EDCUR 809 Assignment 5

I have created a survey that I am using on Friday with my staff. The goal of the survey is to poll our staff in my school so we can determine how many people are in each of the four categories, as well it will give each staff member a way to self assess which category they align with. The results of this survey will be used to help guide future professional development in our school. The survey and questions were very difficult to develop.

This survey will follow a presentation that I am giving to my staff that explains Transforming School Culture. Here is the embedded slide deck that I am using. The presentation will actually be done from my iPad and these images are drawn with the app Paper. The slides should help provide some context to for the survey questions.

Transforming school culture from Jason Sand

Here is my first draft of the survey.

I sent out my survey to 5 test members of my staff and asked for feedback from them to help refine the questions,  content, check for spelling, etc. I received feedback from 3 out of the 5 staff members, and each of the 3 had a different perceptive. One person is one of my administrators, another was our teacher librarian, and the third was a second year teacher. The input and dialogue that I had with these three turned out to be the most valuable part of my development. I will be interested to see how how some of the topics that we deliberated on pan out in the real survey scenario. The two top discussion points revolved around giving the people extra space to express their opinion and use of specific words so as to not sound that choosing one answer would sound more beneficial than another even though the survey is anonymous. One other aspect in considering the wording of the questions in this survey was to not have implied bias to which category they should align with.

The final survey can be found at the following link.

EDCUR 809 Assignment 4

Jason Sand Logic Model

EDCUR 809 Assignment 3

809 Assignment 3

EDCUR 809 Assignment 2

The prenatal fitness program that was open to the city’s general population of pregnant Aboriginal woman was run from March 1995 to March 1997. Since there is no data to determine if this program continued after 1997 a summative review such as Scriven’s summative review to evaluate the end of the program and to see if it was effective or if it has met its original goals would work well here.

The first step in this process would be to define the program. In this case the program is an exercise program that is targeted toward pregnant Aboriginal woman in Saskatoon Saskatchewan with the intent of reducing the incidences of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and Type II diabetes. The goal of the program is to prevent this demographic of high-risk pregnant woman from developing diabetes during their pregnancy.

Now that the program has been defined it is important to create a succinct purpose for this review. For this I would look to determine whether the program was effective for the participants, if it reached a large enough portion of the target population to create a substantial difference in the incidence of gestational or type II diabetes, as well as whether this program should increase to a larger percentage of the target population or if the program should grow to include non Aboriginal pregnant woman. This purpose would give a clear direction to the data that is to be collected.

The data collection would be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The first process in collecting data for this review would be to gather and synthesize all the existing quantitative data on the program. This would include information such as, how many people participated, how many potential participants were there? How much exercise they offered, what was the average attendance for participants at the once a week sessions, and is there any information existing to prove whether the participants had a lower incidence of the two types of diabetes than other Aboriginal woman who did not partake in this program or follow any exercise program of their own. After this data is collected and synthesized I would try to contact a selection of the participants to do a follow up study to see if they had any more pregnancies, took part in exercise during them and if they had either form of diabetes during those pregnancies.

I would also try to conduct a focus group session to gather qualitative data from the original exercise program personnel and the woman who took part in the program. This review would gather their opinions on subjective topics such as location and frequency of the sessions, type of exercise offered, what was the reason they joined the group, what kept them going every week, what would make the program better, and so on.

With both of these types of data collected the last step would be to analyze all the information and present the findings to the stakeholders involved. This would give them a good understanding of how effective the program was toward the initial goal of lowering the incidence of Aboriginal pregnant woman developing diabetes. With these results a recommendation for the future potential or direction of this program would be made.

and

Exchange Program Review

The review of this program has been completed for EDCUR 809 - Assignment 1.

809 Evaluation Review

The program review that I chose was a study of the Youth Exchange Program in the United States. . As their study states its purpose was to evaluate the impact of the Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES), and assess if it is reaching its goal of promoting mutual understanding and respect between the people in the United States and the participating partner countries.

This program was established post 9-11 to provide scholarships for secondary students age 15-17 specifically from countries with Muslim populations. This program places these students with families in cities and towns throughout the United States. Students stay with host families, attend high school, learn about the American society and values. In turn they help educate the Americans about their countries, cultures and customs. 

This study follows Scriven’s method of evaluation. The goal of the evaluation was to look at the outcomes of the program and to determine if they were achieving their targets. Their process they used included a summative and formative approach and included both qualitative and quantitative research. The main areas of study were focused on the participant’s satisfaction with the program, attitudinal changes, learning and understanding, and behavioral changes.

Data was taken before the students entered the program in a pre-survey questionnaire. This survey profiled students’ attitudes, opinions, knowledge, skills and behaviors prior to entering the program. The study then conducted a post-program questionnaire that measured attitudes, opinions, knowledge, and behaviors of the participants. Students in the Washington D.C. area were invited to attend focus groups to discuss their experience and its impacts on their attitudes, opinions, knowledge, skills and behaviors. All the participants were then given a follow-up survey one year after they left the program. This last survey aimed to explore changes still in effect, as well as attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviors of the participants.

The results of this study concluded that the participants learned a great deal about U.S. society, values, and institutions, and view the U.S. more favorably as a result of the experience. The program strengthened participants’ beliefs in the importance of individual and civic rights. Participants gained confidence and leadership skills during the program, and feel empowered to make changes in their communities. The study also determined that the overall enthusiasm for the program and its benefits are very high.

The findings of this evaluation gave conclusive data that proved the goals of the exchange program were being met on all of the tested areas. This gave validation to the program, which at the time of the study had been running for six years. The data displaying the strong enthusiasm from the participants in the program also demonstrated that the program should continue as the value that the program has for all the stakeholders was  still meeting the need of the participants.

Entry # 3

Technology and how it relates to Bloom's Taxonomy

The Use of Educational Videos in a Classroom

Students live in a world where they are immersed and engaged with media all of the time. Our students today are multiprocessors, they can watch a video, type a paper, and talk on the phone all at once. If we approach them without this understanding we may miss communicating wit them on the same level of personal motivation that they receive from other areas in their life. It is key to look at the idea of motivation as compared to engagement. You can play a video that engages students, however if you motivate them, it creates a call to action that requires a response from the engagement. That active role of the learner is very crucial.

I teach high school multimedia classes every day. I am able to witness the positive and negative aspects of using video resources in the classroom. The key to this is that the material must be engaging, relevant to what the student is learning, and have a practical aspect for the reason of why you are watching the video. I would like to share one video that I use with my own students and take a minute to comment on why I believe that this type of video is effective and well suited for my students' needs. 


As you can see the video above is a Vimeo Video School video that covers 3 tricks for a small film crew. I use this video as part of my introduction to a swipe cut video. This is the first effect covered in their movie. As the video starts of it explains what the concept is and how it is used in real movies. From there they show how to create this effect with only 2 people. Tip second covers split screen editing and the third tip covers mobile phone audio recording.

This is a perfect example of how I want videos to function in my classroom environment. From a content point of view it covers the concept of a swipe cut. They show what it is and how to create it. Then they go on to cover two other tips tat my students can use in their video projects as they are almost always shooting in in small groups in my class.

From a technical side this video has a high production value. It starts with a 5 second bumper for their branded content and then it has a flashy opener for the title of this film. One of the most important aspects of every video is the audio and this video does that well. Along with their audio that narrates the film they use text as animated graphics to emphasize what or who are doing things. The video has quick and smooth transitions which conveys the content very quickly. Along with the standard content they have a little humour built in. Humour always helps. As they describe their technique they show both behind the scenes footage as well as what the actual footage really looks like. In their video they use several locations and different costumes to create more visual appeal as well as helping to create more ways in which students can relate their own ideas to that topic.

All this content is crammed into two minutes and thirty seconds. This leaves time to discuss the content and concepts to clarify any issues that students may have. From there they can continue to work on creating their video. If they need to go back and have another look at the video they can since it is available online and it is short enough to quickly find the spot that they want to understand better.

This is an example of how I use video in my classroom on a daily basis. More content for a wide variety of subjects should be created to function in this way. If you want to see an augmented reality app that can change the way that you integrate media into an existing non technological environment, have a look at http://www.aurasma.com/.

Thanks and please feel free to leave me any comments or thoughts on this topic.