Claire Mracek

3.5 Basic Troubleshooting

Candidates troubleshoot basic software and hardware problems common in digital
learning environments. (PSC 3.5/ISTE 3e)
Reflection
I created this lesson plan project as a blended unit of study for fourth grade math
students. I worked alongside a fourth grade teacher to implement this unit. Throughout
the blended unit, students explored estimation and multiplication using large numbers.
Standard 3.5 states that candidates troubleshoot basic software and hardware problems
common in digital learning environments. This project provided multiple occurrences for
modeling and facilitating effective uses of digital tools through instructional video
creation, using tools such as Google Apps for Education, Camtasia, iMovie, and
YouTube Video Editor. I co-taught this project alongside the lead teacher to best model
and facilitate routines of a blended classroom. In this particular lesson, students were
reintroduced to the partial-products algorithm through a teacher made instructional video.
Students viewed this video from home the night before the lesson and summarized their
understanding on a shared form through Google Drive. This form was shared with the
teacher and allowed students to reflect on the video and ask questions about the concept.
The teacher used this form to respond digitally to students and to gather information
about the students understanding. During class, students applied their knowledge
through practice problems, collaborative games and activities, and instructional video
creation on the partial-products algorithm. Students chose their own multiplication
problem (1, 2, or 3-digit multiplier) to model, storyboard, collaborate, and record an
instructional to share video on YouTube for others to view. These videos were posted to
the teachers website for students to review with positive feedback. Throughout this
learning experience, the classroom teacher and I worked together to troubleshoot basic
software and hardware problems, such as Internet connectivity issues and technical issues
with the recording devices (battery life and storage space settings). As these issues came
up, it provided a great opportunity to stop and show the whole class how to troubleshoot
basic issues with their laptop computers, Internet connectivity, and/or recording devices.
It is important to us that students learn how to troubleshoot basic problems and best
take care of their machines as they become better digital citizens.
Through this project, I learned that students need structure and repetition through the
beginning of blended studies. I would absolutely recommend this project to other
teachers. I would highly advise teachers to give students ample time to storyboard and
plan their video scripts, as this is where true analysis and evaluation take place. I believe
this project worked so well because students have seen multiple instructional videos
leading up to this lesson, and they were able to analyze those and use effective elements
to create their own. This project also worked well with fourth graders because of their
technological skills and prior experience with Google Apps. This project could be
adapted, though, to meet the needs and interests of younger students, too. This project
required students to become the teacher and own their own learning, which can be

applied across curricula.

This lesson was extremely meaningful for students and directly impacted their learning of
multiplication strategies. This project challenged students to explore the partial-product
algorithm through a robust process of analysis, evaluation, and creation. The students
developed such a well-rounded understanding of this strategy and were able to identify
quickly when they did not understand a step of the process. Through this project, I was
able to coach a teacher through video creation and blended learning experiences,
improving her understanding of twenty-first century teaching practices. We hope to gift
these videos to the third grade classes to use during their intro to partial-products lessons.
We see this project as a supreme collaboration tool between grade levels.