Reflection on the Implementation

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

·      The students will demonstrate their ability to create an online book using bookbuilder.cast.org.

·      The students will be able to identify the key components of bullying such as an intentional effort to harm one or more individuals, may be direct or indirect, is not limited to behaviors that cause physical harm, and may be verbal (including oral and written language) or non-verbal.

·      The students will be able to explain their ideas on how to combat bullying by creating the book.

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

During our sessions we were working with two students with special needs.  One student had vision impairment and needed to have a magnifier attached to his screen.  Another student had attention deficient disorder and needed to be constantly reminded to stay on task. At first we had a hard time trying to keep that student focused.  We decided to pair him up with another student and allowed them to collaborate on their project.  That seemed to work well.

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

I was lucky enough to be working with a group of 12, fourth grade students.  There really was to many issues that had to be addressed.  Mrs. Mitchell and I were able to situate ourselves at opposite sides of the room, which gave us the ability to handle issues before they arose. 

  

4. The questions asked by the students

           I tried to keep track of my student’s questions as they arose.  Here is the list I compiled:

·      How many pages does the book have to be?

·      How can I record my voice to a character?

·      How do I get from page to page?

·      Can I use clip art or do I have to create my own pictures?

·      How am I being graded?

·      Does other fourth graders get to do this?

·      Why are we doing this?

·      Who is going to see our books?

  

5. The problems students had encountered during the implementation process

            There were several problems the students encountered during the implementation process.  The first problem was logging into the laptops.  For some strange reason, a few students login information wasn’t working.  We had to have our tech person reset passwords.  Also, login into cast book builder was a bit of an issue.  When you create an account via cast bookbuiler, they sent an email to the account in which was used to set it up. Those emails took over 40 minutes to be received and when they were finally received; they were sent to the junk mail box. 

6. The feedback from the students

           The students were so excited to create the books.  They couldn’t wait to share their books with their classmates.  It was amazing to see how excited they were to view the final project.  

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

             Mrs. Mitchell and I planned to meet with the students 12 times for 45 minutes each time.  The first three classes were supposed to be writing the stories.  The next three classes were supposed to be for illustration and editing. For classes 9 – 11, was supposed to be for using book builder and putting it all together.  The 12 classes were supposed to be for presentations.   

         We did not allot for enough time to complete all the projects. There were several problems that held the project back.  One week I was absent from school because I had to sick children home.  That set us back significantly.  Secondly, we had issues with the technology.  There were network issues and login issues.  Also, we had scheduling problems with the computer labs because of testing. 

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

            There are few things I would do differently when implementing this lesson.  First of all, I would work collaboratively with the technology teacher and ask her to have the students create the book builder accounts during their technology special.  I would also like to give students the opportunity to record their voices as the characters.  In the beginning of the unit, I would send home permission slips to the parents so we could post the books on our district site.  I KNOW the kids and parents would LOVE that!

Reflection on Foundational Print Literacy and "New Literacies"

Reflection on Foundational Print Literacy and “New Literacies”

            Foundational print literacy and “new literacies” are both important in this technologically evolving world.  Foundational print literacy, traditionally, played a major role in education and the ELA classroom.   From printed materials, students would read poems, books, and informational text.  The purpose of ELA is to develop students’ abilities to communicate orally and literally and prepare them for the job force.

Foundational print played an important role in education because that was type of media that was available.  However, the needs of society have changed due to the development of technology.      As the world continued to develop technologically, ELA classroom and education has changed dramatically.  Students needs have changed.  Currently, they need to be able to become literate with not only the foundational print literacy but also the technological components. With the development of the internet, the world has become dependent on technology and continues to engulf its self with it. 

            Today’s students have the luck to be surrounded with such a diverse literate environment and are able to produce and publish their work through many different types of medians.  For example, they have the ability to blog, create movies, write/publish online books, and so much more.  The possibilities are endless!

Check out my GLOGSTER!

Please check out my glogster!

http://www.glogster.com/jenflave1/wishlist-glog-by-jenflave1/g-6lir6ldsjr3hla8gkovnea0

The educational affordance of a GLOGSTER

Features of Glogster	Affordance
The ability to create posters featuring different types of media.	Encourages higher-level thinking and allows to students the ability to be creative.
Ability to add text.	Students can add text to the poster and choose different types of format to display information.
Ability to add video.	Students can personalize their glogster by adding video, sound, or pictures.  .
Ability to collaborate	Students have the ability to work individually or collaboratively on a project.  Each member of the group can log on, at their convenience, and add to the project. Teachers also have the ability to collaborate with their students.
Ability to comment	Students have the ability to add comments on other glogs.
Safe environment	Safe closed environment that the teacher has control of.
Exciting Projects	Students can create poster to highlight information from a book.  They can create interactive poems and have classmates comment on them.  They can create an advertisement of a product.  The possibilities are endless.

My Voice Thread Post:

Hi Everyone,

I think I fixed the access to my voicethread... Please try to view it again and make some comments....

Thank You,

; )

  https://voicethread.com/share/2982638/

Evaluating Pedagogical Affordance of Media Sharing Web 2.o Technologies: A Case Study

                I learned a few things from the article, evaluating pedagogical affordances of media sharing Web 2.0 technologies: A case study, by Kevin Burden and Simion Atkinson.  I am already familiar with voice thread because I just used it to create an assignment for this class.  Voicethread allows the user to create threads or conversations around different types of media.  The media can be images, drawings, video clips, audio files, or documents.  It is extremely user friendly and fun to use.   People can upload comments using their cell phones, microphones, web cams and many other ways.

                I love that student are able to zoom in on a type of media and then post comments asynchronously and on one single page.  This feature is a lot like Facebook and other types of social media. I also like how this can all be done privately, publicly or mixed.  The applicable DiAL-e learning designs posted in the table was fabulous.  I love the ideas that had posted there especially the narrative or story-telling design where students take on a cooperative narrative role as they comment on a video or artifact.

Initial draft for Final Keystone Unit Implementation and Evaluation

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60707866/Initial%20draft%20for%20Final%20Keystone%20Unit%20Implementation%20and%20Evaluation.doc

Digital Storytelling

Hi Everyone!

I created my digital story through voicehthread! I hope you like it!

https://voicethread.com/share/2936367/

Article Review

            In the article, The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students’ Reading Comprehensions and Learning Motivation, by Hui-Yin Hsu and Shiangkwei Wang, was very appealing yet surprising.  The authors conducted a study to evaluate the affect new media and online literacy's had on young adult’s college reading skills and how college professors handle new media integration. They compared the results of 100 students in a developmental reading course.  Of the 100 students, 40 used the blogs and 60 used traditional means of completing their reading assignments. 

The results of the study indicated that blogging had a positive effect on retention rate and student-to-student interaction and surprisingly, no improvement on their reading performance.  It is easy to understand how blogging had a positive effect on students’ interaction with peers, because it gently forces them to interact with each other by posting and responding  to their posts.  I also think it is creates a safe means of networking that might carry to the professional world outside of the classroom.  As far as the retention rate is concerned, perhaps it is because the blogging students had the ability to read each other’s postings and ideas and maybe they were able to getting a better picture from different points of views.

 I was surprised to learn that there was no improvement to their reading performance. I would have thought that there would have been a significant improvement in their reading performances because of the increase of reading and reflecting. Maybe because the instructors were not confident with the technology, the results are skewed.  I think this subject should be studied again but with instructors who are seasoned and confident in this new type of media. 

Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education

The article, Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education: The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms, by Dawnene D. Hassett and Jen Scott Curwood discusses how children today can draw from different types of clues when reading children books.  Their comprehension isn’t just derived from print but also from the images, graphics, and even font color.  Interpreting these different types of modes, children could strengthen their understanding of a story by drawing conclusions from their prior experiences and social contexts. 

Second Life

It took me awhile to figure out what is going on with my Second Life character.  I spoke to another SL participant and he told me that it takes at least a good solid week to become familiar with the platform. 

I favor face-to-face classes for many reason but mainly for the potential relationships and professional networks I am able to create. Second Life is a great way to create that student-to-student relationship from an online format.  Apparently there are millions of SL users from all over the world. 

As an elementary teacher, I probably would not use SL with my students for several reasons.  For one, I do not think it is appropriate for younger students.  Secondly, it is really complicated to use.  And finally, my school blocks it.  However, I read in a blog somewhere that teachers bring their classes on virtual field trips around the world and then have them write about it.  This allows them to discover, under the watch of the teacher, different communities and interact with them. The students can write about their reactions, interactions, or questions they had, or just about their encounters.

For the upper grades, I think it could be a great tool to use especially for students who have low self-esteem.  I imagine students would enjoy creating their own Avatars to represent what they would want to look like.  Maybe the shy students would be more receptive to interact from the safety of their own home.   In another blog somewhere I read that students use SL to perform their own plays in front of a live audience! So cool! They can even watch a play as well.  Students can write their own poems and songs and perform them in front of other Avatars.

I like that there are places in which you can meet as a group but I do not like that anyone can be there to interfere or disturb a lesson.  I think I remember reading that you can create a room that is a meeting place for specific group members.

It seems like Second Life would be a great tool and I wish I had time to play around with it.  Perhaps you will find me logged on this summer.  My screen name is Jenflave1.

ADDIE Model to Design Second Life Activities

This article  Using the ADDIE Model to Design Second Life Activities for Online Learners By Shiang-Kwei Wang and Hui-Yin Hsu was about a study in which graduate students had been introduced to Second Life and were able to use it for educational  purposes.  The ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation model was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructors approach to teaching.  I like that the article mentioned that SL is a place where “learners have to become active participants rather than passive observers”.  I also like that there the ability to voice chat and text.  I also agree that there a pros and cons to using Second Life.  I created my first SL avatar today and I was completely  confused.  I would like the opportunity to use this platform more but I feel like it would take way too much time to learn. Although I favor the face-to-face interaction of a classroom, I think SL would be a great tool for someone who needs an online format.  

Book Project

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=57724&page=1

The book I created was written by one of my fifth grade students.  She has been out of gym all year because of an injury.  I asked her to write a story about sportsmanship.  She came up with the silly story about a purple monkey.  I would have loved for her to also illustrate it but we ran out of time.

My cooperating ELA teacher, Sam,  gave me some pointers for creating this book.  She said to give Therese a topic and include length requirements.  She also said to just let her write and be creative. 

Sam and I were discussing ways to include this in her ELA classes and she is very excited to give it a try.  She is going to have students create biographies about themselves.  She wants the students to find a picture to represent each year of their life and create a timeline about their lives.

This was a great project and I have been inspired to use this book builder with my students. I am thinking about having the students on medicals, who aren’t able to participate in gym but are still being graded, create their own books.  I will have them choose between topics likes sportsmanship, teamwork, cooperation, and honesty.

More ways to use Edmondo in the classroom.

I love that Edmondo is way to extend the learning time for students.  Teachers have the ability to post hyperlinks to videos, games, and other informational websites.  ELA teachers can include a virtual scavenger hunt in which the students will have to follow the teacher-created links to answer questions and complete the quest.   Another great idea that ELA teachers can do is create silent ELA auction.  She can upload students poems, without the students names on it, and have the students vote on each piece of work.  This encourages students to read each others work and post their positive comments.  Another great idea is to have students create video clips of a journalistic approach to answering questions.  One student can act as the journalist and record their classmates’ answers using a flip camera. 

Video Game Script

Video Game Script

Week 6, Assignment 2

As a physical educator, I love the ideas of using games in the classroom.  Students of the 21^st century are motivated by being actively engaged in their learning.  It is my experience that students do not enjoy “chalk talk” or in another words, being lectured for a lengthy amount of time.  Their interest can be peaked by involving them in the learning process. 

Using different types of multimedia, especially games, encourages students to be active learners.  Who doesn’t like games? Put a game in front of students and watch how the classes’ participation and enthusiasm increases.  The key to using games, is to find high quality and appropriate games to support the lesson concepts being taught.  

Our classrooms are filled with students with different types of learning styles.  It is important to differentiate instruction in order to meet the needs of all our students.  One way to differentiate the lesson is to reinforce concepts by using different types of  teaching mediums.

My opinion, from a technology coordinator’s perspective, students need to be prepared for the 21^st century workforce.  In that being said, they need to be digitally literate and competent.  Although finding quality educational games can be a little daunting, it is important for teachers to collaborate on what has worked or not worked for them.  With that type of collaboration, teachers will be able to support their lessons with quality games.  If they have problems finding games, they can have their students create the games using Gamestar Mechanic and Quest to Learn. 

Week 6, Assignment 1

I love the idea of using Gamestar Mechanics to engage and motivate students.  Game design helps students with digital citizenship while motivating them to enhance science, technology, engineering, art and math skills.   Teachers are using Gamestar to teaching different types of math concepts.  For example, Mike Petty created a lesson that reinforces math concepts like ratios, proportions, and percents.  To reinforce his lesson he uses a Change the Element template from Gamestar Mechanic.  I tried it just for the fun of it.  Mike’s lesson plan completely used the game element to reinforce his lesson.  It was a lot of fun and it didn’t feel like work! Pretty stinking cool!  Another teacher, Kevin Hodgson, uses Gamestar Mechanic to teach students about creating a storyboard.  He has students create a story and map each phase of it out on paper. The students work in small groups and brainstorm ideas.  After their peer feedback, students creates their game using Gamestar.   

I read on a blog that one teacher has students upload their fluency files, which are audio clips of themselves reading, and have other students post positive comments on it.  I thought that was a brilliant idea.  In my school, we are Dibeling our students and I feel like this would be a fantastic way for the students to practice their fluency skills.  It also creates a social responsibility throughout the class because students would not only have to critique each other’s reading but they would need to do it kindly. 

Another great idea is to correct, as a class, each of the postings capitalization and punctuation.  This way student will be able to the corrections on practical material.

One teacher does a Flat Stanley on Holiday project.  They have students log into Edmondo throughout the summer and post pictures and comments of themselves standing with Flat Stanley at different location.  This allows students to communicate with each other thus enhancing their communication skills.  The students love to see where Flat Stanley has been and they eager to comment of their classmate’s postings. 

I think Edmondo could be a great tool for educators.  It is really easy to setup I think students will be drawn to it because it’s a type of structured social network.  I also like that it is a voice for the most quiet of students.  On my classmates used Edmondo with his honors history class and I remember him telling me that even the shyest of students enjoys to converse on it.  Very cool and I can defiantly see it enhancing students learning experience.

Technology, Writing, & Student Engagement

The Author of this article decided to change his teaching medium because his students were “not actively engaged in writing”.  He decided to give blogging a chance.  He found that students enjoyed having an audience to read their writing.  They  began to post comments on each other’s blogs and actually began correcting each other’s grammar.   This article was light and refreshing and dare I say a bit motivational.  

Week 4, Assignment # 2 - Simple ELA lesson plan

Assignment#2 Create a simple ELA lesson plan

     Grade level: 4^th Grade

  Common core standards and learning outcomes:

• Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.

• Instructional activities (how does this game help develop language acquisition and development, both oral and written, be creative?)

• Students will be able to reinforce their phonics and word analysis skills by creating words from a given amount of letters.
• They will have rely on syllabication pattern and morphology awareness to create words.

Assessment:

• At the conclusion of the game, the students will take a screenshot of the board.  They will hand it in for the teacher to review.  The teacher will grade both students as a team.  The winner will get 5 bonus points.  For each vocabulary word used (from all year, the students will get an 5 points.  For each multi-syllable words, they will get 3 points per syllable.

       Debriefing:

Students will answer the following questions in their journals:

• What was challenging about this game?
• What word scored you the most points in the game?
• What letters were the hardest for you to place and why?
• What are some strategies you were able to use?

         Cognitive Skills:

Planning moves

• Flexibility – being able to change their move based on the outcome of the other players move
• Reading: decoding and recoding words
• Analyzing/evaluating – but playing the board.

        What new literacy skills do this game help to cultivate?

• Basic computer skills such as, turning on the computer, logging into the computer, accessing the Internet, finding the game, creating the game, communicating through the game, creating a screenshot of the game, and printing the screenshot, maybe emailing the screenshot, and word processing in their digital journal.  They might have to do some basic troubleshooting if something isn’t working correctly. 

Week 4, Assignment 1 - Gaming Elements

Facebook:  Words with friends

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how? (Refer to the journal article page 4).

•  Text: The first time someone plays words with friends, they are brought to a tutorial.  WWF (Words With Friends) is just like scrabble but you are able to play your Facebook Friends.

•  Visual-graphic elements: The visual-graphic elements resemble the scrabble board.  The words that have been played on the board are yellow tiles with black letters. The word(s) that was played last is in yellow tiles with white letters.  This allows both players to see what word was added to the board. On the side of the board there is a pane with pictures of your friends that you currently have a game opened. 

•  Audio elements: The audio element of the game is very simple.  The sounds are present when a tile is moved, a word is played, or when a word is not accepted.

What is the goal of the game?

•  The overall objective of the game is take turns forming words horizontally and vertically on the board, trying to use the bonus tiles and scoring as much points as possible.  You win the game by scoring more points than your opponent when all the letters are used.

3. What are rules of playing this game?

•  The rules of the game are just like playing scrabble.  Each opponent is given 7 letter tiles, each with a different point value.  Players take turns placing words on the board so that at least 1 tile is shared with an existing word on the board. The words must be “REAL” and cannot be a proper noun, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone or words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe. 

4. Does the game have any scenario design?

•  No, the game does not have a scenario design.

Hands-on Helping ELA teachers practice new literacies in their classrooms

-      Grade Level:  Third Grade

-      Topic: The environment

Standards addressed: (The Common Core State Standards Initiative)

W.3.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

• Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
• Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
• Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

Learning outcomes:

After completing the lesson, the student will be able to record his or her understanding/knowledge by creating a digital story about their environment topic.

Technologies needed: 

Digital Camera and/or Flip Camera, Internet Access, Microphone, access to a Slideshare, Qwiki or another digital storytelling platform and a smart-board or projector for their presentations.

Timeline for implementation:  8, 45 minute classes.

How can it be integrated and implemented in the lessons?

Students will use the digital camera and/or flip camera in school and use their own at home to capture pictures to support their stories.  Students will work on the Internet research in school but create the bulk of the narrative as homework.  Students will put the presentation together during the last three, 45 minute, lesson blocks.

Assessment (on writing skills and technology):

Students writing skills will be graded on a teacher created rubric.

Students technology skilled will be graded on students/teacher created rubric.