high school should address the connection between assessments and grades.
In an online environment, traditional assessments that are time-bound and facts-based are not as effective as many opportunities to circumvent even the most effective security measures.
Additionally for California Educators – The California Education Code 49066 (a) states, “When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil’s grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.” In other words, teachers have the final say in a grade.

Conclusion

Being able to accurately assess student learning is one of the most challenging parts of being an effective teacher. We (teachers and administrators) often used our state-based large-scale standardized assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching. As states suspend these conventional tests that may not have been the most effective way to assess our teaching, we need to look to new assessment options. The absence of these tests may be a great opportunity for us to look at assessment from a completely different perspective. As we move forward with the 100% distance learning model, I urge instructional leaders to pay close attention to how teachers are assessing their students. By paying close attention to our assessment practices, we will be able to improve our understanding of student learning considerably.

Additional resources:

Authentic Assessment – Indiana University, Bloomington

Introduction to competency-based Education – Aurora Institute

References:

Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget’s constructivism, Papert’s constructionism: What’s the difference? Retrieved from http://learning.media.mit.edu/content/publications/EA.Piaget%20_%20Papert.pdf

Aurora Institute (n.d.). Introduction to Competency-Based Education. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://aurora-institute.org/our-work/competencyworks/competency-based-education /

Balaji, M.S., & Chakrabati, D. (2010). Student interactions in online discussion forum: Empirical research from “Media Richness Theory” perspective. Journal of Interactive Online-Learning, 9(1), 1-22.

California Legislative Information (n.d.). California Law. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=49066.

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (n.d.). Assessing Student Learning: Authentic Assessment. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment/index.html

Charsky, D. (2010). From edutainment to serious games: A change in the use of game Characteristics. Games and Culture, 5(2), 177-198. doi:10.1177/1555412009354727

Garrison, C., & Ehringhaus, M. (2007). Formative and summative assessments in the classroom.

Nee, R. C., & Dozier, D. M. (2017). Second screen effects: Linking multiscreen media use to television engagement and incidental learning. Convergence, 23(2), 214-226.

Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991). Situating constructionism. In Constructionism. Retrieved from http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html

Song, L., & McNary, S. W. (2011). Understanding Students’ Online Interaction: Analysis of Discussion Board Postings. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 10(1).

Webb, N. L. (1997). Criteria for Alignment of Expectations and Assessments in Mathematics and Science Education. Research Monograph No. 6.

Webb, N. L. (1999). Alignment of Science and Mathematics Standards and Assessments in Four States. Research Monograph No. 18.

Webb, N. L. (2005). Web alignment tool. Wisconsin Center of Educational Research. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Suggestions for Supporting Staff in a Distance Learning Environment

July 27, 2020Guest Author, Learning, School Administrators, Teachers & ResearchersPati Ruiz

by Kip Glazer Ed.D.

Kip Glazer is the principal at San Marcos High School. She has an Ed.D. in Learning Technologies and wrote this to share her thoughts and expertise with district leadership. The leaders were very open to the suggestions. Full disclosure: Santa Barbara Unified School District is entering a consulting relationship with Digital Promise and working with some of the CIRCL Educators in our Fall 2020 Professional Learning.

Summary

This article identifies the four major types of needs of a high school during distance learning. It suggests that we apply the Core Conceptual Framework and the TPACK framework when creating teacher professional development (PD); we choose a different type of learning management system; we curate research-based teaching practices intentionally and systemically; and we implement robust assessment and accountability measures.

Introduction

As a teacher, administrator, and scholar, my professional interests have always centered around developing strong pedagogical skills among our teachers. This document is intended to provide our district leaders with some suggestions to improve our instructional practices as we embark on distance learning. I wrote this from the perspective of a high school teacher and administrator based on my professional experience and expertise.

Background

In addition to writing a dissertation on game-based learning after participating in a hybrid program and engaged in different game-based learning projects, I have experience in a variety of asynchronous and synchronous learning and teaching activities. For example, my former students in Bakersfield, many of whom were English Language Learners or Bilingual students, participated in the asynchronous online writing mentoring project with 6th graders in Chicago. These experiences have afforded me a unique perspective on effective distance and hybrid learning.

Scope

There are numerous topics that are related to distance learning such as online security, student data privacy, and cyberbullying. Although I acknowledge that those topics are important, this document will primarily focus on online instructional practices in relation to teacher professional development (PD) and subsequent quality control of their teaching.

Needs

As the District implements 100% distance learning next school year, we must address the following needs:

Needs of all learners including technological, linguistic, cultural, emotional, physical, and academic.
Needs of parents who would want consistent, calibrated, highly-responsive, and personalized instructions for their students.
Needs of teachers who provide distance learning to the students who they have never met and whose needs range from not having basic technology access to having an abundance of at-home resources in all areas.
Needs of the community that is looking to the District to provide comprehensive yet flexible instructional solutions that will maximize all available financial and human resources.

Considerations

As we work to address the above needs, we must consider the following:

Social-emotional needs of the staff, students, and parents.
- Successful distance learning requires strong relationships between the students and teachers, and we must address this issue prior to the beginning of any content-based instruction.
Choosing and establishing a coherent instructional framework and/or theoretical framework to build our instruction practices.
- We must consider hardware, software, and how we leverage both hardware and software in a learning environment to achieve an optimal result. In order for our technology department to be effective, we must have resources, systems, and structures to address all three components that are grounded in a sound theoretical framework. This allows us to avoid chasing the latest and greatest technology tools unnecessarily. All leaders must act as a noise-canceler to be able to lead the teaching force by evaluating and advocating tools that meet our chosen instructional framework.
Quality control over instructional practices.
- One of the biggest and most important tasks is to improve the overall quality of our instructions; we must consider this to be the moral imperative in whatever condition we educate our students.
On-going monitoring of effectiveness beyond teacher- or student-preference
- We must develop a rigorous evaluation protocol that reveals the effectiveness of a tool or instructional practices.

Suggestions

To address the needs above, I suggest the following:

1. Teacher PD

Address the needs of the teachers based on a Core Conceptual Framework immediately and urgently.
- According to Desimone (2009), effective teacher PD must (1) be content-focused (i.e. PD activities centered around the content that the teachers teach and how their students will learn it), (2) include active learning (i.e. participating in lesson studies, or group review and grading of sample student work), (3) be coherent (i.e. PD aligned with the teachers belief and knowledge; PD aligned with the goals of the district, site, and department based on a common instructional focus), (4) be over a period of time (i.e. PD spread different activities over a semester rather than a few days), and (5) facilitate collective participation (i.e. PD provided for a group of teachers who teach the same subject or in the same professional learning community).
Adopt the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) Framework as the singular framework for teaching.
- Use the TPACK framework to guide the creation and evaluation of all PD offerings. TPACK framework addresses the needs for seamless integration of three major elements – technology, pedagogy, and content – in today’s educational environment (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). The TPACK model illustrates the importance of balancing all three such elements in forming a dynamic learning environment to improve student learning (Harris, Mishra, & Koehler, 2009; Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

The TPACK image. Adapted from “The TPACK Image,” by M. Koehler & P. Mishra, 2012.

Provide personalized learning in all three areas of the TPACK Framework based on the Core Conceptual Framework.
- We should ensure that any online PD platform is able to provide the necessary training for our teacher to address all three areas of knowledge while addressing the needs of adult learners.

2. Technological tool

Choose a singular learning platform that is robust and flexible.
- The District must choose a robust and flexible LMS that includes tools that strongly maximize student participation such as chats, wikis, forums, and blogs. It must allow an easy integration of tools such as all Google Apps and various video conferencing software. It must also provide detailed analytics and click counts that allow easy monitoring of the students’ activities. Finally, it must have tools to allow family engagement.

3. Teaching and learning practices

Curate instructional practices that reflect best-practice that are based on research and data.
- Many resources that have been shared on our internal Google site Learning at Home for Teachers website are about digital tools. We must expand the site to include (1) the pacing guides, (2) major benchmarks, (3) assessment tools including performance rubrics, (4) the best practices, and (5) unit plans. For example, rather than just sharing the rubric for technology readiness for students, the site should include how a teacher would use it in his or her lesson. Rather than sharing the short videos on a topic, the site should provide examples of them being used in a lesson.

4. Assessment and accountability

Continue collecting data around the effectiveness of each tool, pedagogical practices, and content acquisition.
- One of the benefits of distance learning is that we will have access to a great deal of data; therefore, we must build robust data analytics to quickly identify the area for growth so that we can respond with solutions.
Provide a clear and concise plan for common practices among teachers.
- Distance learning, no matter how well planned, can be and is often a disorienting experience. Just as we ask our teachers to reduce the amount of content and set explicit expectations for their students, we must set 2-3 very clear expectations and adhere to those expectations.

Conclusion

This document is in no way a comprehensive document for distance learning. Because distance learning is not likely to go away any time soon, we must act now. We cannot afford to lose any valuable time before creating a comprehensive instructional plan, especially for our high school seniors who will experience significant loss. I look forward to working with our staff and district leaders to continue improving our practices.

Additional resources:

Assessment and Data toolbox from Dallas ISD

UDL for Distance Learning

References:

Common Sense Media. (2020, April 07). Everything You Need to Teach Digital Citizenship. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship

Common Sense Media. (n.d.) Screen Time. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/screen-time

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational researcher, 38(3), 181-199.

Educational Technology. (2012). The TPACK Model. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from http://www.rt3nc.org/edtech/the-tpack-model/

Harris, J., Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2009). Teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge and learning activity types: Curriculum-based technology integration reframed. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(4), 393-416. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ844273.pdf

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/vol9/iss1/general/article1.cfm

Magid, L., & Gallagher, K. (n.d.). The Educator’s Guide to Social Media. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.connectsafely.org/eduguide/

Michigan Virtual. (2020, March) Teaching Continuity Readiness Rubric. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://michiganvirtual.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Teacher-Continuity-Readiness-Rubric.pdf

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x

Quillen, I. (2013, March 7). Student Mentors: How 6th and 12th Graders Learn From Each Other. KQED Mind/Shift. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/27542/student-mentors-how-6th-and-12th-graders-learn-from-each-other#more-27542

Rappolt-Schlichtmann, G. (2020, March 18). Distance Learning: 6 UDL Best Practices for Online Learning. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/for-educators/universal-design-for-learning/video-distance-learning-udl-best-practices?_ul=1%2A1vi266z%2Adomain_userid%2AYW1wLUhYa3ZJQUFrcVNWb29EM0RzaExjUGc

Secondary Remote Learning Resources (n.d.) Learning at Home – Teachers. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://sites.google.com/sbunified.org/learning-at-home/secondary?authuser=2

StopBullying. (2020, May 07). What Is Cyberbullying? Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it

Sung, K. (2015, October 27). Books-to-Games: Transforming Classic Novels Into Role Playing Adventures. KQED Mind/Shift. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/42538/books-to-games-transforming-classic-novels-into-role-playing-adventures

The PL Toolbox (n.d.) The PL Toolbox. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.thepltoolbox.com/

Strengthening Education Research: Connecting Teaching and the Learning Sciences

June 22, 2020Learning, Teachers & Researchers, Webinar, Written by: Judi Fusco, Written by: Pati RuizPati Ruiz

Take a look at the recorded session Digital Promise learning sciences researchers did for ICLS 2020. At Digital Promise, learning sciences researchers investigate the why, what, and how of learning across ages, backgrounds, and contexts through four projects. We will provide examples of how our research includes a wide range of education stakeholders across K-12 and higher education and how this work gives rise to promising learning innovations, processes, and outcomes.

CIRCL Educators Judi Fusco & Pati Ruiz presented as part of the group, watch the whole session or go to 14 minutes in for our talk titled Bridging Practice and Research: Connecting Teaching and the Learning Sciences. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iTzIiN

Find our syllabus here.

Tweet @CIRCLEducators and let us know if you have questions or thoughts about this presentation.

Teaching and Beliefs about Learning

June 19, 2020Learning, School Administrators, Teachers & Researchers, Written by: Judi FuscoJudi Fusco

By Judi Fusco

This post features the dissertation work of Michaela Jacobsen, Ed.D (completed March, 2019). She is currently Assistant Principal at Louis E. Stocklmeir Elementary School in the Cupertino Union School District.

In her dissertation, she investigated:
1) What supports teachers need when they are actively leading and designing their own professional learning.
2) How teacher beliefs about learning relate to how they participate in an active professional learning program.
3) How teachers beliefs about teaching and learning change from beginning to end of the experience.

We are currently in a time of uncertainty about so many issues. During this past spring, teachers experienced a time when everything changed. The work by Dr. Jacobsen looks into the importance of thinking about beliefs during a change process. While her work looked at a set of specific conditions around change, she found important considerations for any situation where people are asked to change.

We know from past research that effective professional learning promotes active learning, emphasizes collaboration, is sustained over time, is related to teachers’ specific contexts and curriculum, and is coherent with the school as a whole. Over the school year, Dr. Jacobsen worked with the three teachers. The school principal and vice principal also offered support. The three teachers and Dr. Jacobsen, who acted as a facilitator for the group, devoted much of their school-based professional learning time to work together. A problem-based learning (PBL) approach was the method.

In PBL, learners work to solve authentic, ill-structured problems with a facilitator. The facilitator helps establish a culture of collaboration in developing a deep shared understanding of the problem and possible solutions. Facilitators also model good problem solving strategies and refrain from giving answers. In PBL, learners gain knowledge as they work together and discuss and reflect around the problem to be solved. PBL was chosen because it promotes active inquiry, the acquisition and deepening of problem-solving skills, self-direction, reflective practices, and collaboration and communication skills. These are important for all learners, but especially important for professionals.

Together, the three teachers chose a problem around how to adopt a new practice, specifically how to help students become better problem solvers in math. All the teachers felt that learning how to help students become better problem solvers would be challenging, but agreed it would be an important problem to solve. Math was taught in a very traditional instructional manner in their school and the new practice of putting the learner at the center did not fit particularly well in the school’s established culture. Through interviews and questions, Dr. Jacobsen learned that for two of the teachers, the new practice did not fit into their belief systems of teaching and learning. One of the teachers had beliefs that aligned with the methods and practices necessary to help students become better problem solvers.

For the teacher with beliefs that were consistent with the new practice, she worked to fully understand what it meant for a student to be a better problem solver and then planned and worked to implement many aspects of the new practice in her classroom. Over the year, she planned and implemented many changes in her classroom practice. She also reported seeing changes that she felt were positive in her students as they became better problem solvers.

For the two teachers with conflicting beliefs to the new practice, there was little change in their understanding of the new practice or how to adopt it. In fact, to avoid a conflict between what they were supposed to do in the new practice and their beliefs, they joined forces and developed their own understanding of how to help their students become better problem solvers. They spent time together and constructed a way to make a different minimal change that was not in conflict with their beliefs. They also reported how they saw their students as being different than the students of the teacher who had success with the new problem solving methods. They used this “difference” to further reinforce their beliefs that the new methods couldn’t work with their students. They did not interact more than necessary with the facilitator, the third teacher, or the principal or vice principal all of whom could have challenged their thinking and given new issues to consider.

How the classroom practices of the three teachers changed or not depended on their beliefs around teaching and learning before the project started. The teacher who had beliefs that aligned with the new practice was able to understand it more deeply and move it into practice. The two teachers who started with beliefs that clashed with the new practice reinforced each other as they minimized how they would implement the new practice. These two teachers also used the “culture” of the school as a basis for defending their position and avoided the facilitator, the third teacher, and the principal and vice principal who were interested in making changes.

What does all this mean? If teachers are asked to make a change that does not align with what they believe about how students learn, they will most likely change “how they are being asked to change” to a way that matches their beliefs. When teachers are making a change, they need much support to help them understand the change. They need even more support when the change does not align with beliefs. Dr. Jacobsen outlines three strategies to help change teachers beliefs:

1) have them reflect on their beliefs in collaboration with others to think about pedagogical practices,
2) have a peer or coach (gently) challenge their beliefs and give feedback, and
3) give assistance while the teacher is making a change so that they can fully understand what needs to occur.

Additionally, experiencing a new pedagogy as a learner can be very effective. When teachers are put into a situation to be a learner, they can experience and really understand how the pedagogy works to promote learning.

Dr. Jacobsen’s dissertation citation is:

Jacobsen, M. (2019). A Multi-case Study of a Problem-based Learning Approach to Teacher Professional Development (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University).

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for us, please share via Twitter at @circleducators and #CIRCLedu

Remote Learning During the Pandemic: No one was trained for this and it’s changing by the hour

April 2, 2020Classroom Technology, Learning, School Administrators, Teachers & Researchers, Written by: Judi Fusco, Written by: Pati RuizPati Ruiz

By Judi Fusco and Pati Ruiz

During this uncertain time, we share stories about what different schools, districts, and educators are facing. As we spoke to educators, one sentiment that came through is that we’re all experiencing something new. Even educators with experience teaching online are supporting colleagues who haven’t done this before. All of the educators shared how going remote means you can’t do the same things as you do in a brick and mortar school. A half-full perspective says this is an opportunity to bring in new methods and think more about centering the student(s).

We spoke to three education leaders who have been thinking about online/remote learning for many years. Dr. Joy Lopez, Director of Technology at Sacred Heart Schools in CA helped create the SHP Flexible Plan for Instructional Continuity with Dr. Diana Neebe. Dr. Colleen Murray at Haddonfield Schools in New Jersey used the SHP plan to help create a guide for her district. At the Riverside County Office of Education, Dr. Steve Hickman helped develop remote learning guidance for the State of California. The three leaders had different perspectives depending on the people they serve; each discussed their plan as a starting point, and that each district, school, and teacher will need to figure out a solution for their unique situation. All of the educators spoke about the importance of making sure the people are the first priority. Dr. Lopez points out that this is a massive change and it’s not surprising that teachers and students feel like they are starting over.

We also spoke to Dr. Kip Glazer, a principal at a high school in Santa Barbara, CA who discussed the huge digital divide she sees; her high school is 51% free and reduced lunch. The school has been closed for a week, with the exception of providing meals for students, and will stay closed through spring break. Upon return, the district will move to remote learning. Right now, the focus is determining what they can do to deliver remote learning equitably. Because of the huge disparity in her district, Dr. Glazer has been considering, “What does remote learning look like for a kindergartner who is homeless, or for students with dangerous domestic situations?” In contrast, she has parents worried that their child won’t pass an AP test.

Dr. Glazer would love for people to understand that school is more than a place of testing, how it’s the heart and soul of a community. She sees students wandering around the school because they miss it. Drs. Murray and Glazer also discussed how the switch is causing some teachers and assistants, who are new to the digital world, to feel uncomfortable and uncertain about their role and what they can do to support students.

Remote learning is a new opportunity that will require learning on everyone’s part, creativity, compassion, and caring, and will continue to change in the next few weeks. We heard ideas for new classroom tactics. Dr. Lopez described how in situations with multiple teachers at the same grade level, they can team up for redundancy. She hopes none of her teachers get sick, but this could help mitigate coverage issues. Also, one kindergarten teacher got creative and put her iPad on a chair while talking to students to give the same view they have from the circle-time rug.

Sarah Hampton, a middle school math teacher is making ShowMe videos for students to help them understand operations with exponents. She discussed how her ShowMes have an advantage over those made by others because she can say things in ways her students are used to hearing. She further personalizes by saying names during the videos to direct their attention. Kristyn Palazzolo, a Library Media Specialist, is working to support families. She is building a parent website with virtual field trips, sample daily schedules, curated lists of shows, enrichment activities (at home crafts and science activities), and other resources. Kristyn is also creating a reading challenge where parents take pictures when they catch their children reading and STEAM video challenges; the first was to create a Rube Goldberg machine.

Thank you, educators, for sharing. We know how much you miss your students, and we look forward to seeing more in this new digital space.

Going to ICLS!

We’re thrilled to announce we’re going to the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. We’ll be in the practitioner strand and are looking forward to great conversations. When we get our poster done on Bridging Practice and Research: Connecting Teaching and the Learning Sciences, we’ll share it here.

Book: Practical Pedagogy by Mike Sharples

Book Club, Cyberlearning, Learning

about the book club!

Practical Pedagogy Book Cover

About this Book

Practical Pedagogy expands the universe of teaching and learning. It provides an accessible guide to new and emerging innovations in education, with insights into how to become more effective as a teacher and learner. New teachers will find a comprehensive introduction to innovative ways of teaching and learning. Experienced educators will be surprised by the range of useful pedagogies, such as translanguaging, crossover learning, teachback, bricolage and rhizomatic learning. Policy makers will gain evidence of how new teaching methods work in practice, with resources for curriculum design and course development.

About the Author

Mike Sharples is Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University, UK. He is Honorary Visiting Professor at Anglia Ruskin University, Centre for Innovation in Higher Education. His research involves pedagogy-informed design of new technologies and environments for learning. He is author of over 300 publications in pedagogy, science education, educational technology and the learning sciences.

(Note: The above information was taken from the book publisher’s website.)

Discussion

Stay tuned for more information about our discussion of this book!

Twitter
We love to see you share your thoughts and work on Twitter using #CIRCLedu on Twitter and mentioning @CIRCLeducators ! Also, please share any book recommendations for future book clubs!

2019 STEM Video Showcase Review: Teaching Accessibility to Broaden Participation

September 20, 2019Diverse Learners, Learning, Uncategorized, Video Showcase, Written by: Pati RuizPati Ruiz

By Pati Ruiz and Amar Abbott

When this year’s STEM for All Video Showcase came around, two of us (Pati and Amar) were drawn to a video presentation titled Teaching Accessibility to Broaden Participation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 15% of K–12 students, 11% of college students, and 5% of graduate students have a disability. While this video focused on raising awareness about accessibility needs in graduate computer science courses, we found the video helpful in thinking about leveraging technology tools in the equitable design of courses.

Meeting the accessibility needs of all students is a federal mandate, however as an accessibility expert, I (Amar) think that it is often a struggle to provide students with the right supports due to a range of barriers including the absence of professional development opportunities for instructors as well as a lack of affordances* in technology tools.

*What are affordances? Researchers use the term affordances to talk about the opportunities that a technology makes possible. The affordances of learning technologies are described in How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures as “a feature or property of an object that makes possible a particular way of relating to the object for the person who uses it (Gibson, 1979; Norman, 2013).”

After watching the video, we wanted to learn more about the work that still needs to be done to bring an awareness of accessibility needs to those who design technology tools. Co-PI of AccessComputing, Sheryl Burgstahler shares that a major barrier to information technology (IT) that her Accessible Technology Services office works on is non-accessible PDFs; scanned-in images that screen readers can’t access. Another major barrier is videos that don’t have captions or that have unedited computer-created captions. Here’s a great example of a video of computer-created captions going wrong and more information about creating accurate captioning. Sheryl encourages faculty members to use accessible IT when delivering online content instead of just teaching about it. In the showcase video comments, lead Presenter, Richard Ladner described a “chicken and egg problem” in graduate computer science (CS) programs that don’t teach accessibility topics and textbooks that don’t cover these topics. The lack of education about accessibility perpetuates the lack of accessibility content in courses.

There are a few points to underscore:

It is essential for educators to be aware of the ways in which software is disabling to their students and other stakeholders.
We need to ensure that our video content is captioned and that the documents we share with students, like PDFs, are machine readable.
We need to understand that there is a lack of education in CS programs about accessibility and that we should be asking questions about the IT that’s being developed and used in our schools and students from learning management systems to websites and videos.
When we make tools more accessible, the benefits are often ones that help everyone!

Through this video, we learned that the technologies like speech recognition, captioned videos, texting, and video chats that were designed to solve accessibility problems, often become mainstream because they make using technology easier for everyone. An example highlighted by the presenters is the use of video subtitles when we find ourselves watching a video in a noisy setting like a bus or a train. I (Pati) often use the screen reader on my phone, voice recognition, audiobooks, and captions in videos. I (Amar), use many of the same accessibility features that Pati does. As a person with a learning disability, I also use accessibility technologies to function in my daily professional life. Those technologies include Kurzweil, Dragon naturally speaking, and Mindview mind mapping software. I also teach my students to use assistive technologies to manage barriers in their academic and personal pursuits.

We find that assistive technology tools can change a person’s life and hope that projects like Access Computing can continue to raise awareness – in technical fields – about the accessibility needs of all people. This is essential as we work towards the equitable design of courses. We encourage other educators to explore Teach Access, The DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center, and CAST to learn more about removing barriers to participation in the resources we prepare for our students, our colleagues, and their parents. As always, please share your thoughts with us on Twitter @CIRCLedu.

Citations

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24783.