Prezi Presentation

Here is my Prezi Presentation.  I enjoyed learning to use prezi.  Its a nice change from PowerPoint. 



http://prezi.com/wvf00gwnky1x/present/?auth_key=18jvlv7&follow=wtikulsqqbcb

Interview with the ELA Teacher

After interviewing the ELA teacher on my team, I’ve learned the major challenge he faces when integrating technology into his classroom. His biggest concern was not having enough time to learn the technology well enough to present it in the classroom. This teacher is afraid the children won’t think the technology is “cool” enough like their own personal technological devices. How can he make a student interested in something they feel is not “cool”. Also, he feels his senior teacher status makes him out of the look when it comes to technology. He is still using the overhead projector to present lessons to students. With all our professional development going towards learning the new APPR rubric, teachers are not getting the proper training they need to convert their classroom into the new 21^st century learning centers. The computers our building has for students to use are kept in a rolling cart that teachers must reserve 2 weeks in advance. Most of the time the computers are not working and it takes too long for students to try to log in and get set up. The 40 minute class periods are not long enough for technical support and setup. At the end of the interview I tried explaining to him he should try to integrate one technology technique a month. He can start small and work up to bigger things.

Lesson Implementation Report

1. The outcomes of the implementation: student learning outcomes and technical procedure outcomes

                  ·         The students will demonstrate their ability to create a digital media announcement

·         The students will be able to identify the most appropriate resource that are important to their topic

      ·        The students will be able to explain how to help their cause.

2. The adjustments you had made to accommodate students with special needs

            There are 3 students in the class with special needs.  One student has speech issues and did not want to record his voice in this video.  We had him write what he wanted to say in the video and then I recorded my voice reading his words.  The other two students have 504’s with extended time on all assignments.  These students were allowed to go to the school library during enrichment periods and spend extra time working on the digital media part of the project. 

3. The adjustments you had made for the effectiveness of classroom management

             There were no classroom management issues.  The total population of the class is 18 students.  With two teachers constantly circulating around the room, students didn’t have much opportunity to fool around.  They were so engaged in the project, they hated when the period was over and they had to put their laptops back.  We even had students ask if they could skip lunch and come up to the classroom and work for the period.  We handled this by allowing them to bring their lunch to the classroom and work at the same time they ate. 

  

4. The questions asked by the students

             A majority of the question asked by students were technical question about creating their digital media piece.  They already had individual blogs which we incorporated into the project so there were no questions on how to use the blogs.  Below is a list of some question I wrote down as students asked them.

                              ·         Can I record my own voice and play music at the same time?

·         Is there a way to pick a specific part of the song?

·         How long does it have to be?

·         Will this count as a test?

·         Can I use pictures from the internet?

·         How do I post my video to my blog?

  

5. The problems students had encountered during the implementation process

             There were no problems while trying to implement the process.  The students enjoyed the trial and error process which allowed them to explore and discover features on their own.  The only issue we had was on day two; some of the computer wouldn’t let the students log on. 

          

6. The feedback from the students

             We have the student fill out a questionnaire when they were done with the project.  The responses we received were better than I anticipated.  The students LOVED the project.  They wanted me to go to their Science and Social Studies teachers and teach them to use the program so they could use the programs again in other classes.  

7. The timeframe (was there enough time as you planned for)

             We allotted for 10 class periods.  Six periods was spent on research and the creation of the digital media piece and four days were saved for presentations.  I might have added another day for presentations so students weren’t limited to the 10 minutes if they had more to share.  The class periods are only 39 minutes long so the presentations took almost as long as the research and creations. 

8. What you learned from the implementation including proposed changes for future lessons?

             I don’t think there is anything I would change about this lesson.  It seemed to be a big hit with the students and the ELA teacher.  He plans to work it in his curriculum for next year.  I might decide in the future to allow the students to have more choice than just the Book Builder or the Windows tool.  As I get to learn more technological tools, I may include them as well. 

Lesson Keystone

Subject:  ELA with highlight on using digital media makers to create public service announcements. 

 Grade level: 7th grade

Standards addressed: Common Core ELA or related, and ISTE technology standards

Common Core ELA Standards

L.7.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

L.7.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

L.7.3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening

L.7.6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

ISTE Standards

Creativity and Innovation

 Communication and Collaboration

Research and Information

 Technology Operations

 Introduction

Students will learn how to create a digital media piece that goes along with their service announcement.  The goal after talking to the ELA teacher is to teach kids to get involved in the community and try to help make a difference in something that matters to them. 

Internet Workshop Framework

1. Set up bookmarks for students to find information

            Here is a blog that was set up for student to go to and access bookmarked websites for their projects (This blog is identical to the one myself and the ELA set up.  My district would not give me permission to share my blog because of privacy issues with the students).  This blog contains bookmarked sites that get the students started on where they can go to research information.  There is also a site on this blog where students can go and get ideas for a Public Service Announcement (PSA). 

Our class blog:  http://psagalli.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

2. Design an activity

 Students will have to answer question about their digital media project and post it on their blogs.  The questions for students to answer can be found on the class blog.

3. Complete the research activity

 Students will be given 4 class periods to research and put together their PSA.  They will be using the program Book Builder or Windows Live Media Maker.  Book builder is available at http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ and Windows Live Media Maker comes standard on all the school laptops.  We will also be teaching them how to create voiceovers and music to go along with their slides or book.

4.  Sharing of work

Students will share their work through presentations.  They will present their topic and why they chose it.  They will also show their creation. Each student will be responsible for a 8-10 minute presentation.   After their presentation, they will post their video/book on their blog.

Requirements

We will be doing this in the classroom with laptops. This will take a total of 10 class periods.  Six days for introducing the topics, research, and putting together the project and four days for presentations.   Students who require additional time can stay after school and use the programs or take their projects home to finish.

Rubric for presentation

Public Awareness Campaign : Presentation of Video/Book Teacher Name: Ms. Galli Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY	3	2	1	0
Research/Statistical Data	Students include 3 or more high-quality examples or pieces of data to support their campaign.	Students include at least 2 high-quality examples or pieces of data to support their campaign.	Students include at least 1 high-quality examples or pieces of data to support their campaign.	Students include no high-quality examples or pieces of data to support their campaign.
Campaign/Product	Students create an original, accurate and interesting product that adequately addresses the issue.	Students create an accurate product that adequately addresses the issue.	Students create an accurate product but it does not adequately address the issue.	The product is not created or not accurate.
Sources - Quality	Students include 3 or more high quality sources.	Students include 2 high quality sources .	Students include 2 sources but some of are questionable quality.	Students include fewer than 2 sources.

Print vs. New Literacies Keystone Paper

        Literacy skills are necessary in order to comprehend information.  Traditional literacy is about print on a page, or decoding and making sense of words, images and other content that a reader can string together and then begin to comprehend.  Over the last 15 years, technology has become so advanced, the nature of literacy and literacy practices are changing.  Students are reading texts in digital form which can sometimes be multi-layered.  With the onset of this new “technology reading”, students need “new literacies” as well.  “The term ‘new literacies’  describes literacy-related skills needed in an interactive multimedia environment, such as retrieving and evaluating information, comprehending information, and producing and publishing information through online technologies” (Hsu, p.69).  Some skills that are required when comprehending information either through print or technology are: activating prior knowledge, connecting, visualizing, inferring, questioning, and synthesizing.  Students require the ability not just to "read" but also to navigate the World Wide Web, locate information, evaluate it critically, synthesize it and communicate it.  All these skills are becoming necessary to success in this century's economy and workforce.

            In the three years that I’ve been teaching, I’ve noticed my students retain information better when presented through technology.  It keeps their attention, engages their knowledge, and makes them curious to know more.  Just some techniques I’ve learned to use in my classroom were blogs, Glogster, and wiki’s.  We need to teach our students new literacies so they can make full use of the technologies present to them. 

Old school pen and paper is starting to be used less and technology is replacing it.  Students can still learn through print literacy by repetition but new literacies have a greater retention rate. Why shouldn’t we keep up with techniques and technology that interest our students?  New literacies align with the 21^st century learning style that will better prepare our students for the future. 

References

Hui-Yin Hsu & Shiangkwei Wang (2010): The Impact of Using Blogs on College

Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation, Literacy Research and Instruction, 50:1, 68-88

Glogster T-chart

 

Features in Glogster	Affordances in the ELA Classroom
My Pin Board Glog	Students can put visuals alongside their texts. Great for visual learners
Ability to attach audio	Students can use Voice Thread to record audio for their Glog
Multiple layouts	Creative, dynamic, and motivative digital outlet that captures learners excitement, keeps focus, and makes learning more fun.
Ability to leave feedback	Opportunity for feedback from viewers both formally and informally
Live Pulse	Community of people can view Glogs for inspiration
Collaboration	Improves teacher-student relationships by allowing both to explore Wed 2.0 and learning concepts together

Voice Thread

https://voicethread.com/share/2953784/

Here is the Voice Thread I created.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did creating!

Evaluating pedagogical affordances of media sharing

This article opened my eyes to the many features of voice threads. First time reading through this I was a little confused.  After watching the video from Dr. Hsu and then going back to re-read the article, it made much more sense.  One of my favorite features is how students can leave voice comments instead of just text comments.  You can also leave comments based on previous comments.

I can see students enjoying Wed 2.0 Technologies as well as the program Voice Threads.  I would be surprised if some of my students weren't currently using Voice Threads.  Not only can it be used in educational settings, but it has great potential outside the classroom as well.  The affordances are broad based on the features offered. 

Has anyone used Voice Thread before this?  If so, please share your classroom ideas.  I would love to incorporate this into my Keystone assignment.

Initial draft for Final Keystone Unit Implementation and Evaluation

1. Subject:  ELA with highlight on using digital media makers to create public service announcements. 
2. Grade level: 7^th grade
3. Standards addressed: Common Core ELA or related, and ISTE technology standards

Common Core ELA Standards

L.7.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

L.7.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

L.7.3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening

L.7.6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

ISTE Standards

Creativity and Innovation

Communication and Collaboration

Research and Information

Technology Operations

4. Intended results of the proposed technology integration (identify the professional development interests and needs from your ELA teachers and students, and potential technology to address their needs or interests)

Students will learn how to create a digital medial piece that goes along with their service announcement.  The goal after talking to the ELA teacher is to teach kids to get involved in the community and try to help make a difference in something that matters to them.  Currently the students have blogs with information pertaining to their public service announcement on it.  They’ve been working to create their blogs for 2 weeks now.  Their final assignment in this unit will be to create their public service announcement through a digital media tool.  We discussed letting them pick between the book builder or Windows Live Media Maker or a tool they know and like to use.  We will be teaching them how to create voiceovers and music to go along with their slides.   So far the students seem to like the integrating technology part into the unit.  I am excited to see how they react to the technology used for the video creations. 

5. Support and format of training needed for the effective implementation of the selected technology in their classrooms.

I’m been training my ELA teacher on the tools and programs I learned from this class.  We are using these programs with the students for our unit.  Once myself and the ELA teacher have the program training needed, we will assist the students who are struggling.  They will have the time for some trial and error discovery.  This was a request from the ELA teacher.  He feels the students learn best when they can do trial and errors for themselves instead of us telling them exactly what to do.

6. Requirements (computer lab or classroom computers)

We will be doing this in the classroom with laptops.  We do not have a computer lab for students to go to.  Students who require additional time and stay after school and use the programs or take their projects home to finish.

7. Evaluation plan (what is your plan to make sure that your training meets the goals, needs, and objectives)

We will be evaluating students as we go along in the process.  This is new for both of us so we are still working out the specifics.  Some evaluations will be informal. There will be a rubric for the final video creation. 

The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students’

The research study in this article was interesting to read.  I didn’t find it surprising that using blogs correlated positively with higher retention rates.  Children live in such a high tech world and everything they do revolves around technology.  Many of my students know more about digital technology than I do.  My job as a teacher is to foster their knowledge of technology and help them create “new literacies” skills.  This will better prepare them for college and their career.  Being able to retrieve and evaluate information, comprehend information, and produce and publish information through online technologies is the way our society is moving towards.  We need to prepare our students to be successful in doing this.  Teachers can try Problem Based Learning along with blogging to make the most of their technology.    Even college students need to learn how to use these new literacies. 

Since I am new to blogging, I am still learning all its features and benefits.  I’ve learned how to post and share with other people.  I also like the instant feedback you can get after you post about something.  Our class blogs have given me a sense of community.  It’s not just me interacting with the instructor; I feel part of the classroom environment even though I’m not physically sitting in a classroom.   My goal for the remaining school year to is incorporate blogging into one of my remaining unit plans.