Experimental Classroom

What do you think of this Experimental Classroom?
Good environment for group discussion
Good access of internet and wifi, so can do the research together at the same time, improve the efficient the project process.
Professional design

Would you like to teach here?
Yes.

What are the room’s affordances and what are its weaknesses and disadvantages?
The table is fixed, so we can’t re-arrange the group setting.
The big projector’s position is so high, not comfortable to watch.

To evaluate whether weblog can improve the writing skill and encourage critical and analytical thinking

6024 assignment – propose a research topic that would be useful in providing a solution to an educational issue 

Research Title To evaluate whether weblog can improve the writing skill and encourage critical and analytical thinking

Introduction Weblogs allow people to publish their writing to internet and allow others to read it and leave comments.  Many teachers use weblogs to improve the writing skills of their students.
Our research is to evaluate whether weblog can improve the writing skills and encourage critical and analytical thinking of our students.

Literature ReviewWill Richardson stated that blogs
 can teach critical reading and writing skills
 promote critical and analytical thinking
 encourage reticent student to share
Miranda Bellain 2005 case study report mentions that
“Not only are web logs useful tools for enhancing reading comprehension, but
they are also beneficial in improving students’ writing skills and abilities(Kadjer & Bull, 2003)”
Miranda Bella 2005 cases study findings suggest that weblogs do improve students’ writing skills and abilities.
We takes her ideas as our reference to plan our research.

Objectives Research is to evaluate
 whether weblog can improve writing skills
 promote critical and analytical thinking
 encourage student to share
The result will be used for planning of the classroom uses of Weblogs in next school term.

Scope  Classes of all form3- students are selected
 Their scores on writing assignments in blogs will be recorded
 The research period is 3 months. That is in the coming school term.
Planning A writing blogs will be set for F3 students to post their weekly assignment according to suggestion of Will Richardson.
 Every student must give comment to at least 2 other student assignments per week
 The score will include the comments they leave in other students’ blogs.
 The score on the comment will include the number of comments they give and  the quality of the comment .
 2 best students, 2 weakest student s and 2 median students from each class ( according to first term writing scores) will be selected.  Their scores and number of comments will be selected   for detail analysis

Assumption  The form three students can represent the general students in school.
 The score on writing can measure the writing skill
 The evaluation scheme of the quality of comment and writing is same as that for writing before that is, marking is based on
  ideas
  organization
  Content
 Grammer
 The score of the comments indicates the critical and analytical thinking of students, that is , based on
 Standpoints
 presentation
 The total number of comments posted by students can measure whether the Weblogs can motivate students to share
 The average score of last year form 3 students and the average score of the current research student first term writing scores will be taken as comparison score.  We assume that they represent average score before writing in blogs.
 Although the classes are taught by different teachers. We assume that it does not have impact in the marking system.  Teachers of different classes will hold discussions weekly to discuss and review the marking scheme to ensure  interrater agreement and reliability
 Three months research is long enough to measure the sustainable behavior of students.

Procedures A  letter to inform the students and parents about the writing scheme
 Set up blog s for student
 Define the database to store the research data   
 Obtain the average writing score of last year form 3 students
 Obtain the average writing score of the research student s in last term
 Each week writing assignment score of the research student s will be recorded
The score will include the composition of score, that is , score  on ideas, organization, content and grammer.  The information will be used for further analysis if necessary. 
 Each week their number of comments and the score of each student comment will be recorded. The score will include the composition of score for further analysis if necessary
 We shall set a standard score for writing and comment.  Those writings and comments with score above standard will be considered as good.
 Every week we shall choose best 5 writings and best 5 comments to give good examples for students

Analysis and interpretation of data
History data – for comparison
 The average writing score of last year form 3 students
 average writing score of the research student s in last term
Research data – includes the weekly average score, weekly comment count, weekly good writing count and good comment count .
 Weekly average of writing scores of form 3 students
 Weekly average writing scores of each group(best, median, weak)  of selected students
 Weekly total of comments of form 3 student
 Weekly totals of comments of each group of selected student
 Weekly average score of comments of form 3 student
 Weekly averages of comments of each group of selected students
 Weekly count of good writings
 Weekly count of good comments
Analysis of data and the interpretation after research
Plot graphs to investigate the trend of average scores ,comment count, good writing count and good comment count.  The graph include :
 Weekly average of writing score of form 3 students each week against time
If the curve is increasing and above old history averages  => weblogs improve writing skill
 Similar curves are plotted for selected students ( each group of students, one graph) to investigate the impact of weblogs on writing skills of student s with different abilities 
 Weekly total of comments against time.  If the curve is increasing and average is > 2 ( basic requirement ) then weblogs encourage students to share
 Weekly total of comments of selected students( plot one graph for each group of students) against time to investigate how the weblogs encourage students with different abilities to share.
 Weekly average score of comments against time.  If the curve is increasing then weblogs promote critical and analytical thinking
 Weekly average score of selected students (one graph for each group of students ) against time investigate how the weblogs encourage students with different abilities to share
 Weekly good writing counts to review whether they increase with time
 Weekly good comment counts to review whether they increase with time

RandomHKU

References
http://www.mc3edsupport.org/community/knowledgebases/Project-6.html
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/other_resrch/pm_guide_eval/reports/pmguide/pmguide_toc.html
Will Richardson (2010) The Read/Write Web and eblogs:Pedagogy and Practice :Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms( 3rd edition). Corwin.
http://mirandalynn.com/casestudy_mbella.pdf

Experimental classroom

weakness and disadvantages
. It is different to view the screens in some seats( we locate in the 'isolated insland') even there are many screens in the room( my head need to turn always). Now I bring my PC note book so that I can view the information on my PC screen.

. We cannot see the other team members in our poisiton. Our position is too low.

affordances
. The room makes me feel that I am attending a professional training

Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia

Review of learning theory - constructivism

Social constructivism attempts to address the problem of how students naturally learn best. The advancement in ICT support these attempts. When technology is used appropriately by instructor, web 2.0 tools can effectively assist in creating a social constructivist learning environment.

As described by Tway (2003)

• Knowledge is constructed from experience by learners.
• Learning is a personal interpretation of the world.
• Learning is an active process in which meaning develops on the basis of experience.
• Conceptual growth comes from sharing multiple perspectives and changing our internal representations through collaborative learning.
• Realistic settings that contain integrated assessments should be used for learning.

Educators can help learners acquire expertise through the constructivist method of cognitive apprenticeship. Teachers can help students by using the principles of modeling, scaffolding and coaching. The target of cognitive apprenticeship principles is “to empower students to accomplish the tasks independently” (Ding, 2008, p.6)

Opportunities for learners to exchange feedback regarding each others' work contribute to the knowledge being constructed by the group. “The circulation of knowledge and information among peers serves as a condition for effective learning” (Ding, 2008, p.7). This exchange of feedback could be facilitated through a wiki or discussion board. For example, students may spend a class viewing short student created skits that demonstrate problematic social situations that they are likely to experience. Students can reflect upon the choices made by the characters in the skit and comment on the appropriateness of the choices through a class wiki or discussion board. This extended and asynchronous discussion can raise awareness of alternate choices that are available to students in similar social situations. In this manner, the group will be constructing knowledge of options available when handling certain social situations along with the possible consequences of each option.

pedagogical implications for the constructivist classroom:

• Be sensitive and attentive to the learner's previous constructions.
  
• Use cognitive conflict techniques to address student misconceptions.
  
• Approach topics in a variety of ways to maximize the opportunities for students to bridge the gap between the current discussion and their previously held conceptions.
  
• Be aware of the importance of goals for the learner.
  
• Be aware of the importance of social contexts. Appreciate that knowledge of different types occurs in a variety of social environments.
• Pose problems of emerging relevance to students. Starting with student interests increases motivation and student engagement.
  
• Seek and value students' points of view.
  

Web 2.0 applications - Google Docs

http://voicethread.com/share/1370398/

Our presentation consists of 5 parts:
1.  What are the functions in Google docs
     1.1 doc , 1.2 presentation 1.3 spreadsheet 1.4 form 1.5 drawing
2.  What are the features make it different ?
     2.1 How to add people ?
     2.2 How to collaborate ?
3.  What are the advantages with collaboration function / any drawback ?