As I sit down to type this blog, I am constrained by the nature of the medium to "make it short." Is this just me? I cannot, will not read long pieces of writing on a computer. Therefore I will attempt to make my response short, or would concise be the better word. Does this lead to better writing or to curtailed writing (and thinking?) Maybe it's OK for me to not write a long response, because it is after all just part of the participatory community.
And I told myself that this week I would be more positive.
I can't really get hold of the idea of distributed cognition, intelligence distributed across "brain, body and world." When I read that "intelligence is accomplished rather than possessed", I am taken back to the nature versus nurture debates of educational psychology classes. This is a huge debate and it seems to me that these authors have chosen the nurture side since it fits well with their idea of the community of participation.
I do, I do see the benefits of group activities and participation in endeavor, but I cannot let go of the idea that we humans also need time to "remix", to be within our own minds and use our individual capabilities. Just as the author seems to be (and I may be wrong) arguing for a future of interaction, I would argue for the need for our schools to teach students the joy of silence and peace. In fact, I read an article recently about the positive effects that had been shown in schools in Australia who had taught students meditation techniques. It worries me that students feel the constant need to be "out there" and seem scared of that place called "myself" when it is not mediated by external forces.
However, I wax philosophical.
On a more positive note, I made note as I read of quite a few sites to which I will return for further exploration. I use some of these sites on a regular basis myself (though I have never felt myself particularly as part of a community in doing so, so perhaps my problem is with the term community.) I really do see the value of the technologies we have and I do see that they will change the world for our students.
But is change always an absolute positive? The authors of this paper cite UK Children Go On-Line on page 60: "Opportunities and risks go hand in hand. The more children experience one, the more they also experience the other." They continue that the British report advocated "doing a better job helping youth master the skills they need to exploit opportunites and avoid pitfalls." I thought of the students I teach, a truly vulnerable group - below grade level middle school students. Many of my students are both economically and culturally on the wrong side of the digital divide. The most vulnerable just want to "belong" somewhere. I see the community of the web as being emotionally appealing to these students, far more emotionally appealing than any intellectualizing I might do about the pitfalls. In that sense the participatory community has far more power than I do as a teacher.
Of course, my attitude might be quite different if I were dealing on a daily basis with a different group of students. I was struck as I read by the number of times the authors referred to groups out of MIT (particularly) and Stanford. I would have loved to have read about work being done with middle and lower class students in regular public school.
And, after all my quibbling, I come to the end of the article, where the authors seem to have once more returned to Planet English, and find myself wondering along with them, how do we make sure that "all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate in public, community, and economic life." and knowing that I will be looking more in depth at ways to use computer technology to expand the horizons of my teaching and the horizons of my students.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Pondering participatory culture
First, I have to say that I found this to be a pretty dense piece of writing with lots of jargon - Participatory community, affinity spaces, repurposed content, etc.
Anyway, I think of the sort of postings I have seen in the "participatory community" on-line and wonder how many would have bothered to plow through this article, with deathless prose such as "we are taking part in a prolonged experiment in what happens when one lowers the barriers into a communication landscape." Not a lot of transparency here, at least not for me. I have to grit my teeth to continue.
My dislike of this type of writing aside, I do agree with the authors that we are moving into a new world (a brave new world?) where these technologies will be essential. That is, unless we have a worldwide conflagration and are thrown into a Mad Max scenario with no technology or ethical niceties. We are at an "historical juncture" and what we do with the tools at hand is very important. If we look at television, we might despair for the future. There were probably articles very similar to this one written when television came into just about every home. I wonder if, in twenty years, more than 40% (I'm fudging that figure, I know), will be able to say who is the Vice-President of the country.(Maybe if they'd played a game about government, they would be more interested.) There's not going to be a lot of political engagement unless there is some political knowledge. I wonder if the authors would consider knowledge as too static for the participatory culture.
So what did I glean from this article: As a reading teacher, I said a hallelujah to their insistence that reading and writing remain essential for communication and that students will expand their competencies rather than push aside the "old skills." Another hallelujah for their insistence on traditional skills such as critical research, and the ability to formulate cogent arguments. I have for a long time believed that we should be doing more to teach our middle schoolers about mass media, "one of the most powerful social, economic, political, and cultural institutions of our era." We are so constrained by our curriculum that even this is difficult to fit in. I see a lot of the elements of this new media as a progression of the mass media, though I realize that there is also a much larger grass-roots or "participatory" component.
I am grappling with the whole idea of the online community and I know this dates me as a "digital immigrant." I do believe, as they say when talking about student newspapers, that strong social ties give people pause to think about the consequences of what they are doing before they publish. What about the growth of antisocial behavior? At my very small town middle school we have called the police every day for the last five days. How does the impulsiveness of middle schoolers gel with the impulsiveness of the online community? We have done an appalling job of preparing students to be critical users of mass media - will we do a better job with the new media?
I have never played video games, so I felt really out of it in the long section about play and simulation, etc. We addressed this to an extent in the "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" discussion and I think there certainly is a role for games in engagement in learning. I can only hope that the people who create these games are factually correct. I know that application and construction of dynamic models is a higher order thinking skill, but please let there be a correct factual basis. I know that my son adored the simulation in the Civilization games and that he continues to have an great interest in history.
I thought there were some excellent ideas for combining the old with the new. One was "Medieval Space", the MySpace clone. I will also be researching more the website "My Pop Studio" with a view to working with my middle students.
The issue of appropriation is really a murky one. Appropriation, plagiarism - what are we talking about here. Of course the situation in which the appropriation occurs is important. The authors here have certainly appropriated the works of other writers, but they have acknowledged that appropriation. This is a formal situation. We often have students move from a known plot to create something new, but we didn't need technology to do that. There is a huge temptation for students to "pick up" ideas and make them their own.
As I read about multitasking, I wondered about the validity of "continuous partial attention." I thought about the studies that have been done on the use of cell phones while driving and which have shown an increase in accident rates when a cell phone is being used. So, I was comforted that the authors again took the middle ground and allowed that neither the attentional style of the farmer (me) or the hunter (my son) is superior.
These articles are making me feel increasingly out of touch and perhaps that is one reason that by the time I had finished reading up to page 36 I was feeling quite tense and quite ready to take my outmoded ideas out to pasture like the farmer I am.
Anyway, I think of the sort of postings I have seen in the "participatory community" on-line and wonder how many would have bothered to plow through this article, with deathless prose such as "we are taking part in a prolonged experiment in what happens when one lowers the barriers into a communication landscape." Not a lot of transparency here, at least not for me. I have to grit my teeth to continue.
My dislike of this type of writing aside, I do agree with the authors that we are moving into a new world (a brave new world?) where these technologies will be essential. That is, unless we have a worldwide conflagration and are thrown into a Mad Max scenario with no technology or ethical niceties. We are at an "historical juncture" and what we do with the tools at hand is very important. If we look at television, we might despair for the future. There were probably articles very similar to this one written when television came into just about every home. I wonder if, in twenty years, more than 40% (I'm fudging that figure, I know), will be able to say who is the Vice-President of the country.(Maybe if they'd played a game about government, they would be more interested.) There's not going to be a lot of political engagement unless there is some political knowledge. I wonder if the authors would consider knowledge as too static for the participatory culture.
So what did I glean from this article: As a reading teacher, I said a hallelujah to their insistence that reading and writing remain essential for communication and that students will expand their competencies rather than push aside the "old skills." Another hallelujah for their insistence on traditional skills such as critical research, and the ability to formulate cogent arguments. I have for a long time believed that we should be doing more to teach our middle schoolers about mass media, "one of the most powerful social, economic, political, and cultural institutions of our era." We are so constrained by our curriculum that even this is difficult to fit in. I see a lot of the elements of this new media as a progression of the mass media, though I realize that there is also a much larger grass-roots or "participatory" component.
I am grappling with the whole idea of the online community and I know this dates me as a "digital immigrant." I do believe, as they say when talking about student newspapers, that strong social ties give people pause to think about the consequences of what they are doing before they publish. What about the growth of antisocial behavior? At my very small town middle school we have called the police every day for the last five days. How does the impulsiveness of middle schoolers gel with the impulsiveness of the online community? We have done an appalling job of preparing students to be critical users of mass media - will we do a better job with the new media?
I have never played video games, so I felt really out of it in the long section about play and simulation, etc. We addressed this to an extent in the "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" discussion and I think there certainly is a role for games in engagement in learning. I can only hope that the people who create these games are factually correct. I know that application and construction of dynamic models is a higher order thinking skill, but please let there be a correct factual basis. I know that my son adored the simulation in the Civilization games and that he continues to have an great interest in history.
I thought there were some excellent ideas for combining the old with the new. One was "Medieval Space", the MySpace clone. I will also be researching more the website "My Pop Studio" with a view to working with my middle students.
The issue of appropriation is really a murky one. Appropriation, plagiarism - what are we talking about here. Of course the situation in which the appropriation occurs is important. The authors here have certainly appropriated the works of other writers, but they have acknowledged that appropriation. This is a formal situation. We often have students move from a known plot to create something new, but we didn't need technology to do that. There is a huge temptation for students to "pick up" ideas and make them their own.
As I read about multitasking, I wondered about the validity of "continuous partial attention." I thought about the studies that have been done on the use of cell phones while driving and which have shown an increase in accident rates when a cell phone is being used. So, I was comforted that the authors again took the middle ground and allowed that neither the attentional style of the farmer (me) or the hunter (my son) is superior.
These articles are making me feel increasingly out of touch and perhaps that is one reason that by the time I had finished reading up to page 36 I was feeling quite tense and quite ready to take my outmoded ideas out to pasture like the farmer I am.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Technology rich projects
The first article I looked at is called "Choose Your Own Adventure: A Hypertext Writing Experience." It is a unit from the web site ReadWriteThink, which is one I really like.
The unit is designed to last six to eight fifty minute sessions and it comes after the students have read adventure novels in literature sessions. What drew me to it at first (aside from the needed technology aspect) was that it is combining reading and writing and also providing students with a chance to publish their writing.
After they have read their own stories, students in groups of four write a Choose Your Own Adventure Story. They use web-authoring software, create their own Web site on which the different parts of their story are hyperlinked to each other. When planning the adventure, students can use an interactive webbing tool to create their stories.
In order to complete this assignment, students have to understand the elements of story-telling, and, more specifically, the elements of Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Students can see an example from a website that can be shown via a projector.
This project has a lot of elements: planning, writing, collaboration, revising, making a WebPage, etc. To do this the first time would be daunting, but the way the lesson is laid out in RWT is very clear. It gives the teacher a path to follow, as well as all the necessary materials (planning guides, graphic organizers, rubrics), a link to Microsoft FrontPage and to some useful websites.
I can see this activity appealing to many students, especially boys, who don't very often get excited about literature, but will often pick up a Choose Your Own Adventure story. You could certainly have students do the same activity and create a paper book, but I think the idea of designing a webpage would add to their motivation.
As with all such activities at my school, the problem might be in finding time in the computer lab. Much of the typing can be done on alphasmarts and transferred to the computers, but it takes time to teach the students to create a Webpage (especially as, if you are me, you would be doing it for the first time.) Our computer lab guru, however, is always happy to teach the students such skills.
All in all, I think this would be a really interesting experiment in combining reading,writing, and technology. I can see it being most appropriate with sixth graders, and I would not try this for the first time with a low skilled class. At my school, I would experiment with the TAG students.
I have a real thing for the Civil War and I find there are many excellent Civil War novels. So, I was quite excited to find "A WebQuest of the Civil War in Historical Fiction." The website is http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/leems/histfic.html.
This requires students to use the library catalog to find a Civil War book and then to read that book. This assignment requires them to work in pairs, so I can only assume that their library has two copies of each book - ours certainly doesn't. Then the students would fill out a Multi-media Book Report Worksheet. Unfortunately, this was not on the web, so I would have to produce one of my own. Students would then research the author of their novel, either with a teacher cited link or by searching the web. Students are introduced to a Boolean search.
Students are required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the book, if it feels historically accurate, and who the author is. They need to scan an illustration/graphic from the book with historic detail. Finally students present their PowerPoint to the class.
The instructions are on the web and, for the student, they seem clear and have some useful information. However, as the teacher presenting this unit, I would be left with questions.
I would pursue this unit further because I like the idea of students reading a variety of books and then sharing information about them. I know that in my reading classes we do a weekly "Talk Around" about books and the students do enjoy that. Also, this unit is one that would be, at some level, within the reach of all students. I prefer it to the standard book talk because the PowerPoint is going to provide a point of focus for the audience.
The unit is designed to last six to eight fifty minute sessions and it comes after the students have read adventure novels in literature sessions. What drew me to it at first (aside from the needed technology aspect) was that it is combining reading and writing and also providing students with a chance to publish their writing.
After they have read their own stories, students in groups of four write a Choose Your Own Adventure Story. They use web-authoring software, create their own Web site on which the different parts of their story are hyperlinked to each other. When planning the adventure, students can use an interactive webbing tool to create their stories.
In order to complete this assignment, students have to understand the elements of story-telling, and, more specifically, the elements of Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Students can see an example from a website that can be shown via a projector.
This project has a lot of elements: planning, writing, collaboration, revising, making a WebPage, etc. To do this the first time would be daunting, but the way the lesson is laid out in RWT is very clear. It gives the teacher a path to follow, as well as all the necessary materials (planning guides, graphic organizers, rubrics), a link to Microsoft FrontPage and to some useful websites.
I can see this activity appealing to many students, especially boys, who don't very often get excited about literature, but will often pick up a Choose Your Own Adventure story. You could certainly have students do the same activity and create a paper book, but I think the idea of designing a webpage would add to their motivation.
As with all such activities at my school, the problem might be in finding time in the computer lab. Much of the typing can be done on alphasmarts and transferred to the computers, but it takes time to teach the students to create a Webpage (especially as, if you are me, you would be doing it for the first time.) Our computer lab guru, however, is always happy to teach the students such skills.
All in all, I think this would be a really interesting experiment in combining reading,writing, and technology. I can see it being most appropriate with sixth graders, and I would not try this for the first time with a low skilled class. At my school, I would experiment with the TAG students.
I have a real thing for the Civil War and I find there are many excellent Civil War novels. So, I was quite excited to find "A WebQuest of the Civil War in Historical Fiction." The website is http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/leems/histfic.html.
This requires students to use the library catalog to find a Civil War book and then to read that book. This assignment requires them to work in pairs, so I can only assume that their library has two copies of each book - ours certainly doesn't. Then the students would fill out a Multi-media Book Report Worksheet. Unfortunately, this was not on the web, so I would have to produce one of my own. Students would then research the author of their novel, either with a teacher cited link or by searching the web. Students are introduced to a Boolean search.
Students are required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the book, if it feels historically accurate, and who the author is. They need to scan an illustration/graphic from the book with historic detail. Finally students present their PowerPoint to the class.
The instructions are on the web and, for the student, they seem clear and have some useful information. However, as the teacher presenting this unit, I would be left with questions.
I would pursue this unit further because I like the idea of students reading a variety of books and then sharing information about them. I know that in my reading classes we do a weekly "Talk Around" about books and the students do enjoy that. Also, this unit is one that would be, at some level, within the reach of all students. I prefer it to the standard book talk because the PowerPoint is going to provide a point of focus for the audience.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Responses to blogs 3/20
Which blogs did you review?
The first blog I reviewed was Have Fun with English.
I was quite amazed by this blog. I kept wondering, "How much time do you take to put something like this together?" I wondered if teachers in Portugal, like teachers in France, spend less face to face time with students than do teachers in America, so they have more time to be creative.
What did you learn about the author?
I learned that the author of the blog is a teacher of middle school English students in Portugal. Her name is Teresa.Her blogger name is Teresadeca. She lived overseas when she was young (several years in the United States.) She is a great lover of the U.S.A. and things American. She has been teaching for over twenty years.
What sort of topics do they cover? What use do these blogs seem to serve?
The blog allows her to keep in contact with her students and for them to use English for real communication purposes.
It also allows her to put up lessons for CALL (which I found out is Computer Assisted Language Learning.) It seemed as though students spent part of their ninety minute period using computers for CALL. I'd seen one of the programs "Quia" before as I was looking for things to do with my Reading students.
She also lists friends (contacts.) I'm not sure how this works, being a total neophyte at anything outside e-mail.
How do you podcast?
What purpose might they serve for your students?
One way I could use blogs would be to have students blog about the latest book they have read. I have my students keep a journal of their reading, and could not really do that as a blog (not enough computers.) However, they finish books at different times, so they could write about their books then. Or they could blog about books on days when they really wanted to. Every week I have students "Say Something", where they talk with another student about what they are reading, but here they would be able to reach more students.
Second blog
Borderland
This blog was very different. It takes what I would call a philosophically leftist bent. I mean he talks about Ivan Illich. The author is an Alaskan elementary teacher of 23 years. He has a degree in literacy. His philosophy is that teaching should open students' minds. Even without going far into the blog, it was clear that he was not a fan of the standardized curriculum. The blog is a mixture of the personal (his photos) and the professional.
I particularly liked these two quotations:
"My beliefs and practices are out of alignment."
and
This Zen quote seems important lately: “Great doubt, great enlightenment. Little doubt, little enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment.”
What sort of topics do they seem to cover?What use do these blogs seem to serve?
This blog is very political. For example, he has a letter that he wrote to his senator against the DOPA (a bill to restrict access to media online for students to constrain the activities of online predators.) He also has a tirade against Dibels ( I thought of Pat when I read it.) which creates quite a conversation on-line. I found it really interesting, but I could have spent hours going off on different links and I honestly didn't have hours, so I really just dipped my beak in.
He blogs about the history of reading comprehension, freedom in society, etc. etc. It seems to be a place for philosophical musing on teaching. If I were in the mood and had the time for musing, I would turn to this blog.
He also has links to lots of interesting to reading resources. I'd like to spend some time looking at his links.
He also has links to "other lands" or other blogs.
What purpose might it serve for your students?
I didn't see anything like the student orientation in the first blog. He did have a link to a classroom blog called Tell the Raven, which looked interesting. It's more for teachers to get ideas.
I like this blogger's sense of humor. I hated the fact that he used it's when he meant its. That's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I don't understand why an intelligent person can't get a simple concept in punctuation.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. The thing about this technology is that you can simply be pulled in and keep going deeper, but you haven't spent a lot of time at any single level, so in the end it can be rather disappointing. It's a problem I have with the huge amount of information that is now available. Overload! Where to stop? Why the compulsion to keep on surfing?
The first blog I reviewed was Have Fun with English.
I was quite amazed by this blog. I kept wondering, "How much time do you take to put something like this together?" I wondered if teachers in Portugal, like teachers in France, spend less face to face time with students than do teachers in America, so they have more time to be creative.
What did you learn about the author?
I learned that the author of the blog is a teacher of middle school English students in Portugal. Her name is Teresa.Her blogger name is Teresadeca. She lived overseas when she was young (several years in the United States.) She is a great lover of the U.S.A. and things American. She has been teaching for over twenty years.
What sort of topics do they cover? What use do these blogs seem to serve?
The blog allows her to keep in contact with her students and for them to use English for real communication purposes.
It also allows her to put up lessons for CALL (which I found out is Computer Assisted Language Learning.) It seemed as though students spent part of their ninety minute period using computers for CALL. I'd seen one of the programs "Quia" before as I was looking for things to do with my Reading students.
She also lists friends (contacts.) I'm not sure how this works, being a total neophyte at anything outside e-mail.
How do you podcast?
What purpose might they serve for your students?
One way I could use blogs would be to have students blog about the latest book they have read. I have my students keep a journal of their reading, and could not really do that as a blog (not enough computers.) However, they finish books at different times, so they could write about their books then. Or they could blog about books on days when they really wanted to. Every week I have students "Say Something", where they talk with another student about what they are reading, but here they would be able to reach more students.
Second blog
Borderland
This blog was very different. It takes what I would call a philosophically leftist bent. I mean he talks about Ivan Illich. The author is an Alaskan elementary teacher of 23 years. He has a degree in literacy. His philosophy is that teaching should open students' minds. Even without going far into the blog, it was clear that he was not a fan of the standardized curriculum. The blog is a mixture of the personal (his photos) and the professional.
I particularly liked these two quotations:
"My beliefs and practices are out of alignment."
and
This Zen quote seems important lately: “Great doubt, great enlightenment. Little doubt, little enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment.”
What sort of topics do they seem to cover?What use do these blogs seem to serve?
This blog is very political. For example, he has a letter that he wrote to his senator against the DOPA (a bill to restrict access to media online for students to constrain the activities of online predators.) He also has a tirade against Dibels ( I thought of Pat when I read it.) which creates quite a conversation on-line. I found it really interesting, but I could have spent hours going off on different links and I honestly didn't have hours, so I really just dipped my beak in.
He blogs about the history of reading comprehension, freedom in society, etc. etc. It seems to be a place for philosophical musing on teaching. If I were in the mood and had the time for musing, I would turn to this blog.
He also has links to lots of interesting to reading resources. I'd like to spend some time looking at his links.
He also has links to "other lands" or other blogs.
What purpose might it serve for your students?
I didn't see anything like the student orientation in the first blog. He did have a link to a classroom blog called Tell the Raven, which looked interesting. It's more for teachers to get ideas.
I like this blogger's sense of humor. I hated the fact that he used it's when he meant its. That's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I don't understand why an intelligent person can't get a simple concept in punctuation.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. The thing about this technology is that you can simply be pulled in and keep going deeper, but you haven't spent a lot of time at any single level, so in the end it can be rather disappointing. It's a problem I have with the huge amount of information that is now available. Overload! Where to stop? Why the compulsion to keep on surfing?
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
ISTE Standards
At C. Middle School we have about 35 computers in the library, another 60 or so in the computer lab, and another 35 in a Science computer lab. We cobbled the Science lab together at the end of last year. The computers are old, but they work. Microscopes are linked with the computers and the lab is in regular use. In fact, all the computers in the school are heavily used. Teachers generally sign up weeks in advance to get into one of the computer labs. Some classrooms have computers for student use, but not many. My room has three aging and slow computers as well as my own personal computer.
Most students come to the school from elementary with a basic knowledge of computers. Their level of knowledge depends very much on the school they have been to, as well as their own family background. We don’t have any computer classes in the school which would give students knowledge about the more technical aspect of computers (Standard 1 – Basic Operations and Concepts - I’m using the broad Standards Categories for Technology – there are six of them.)
We offer sixth graders three weeks of typing on alphasmarts for fifteen minutes a day. This happens during their study hall. Therefore we have some real hunt and peck typists, and some who do much better. I think this is a weak point for our school, as students learn very bad habits which I know have to be “fixed” when they do the required computer class in 9th grade. What other computer knowledge students acquire at our school depends very much on the teacher they have.
But how can I, personally, help my students meet the standards. Most of my job is as reading specialist, trying to get students up to benchmark levels in reading. As part of my class last year I did have students do a short research paper, following the steps from finding a topic, to note taking, to drafting, editing and publishing (Standard 4 and 5 – Technology Communication Tools and Technology Research Tools) However, I am not doing this year, because we have new teachers who are doing a lot more computer research than the teacher in the past. One way I do use technology is that I give my students the option of posting book reviews online, an option many of them take (Standard 4 –Technology Communication Tools.)
I also use articles which I find in newspapers, magazines and online that have to do with technology, because I find this is very motivating, especially for the 8th graders. For instance, I noticed an article in today’s GT called, “Firms try new ways to engage Generation Y.” My objectives in using this would be for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, but also for generating a discussion about how technology is being used (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.)
I do co-teach one class of supported humanities. These students just finished putting together a PowerPoint presentation based on research they had done using books, encyclopedias and the internet (Most of the articles on the internet were way beyond these students – yet they want to use them, just because they are on the net.) They were instructed in how to insert pictures and graphics, create their own graphics, animate graphics, insert a movie, insert a chart, and use sounds. (Standard 3) They also used Citation-maker to set up their bibliography. We were very careful to stress the importance of not plagiarizing and our research process discouraged direct copying (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.) The finished products LOOKED great. I have reservations about the content. Too much medium and not enough message.
We have jumped up in the technology world this year because our school has purchased smartboards. Our training has been minimal unless you happen to be in a department with a teacher who has used smartboards before. I am using my smartboard on a regular basis and my students are learning with me (and often know more than I do.) This type of interactive technology can really help students be motivated to take part in a lesson. They realize how technology can change an environment and they will also be more aware of using an appropriate tool for a task.(Standard 5, 6, 2.)
My last comment is on what I could do given the time and materials. I have wanted to put together a different reading curriculum for my 8th graders which would be based around media and technology issues. Students would look at the role of technology in shaping society (Standard 2), and at the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. I think this would hook this grade level student and might up their interest in being a better reader. I have also thought, in my role as reading specialist, of talking to teachers about presenting these issues through the three grades as an actual part of the curriculum. This would reach more students than those in my class – but, being selfish, I would like to have something different to offer the reading students.
Most students come to the school from elementary with a basic knowledge of computers. Their level of knowledge depends very much on the school they have been to, as well as their own family background. We don’t have any computer classes in the school which would give students knowledge about the more technical aspect of computers (Standard 1 – Basic Operations and Concepts - I’m using the broad Standards Categories for Technology – there are six of them.)
We offer sixth graders three weeks of typing on alphasmarts for fifteen minutes a day. This happens during their study hall. Therefore we have some real hunt and peck typists, and some who do much better. I think this is a weak point for our school, as students learn very bad habits which I know have to be “fixed” when they do the required computer class in 9th grade. What other computer knowledge students acquire at our school depends very much on the teacher they have.
But how can I, personally, help my students meet the standards. Most of my job is as reading specialist, trying to get students up to benchmark levels in reading. As part of my class last year I did have students do a short research paper, following the steps from finding a topic, to note taking, to drafting, editing and publishing (Standard 4 and 5 – Technology Communication Tools and Technology Research Tools) However, I am not doing this year, because we have new teachers who are doing a lot more computer research than the teacher in the past. One way I do use technology is that I give my students the option of posting book reviews online, an option many of them take (Standard 4 –Technology Communication Tools.)
I also use articles which I find in newspapers, magazines and online that have to do with technology, because I find this is very motivating, especially for the 8th graders. For instance, I noticed an article in today’s GT called, “Firms try new ways to engage Generation Y.” My objectives in using this would be for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, but also for generating a discussion about how technology is being used (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.)
I do co-teach one class of supported humanities. These students just finished putting together a PowerPoint presentation based on research they had done using books, encyclopedias and the internet (Most of the articles on the internet were way beyond these students – yet they want to use them, just because they are on the net.) They were instructed in how to insert pictures and graphics, create their own graphics, animate graphics, insert a movie, insert a chart, and use sounds. (Standard 3) They also used Citation-maker to set up their bibliography. We were very careful to stress the importance of not plagiarizing and our research process discouraged direct copying (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.) The finished products LOOKED great. I have reservations about the content. Too much medium and not enough message.
We have jumped up in the technology world this year because our school has purchased smartboards. Our training has been minimal unless you happen to be in a department with a teacher who has used smartboards before. I am using my smartboard on a regular basis and my students are learning with me (and often know more than I do.) This type of interactive technology can really help students be motivated to take part in a lesson. They realize how technology can change an environment and they will also be more aware of using an appropriate tool for a task.(Standard 5, 6, 2.)
My last comment is on what I could do given the time and materials. I have wanted to put together a different reading curriculum for my 8th graders which would be based around media and technology issues. Students would look at the role of technology in shaping society (Standard 2), and at the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. I think this would hook this grade level student and might up their interest in being a better reader. I have also thought, in my role as reading specialist, of talking to teachers about presenting these issues through the three grades as an actual part of the curriculum. This would reach more students than those in my class – but, being selfish, I would like to have something different to offer the reading students.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
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