video
What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial? Why?
Power Point was used to input the images with some text so specific images could be seen in still view. Capturing the audio and screen was done with Jing and then Audacity was used to remove excess noise. Then the editing was done with Camtasia Studio. A free trial was downloaded and edited and published from there. This program was used because of the resources of being able to work with both the audio and visual aspects of the presentation and a free trial was available.
What did you learn during the development process of the final product?
I learned that there are many program available to capture screenshots and videos. You just need to figure out what works best for you and more than one can be used such as seen with our final presentation. Jing only allows so much video time to be recorded but you can add arrows, highlighting and shapes. Screencastomatic allows for longer videos to be taken but there is no editing of the sound or images. It can be saved to You Tube and as a mp4 document. Camtasia Studio allows free trails and both the image and audio can be edited. Audacity allows for editing of sounds and recording of sounds but not with images. I feel that I know have more tools in my tool belt when working with recording of screenshots and videos.
What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?
If I had to develop a similar product I would work on making a better storyboard and script. We used Google Docs and the main purpose for this was so that the whole group could share, contribute, and edit together. However, when inputing images they were then unable to be copied and pasted to another document such as a Power Point. Group members needed to share out their images through uploading them to an email. Also, moving slides around on Google Docs was time consuming and a times the program froze and some text was lost. It was hard to select a large amount to be moved. I would look online and on blogs to find a better program to make a storyboard on to prepare for a final presentation that had audio, videos, and still images with some text.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Wicked Project Final Presentation
video
1- Introduction
My wicked project was on using digital storytelling to help support the writing process.
2- Problem
The problem was not only in my classroom but also throughout the whole school as seen through MEAP scores that students were lacking in the areas of ideas and organization in the writing process. They do not stick with idea throughout the writing piece and do not have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
3- Solution
My solution was to use digital storytelling to help slow down the whole writing process. Because of time constraints at the end of the year I choose to make a whole class digital story so the whole class would benefit form the explicit modeling and instruction of slowly going through the whole writing process of brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing together. Since we finished out the year with a fantasy unit this was the genre I choose for writing. After receiving feedback from my peers I decided to collect data with a pre-assessment and a post assessment of students writing their own fantasy story before the intervention of digital story and after its use. I at the end compared these pre and post assessments.
4- Technology Pedagogical Knowledge
I decided upon digital storytelling because of research that supports its use in the writing process. I found numerous articles connecting the use technology to digital storytelling to supporting writing and found one by Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge to be the most connected to my Wicked Project. Students use oral, written, and visual skills throughout the process of creating a digital story and this reaches out to multiple intelligences as an increased motivator. It also connects to the lives that students are living out of the classroom as they explore the Internet, video game, digital photography and making graphic organizers with technology. A peer suggested that I utilize a storyboard as the organizational tool for this project since students struggle with organization and I did so when moving from the step of drafting to publishing as we planned for the images and transitions to be integrated into it.
5-Technological Content Knowledge
Scaffolding during this process was a huge step in the implementation. Students had already had experiences typing and editing in Word. Also, they have used Power Point before and I selected a storyboard outline from the Internet that was similar to slide layouts on Power Point to help with consistency. Finally, I had previously scanned in images from students to then record their voices to using Voicethread so recording voices to a class book was not a new process but using iMovie for the digital story was a new layer of technology for the students. Students were aware that a copy of the finished product would be shared with families and adults at the school.
6-Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Knowing the areas that my students struggle with most allowed me to highlight these areas during my explicit teaching with digital storytelling. Knowing that students get off track with ideas I was able to keep probing them to reflect if their contribution made sense to the story as a whole. Also, using the graphic organizer I made for the beginning brainstorming of the story helped to plan students’ ideas out in a clear organization before even writing the story. Then using the storyboard to connect the images drawn to the story was another helpful tool sot eh whole class was on the same page.
7-Planned Implementation
As seen from this list, here was my implementation. All that I planned was able to be implemented. I was surprised with the amount of engagement from the project. Students really go invested into the story and characters. For the pre-assessment of writing I allowed the students to write any fantasy story but there could only be one element of fantasy so the story would not be too difficult to follow. Again for the post-assessment I had the same guideline and half of the class wrote a chapter two to go along with the story we wrote as a whole class. I even had students going home to write more chapters that were connected to our class story. The whole class brainstorming was overwhelming since there were so many ideas but once we decided upon the one idea each student had their chance to contribute a paragraph. As I typed their thoughts I wanted to have some reflection questions that helped the students stay on track. I made a poster board of these and students were able to look back at them also during their post-assessment. The questions were:
-Do the details connect to one another?
-Is there a beginning, middle, and end?
-Are all the details supporting the main idea?
-What is the heat (main idea) of your story?
-What is the one unrealistic part?
I choose to do this as a comment from one of my peers earlier and the consistent language seemed to be a supporting factor.
I knew going into the project that time was precious and that it would take longer than expected and sure enough it did. Storyboarding, scanning in the images and saving them and students recording their voices took longer than I had planned for. Surprisingly, my chatty students clamed up once it came time to record their voices so I had to redo some so they could speak with a louder voice.
The biggest bumps in the road were brainstorming for the story and scanning in the images and saving them all individually as jpegs. There were so many opinions with brainstorming and I would fix this next time by implementing digital storytelling with an individual or a small group so that it would be even more focused individualized instruction for the writing process. Since I am using digital storytelling as a writing intervention I would implement it in a smaller focused group so I could track the data more closely if the intervention truly helps. As for scanning in the images I plan to talk with the technology director at school if there is a setting on our scanner that can upload the images as jpegs instead of pdfs to save time.
It was delightful to see the students spending so much time on editing and revising which normally is a step that the students rush through. I feel that having them edit another paragraph that someone else wrote gave fresh eyes to catch mistakes and also having the knowledge that this project would be shared with many eyes gave extra motivation.
8- Indications of a successful project
My indicators of a successful project was that I was able to implement the whole thing, few technological difficulties, teamwork, students took time to using the planning sheet provided in their pre and post assessments, writing was longer and more focused in the post assessments, increased motivation, more time spent on editing and revising both the digital story and post assessments, and student pride in the final project.
9-Results
The whole project was able to get implemented as planned, taking a bit longer than expected.
The evidence of success was seen comparing the pre and post assessments. The students wrote longer, more time was taking on editing and revising, and students used the guided questions from the poster board as their own personal reflection if they were on track with ideas/organization.
My big "ah ha" after reading through all the writing samples that the use of Digital Storytelling helped my higher writers the most. My student that are at or below grade level continued to write with ideas that were not clear and stories that did not have a beginning, middle, and end. This shows me that they are not able to get what they need out of whole class lessons and more individual and small group instruction is needed. However, my higher writers did have a change in their writing after we created a whole class. Their endings were better and details fell more inline with their main idea.
This comes to how I would approach the project differently given what I have learned. I would try digital storytelling with a smaller group of middle writers. Again I would do a pre and post assessment but I would have them write in the personal narrative genre on a specific prompt since this is what is seen on the MEAP. Then I think in the small group setting of using my middle writers we would take one of the student's samples to create the digital story from, retracing our steps to how you should brainstorm, use a storyboard to plan out the writing, write, edit, revise and finally publish. This way all students would be getting instruction but they could at the same be using Digital Storytelling. After I would give the students the same writing prompt to compare their writing before and after the use of iMovie for a digital story and that way using the same prompt I would have clear evidence of growth. I think that time continues to be the biggest issue as if I were doing this with a small group the rest of the students would have to be independently engaged. I would do this whole project again but just in a smaller more focused group.
Lesson learned
1.) When scanning in files to then be uploaded into iMovie they need to be jpeg files and not pdf files. Each file was saved separately into iPhoto and then inputed into iMovie.
2.) There are tons of possible storyboards available on the Internet and you just need to find what works best for you whether that is printing it out and writing on it or editing it on the computer by typing into it.
3.) Input your images in iMovie first and don't worry about how long each are slotted to the playing time. Record each voice separately and then it shows how long that segment was so then you can click on the clock icon to match the time on the image to the time on the voice recording so they match up.
4.) Plan for more time that you originally think!
10- Why you should try digital storytelling in your classroom:
10. Opportunities for new graphic organizers to be used with storyboarding. They can be paper or computer based.
9. There are tons of resources available out there from storyboard to programs to making the digital stories.
8. Meets curriculum standards as students practice writing, reading, and oral presentation while integrating the full writing process from brainstorming all to way to publishing.
7. Research based practice.
6. Gives students more experiences to technology since this is the world they are growing up in.
5. Data collection can be used with digital storytelling to track increase writing skills.
4. You utilize what your students already know and scaffold from that.
3. It slows down the writing process allowing students to see the full process in action with direction instruction along the way.
2. Peers have opportunities to learn from each other and to rise up to be leaders in different steps in the whole process.
1. It’s fun and students have increased motivation.
1- Introduction
My wicked project was on using digital storytelling to help support the writing process.
2- Problem
The problem was not only in my classroom but also throughout the whole school as seen through MEAP scores that students were lacking in the areas of ideas and organization in the writing process. They do not stick with idea throughout the writing piece and do not have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
3- Solution
My solution was to use digital storytelling to help slow down the whole writing process. Because of time constraints at the end of the year I choose to make a whole class digital story so the whole class would benefit form the explicit modeling and instruction of slowly going through the whole writing process of brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing together. Since we finished out the year with a fantasy unit this was the genre I choose for writing. After receiving feedback from my peers I decided to collect data with a pre-assessment and a post assessment of students writing their own fantasy story before the intervention of digital story and after its use. I at the end compared these pre and post assessments.
4- Technology Pedagogical Knowledge
I decided upon digital storytelling because of research that supports its use in the writing process. I found numerous articles connecting the use technology to digital storytelling to supporting writing and found one by Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge to be the most connected to my Wicked Project. Students use oral, written, and visual skills throughout the process of creating a digital story and this reaches out to multiple intelligences as an increased motivator. It also connects to the lives that students are living out of the classroom as they explore the Internet, video game, digital photography and making graphic organizers with technology. A peer suggested that I utilize a storyboard as the organizational tool for this project since students struggle with organization and I did so when moving from the step of drafting to publishing as we planned for the images and transitions to be integrated into it.
5-Technological Content Knowledge
Scaffolding during this process was a huge step in the implementation. Students had already had experiences typing and editing in Word. Also, they have used Power Point before and I selected a storyboard outline from the Internet that was similar to slide layouts on Power Point to help with consistency. Finally, I had previously scanned in images from students to then record their voices to using Voicethread so recording voices to a class book was not a new process but using iMovie for the digital story was a new layer of technology for the students. Students were aware that a copy of the finished product would be shared with families and adults at the school.
6-Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Knowing the areas that my students struggle with most allowed me to highlight these areas during my explicit teaching with digital storytelling. Knowing that students get off track with ideas I was able to keep probing them to reflect if their contribution made sense to the story as a whole. Also, using the graphic organizer I made for the beginning brainstorming of the story helped to plan students’ ideas out in a clear organization before even writing the story. Then using the storyboard to connect the images drawn to the story was another helpful tool sot eh whole class was on the same page.
7-Planned Implementation
As seen from this list, here was my implementation. All that I planned was able to be implemented. I was surprised with the amount of engagement from the project. Students really go invested into the story and characters. For the pre-assessment of writing I allowed the students to write any fantasy story but there could only be one element of fantasy so the story would not be too difficult to follow. Again for the post-assessment I had the same guideline and half of the class wrote a chapter two to go along with the story we wrote as a whole class. I even had students going home to write more chapters that were connected to our class story. The whole class brainstorming was overwhelming since there were so many ideas but once we decided upon the one idea each student had their chance to contribute a paragraph. As I typed their thoughts I wanted to have some reflection questions that helped the students stay on track. I made a poster board of these and students were able to look back at them also during their post-assessment. The questions were:
-Do the details connect to one another?
-Is there a beginning, middle, and end?
-Are all the details supporting the main idea?
-What is the heat (main idea) of your story?
-What is the one unrealistic part?
I choose to do this as a comment from one of my peers earlier and the consistent language seemed to be a supporting factor.
I knew going into the project that time was precious and that it would take longer than expected and sure enough it did. Storyboarding, scanning in the images and saving them and students recording their voices took longer than I had planned for. Surprisingly, my chatty students clamed up once it came time to record their voices so I had to redo some so they could speak with a louder voice.
The biggest bumps in the road were brainstorming for the story and scanning in the images and saving them all individually as jpegs. There were so many opinions with brainstorming and I would fix this next time by implementing digital storytelling with an individual or a small group so that it would be even more focused individualized instruction for the writing process. Since I am using digital storytelling as a writing intervention I would implement it in a smaller focused group so I could track the data more closely if the intervention truly helps. As for scanning in the images I plan to talk with the technology director at school if there is a setting on our scanner that can upload the images as jpegs instead of pdfs to save time.
It was delightful to see the students spending so much time on editing and revising which normally is a step that the students rush through. I feel that having them edit another paragraph that someone else wrote gave fresh eyes to catch mistakes and also having the knowledge that this project would be shared with many eyes gave extra motivation.
8- Indications of a successful project
My indicators of a successful project was that I was able to implement the whole thing, few technological difficulties, teamwork, students took time to using the planning sheet provided in their pre and post assessments, writing was longer and more focused in the post assessments, increased motivation, more time spent on editing and revising both the digital story and post assessments, and student pride in the final project.
9-Results
The whole project was able to get implemented as planned, taking a bit longer than expected.
The evidence of success was seen comparing the pre and post assessments. The students wrote longer, more time was taking on editing and revising, and students used the guided questions from the poster board as their own personal reflection if they were on track with ideas/organization.
My big "ah ha" after reading through all the writing samples that the use of Digital Storytelling helped my higher writers the most. My student that are at or below grade level continued to write with ideas that were not clear and stories that did not have a beginning, middle, and end. This shows me that they are not able to get what they need out of whole class lessons and more individual and small group instruction is needed. However, my higher writers did have a change in their writing after we created a whole class. Their endings were better and details fell more inline with their main idea.
This comes to how I would approach the project differently given what I have learned. I would try digital storytelling with a smaller group of middle writers. Again I would do a pre and post assessment but I would have them write in the personal narrative genre on a specific prompt since this is what is seen on the MEAP. Then I think in the small group setting of using my middle writers we would take one of the student's samples to create the digital story from, retracing our steps to how you should brainstorm, use a storyboard to plan out the writing, write, edit, revise and finally publish. This way all students would be getting instruction but they could at the same be using Digital Storytelling. After I would give the students the same writing prompt to compare their writing before and after the use of iMovie for a digital story and that way using the same prompt I would have clear evidence of growth. I think that time continues to be the biggest issue as if I were doing this with a small group the rest of the students would have to be independently engaged. I would do this whole project again but just in a smaller more focused group.
Lesson learned
1.) When scanning in files to then be uploaded into iMovie they need to be jpeg files and not pdf files. Each file was saved separately into iPhoto and then inputed into iMovie.
2.) There are tons of possible storyboards available on the Internet and you just need to find what works best for you whether that is printing it out and writing on it or editing it on the computer by typing into it.
3.) Input your images in iMovie first and don't worry about how long each are slotted to the playing time. Record each voice separately and then it shows how long that segment was so then you can click on the clock icon to match the time on the image to the time on the voice recording so they match up.
4.) Plan for more time that you originally think!
10- Why you should try digital storytelling in your classroom:
10. Opportunities for new graphic organizers to be used with storyboarding. They can be paper or computer based.
9. There are tons of resources available out there from storyboard to programs to making the digital stories.
8. Meets curriculum standards as students practice writing, reading, and oral presentation while integrating the full writing process from brainstorming all to way to publishing.
7. Research based practice.
6. Gives students more experiences to technology since this is the world they are growing up in.
5. Data collection can be used with digital storytelling to track increase writing skills.
4. You utilize what your students already know and scaffold from that.
3. It slows down the writing process allowing students to see the full process in action with direction instruction along the way.
2. Peers have opportunities to learn from each other and to rise up to be leaders in different steps in the whole process.
1. It’s fun and students have increased motivation.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Wicked project Part D: Findings and Implications
Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?
I do feel that my project did go as planned. I set out a timeline as to how the project would go knowing in my head that things usually take longer than projected and sure enough that happened. Here was my timeline:
-Teach about the fantasy genre during reading and writing workshop (1 week)
-Pre-assessment fantasy writing (1 day but it took 2 days)
-Coming up with idea for story and brainstorm of whole class (1 day)
-Writing of story (1 day but it took 2 days)
-Students editing writing (1 day)
-Storyboarding (1day)
-Students drawing and then I scanning all of work in together (1 day but it took 2 since all the files had to be saved separately)
-Students recording their voices (1 day)
-Students writing their post-assessment fantasy stories (1 day)
Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.
My evidence was based upon writing samples from before the Digital Storytelling was implemented compared to writing samples after the intervention was used to help support clear ideas and organization in writing. My big "ah ha" after reading through all the writing samples that the use of Digital Storytelling helped my higher writers the most. My student that are at or below grade level continued to write with ideas that were not clear and stories that did not have a beginning, middle, and end. This shows me that they are not able to get what they need out of whole class lessons and more individual and small group instruction is needed. However, my higher writers did have a change in their writing after we created a whole class Digital Story. I looked at two student in particular that are good writers but in their pre-assessment one writer did not have a clear ending and just ended it with "they lived happily ever after" and the other writer skipped around in ideas so the organization was not clear. However, after we created the Digital Story together they both choose to write their post-assessment fantasy story based upon the ideas from the whole class one. They both then had clear beginning, middles, and ends and the idea was clear in both writing samples. I even noticed that they wrote longer this time and even spelling was better. I think that since we slowed down the writing process as a class as so much time was taken on each step as a model of how writers should think about each step it benefited the writers in my class that already have a pretty good knowledge base and this extra intervention seemed to then help with them taking their time on each step.
How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
If I were to do this project again I would do Digital Storytelling with a small group first. Since I noticed the greatest improvement with my higher writers in a large group format I would then try writing a story with a small group of my middle writers since the format would be smaller and they could then get more individualized instruction than in a larger group. Since I was teaching a fantasy unit my writing instruction was in this genre but I would utilize the project that I did with the students in the writing genre of personal narratives since this is the area where the MEAP and test score shows where the most growth is needed. I would give students a specific topic to write about such as, "A time I collaborated with someone" for their pre-assessment. Then I think in the small group setting of using my middle writers we would take one of the student's samples to create the digital story from, retracing our steps to how you should brainstorm, use a storyboard to plan out the writing, write, edit, revise and finally publish. This way all students would be getting instruction but they could at the same be using Digital Storytelling. After I would give the students the same writing prompt to compare their writing before and after the use of iMovie for a digital story and that way using the same prompt I would have clear evidence of growth. I think that time continues to be the biggest issue as if I were doing this with a small group the rest of the students would have to be independently engaged.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
1.) When scanning in files to then be uploaded into iMovie they need to be jpeg files and not pdf files. Each file was saved separately into iPhoto and then inputed into iMovie.
2.) There are tons of possible storyboards available on the Internet and you just need to find what works best for you whether that is printing it out and writing on it or editing it on the computer by typing into it.
3.) Input your images in iMovie first and don't worry about how long each are slotted to the playing time. Record each voice separately and then it shows how long that segment was so then you can click on the clock icon to match the time on the image to the time on the voice recording so they match up.
4.) Plan for more time that you originally think!
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I would do this same project again as I saw the motivation of my student for the writing process increase as they are asking me to make another one and students are writing more chapters to the story that we created so then we can create more Digital Stories. As noted above I would do this project with a smaller group since it was overwhelming to have the whole class try to share their ideas so that all voices were heard. I was also the scribe in this process and next time would have the students write for the digital story so they could work on editing their own written work compared to a typed out story. This is a more authentic experience since writing on paper is what they are expected to do on the MEAP. Other than having a small group make a digital story about a personal narrative and using writing compared to tying ideas I would not change much else. I would continue to seek out different storyboards available to see what works best with my students.
I do feel that my project did go as planned. I set out a timeline as to how the project would go knowing in my head that things usually take longer than projected and sure enough that happened. Here was my timeline:
-Teach about the fantasy genre during reading and writing workshop (1 week)
-Pre-assessment fantasy writing (1 day but it took 2 days)
-Coming up with idea for story and brainstorm of whole class (1 day)
-Writing of story (1 day but it took 2 days)
-Students editing writing (1 day)
-Storyboarding (1day)
-Students drawing and then I scanning all of work in together (1 day but it took 2 since all the files had to be saved separately)
-Students recording their voices (1 day)
-Students writing their post-assessment fantasy stories (1 day)
Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.
My evidence was based upon writing samples from before the Digital Storytelling was implemented compared to writing samples after the intervention was used to help support clear ideas and organization in writing. My big "ah ha" after reading through all the writing samples that the use of Digital Storytelling helped my higher writers the most. My student that are at or below grade level continued to write with ideas that were not clear and stories that did not have a beginning, middle, and end. This shows me that they are not able to get what they need out of whole class lessons and more individual and small group instruction is needed. However, my higher writers did have a change in their writing after we created a whole class Digital Story. I looked at two student in particular that are good writers but in their pre-assessment one writer did not have a clear ending and just ended it with "they lived happily ever after" and the other writer skipped around in ideas so the organization was not clear. However, after we created the Digital Story together they both choose to write their post-assessment fantasy story based upon the ideas from the whole class one. They both then had clear beginning, middles, and ends and the idea was clear in both writing samples. I even noticed that they wrote longer this time and even spelling was better. I think that since we slowed down the writing process as a class as so much time was taken on each step as a model of how writers should think about each step it benefited the writers in my class that already have a pretty good knowledge base and this extra intervention seemed to then help with them taking their time on each step.
How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
If I were to do this project again I would do Digital Storytelling with a small group first. Since I noticed the greatest improvement with my higher writers in a large group format I would then try writing a story with a small group of my middle writers since the format would be smaller and they could then get more individualized instruction than in a larger group. Since I was teaching a fantasy unit my writing instruction was in this genre but I would utilize the project that I did with the students in the writing genre of personal narratives since this is the area where the MEAP and test score shows where the most growth is needed. I would give students a specific topic to write about such as, "A time I collaborated with someone" for their pre-assessment. Then I think in the small group setting of using my middle writers we would take one of the student's samples to create the digital story from, retracing our steps to how you should brainstorm, use a storyboard to plan out the writing, write, edit, revise and finally publish. This way all students would be getting instruction but they could at the same be using Digital Storytelling. After I would give the students the same writing prompt to compare their writing before and after the use of iMovie for a digital story and that way using the same prompt I would have clear evidence of growth. I think that time continues to be the biggest issue as if I were doing this with a small group the rest of the students would have to be independently engaged.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
1.) When scanning in files to then be uploaded into iMovie they need to be jpeg files and not pdf files. Each file was saved separately into iPhoto and then inputed into iMovie.
2.) There are tons of possible storyboards available on the Internet and you just need to find what works best for you whether that is printing it out and writing on it or editing it on the computer by typing into it.
3.) Input your images in iMovie first and don't worry about how long each are slotted to the playing time. Record each voice separately and then it shows how long that segment was so then you can click on the clock icon to match the time on the image to the time on the voice recording so they match up.
4.) Plan for more time that you originally think!
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I would do this same project again as I saw the motivation of my student for the writing process increase as they are asking me to make another one and students are writing more chapters to the story that we created so then we can create more Digital Stories. As noted above I would do this project with a smaller group since it was overwhelming to have the whole class try to share their ideas so that all voices were heard. I was also the scribe in this process and next time would have the students write for the digital story so they could work on editing their own written work compared to a typed out story. This is a more authentic experience since writing on paper is what they are expected to do on the MEAP. Other than having a small group make a digital story about a personal narrative and using writing compared to tying ideas I would not change much else. I would continue to seek out different storyboards available to see what works best with my students.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Group leadership project part b: Script and Storyboard
Storyboard and script of how to use Jing
For this script and storyboard I worked on the section of creating a screenshot using Jing. First I made a PowerPoint with the images I wanted to use as to how to create a screenshot. I decided to use images from Google maps and took screenshots of the steps of selecting an image, dragging the lines to croup the image, and finally capturing the image so then it can be saved and shared. I added headings and script to each Power Point.
Sara then created a Google Docs page for the whole group to input their images, transition, headings, and script to. I added my information under the screenshot section. Sara and I then worked on organizing the information so there was:
Introduction
Signing up for Jing and downloading it to a computer
Taking a screenshot
Taking a video
Editing a video and screenshot using drawing tools provided by Jing
Sharing images and videos taken from Jing
I added text to the script part. I added text to say where there would be video demonstrations of taking a screenshot and downloading the Jing program.
Final steps . . .
I will be putting the images to be shown in the final presentation in order in a Power Point. I discovered that I images that are in our storyboard are not able to be copied so I am awaiting my group members to email their images to then they can be ordered and organized. I will then add text and transitions to the Power Point and will email the final product to Sara. She will be recording her voice over the presentation using the script we developed by using Screencastomatic. She will also be adding actual demonstrations as noted in our storyboard.
For this script and storyboard I worked on the section of creating a screenshot using Jing. First I made a PowerPoint with the images I wanted to use as to how to create a screenshot. I decided to use images from Google maps and took screenshots of the steps of selecting an image, dragging the lines to croup the image, and finally capturing the image so then it can be saved and shared. I added headings and script to each Power Point.
Sara then created a Google Docs page for the whole group to input their images, transition, headings, and script to. I added my information under the screenshot section. Sara and I then worked on organizing the information so there was:
Introduction
Signing up for Jing and downloading it to a computer
Taking a screenshot
Taking a video
Editing a video and screenshot using drawing tools provided by Jing
Sharing images and videos taken from Jing
I added text to the script part. I added text to say where there would be video demonstrations of taking a screenshot and downloading the Jing program.
Final steps . . .
I will be putting the images to be shown in the final presentation in order in a Power Point. I discovered that I images that are in our storyboard are not able to be copied so I am awaiting my group members to email their images to then they can be ordered and organized. I will then add text and transitions to the Power Point and will email the final product to Sara. She will be recording her voice over the presentation using the script we developed by using Screencastomatic. She will also be adding actual demonstrations as noted in our storyboard.
Wicked Project Part C: Implementation (digital story)
This is the digital story that my class created using iWeb.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Mobile Learning
Poll Everywhere
My poll I created for my students on decimals.
I created three questions to gauge their understanding on what is a decimal, how to order and compare then, and how to add them.
I cannot use pool everywhere with my students since they are 4th graders and are not allowed to use cell phones at school. I know that three of my students have cell phones but use them at home. Instead of using poll everywhere with my students I would use it with parents. I could use it at "back to school" night and poll parents with their questions and understanding of the content taught for the year. I could use their feedback on what day they would like homework to come home and how best to communicate with them.
My district has used Poll everywhere with teachers during professional development day and I that was my first interaction with it. I was impressed with the quick feedback of the program and how a graph can be made from the results. You can leave open the poll open for an extended amount of time and even input the data into Power Point to be shared.
Results
MP3 Players
- I connect my I Pod to my audio system so share music for morning meeting and classic music during work time. We used this as rewards and students are always excited to request songs and there seems to be more interest when music is played this way compared to using Pandora.com
-I thought that this article on using MP3 players in the classroom was really interesting, especially the part with audio books. I have a few students that are well below grade level for reading and feel that the use of audio books could be integrated into their modified curriculum. These students are interested into many texts that their grade level peers are reading such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" but are too difficult to read alone. They would still be able to converse with their peers about these texts with the use of the audio books on a Kindle, Ipad, Iphone, MP3 player when using Project Gutenberg.
I found that participating in the Classroom 2.0 blog about cell phone use was very enlightening. I had used Poll everywhere before in a district meeting and during this course but was introduced to http://wiffiti.com/ by a post that I read. It seems similar to Poll everywhere but there are some added graphic available such as custom screens and key words to search for.
My poll I created for my students on decimals.
I created three questions to gauge their understanding on what is a decimal, how to order and compare then, and how to add them.
I cannot use pool everywhere with my students since they are 4th graders and are not allowed to use cell phones at school. I know that three of my students have cell phones but use them at home. Instead of using poll everywhere with my students I would use it with parents. I could use it at "back to school" night and poll parents with their questions and understanding of the content taught for the year. I could use their feedback on what day they would like homework to come home and how best to communicate with them.
My district has used Poll everywhere with teachers during professional development day and I that was my first interaction with it. I was impressed with the quick feedback of the program and how a graph can be made from the results. You can leave open the poll open for an extended amount of time and even input the data into Power Point to be shared.
Results
MP3 Players
- I connect my I Pod to my audio system so share music for morning meeting and classic music during work time. We used this as rewards and students are always excited to request songs and there seems to be more interest when music is played this way compared to using Pandora.com
-I thought that this article on using MP3 players in the classroom was really interesting, especially the part with audio books. I have a few students that are well below grade level for reading and feel that the use of audio books could be integrated into their modified curriculum. These students are interested into many texts that their grade level peers are reading such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" but are too difficult to read alone. They would still be able to converse with their peers about these texts with the use of the audio books on a Kindle, Ipad, Iphone, MP3 player when using Project Gutenberg.
I found that participating in the Classroom 2.0 blog about cell phone use was very enlightening. I had used Poll everywhere before in a district meeting and during this course but was introduced to http://wiffiti.com/ by a post that I read. It seems similar to Poll everywhere but there are some added graphic available such as custom screens and key words to search for.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Group Project A: Brainstorming
What web conferencing tool did your group use?
The web conferencing tool that our group used this time was Adobe connect. We choose this tool since we have had interactions with it during cep classes, including the current one. Our previous web conference session that we interacted in was using Web Huddle which turned out to be frustrating since audio was a problem and there seemed to be a lack of tutorial for helping the questions that we had. One of our group members signed up for the 15 day trail in order to use this technology.
What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?
The advantages to using this web conferencing tool were that we had the possibility to all hear each other. It takes much time to type our comments and then to read each member's thoughts and that is what our group experiences previously with Web Huddle. the conversation between members were much more fluid and real since we were able to talk with one another and extend upon one another's thoughts. We also had the possibility of seeing each other using web cameras if we wanted. Two group members began using this and then we decided to share our ideas by talking. A box for typing was available and this was helpful to begin and get our agenda written down. This became helpful again when we were spitting up the work as to which group member would do what. It was interesting to see that when we typed in this side box that we were able to actually type at the same time as others and edit what was already written. We all had these abilities unlike Web Huddle where the moderator was the only individual with such capabilities.
What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?
The disadvantages of using this program was the audio feedback. Some of us were using built in microphones and there seemed then to be a lot of feedback. Also, the volume for one individual was really low. The audio to me was the most difficult part since there was the feedback, difficultly of consistent volume, and when more than one person talked at a time it almost seemed that each individual's voice would cancel watch other out.
It was simple to record the session but sharing and downloading the file has been difficult. I tried to download it to my Mac computer but it said that the flash player could not open it. So then I downloaded a newer version of Adobe and this still did not allow it to work. When I linked the file to this blog only 17 seconds came up. I am continuing to work this issue of sharing the recorded session.
Items discussed during out Adobe Connect Session:
1. A technology is chosen to be taught (This will be what the tutorial is about)
Our group will be teaching how to use Jing. Jing is a program that you can download from the Internet onto your computer that captures both images and videos from the screen of your computer.
2. A technology is chosen to facilitate the learning (This is the tool used to demonstrate the tutorial. For example, Jing, Slideshare, etc.)
We will be putting our information into a slideshow on PowerPoint that will then be shared using wither Slideshare or Screencastomatic.
3. Technical aspects of how the work will be completed is discussed- A timeline of who will be doing what is created and agreed upon.
Group members and tasks:
- Sara: Introduction and how to download Jing
- Rachel: How to do a screenshot
- Spike: How to record a video
- Bill: How to upload and share the video
- Sara: How to use the additional features (drawing lines, arrows etc.)
Timing:
- Storyboards: to be sent to Bill by June 6.
- PowerPoint presentations: handed in to Rachel by June 15 for editing and final accumulation
- Sara will then be recording her voice over the complete slideshow presentation
The web conferencing tool that our group used this time was Adobe connect. We choose this tool since we have had interactions with it during cep classes, including the current one. Our previous web conference session that we interacted in was using Web Huddle which turned out to be frustrating since audio was a problem and there seemed to be a lack of tutorial for helping the questions that we had. One of our group members signed up for the 15 day trail in order to use this technology.
What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?
The advantages to using this web conferencing tool were that we had the possibility to all hear each other. It takes much time to type our comments and then to read each member's thoughts and that is what our group experiences previously with Web Huddle. the conversation between members were much more fluid and real since we were able to talk with one another and extend upon one another's thoughts. We also had the possibility of seeing each other using web cameras if we wanted. Two group members began using this and then we decided to share our ideas by talking. A box for typing was available and this was helpful to begin and get our agenda written down. This became helpful again when we were spitting up the work as to which group member would do what. It was interesting to see that when we typed in this side box that we were able to actually type at the same time as others and edit what was already written. We all had these abilities unlike Web Huddle where the moderator was the only individual with such capabilities.
What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?
The disadvantages of using this program was the audio feedback. Some of us were using built in microphones and there seemed then to be a lot of feedback. Also, the volume for one individual was really low. The audio to me was the most difficult part since there was the feedback, difficultly of consistent volume, and when more than one person talked at a time it almost seemed that each individual's voice would cancel watch other out.
It was simple to record the session but sharing and downloading the file has been difficult. I tried to download it to my Mac computer but it said that the flash player could not open it. So then I downloaded a newer version of Adobe and this still did not allow it to work. When I linked the file to this blog only 17 seconds came up. I am continuing to work this issue of sharing the recorded session.
Items discussed during out Adobe Connect Session:
1. A technology is chosen to be taught (This will be what the tutorial is about)
Our group will be teaching how to use Jing. Jing is a program that you can download from the Internet onto your computer that captures both images and videos from the screen of your computer.
2. A technology is chosen to facilitate the learning (This is the tool used to demonstrate the tutorial. For example, Jing, Slideshare, etc.)
We will be putting our information into a slideshow on PowerPoint that will then be shared using wither Slideshare or Screencastomatic.
3. Technical aspects of how the work will be completed is discussed- A timeline of who will be doing what is created and agreed upon.
Group members and tasks:
- Sara: Introduction and how to download Jing
- Rachel: How to do a screenshot
- Spike: How to record a video
- Bill: How to upload and share the video
- Sara: How to use the additional features (drawing lines, arrows etc.)
Timing:
- Storyboards: to be sent to Bill by June 6.
- PowerPoint presentations: handed in to Rachel by June 15 for editing and final accumulation
- Sara will then be recording her voice over the complete slideshow presentation
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wicked Project Part B: TPACK Application
Technology Pedagogical Knowledge
The use of digital storytelling though the use of iMovie supports the teaching and support of student writing development. Digital storytelling integrates written, oral, visual, and literacy into the use of technology literacy. "Creating digital stories acts as a motivator for students, thus they remain engaged throughout the project (Burn & Reed, 1999). Additionally, digital stories provide an alternative conduit of expression for those students who struggle with writing traditional text" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 284). My students have been struggling with writing and making their ideas focused and with a clear organization of beginning, middle and end. With the technology use of a digital story it connects with the world that the students are living in currently since they are enthralled with movies, video games, and the use of the Internet. "Students in contemporary classrooms are the first generation enveloped by sophisticated computers, video games, digital music players, cell phones, and other tools of the digital age. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2005) in 2003, 83.5% of students in the United States used computers in school and 67.6% used computers at home" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 286-287). Digital storytelling is a motivating tool that helps to slow down the thought process of writing that my students move so quickly through. Students still go through the process of using pencil and paper to create a whole class writing piece on fantasy but then technology motivation comes into play since the writing piece needs to be edited and revised before it can be published using iMovie. Students need to reflect upon if there writing was on topic and if there was a clear beginning, middle, and end. If not, there will be revisions made before editing can be done to select scenes to be illustrated and voices recorded for the final published product. The writing process is still in play the whole time but is slowed down since some time needs to be taken to reflect on the writing piece before it is published. "Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital story-telling may help them compose more strategically"(Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
Technological Content Knowledge
The use of digital storytelling technology makes my problem of students struggling with writing more intellectually accessible. Students have had interactions with movies, books, and power point presentations that all have beginning, middles, and endings. The use of digital storytelling is another tool to organize thinking with visual, written, and oral representations that also have a beginning, middle and end. Since students have had these previous technology experiences of organizing thinking before publishing (such as using power point for a presentation) I can then scaffold their old knowledge to the new knowledge of iMovie. By students ordering their writing into slides on iMovie this will help with their organization of thinking with writing since a story needs to be in chronological order for it to make sense. Students will have many experiences to reread their writing since groups will be illustrating and recording their voices to the final product. This will allow them to continually reflect upon it to see if the writing is on topic the whole time and make sure that it does not stray from being a fantasy story.
I believe that motivation will also be a huge component in this use of digital storytelling. The technology as a whole is new to the students but the elements within it are not new to my students. They have scanned in their pictures before, typed, and recorded their voices using Voicethread. Putting it all together and sharing it with such a large audience will be new to the students (We are going to share it with families and the district technology page).
"Digital storytelling has the capacity to not only motivate struggling writers as they experience the enjoyment of creating stories enhanced by multimedia, but also to reposition themselves from struggling writers to competent writers" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
The pedagogical choices are supportive of making the content in my problem more intellectually accessible to my 4th grade students. Knowing my students and their prior knowledge is an important factor to scaffold their development, since I have already exposed them to writing and then typing, recording voices, and adding illustrations by scanning in drawings or adding clip art. These are technology skills that they have been continuing to grow and expand on and using a new technology will support students seeing the transfer that skills are not only used in one medium whether it is with the use of technology or not.
Reflection and feedback will be another important instructional strategy as we will be writing our fantasy story as a whole class. Then we will then reflect upon our writing on to see if the writing is on topic and clearly organized. Students will give me feedback as to whether this is true or if I need to make corrections. In turn I will give them feedback to support any lacking areas when revising. When editing, students will then have to make decisions as to how to divide up the story to then be illustrated and voiced.
"Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital storytelling may help them compose more strategically. Students’ narrations of their stories reduce overt weaknesses in conventions such as spelling, capitalization, and handwriting. The process of storyboarding facilitates the introduction of events in a logical and orderly sequence thereby illuminating gaps or omissions overlooked in a traditionally composed draft. When these breaks in the flow of the story are realized, the writer can make necessary revisions in the draft before recording the narration. While competent writers employ sensory words, dialogue, and figurative language to make the story vivid for the reader, a struggling writer may overlook important details that are central to the story. Photographs, clip art, or other graphics may visually compensate for the details that the struggling writer inadvertently omits. When a digital story is composed to be viewed by others, it promotes the writer’s awareness of audience, purpose, and form, an awareness not always demonstrated by less capable writers." (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
The use of digital storytelling though the use of iMovie supports the teaching and support of student writing development. Digital storytelling integrates written, oral, visual, and literacy into the use of technology literacy. "Creating digital stories acts as a motivator for students, thus they remain engaged throughout the project (Burn & Reed, 1999). Additionally, digital stories provide an alternative conduit of expression for those students who struggle with writing traditional text" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 284). My students have been struggling with writing and making their ideas focused and with a clear organization of beginning, middle and end. With the technology use of a digital story it connects with the world that the students are living in currently since they are enthralled with movies, video games, and the use of the Internet. "Students in contemporary classrooms are the first generation enveloped by sophisticated computers, video games, digital music players, cell phones, and other tools of the digital age. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2005) in 2003, 83.5% of students in the United States used computers in school and 67.6% used computers at home" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 286-287). Digital storytelling is a motivating tool that helps to slow down the thought process of writing that my students move so quickly through. Students still go through the process of using pencil and paper to create a whole class writing piece on fantasy but then technology motivation comes into play since the writing piece needs to be edited and revised before it can be published using iMovie. Students need to reflect upon if there writing was on topic and if there was a clear beginning, middle, and end. If not, there will be revisions made before editing can be done to select scenes to be illustrated and voices recorded for the final published product. The writing process is still in play the whole time but is slowed down since some time needs to be taken to reflect on the writing piece before it is published. "Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital story-telling may help them compose more strategically"(Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
Technological Content Knowledge
The use of digital storytelling technology makes my problem of students struggling with writing more intellectually accessible. Students have had interactions with movies, books, and power point presentations that all have beginning, middles, and endings. The use of digital storytelling is another tool to organize thinking with visual, written, and oral representations that also have a beginning, middle and end. Since students have had these previous technology experiences of organizing thinking before publishing (such as using power point for a presentation) I can then scaffold their old knowledge to the new knowledge of iMovie. By students ordering their writing into slides on iMovie this will help with their organization of thinking with writing since a story needs to be in chronological order for it to make sense. Students will have many experiences to reread their writing since groups will be illustrating and recording their voices to the final product. This will allow them to continually reflect upon it to see if the writing is on topic the whole time and make sure that it does not stray from being a fantasy story.
I believe that motivation will also be a huge component in this use of digital storytelling. The technology as a whole is new to the students but the elements within it are not new to my students. They have scanned in their pictures before, typed, and recorded their voices using Voicethread. Putting it all together and sharing it with such a large audience will be new to the students (We are going to share it with families and the district technology page).
"Digital storytelling has the capacity to not only motivate struggling writers as they experience the enjoyment of creating stories enhanced by multimedia, but also to reposition themselves from struggling writers to competent writers" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
The pedagogical choices are supportive of making the content in my problem more intellectually accessible to my 4th grade students. Knowing my students and their prior knowledge is an important factor to scaffold their development, since I have already exposed them to writing and then typing, recording voices, and adding illustrations by scanning in drawings or adding clip art. These are technology skills that they have been continuing to grow and expand on and using a new technology will support students seeing the transfer that skills are not only used in one medium whether it is with the use of technology or not.
Reflection and feedback will be another important instructional strategy as we will be writing our fantasy story as a whole class. Then we will then reflect upon our writing on to see if the writing is on topic and clearly organized. Students will give me feedback as to whether this is true or if I need to make corrections. In turn I will give them feedback to support any lacking areas when revising. When editing, students will then have to make decisions as to how to divide up the story to then be illustrated and voiced.
"Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital storytelling may help them compose more strategically. Students’ narrations of their stories reduce overt weaknesses in conventions such as spelling, capitalization, and handwriting. The process of storyboarding facilitates the introduction of events in a logical and orderly sequence thereby illuminating gaps or omissions overlooked in a traditionally composed draft. When these breaks in the flow of the story are realized, the writer can make necessary revisions in the draft before recording the narration. While competent writers employ sensory words, dialogue, and figurative language to make the story vivid for the reader, a struggling writer may overlook important details that are central to the story. Photographs, clip art, or other graphics may visually compensate for the details that the struggling writer inadvertently omits. When a digital story is composed to be viewed by others, it promotes the writer’s awareness of audience, purpose, and form, an awareness not always demonstrated by less capable writers." (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).
Web Conferencing
Link to our recorded session as a group using WebHuddle
Our group explored WebHuddle for our video conferencing lab. We chose this media since it was free, it had recording capabilities, it worked with various operating systems such as Windows and Mac, you can have a group of people interacting using this site, and it provided an accessible link to invite others to this online meeting. Some other points that interested our group to use WebHuddle was audio and written interactions between group members.
Our group first met on Skype, and one of the four of us registerd with WebHuddle and then sent out the link for all of us to meet in our cep812 conference room. When we got there, we were able to talk to each other at the same time which was helpful to begin. However, we soon realized that the only reason we were able to hear each other was because we were still signed onto Skype. Once we logged off Skype, we found out through WebHuddle only one person could talk at a time. The leader of the meeting was called the "moderator" who started out as our group member who set up the conference room for us.
There was an icon on the bottom right that was shaped as a microphone and the moderator could give each group member privileges to speak, but only one at a time. We soon discovered that only two of the four members were able to have their voice heard. I was one of the members whose voice could not be heard. We worked together to figure out the problem on my Mac laptop. We then decided that since the audio was giving us so many problems and was taking so much time, that only the two people that could talk would then share when needed.
Even when those two people were talking the audio was of low quality since there was a lot of static, playback and inconsistent volume. Since only one person could speak at a time, the rest of the group members were typing in the chat box on the right side of the screen. The screen was very tiny and we were all writing a great amount since we could not talk, so the box filled up very quickly. It was hard to scroll up and down to review text that was written. When a link was posted into the box, it could not be copied. So when we opened a new conference room later on it had to be sent out to group members via Skype.
Most of our time was taken up with figuring out the audio. We also took turns moderating. When you are the moderator you are the only one that has the ability to hand over the ability to share audio, poll with questions, and display your screen. When I took a turn at moderator it was not too difficult to create a question and it had the option of multiple choice, type in, and true and false. When my group members were done with their responses that is when the difficult part of displaying the results occurred. I had to click different buttons until results displayed and this showed that the buttons were not very well labeled. When the results were shared it did not even add up to 100% so there seemed to be an error in the calculation.
The blank screen served as a white board where the moderator could type write and share their screen. Files are able to be uploaded and shared with the program but more searching using the user guide would be needed to learn how to share the files and also the screen of a moderator.
If I were to use WebHuddle again, I would spend a lot more time preparing and front loading the web conferencing tool to learn how to use the audio system. Also, I would want to learn how to reduce static and feedback of the audio since it was a distraction. Uploading files and sharing a screen would be other useful tools to learn especially if I would use the program with students and parents. I could see myself using this tool more with families since my students are of elementary school age. I would use it to share how to do math problems since that it the subject area where I get the most questions and concerns. Since parents say that how students are learning math now is not how they learned it when they were growing up. I could hold test review sessions from school with families and they could ask questions on how to do certain math problems. The session could be recorded and shared with families that could not make a certain time.
Our group explored WebHuddle for our video conferencing lab. We chose this media since it was free, it had recording capabilities, it worked with various operating systems such as Windows and Mac, you can have a group of people interacting using this site, and it provided an accessible link to invite others to this online meeting. Some other points that interested our group to use WebHuddle was audio and written interactions between group members.
Our group first met on Skype, and one of the four of us registerd with WebHuddle and then sent out the link for all of us to meet in our cep812 conference room. When we got there, we were able to talk to each other at the same time which was helpful to begin. However, we soon realized that the only reason we were able to hear each other was because we were still signed onto Skype. Once we logged off Skype, we found out through WebHuddle only one person could talk at a time. The leader of the meeting was called the "moderator" who started out as our group member who set up the conference room for us.
There was an icon on the bottom right that was shaped as a microphone and the moderator could give each group member privileges to speak, but only one at a time. We soon discovered that only two of the four members were able to have their voice heard. I was one of the members whose voice could not be heard. We worked together to figure out the problem on my Mac laptop. We then decided that since the audio was giving us so many problems and was taking so much time, that only the two people that could talk would then share when needed.
Even when those two people were talking the audio was of low quality since there was a lot of static, playback and inconsistent volume. Since only one person could speak at a time, the rest of the group members were typing in the chat box on the right side of the screen. The screen was very tiny and we were all writing a great amount since we could not talk, so the box filled up very quickly. It was hard to scroll up and down to review text that was written. When a link was posted into the box, it could not be copied. So when we opened a new conference room later on it had to be sent out to group members via Skype.
Most of our time was taken up with figuring out the audio. We also took turns moderating. When you are the moderator you are the only one that has the ability to hand over the ability to share audio, poll with questions, and display your screen. When I took a turn at moderator it was not too difficult to create a question and it had the option of multiple choice, type in, and true and false. When my group members were done with their responses that is when the difficult part of displaying the results occurred. I had to click different buttons until results displayed and this showed that the buttons were not very well labeled. When the results were shared it did not even add up to 100% so there seemed to be an error in the calculation.
The blank screen served as a white board where the moderator could type write and share their screen. Files are able to be uploaded and shared with the program but more searching using the user guide would be needed to learn how to share the files and also the screen of a moderator.
If I were to use WebHuddle again, I would spend a lot more time preparing and front loading the web conferencing tool to learn how to use the audio system. Also, I would want to learn how to reduce static and feedback of the audio since it was a distraction. Uploading files and sharing a screen would be other useful tools to learn especially if I would use the program with students and parents. I could see myself using this tool more with families since my students are of elementary school age. I would use it to share how to do math problems since that it the subject area where I get the most questions and concerns. Since parents say that how students are learning math now is not how they learned it when they were growing up. I could hold test review sessions from school with families and they could ask questions on how to do certain math problems. The session could be recorded and shared with families that could not make a certain time.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Wicked Project Part A
My educational need:
I teach 4th grade in a school where almost half of the students are at risk. Writing is our school’s largest struggle and is one of our school’s improvement goals. Our school’s MEAP writing scores are the lowest of the three elementary schools. Students struggle most with staying on topic with one idea, supporting the idea with enough details, and also with organization of the writing piece. Teachers have received extra professional development on writing, but this area continues to need more focus and support.
How do I plan to address this educational issue with technology:
I plan to address the need of more support in the writing process by using Digital Storytelling. Students are lacking in the ability to consistently work through the whole writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. During our fantasy unit, we will create a whole class writing piece using the whole writing process. When doing this shared writing, the writing process will be slowed down in order to better model and support my students. Children will share ideas as to the setting, plot, characters, problem, and solution for the writing as we collaborate on one writing piece. I will write down our brainstorming ideas, we will fill out a fantasy story map, and will type our rough draft. Then we will revise and edit to then create a final draft. Students will decide where to break the story up by using a storyboard. Students sit in groups and each group will then be given a section of the story to illustrate and record their voices to as it all comes together using iMovie.
I plan to use iMovie to address the issue of at risk writers in my classroom by using the Digital Storytelling to slow down the writing process so all five steps are done together as a class with explicit modeling and scaffolding. Since my final reading and writing unit of the year is fantasy this is the genre that will be used for the Digital Storytelling. Students will be doing a pre-assessment writing of a fantasy story before the unit starts and then one after we complete a whole class fantasy story using Digital Storytelling. I will then be able to compare if the use of technology to slow down the whole writing process supported the writers to have more focused ideas, on topic details, and clear organization. I am using iMovie since my laptop can be collected to my SMART Board at school. My Dell computer at school does not burn DVDs, so I would like to use my Mac so that DVDs can be burned to share with families. If my laptop was not available with iMovie, I could use Windows Movie Maker that is on our school computers or Photostory 3, which can be downloaded from the Internet for free.
Logistics of solution:
My plan for the Wicked project is as follows:
Week 1- Introduce the fantasy genre in reading using a whole class book and in books clubs. I will introduce fantasy in writing by doing a pre-assessment of their writing before the use of Digital Storytelling and also by use of picture book and video clip examples. I will begin to show students examples of Digital Storytelling so there is a scaffold as to the next steps as a whole class.
Week 2- The whole class will brainstorm ideas for the setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, unrealistic elements, and time era. We will then come to a consensus and will fill out a fantasy story map to plan our writing. A rough draft will be written, edited and revised with students taking responsibility to make sure ideas are on topic, there are supporting details and a clear beginning, middle and end for organization. A final draft will then be written.
Week 3- Students will decide where to divide the story by using a storyboard. Groups will get a section of the story to illustrate. I will scan these photos into my computer and will save them as jpegs. Pictures will be uploaded in order to the iMovie, and then students will record their voices using a microphone connected to iMovie reading our fantasy story in order to match up with the images. Groups will decide who draws the pictures and who will lend their voice to iMovie.
Week 4- Students will write their own fantasy stories using fantasy elements learned both in reading and writing workshop. I will then compare their pre-assessment to the post-assessment to see if using Digital Storytelling to move through the whole process of writing at a slower pace helpedto focus on ideas and organization in writing, since these are the areas my students have struggles with most.
Relevant research and resources:
https://sites.google.com/a/hollandchristian.org/conferences/digital-storytelling
This is the website I will be using as a resource as to how to use iMovie. There are example storyboards, character planning sheets, completed digital stories, and editing resources.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html
This site shares the philosophy of digital storytelling and there is a video introduction too. There are reviews of the various software programs to use, digital storytelling tips, storyboard templates and more resources to begin the use of digital storytelling.
http://www.gearyschools.org/pages/uploaded_files/11.pdf
This is an article written by Ruth Sylvester and Wendy-lou Greenidge. It was published in 2010. It focused on how digital storytelling can help to support struggling writers. It sites that motivation is increased, students try to do their best work since the writing can be shared with more individuals, and also shows case studies of actual students that benefited from digital storytelling.
http://www.digitalstoryteller.org/docs/languagearts.htm
This online article written by Glen Bull & Sara Kajder sites that, “It can provide a voice to struggling readers and writers who might not otherwise find an authentic means of expression.” The website also shares the elements of storytelling and a sequence that a teacher can use to implement digital storytelling.
A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes:
I plan to implement a whole class use of digital storytelling for a fantasy genre writing piece during the course. Next school year I would like to have each student create their own personal narrative digital story using Photostory 3. I plan on doing a pre-assessment with each student’s writing before the use of digital storytelling and then a post-assessment after the implementation to determine if the student stayed more on topic, gave more details, and were more organized, since these are the school improvement goals in writing for my school.
Indicators of a successful project
I will be using a pre and post assessment of writing to assess the success of implementing digital storytelling. Students will write a fantasy story before a whole class instruction of using iMovie and also write one after. I will be looking for growth of staying on topic, many supporting details, and clear organization. I will be looking for the whole class creation of a fantasy story by slowing down the writing process, and then publishing with iMovie will scaffold the writing instruction of fantasy elements, organization, and story development.
I teach 4th grade in a school where almost half of the students are at risk. Writing is our school’s largest struggle and is one of our school’s improvement goals. Our school’s MEAP writing scores are the lowest of the three elementary schools. Students struggle most with staying on topic with one idea, supporting the idea with enough details, and also with organization of the writing piece. Teachers have received extra professional development on writing, but this area continues to need more focus and support.
How do I plan to address this educational issue with technology:
I plan to address the need of more support in the writing process by using Digital Storytelling. Students are lacking in the ability to consistently work through the whole writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. During our fantasy unit, we will create a whole class writing piece using the whole writing process. When doing this shared writing, the writing process will be slowed down in order to better model and support my students. Children will share ideas as to the setting, plot, characters, problem, and solution for the writing as we collaborate on one writing piece. I will write down our brainstorming ideas, we will fill out a fantasy story map, and will type our rough draft. Then we will revise and edit to then create a final draft. Students will decide where to break the story up by using a storyboard. Students sit in groups and each group will then be given a section of the story to illustrate and record their voices to as it all comes together using iMovie.
I plan to use iMovie to address the issue of at risk writers in my classroom by using the Digital Storytelling to slow down the writing process so all five steps are done together as a class with explicit modeling and scaffolding. Since my final reading and writing unit of the year is fantasy this is the genre that will be used for the Digital Storytelling. Students will be doing a pre-assessment writing of a fantasy story before the unit starts and then one after we complete a whole class fantasy story using Digital Storytelling. I will then be able to compare if the use of technology to slow down the whole writing process supported the writers to have more focused ideas, on topic details, and clear organization. I am using iMovie since my laptop can be collected to my SMART Board at school. My Dell computer at school does not burn DVDs, so I would like to use my Mac so that DVDs can be burned to share with families. If my laptop was not available with iMovie, I could use Windows Movie Maker that is on our school computers or Photostory 3, which can be downloaded from the Internet for free.
Logistics of solution:
My plan for the Wicked project is as follows:
Week 1- Introduce the fantasy genre in reading using a whole class book and in books clubs. I will introduce fantasy in writing by doing a pre-assessment of their writing before the use of Digital Storytelling and also by use of picture book and video clip examples. I will begin to show students examples of Digital Storytelling so there is a scaffold as to the next steps as a whole class.
Week 2- The whole class will brainstorm ideas for the setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, unrealistic elements, and time era. We will then come to a consensus and will fill out a fantasy story map to plan our writing. A rough draft will be written, edited and revised with students taking responsibility to make sure ideas are on topic, there are supporting details and a clear beginning, middle and end for organization. A final draft will then be written.
Week 3- Students will decide where to divide the story by using a storyboard. Groups will get a section of the story to illustrate. I will scan these photos into my computer and will save them as jpegs. Pictures will be uploaded in order to the iMovie, and then students will record their voices using a microphone connected to iMovie reading our fantasy story in order to match up with the images. Groups will decide who draws the pictures and who will lend their voice to iMovie.
Week 4- Students will write their own fantasy stories using fantasy elements learned both in reading and writing workshop. I will then compare their pre-assessment to the post-assessment to see if using Digital Storytelling to move through the whole process of writing at a slower pace helpedto focus on ideas and organization in writing, since these are the areas my students have struggles with most.
Relevant research and resources:
https://sites.google.com/a/hollandchristian.org/conferences/digital-storytelling
This is the website I will be using as a resource as to how to use iMovie. There are example storyboards, character planning sheets, completed digital stories, and editing resources.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html
This site shares the philosophy of digital storytelling and there is a video introduction too. There are reviews of the various software programs to use, digital storytelling tips, storyboard templates and more resources to begin the use of digital storytelling.
http://www.gearyschools.org/pages/uploaded_files/11.pdf
This is an article written by Ruth Sylvester and Wendy-lou Greenidge. It was published in 2010. It focused on how digital storytelling can help to support struggling writers. It sites that motivation is increased, students try to do their best work since the writing can be shared with more individuals, and also shows case studies of actual students that benefited from digital storytelling.
http://www.digitalstoryteller.org/docs/languagearts.htm
This online article written by Glen Bull & Sara Kajder sites that, “It can provide a voice to struggling readers and writers who might not otherwise find an authentic means of expression.” The website also shares the elements of storytelling and a sequence that a teacher can use to implement digital storytelling.
A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes:
I plan to implement a whole class use of digital storytelling for a fantasy genre writing piece during the course. Next school year I would like to have each student create their own personal narrative digital story using Photostory 3. I plan on doing a pre-assessment with each student’s writing before the use of digital storytelling and then a post-assessment after the implementation to determine if the student stayed more on topic, gave more details, and were more organized, since these are the school improvement goals in writing for my school.
Indicators of a successful project
I will be using a pre and post assessment of writing to assess the success of implementing digital storytelling. Students will write a fantasy story before a whole class instruction of using iMovie and also write one after. I will be looking for growth of staying on topic, many supporting details, and clear organization. I will be looking for the whole class creation of a fantasy story by slowing down the writing process, and then publishing with iMovie will scaffold the writing instruction of fantasy elements, organization, and story development.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Final Reflection
What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?
I learned an immense amount of technology in this course that not only can I apply in my classroom, but to also teacher my peers about. The STAIR project was wonderful to use since I am always looking for differentiation for my higher learners. I am sharing my project with not only my teaching partners at the 4th grade level but also at the district level. I also found learning about WebQuests and website creation applicable to my life as a teacher. I even created my own WebQuest for my 4th grade students as a cumulating unit assignment.
How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
Using MERLOT has been an eye opening experience to both find and evaluate technology. I had been searching on google for sites and resources. This gave me options, however, on many sites I did not know if the contributor was an educator or if the resource was even appropriate for classroom use without trial myself. Using MERLOT has allowed for me to search for resources not only by grade level, subject, but also by technology type. I can also read through the comments and if people have use it before, if there was technology glitches, and the ease of it. It has been nice to view resources that were made by educators for other educators. When evaluating technology works I have become more comfortable since I have been using MERLOT and through our course readings and videos since I have been referring back to the NETS standards.
How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
I enjoyed CEP 810 but wanted to learn more applications to use in my classroom. This course as allowed me to do this by not only creating resources that can be used, but actually having a chance to apply them currently to my students learning. Making the social studies WebQuest, technology lesson plan using Wordle, and STAIR project have surpassed my goals. Students have been engaged in the new use of technology and have even begun sharing how to use them with peer 4th graders and their families.
Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?
My new goal is to use these technology resources and to share them with my peers at school. I am going to share input into the next professional development day we have and see if I can share Weebly, MERLOT, Wordle, and how to create presentation on Power Point in the kiosik mode. If this is not possible, then I will share with my peers a time when they can come visit me to show them the uses or I can send out the info and teachers can explore themselves.
I learned an immense amount of technology in this course that not only can I apply in my classroom, but to also teacher my peers about. The STAIR project was wonderful to use since I am always looking for differentiation for my higher learners. I am sharing my project with not only my teaching partners at the 4th grade level but also at the district level. I also found learning about WebQuests and website creation applicable to my life as a teacher. I even created my own WebQuest for my 4th grade students as a cumulating unit assignment.
How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
Using MERLOT has been an eye opening experience to both find and evaluate technology. I had been searching on google for sites and resources. This gave me options, however, on many sites I did not know if the contributor was an educator or if the resource was even appropriate for classroom use without trial myself. Using MERLOT has allowed for me to search for resources not only by grade level, subject, but also by technology type. I can also read through the comments and if people have use it before, if there was technology glitches, and the ease of it. It has been nice to view resources that were made by educators for other educators. When evaluating technology works I have become more comfortable since I have been using MERLOT and through our course readings and videos since I have been referring back to the NETS standards.
How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
I enjoyed CEP 810 but wanted to learn more applications to use in my classroom. This course as allowed me to do this by not only creating resources that can be used, but actually having a chance to apply them currently to my students learning. Making the social studies WebQuest, technology lesson plan using Wordle, and STAIR project have surpassed my goals. Students have been engaged in the new use of technology and have even begun sharing how to use them with peer 4th graders and their families.
Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?
My new goal is to use these technology resources and to share them with my peers at school. I am going to share input into the next professional development day we have and see if I can share Weebly, MERLOT, Wordle, and how to create presentation on Power Point in the kiosik mode. If this is not possible, then I will share with my peers a time when they can come visit me to show them the uses or I can send out the info and teachers can explore themselves.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Online Learning Experiences
What content could this help you teach?
-One site I could use was a virtual field trip site to Hawaii. My students are doing WebQuest to research a state in the United States. The student exploring Hawaii could use this site as another resource.
-This virtual field trip site gives resources for fossils and earth science which is a 4th grade content expectation.
-Students are learning about the solar system and NASA has a site that can be used with many opportunities for exploration since there is videos, maps, graphs, and pictures.
-Online geography games is a site I have actually already used with my students.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
-Some would include: collaborating assignments with peers, discussion, case study, inductive, deductive, inquiry, identify main idea, write a summary, compare/contrast, cause/effect.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
-I think that my students would have difficulty using sites where you have to create your own password since you need an email to do so and my students do not have one. Sites need to be available to my students and navigation needs to be clear and organized. When I link a site to my Moodle page students are able to click on the link instead of having to type in the web address or searching it. Sites with videos, maps, questions, quizzes, and step by step directions are best for my students since they keep them interactive and on task.
-One site I could use was a virtual field trip site to Hawaii. My students are doing WebQuest to research a state in the United States. The student exploring Hawaii could use this site as another resource.
-This virtual field trip site gives resources for fossils and earth science which is a 4th grade content expectation.
-Students are learning about the solar system and NASA has a site that can be used with many opportunities for exploration since there is videos, maps, graphs, and pictures.
-Online geography games is a site I have actually already used with my students.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
-Some would include: collaborating assignments with peers, discussion, case study, inductive, deductive, inquiry, identify main idea, write a summary, compare/contrast, cause/effect.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
-I think that my students would have difficulty using sites where you have to create your own password since you need an email to do so and my students do not have one. Sites need to be available to my students and navigation needs to be clear and organized. When I link a site to my Moodle page students are able to click on the link instead of having to type in the web address or searching it. Sites with videos, maps, questions, quizzes, and step by step directions are best for my students since they keep them interactive and on task.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wiki experience
I had worked with wikis during a class during my student teaching year as I was in a group that was doing a presentation on balanced literacy. I remember MSU College of Education technology support staff coming into our class and helping us set wikis up and talked about their use and possibilities. However, I have not since ten ventured in to create and update my own. I found it simple to create and manage. I just would like to use it with a focus. It might be for my professional MSU masters, my classroom, or another purpose.
My wiki link: https://msuteacher.wikispaces.com/
It was interesting to search and look for my school on Wikipedia. I found the community website. I added content on what the school mascot was for the high school. http://screencast.com/t/GIpEhJzPUNi
My wiki link: https://msuteacher.wikispaces.com/
It was interesting to search and look for my school on Wikipedia. I found the community website. I added content on what the school mascot was for the high school. http://screencast.com/t/GIpEhJzPUNi
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Universal Design for Learning and my MERLOT lesson
As a reflection on this process of reviewing my lesson plan using Universal Design for Learning it was a great moment of checking for best practice. The checklist that I completed was a great tool I plan to use as keep handy when I plan for lessons on the weekend. I was pleased to see that overall objectives were met, opportunities for sharing and reflection were possible, and multiple applications were set in place. However, some auditory supports were not in place for some of my students that are not reading at grade level and there was not a opportunity to apply the Wordle knowledge to another site such a Word Clouds.
The linked checklist above is divided by the larger print being the items that were applied in my lesson using UDL. The smaller bold print was the barriers and set backs that were not in my lesson.
I also went through the actual lesson that was uploaded to MERLOT and commented on the actual places were UDL was found.
The linked checklist above is divided by the larger print being the items that were applied in my lesson using UDL. The smaller bold print was the barriers and set backs that were not in my lesson.
I also went through the actual lesson that was uploaded to MERLOT and commented on the actual places were UDL was found.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
review of MERLOT resource
Quality of Content
Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills?
The software I reviewed was titled, "Reading, Writing and Rings: The Cassini Mission Literacy Program." It does seem to have valid concepts, models, and skills because it is from an extension of NASA. Since Language Arts has become a forefront of eduction science has taken a back seat. The lesson given integrate writing and reading so that science it integrated into these main curriculums. Skills of compare/contrast pieces and writing paragraphs are appropriate for 3rd and 4th grade skills.
Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline?
The skills presented such as note taking, developing a paragraph from a main idea, identifying important vocabulary and taking a stand on an issue are important Language Arts concepts that can be integrated in science.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
The stages of the learning process this material could be used for if for exploration and assessment. The skills of paragraphing, main idea, compare/contrast and taking a stand on a topic would already need to be taught. The science lesson given seem to be where then students expand upon their knowledge of these structures by applying new knowledge on the earth, moon, and sun in these Language Arts formats. It also can be used to assess both students knowledge on the science concepts and Languae Arts pieces addressed above.
Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem.
The science lessons on the website site themselves as, "brining together reading, writing, and science in ways that underscore the belief that scientific thinking and the intelligent use of language go hand-in-hand." Integration of these curriculum areas support language, vocabulary, and comprehension development.
Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem.
An example lesson was that students read about Saturn. Then they apply the reading skills of visualizing and wondering to the texts about Saturn as they use descriptive words to visualize Saturn and wonder about why it looks and is the way it is.
Practice using the curriculum/analysis of the outcomes from solving the problem.
From hearing information read about the planet Saturn students will draw a picture from the descriptions read. Then they will label their picture using the nonfiction text feature of captions and headings. Students internalize the the science concepts through text features of nonfiction.
Applying the curriculum to "new" problems/application of the outcomes to other problems.
As a final unit assignment students design and test a parachute that would be able to drop from a height an withstand water. They use problem solving skills and writing to develop a plan to test and evaluate.
What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials?
The learning objectives are that students will integrate reading and writing into this earth, moon, sun science unit to internalize the science concepts taught. They will be using Language Arts skills while moving through the scientific process and through nonfiction texts.
What are the characteristics of the target learner(s).
These are knowledge of nonfiction text students, comprehension strategies, compare/contrast writing pieces and ability to learn and define new vocabulary.
Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials?
The videos and simulations come from NASA and have the quality since they are straight from a reliable source. The video seem to support the scientific learning more than the integration of Language Arts curriculum since they are about the earth, moon, sun systems,
Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline?
The videos can be shown from a computer through a projector. However, the texts that the lessons refer to are not linked or described as to where they can be found or where they are from.
Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals?
The software expands beyond videos since there are podcasts, posters to be printed off, and diagrams that be printed and cut out to be then put together.
Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?
The teaching-learning goals are in the foreword of the lessons. However, Grade Level Content Expectations are not linked so I would as a teacher have to match which lessons match the Michigan GLCES.
Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily?
The assignments are already written with an outline but the actual directions and step by step process is not easily found or on the site.
Ease of Use:
Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct?
The menu for the site is on the right hand side and is not overwhelming since when you click on a title then a smaller menu appears. I found the site very user friendly and items were fast to download.
Does the user get trapped in the material? Can the user get lost easily in the material?
Some of the lessons are lengthly to read and the site also has links to solar systems, stars and other planets. You can spend a lot of time exploring it.
Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses?
I could not find a link like this on the site. There were many positive peer reviews as this materials can be used from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use?
The lessons do go in sequence but I could see picking and choosing which ones to use and explore since you can focus on them from a literacy perspective or science one or from both.
Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software?
The videos and images are easy to browse through and are labeled. The lessons are tailored to teachers.
Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students?
The video, virtual tour and image are load quickly and are easy to browse through by pages or by key words.
Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills?
The software I reviewed was titled, "Reading, Writing and Rings: The Cassini Mission Literacy Program." It does seem to have valid concepts, models, and skills because it is from an extension of NASA. Since Language Arts has become a forefront of eduction science has taken a back seat. The lesson given integrate writing and reading so that science it integrated into these main curriculums. Skills of compare/contrast pieces and writing paragraphs are appropriate for 3rd and 4th grade skills.
Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline?
The skills presented such as note taking, developing a paragraph from a main idea, identifying important vocabulary and taking a stand on an issue are important Language Arts concepts that can be integrated in science.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
The stages of the learning process this material could be used for if for exploration and assessment. The skills of paragraphing, main idea, compare/contrast and taking a stand on a topic would already need to be taught. The science lesson given seem to be where then students expand upon their knowledge of these structures by applying new knowledge on the earth, moon, and sun in these Language Arts formats. It also can be used to assess both students knowledge on the science concepts and Languae Arts pieces addressed above.
Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem.
The science lessons on the website site themselves as, "brining together reading, writing, and science in ways that underscore the belief that scientific thinking and the intelligent use of language go hand-in-hand." Integration of these curriculum areas support language, vocabulary, and comprehension development.
Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem.
An example lesson was that students read about Saturn. Then they apply the reading skills of visualizing and wondering to the texts about Saturn as they use descriptive words to visualize Saturn and wonder about why it looks and is the way it is.
Practice using the curriculum/analysis of the outcomes from solving the problem.
From hearing information read about the planet Saturn students will draw a picture from the descriptions read. Then they will label their picture using the nonfiction text feature of captions and headings. Students internalize the the science concepts through text features of nonfiction.
Applying the curriculum to "new" problems/application of the outcomes to other problems.
As a final unit assignment students design and test a parachute that would be able to drop from a height an withstand water. They use problem solving skills and writing to develop a plan to test and evaluate.
What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials?
The learning objectives are that students will integrate reading and writing into this earth, moon, sun science unit to internalize the science concepts taught. They will be using Language Arts skills while moving through the scientific process and through nonfiction texts.
What are the characteristics of the target learner(s).
These are knowledge of nonfiction text students, comprehension strategies, compare/contrast writing pieces and ability to learn and define new vocabulary.
Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials?
The videos and simulations come from NASA and have the quality since they are straight from a reliable source. The video seem to support the scientific learning more than the integration of Language Arts curriculum since they are about the earth, moon, sun systems,
Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline?
The videos can be shown from a computer through a projector. However, the texts that the lessons refer to are not linked or described as to where they can be found or where they are from.
Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals?
The software expands beyond videos since there are podcasts, posters to be printed off, and diagrams that be printed and cut out to be then put together.
Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?
The teaching-learning goals are in the foreword of the lessons. However, Grade Level Content Expectations are not linked so I would as a teacher have to match which lessons match the Michigan GLCES.
Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily?
The assignments are already written with an outline but the actual directions and step by step process is not easily found or on the site.
Ease of Use:
Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct?
The menu for the site is on the right hand side and is not overwhelming since when you click on a title then a smaller menu appears. I found the site very user friendly and items were fast to download.
Does the user get trapped in the material? Can the user get lost easily in the material?
Some of the lessons are lengthly to read and the site also has links to solar systems, stars and other planets. You can spend a lot of time exploring it.
Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses?
I could not find a link like this on the site. There were many positive peer reviews as this materials can be used from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use?
The lessons do go in sequence but I could see picking and choosing which ones to use and explore since you can focus on them from a literacy perspective or science one or from both.
Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software?
The videos and images are easy to browse through and are labeled. The lessons are tailored to teachers.
Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students?
The video, virtual tour and image are load quickly and are easy to browse through by pages or by key words.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
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