Brainstorm v3.0

Added by Matt Fishbach, last edited by Anthony Perritano on Aug 28, 2008  (view change)

UCWise Perspective

 BRAINSTORM STEP: Visual Design Document

  1. PDF File on 6.25.2008    ED Brainstorm Step 062508.pdf
  2. ZIP archive (Keynote file) on 6.25.08   ED Brainstorm Step 062508.key.zip

 BRAINSTORM STEP: Functional Specification

Overview

  1. SUMMARY:  The Brainstorm step type is designed to foster student collaboration and peer evaluation of ideas.  The tool allows the teacher to present a Brainstorm challenge to the teams of students running a WISE project.  Each team writes a response.  Once all responses are posted, the students can place votes for their favorite ideas, writing brief explanations to support their votes.  When all voting is complete the teacher controls display of the voting results (for example, showing the top 3 submissions, marked anonymously).
  2. This Step Type has three central phases:  1) Student teams review a Brainstorm topic, submit a reply (posting), and review the posting from all teams in the class.  2)  Students then participate in polling, casting votes for the postings they think are strongest, and they write a brief explanation for each vote.   3)  All students (and the teacher) see the results of the polling and can discuss.  Students can also review the explanations supporting the highest-vote postings.

Functionality From Author's Perspective:

  1. Author adds a Brainstorm step using the WISE 3.0 authoring tool
  2. Phase 1:TYPE OF BRAINSTORM
    1. Author specifies Gated vs Open Discussion.   Radio buttons:  1) Gated (student must submit a posting before seeing other student postings)  2) Open  (student sees all postings immediately).     Default = Gated.
  3. Phase 2: STUDENT REVIEWS QUESTION AND CREATES A POSTING
    1. Author specifies if a previous Note should be displayed at beginning of the brainstorm:  Radio buttons:  Show Previous Note w/ student work:  ON/OFF.   If ON, the author can click a pop-up menu which shows all previous Notes in the project.  Selecting a Note makes its content (question and student response) appear at the beginning of the Brainstorm step.
    2. Author writes a Brainstorm Topic/Question
    3. Author writes an (optional) Starter Sentence and selects if it automatically appears or is activated by a link (radio button choice)
    4. Author specifies the size of the Student Response field  (pop-up menu:   3 lines, 6 lines, 9 lines, 12 lines.  Default is 6 lines)
  4. Phase 3: DISPLAY SETTTINGS FOR POSTINGS
    1. Author specifies the Label Type for Student Postings.  Radio buttons:  1) Posts labeled w/Username   2) Posts labeled w/Anonymous   3) Student Decides how to Label Posts.      Default = Let Student Decide.
  5. Phase 4: STUDENTS VOTE/COMMENT ON POSTINGS
    1. Author specifies if Voting is On or Off.  Radio buttons.  If Off then the other items in this section are greyed out (inactive) as well as Section 5.
    2. Author specifies when the Identity for each posting is shown.    Drop down menu:   After team finishes voting, Before team begins votings
    3. Author specifies the Number of Votes each student gets to make.  Data field.  Default = 4.  This setting can be altered by the Teacher before they click the "Start Voting" button.
    4. Author specifies the Maximum Votes per any particular posting.  Data field.  Default = 1.  This setting can be altered by the Teacher before they click the "Start Voting" button.
    5. Author specifies if the team can vote for their own posting.  Drop down menu:  Yes, No.   Default is No.
    6. Author specifies if the team must complete a Comment (explanation) for any posting to which they attach 1 or more votes.   Drop down menu:  Yes, No.  Default is Yes.
  6. Phase 5:  DISPLAY RESULTS OF THE POLL FOR ALL TO SEE/DISCUSS
    1. Author specifies how the ranked Postings are displayed.  Pop-up menu:  Show Top 3, Show Top 5, Show All.  Default is "Show Top 3"
    2. Author specifies if the Student Explanations are show for each winning post. Radio Buttons:  Yes, No.  Default is Yes. 
  7. Additional Notes
    1. The HINTS tab is not shown for this step. There are no hints for a Brainstorm step.

Functionality From Student's VLE Perspective:

  1. When student navigates to the Step they see a message: "Brainstorm Not Started Yet.  Your teacher will tell you when to start this step."   This message disappears and the Brainstorm is visible after the teacher clicks "Start Brainstorm" in their special interface.
  2. Student may/may not see a Previous Step and their response embedded at the top of the screen.
  3. Student sees Brainstorm Topic and a Student Response field.  They may or may not see other student responses at this point (depending on author setting)
  4. Student writes their Response.  Student might have opportunity to label their Response with their Username or as Anoymous (specified by teacher).  
  5. Student posts their Response.
  6. Student now sees all Student Posts submitted so far.  All Posts are time/date stamped.  The identify field for each post may be visible/hidden at this stage (depends on author setting).  NOTE:  the student sees only the posts for their own class period.
  7. Student also sees a counter saying that "x of y teams this period have submitted a posting."    The classroom teacher informs the kids that voting on the Brainstorm Response will begin when a certain percentage have been submitted.
  8. Message appears telling student when voting has started.  A text message informs them that they can cast X votes, giving no more than Y votes to any particular Posting  (author specified values).  Students can't vote for their own Posting. 
  9. For each Posting given a vote, the student must write a brief explanation for their vote.  This forces them to make their thinking/reasoning visible, and provides feedback for the teacher/researcher/other students.  If student had option to label Username/Anonymous in Step 3, they get the option again here.
  10. When enough students are done voting (teacher clicks a button when they're satisfied) the results of the Voting are displayed.  (display type is specified by Author/Teacher). 
  11. The Vote Explanations can be visible/invisible here (specified by Teacher), allowing students to review the reasoning of their peers.

Functionality From Teacher's Perspective:

  1. When teacher reaches the Brainstorm step (logged into VLE as a teacher), they start by selecting which class period to view (from a list of all available class periods for the Project Run).
  2. Teacher clicks a "Start Brainstorm" button in their interface when they want the student teams to have access to the step.  This makes the "Not started yet" message disappear from the VLE view.  The teacher can opt to do this at any time.  Goal is to give teacher class-management control, with option to start the brainstorm as a group or at any time.
  3. Teacher watches posts from the student teams arrive in real time.   If postings are marked with an Anonymous name, the teacher also sees the student Usernames in parentheses)
  4. Teacher watches a field that says "x of y student teams have submitted a Brainstorm Posting"  
  5. Teacher clicks a button labeled "Start Voting"  when they think enough postings have been submitted.  Before clicking this button the teacher can modify the fields specifying the Number of Votes per Team and Maximum Votes per Post
  6. Teacher clicks a button labeled  "Display Vote Results" when they think the time is right.   Before clicking this button they can modify the following fields:
    • Type of Results Shown   (pop-up menu)
    • Show/Hide Student Explanations  (radio buttons)
    • Display teacher votes with Student Votes or Separate from student votes

IMPLEMENTATION

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