Wesley Butler – I’m an Experimenter!
Which three experimenter activities did you choose to complete and why? Include links to your Activity Bank responses.
Quiz on | Extend Activity Bank (ecampusontario.ca)
Many of my courses and training sessions have few high-stakes assessments (i.e. midterms and exams), and more low-stakes activities for students to demonstrate their knowledge. Throughout a lesson, as a comprehension check, I would ask students to complete an ungraded quiz based on a unit’s topics, and relate it to the course outcomes.
I chose Padlet as a platform for students to collaborate, share ideas and constructively critique each other’s work. In a “Feature Writing” course, students are assigned a 1,500-word profile on a community leader. A Padlet board would enable students to brainstorm their ideas for the profile, and share with each other what they’ve learned in the course.
Essay on preparing a nutgraf for a feature article | Extend Activity Bank (ecampusontario.ca)
Early in the “Feature Writing” course, I would ask students to prepare a nutgraf (the leading statement of a feature story, introducing the reader to the topic) during a lesson as an active learning activity. Using H5P Studio as the platform, students would receive immediate ungraded feedback, based on criteria determined by the faculty.
Identify and explain three overall lessons learned from experimenting with these three activities. How might you use these activities going forward in your teaching practice?
From experimenting with these three activities, I learned:
- I learned the importance of accessibility. When teaching and learning remotely, students may not have access to desktop or laptop computers, relying on tablets or smartphones, instead. They also may not have strong Internet connections depending on where they live. Because of this, it’s my role as an educator to provide multiple means of representation and engagement for all students, so they can complete in-class activities and complete assessments easily, no matter their device.
- Comprehension checks should be incorporated in lessons, regardless of the course subject. Technology is a great way to assess students using low-stakes activities to test their knowledge. I plan to create and administer more comprehension checks and active learning activities in my lessons.
- Student feedback leads to greater experimentation. Educators should consider talking to students every so often, and adjust their future lessons based on what students say. This could encourage educators to experiment with new technologies, which could lead to higher results on assignments and higher-stakes assessments.
You were asked to complete at least one experimenter activity on a tablet or a smartphone. Identify the activity completed and on what type of mobile device? Then, identify and explain the advantages and challenges of using this technology tool on a mobile device. Comment on how you might plan for an upcoming assignment to be completed on a tablet or a smartphone. Explain the steps you might take in making access to these devices available to all students.
I completed the “Quizzes” activity on my smartphone, an Android device using Opera Mini as the Internet browser. The advantage was ease of access, since the quiz asks flashcard-type questions with minimal entry of text. The challenge was Quizlet not appearing optimized for mobile devices: students, if they completed this quiz in a real lesson, would have to scroll left and right to answer questions.
For an upcoming assignment on a smartphone or tablet, I would ask students to ask as feature reporters for a large-scale magazine, and pretend they don’t have a laptop computer or notepad to use when interviewing a source. While they’re speaking to said source, they would use their smartphones or tablets to note what the person is saying, as though they were writing notes for a real story. My goal is to consider students’ varying access to technology, and grant them multiple means of expression.
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