Emerging Technology 2: Wiggio

At our school, we have access to Angel which is a great site for allowing students to upload documents and interact with the teacher.  However, it is not so great when students are working on a group project, as they don't have the ability to edit each others' work.  For the next PBL unit I will be doing (probably in May), I wanted to have students use a website that provides them communal access.  Wiggio does just that, and can be found at www.wiggio.com.  It allows users to create a group, and everyone in that group has full access to view and edit.  Users can create a calendar, upload/create/edit files, check off to-do lists, and create polls to obtain the opinions of the group members.  I have provided a screen capture of what the main page looks like below.

You can create documents that all users have the ability to edit, similar to Google Docs.  However, the one drawback I see is that you are only able to create word documents and spreadsheets.  There is no presentation tool, so you would have to create your own PowerPoint document and then upload it to Wiggio.  Unfortunately, if your group members wanted to edit it they would have to download the document, make the changes, save the document, and then re-upload it.  This can be a hassle.  With that said, the next unit I am planning will not require students to create a presentation document, and so I think I am going to give this site a try and see how it goes with my students.

Module 4-2 Digital Literacy

I chose to read Suzie Boss' post entitled "Project-Based Learning:  A Case for Not Giving Up".  I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a PBL teacher leader at my school, and over the past couple of years PBL has become our school-wide initiative.  It has taken off in many parts of the building, but unfortunatley, not in mathematics, where I teach.  I usually feel like the lone pioneer out there giving it my best shot without anyone in my field to assist me or encourage me on.

In this post, Boss discusses how teachers new to PBL tend to revert back to traditional instruction as soon as they run into any difficulties.  However, she reminds everyone that this is normal and expected because many times the process of PBL is new to the teachers and the students.  As a teacher leader, I am quite familiar with 21st Century Skills, and I am a huge proponent of encouraging them, teaching them, and assessing them right along with the math content my students must learn.  In the post, Boss states how important it is for teachers to explicity teach project management skills and provide opportunities for formative assessments early and often.  It is a whole new way of "doing school" for both teachers and students when the students are held responsible for initiating their own learning and not just the teachers.  I have included the link to this post below for those who might be interested.

This is the link....click right here.

Changes in Education

Change is tough, but change is good.  We are going through a lot of changes as a math department right now as our department chair is moving on, and in general, people just seem to be asking more questions that go against the grain of "the way we have always done it".  I am certainly one of the people initiating these discussions.  The "Pay Attention" video that we were asked to watch really hit home with me.  I long to have my students do so much more than to just memorize useless mathematics.  As a PBL teacher leader at my school, I am torn between a new, inventive approach to teaching and the style of math instruction that I am use to.  I deeply desire to infuse my class with excitement, relevance, curiosity, and technology, but I feel trapped by the strict requirements within the department.  My goal is to be more assertive in my department and to stand up for what I believe is good teaching.  I desire to be given the freedom to make my classes my own, and I know that I can be trusted with that freedom.  I just must stand up for what is right!

The video below is entitled "Student Mentors Teach Game Design", and it shows how video game design is used to teach the STEM contents in an urban school.  I was drawn to this video because I had my geometry students first semester create the concept for a new version of Tetris that used all of the various types of quadrilaterals that we were learning in that unit.  In the future, I would like them to be able to design a mock game that can actually be played, and so I was drawn to this video.