H810 TMA02

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H810 TMA02 Angela Phillips As part of H810 I have been asked to design an accessible online learning resource for my educational context. My educational context is teaching mathematics to 11 to 18 year old students within a secondary school. In my context we often set online homework tasks such as www.mymaths.co.uk (My Maths Ltd, 2012) and functional tasks (Queensbury School, 2012). I have designed a task that I could use, both in an internet enabled classroom or to be completed online in the students own time. As an Advanced Skills Mathematics Teacher (AST), my role involved designing mathematically rich and engaging learning activities. It is important that activities engage the learner and that the learner has the opportunity to learn individually and collectively (Sfard, 1998). Before I started designing the learning activity, I decided that an accessible activity should give all learners the same opportunity to work individually and collaboratively. In my opinion it is important that educators don’t design substandard learning activities in order to ensure that they are accessible. It is the educators responsibility to make mathematically rich, engaging activities accessible. I therefore decided that I would design an activity with the following features: The activity had to be mathematically rich; The activity must encourages the students to investigate different mathematical concepts; The students are able to use different technologies; The students are able to make choices about their learning, for example the technology they use and the questions they answer; The students must differentiate the questions that they choose to ensure they achieve, but are still challenged; The students must access which elements of the mathematics curriculum they have covered; and, The students are able to collaborate as well as working individually. I decided that once I had designed the activity I would then address the accessibility issues that arose. I started designing the activity by setting out the learning outcomes that I would like to address with the activity. As a teacher in a secondary school, learning outcomes are expected to be written in a certain style. All activities must have ‘all students’, ‘some students’ and ‘most students’ for learning outcomes. This style of learning outcome relates to the students mathematical ability, not any other difficulties a student may experience. It is the teachers responsibility to ensure the students with specific needs are able to access the full activity, not just part of the activity. Once the learning outcomes were formulated I decided how I could ensure the students would meet the learning outcomes. I chose a photograph of a real life situation that would be familiar to most students. The photograph was of a storage facility in a car park for supermarket trolleys, which housed rows of shopping trolleys. The students would then be encouraged to think of mathematical questions relating to the photograph. The PowerPoint, that supplements the learning activity, shows three mathematical question that I thought may help the students to come up with questions of their own. The three questions all relate to the picture, but some would need further information to ensure an answer is sensible. Once the students had been given time to come up with several questions of their own, relating to the picture, they were directed to a Wallwisher (Xiphar, 2008) webpage. On the Wallwisher page students would be expected to post their own questions relating to the picture. Students would be given a free choice as to how they wish to share their questions. Some of the possible options are: Text; Pictures; Video; and, Audio files.

description

H810 TMA02

Transcript of H810 TMA02

Page 1: H810 TMA02

H810 TMA02 Angela Phillips

As part of H810 I have been asked to design an accessible online learning resource for my educational

context. My educational context is teaching mathematics to 11 to 18 year old students within a secondary

school. In my context we often set online homework tasks such as www.mymaths.co.uk (My Maths Ltd,

2012) and functional tasks (Queensbury School, 2012). I have designed a task that I could use, both in an

internet enabled classroom or to be completed online in the students own time.

As an Advanced Skills Mathematics Teacher (AST), my role involved designing mathematically rich and

engaging learning activities. It is important that activities engage the learner and that the learner has

the opportunity to learn individually and collectively (Sfard, 1998). Before I started designing the

learning activity, I decided that an accessible activity should give all learners the same opportunity to

work individually and collaboratively. In my opinion it is important that educators don’t design substandard

learning activities in order to ensure that they are accessible. It is the educators responsibility to make

mathematically rich, engaging activities accessible.

I therefore decided that I would design an activity with the following features:

The activity had to be mathematically rich;

The activity must encourages the students to investigate different mathematical concepts;

The students are able to use different technologies;

The students are able to make choices about their learning, for example the technology they use

and the questions they answer;

The students must differentiate the questions that they choose to ensure they achieve, but are

still challenged;

The students must access which elements of the mathematics curriculum they have covered; and,

The students are able to collaborate as well as working individually.

I decided that once I had designed the activity I would then address the accessibility issues that arose.

I started designing the activity by setting out the learning outcomes that I would like to address with the

activity. As a teacher in a secondary school, learning outcomes are expected to be written in a certain

style. All activities must have ‘all students’, ‘some students’ and ‘most students’ for learning outcomes.

This style of learning outcome relates to the students mathematical ability, not any other difficulties a

student may experience. It is the teachers responsibility to ensure the students with specific needs are

able to access the full activity, not just part of the activity.

Once the learning outcomes were formulated I decided how I could ensure the students would meet the

learning outcomes. I chose a photograph of a real life situation that would be familiar to most students.

The photograph was of a storage facility in a car park for supermarket trolleys, which housed rows of

shopping trolleys. The students would then be encouraged to think of mathematical questions relating to

the photograph.

The PowerPoint, that supplements the learning activity, shows three mathematical question that I thought

may help the students to come up with questions of their own. The three questions all relate to the

picture, but some would need further information to ensure an answer is sensible.

Once the students had been given time to come up with several questions of their own, relating to the

picture, they were directed to a Wallwisher (Xiphar, 2008) webpage. On the Wallwisher page students

would be expected to post their own questions relating to the picture. Students would be given a free

choice as to how they wish to share their questions. Some of the possible options are:

Text;

Pictures;

Video; and,

Audio files.

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H810 TMA02 Angela Phillips

In my experience, students are more motivated to participate with activities if they are able to make

choices about how they will contribute.

Once students have been given the opportunity to post their questions on the Wallwisher webpage,

they should then review other students questions. The students would then be expected to choose

three questions to answer, based on the following guidelines:

1) “I can answer...” (Phillips, 2012), where students are certain they can answer the question.

2) “Confident to answer...” (Phillips, 2012), where students are confident in their choice of

mathematical techniques, but not the execution of these techniques.

3) “I’m having a crack at answering...” (Phillips, 2012) where the student is not confident about the

choice of technique chosen.

The students are given links, in the PowerPoint presentation, to relevant information. This information

could assist the students in making assumption in order to solve the problems they have chosen.

Once the students have chosen and answered the questions of their choice, they are to submit the

solution using the media they feel appropriate.

The students would finally be asked to complete a review sheet, to highlight the different types of

mathematics used in solving the three chosen problems.

Once I had completed planning the learning activity I then started to look at where any accessibility

issues could arise. The first issue that I had to address was the problem of using photographs and tables

for students that had visual difficulties. I thought that this could be overcome by a clear description of

the photograph, but soon realised that too much information in the description could lead the students

down certain mathematical routes. For example, if in the description I told the students the number of

trolleys in each row, this may then lead them to describe the amount of wheels on all the trolleys. The

description needed to be written very carefully in order to avoid biased in the students question choice.

I realised that if the students are able to choose how they share information, I am allowing them to

choose their own accessibility.

I had designed the presentation in PowerPoint, which meant that the Office Accessibility Wizard could be

used by students. However, this was not planned as I often use SMART software, which does not have

the same accessibility features as Office.

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Evaluating accessibility

Strengths of the learning resource

Using PowerPoint that can integrate Office Accessibility wizard.

The use of PowerPoint, so text font, colour and backgrounds can be changed.

Hyperlinks included for the students to access further information relating to the topic.

Students can choose how they are going to share their questions, see appendix 1 slide 7. This

enables the students to use the media that is most accessible for them, for example a student

with hearing difficulties may chose to type text, a student with visual difficulties may choose to

record an audio file or a student with dyslexia may choose to record a video.

As students are able to choose the most relevant form of representation (see appendix 1, slide 7)

they are able to participate fully in setting the work. This could engage student and lessen social

exclusion.

Limitations of the learning resource

Strongly coloured patterned background on the PowerPoint presentation, in particular the

photographs on slides 6 and 7 and the coloured boxes on slides 8 and 10 of appendix 1.

Hyperlinks are after the sentences that describe them, see slide 9 appendix 1.

Biased question generation from poorly written descriptions.

When students have to choose questions from the Wallwisher webpage (Xiphar, 2008), they may

have issues accessing certain forms of media, for example a student with hearing difficulties may

not choose a question posted using an audio file as audio may be inaccessible.

3000 words

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Appendices

Appendix 1 – Angela Phillips Learning Activity

Slide 1

Slide 2

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Slide 3

Slide 4

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Slide 5

Slide 6

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Slide 7

Slide 8

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Slide 9

Slide 10

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Appendix 2 – Dana Taylor Learning Activity

Main learning Sheet

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Answers For Exercise link

Textual format for exercise

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Textual format for answers

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References

My Maths Ltd (2012) Available: www.mymaths.co.uk. (accessed 19 November 2012)

Phillips A (2012) Ange Phillips – Learning Activity

http://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=276271 (accessed 19 November 2012)

Queensbury School (2012) http://www.queensbury.ngfl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Functional-

Maths_scheme-and-guidance.pdf (accessed 19 November 2012)

Seale, J. (2006) E-Learning and Disability in Higher Education: Accessibility Research and Practice,

Abingdon, Routledge; also available online at http://learn2.open.ac.uk/ mod/ subpage/ view.php?id=153062

(accessed 19 November 2012)

Sfard, A. (1998) ‘Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One’ Educational

Researcher American Educational Research Association, [online] Vol. 27, No. 2, pp.4-13 available from

http://learn2.open.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/164544/mod_resource/content/1/H800_Week3b_OnTwoMetapho

rsforLearning_Sfard.pdf (accessed 19 November 2012)

Taylor D (2012) Dana Taylor’s Resource http://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=280616

(accessed 19 November 2012)

Xiphar (2008) Wallwisher, http://wallwisher.com/ (accessed 19 November 2012)

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In Week 10 you are asked to create a self-contained learning resource that could be used by other

students. Details of this activity and the location of other students’ resources are in the module material

for Week 10.

Critically evaluate your own learning resource in the following ways:

1. Briefly describe the resource and its accessibility features. Compare these to one learning resource

created by another student in your tutor group.

2. Evaluate the accessibility of your resource, identifying its strengths and weaknesses. Propose, with

justification, ways in which its accessibility could be improved. (This could include suggesting

alternatives.)

3. Reflect on the processes of creating and evaluating accessible resources. Use the research and

practice literature to explain and understand your experiences of these processes.

Again, remember to give a word count at the end of your assignment

For TMA02, your tutor will allocate marks according to the following criteria and will show on the

Assessment Summary (PT3) form how the marks have been allocated. The first criterion in the table

below relates to your online discussions; the remainder relate to the TMA itself:

1. The extent and quality of your contributions to the tutor group forums during Block 2. Once again,

this could include references to discussions in the general forum. (10 per cent)

2. The clarity and coherence of your written evaluation. (25 per cent)

3. Evidence that you have critically reflected on the process of creating and evaluating accessible

resources. (30 per cent)

4. Your use of the research and practice literature to support your argument. (25 per cent)

5. Your written presentation: accurate use of the author/date referencing system, coherent style,

good grammar and accurate spelling. (10 per cent)

The following table provides an indication of the standards associated with distinction, passing and failing

marks for each of the five criteria.

Criterion Distinction (85–100) Pass (40–84) Fail (0–39)

(1) Contributions

to online

discussions

Effective contributions Relevant contributions Few contributions or none at

all

(2) Written

evaluation

Cogent, focused

presentation of

structured ideas

Clear ideas and a logical

structure

Little or no continuity with

little or no logical

development

(3) Critical

reflection

Strong evidence of

critical reflection,

offering personal

insights into processes

and outcomes

Some evidence of critical

reflection with some

insights into processes

and outcomes

Little or no evidence of

critical reflection or

insights into processes and

outcomes

(4) Use of

literature

Innovative use of

literature, presents new

insights into relevant

issues

Appropriate use of

literature indicating

awareness of relevant

issues

Cites few relevant sources

and shows poor

understanding of relevant

issues

(5) Written

presentation

Clear and accurate

referencing, extensive

vocabulary and accurate

Mostly accurate

referencing, adequate

vocabulary, and mostly

Inaccurate or inadequate

referencing, limited or

misused vocabulary, and

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grammar and spelling accurate grammar and

spelling

many errors of grammar and

spelling