TechQuest Draft 1: Establishing a Problem of Practice

I am in my third year of teaching secondary Mathematics here in Michigan. This year’s junior class is required to successfully complete four years of high school Mathematics. They are expected to pass Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and an additional mathematics credit. I am sure you have heard the old house analogy when someone was speaking of the scaffolding present in the curriculum. Students do need to build on prior knowledge to climb through the content. The core content of algebra requires students to represent functions in a myriad of ways. Students begin with linear functions and advance to quadratics and beyond. The concept of a function is integral to the mastery of knowledge in secondary and post-secondary Mathematics.

In chapter six of their math standards, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) states “Functions are one of the most important mathematical tools for helping students make sense of the world around them, as well as preparing them for further study in mathematics (Yerushalmy and Shternberg 2001). Functions appear in most branches of mathematics and provide a consistent way of making connections between and among topics. Students’ continuing development of the concept of function must be rooted in reasoning, and likewise functions are an important tool for reasoning. Thus, developing procedural fluency in using functions is a significant goal of high school mathematics. (41)”

Students begin to question how the content covered relates to their own lives as they progress through these courses. The content requires students to master skills and knowledge that the students feel have little or no relevance to their own lives. I feel that the compelling problem of practice that I want to address in this TechQuest is: How can I help students identify the function that is best suited for modeling a given real-world situation? This is Algebra I content expectation A2.4.1, but is a core content piece throughout Algebra II, Trigonometry, and Pre-Calculus Courses. Students learn in various ways and I am searching for some technology that will help me incorporate many different pedagogical strategies. In their book Technology and to Support Learning, Bransford and Cocking state “Technology can help create an active environment in which students not only solve their own problems, but also find their own problems (Bransford 195). I am hoping to find technology that helps me create an active situation where real student learning can take place. In my own experience, I have developed related lessons that students can master the content temporarily, but cannot reproduce the content later down the line. For example, the student may be able to complete similar tasks during an Algebra II course, but will experience difficulty with a related activity once they have entered Pre-Calculus and are taking a pre-assessment. I want my students to have a memorable experience that will generate real learning related to this subject matter.

Lessons Learned: Areas of Growth

I have learned that effective teaching strategies lie at the center of any successful educational activity. The pedagogical strategy employed much match the best practice for the individual piece of content. It is important to vary the strategies when needed. Technology is a tool for teachers to use when it benefits learning, and can often provide for the students a chance to engage in idea-based learning and constructivism. It is important to analyze the technology and content to ascertain the pedagogical strategy that best fits the activity.

I had not given too much thought to using websites as stand-alone instructional objects before enrolling in my current graduate course. I now see that there is merit in creating these types of online experiences for our students. I evaluated Blogs and WebQuests in this course, and I generated my own WebQuest and STAIR. This process taught me how to evaluate the different technologies and decide whether they were worthy for use in the classroom. Educational technology will evolve with time, and it is important that we learn how to adapt to it as well as learn the current technology. If we were just taught how to use the current technology, the program would lose its value after a few short years. However, we are being taught how to evaluate and adapt to technology, and these tools are invaluable.

I am going to give you a glimpse of the goals I had set for this program and this individual course in order to evaluate my progress (the intended audience was my high school students):

It is my goal to integrate technology into the classroom only when it will make a difference.

• I intend to use technology to help you understand concepts that you might not have understood without the use of technology. I will use technology to help reinforce mathematical ideas by showcasing the material in a way that is unique to the individual technology.

• I will use different teaching strategies combined with technology to help you develop a strong sense of intrinsic motivation. In other words, you will engage in the activity without seeking external rewards.

In order to use technology to make a difference in your lives, I have to grow as an educator by increasing my skill in using technology.

• I plan to dedicate myself to my studies in the pursuit of obtaining knowledge related to technology use in the classroom. I can learn the advantages and disadvantages to different technologies by reading other educators’ research on new and developing technologies.

• I will practice and experiment using technology to the point that I have mastered its practical use in the classroom. I know that I will encounter success and failure during my trials. I know that these failures will be learning experiences and are part of the educational process.

• I know that collaborative experiences are essential and that I cannot accomplish all of my goals without the help of others. I plan to seek out assistance when I experience difficulty in my academic pursuits.

It is my goal to develop skills and integrate the technology with the overall goal being increased student learning.

The above goals were centered on existing technologies, and I will continue to strive toward these goals. These goals are continual and will never be fully reached. I intend to continue to progress and become more comfortable with the web 2.0 educational technologies. I plan to become more equipped to deal with future technologies as well. I want to further explore the development of cross curricular WebQuests and STAIRS. I know that my first experiences with these stand-alone instructional objects had a steep learning curve, but the process of actual creation will become swifter. These new goals will be added to my overarching goals that were listed above to help me become more adept at integrating technology into education.

Online Learning Experiences

This week I read the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document for my graduate course. This document addresses the core principles of student learning online. It is very practical by nature, and offers their characteristics of quality online learning experiences.

I first attempted to follow the links to the educational games that this guide offers as tools for the classroom, but I was thwarted by our ISD’s firewall (external blogs have also been defeated). I decided to investigate these educational games due to the fact that I could not use them to teach any content at my particular school. I was not that interested in them to begin with, but I know students like games of all different varieties.

I was pretty familiar with most of their online experiences. The teachers at my high school incorporate many of these experiences into their classrooms. I was surprised to actually see that students are only required to have twenty hours or online learning experiences. I would imagine that our students are easily getting that within a two or three month span.

I am interested in using implementing an interactive discussion with an expert that uses mathematics in their profession. I could see this type of experience bringing relevance to a subject that students continue to argue that no relevance exists beyond Geometry. I would love to see an initial conference between my students and my friend, let us call her Sally, which works for NASA. Sally has been involved with several different research projects and could showcase examples of the type of work she has been doing. Students would then begin a research project that is related to that particular type of work. In this hypothetical situation, students would then be able to ask Sally questions using an online discussion forum.
I believe the above situation would be hard to implement due to the availability of these experts. I have attempted to reach out to several professionals before, and it was hard for these individuals to commit the time. However, I had a leading motion-capture filmmaker visit my film club this fall. He hosts a website that contains content related to the aspiring and professional motion-capture artist. He invited the students to become part of his community. In addition, our film club will be sending him our next short once it is completed and we will be receiving his input. I am interested to see if he is willing meet using video conferencing since he currently resides in California.

I am introducing collaboration across different of my sections using Google Documents, but would love to collaborate with a classroom in a different county or even country. I am ignorant of the ways in which I can find willing classrooms in other countries. I think I need to dedicate some time to exploring ways to find other willing teachers and time to craft an engaging way to collaborate with another class.

Students within my school district are receiving many online experiences; yet, I think we can make these experiences much richer. It will take time to bridge connections with other teachers and professionals to truly create a lasting experience for our students through collaboration.