Mediate

SYNOPSIS

A video paper combines text, videos and diagrams to provide a multi-sensory learning experience for students and teachers alike.  Through the use of technology, we hope to address various challenges faced by students (e.g. difficulty in question analysis) and teachers (e.g. insufficient tutorial time and repetitive content delivery) in today’s education culture.

Teachers will be taken through the process on how they can create their own video paper using the software Video Paper Builder.  Further possible enhancements will also be shared in the session.

BACKGROUND

A common challenge faced by educators in today’s’ classroom teaching is the need to cater to students of different learning abilities and learning preferences. This problem is compounded as at the same time teachers are trying to complete the syllabus with “threats” of students missing classes due to competitions or in a much more undesired situation like the closure of schools during SARS in 2003 (MOE, 2003) or even H1N1.

In a typical Junior College classroom setting, the aggregate of the students’ L1R5 score would range from 6 to 20 in a single class, with such a great diversity of learning abilities students, how should a teacher go about delivering his or her lesson? Is the use of differentiated instructions suitable for the students in all schools? Will we be over stretching the weaker students or short-changing the better ones? At what pace should a teacher teach to maintain this delicate balance? While this problem might not be so prevalent in other junior colleges but this certainly posed a problem for the students in my college.

There are several types of learners namely visual, kinaesthetic or auditory and these group of learners learn best when they are taught in a particular way which is catered to them (Karen, 2000). So how is it possible for a teacher to teach a class which might consist of all the various types of learners?  The type of learners though posed a manageable problem, the more pressing matter is that how to reach out to cater to the majority group and yet not to disinterest the others?

As mentioned earlier, the pace of the lessons is important and how to reach a balance point so as to push students beyond their tipping point? Is it really effective and efficient for a teacher to keep repeating onto a particular concept to a small group of the students who did not managed to understand a particular concept using a particular mode of teaching or even used several ways of explaining a particular questions to cater to all the various types of learners? Are there better alternatives to the problems mentioned? After a while, the concept may be ingrained in some while others are still trying the grasp the concept.  There is only one teacher in the classroom and limited time per lesson period. Hence, what can be done to overcome the above-mentioned problem? At the same time, it we were to keep focusing on the weaker students, we would not be maximising the potential of the higher ability students and thus with the use of such e-learning products/platforms, this group of higher ability students could be given more questions of higher difficulty levels and they can go about understanding how to approach the questions on their own should they faced any difficulties.

Often than not, students are too busy copying down the solutions in class than really paying attention to the comments and thinking process behind the solving of the problem. No doubt that the presentation of their solutions is important, but the thinking process about how a particular problem can be solved can lead about the students knowing how to solve similar questions which is using the strategies of the Habits of Minds (HOM) which my college is adopting.

There are several e-learning modules available for students to learn a particular concept on the Internet, such as Youtube, Jing, etc, but after trying out various methods on online learning, I found the Video-paper builder (VPB) to be the most suitable for my particular group of students as it allows the students to have the notes on the same screen for reference with the video beside it for explanation. Like all e-learning modules, students are able to learning on their own convenience and pace which might be more suitable for their learning.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Products that work like virtual teachers or virtual classrooms are widely available in bookshops island-wide and even online, for example http://www.orlesson.org/orp/.  However, most of the contents covered are catered to Primary or Secondary School students and very little for the Junior College students comparatively. Furthermore, with the students able to learn at their own convenience and pace, the “unofficial” curriculum time can be extended with the use of the online learning.

UNDERLYING PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES / THEORETICAL UNDERPINNING

In 2006, with the implementation of the new ‘A’ Level curriculum, there has been a radical shift in the examination requirements where students are expected to develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills are emphasised (Ministry of Education, 2004). In order to achieve the objective of the new Mathematics curriculum, students need to be able to recognise and use connections among mathematical ideas and between mathematics and other discipline (Ministry of Education, 2006).

Due to the diversity of learning abilities of the students, there is a need to cater to the varying levels of understanding in the students in a class.  In a classroom environment, there is limited time for the tutors to ensure that all the students have the same understanding.  The students might also have understood the explanations differently, and sought the teacher for consultation when he/she failed to get it to work a second time.

Often than not, the students are busy jotting down the solution as presented by their peers or teachers and in the midst of copying, they often missed out the thinking process of how the teachers or their peers came about obtaining their solution. With the use of the videopaper, students would be able to listen to the explanation from the video and at the same time, being able to look at the notes by the side of the video for reference.

With the above in mind, we came to the conclusion to use the videopaper as a mean to address the need to help the student develop the necessary analytical and thinking skills, to be able to revisit and grasp the techniques in approaching Mathematics questions.

DESCRIPTION OF PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH AND PROCESSES INVOLVED

I was tasked by to conduct a bridging module for the students who did not passed their JC1 and had to repeat their studies in JC1 again. During the conversation with these students, one of the commonly feedback was that they were unable to understand the concepts and with all the learning from all the subjects coming at a fast rate, the students do not have much time to clear their doubts and they hope that curriculum time would be extended, but we know that this would not be possible.

Furthermore, the group of us first discussed about the problems that we faced in our teaching and we arrived at the main key issues:

-          we are constantly repeating the same concept and approach during tutorials and individual consultations on certain topics;

-          there is a need to address the discrepancy in learning pace for the students in a class, so that we do not short-change the higher ability students and neither do we neglect the students who are struggling.

The next key issue is to decide what are the “Most frequently asked topics?”. And we arrived at the decision on the following topics:

-          Arithmetic and Geometric Series

-          Series and Sequences, specifically on Method of Difference

-          Binomial Expansion

which requires the students to understand how to approach certain type of questions by looking for patterns. Amongst the three topics, Binomial Expansion seems to be the most trival topic.  So why then was it included?  Look at the following tutorial question:

To find the general expression, students need to be able to observe the patterns of each term and derive the general expression for C_r. And though it would be discussed during tutorial lessons, students were unable to capture the analytical process during the lesson and therefore much less understand how each term of the general expression comes about. In conclusion, the topics that we have chosen require the students to have a competent level of observation and analytical skills.

Once we decided on the issue, we needed to think of a way to address the issue. And we realised that we can make use of the fact that the videopaper is a web page and therefore allows easy access for the students.

It also serves as a good resource for students in the event of school closures (e.g. during emergency epidemics like SARS, H1N1) if the need arises or when students were absent from school due to medical reasons or external competitions and performances.

We decided to first test out the effectiveness of such an implementation for our students by adopting a pre- and post-test approach (Michael, Mark) to help us determine what is the student’s pre-existing knowledge on the topics, and whether the implementation is actually useful to the learning of the students. We hope to achieve the main objectives:

-          Students to take ownership of their of their learning, and to be able to learn at their own pace

-          Teachers can save precious curriculum time going through new topics and concepts instead of having to go through the test solutions and repeat the approach to answer the questions.

The pre-test assessment is attached in Appendix A.  After the test, instead of going through the assessment as a class tutorial, we directed the students to view the videopaper on the website and informed them of a re-test two weeks later.  The results of the pre- and post-test are as shown below.



After the post-test assessment (Appendix B) is done and returned to the students, students do have a sense of achievement at being able to do the questions therefore, sparked a learning interest in the subject. As Albert Bandura believes, self- efficacy is a critical factor to a student’s ability to achieve. To believe “I can.” will help the students to be more focused and approach the given tasks with determination to do well.

To a large extent, the objective of the test was met as the tutors did not go through the questions during curriculum time and the students did manage to achieve better results in the post-test assessment.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

On the Pedagogical Approach and Processes involved

The Ministry of Education, Singapore has emphasised on “Teach Less, Learn More” (MOE, 2009) via a student-centred teaching approach in schools.  The use of a videopaper encourages the students to take ownership of their learning and teachers can make use of this multimedia tool as an extension to the limited curriculum time.

From the results of the post-VPB test, and feedback from the students, the general consensus was that the students benefitted from the videopaper and their test results showed a significant improvement in their understanding of how similar questions can do solved with the techniques and analytical skills learnt from the videopaper.

One probable reason why the use of the videopaper was successful might be due to the fact that most students have easy access to the internet.  The videopaper generated is a simple webpage that can be uploaded to any hosting servers.  It does not require the purchase or installation of any additional software on the side of the viewer (students).

The video in the paper allows detailed explanation of the thinking process and analysis made about the question to be shown and heard. The text section included notes which made it easy for the students to understand the video explanation.  Naming three of the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, cognitive skills revolve around knowledge – remembering previously learnt materials, understanding (comprehension) – understanding, interpreting, analysing the problem correctly; application – to apply the new technique learnt in a different question.  Through the videopaper, the students are able to internalise the new knowledge at his/her own pace and apply the newly mastered skill to solve any new questions.

One shortcoming of the videopaper created would be the lack of better sound as the recording of the videos were done by teachers and not with professional setups, there was the problem of the teacher not speaking loudly and clearly enough, or the need to do many takes before the teacher is satisfied with the video. One future enhancement to the videopaper would be to include subtitles for the recorded video as this will help the students to understand each steps better when the teacher is not loud or clear enough.

The use of the videopaper to go through the pre-test paper in detail freed up important curriculum time to continue teaching. It also reduced the time students need to seek out the teachers for consultations. Students are able to learn and internalise the new information at their own pace and to be more prepared for the lessons.

In the A-Level syllabus, some topics are easy to understand while others required visualisation or more explanation.  Another effective use of the videopaper would be providing bridging or revision modules of these difficult topics for the students. In this way, students have additional resources to aid their understanding of these topics.

On Your Professional and Personal Development

In a school, the teacher is both a teaching and learning at the same time.  Yes, teaching students, not only about pursuing academic success but also finding whatever chance there is to impart some rightful behaviour in the students; learning because every student is different – with different backgrounds and different learning ability.  As teachers, the pursuit is to impart knowledge and the love of learning to students is a continuous journey, to understand the speak their language so that they know that you treasure each and every one of them as individuals and not because it is a duty to teach and guide them.

REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Angelo, Thomas A. and Cross, K. Patricia. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd Edition, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, USA.

Karen, E. H. (2000). “Presenting to Different Types of Learners.”  Accessed 20 July 2010,

Available: http://webhome.idirect.com/~kehamilt/spklearn.html

Michael, Mark.  “Using Pre- and Post-Testing in a Liberal Arts Mathematics Course to Improve Teaching and Learning”. King’s College, Accessed July 29, 2010.

Available: http://www.maa.org/saum/maanotes49/195.html

Ministry of Education. (2003). “Phased Reopening of Schools.” Singapore: Ministry of Education, Accessed 20 July 2010,

Available: http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2003/pr20030405.htm

Ministry of Education. (2004). “The New A Level Curriculum 2006.” Singapore: Ministry of Education, Accessed 20 July 2010,

Available: http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/alevel2006/index.htm

Ministry of Education. (2006). “ Secondary Mathematics Syllabuses.” Singapore” Ministry of Education, Accessed 20 July 2010,

Available:http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/sciences/files/maths-secondary.pdf

Santrock, John W.. (2008). Educational Psychology, 3^rd Edition, McGraw Hill, New York, USA.

Like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, WoW isn’t just escapist fantasy. It’s posing alternatives to the world we actually have today. It raises questions about environmentalism and colonialism; it asks how people are going to be respectful of each other in a world in which there aren’t enough resources.

Tolkien believed that all good people could come together on the same side. This is one of the biggest questions that humanity faces: can we have a world consensus by which we’re all partners in finding a solution? Or, like the Hoarde vs Alliance situation in WoW, are we doomed to be in separate factions competing ultimately to the death? It touches on very serious issues but in a playful way.

The common refrain from virtual world detractors is “it’s nothing like real life” or “this is pure fantasy”, when the truth is online worlds are literally a microcosm of human interacti0n, rife with rich encounters and brutally honest transactions.

While this might not always translate to a child-safe environment, it does provide older kids like teenagers a relatively harmless sandbox in which to experiment with certain identity or relationship issues.

There’s been a lot of talk around here about virtual worlds and education, not least of all from our Centre of Excellence’s very own Media PlayLab. Video games are swiftly overtaking physical toys as children become increasingly immersed in digital tech, and toy companies – correspondingly – are becoming huge players in the area of MMOs

For naysayers not absolutely convinced that virtual environments are a rich opportunity for teaching and learning, recently released numbers might convince you otherwise.

Yes, that’s 4.5 million monthly visitors to Poptropica alone. Of course, these numbers are for the U.S., but who’s to say our Singaporean kids don’t fit the profile as well?

In any case, these figures acknowledge a strong need to engage with students within the virtual worlds; perhaps sooner than we think.

P.S. Luckily, we’re way ahead of you.

As an unreserved Apple fan, I had been waiting for the Apple iPad with more than a little trepidation. Would it blow my mind? Would it garner a collective ‘meh’ from the tech community?

You can Google the technical details for yourselves, but do know this: the iPad is no netbook alternative, much less a replacement for a laptop. It looks, feels and smells like a much larger, massively faster iPhone, which essentially is the most game-changing piece of tech to hit us in recent years. It uses the iPhone OS, comes with the new iBook store, and definitely counts as the prettiest e-reader in the market now. So as an Apple fan, I’m definitely stoked.

As a teacher however, my feelings are a bit mixed.

Sure, the iPad will be an amazing presentation instrument, and the fact that it is probably the e-reader with the best web-browsing experience, coupled with the very popular iTunes U, makes it a fantastically dynamic textbook for our digitally native students.

Not to mention also, the networked nature of the device, which according to Darrell Etherington of the Apple Blog, means that “Research and comparing notes could actually take place with an ongoing element of synthesis, instead of via periodic check-ins, which could change the way we learn in a fundamental sense.“

This is all well and good, except for the fact that I think the iPad functions less as a computer, than it does an appliance. It’s something that really helps you consume media, rather than create it. (iWork doesn’t really count in our Creative Commons remix era)

Students today don’t just sit and absorb, they link, and sample and remix, they deconstruct media and create their own content. They make sense of their world through the act of expression, as much as they do consumption.

Alex Payne sums it up best: The iPad may be a boon to traditional eduction, insofar as it allows for multimedia textbooks and such, but in its current form, it’s a detriment to the sort of hacker culture that has propelled the digital economy.

The iPad operates in a closed system, where the hardware, software are all tightly controlled by the same company. This would work for a phone, but not for a personal computer, one that could conceivably set the standard for how all personal computing might look one day, in the same way that the iPod and iPhone have irrevocably changed the media player and phone industries. The tragedy is that this is an era that is thoroughly digital, and children might end up with a tool that can’t fully take advantage of that.

What we really needed was a Mac tablet, and not a giant iPhone. Perhaps I’m coming from the wrong perspective; not everyone tinkers with their computers, or maybe app development is the way to go instead. But right now I’m feeling like there’s been a wasted opportunity.

The iPad is an amazing piece of tech that will no doubt sell in bucketloads, and I will probably get round to buying one at some point. I might even employ it in teaching and learning somehow, but I just wish Apple might have taken another direction in terms of openness.

Update: “Do not be content with a television when you can have a computer.“ This post from io9’s Annalee Newitz pretty much crystallises all I wanted to say.

A common problem all teachers face is the issue of assessment, whether it truly reflects learning, how knowledge can be broken down into measurable indicators, or even exactly how assessment should be designed in the first place.

A recent post by Dr Kevin Lim (social-cyborg extraordinaire) mused on the lack of proper social media metrics business, and concluded that the “real first step is really determining what we want to measure.”

This holds true for education as well, but it is not going to be easy to determine. Certainly we want to foster critical thinking, analytical thinking, knowledge acquisition and so on.

But we need to consider the context of new media as well. Is the Internet changing the way our digitally native students think, and how do we address that?

So while we can wax lyrical non-stop about the benefits and wonders of new media for education, the first and most important thing is exactly what our students need to learn in the first place.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Welcome to Mediate, your one-stop blog for all things new media and and education.

As the Centre of Excellence for New Media, Innova Junior College has published and distributed 2 issues of Mediate via CD-Rom. The irony is that physical media – though still useful – is decidedly in the realm of old media.

So this year, Mediate will be making the jump into the the cloud, and hopefully make it a whole lot easier for you to follow useful trends and pedagogical strategies.

And by you, we mean teachers and educators from all over. It doesn’t matter if you’re a techno-Luddite or a tweeting Gmail ninja, we’ll be posting content that is relevant to as much of the spectrum as we can.

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