Visual Design Critique

Slide 1

Strengths It is simple but compact. This feature in fact is captivating and can help students to focus on one topic at a time. A presentation slide with a long and crowded text will give the impression that it is difficult to understand or having too much content, thus ‘scare away’ the students. The embedded voice helps invite students to explore further. In this modern society where students can rarely hear the frog sound, the sound icons are quite helpful. They introduce to students a few different sounds produced by frogs. The color theme selected (for all the slides) is soft and thus friendly for the eyes.

Areas of improvement The various examples of frog sound can be arranged in a separate slide. Thus in the first slide there will be 3 clickable buttons. They are: Frog Facts, Life Cycle of the Frog, and Frog Sounds. It will also be better if the sound icons are labeled according to the frogs producing the sound. Pictures of the respective frogs can be embedded, too, to help students visualize the different frogs. Normally, a clickable word or sentence is underlined. Thus it will be better if the word “button” in sentence ‘Click on the buttons learn more!’ is not underlined.

Slide 2

Strengths The ‘Home’ button and ‘Next’ button are good to have. It helps students in their exploration. The font size selected for the text is just nice, not too big nor too small. The amount of content is comfortable for the eyes, too. Too much content may confuse the students.

Areas of improvement The layout can be left aligned so it will appear tidier and thus easier to follow. The text animation, i.e. the word are typed letter by letter with sound effect for each letter, may distract the audience. Pictures having relevance to each fact can be selected instead. For example, frogs with different skin color following their environment, a frog catching an insect, frogs in water and on land.

Slide 3

Strengths The use of diagram to introduce a life cycle. Again, simplicity in displaying the information will help students to focus to one thing at a time.

Areas of improvement The use of all upper case letters for a sentence is unnecessary unless we want to emphasize a certain fact since the upper case will make a word ‘speaks’ louder then the rest. Otherwise it will be meaningless and, worse, the slide will look messy. Just incase the students do not have any preference of a particular life stage to explore, a “Next” button will be good to have to help them to continue the navigation.

Slide 4

Strengths The picture of frog eggs is good. It helps students to visualize the clump of frog eggs. The navigation buttons (Previous, Next, and Home) is useful and practical.

Areas of improvement The picture animation of a frog catching an insect may distract the students. A picture of frog eggs floating on a pond may be good, instead. The text animation could be too slow for some students. It may be better if we display a full sentence one at a time.

Slide 5

Strengths The sub-stage of the tadpole stage is clear and the picture for each sub-stage makes it easier to follow and understand. The slide is neatly arranged. All pictures are on the left column and the text is on the right. The buttons for the earlier and next stages are available. This will give freedom to students to learn in their own pace.

Areas of improvement It is good to place the navigation buttons at the same section (for example, in the bottom right corner) for all slides. This will smoothen the exploration since students have no need to search for the buttons. It will be a better way if the fact on each sub-stage is displayed one at a time upon clicking of the mouse.

Slide 6

Strengths Similar to the strength of slide 5, The slide is neat, the text is aligned properly The buttons for the earlier stages are available. This will give freedom to students to have a quick access to the previous stages whenever necessary. The navigation buttons are placed in the same location as the rest of the slides. This will make the exploration easier and user friendly.

Areas of improvement Pictures to represent the next two sub-stage of young frog can be included to help students to visualize the respective sub-stage and understand better. Similar to point of improvement for slide 5, it will be a better way if the fact on each sub-stage is displayed one at a time upon clicking of the mouse.

How does COTF promote student-centered learning?

Let me begin this page by quoting Dale H. Schunk, “Learning in a constructivist setting does not allow students to do whatever they want. Rather, constructivist environments should create rich experiences that encourage students to learn” (Schunk, 2008) pg 265. A classroom which promotes student-centered learning will have its environment conditioned in a way that student can effectively construct new knowledge and skills; and activities involves primary source of data and manipulative materials (Schunk, 2008).

Using the above concept of student-centered learning and constructivist theory in learning, I will present my opinion on how the COTF (Class Room of The Future) promotes student-centered learning. There is no intention to offend any parties or individuals whatsoever.

Inside the COTF

Entering COTF for the first time or any time, you will be welcome by a long cozy sofa and bar-like IT-counter.The class room is designed to comfortably accommodate around 10 students and 1 teacher. From the layout of the class, group discussion, group work, and group project are greatly encouraged. There are 2 round tables in which computers are embedded. Students may form groups of 5 and each group will share 1 round table and work together on a project using the computer. The use of technology is very intensive: students may access internet and thus be exposed to a large pool of information; they can communicate with students from other countries to exchange knowledge or even contribute to each others’ projects; language difference is no longer a barrier to the e-discussion as it will be directly translated to the language that each party understands; activities are no longer teacher-centered and students can learn and work on different things simultaneously; various approaches to learning may be used, including educational games; inter-group discussion can be carried out in a quieter way, all with the use of technology.

The science laboratory is supported by high end technology. E-discussion with other students from other countries can be done without even touching the keyboard. Students can get access to the experts around the world and thus enhance the creation of new knowledge in a more efficient way. Data analysis was processed by computer and results are obtained almost instantly.

The classroom is equipped with amphitheater where rich information is displayed. Students’ presence is detected electronically. Again, the layout of the class room is designed to promote group discussion. Teacher is able to monitor each of the students activities and guide the discussion more efficiently. The use of educational software, for example, graph plotter, helps in a great way to enhance learning. Assessment to the students’ learning is done as the learning process takes place. Quiz result can be obtained almost instantaneously and corrective measures may be done immediately.

The use of technology is not only limited to the school environment. In public places, the use of technology eases the transfer of information, too. Students can download information displayed in public places via the use of “tap and download” device. In the effort to motivate learning, educational games (computer games) are introduced. Teachers are able to post reminder on various tasks which need to be performed after school; and parents can monitor their children activities and keep on giving encouragement even though they are on other places far away.

COTF and student-centered learning

In a student-centered learning environment where knowledge is built from the experience and learning process, the intensive use of technologies in COTF will definitely give the required support and means. According to Grabinger and Dunlap (1995), there are five criteria of active learning: student responsibility and initiative, generative learning activities, authentic learning contexts, authentic assessment strategies, and cooperative support. Carr, Jonassen, Litzinger, and Marra (1998) propose the requirements to support these criteria:

1. Provide support for active learning,

2. Provide authentic, real-world learning experiences,

3. Provide multiple perspectives,

4. Provide support for communication and social negotiation,

5. Provide support for collaboration, not competition, and

6. Focus control at the learner center.

Using the criteria suggested by Carr et al., I shall evaluate the role of COTF in promoting student-centered learning :

Provide support for active learning. This means construction of knowledge through interaction with the environment, and thus engaging students as active parties in the acquisition of knowledge. The COTF provides this support by the concept of the classroom itself which promotes group discussion and sharing. This gives the arena where students interact, compare, confront, discuss, and negotiate concepts and ideas with peers and teachers. Through this social interaction, learning, in the sense of reaching common understandings and shared meanings, occurs (Grabinger and Dunlap, 1995). With the help of technology in COTF, discussion is no longer limited to the class, but is able to involve other students and experts around the world through. The transfer of information is instantaneous, level of enthusiasm may increase, and motivation towards learning may elevate.

Provide authentic, real-world learning experiences. This means supporting learning by means of real-world activities. Learners are able to relate the acquired knowledge to solve similar situations in the future. This is clearly achievable in the COTF: learning materials are related to the real-life problems. For example, the research on bacteria residing on human skin and the fact that it has caused skin rash in Canada but not in Asia; the application of parabolic function in the air force. All these are much better realized and interestingly introduced with the use of technology. Students are not only presented with the fact that the strain of bacteria are living on their skin, but they get to find it out themselves, discussed about it, and formulate a solution for the cause of rash in Canada. Students do not only know the parabolic function but are able to apply it in a simulator (or game) for target-shooting.

Provide multiple perspectives. This means providing multiple information sources to facilitate learning. The COTF achieve this by allowing multiple activities for the students to understand a certain topic or issue. For example, in learning the parabolic function, students will plot the graph using some software, then are faced with a real life problem which is to be solved in a group, and apply it in the target-shooting simulator. Without the use of technology, graph plotting will be a tedious process and application to real-life problem will be very much limited. In the COTF, students can also work on different projects simultaneously. This helps to enhance the learning process by exposing to students the different aspects of an issue, which later on may help them to solve a problem with different approaches.

Provide support for communication and social negotiation. In the COTF , group discussion is very much encouraged. On-line discussion with the help of webcam can very much enhance communication among students and between students and teachers. Time and space are no longer the barrier to a smooth communication.

Provide support for collaboration, not competition. Assessment is not done based on how successful the students are in recalling information or getting the right answers. Rather, emphasize is on the deep understanding: being aware of what they learn and why the knowledge is useful in the world, and whether students are able to apply skills their acquired skills (Schunk, 2008). Again, class discussion, peer tutoring, and cooperative learning are the way for learning to happen. Students are thus no longer feel the need to compete with their grades. Instead, they will need each other and work with peers and teachers to achieve common understanding and concept acquisition. The COTF may facilitate this assessment by simulating a problem of real life which require students to use their past experience and knowledge and work as a group to solve the problem. Furthermore, in the COTF, the possibilities to electronically exchange information between groups enhances the collaborative learning.

Focus control at the learner center. This means students are more in control of their learning. Students and teachers discuss on the learning goals. Teachers play the role of facilitators, providing with the required tools (guidance, resources). In the COTF, access to information world wide is made possible: student can gather data from internet, books, or even consult the experts. The set up of the class are in such a way that learners are encouraged to work in groups and negotiate meanings but still able to work with their own pace. The incorporation of various softwares helps student to better understand various concepts, organize information, manipulate data, and apply knowledge to solve real-life problems (as in the case of cuticula bacteria which causes rash in Canada). In short, the COTF provides control for the learners.

Conclusion

To sum up, the COTF promotes student-centered learning by providing a learning environment which promotes student responsibility and initiative, generative learning activities, authentic learning contexts, authentic assessment strategies, and cooperative support, the five criteria of active learning posited by Grabinger and Dunlap (1995).

References:

1. Carr, A., Jonassen, D., Litzinger, M. and Marra, R. (1998) ‘Good ideas to foment educational revolution: The role of    systemic change in advancing situated learning, constructivism, and feminist pedagogy’. Educational Technology, 38 (1), 5-15.
2. Grabinge, S. and Dunlap, J. (1995) ‘Rich environments for active learning’. Association for Learning Technology Journal, 3 (2), 5-34.
3. Mcpherson, M. and Nunes, M.B. (2004) Developing Innovation in Online learning – an action research framework. New York: Routledge Falmer. Taylor & Francis Group.
4. Schunk, D.H. (2008) Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Person Education Inc.
   

Managing ICT-enhanced environments

a. Do you think the classroom environment chosen is appropriate for the learning activities? Explain why.

Yes, I think the classroom environment chosen is appropriate for the learning activities. Not all environment and technology will be suitable to every lesson. Before commenting on Daphne’s geography class, I will reflect on the four videos classroom environment.

In video 1, using CD-rom in a full computer laboratory to learn mathematics was suitable because each student was able to learn individually and at their own pace. Those who were fast learner, might complete the task earlier, and might help the other student. Those who were slower could get more attention and assistance from the teacher and their peers. Furthermore, for a mathematics lesson to be more interesting, the way questions are presented to the students can be made different, for example, using an interactive mathematic game.

In the second video, a study about forest, students were given the ground/basic knowledge in an AV theatre. Students were then brought to a half computer lab where they built on further their knowledge about forest through self-finding from a CD-rom and discussion with their partner, The student themselves all looked to be very engaged and interested in the learning process. The classroom environment was conducive for the learning activity. 

In the third video, students in a science class were brought to a science lab where they could use different method to explore the characteristics of living things: computer/CD-rom, pictures, microscope, and skeleton model. This classroom environment was a very good idea since students were given the opportunity to learn using various ways. Students learn with each of the tools, and besides learning the subject matter itself, students learned how to use computer, microscope and pictures/models to increase their knowledge. Most importantly, students were engaged in the learning by self-gathering the information. The teacher provided the tools and structure, and finally she assist the students with their learning at the end of the lesson by going through the answers. However, this method might have negative outcome if the time required for each activity differed by much. Groups who have finished earlier might have to wait and during waiting the noise level might increase, making other groups felt nervous. Teacher has also be more ready for an increase of noise level since students might speak together at the same time. 

The fourth video showed learning through a game. I am not really able to visualize teaching and learning using game unless with an express class. In the video, however, it seemed that students were all obedient, keeping quiet and paying attention to their friends who were involved in the game. This learning method, whenever possible, will be a good way to allow fun yet engaging learning. However, teacher must, in the first place, know the situation of the class very well. She must also be ready to listen to higher noise level. Guidance during the lesson is very important, and ample time for wrapping up the lesson must be allowed. A small quiz or test at the end of the lesson could help to improve student engagement during the activities. 

In Daphne’s geography class, where pupils’ interest in the subject could be quite a challenge by itself, creating an environment which could trigger students’ enthusiasm towards the subject was very crucial. By tasking the students to be the “special agent” to investigate (do reasearch) on the environmental degradation was a very creative effort to awaken students interest. This would engage students in learning the issues related to the environment. Asking the students to come up with viable solution the environmental problem and opening up online discussion forum helped students to think at higher level. Presenting the research result to the calss has opened an opportunity for the students to get their idea challenged and thus validated the self-gathered information and knowledge. Finally, drawing conclusion using the decision-making template has provided the students with an experience to take part in a responsible action for the world. The use of Inspiration software to organise information was suitable in this case. Using this organised information, students were able to draw a conclusion. The use of online discussion forum has given a platform for students to start an educational discussion which might extend to a deeper one beyond the school hour. All of these constituted a classroom environment which was appropriate to the learning activities.

b. The students seem to be focused and on task. What strategies do you think the teacher has used to achieve this outcome?  

I believe some good ground work and strategy must have been done by the teachers before conducting the lesson. Seating arrangement or grouping was one of them. This has helped the students to focus on their task rather that talking and chatting with their close friends. Materials and tools for the lesson, e.g. CD-rom, were made ready and there was an organized distribution method for the tools/materials. IT representative was appointed to help the students whenever necessary and appropriate. This would help the teachers while giving the students an opportunity for peer-tutoring. Clear instruction and rules were set up and communicated to the class prior the lesson. The teacher stated the task to accomplish and the way it should be carried out very clearly at the start of the lesson. During the lesson, the teacher played her/his role as the class manager and the time keeper. The teacher must have planned the lesson and estimated the time required to complete the task, too.  

As for Daphne, her interesting invitation to the research on the subject helped the students to focus on the task. Her message was clear and specific. The instructions were mentioned clearly before the class started. As the class proceeded, she guided the students in using the Inspiratin software to organise the information. She constantly guided the discussion so that students would think at higher level. She also modelled how to draw conclusion using the decision-making template. All these have helped the class to focus and on task.

c. What potential classroom management issues can possibly occur? What proposed solution(s) do you have? 

Depending on the classroom environment and the subject matter, various classroom management issues may occur.

For example, in Daphne’s geography class, during the online discussion, the topic might drift to unrelated issues. Teacher’s role here is to monitor and guide the disussion so that students could move on to the higher level thinking. Teacher might need to provide with answers or clues if the discussion stucked half way. Another possible issue was getting more focused into the use of technology (i.e. the Inspiration software) instead of to the subject matter itself. To minimize this problem, the teacher might want to get the students to use the software more frequently. Students would get used to with it and thus the task of organizing information using the Inspiration software will be automatic.

In a full-computer lab, as in video 1, one of the computers could have broken down and even the spare computers wree spoilt. The student was then panic, shouted at the teacher, and the rest of the class lost the concentration. To resolve this issue, the teacher might want to take a quick action: got the student to do the task using the teacher’s station, and quickly engaged the IT specialist of the school to rectify the problem on the computer. It would have been better though, if the teacher has already made sure that all the stations were functional before the lesson started.  

In a classroom environment as in video 4, students were engaged in an educational game. One of the scenarios that might happen was that two groups of students were competing against each other, up to the point where they were throwing bad sentences to each other and were ready for a fight. Reacting to this situation, teacher might want to raise his/her voice or use other tools to get the students attention. Then the teacher might want to give a briefing on the spot to the students involved. Having the students calmed down she might want to continue the lesson with a different approach, for example a question and answer session. The students involved in the fight might need to be briefed further after the class was over. 

In relation to video 2, where students were assigned to learn as partners of two, it might happen that two students which were not in a good term with each other for a long time were assigned as partner. This would affect the learning process. They might not be able to carry out the discussion as expected. Observing this, the teacher might want to rearrange the grouping. However, after the class was over, the teacher might want to summon the two students to help them resolve their problem.

How student-centred was the lesson?

Source: Engaging IT – Insight from the class room (MOE).

Case study 1 was selected. The teacher (Ms. Daphne Chang) was conducting a one-hour geography lesson for her Sec 4 class. The topic was on environmental degradation. It was a non-traditional class in how it was conducted. This time I will elaborate my evaluation on the 7 aspects of the learning environment in this geography class. Each aspect will be scored 0 (for the most teacher-centered aspect) to 10 (for the most student-centered aspect).

1. Teacher’s roles (score: 9):

Teachers in a student-centered learning class will play their parts as the class manager while the students will engage themselves in searching for information, validating the gathered information through comparison, group discussion and peer editing, presenting the information to their audience, and drawing conclusion, thus building a new understanding and knowledge.

Daphne, as a teacher, was indeed the class manager for her geography class. She gave clear instruction on what to focus by giving the students the “mission” to accomplish, how they should present their gathered information (the software to be used and the format of the presentation). The information gathered by the students was not simply accepted, but she opened it up for test. A discussion forum, where students challenged each other’s idea, was set up. During the discussion she was the facilitator instead of just conducting a mere question and answer session between a teacher and students, or allowing frantic discussion among the students themselves. She guided the students to ask higher-order questions and gave comprehensive answers whenever necessary. Finally, after the discussion was over, the students gained new information, the information which they searched and validated themselves. They were then able to draw conclusion based on their new understanding and came up with solutions to the environmental degradation problem they faced.

However, her first class was not really successful. She did not show how to organize the information using the Inspiration software. She did not model how to draw the decision using the decision-making template, either. She tried to cover too many tasks in one hour. As a result, the information gathered was not organized, and due to this, students faced difficulties in decision making. Some students had only blur idea in decision making steps, causing them clueless in using the decision-making template. Some students hurried in drawing the conclusion because of time limitation.

Her second lesson was improved based on her reflection. However, to make it better, she could have used the Inspiration software more often in her class, so that students were more seasoned and thus could make full use of the software.

 2. Student’s role (score: 7):

Students were engaged actively in the learning. Building on their prior knowledge, they searched and gathered information on the environmental degradation, presented their findings, validated the information through discussion and critical analysis, then drew conclusions as new knowledge.

However, even though the research was done by a group of students, the presentation were only performed by two representatives of the group. This eliminated the learning opportunity for the rest of the group members to conduct a semi-formal presentation. Teacher should have a clear instruction on how to split the presentation task clearly so that every group member will have an equal chance presenting. For example, each group can only consisted of maximum of 4 people, 1 person to present the topic on “The Facts and Statistics”, 1 person to present on “The Causes of The Problems”, 1 person on “The Consequences of the Problem”, and the last person on “Viable Remedial Measures”.

Another weak point was that the presenters did not get the chance to apply the Inspiration software for spontaneous note taking and information organization. This can be solved by using the Inspiration software more frequently during her other classes.

The last negative points that might happen was that not all of the students were actually participated in the discussion as teacher might not straight away be aware of every the participants’ involvement, unless there was a system to detect it and instantly give feedback to the teacher.

 3. Curriculum Characteristics (score: 8):

Coming up with viable remedial for the problem faced, in this case was environmental degradation, required higher order thinking. So did discussion on higher order issues, such as on how to engage the government and community to implement the proposed solution. Drawing conclusion on the most immediate and important problem to be solved required higher-order thinking, too. Jotting down information presented involved lower skill.

One of the negative points of group project was there were normally some group member who did not participate 100% in the effort. Those who  just follow or even were “parasite” to the group. To improve on this, the teacher could have set a peer-evaluation form, where each member of the group will evaluate on each others’ participation.

 4. Learning Goal (score: 8):

Students were given opportunity to build new knowledge on their prior information and experience. They searched and gathered the necessary information on their own. They have the chance to develop their leadership quality as they work in a group to manage the project. They were given chance to have give presentation to a semi-formal audience. Their presentation points were also jotted down by their peers as an input as well as to be challenged. Students were learning with the technology (inspiration software) to organize their notes, and on-line discussion forum to exchange and criticize ideas. Students learned to perform decision making using step-by-step decision-making template provided by the teacher.

However, again, it was not easy to monitor the participation of each student in each learning process, and thus to ensure the maximum learning. If the decision making form was to be the basis of understanding and involvement, it might not be valid since students might have copied from each other. Also, if the record of the note taken using the inspiration software was to be used to measure the participation during the presentation, some students might have not mastered using the software, so having difficulties jotting down notes. To quantify the result of learning, I think some quizzes/tests/examinations and individual assessment might still be required.

 5. Type of Activities (score: 8):

Daphne’s geography class was more to the student-centered learning style. To come up with the presentation, a group discussion must have been involved. In doing so, each member of the group must have done individual exploration about environmental degradation, its causes and effects, and also the viable remedies. As a group project some specific assignments must have been deployed to each of the group member, and learning came from the group discussion, which produced a comprehensive presentation slides. On-line discussion forum was also a type of learning activity which engaged students to build their own knowledge and understanding.

 However, being students, I believe a guided discussion would have been more suitable. For example, the teacher should have informed the students to focus their discussion on certain things by throwing into the forum a few challenging questions to start with, and as the discussion went on teacher should have guided them to draw the conclusion.

The teacher could have told the students that the individual note taken using the Inspiration software would be used as an individual assessment. This would have probed each student to take the presentation more seriously.

6. Assessment strategies (score: 5):

There was no clear assessment strategies described in this case study. It looked like she assessed the students understanding by the record of the note taken using the Inspiration software, and by the conclusion drawn in the decision-making form. They were both non-representative of whether the learning goal has been achieved for the reason that I have mentioned in point 4 above (Learning Goal).

It would be good if the teacher could assess the level of learning achieved from the record of the discussion forum, i.e. the kind of questions they asked and the arguments thrown to defend or push through their ideas. Additional to it, some quizzes or tests might still be required.

7. Use of ICT (score: 10):

The class has very much utilized technology to enhance learning. Internet and books as the open-ended source of information; Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation to present their findings, Inspiration software for note taking and organization of information, online discussion forum to exchange ideas and challenge each others’ opinion, and online poll to poll their decision online. In all activities, the teacher has played her role as the class manager to ensure that the learning process took place in an organized manner.

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