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.