the second reflective essay

7/28/2019 The Second Reflective Essay

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Reflective Essay

Linda L. Tavares Page 1

Reflective Essay II

by

Linda L. Tavares

April 14, 2012

Professor Sponder

University of Maryland University College


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Reflective Essay


In order to properly evaluate any Wiki Workshop Support Site it was important to

determine which e-learning principles I would be expecting to see as learned from readingE-

Learning and the Science of Instruction, written by authors Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer.

While keeping these principles in mind I visited each site to examine which principles had been

incorporated into the workshops lessons and into the design of the Wiki pages themselves,

including typographical features. I was looking for each site to apply some elements of

multimedia, contiguity, modality, redundancy, coherence, and/or segmentingprinciples. The

active workshop day should include a lesson with well structured tasks or guidelines which

transition from examples to practice through fading (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Next, I was seeking

evidence that I could successfully complete the projects active-day assignment tasks and satisfy

the requirements outlined in the lesson objectives. I wanted to see lessons transition from full

worked examples to full practice assignments, using fading-worked example principle or

explanations to worked out steps in some situationsGuidance Principle (Clark& Mayer,

2011). Finally, for the workshops active day survey, I wanted to see questions which related to

the task, how successfully resources were used, and how strong the chosen technology would be

in the support of my own classroom. For the evaluation of the Wiki Workshop as a whole, I

wanted to see questions which provided an opportunity for appropriate feedback relating to the

workshop. Here I will evaluate two Wiki Workshop Sites.

Instructor A: Google Docs. When I visited this Wiki Workshop created by the first

instructor, I read through the introduction, which I felt was very thoroughly explained and nicely

detailed as were the DTTP lesson and the Syllabus. On Day 1 (Active) the lesson plan was

presented as a link to a document.
https://edtc640-kholliday2.wikispaces.com/https://edtc640-kholliday2.wikispaces.com/


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The documents four objectives explain that as a student I would learn to:

Use Google Docs to foster collaboration between students, parents and teachers. Identify ways in which you can incorporate Google Docs into your classroom. Create activities, lessons, projects, and class set ups that ensure collaboration between

students.

Demonstrate how to use these tools by simulating a classroom with your colleagues.On day one I am immediately given an assignment (prompt 1) to complete a Syllabus

Scavenger Hunt Questionnaire by clicking on a link, completing the form, taking a print screen

and then emailing the screen directly to her, demonstrating I completed this assignment. I noticed

the first link did not work and I was forced to visit the resource page to find a working link.

Next, I didnt understand how this activity related to the objectives of the lesson. I was confused

by her request to email the assignment to her as though she were going to assign to me a grade

for its completion. Instead, I completed the Scavenger Hunt and added the screenshot to the

prompt 1 section.

Prompt 2 asked that I create a Voki Avatar introducing myself to the class and post this

to theIntroductions Workshop page, which was done without difficulties. Prompt 3 asked that I

click on a link to a KWL Chart with the promise I would use the chart forpersonal reflection. I

did not understand this part of Active Day 1. Prompt 4 asked that I upload a PowerPoint

presentation to Google docs and again, email the final product to the instructor. Prompt 5 was a

Discussion Area where I was asked to clickon a link and post my thoughts explaining how to

use Google Docs in my own classroom. The link did not allow me to add a comment and I could

not take part in this activity. Prompt 6 was a grade level breakout session where I was asked to

create a lesson incorporating Google Docs and post my group activity to the wiki space.


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As for lessons, the instructor included a nice Screen Cast presentation she created of a

Voki tutorial. The second Google Docs Videos and Tutorials was a Screen Cast created by the

instructor that shows how to create an account at Gmail. This was very thoroughly explained and

well done. The next Screen Cast shows how to upload a document to Google Docs which the

instructor created and was also nicely done. Three Youtube videos were included which were not

created by the instructor but contained useful information about how to use Google docs in the

classroom and a Google Docs introduction.

Overall, this workshop did not adhere to typographical requirements in that the text

varied in size with no consistency in spacing between prompts and video tutorials. With the

inclusion of the Screen Cast presentation I did see the multimedia principle: use words and

graphics rather than words alone and also the modality principle: presenting words as audio

narration rather than on-screen text (Clark p. 3).

There was not a survey questionnaire relating to the activities and lessons on the Active

Workshop Day, but there was an overall course evaluation which consisted of ten questions.

Each of the questions required a written response instead of possible multiple choice or true/false

kinds of questions. I felt some of the questions could have been stronger and provide for more

constructive answers, but overall I feel they were sound. I saw no reference page on this Wiki

Workshop Site.

Instructor B:Integrating Technology into the Curriculum and Instruction. The workshop

creator used an embedded avatar on each workshop page outlining what our objectives are for

each day. He provided a list of eighteen topics as prerequisite knowledge we would need to have

to be successful with this workshop of which I felt not all were necessary. The objective was to

design, implement and assess a learning experience that incorporate the use of technology in a
http://edtc640ronpardoe.wikispaces.com/http://edtc640ronpardoe.wikispaces.com/http://edtc640ronpardoe.wikispaces.com/


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curriculum-related instructional activity to support understanding, inquiry, problem-solving,

communication or collaboration. I believe this objective to be more like a goal because it is

stated in a vague and general fashion and I cannot tell from reading it what specific outcome is

expected. Embedded under the tasks were many links to documents which were worksheets

intended to assist with the kinds of social studies research needed to be done (six in all). Also

included on the Active Day 5 are two embedded audio files which explain Maryland Cores

Learning Goals for English. This confused me since the entire workshop centers around the

Maryland Health or Social Studies Curriculums. The task for this workshop was to create a

lesson, with a content objective from my Health or Social Studies Curriculum Guide. I chose

Social Studies and the History of the Underground Railroad. The completed task needed to show

evidence that three sites were used as resources, site those sources, link to outside sourced, and

use assistive technology. We were to present our lesson to our classes and then return to the Wiki

Workshop site to reflect on the lesson implementation. Listed under prerequisite knowledge was

the site Edmodo. I decided to create an educational Web Quest concerning the Underground

Railroad. I included many links to outside sources including videos, primary resources and an

interactive presentation which allows students to take part in a knowledge gaining, virtual

adventure as a slave trying to get from the South to the North on the Underground Railroad. I felt

these elements met the requirements of the objective. I used the collaborative website

Edmodo.com and placed the Web Quest on this site. I took a screen capture of the site and posted

it on the Active Day 5 to demonstrate my learning.

On the Active Day 5 of this workshop, typographical standards were not consistently

followed in that the type was a) very small and b) inconsistent in size. I did not feel the

objectives were clear and the lesson expectations left me unsure of what lesson I was to learn.


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Since he mentioned Edmodo in the list of prerequisites I concluded I should choose Edmodo,

Pixie3, Kidspiration/Inspiration (which I do not have access to), or one of the others listed. With

the Voki Avatar on the page, I saw evidence of applying the multimedia principle: using words

and graphics rather than words alone (Clark& Mayer, 2011). The Voki explained our task in an

abbreviated form. I also saw evidence of the coherence principle because the workshop pages did

not contain distracting graphics and stories or irrelevant audio.

As for the survey, I did not see a survey for the Active Day. There was a Workshop

Evaluation Questionnaire page. The questions on this page were confusing at times. For

instance, question two asks Where was the workshop held? I also did not understand the

amount of personal questions like What is your name? and The pace of this workshop was

appropriate. We were asked to answer these questions by choosing 1 through 5 without an

explanation of the numbers so I was not sure if 1 meant the best or the worst.

I understand the Wiki Workshop presenters were not necessarily teaching technology to

us with step-by-step instructions but I felt like there should have been some examples of what the

end product should look like for successful task completion. I was hoping to see Power Point

presentations which demonstrated sound e-learning principles as learned in class. Adding this

skill would have improved my overall experience. Including more rationales and explanations

for why using the kinds of technologies being presented in the workshops could be useful to me

in my lessons would have been helpful. Instead I was asked to explain to the instructor why they

were useful. Adding these skills and information would have improved my overall experience

with these Wiki Workshop Sites.


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References

Clark, C.C. and Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction.(third ed).

San Francisco ca. Pfeiffer

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