Digital Story

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43439166/Digital%20Story.m4v

Keystone draft

Subject: Global History using edmodo as an online blended learning environment.  Students will use edmodo to collaborate with classmates.

Grade level: middle school 7th grade.

Standards Addressed: ISTE & Common Core

Common Core ELA Standards

L.7.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

L.7.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

L.7.3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening

L.7.6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or 

phrase important to comprehension or expression

ISTE Standards: 

Nets For Students

Creating and Innovation

·       Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

a)     apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.

b)     create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

c)     use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.

d)     identify trends and forecast possibilities.

Communication and Collaboration

·       Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a)     interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.

b)     communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

c)     develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

d)     contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Research and Information Fluency

·       Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a)     plan strategies to guide inquiry.

b)     locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

c)     evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.

d)     process data and report results.

 Digital Citizenship

·       Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

a)     advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.

b)     exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

c)     demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.

d)     exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Technology Operations and Concepts

·       Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:

a)     understand and use technology systems.

b)     select and use applications effectively and productively.

c)     troubleshoot systems and applications.

d)     transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

Technology Operations

Intended results of the proposed technology integration (identify the professional development interests and needs from your ELA teachers and students, and potential technology to address their needs or interests)

Students are going to be exposed and taught to use edmodo to create a blended learning environment where they will be responsible for collaborating with classmates in their class on the current topics.  A series of questions will be posted for students to examine, research, and then collaborate with their peers responding to the questions and deepening their understanding of the topic being discussed.

Support and format of training needed for the effective implementation of the selected technology in their classrooms.

Because I do not have a teaching job in a school right now I was not able to work closely with an ELA teacher on this project; however, I am working with a history teacher and training them on how to sign up for edmodo and create a closed class that the students will enter a code to enter the classroom environment.  Because most ELA teachers are preparing their students for the ELA exam at the end of the month the administrators at the school I am working with were not able to get me into a class with an ELA teacher.  Because the user interface is almost identical to facebook, the teacher as well as the students are already very familiar with how to navigate, post, and create various threads.  The teacher was trained on how to post assignments, create polls, quizzes, videos, and various online resources. 

Technology Requirements

This requires that the students go down to the computer lab and spend one class period signing up and practices accessing all that edmodo has to offer and how to contribute to this blended online learning environment.  Once the students have signed up and entered the course code to enter this class they will be doing mostly all of the work from their home. For students that do not have access to a computer or internet at home they will be given ample time to complete assignments so they can use the school resources during their free time or after school once a week.  There is a free app for this software that students can download on their smartphones also which creates a mobile learning environment for those students who have the right technology. 

Evaluation plan (what is your plan to make sure that your training meets the goals, needs, and objectives)

The point of introducing this technology into this classroom is to infuse more collaboration and get students more involved outside of class, deepening their understanding of the topic being studied.  The main idea here is to increase student participation, which will be easily tracked by the teacher and myself based on number of posts and amount of detail and effort included in each post.  The teacher will have a number of opportunities to post various resources, polls, and questions that students will have access to at any time from their computers or smartphones.  Collaboration will be tracked and tallied for participation credit.  Students will also be working in groups to research a topics deeper and provide informative information to their peers. This will be graded using a checklist. 

article comment

This article on blogging was very informative and really drives the point home that we need to incorporate "new literacy's" like blogging into our everyday classroom.  Students have always needed to be able to read and interpret text and other students writing and opinions, but now there is an increase in the digital text that students are exposed to on a daily basis.  Using blogging can really enhance their 21st century skills in that it provides a gateway to practice reading, writing, and interpreting.  Blogging gives students a chance to collaborate on issues when they are not in class with their peers.  Also it gives shy students the opportunity to participate in an online learning environment where they can contribute to class discussions that they may not normally take part in.  This tool is extremely effective when using it to get ideas and generate different conversations about pressing issues pertaining to the topic at hand.

Article reviews

Adolescent Literacy: What's
Technology Got to Do With It?
http://www.ldonline.org/article/35792/
This article points out the lack of technology preparation for students who are learning disabled.  Interestingly enough, technology tools can support the teaching and learning process and promote independence.  The problem here is that these students are not getting exposure to these technologies.  The article points out that teachers need to pay close attention to the student’s background knowledge and vocabulary, comprehension strategies, the synergies of reading and writing, and the importance of interest and motivation.  I think that when technology is introduced it is so important, especially with learning disabled students, to know what they are capable of in order for the technology to be beneficial not harmful.  Knowing what level your students are working at, is essential to the learning environment.  Delivering a multisensory instruction to students can benefit our LD and ESL students because they gain exposure to new vocabulary through sounds and spelling patterns.

Technology to support learners:

Digital Text: Scanning text into the computer and adding digital text and audio
Text to Speech: Providing read aloud versions of stories or work.
Annotations and study skill features: Learning how to use virtual post-it notes, bookmarking, highlighting, and color-coding.

 “Tomorrow will not be like today”: Literacy and identity in a world of multi-literacies
http://igenlit.pbworks.com/f/williams%20multiliteracies.pdf
Technology is evolving at such an exponential rate that everything that we are learning about in this program could very well be obsolete in five years.  This points to the fact that educators always need to always be developing and researching new technologies to stay on top of the kids.  Online environments can be beneficial for students because they have the opportunity to create personas that can be different from the way they present themselves in face to face interactions.  Shy students can really come out of their shells in an online learning environment.

Student’s are now being bombarded with information online, from forums to discussion boards.  Student’s now need to know how to sift through information and be able to pick out what is valuable and credible.  Being digitally literate is a new skill that we need to help out students reach.

 Preparing Tomorrow's English Language Arts Teachers Today: Principles and Practices for Infusing Technology
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/english/article1.htm
This article brings up a number of great points that are very relavant to this course and this program.  As educators we now need to not only know our content and our educational pedagogies, but also instructional technologies.  With this, just knowing technologies is not going to make the cut.  We need to know how to effectively use different technologies with students to promote academic learning.  Without proof of academic achievement, one should evaluate their teaching methods.

Seven principles as touchstones for infusing technology into English language arts teacher preparation.
1.) Introduce and infuse technology in context.
2.) Focus on the importance of technology as a literacy tool.
3.) Model English language arts learning and teaching while infusing technology.
4.) Evaluate critically when and how to use technology in English language arts classroom.
5.) Provide a wide range of opportunities to use technology
6.) Examine and determine ways of analyzing, evaluating, and grading English language arts technology projects
7.) emphasize issues of equity and diversity.

I would like to focus on number five: provide a wide range of opportunities to use technology.  It is important to begin to make student work accessible for outside the classroom.  The key to future success in education is to create virtual classrooms that students can access for their mobile devices and home desktops. There are a number of great resources that we have learned about in the NYIT program that make this a possibility.  Edmodo, MyBigCampus, blogging, and even Google Docs.  These programs all allow for universal accessibility and promote 21st century collaboration amongst peers.

Children's Book

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=share&book=c0b20965a2ad187d8971c4f312267408&sid=7497

I came up with the idea to write a book about pollution in the ocean because the ELA teacher that I have been working with was having her student's read about the oil spill in the gulf.  The teacher was showing student's pictures of the damage that the wildlife endured and the student's seemed very disturbed by this.  When I showed the ELA teacher the children's book that I wrote above she loved it and said that she is going to have her students read the book and give me some feedback on not only how they liked the story, but also how they like interacting and reading the book through the cast builder program.  She really liked the coaches that were embedded with the story because of all the great things that you can add to help students decode what they are reading.  I asked her if she would be willing to use this program again and she said that she would like to have her student's create their own story about pollution and how it effects wildlife.  I explained the critical thinking and creativity that this program offers and she agreed and is working on creating a rubric to use to grade their work.  She also liked how I created prompt questions on the bottom that were thought provoking questions.  This really stimulates the children's brains and gets them thinking about the bigger picture.  I think that a science or even social studies teacher could use my children's book in their classroom as well.  Science teachers could focus more on the pollution aspect where social studies teachers can focus on the social effects of pollution and how history always seems to repeat itself.

Second Life Disadvantages/Uses of ADDIE

I have done a lot of research on this Second Life online learning environment and it has tremendous benefits, but I am beginning to realize some of the serious limitations and potential dangers of online learning environments.  These are not to suggest that Second Life or other online environments should not be used, but should be considered.  One of the first disadvantages/limitations that I recognized with this model is the broadband issues that may arise.  If students are working from home with dial up connections or really anything less than Road Runner, this may cause a loading/buffering issue.  The biggest issue that I have seen or have an issue with is the lack of structure and lack of security protecting the children.  It is an open environment that anyone can drop in on and distract the other users at pretty much any time, which can be beneficial to the learning environment at times to break up the structure of a traditional class, but mainly detrimental to the learning experience.

I have used the instructional design system ADDIE with Dr. Wang in Multimedia and I feel that this is an amazing outline that should be used, especially when using an open ended online environment like Second Life.  Teachers need to have a firm grasp on their learning outcomes, how they are going to get there, and how effective it is.  This form of planning is essential to ensuring that the class is getting what was expected out of the online environment.  There needs to be a goal with some structure here in order to make sure learning actually takes place because of how easy it can be to wonder, explore, and get off task.

Literacy

Coming from a math background I found this article to be filled with tons of useful information because I never knew a lot of it.  It is funny how as we are reading we take advantage of some things that authors intend to put on the page or not.  After reading through everything the one thing that really stuck with me was the structural changes of text in children's books.  I was amazed to read about the child that could figure out that the mom or women was screaming in the book merely because of the font size chosen by the author.  Font size, colors, and even shapes have such a big impact on children when reading.  This makes me want to think about all of these things while writing my children's book for this class.  It also appeals to me because of the importance of pictures and other graphics.  When making notes for my students in math I am going to include way more pictures in order to facilitate what is being communicated to the children.  When students are being read to I feel they should be able to communicate what is on their mind but to a certain extent.  Sometimes when you are being read to you create this imagery in your mind of what you think the scenario looks or feels like, but once a fellow classmates calls out, this may change or ruin your imagery of the topic.  I think a better method would be to give students a pad of paper to write or draw illustrations that come to their mind when they are being read to.  I definitely see a great benefit to having students participate when being read to, but there are other ways than having them call out or even raise their hand and maybe change a story for someone else.  Just some food for thought.