Solo Project: Jeri Gillin

Instructional Technology Experience

I had used Web Course in a Box, and last semester began using ANGEL. All of my courses are now on ANGEL, and while I have not yet become comfortable with all of the features, I have been trying to utilize it more in my teaching. Currently, however, with the exception of the forum feature, I seem to use it more as an organizational device rather than as a teaching tool.

I have also recently become involved in the CTELL project, funded by the National Science Foundation, which looks at the impact of electronic case studies upon literacy teacher education. I began exposing my students to electronic video presentations of best practices in literacy education, along with expert commentary on these practices and accompanying assessments. These were delivered online from a server at UCONN; unfortunately, due to problems with connection speeds we were not able to easily access the site from any of the electronic classrooms. More often than not, the video feed was garbled; often with wait times of 12-15 minutes for a video to start. Because I couldn't count on being able to access the cases, I found that I used them, therefore, more as an "add on" to the course, rather than integrating them into the content of the course, as they would have more effectively been used. Interestingly, when they did work, students reported them to be one of the strongest assets of the course, regardless of the somewhat sporadic nature of their use in my classes.

Resources Requested

Stipend: AY ($1400.00), Summer ($400.00)
Software: $507.00; Media Center Plus 3, Adobe Premier 6.5, Teach Yourself Adobe 6.5 (book)
Supplies: $193.00; CDs and misc supplies.

Total: $2500.00 

Project Info

Equipment Use in Future: I would (use my stipend) to purchase a laptop; I would then use this equipment to download the files from the server and, using the video editing and presentation software, integrate the case studies into my class presentations using PowerPoint. This will also allow me to directly show the videos from the laptop and not have to go through the UCONN server. I do not have a computer at home that is capable of doing this type of work, and a laptop would allow me to work on the project both on campus and at home. After the project is completed I would like to continue working with video and audio files for my classes, as I am currently videotaping work that I am doing with readers at RFK School. I believe that I could create some of my own case studies for students to use, and perhaps eventually involve them in this type of video case study as well.

Start Date: March 1, 2003. There are four cases that are currently available and "fully loaded." Each case is rich in data and contains many audio, video, and text files. My goal would be to finish and use one case by the end of the (Spring) semester, two cases by the end of the summer, and the last case by the end of the fall 2003 semester.

End Date: March 1, 2004. I anticipate completing the project within the year.

Milestones/Deadlines: I have already begun working to take some of the clips and put them onto the ANGEL system so that my students can access them from my course page. This will be a continuation of this project. I will begin this next phase as soon as I have the equipment to begin. One area I'd like to explore is the new Angel feature that supports audio and video media. 

Deliverables

Angel Course: video files will be added to Angel

Multimedia CD: Powerpoint presentation with integrated video

Change in Practice: CTELL case studies integrated into instructional practice; learn how to work with audio and video files 

Training and Support Requested

Training

PowerPoint
DreamWeaver
Train Flash
Train Swish

Support

DreamWeaver
Photoshop Elements
Audio Software
Video Software

Primary Objective

I would like to be able to seamlessly integrate the use of technological case studies into my Reading methods class; I teach this course two to four times per year and I have approximately fifteen students in each section every semester.

After introducing the CTELL case studies during the first semester, I have seen how powerful they are in helping students understand how to meld theory and practice, but because of the aforementioned distribution problems, I was not able to use them efficiently. Instead of integrating them with my regular presentations, I added them "on" to the course; we would have one day exclusively devoted to CTELL. I don't believe that this was the best use of the case studies. Rather I believe they would be used to better advantage if integrated within topical discussions.

Furthermore, the slow connection speeds to the internet in the technology classroom at times kept me from accessing the materials for entire class periods, resulting in a waste of class time. Having the media and the presentation files accessed locally should solve that problem, letting me more reliably use the case studies in my classes. Although my students had been supplied with passwords to access the server at UCONN on their own, they were often unable to do so because of the connection speeds at night from their dorms.

I believe that once I put the anchor case materials on ANGEL, this problem will be solved. Additionally, Susan Skawinski has been the control person in the CTELL project this year, and will also be taking on an experimental group next year. I can either remain an experimental group or become a control next year; I have elected to remain an experimental person, so there will be two of us using the CTELL cases.

Assessment Plan

• Pre and post assessments of students' knowledge of reading concepts and good literacy practices. Student reflections of their own growth and development.
• Pre and post student assessments of short sample video of literacy instruction.

I believe that good pedagogy involves a great deal of modeling. Much of my classroom instruction involves my demonstrating elementary literacy lessons for my students so that they may see how explicit literacy strategies are taught to children at various stages of literacy development. The case studies allow them to see many examples of these types of strategies implemented by excellent teachers in real classrooms; additionally, they are able to see how children of various ability levels respond to the instruction. Students can then discuss the cases online with their classmates through the ANGEL forums and bring their discussions into the classroom. I will know I am successful when the cases are no longer an artificial ingredient in my class, but are as much a part of my instruction as the other materials I use on a daily basis. I will know that I am using the tools of technology better when my students accept the case studies as an integral part of the class and no longer ask if it is "CTELL DAY".Several of the students referred to CTELL teachers by name when providing rationale statements for lesson planning, and four of my students referred to CTELL teachers in their "Philosophy of Teaching Reading" papers at the end of the semester. I believe this demonstrates that the case studies impacted students' learning in a very powerful way, despite the unreliable access to such case studies The case studies provide a common reference point for discussing best practice, and I should be able to see more and more of these same teaching strategies demonstrated within students' practicum placements. I still use mostly overheads, which I will now transfer to PowerPoint. These overheads will also include and feature scores of audio and video clips that have been provided by CTELL.