Goal Analysis in Instructional Design

A common exercise to teach students how to write an effective procedure for a science experiment is to have them write out the steps for a simple and familiar task, such as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  The teacher then follows the directions, deliberately misinterpreting steps to make explicit the assumptions in the directions students wrote.  For example, the first step students include is usually to spread the peanut butter on the bread, neglecting steps like preparing a work area, opening the package of bread, and opening the jar of peanut butter; beyond that, students typically leave out details like where on the bread to spread the peanut butter or how much peanut butter to use.

Working on the subtask analysis was very reminiscent of this activity, so much so that the instructor referenced something similar in the module introduction.  I've done the activity as a student, where my focus was on trying to identify the steps as clearly as I could and I've done it as a teacher, where my focus was on finding the vagaries, missing steps, and other wiggle room in what my students had written.  When completing the subtask analysis, I found I needed to switch between those roles.  It wasn't enough to play the student, trying to outwit the person with the barest prior knowledge, I needed to look at my work from the view of the teacher, finding the tiny holes that left space for me to misinterpret the steps.  Completing the subtask analysis started to feel like a game and I found myself having fun looking for the smaller steps behind each larger task.

What I found challenging was seeing how the objectives are different from the steps of the information processing and subtask analyses.  After re-reading sections of the textbook and looking at what my classmates had done, I believe the differences are becoming clearer in my head.  The objectives are the goal, the reason for taking the steps while the stages of the subtask are the way you get there.  To use an example, I am planning a short backpacking trip for this summer.  When I pick the campsites I want to reach each night, I am setting some of the objectives for my trip.  When I get out a map and pick out the specific trails I'll be using, I am doing the subtask analysis.

Finally, as I've been working on my goal analysis, my project has started to take a much firmer shape.  It is exciting to see how these early steps almost force certain aspects of the instruction into place.  Following the full, formalized instructional design process is not something I will have the opportunity to do for most of my lessons, but the benefits are clear.  The principles I am learning will certainly influence my approaches to new lessons.

Spreadsheets in Physical Science

When I get together with my friend Megan, we periodically wax poetic about our mutual love of spreadsheets.  Megan has a day job in data entry which requires her to know her way around Excel and uses that skill to easily track sales, calculate costs, and manage other records for her side business making and selling jewelry.  I got my introduction to spreadsheets as an undergraduate physics major when most of my lab courses required us to use Excel for our data analysis.  Since becoming a teacher, I've found Excel to be an invaluable tool when I want statistics on one of my tests beyond the average our gradebook software provides or when an administrator hands my PLC a list of students receiving poor grades in our courses, along with some demographic data on those students, and asks us to analyze our achievement gaps.  Once you know a few basics, spreadsheets, whether from Microsoft Excel, Google Drive, or one of the many other options out there, become an incredibly powerful tool for performing repetitive calculations and analyzing data.

A significant part of any good science class is performing labs, then analyzing the data, often by making a graph and doing a line of best fit.  In most cases, the time and effort of doing these steps by hand adds little to student learning, so using a spreadsheet can free up time and student attention for more the more important, and more interesting task, of extracting meaning from the trends in the data.  Similarly, there are many situations in physics where it is useful for students to see the results of some repetitive calculation in order to understand the connections between certain potential inputs and the resulting outputs, but there is often minimal value in having the students complete these calculations themselves every time.  Spreadsheets provide an opportunity to rapidly complete these calculations.  Having students design their own spreadsheet to perform the calculations could even be used to assess students.

With the rise of cloud-based suites, such as Google Drive and Office 365, spreadsheets can now incorporate collaboration.  Rather than limiting students to the data they can collect in a 55 minute class period (or at least what's left of it after attendance, getting the directions, cleaning up their station, and all the other little things that happen in a class period), students can use a shared spreadsheet to gather data as an entire class, producing a data set several times bigger than a lab group could working on their own.  The functions built into the spreadsheet software then give students the tools they need to analyze a larger data set without making the assignment overly tedious.  In the end, additional data typically provides a more accurate final result while creating a much richer ground for discussions of error.

Spreadsheets are a natural fit for the physical sciences.  Rather than spending their time on the tedious steps of linearizing data, graphing, and calculating slopes by hand, students can jump ahead to the excitement of seeing the way the equations were at play in the lab.  The focus of a science class should be on those beautiful moments when the underlying patters appear, not on the antiquated skill of how to line up your ruler just right when finding the line of best fit by hand, and spreadsheets make it possible for students to turn their attention to where it belongs.

Spreadsheet Project

References

Clintberg, B. (2010, September 30). Physics lab line straightening and graphing in a spreadsheet. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOM4rS8-rxw

Dychko, S. & Rajan, A.  (2010, May 6).  Using spreadsheets.  C21 Physics teaching for the 21st century.  Retrieved from  http://c21.phas.ubc.ca/article/using-spreadsheets

Integrating google tools 4 teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/colettecassinelli/spreadsheet

Jazaeri, A. (n.d.). Spreadsheet physics. Physics & Astronomy Department, George Mason University. Retrieved from http://physics.gmu.edu/~amin/phys251/Topics/ScientificComputing/spreadSheets.html

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering, A.H.  (2013).  Integrating educational technology into teaching.  Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon Publishers.

Relative Advantage of Slide Presentations in the Classroom

Look inside the classrooms of almost any high school and you'll find most teachers using some kind of slide presentation software to support their lectures.  The software may be PowerPoint, SMART Notebook, or even the occasional transparency on an overhead projector, but the teacher almost always stands at the front clicking a remote while the students copy each bullet into their notes.

There are certain advantages to using presentation software when delivering a lecture.  The slides serve as a reminder, allowing the teacher to ensure key points are addressed every time the lecture is delivered and an electronic presentation makes it easy to add images, sounds, and other media that would be difficult when writing on the board.  The ability to project images and information can also help support students who are visual, rather than auditory learners.  Finally, files from most presentation software can easily be uploaded to a class website providing access for students who were not in class or who need a refresher.

A good lecturer knows, however, that the best presentations have some kind of interactive element to them.  To keep my students engaged, I use a number of common techniques, such as inserting think-pair-share activities or asking students to vote for answers by a show of hands or other techniques.  I've even added a bit of tech-savy to the show of hands by inserting hyperlinks for each possible answer, embedding brief, clickable quizzes within my slides.  When students participate in these efforts, it gives them an opportunity to digest the information covered so far, leading to greater retention.  These checks also make it harder for students to mentally check out.  Just copying information from a slide requires minimal attention, so providing feedback opportunities keeps students alert.

The problem is it can be pulling teeth to get more than a few students to participate voluntarily in these efforts.  Web-based apps such as Poll Everywhere and GoSoapBox can engage more students by having them answer polls and quizzes via text or any device with an Internet connection.  Both systems have a desktop app which makes it possible to embed the live results in a PowerPoint slide, making it possible for the students and teacher to watch responses in real time.

Other interactive tools can also keep students checked in during a presentation.  Whenever my students see the familiar red play button that means a YouTube video, they perk up, knowing that they are about to see a demonstration or experiment we couldn't do in the classroom.  Links to online simulations also get my students' attention while letting them see something not normally visible in the classroom or providing me with a means to project onto the board a demonstration I couldn't otherwise make visible to an entire classroom.

For all their detractors, slide presentations have a place in the classroom.  The trick is to get teachers (including myself) to apply principles of good presentations as well as to utilize tools that allow their students to get involved in the lecture.

Here's my effort to design a more interactive lecture.  Note that several slides are intended to use Poll Everywhere, which requires an application running in the background to give live results during a presentation.  I've inserted short videos and screenshots to show how Poll Everywhere would be used during this presentation without requiring the desktop app.

And, for good measure, here's materials for a project where I have my 9th grade Physical Science students prepare a presentation.

Context and Learner Analysis in Instructional Design

This week, my instructional design course focused on analyzing the environment and the learners.  I was struck by the importance Smith and Ragan place on the needs analysis portion, in which an instructional designer identifies the specifics of the problem they need to solve and determines whether there is really a need to develop new instruction.  A few years ago, I began using interactive notebooks in my 9th grade science class, largely because it was expected as part of my involvement in a particular initiative, rather than because I was trying to serve some need of my students.  As a result, my first attempts at using the notebooks were haphazard, inconsistent, and students found my expectations ambiguous.  Over time, I have come to a much clearer understanding of what purpose interactive notebooks can serve and why I want to use them, which has, in turn, changed my instruction around them to become something much more effective.  Had I started with a needs analysis, I could have saved myself and my students a lot of frustration by starting with a more focused approach to the notebooks.

In an effort to repeat the mistakes I made with interactive notebooks, I selected a lesson I plan to start using next fall for my project.  In my district, we are revising our 9th grade science curriculum to put more emphasis on engineering, so I selected a stage of one of the projects we considering.  The thought and intention should allow me to implement this lesson in a way that is purposeful and effective.  As I worked on my learner analysis, I was not surprised by what Ragan and Smith advocated for including; most of the characteristics, such as aptitude and cognitive style, have served an important role in education for decades and my district's efforts to engage in culturally-responsive teaching fit very well with the psychosocial and cultural aspects of learner analysis.  What did surprise me was the similarities in the learner analysis that appeared in the discussion board, in spite of the wide range of project topics and target age groups.  The fact that student aptitudes and attitudes showed up in so many discussion threads helps to emphasize how critical these factors are to student success.

Moving forward, I will include a needs analysis, even if only informally, as part of any significant curriculum change.  For my students to get the most out of a district mandate, I need to know why I am using it in my classroom and I must be prepared for how my students will respond to it.  This awareness will be valuable this summer when we begin formal curriculum writing around engineering instruction and is giving me the opportunity to consider steps I could use this spring to gain more insight into the students who will be in my classroom next fall.

Instructional Software in Physical Science

As a science teacher with a strong constructivist streak, instructional software isn't usually the first place I look when I'm planning lessons.  But, as the NSTA puts it in a position statement on the use of computers in science education, computers and software can "...allow students to become more active participants in research and learning."  When used correctly, instructional software can be a powerful tool in even the most inquiry-based classroom.

Drill & Practice

In every subject area, there are skills and concepts that need to be automatic before students are ready for more advanced skills.  A very traditional approach is to use worksheets or problems and questions form the textbook to gain the necessary practice, but this has several drawbacks which drill and practice software can alleviate.  First, students doing a pencil and paper problem set usually need to wait for feedback on their performance and may solidify bad habits without realizing it.  When using drill and practice software, students can find out immediately if they answered an item correctly and can adjust right away.  Second, not every student needs the same amount of practice before they are ready for more challenging problems.  It can be logistically difficult to identify where each student is at and to adapt accordingly when a textbook.  Many drill and practice software packages have the ability to adapt to student performance.  For example, the Minds on Physics modules from the Physics Classroom provide students with more questions of they type they previously got wrong to ensure mastery of all the objectives.  Finally, some students may need more practice problems than the teacher has available.  Many drill and practice options, such as those on the PhysicsLAB website, randomly generate values for calculations, making the practice exercises infinitely repeatable.

Tutorial Software

While there is a lot of value in students "discovering" what they need to know, there are some pieces they need to be taught in a more direct way and tutorial software can play a powerful role in this.  In my building, we spend a lot of time working with students on ways to actively engage with the textbook and explicitly teach strategies for students to stop and check their understanding.  In many tutorials, such as those from the Physics Classroom or Khan Academy, checkpoints with immediate feedback are built directly into the software, providing students a concrete way to interact with the material as they learn.  Even when students know how to actively engage with a textbook, tutorial software can offer significant advantages.  In science, there are a number of complex concepts that are difficult to communicate using only words and static, two-dimensional illustrations.  The online version of the textbook in my Conceptual Physics course overcomes this challenge by including animations, interactive simulations, and other dynamic elements to more clearly illustrate challenging, but important concepts.

Simulations

In a room full of science teachers, simulations are the type of instructional software most likely to strike a nerve.  While many simulations lend themselves well to inquiry and other constructivist methods, they do have important limitations. As the NSTA points out in a chapter on simulations from Technology in the Science Classroom, simulations are, by necessity, simplified models of the real world.  In some cases, this can be an advantage.  For example, students often struggle to understand concepts like inertia ("An object in motion stays in motion") and conservation of energy since friction makes it difficult to see these clearly in our everyday experience.  A simulation offers the opportunity to turn off these distractions so students can focus on the key concept.

Simulations are also useful when doing a hands-on lab would require students to learn peripheral skills.  For example, when teaching electric circuits in my Conceptual Physics course, I've tried having students build circuits, then use multimeters to collect quantitative data.  My students often struggle to use the multimeters correctly, loosing track of which setting to use or how to connect it to a circuit for a given measurement and, in the process, lose track of the key ideas the lab is intended to convey.  A more effective approach in this course has been to have students conduct a simplified, qualitative lab using light bulbs and batteries, then follow it with a quantitative lab using a simulation from PhET.  As an added advantage, students are often fascinated by extreme conditions and using the simulation allows them to overload the circuit, causing an electrical "fire" without damaging equipment or creating a safety hazard.

Instructional Games

Instructional games add a competitive element to more standard classroom activities.  Most students don't take long to find standard drill and practice software boring, but something about the clock and scoreboard in PhET's Balancing Chemical Equations game motivates students to remain focused when they might otherwise reach for their phone.  By the same token, I have many students who could care less that a skill will be on the test, but who will put forward an extraordinary effort to beat their peers.  A more puzzle-based game, such as the Bridge Builder from PhysicsGames.net, can be used to engage students in the content.  Students may not be interested in principles of stress, strain, and torque for their own sake, but will gladly think more deeply about these topics in order to beat the game.

Problem-Solving Software

Problem-based learning is an important trend in science education as teachers try to find real-world challenges students can apply concepts in a relevant way.  Problem-solving software provides opportunities to look at problems that would normally be unavailable in a standard classroom or to look at them in a depth that would otherwise be difficult.  For example, a classic physical science project is to have students build a "roller coaster" for a marble or similar object, usually using paper cut-outs or some kind of tubing.  The materials necessary make it expensive and time-consuming for students to experiment significantly with the variables of their track.  Using software such as BrainPOP's Coaster Creator, students can not only try more variations than feasible in the lab, they can watch how velocity, which cannot be measured directly, changes along the track, giving them a chance to make more in-depth connections with the concepts of energy involved in roller coaster.

Instructional Software Presentation

References

Bell, R. & Smetana, L.  (2007).  Using computer simulations to enhance science teaching and learning.  In NSTA Press, Technology in the secondary science classroom (p. 23-32).  Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.  Retrieved from http://cs.explorelearning.com/docs/tech_sec_science_chapter_3.pdf

National Science Teachers Association.  (1999).  NSTA position statement: The use of computersin science education.  Retrieved from http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/computers.aspx

Acceptable Use Policies

Public schools are entrusted with the critical task of preparing our students for life after high school and have a moral obligation to ensure that our resources, including technology in all its aspects, are used to support this task.  An acceptable use policy (AUP) helps to ensure that technology will be used as a tool, rather than a distraction, and that the safety of both students and staff will be protected in the process.

Education World echoes a suggestion from the National Education Association that an AUP include a preamble, a definition section, a policy statement, an acceptable uses section, an unacceptable uses section, and a violations/sanctions section.  As I surveyed AUP documents from school districts in the Twin Cities metro area, very few followed this structure, typically including a general policy statement, an unacceptable uses section, and a violations section.

In spite of following a similar, simplified structure, there is significant variation in the acceptable use policies from the schools I examined.  Minneapolis Public Schools and my employer, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale Public Schools (ISD 622) fall at one end of the spectrum, with policies that rely on relatively dense, legalistic language.  The formal tone is a result of striving for clear, specific policies.  The details included leave little room for interpretation in the policy and can provide a valuable tool for students, and the staff working with them, to understand what is truly meant by the prohibitions in the policy.

There are downsides, however, to a legalistic tone.  This approach also made the policies relatively long; the ISD 622 AUP is a full eight pages.  I suspect that few, if any, of my students have ever read our AUP.  In fact, I can honestly say this the first time I read the AUP in its entirety and I expect I am now one of very few staff who ever have.  If the purpose of an AUP is to guide students and staff in our use of district resources, can it truly be said to achieve that purpose if no one has bothered to read it?

Both St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) and Stillwater Public Schools, by contrast, have relatively simple polices which each take up a single page.   This policies contains similar prohibitions to those in the policies from ISD 622 and Minneapolis Public Schools, but use much more general terms to describe acceptable vs. unacceptable uses.  I suspect that most of the students in SPPS and Stillwater have been through every word of their AUP multiple times thanks to the readable, student-friendly language of these documents.

Just as a legalistic approach has its downsides, so does a student-friendly tone.  The simple, brief document is, by necessity, relatively vague, relying on a certain amount of understanding from students or explanation from adults.  For example, SPPS prohibits "posting private information about another person", but does not provide any details as to what this means.  A student who has grown up posting every thought to Twitter and Instagramming daily occurrences will have a very different idea of what is considered private information than a teacher who has never used social media.  The ISD 622 AUP, on the other hand, follows a similar prohibition with nearly a full page defining what is and is not considered private information, as well as details of possible exceptions, ensuring that a student who has read the AUP will know what exactly is considered private.

This less detailed approach, however, presents a powerful opportunity.  Rather than focusing on a long list of specific rules and sanctions, the more student-friendly documents imply a belief that students and staff can learn to use technology in appropriate, responsible ways and can develop the judgement to interpret more general expectations.  This attitude transforms the AUP from a simple set of rules into a powerful learning tool.  In addition, if students can be trusted to learn to self-regulate their use of technology, then Internet filters become less necessary and websites such as forums and social media can be made available, allowing teachers to harness their potential for learning and collaboration.

Beyond the classroom opportunities, there is value in teaching students to self-regulate their use of technology.  When they sit down to study at home or open their laptop to write a paper at college, they won't have a teacher telling them to put their cell phone away or a district filter keeping them away from Tumblr and Twitter.  To be successful, students need to recognize on their own when they should turn off the notifications on their phone and how to manage the social expectations that come with instant communication.  These kinds of skills will be much more valuable in the long run than learning how to bypass a district filter or switch windows when the teacher walks by and a good AUP must leave room for this learning.

References

Bugno, T.  (2013, September 13).  A 21st century troglodyte.  Adventures in college & career readiness.  Retrieved from http://avidcollegeready.org/college-career-readiness/2013/9/13/a-21st-century-troglodyte.html

Education World.  (n.d.).  Getting started on the Internet: Acceptable use policies.  Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml

Minneapolis Public Schools.  (2009, May 26).  Student internet policy.  Retrieved from http://whittier.mpls.k12.mn.us/internet_acceptable_use_policy

North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale Public Schools.  (n.d.)  Internet acceptable use policy.  Retrieved from http://www.isd622.org/cms/lib07/MN01001375/Centricity/Domain/44/InternetAcceptableUseEM-02021.pdf

St. Paul Public Schools.  (2011).  Acceptable use of internet and e-mail resources.  Retrieved from http://connect.spps.org/acceptable_use_of_internet_and_e-mail_resources

Stillwater Public Schools.  (2013).  Internet use agreement.  Retrieved from http://www.stillwater.k12.mn.us/sites/default/files/public/downloads/13-14%20AUP.pdf