Week 1: Ill-Structured and Wicked Problems

In CEP 812 Week 1 were were asked to think about Ill-structured and wicked problems that we face in our classrooms everyday. Problems that don’t have a set formula established to solve. One main ill-structured problem comes to mind is that of setting up seating charts. We’ve all been there. Rearranging desks so that the talkers, friends, and behavioral issues are all perfectly separated to create the optimal classroom environment. This task proves to be a difficult and ill-structured problem again and again. There is no set formula for this challenge, nor is it ever set or done the first time around. There are multiple solutions and different approaches you can take to arrive with the “perfect” seating chart. As we continue to be faced with ill-structured problems that particularly deal with our student’s successes, we search for tools that can help solve the ill-structured problems.

We were asked to focus particularly on ill-structured problems that affect our students with special learning needs. I wanted to focus on a special learning need that seems to be very prevalent in the classroom; so I chose ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Students with ADHD over all have a difficult time staying focused in class to complete a task. This can be shown through hyperactivity or inattention. They often fidget and have a hard time staying still. This is a hindrance to their success in the classroom specifically when asked to focus on a particular task (Thapar, 2016).  Whenever a student with this learning need comes into the classroom, the ill-structured problem always seems to be, “how can I help this student stay focused long enough to help them show their best effort on an assignment?”

Group work or activities tend to make it easier for students with ADHD to focus because they are able to move around and freely discuss the topic with peers. However, when it comes to the task of reading and responding to the text, the ADHD student has more difficulty. For example, if the task was to research the main goals of a European Explorer on the computer and write a presentation, some of the biggest hurdles they would face would be finding the articles and reading them while gleaning relevant information.

One Chrome Extensions that I found to help students with ADHD focus is called the BeeLine Reader. When selected, this extension changes the text of a website from basic black to a variant of colors following an ombre pattern. There are different text color choices as well as a “focus mode” to minimize extra distractions. This extension also has an option to change the font to “open dyslexic” which can be a benefit not only to students with dyslexia, but arguably for many others as well.

The idea behind BeeLine Reader is to provide varying font colors that allow for more efficient reading. Matthew Schneps, director of the Laboratory for Visual Learning at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, says, “the color gradients also pull our eyes long from one character to the next—and then from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, minimizing any chance of skipping lines or making anything less than an optimally efficient word-to-word or line-to-line transition” (Hamblin, 2016).

Many times when reading right to left and top to bottom, we miss a few words on the next line of text and it is easy for readers to get lost or confused. This is something that can be an issue for our students with ADHD. It is difficult for them to focus on the text and follow it line for line. BeeLine helps to address that ill-structured problem.

As I was testing out this extension, I found myself reading faster and more efficiently, and was more engaged with the text as the colors pulled my eyes along. The extension takes a seemingly boring and hard to follow text through a transformation into an engaging and efficient flow of words.

In addition to the text color variant change, the extension also minimizes other potential distractions on the site. When selected, the text not only changes to the colors chosen, but it blurs out or eliminates extraneous ads, images, etc. to leave remaining only the important text.

Students with ADHD particularly struggle with  staying focused on “tasks that need sustained mental effort” or even simply focusing on an assignment (Thapar, 2016). The text that the students have to read seems to blur together, and it takes them extra effort to focus. This results in unsuccessful behavior as there is a lack of retention. The extension is certainly not a cure all, but it does serve to help students stay focused on the topic they are reading.  One goal as educators is to help all students, no matter their ability, find success. The extension works to help students with ADHD find a way to focus that leads to success in reading.

References:

Thapar, A., & Cooper, M. (2016). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The Lancet,387(10024), 1240-1250. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00238-x

 
Hamblin, J. (2016, May 11). A Better Way to Read. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/a-better-way-to-read/482127/