Tools for Student Engagement Online by guest blogger Eric Stoffregen

I have always had an interest in using technology to foster engagement with course material. Over the past year, while teaching both the online and on-campus versions of the same courses, I decided to test out several different online tools to assess whether they increased student engagement with the course content. This was not a rigorous scientific study of “student engagement” but an informal assessment of whether students found the tool useful.

The following are the tools I used, some of the pros and cons I experienced in using them, and some feedback from students.

Piazza (www.piazza.com)

I learned about Piazza from a colleague who was using it as a platform in his large classes at UC-Irvine for the students to ask questions about the course material. Piazza is excellent as a discussion board. It can be a very useful tool for allowing students to ask questions of their fellow classmates and the instructors, for other students to practice answering those questions, and for follow up discussions about the questions and answers. It has several other features, like the ability for the instructor to endorse an answer, a Wiki-style format where students and/or instructors can work together on constructing one single answer, and easy searching and sorting features.

I used Piazza as an alternative to the Blackboard Discussion Boards for several classes over multiple semesters.

Pros: Piazza is a powerful discussion board. It’s a great tool for students to ask questions. If another student answered the question, I could choose to endorse that answer, or I could write in my own answer in the Instructor space. I was able to link to Piazza via Blackboard to avoid students needing multiple log-ins, but it is still a separate entity.

Cons: Students did not use Piazza as I had hoped without me requiring its use. Posts to Piazza are not gradable like the Blackboard Discussion Board posts can be.

Student Feedback: Students seemed to think Piazza was a useful tool, but they did not like adding any additional thing to check (on top of email, Blackboard, etc.).

Verdict: Although I think Piazza is a really great tool, I am likely to try and make the Blackboard Discussion Board fit my needs instead of an outside tool.

Actively Learn (http://www.activelylearn.com/)

I used Actively Learn as a platform for students to read science-related articles. Actively Learn strips away all of the distractions common to articles found on the internet. Actively Learn then lets you embed questions or comments into the article. With a paid account, you also can utilize some analytics about how the students are reading the content.

Pros: You can embed links, questions, comments, highlights to guide the students’ reading of articles.Cons: Free version is limited to uploading three articles per month.

Student feedback: Students complained about having another place to have to go to (even though it was single sign-on with Google Account.

Verdict: There are other ways to have students read articles and make sure they are engaging with the content that do not require them to use an online tool (which was a complaint for every tool). I do really like Actively Learn, but the article limit was a problem for me.

EDpuzzle (https://edpuzzle.com/)

EDpuzzle is a tool for sharing video content with your students. EDpuzzle allows you to add information, such as text comments, questions, or even your own audio commentary, to videos. You also have the ability to monitor whether students are viewing the videos (or how much of the videos they are viewing). Additionally, you can activate a feature that prevents skipping (fast-forwarding) of videos, and if students click to another tab in their browser, or leave the browser, the video stops playing.

Pros: The ability to annotate the videos and add gradable questions are nice features. There is also a mobile app for this tool, but I have not investigated that yet. You can link YouTube content into EDpuzzle and then use features mentioned above with that content. This tool does work with Google sign-in, so students can use their LCMail accounts and do not need a separate account. You can import a class list from Google Classroom as well.

Cons: If you import a YouTube video, that video can be taken down and you lose the content. I mostly uploaded my own video content, so did not have to worry about this as much.

Student Feedback: This was a newer tool, so I do not have as much feedback on this yet. Part of the response depends on the usefulness of the video content. Although there is still the issue with yet another platform for students to visit, I always linked to the content from Blackboard, and they did not need a separate account.

Verdict: I am planning on still utilizing EDpuzzle when I have video content. I like being able to add questions to the videos. This would also be really useful for uploading lecture material and making it more “interactive.”

Google Docs (https://docs.google.com) and Google Classroom (https://classroom.google.com)

LCSC students and faculty have a Google for Education account, so they have access to the Google suite of products, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. I have been using these products for students to write essays, work on group assignments, keep digital lab notebooks, complete quizzes or other auto-graded assignments. The best way to facilitate these things is to have students register for a Google Classroom environment, and then you can easily assign things to them.

Pros: When students use the Google products, you can monitor their progress in real-time; you can edit or comment at any time on things they are writing or producing, you can view past versions of the student’s work, and everything is online so there is no emailing versions back and forth. Google Classroom makes individual assignments very easy. You can post the assignment to Google Classroom and choose to have each student receive his or her  own copy of a document. They can then “turn in” the assignment when they are done. For group assignments, you can monitor who has made what contributions to the document. There are add-ons for Google Docs or Sheets to assist with grading (using rubrics, for example - OrangeSlice), or for assigning groups (Group Maker). Google Forms now has an option for turning a survey into a quiz, and then having it auto-graded.

Cons: Google Classroom does not yet have a good system for making something a group assignment. Although it is easy to link to documents from Blackboard, this is not a Blackboard-integrated tool.

Student Feedback: There were some growing pains in figuring out the Google Classroom assignment flow, particularly when trying to make something a group assignment. Part of the problem is an inability to view things as a student. Once problems like that were worked out, the Google products were a great tool for collaboration between students or between students and instructor.

Verdict: I will definitely continue to use Google Classroom and assignments in Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms. I like being able to monitor progress, and I like the collaborative space for group assignments in Docs. I like using Google Forms for certain types of quizzes or assignments that do not work as well in Blackboard.

"Reflecting on Reflections: What an experiment with learning logs did for joy" by guest blogger Holly Tower

Hi there;

Here is the third of the guest blog posts from our terrific Fall 2015 Faculty Inquiry Group, a collaboration between college and elementary faculty. This post is by LCSC's Dr. Holly Tower. 

Best,

Rachel

Reflecting on Reflections: What an experiment with learning logs did for joy

        My interest in reflective journals compliments my own teaching mission. As a teacher of preservice teachers I conscientiously model what I say and this learning from “the inside out” helps students determine the value of the theories and methods I present to them and encourages them to be active in finding what works for them as teachers.

        Enter brain journals. This is the name I gave to the idea and desire to use reflective journaling to make the writing in my courses come alive. I had plenty of opportunities to see what my students learned; they took tests, did projects and wrote about them, they were observed with students in field based assignments, but it was harder to see how they learned and what they valued. I wanted them to experience writing as a way of living, thinking, and being. The name Brain Journals is twofold in origin: Writing is a gift for your brain, and Hey, what's in there anyway?

        I toyed with different ways to bring this idea into alignment with my course objectives, and remained firm in my resolve to bring it into all three of my courses. As each course was different, it followed that the Brain Journals would vary between the classes.

        Many of us have our course objectives and outcomes given to us, and I suspect that most of us come into our own objectives and outcomes, our personal course mantra. This is the thing we want our students to leave our class with, that one thing.

       It was in my Teaching of Writing class that I had the most joy with the Brain Journals. A mantra in this course is that teachers can trust their students to develop as writers. If you give students the space and support to write about what is meaningful to them, they will grow as writers, thinkers, and communicators.

     This class wrote at the beginning and end of each meeting. Students were asked to write about whatever they wanted and suggestions related to the reading were offered as possibilities if nothing else came to mind. As students experienced writing on self-selected topics they learned about the power of being writers and the ways of supporting young writers in this way became a passion for them. Students came to class each meeting prepared and excited to write. They were bursting with ideas when they got to class. Their writing was longer than what students in my other two classes (described below) wrote and they continued topics across several class periods. I followed my own advice to them and never wrote on their writing, but each class session included ideas from their own writing that moved the course content forward.

        I had a chance to see who the deep thinkers were. Students who were giving the right answers consistently were not always the best learners. Sometimes the students who did not provide “correct” answers or bring up topics I hoped they would are sometimes the students who are most immersed in the complexities and nuances of what they were learning. It was a great delight to see my students flex their muscles and develop confidence in their skills.

       The second Brain Journal class, The Assessment of Literacy, was focused on literacy assessment. Students are taught how to administer and interpret various informal literacy assessments. My course mantra in this class is to train the students to think like teachers and see each student as a puzzle to be solved. Each week we meet to discuss what happened in each tutoring session, what insight this provided into the student’s reading process, and what the next steps should be.

        With that goal in mind, students were asked to write at the beginning and end of each class period. Students had a prompt on the board waiting for them each time they came to class related to the weeks reading and at the end of class students were asked to write something that they learned in class that day. I allowed about 15 minutes for both and always included a “whatever you want” with each prompt. They might not always do the reading or pay attention in class, but they could always write. I responded to the students in their journals with a quick note to show them that I had read it and I found them to be interesting people.

        The responses in this class were predictable but still valuable to me as an instructor. I always enjoyed reading them. I got a better idea who the skilled readers were. As a formative assessment they were extremely valuable. I knew, each class period, who “got it” and what they learned. I also loved the stories they shared about the students they worked with, their own families, and things happening in other classes. I got much more individual information about who these kids were than any time I had taught this course before.

        The third course that I incorporated Brain Journals in Professional Seminar: Issues in Education, is designed to support students in their first semester of teaching internship and is focused on issues in education. This semester, I chose the issue we would study: Writing. Each seminar student was required to choose a young writer to follow each week and to submit a writing sample of the young writer’s work with a 1 page brief that described how that piece of writing provided insight into the young writer.

        The quality of these one pagers varied. Some students were engaged and others less so, and this was clear in the quality of their insights Many of them were in classrooms where there was very little writing or time provided to write which made the collection of samples and reflection on them difficult. Not all of the students had elected to take a class in the teaching of writing during their coursework and struggled with the whole idea of letting the writer lead. From this I learned that I need to pre-assess and perhaps frontload more. This past semester was the first stab at this structure. I will continue to work on it, and consider carefully how to allow students the room to write about writing in ways that are more meaningful to them.

        It was great to be able to share with all three of the groups my process of discovery while I was purposely looking at my own teaching, trying something new, and seeing how it worked. They saw that being a reflective teacher was not just a requirement of the job, it’s a privilege, a gift, and a joy that not many other professions provide.

"How to Kill a Growth Mindset in 3 Easy Steps" by guest blogger Mareena Robbins

Hi there;

Here is the second of the guest blog posts from our terrific Fall 2015 Faculty Inquiry Group, a collaboration between college and elementary faculty. This post is by Mareena Robbins. (I keep wanting to write these great and complimentary bios of our writers because they deserve accolades, and then I stop myself: the stories speak for themselves).

Best,

Rachel

How to Kill a Growth Mindset in 3 Easy Steps

This year I had the opportunity to move back into a 5th Grade classroom. I have some experience in teaching and was looking forward to the chance to work with all students. In my previous position as a Gifted Talented Facilitator, I had discovered and promptly fell in love with the work of Carol Dweck, renowned Stanford psychologist and author of Mindset. In Mindset, Dweck tells us of her discovery of individuals who crave a challenge, who look forward to learning and strive to get better, no matter the cost. Failure is just information that these people can use to make change, get better, and grow. These individuals have a Growth Mindset. She also introduces us to individuals who have a Fixed Mindset. The fixed mindset believes that people are born with talent and equate effort with a lack of talent. Fixed Mindset people want to LOOK like they know all the answers; they avoid a challenge because they might fail. Failure is a message about them as a finished product.

The work of Dweck was and is profound for me. It made so much sense in explaining the behavior I saw from many of my gifted students. So many of my gifted students were so fearful of making a mistake! To my gifted students, who have been told they are smart often over the years, the LAST thing they want to do is make a mistake. They want to preserve their smartness. How? They have to continue to be perfect because if they make a mistake, they aren’t smart anymore. When I discussed Growth Mindset with the gifted students, they immediately recognized Fixed Mindset in some of their approaches. My GT students understood that continuing to have a Fixed Mindset would inhibit their learning and joy of learning.

As I made my way back into the classroom, I was anxious to introduce Growth Mindset to my class. I knew that my 5th Graders would embrace the Growth Mindset ideology as my former students and I had done. I thought I had the silver bullet, the answer to all of education’s frustrations. Well maybe not all of them….but a good handful! Which leads me to my first mistake…..

Step #1 for Killing Growth Mindset...Expecting your enthusiasm to be contagious.

I am enthusiastic person. I get excited about stuff. Sometimes I don’t recognize WHY others don’t get as excited about stuff as I do. When I introduced Growth Mindset and how excited I was...well...they just didn’t seem to care. It was defeating. I was hurt. Then I reflected about why kids might respond in this way.  

In order to get kids to understand and appreciate Growth Mindset, I should have given them time. As an educator facing the harsh reality of moving all kids forward, I am constantly trying to change and adapt to fit the needs of my students. For me, I see myself as being in control of change. Change and flexibility are a part of my job duties. For many 5th Graders, they see the world as having control over them. Some don’t have the perspective to see how the learning that they do now will affect learning later. They may not completely understand the connection between the right mindset and success.

My Growth Mindset takeaway? I need to give kids time to embrace the Growth Mindset. It takes time to change thinking. It takes time to see results from a change in thinking.

Step #2 for Killing Growth Mindset...Failing to build community.

Since I had known many of my students from my previous position within the school, I kind of skimmed over community building activities that I KNOW to be an important and integral part of developing a learning community. I mean, I know these kids, right? I had spent 3 years with a good portion of them. Doing a bunch of community building would be a waste of instructional minutes, right? (It is okay if you are rolling your eyes….I am rolling them at myself!”) If you are thinking WRONG...you are thinking correctly. To embrace a growth mindset, you must be able to evaluate yourself, admit your shortcomings and be willing to change. Those things cannot happen unless a safe learning environment is cultivated. I didn’t take the time to let that happen.

My Growth Mindset takeaway? A safe learning environment must be cultivated and preserved in order for children to feel safe enough to analyze their own mistakes.

Step  #3 for Killing Growth Mindset...start with the science.

The most effective way to kill a growth mindset is to lecture about the science of mindset rather than modeling a growth mindset with real life examples. I truly believed that the students would be as excited about growth mindset science as I was. I jumped in with a powerpoint about Dweck’s data and what it proved about the concept of Growth Mindset. I looked expectantly at my brand new class. Crickets. Nothing. My students didn’t give a hoot about my presentation!

After a brief period of reflection, I realized my mistake. I started with the science when I

should have started with the real-life examples. The author uses Michael Jordan as evidence of a Growth mindset. Starting with a super star would have given the idea of growth mindset a concrete reality. By starting with the abstract, I lost interest...and of course...buy-in.

My Growth Mindset takeaway? Introducing growth mindset as a trait of their sports heroes, musical idols, etc. makes the growth mindset seem like a secret for success rather than the hard grind that it essentially is.

As I reflect about the obvious failure of my implementation of Growth Mindset in my 5th Grade classroom, I realize that I have a definite place to start with my students next year. And perhaps I didn’t do as poorly in teaching Growth Mindset as I had feared. Just yesterday I heard a student say, “That is isn’t a mistake; it is an opportunity to learn!” Growth mindset in action!

"Flap Management" by guest blogger Dani Bozzuto

Hi there;

Part of  the work of a Faculty Inquiry Group is to talk about what we do, the challenges and successes that we encounter when we adopt and adapt new teaching practices. Last spring, we "talked" through posters at the annual research symposium and we will do that again this spring, too. This past fall, though, without the symposium as our creative outlet, we had to come up with other ways of talking . The really terrific writing group, a collaboration between elementary and college faculty, chose...writing (!) and I am so delighted by the outcomes. Here is the first piece, by Dani Bozzuto. Enjoy!

Best,
Rachel

Flap Management

All of my teaching is planned for me--derived directly from the Common Core, of course. I am allowed to teach what I am handed because it is right and it is Common Core. This year my brain started to wander. . . I started thinking. Thinking usually lands me in trouble. But my thinking was that my students get to focus on one genre of writing at a time (three a year). This means that all of the other amazing kinds of writing go out the window: lists, poetry, songs, letters and some I can't even think about right now. Free exploring writing across disciplines is non-existent. This year I decided to incorporate a writer’s notebook into my first grade classroom so that my students are able to freely explore other genres and disciplines of writing.

I introduced the notebook by having the students decorate their own notebooks using magazines, pictures, and fancy scrapbook paper. How fun, right?! We made our notebooks our own. Even me. I went on afterwards to tell the kids that we get to choose what we write about in these notebook. Science, social studies, poetry, songs, stories, thoughts, etc. Basically, the options are limitless, and I wanted them to get creative.

The first day I led with a poetry example of mine and then released them to work on their own. I saw some very creative ideas. One student wrote about how he and his father once saw an alien in a space ship. In the space ship there was a flap covering the alien’s face because he was wearing a helmet with an opening. I let this student share this example with the class because of the creative flap idea. The kids went crazy! They were so excited to see this kind of creativity. If you know first graders, you know that things get big. Fast. Pretty soon everyone in the class wanted to make a flap. . .two weeks of constant flap making. Constant scraps all over the floor and tape strung around the room and craziness, and soon I started to see less writing and more flap making, which is the opposite of what I wanted. I panicked. Ahhh! I wanted my students to write more and write with more creativity. I was so frustrated with this mess of paper and mess of what appeared to be off-task students. What am I going to do? Abandon ship? Lecture? Call the custodian?

Luckily, our faculty inquiry meeting came just in time. After brainstorming and brainstorming with some very brilliant colleagues, a suggestion was made to reconsider my angle. Instead of criticizing the flaps, embrace them. I got back on my horse and made a plan. These kids will learn that real authors use flaps and have a purpose for them. The multiple flap books we checked out and devoured taught us how to appropriately use a flap in a productive way--the way authors do. We discovered this purpose together. After this lesson I went to a students and asked, “Tell me why you are a using a flap here. What's the purpose?” She replied with, “Because I want to be an author.” Problem solved. Flaps are managed.

Over the course of this year we have had several mini-lessons on other genres of writing. One of the biggest hits was list writing. We explored a couple of different kinds: shopping lists, things I love, and what I will be buying my family for Christmas. After this lesson, I noticed a table of students taking this and running with it by creating “A Love List” which consisted of almost all of our classroom family (names copied from the word wall, boom!) and their families. Impressive that they are using their resources and everyone is involved and writing.

We also discussed writing music. One of my students had fallen in love with several different jams this year. Here are a few examples of music he copied down from memory: Bon Jovi, Away In a Manger and The Little Drummer Boy. He has taken it upon himself to share this with several adults in our building at recess and feels very proud of these songs he has written.

Writing notebooks based on the book by Ralph Fletcher has been a phenomenal way of integrating different genres of writing into my classroom. This is something I will continue to do every year with my students and hopefully something they can carry with them throughout their whole lives.