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).
Sunday, May 29, 2011
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
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