6.3 Reflection: Assessment

• What are some of the factors you need to consider as you think about how you will implement formative and summative assessments in the online and blended environments?

Working on the unit plan for 6.2 really forced me to take a in-depth examination at how I plan my activities and what purposes these activities serve, if any.

As I start to reflect on my experience, I realize there are many factors to consider as I implement formative and summative assessments.

Here's a list that I come up with for my blended environment:

• Purpose: Why am I using this activity? What purpose does it serve? Does it support the learning objectives? Does it help students learn? If so, how?
• Set-up Time: How much time does this activity take? Is it a good use of my instructional time as well as student's homework/study time?
• Instructions: Are the instructions easy to deliver, easy to follow, and/or easy to set up? How much of my in-class instructional time will it take up for set up or for delivering instructions? Will the students be able to remember the instructions after the first two or three times or must I explain it every time? If the activity is to be done online and at home, can the students figure out how to complete the activity by following the given instructions?
• Frequency: How frequently should I have these activities?
• Turn around time: How soon can I give feedback?
• Follow up and follow through: How do I follow up with the students who needs individual help? How do I make sure students use the feedback to learn? In the blended environment, I also need to think about how this might impact my pacing.
• Variety: How many activities should I have in my tool bag so I keep the students interested?
• Fun factor: For high school students, I think "fun" should be a factor that we consider when we are designing and/or choosing activities. Not all activities will be fun, but adding in a bit of fun will help keeping the students interested. Fun can mean a lot of things, such as music, competition, or visual.
• What is being assessed and design accordingly: I also need to think about what skills or knowledge are being assessed. For example, if I am assessing reading comprehension ability, then the questions should be in English, not Chinese.
• Connection to the Real World: Since I teach a World Language, I also like to think of summative assessments that connect to the real world. One question I like to ask myself is "what other/real world skills can the students develop with this project?"
• Rubrics: In order to help students understand the expectation and to give good and usable feedback, rubrics must be set up in the beginning. 
• Sample work: I debate about whether to provide sample work. The advantage is that the students will have a clearer idea on the quality of work expected for different scores. However, it might also limit the students' creativity. 

 I wonder how different the list will be if I am delivering only through online LMS only.

It would be interesting to see what other teachers' lists and compare.

5 Reflection on Accessibility Of Material

• How accessible are your current instructional materials?

1. My lecture videos need to be updated with captions and/or transcripts. However, the majority of the content covered is on the powerpoint. What's not on the page are usually additional explanation I provide, and pronunciation of the language. I need to think through what I need to do, and which lecture videos need the additional support of captions and transcripts. The "How-to" videos definitely need those.
2. I am not sure how accessible my handouts are if someone is using a reader. I think it'll be a mix. Some handouts will be easier to read, and some will not be. Perhaps this is something I should spend some time investigating.
3. There are digital workbooks available, but that's additional costs that we do not have. It would be great if we have digital textbooks and workbooks for students. This would be especially helpful for visually impaired students. Right now, our workaround is to prepare large-print textbook and workbook for those students in need.

• Are there elements of your instructional materials that could be revised to make them more accessible?

I'd like to add captions and transcripts to the lecture videos at some point in time. I should also think about how "readable" my handouts are if someone with disability is accessing it online.

Since I use Google drive and Edmodo, I organize my materials into folders. If I were not using Google Drive or Edmodo, I would probably continue to update my Wiki. I did use headings for easy navigation on my Wiki pages. 

• Please share any resources you know or use to make your curriculum and course accessible.

1. I host my videos on Vimeo, but YouTube is a good option as well. When I used to have just slides, I would use SlideShare.
2. I use Quia.com to create exercises that the students can do at home and receive instant feedback. Students can also do these activities as many times as they want/need/like. Students can access them whenever and wherever. This is especially important for listening and reading exercises. 
3. I use GoFormative.com for the higher level students to do their "language (grammar) practice". This saves the students time (instead of writing them out by hand), and we can go over as a class faster as well. We see all the answers simply by pulling up the page, instead of waiting for students to write them on the board. I don't do this for levels 1&2 because they need to practice writing. 
4. Google Drive/Edmodo: I host a variety of resources on Google Drive and Edmodo so they are easily accessible by the students.

4.3 Reflection: Social & Professional Networks

I am most active on two social network: Facebook and Edmodo. I am also on Twitter, but not as active.

Here's a partial list of some of the groups I belong to on Facebook. Some PD groups are in English and some are in Chinese.

Here's a partial list of some of the PD groups I belong to on Edmodo.com

• When does the Internet help your learning?

The internet helps my learning mainly in two ways: 

1. I like to read about what's new with the education field. Being in some professional groups helps to keep me updated.
2. When I learn about a new topic, the Internet is my first go-to place to find additional information. If it's a new tool that I learn about, I can utilize many resources on the Internet to learn the ins-and-outs of using that tools, such as YouTube tutorials, blog posts, and discussion boards.

• When does it distract from good learning for you?

Sometimes there are so many interesting articles to read that I forget what my starting point is. Then I just become overwhelmed and/or lost in the sea of information. Other times, I might have too much information on one particular topic, and it becomes difficult or takes too long for me to digest all the information to be able to apply the knowledge effectively or efficiently.

• How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?

I think my students answers will be similar to mine because they can get overwhelmed with the search results just like I am. However, we deal with the over-information challenge differently. I will always spend time filter and verify the information, or use multiple sources, whereas my students tend to go with the first few they found. Most noticeably, Wikipedia. They also do not seem to verify whether the sources they use are valid or of any academic value.

• How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

Teaching students the skill to perform better searches, to set up filtering criteria for validating their sources, and to cross reference and double-check their findings, in addition to providing students opportunities to sharpen their critical thinking skills and writing skills can all help our students use the Internet effectively as a personal learning space.

3.3 Reflection: Using Web 2.0 Tools

• Briefly describes an activity you would create.

The activity I would create is called "Explanation Video."

At the end of the lesson, after the students have had time to learn and practice the vocabulary words and grammar structures,  I could assign translation or Q&A questions to each student or student group, and have the student or student group create an "explanation video" on how s/he or the group come up with the answers.

• State how you might minimize possible challenges students and the teacher might have to address.

 Here are some of the challenges that the teacher and students might face:

1. The use of technology to make the video. The teacher must make sure that the students have sufficient equipment and knowledge/skills to create the video. I taught my students how to use Screencastify to make screencasts. I also allow them to use their cell phones to make the video recording. While the qualities are different, I focus more on the result than the cosmetics of the videos.
2.  Hosting the video: Some of the videos are going to be too large for email communication, so the videos might need to be hosted somewhere before they can be shared. I've taught students to upload their videos to Google Drive if the videos are too large. Some other options are YouTube and Vimeo.
   
   It's a good practice to ask ALL students to upload their videos to Google Drive, especially if the video is made on their phones and/or is small enough for direct email. After the students have uploaded the videos to their drive, then they can safely delete the videos from their phones. This way, if the teacher does not receive or can not open the video for any reason, there is always a backup copy.
3. Organization/Collection: Teacher also needs to think about how s/he would like to collect the videos, and stay organized on checking off the students. Emailing the link or the video directly to the teacher is an option. I use Edmodo, so I can create an assignment, and see which student/student group has submitted the assignment. If you use Google Classroom, you can collect and stay organized the same way.
4. Patience & Flexibility: Whenever you use technology, there will always be problems that you can and can not anticipate. It's best to be prepared and be patient, and be flexible.
5. Example: It's best to share the rubrics upfront, and go over an example with the students so they know what the teacher is looking for in terms of quality and length.

• Align your activity to a learning objective that uses verbs from the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
  
  A learning objective for this activity could be: Students will be able to explain how they break down the question and develop the answers by applying the vocabulary and grammar structures they have acquired in this lesson.

2.3 Reflection - Methodologies of the Online Instructor

• Reflecting on the information covered in this module so far, how might your instructional methodologies need to change in an online or blended learning environment?

 Since I flipped part of my instruction, I have been contemplating whether I should flip 100%. The concern has been, and still is, that the students are very passive and don't take charge of their own learning. They don't always watch the videos. I have tried to work with the situation by (1) doing in-class flip, and (2) doing a short-version of the lecture. Because I deliver the instructions on Vocab and Grammar instructions via videos, and I go over the text in person with the whole class. I use that opportunity to do an over all review of the lesson's content, and as a way to hopefully cover some holes for the students who did not watch or did not pay attention to the video instructions.

Because students' reaction to all the in-class practice activities we do are very positive, I really want to make sure we have enough time to do these activities.

I am trying to decide if I should do in-class flip or just train the students to take responsibilities of their own learning so they can best benefit the blended learning environment.

• What skills and strategies might you improve or expand upon in order to best support student learning in a blended or online environment?

I feel that I need to work on training the students to take responsibility and take charge of their own learning in order to really benefit from the blended model. I don't think this concept or the study skill is new, but students who have been in the traditional face-to-face classroom are used to being very passive, so asking them to do the opposite is going to take some time. My concern with this is that training students to function differently is not easily accomplished in a short amount of time.

1.2 Reflection: Personal Learning Goal

·        What is your highest priority learning goal for this course?

My highest learning goal is to find the balance between new and old tech tools, and the use of online- and in-class time to interact with the students, give feedback, and deliver content. I want to help the students learn how to effectively use the class time and class activities to not only learn the content, practice the content, but also build skills that they can use outside of the classroom, whether it’s study skills or life skills.

This is the result from Unit 1's self-assessment, which I found a bit surprising. Based on the various online courses I have taken, along with the end results, I am actually pretty good at keeping deadline, managing my time, and learn from various sources. I wonder if this is because I believe that I can always do better.

·        What are some specific skills, strategies or tools you are hoping to learn more about?

I would like to know how we can best self-assess whether we are doing a good job as a blended teacher. I use student feedback and student performance as measurements now. However, they are not something I can use whenever I question my effectiveness. I feel like there must be other ways that I can use more frequently.

I am also wondering how I can better deliver and access student preparation before coming to the classroom. I want my students to take responsibilities of their own learning, but they are students and they often need external motivation.

The tools that I want to learn more about is assessment tools. I am using Bingo, Quizlet, Quia, GoFormative, and Socrative, and audio-recording tools for the most part, and sometimes using games like Kahoot!, Quizizz, and other flash-based tools I have. I am sure there are other new tools that might be able to do a better job in helping me assess student performance and to encouraging student interactions. While there is no guarantee that the new tools will be better than the ones I am using, but I would like to find out more about what is out there and decide.

Kick Off!

Last semester I participated in the DO's Digital Educator course and found it to be really beneficial, and that motivated to continue and take this course. I hope this course will help guide me with my next ed-tech integration adventure.