Wicked Problem Project

http://screencast.com/t/Pj2fkOzhQ8sR

The Problem:

Within every math classroom there are multiple levels of student knowledge and understanding.   Our district is trying to ‘close the gap’ of our students by integrating more technology and individualized learning.  Our next step within this implementation is one-to-one technology by implementing the iPad. The problem is that I am trying to expand my classroom and resources both inside and outside of the classroom, by using the iPad and its many resources.  Students need more one-to-one interaction and I want to find a way to help my students if I am physically not with them.  My project is based on finding an iPad application that I can implement into my math classroom

In order to integrate iPads usefully within my classroom, I needed to find an application that would be something I could use daily and in a productive manor to help supplement my math classes.  Both the students and myself need to know how to use this application and apply it within our lessons daily.  The big problem is that the iPad is a new technology for both the students, and myself, and it is necessary to find applications that are helpful in a math classroom.

The Solution:

With there being so many resources with the iPad, it was overwhelming at first to find a solution to my problem!  However, My solution to the wicked problem came in the form of the application ShowMe.  I knew that this was a resource that I would be able to use with the students both inside and outside the classroom walls! This application allowed for me, or the students, to make recordings off of our iPads of mini lessons, examples, projects, etc.   This allowed me to work towards a more individualized instruction within my classes. 

ShowMe allowed for students to reference material they may have needed extra practice on, needed more examples of, or to make short videos themselves to ask questions outside of school!  Either from access from their iPad, iPhone, or Computer, they were able to access the help videos and use more resources for questions, or problems they may have been having.   This allowed for students to be able to view these resources as many times as needed.

With their iPad, they were also be able to create their own videos, to either send to me for questions, or to be able to present material.  This allowed for learning to be happening outside of the restrictions of the classroom walls!

What is the Technological Pedagogical Knowledge for the solution?

With the ShowMe application, I am able to individualize more of my teaching by supplementing my students with multiple resources simply by making videos in ShowMe.  ShowMe allowed me to present resources to students by video examples, or mini lessons, of how to solve problems when they were both inside and outside of my classroom.  The technology allows me to share multiple levels of resources to differentiate for multiple types of learning styles.   This allowed for students to progress at their own speed, with the amount of resources necessary to them, and allowed for me to work more closely with individual students when they were in my classroom.

ShowMe also turned out to be a great resource for the students to collaborate both with each other and with me.  This was useful with group projects, allowing the students to share their work with each other, having them create videos of examples and lessons, and allowed them to present problems that they were either having problems with or having successes with. 

ShowMe also opened an avenue for students to communicate problems they were having on specific examples or problems, by allowing them to easily create a short video asking a question, and sending the video to either myself or their classmates both inside and outside of the school day.

This led them have an easy way of communication both between themselves and myself when outside of the classroom, reassuring that learning was still taking place outside of my four walls.

What is the Technological Content Knowledge for the solution?

Within this activity, the ShowMe application is the technology I am using to get the content knowledge and multiple references to my students. I am also able to use the technology to have students send me videos of specific problems they are having, so I can see specifically what their question deals with and how I can help them process the content knowledge!  This application allowed for the students to have an easier accessibility to reference specific material of the content they had questions about and also allowed for me to have more accessibility as to where they were struggling.  Every student now has the accessibility of extra resources at their finger tips at all time through the implementation of the iPad and specifically with ShowMe.

What is the Pedagogical Content Knowledge for the solution?

With ShowMe part of my pedagogical strategy is that the multiple resources, examples, lessons, etc. will be easily accessible to the students.  This is allowing the students to have access to a teacher, through lessons, examples, videos, at their fingertips at all times.  This application will allow me to have almost another ‘teacher’ to help guide students through the content.  These videos are easily accessed from the student’s iPads either through the direct link, or my classroom webpage.  This allows me to have the availability to work more one-on-one with students and determine their specific struggles both inside and outside of the classroom.   This also allowed for the students to collaborate in more activities and math practice both inside and outside of the classroom.

This was a great way to allow the students to collaborate more with both their classmates and myself on helpful resources and specific struggles!