Formatively, the project did get implemented and used as planned. I very much enjoyed the idea of online bell work and it was a relativelysimple way to get kids accustomed to using Google docs. As I said in Part C, there were some annoyances in terms of there being too many google docs to keep track of. I was able to, at the end of the Julius Caesar unit see all of their responses--all kids, as I checked them in on Friday, did a great job copying the question and their response in order by date. They were all in the same place, and onyl a few kids missed some of the questions. Their answers were much more thoughtful than the in-class/written responses had been in the past few years. I really enjoyed the process and kids thought it was very cool that everyone got to see their answers. This way, even though it was anonymous, they knew the whole class would be seeing their answer the next day, and they wanted to be one of the answers we discussed.
Summatively, I can gauge kids' success when addressing the problem of practice by their ability to easily follow the plan. Every night there would be a question that related to the reading in some way or another and it was their job to write an anonymous response, but then to also post to their own individual google doc that is shared with me. I had certain requirements in terms of length or examples. They could also edit down their response if the answer was too personal when posting to the class' Doc.
Given what I have learned throughout this process, I would approach another project of this type differently in that I would have only one Google Doc, meaning they would have to write their name/initials next to their response. It was just too difficult as there were then about 58 individual Google docs I had to check at the end of the unit that were shared with me. I think it may be easier to not have the anonymity, but still maintain the process.
Lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about are concerning the annoyance of requiring individual Google docs, and I also may engage a new requirement in terms of having kids have to comment on at least ONE other student's response. Perhaps they would have to do this the next day after all responses are entered.
I will most likely endeavor to do the same project again. I will change it perhaps in what I said above-I will get rid of the individual doc requirement, and make sure they label their name next to their post. This will save me some headaches. There could always be a day where I tell them not to put their name next to their response if it is a personal question. I can play it by ear.
Some conclusions and recommendations I can make to others after going through the process of addressing a "wicked problem" are to have kids respond to the use of Google docs. I had them evaluate the process, so that I could see if they liked the idea of sharing their bell works and with using this web-based program instead of paper and pencil. I also had them evaluate whether they would start to use Google docs in the future with other assignments/drafts of essays/etc.
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