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