Month: January 2013

Concerns-Based Adoption Models (CBAM) #educ5105

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I’ve recently come back to the classroom after many years in a variety of roles outside of the classroom. One of the new things I’ve been working on integrating into my classroom is the Ministry of Ed blended learning platform, D2L. I’m doing this for a variety of reasons. One reason is simply to have content available (and alternative assignments) for students who miss classes. Another reason is to provide some structure to our course that cannot be done on our course blog. Our blog allows for sharing with the world and each other, but not the organization that a learning management system does. Lastly, I do believe that students need to learn how to use learning management systems (including dropboxes) for learning because at some point they will be expected to take an online course. If they are exposed to the system now with my support, they will be more comfortable with it later.

I can see myself in each of the levels of use as I have continued to implement this tool into my classroom.

Level 1 (orientation) – I stepped into this level when I started to work as a DeLC for our school board, We used the learning management system for our online courses and I had to begin to support e-Learning teachers.

Level 2 (preparation) – I was in this level as I was preparing and playing in the system before working to support e-Learning teachers.

Level 3 (mechanical use) – I stepped into this level as I began to support e-Learning teachers. I was also still at this level as I began to use the system with my face-to-face class (blended learning model). Here i used the tool rudimentarily. Mostly it was for students who missed a class or period of time. I also posted links and files here for students to use.

Level 4a (routine) – as the class progressed I began to make more use of the tool. I began to tweak settings and activities so that they worked for my students. Dropboxes were set up for student submissions. Interactive modules were used for concept attainment.

Level 4b (refinement) – As I entered into the final unit of study in our course, I refined how I used the system. I scrapped all the junk the Ministry had in the system, kept the good stuff and refined how we used the system as a class. We made it more collaborative, supporting more critical thinking.

Leve 5 (integration) – Over the past few weeks i have worked with other teachers in my school to set up times to meet and work together on how to use this system to support our grade nines as we move to a blended learning model.

Level 6 (renewal) – As I prepare for semester two, I have again renewed how I will use the system to support my science students. This is still a work in progress and will benefit from the collaboration with colleagues at my school.

 

I used the videos and links below to support my understanding of the CBAM model. Do you have any other resources to share, or have you experienced anything similar to this?

 

 

Other Resources:

Concerns-Based Adoption Model

 

 

Implementation Dip #EDUC5105

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For my “diffusion of tech” course we were asked to watch the video embedded below about the implementation dip and then comment on a personal example of a time when this has happened.

The very first thing that came to my mind was this semesters science class. This was my first semester back after many years out of the classroom doing a variety of other roles. Going back, I (being the geek that I am) after having about 5 years to percolate, had lots of great ideas.. haha. During the first three weeks my class was almost paperless, even though I wasn’t functioning in a 1:1 device:student environment. Students worked in groups a lot, they directed their own learning, responded in video, written and audio formats. They used iPads, iPods, iPhones, Playbooks, blackberries, pc computers, netbooks, android tablets and phones, livescribe pens and school computers. During this first three weeks, class was INSANE. The nice, productive, supportive environments I used to have in my classrooms years ago was gone. It was chaos at times. It was definitely productive and students certainly learned, but my ability to focus every single student dipped for a few weeks while we learned the ins and outs of different tools. After that initial three-weeks, things got sorted out, routines were set in place, relationships were built and everything got back on track. But, most certainly, that first three-weeks was chaotic to say the least.

Have you ever experienced a dip in implementation when starting the use of a new tool? Did you start using the tool with a specific outcome in mind?