728 Challenge

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Jamilah, fresh out of NYC, also known as Ms. Jones to my 6th grade ELA students in Oakland, CA

2. What is your primary goal for taking this course?

As part of the requirement for the Instructional Media program I hope to gain resources to use in my classroom

3. What is your philosophy of education?

When you expect more from students, they give you more. High expectations with a firm, loving hand will help students reach their potential

4. What do you see as the greatest benefit of using technology and/or digital media in the classroom?

It makes learning more dynamic and gives students different entry points for understanding

5. What is your biggest concern or challenge with using technology and/or digital media in the classroom?

Biggest challenge is sifting through it all to find what’s appropriate for your student population

6. Provide an example of how you currently use technology and/or digital media in the classroom.

With limited resources: presentation tools and supplemental media

7. How does your classroom today differ from when you were the same age as your students?

There is more interactivity in lessons and projects and less observance of adults as the respected authority

Helping Students Meet the NETS-S

The NETS, National Educational Technology Standards, are a set of standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for learning, teaching, and leading in the digital age. The NETS were developed for teachers, students, administrators, coaches, and computer science teachers and are used worldwide. The NETS promote critical thinking skills, prepare students for the global job market, and work to transform technology education. There are many Web 2.0 tools that students can use to meet the NETS-S across the curriculum.

The NETS-S student profiles provide a developmental guide for technology usage and application. The student profiles tell you the age and grade levels at which students should be applying the different standards in the NETS-S, and explains how students should be applying them at the different levels. This leaves all of the guess work out of trying to figure out how your students should be using and applying technology in their grade level. The student profiles cover all school-age children from PreK to 12th grade. You can easily see the connection and progression of technology usage through the grades.

The NETS-S focus on 5 standards, Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, Research and Information Fluency, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, and Digital Citizenship. Students can use a variety of Web 2.0 tools and applications to meet these standards. Here are some ways you can help your students meet the NETS-S in any content area:

Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology

• Students can demonstrate knowledge using presentation tools such as Prezi, Voice Thread, and AudioBoo. These tools give students creative ways to present their knowledge and understanding of content. Students can use visual and audio means, separate or together.
• Students can also use publishing tools like Wikispaces and Wix to display their work by creating ePortfolios.

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.

• Voice Thread is a great communication tool that students can use to share ideas and information with others. Student can use this digital media environment to share and teach what they know using visual and audio features.
• AudioBoo is a tool creates podcasts that students can use to communicate. Students publish their podcasts online and can easily share them with others, anywhere.

Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information

• Communication tools such as Diigo and Edmodo can be used to gather and organize internet resources and share to them with others. 
• Students can also use tools like Google Docs and Dropbox to store information gathered through research as they decide how it is applicable to their work.

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources

• Students can use publishing tools such as Wikispaces and Edmodo to create and work on PBL, problem-based learning, projects.
• Collaboration tools such as Skype, Google+ Hangout, and Google Docs can help students manage projects by providing a collaborative space to work.

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

• Communication tools, such as Skype, Edmodo, and Diigo give students the opportunity to meet the standard of Digital Citizenship. These tools allow students to communicate with others on the internet in a public or semi-public forum. Students need to practice ethical online behavior and adherence to laws when using these tools to share ideas and information.
• Publishing tools such as Wix and Wikispaces also require students to practice digital citizenship, especially if they are publishing websites of their own. Students need to ensure that they are publishing legal content that is appropriate for their audience.

Finding the most valuable and appropriate ways to use technology in the classroom are important for getting the most out of Web 2.0 tools. The NETS-S  and the NETS-S Student Profiles provide a great resource for planning and application of WEB 2.0 tools in the classroom. 


Resources:

AudioBoo. (2012) http://audioboo.fm
Diigo. (2012) http://www.diigo.com
Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com
Edmodo. (2012) http://www.edmodo.com
Google Docs. (2012) http://docs.google.com
Google+ Hangout. (2012) http://plus.google.com

ISTE. (2012)  International Society for Technology in Education: Standards. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards
ISTE. (2012). NETS for Students. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007
ISTE. (2012). NETS Student Profiles Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-for-students-2007-profiles

Skype. (2012) http://www.skype.com
Voice Thread. (2012) http://voicethread.com
Wikispaces. (2012) http://www.wikispaces.com
Wix. (2012) http://wix.com

Exploring PBL

"Learning by doing" takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to Project Based Learning. My experience with Project Based Learning (PBL) in the classroom has been limited. I have read a bit on the subject, but it was great to have the opportunity to see what PBL actually looks like in the classroom. Just like PBL itself, it takes a lot more than just reading about a topic to fully understand it.

Edutopia is a great website created by The George Lucas Educational Foundation that houses a wealth of resources on teaching and learning strategies that help educators create dynamic 21st century classrooms. The site provides videos, resources, ideas, exemplars, and much more at no cost for the K-12 classroom.

My education in PBL began at Newsome Park Elementary School and the article More Fun Than A Barrel of... Worms?! by Diane Curtis. Students at all grade levels were participating in PBL throughout the school. Projects ranged from learning about, and trading on the New York Stock Exchange and creating their own business, to research about a classmates disease, to becoming "Wormologists." Another great example of PBL came from students at Mountlake High School and was featured in the article Geometry Students Angle Into Architecture Through Project Learning by Sara Armstrong. With this project, students used the math they learned to design and create schools of the future for the year 2050. Yet another example of how PBL can work, with even the youngest students came from students at Rockledge Elementary School as described in the article March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration, also written by Diane Curtis. Here, students tracked the migration path of the monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico.

While all of these projects covered a wide variety of topics over different grade levels, there were many commonalities to be found. One of the first things I noticed was that there was a flexibility in the curriculum that allowed for these projects to take place. All of the projects were infused with state standards and were cross curricular. Something else that I found exciting about the design of all of the projects was how they incorporated the use of field experts as a resource. They brought in real world experts as resources to support and evaluate the students' work. All of the projects had a variety of end products within each project and they were all cross-curricular. Every project included components from each academic discipline. It provided accessibility for all students at every entry point. Most importantly, all of the projects had students working on real-world issues and had them making connections to the greater world.

The role of the teacher and the students is very different from those in a traditional classroom. The teachers plan the components of the projects so that they are relevant to the students, but the students do the work in educating themselves. They do the work to become the experts on the topic. In the end, they present their projects to an audience as experts and are able to speak knowledgeably on their topic and field questions, as would any field expert. They take pride and ownership of what they have learned and are excited to share it. The teachers' work is mostly in the planning, the support in developing project ideas, creating valuable assessment tools, and to support students during the process. Teachers help by providing feedback and questioning to stimulate thinking in the students. At no point is the teacher teaching the students how to move through their project.

As one student from Newsome Park Elementary stated, "If you find it yourself, it stays in your brain." I think this sums up why educators promote PBL. Teachers provide a time and space for students to explore things that they are interested in learning about. Teachers and students develop their project ideas together, giving students a say in their education process and what they learn. The skills they develop and the knowledge they gain stay with them because it is something they wanted to know or needed to learn to do in order to accomplish their goal. Just as kids will figure out how to beat a video game, only to go on to master the next version, they are able to transfer the skills they learned to use in one project and apply and adapt them to other similar tasks. Project Based Learning is a way to develop critical thinking and life-long skills in students that they can own and use throughout their lives.


Resources


Armstrong, S. (2002). Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (2001). More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Report Cards for All!

A few weeks ago, I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and they had a little snippet on Parent Report Cards. That got me to thinking about a conversation with my colleagues about the state of our students- how they come to school unkempt, don't do their homework, have frequent absences, and are apathetic towards school/education- and how teachers are being blamed. "Why are we solely being blamed for the failure of our students?" was my thought. Then it came to me... we can't blame the parents! How do you tell a parent that they are not doing a good job raising their child? The Parent Report Card!

The Parent Report Card grades parents on things like: homework completion, student attendance, presence at parent-teacher conferences, response to teacher calls, student attitudes, and the amount of time the child spends watching tv and playing video games. Not such a bad evaluation, right? How many times do, we as teachers, want to ask a parent "Why did --- only get 5 hours sleep? He's sleeping in class." or "When was the last time you read --- a story?" Intruding on the lives of our students with these kinds of questions may seem like just that, an intrusion. But they are all valid questions in the community my school serves.

The new teacher evaluation system is supposed to closely examine teacher performance and use student performance and growth. How about asking student how they feel about their teacher, what their experience is like in the classroom, if they feel like their teacher listens to them. That is the kind of evaluation that is meaningful to me. I want to know if my students feel like I believe in them, that I want the best for them, and that I push them to do better than they have. If kids get a report card, why shouldn't we all get one. Wouldn't a little self-reflection do us all some good?

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