Flipped Classroom

I have been a very vocal supporter of the flipped classroom module ever since I first learned about it a few years ago. It just makes too much sense in the way our classrooms are evolving. We have so much to teach and do and so little time to do it. Expectations are rising but the time we have stays the same. That means we have to use the time we have in the most efficient way. Considering that not all kids are on the same level or understanding of every topic, it should be obvious that not every kid needs the same instruction for everything. You are wasting time by making every single kid go through the same lecture or scaffolded teaching. We can use flipped classroom to target single learners, groups of small learners and even the whole class to create a blended learning environment. You can prepare kids ahead of time by chunking or front-loading vocabulary or strategies so when they arrive to class or your group they will have been exposed to the material or in some cases understand it much more clearly. I like to use stations and rotations in my classroom and one of the stations could be me meeting with a group of kids. I can’t meet with every kid every day. Or can I? By using the flipped classroom approach I can record myself teaching a lesson that kids can pause, rewind, fast forward and even with some programs have enhanced questions added in to make it feel like they are in the group with me. I can also record teaching strategies for kids to digest the day before I meet with them so when I do meet with them, we can get right down to work and use our time effectively. This will increase student motivation because we are able to do more hands on activities and problem solving in class while they do the readings and studying in other stations or at home for homework. I also believe that if you are making the resources, the students are much more engaged, because they know you and are excited to hear from you.

I chose to create 5 videos. 3 in educreations and two with a program called weVideo and a software I feel comfortable with in creating content called Activinspire. I enhanced a video using edpuzzle to add practice for one of my lessons.

Educreations: Practice Videos

1. Food Chain & Food Webs: Practice Video

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/food-chains-webs/60247689/?s=ereg7i&ref=link

In this video I chose the science concept of how energy passes through plants and animals in the food chain. I used the drawing tool to show emphasis on areas that I think the students need to know. I didn’t have a script and went off the top of my head as this was a practice video. I found pictures from the internet on google image search. The goal of this video was to front load information with students about where energy comes from and how it is passed through the components. Students can pause and rewind to pick up on key terms such as producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, apex predator, and decomposer. If I was making an official video, I would’ve mapped it out, had a script and used the typing tool for certain areas.

2. Multiplication: Lattice Method

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/lattice-multiplication/60247749/?s=8q6kx4&ref=link

In this video I chose the math concept of how to multiply two by two digit factors using an alternate algorithm to the standard method. Again, this video was for practice as I wanted to practice using the undo and erase buttons. I also used the pen tool as well as imported images. The purpose of this video for kids is to introduce them to the method, how to build the box, how to use the box and solve problems so when they come to a station with me they will be familiar with the model.

3. Converting Mixed Numbers & Improper Fractions

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/mixed-numbers-improper-fractions/60247797/?s=osbtuk&ref=link

For my final practice video, I stayed in math and explored the concepts of converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions. This video is similar to the math video above where it is designed to introduce the methods of conversion from one to the other. I think it could benefit from more images and explanation of the terms, but I really wanted to focus on how to control the whiteboard and use only the pen tool. I also wanted this video to short and concise so that it can be used as a reference tool even after instruction for students who need reminders.

EdPuzzle: Enhanced Video

I couldn’t export my videos on educreation without the paid verison to enhance them on edpuzzle so I used a video that I made on Activinspire and screen captured on weVideo, a video editing software that I have access to.

https://edpuzzle.com/media/618fdaf7a0b0194172963ee2

Final Lesson Plan & Video: The Moon & Its Phases

For this video I used a combination of Activinspire (to create), weVideo (to edit and voice over), and quicktime to trim and cut to finalize. The purpose of this video is to teach kids facts about the Moon and how it goes through phases. It is used as a source to provide essential information for groups and rotations that will then come to the teacher later in the science period. This can also be used the day before a Moon project to provide essential vocabulary and facts.

Lesson Plan: Moon & Its Phases

Subject: Science

Time: 1:30-2:30 PM

Topic: Earth Science: Moon & Its Phases

Objective/Focus: Identify the Moon Phases by using the terms: waxing or waning, gibbous or crescent, quarter/half, or full/new moon. Predict a moon’s phase on a calendar.

Pre-requisite Work: Last night’s homework was to watch the flipped classroom video (seen above) on google classroom about the Moon and its phases. This video can be used in any station to refresh or relearn important Moon facts or vocabulary.

Stations:

1. Teacher Station
2. Independent Reading Station
3. Task Card Station: Moon Phases
4. Project Station: Moon Timeline

Station Explanation: Students may use the flipped classroom video in ANY station for support

1. Teacher Station: children will report to teacher station with their science notebook and writing supplies. The teacher will teach the students about the Moon and its phases as well as hand them out a calendar with Moon phases. The students upon the teacher’s request will find the Moon phase for suggested dates and make predictions for upcoming ones.
2. Independent Reading Station: Students will use the class library, magazines, or online reading source such as RazzKids or Epic Reading to read about the Moon. The will fill out a 3-2-1 sheet on 3 things they learned, 2 things they have questions on, and 1 drawing that illustrates something they learned.
3. Task Card Station: Students will have task cards of moon illustrations in different phases. They will have to identify if the moon is waxing or waning and what phase it is in: gibbous, crescent, half/quarter, full or new. This station can be independent or with a partner. Task cards have QR codes on to check if answers are correct.
4. Project Station: Students will use the website Moon Giant to research what phase the moon was in for 4 or more life events. Example: Born, Sister/Brother’s Birth, When they got a new pet. etc. They will use a circle template to create a moon timeline by coloring in the moon phase on their paper. Teacher example below.

In this lesson I learned how the basics of Photoshop from Adobe. I have always wanted to learn how to use photoshop for fun and professionally as an educator. Photoshop is EXPANSIVE. There is so much you can do and it is very time consuming. Also, everything needs to be PERFECT or it won’t work. It takes a lot of patience and practice, but what you can create is amazing.

We were tasked with three assignments.

1. Explore the tools and create shapes with colors
2. Create a logo for personal or professional use
3. Create a collage that defines who you are with pictures you took

While I was completing these tasks I was learning how to use the manipulation features to enhance my photographs.

Please check them out with their descriptions below!

Task 1: Exploration: Creating Rectangles

This was my first interaction with photoshop. I was asked to create a series of rectangles and use certain color schemes while creating a pattern that drew the viewer in. This was fairly easy to accomplish once I get the hang of how to manipulate the tools, in particular the rectangle tool.

Task 2: Logo: (20 Year Friendships)

This was my second task. I decided to make a personal logo to celebrate my friendship with my closest friends. As a group we have been best friends for 20 years. This friendship has seen us become best men, fathers, and godfathers. The key to creating this logo was understanding how layers work and how to manipulate the photo using strategies that drew away from the background to focus on the front logo. We chose the motto, “No New Friends” because we simply don’t need any new friends. This is inspired by a song lyric from Drake. This was all created by me including chopping up the squares and rotating them into the design.

Task 3: Personal Collage: Special Place (Family)

This was my favorite task, but also the most difficult and stressful. I chose one of our favorite spots, Sea Isle City, New Jersey. My wife, daughter and myself simply love it here and it is our happy place. It was very difficult turning the outline of New Jersey into a placeholder frame for the collage photos. Understanding layers is essential here as well as importing photos as a smart stack and then turning them to smart objects before creating a clipping mask so the photo tucks into the background.

I look forward to learning more about photoshop and continuing to use it in both my personal and professional life.

Ponza School District: Professional Development and Training Website

(click the link above to visit the discussed website)

In this lesson I learned how the basics of HTML, CSS and jQuery. I learned how to use the language that programmers use to take a blank white screen and turn it into a functioning resource than can be accessed by others. The focus on this project wasn’t how effective it was at solving the problem, but how effective I was with using the tools and building the functionality of the website.

My goal was to create a website for a fictional school district (Ponza School District) that would solve a budding problem that is present in many of our real school districts. The problem is that many of us are given devices and other technology resources such as video cameras and editing software as well as programs that we are expected to use even with little to no training provided. This website I have created will be a place that teachers and other learners can go to complete trainings that are live, recorded, self accessed modules or participate in discussion spaces as an expert, novice or beginner.

This was for practice and while I think it could use a lot of improvement, I am very satisfied with the results.  It took a great deal of reading, practicing, and tutorial watching. I had to go through training to provide the training, but isn’t that the way it supposed to be?

This module is part 1 in a three part series of projects I will be completing this semester. My next two tech modules will focus on addressing the same problem from different angles. They will all come together to address the same goal.

Michael

M.Ed. in Learning, Design, and Technology Capstone Portfolio: Ponza 2021

Personal Introduction to Capstone Portfolio

I became a teacher because I have a passion for learning. I chose to be an elementary teacher because I have a passion for working with young minds. I enrolled into the Learning, Design and Technology program because I have a passion for technology integration and designing opportunities for learner’s to showcase what they know in a fun and innovative way. Over the past few years I have met many peers, both professors and cohorts that have helped me to sharpen my skills and develop a deep contextual understanding of how learning, designing, and technology go together. I have blogged, engaged in rich discussion, constructed my own personal website https://sites.psu.edu/mponza/ where I have shared my thoughts and reflected on my journey and most importantly completed various projects across my courses that demonstrate what I have learned in the program. As this paper progresses I will describe the projects that I have chosen and discuss why I made the design decisions that I made. I will also reflect on how these decisions I made are consistent with or expand on theories/principles I have encountered in this M.Ed. program. I will discuss how the project has furthered my conceptions and practices related to design and/or learning. Finally, I will end the reflective statement by talking about my learning design philosophy and potential for success in the learning design field.

Learning & Design Projects

1. LDT 440: Summer 2019: Blueprint 2: Nutrition And Physical Activity And Their Effect On Learning: MyFitnessPal, Moki Physical Activity Tracker
2. LDT 527: Spring 2020: Reducing Household Costs: How to Eat Healthy While Shopping Smart
3. LDT 433: Summer 2021: Micro-teaching: Rocks & Minerals

Reflective Statement

The projects I chose to display in my portfolio showcase my growth from 2019-2021. I have always considered myself a distinguished teacher and a strong lesson curator, but these last few years have been integral in my development as a designer and builder. These projects helped me elevate my design skills and showed me new and innovative ways to integrate technology safely, effectively, appropriately and affordably.

Description 1: LDT 440: Summer 2019: Blueprint 2: Nutrition And Physical Activity And Their Effect On Learning: MyFitnessPal, Moki Physical Activity Tracker

This project was completed during my studies in LDT 440 with Dr. Kirby. As I have mentioned I always considered myself an excellent designer of lessons and unit plans and integrator of technology. I pride myself in how I differentiate and create engaging and rich learning experiences enhanced with technology, however this project took me many edits and correspondence with my professor. I was frustrated. I failed many times in creating the blueprints in this class because I didn’t realize how much work went into designing a blueprint. There is so much more outside of just the content, instructional strategies, and assessments. It was great for me because it allowed me as an educator, to embrace the role of an online student. It gave me insight on how tough it can be for online learners. My prominent design decision was to use the design principles in Dr. Daniel Surry’s RIPPLES rollout system. When constructing my blueprint through RIPPLES I discovered there is so much more to consider than just content. As Surry states (2004),  there are numerous barriers to the integration of instructional technology and even in successful integration, resistance may arise that needs to be addressed. The components that I carefully considered were the resources, infrastructure, people, policies, learning, evaluation and supports needed. What will the cost be? Is it beneficial to implement this technology or use existing technology in place? Will changes to the current infrastructure be needed or will it be ready to implement? Who are the stakeholders and how will it affect them? What policies are in place that will guide and protect the users of the technology? And of course, what specifically with the technology is helping the learners learn, how will they be evaluated, and how will the users be supported? Nothing can be assumed or discussed later, everything must be accounted for and are all equally important. This taught me to see the whole picture instead of just focusing on a few details. If you want technology implemented, then you better have the answers to the questions you will be asked for implementation. As Surry & Ensminger (2006) state, if you are going to successfully implement something such as technology integration, you must account for the changes that will address both the human needs and organizational issues. Now, when I design units and lessons and technology interrogations, I consider these principles and how I can make it feasible to create a collaborative learning environment efficiently by analyzing the affordances the technology provides.

Description 2: LDT 527: Spring 2020: Reducing Household Costs: How to Eat Healthy While Shopping Smart

This project was completed during my studies in LDT 527 with Dr. Susan Land. This was one of my earliest foray’s into designing a robust blueprint for a self paced online learner containing interactive assignments.  This is a cross-curricular PBL (project based learning) blueprint. As Chard asserts (2007), major advantages of PBL’s are their ability to make the mundane of traditional school work and transform them into engaging real life situation. Thus, I designed this project to teach the learner about health/science and math through engaging and interactive assignments and tasks that are designed to be authentic, such as reading food labels, mock shopping, and creating a mock grocery store. To design this engaging and authentic self-paced unit on how to eat healthy while affordably and responsibly shopping for a family of four reducing household costs I used the STAR Legacy framework. This framework helped me to focus on creating a strong lesson, and facilitate the creation of a balanced learning environment. It helped to anticipate potential success and failures students may encounter and allowed me to take my project from the problem, identify the challenge, and develop the driving question. This allowed me to create goals, develop my methods of instruction and potential product creations as well as create areas for learners to reflect and complete self evaluation. One of the biggest things I learned in this project is how to provide areas for learners to self reflect on the process and journey they are going through, rather than wait for the end. It allows them to learn how and why they learn, analyze what worked and didn’t work, and make changes for future learning to occur. Through the creation of this artifact I also learned how to extend my designs to reach the public. Building a community and sharing with the community is a huge part of online learning and project based learning. Technology affords us the ability to interact with our community and many communities that are not easily accessible due to distance. I have brought this knowledge with me into my career as an elementary educator and try to find ways to share our learning and projects with the community by engaging with our community members and reaching out to experts in the community for support.  

“Research demonstrates that strong relationships between schools, families, and community members can positively affect student achievement and outcomes.” (Hanover Research, 2018, Para 4)

This project built upon prior learning and projects from previous blueprint designs from classes such as Dr. Zimmerman’s LDT 505 and Dr. Kirby’s LDT 440 and helped me prepare for my future projects in LDT 433 such as my micro-lessons. 

Description 3: LDT 433: Summer 2021: Micro-teaching: Rocks & Minerals

This project was completed during my studies in LDT 433 with Dr. Zelonis. The primary focus of this course and project was to examine teaching and learning in a strictly online format. I created and designed a micro-lesson, meaning a brief and concise lesson meant for self teaching by the learner with appropriate content for the audience that would take them 30-45 minutes to complete. I had to keep in mind the enormous impact that transactional distance has on learning in this environment, so I designed my lesson to minimize the transactional gap. As Moore (1997) states, there are three clusters of variables that control the extent of transactional distance: Dialogue, Structure, and Learner Autonomy. To combat the transactional distance, my most prominent design decisions were to make it collaborative, interactive and give the learner choice in how they completed their assignments and learned the content. I recorded videos of myself teaching the content and vocabulary so the learner’s could hear my voice and see my face, which I believe holds significant value to making the learner feel connected to the educator. I also included many areas where the learners could interact with each other through discussion spaces to create a collaborative community where they could share their thoughts and ideas and learn from each other. I also incorporated video and audio responses so the learners could hear and see each other as well. For choice, I gave multiple options for assignments that allow learners to showcase their mastery and understanding in multiple ways including standard quiz assessments, drawings and posters, to performance assessments such as creating video presentations or audio podcasts. Personalized learning and voice and choice are keystones in my learning and teaching philosophies. Technology is a tool, a tool that allows me to reach learners in a way I couldn’t during my early years of teaching.

In a variety of ways, technology holds promise to enable personalization to an extent that was not possible at large scale in an earlier era. Technology’s greatest role may be to manage the complexity of the personalization process. By occasionally providing instruction or supporting independent learning, technology can also enable educators to take a more personalized approach in their own teaching efforts and other activities they undertake to support student learning and development.

(Pane, 2017, pg 6)

Thus, I will always design and build my lessons, whether online only, hybrid or in person to allow learners the ability to choose the method that works for them best and allows them to demonstrate their learning and understanding with the support of technology.

Conclusion

My Design & Learning Philosophy

I believe that I have always had an innate ability to create and design technologically advanced lessons for my students. However, what I wasn’t aware of was all the design processes outside of the content and materials. Taking these classes and creating these projects was time consuming, beneficial, fun, and eye opening. It helped me take my learning philosophy and forge it into a stronger philosophy of learning and design.

I don’t think I could’ve picked a better time to enroll in the Learning, Design and Technology program at PSU. This pandemic has really been an eye opener to me in regards to teaching and learning, especially in the realm of online teaching and learning. It is so much more than, “just have them use their fancy devices and high speed internet” So much goes into planning and designing and small fine points that are essential to creating the programs and lessons needed for online learning and teaching of the content and curriculum. I believe that it is a team effort with the teacher and learner each playing a role in building the learning community and the learning that is to take place. I believe through my studies the most important aspects that will help me as a designer are: understanding the roles of the online teacher and learner, using the curriculum and content to create blueprints and design diverse and engaging units and lessons that will allow me to use varying and appropriate instructional methods, and finally creating a supportive and collaborative online learning environment and community that promotes a culture of communication, participation, risk taking, creativity/innovation, and deep contextual learning.

Future Use

Technology is transformative. It is powerful. However, it is only as powerful and as useful as the designed intention and the efficacy in which it can be used and applied. I have learned so much about what goes into the design process and how to appropriately use technology as a tool, not a crutch. Technology is a medium that offers learners the ability to support learners and allow them affordances as well as the ability to work at their own pace and time. It can combat and minimize the transactional distance that is unavoidable in online learning settings. While I am a traditional brick and mortar teacher, I plan on using what I have learned to enhance my teaching and ensure I can reach learnings on their level more effectively. I plan to do this by incorporating online learning methods into my classroom that I have learned in my studies. With the prevalence of high speed internet along with devices such as chrome books, iPads, cell phones and LMS systems such as Canvas, I plan to build a hybrid classroom where I am working with children in person in smaller group settings while a portion of my class is doing self paced lessons filled with scaffolding and personalized assignments that gives them a voice and choice in their learning. This will give a divide and conquer strategy that multi-teacher classrooms have, but with only one teacher. I also have aspirations to take what I learned and explore options outside of my classroom. My future areas of interest are:

Short Term

•  Work for a company designing and building programs, units, lessons, curriculum, apps, & products
• Become a technology specialist that works with schools and teachers on how to design engaging, safe, efficient technologically enhanced lessons as well as introduce newer technologies such as AR/VR and more.

Long Term

• Become a professor that teaches teachers how to use technology to personalize learning and offer choices to learner’s allowing them to demonstrate their learning and mastery of skills.
• Pursue my doctorate in research of personalized learning and performance based assessment particularly in the primary/elementary level.

References

Chard, S. (2007, October 19). Why is project-based learning important? Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-importance.

Moore, M. (1997). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.), Theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 22–38). New York: Routledge

Moore, M.G., & Diehl, W.C. (Eds.). (2018). Handbook of Distance Education (4th ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.4324/9781315296135 

Pane, John F. et al. (2017) Informing Progress: Insights on Personalized Learning Implementation and Effects. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2042.html.

Surry, D.W. (2002, April). A Model for Integrating Instructional Technology into Higher Education. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, LA.

Surry, Daniel & Ensminger, David. (2006). Facilitating the Use of Web Based Learning by Higher Education Faculty. Online Submission.

Top benefits of family and community engagement. Hanover Research. (2018, September 10). https://www.hanoverresearch.com/insights-blog/top-benefits-of-family-and-community-engagement/.

Respectfully submitted for review and consideration by the LDT department and in accordance with the capstone project guidelines set forth by the faculty, this capstone project contains samples of work completed during my course of study in Pennsylvania State University’s Learning Design and Technology M.Ed. program. 

Thank you,

Michael J. Ponza