Action Plan Presentation

Digital Storytelling Power Point

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Response Blog Number 3: Frustrations on using technology

I apoligize in advance: I plan to use this blog entry to "vent" and reflect upon a recent incident I had in one of my schools. I want to have my students create podcasts next week to show their understanding of American society at the turn of the 20th century. I understood the potential disasters I may have with podcasting, since I have never actually done this type of project with 5 full classes. Also, I am somewhat uncomfortable with using the Audacity program. But, I decided to go ahead with the idea. I thought that, although I have never used podcasting in the classroom, it would be a good opportunity to do so.

The first frustrating aspect of this process was actually getting the technology. The one school I teach at has a library with computers, and that is it. There are two laptop carts and they rarely work, I am told. When going to reserve the library, I noticed that the library was already reserved for almost three full weeks. Now, I was reserving one week in advance, so that may have not been enough time, but this is my first time teaching the 9th grade curriculum. Therefore, I rarely know what I am doing in class two days ahead, let alone three weeks. Fortunately, the librarian was extremely helpful and investigated the laptop cart, and e-mailed me later in the day saying that the laptops did have Audacity. Obstacle one- conquered! Now, let's just hope the laptops work...

The second frustrating aspect of my "pilot" podcasting project was the surprisingly lack of excitement from the students. Once I had computers reserved for next week, I told some of my classes that they would be using all of the research from this week to create a podcast next week. Only about 20% of my students have created a podcast before, but most of them showed little interest or excitement about doing one. This was frustrating because I could have easily just had the students research and study the material; but, instead, I wanted them to create something meaningful and fun. I am hoping that once the students begin recording, they will get more excited about it!

The last frustration that I have encountered with this project is the reaction I got from a few other teachers. When I told a few of my social studies colleagues what I was doing, one particular colleague said that he would "never spend so much time" on a project like this. He is a veteran teacher and his comment made me question how much time I would be spending on this project.

However, there is a positive side to this blog entry! I seriously considered abandoning the entire project idea, but then I read through Will Richardson's article "The Educators Guide to the Read/Write Web" for class tonight. I think that my reading of that article came at a perfect time in the midst of my "podcasting" frustrations. Richardson makes several good points about using technology in the classroom, but the one that stood out to me was the following: "...the potential enhancements to student learning that the new Read/Write web entails outweigh...the risks. The web has become a vehicle through which students and teachers share what they have learned in meaningful, purposeful ways." Yes, I may be spending a lot of time teaching the kids how to convert their research into a podcast, but, as Richardson said, the risks outweigh everything else. Students will be creating something meaningful, rather than simply memorizing material. Yes, I will spend a lot of time teaching "how to podcast" rather than history, but I believe technology is an important skill to learn in order to prepare students for the world today. The world today is constantly changing. Therefore, how are we benefiting our students if we, as teachers, stay the same?

Just to further add to my arguement for use of technology, I went online and researched what some people were saying about using technology in today's classroom. It was actually hard to find anyone saying that technology was NOT good for students! One site that I found gave some research and data on how technology impacts education. Specifically, this site said that: "when students were engaged in technology-rich environments, increased achievement in preschool through high school for both regular and special needs students, and improved attitudes toward learning and increased self-esteem." Wow. What inspiration!

So, I'll admit, I was frustrated, but I now see the "light" at the end of the tunnel. Technology may be difficult to incorporate, there may be countless obstacles and questions, but it's definitely worth it!

Reflection on Spreadsheets and Databases

Since I missed class last night, I looked through some of the databases and spreadsheets provided on Angel in order to gain a better understanding of how to use them effectively in my classroom. I looked at a lot of the databases that were focused on history topics, like the Explorer one , the Revoltutionary war one, and the Civil War one. I found it really cool once I started to manipulate the databases by sorting them according to different characteristics. For example, you could filter the Explorer database by country of origin, or by reasons why they explored. I think this would be good for studying or even for organizing information. I actually do a chart very similar to the Revolutionary war database with my kids. But, using technology to do it would add a lot more potential to that chart. The speed in which you can group, sort, and filter is really amazing. And having the kids research, make their own categories, and manipulate this type of database is really reaching those "higher-level" thinking skills that we all strive to hit, as educators.

I didn't really like any of the spreadsheets I looked at, and I looked at most of them. I think maybe because the examples were mostly math-oriented. It was difficult for me to see how I could use these in my social studies classroom. Simply put, I could use them to produce graphs, which I do now. For example, we as a class recently made charts representing our ancestors country of origin and then made conclusions about immigration in the U.S. If that is what spreadsheets should be used for, then I am already doing it. But, I didn't know if I was missing something and that there is more to these spreadsheets than what I was seeing.

Overall, the databases really opened my eyes to the possibilities of using them in a classroom. I'm definitely going to use them as I get into more difficult topics, or topics that have a lot of information that comes with them, because I think using databases are a great way to organize information and visualize the information as well.

Response Blog Number Two: "These kids can't even write essays, and you're having them do films??" Digital Storytelling: Pros and Cons

As I was typing my Action Plan, I discovered that I really want to do something creative and visual with my students this year. The content that I am teaching has so much potential and I can't just simply give notes and lectures. Take, for example, World War II. I was recently researching this topic and the amount of primary sources, first-hand accounts, podcasts, digital histories, and documentation is amazing. I think I want to have my students create a digital documentary about one single topic, or one that sums up the entire year. Both have benefits. For example, if the students create a documentary on a single topic, they can focus more on that one topic and dive deeper into the material. However, if they must create a project that includes the entire century, they are forced to analyze events and pick and choose what they think are the most important events. Hmm... I think I will go with the latter.

I decided to do some preliminary research on using documentary creation as assessments. It was the kind of preliminary research that means typing a vague few words in Google and seeing what shows up. Much to my surprise, there is a lot of research out there on this stuff. How much of it is reputable, I do not know. But, I just wanted to see what people were saying about it.

So, I quickly found that "digital storytelling" is the accepted terminology, not my archeic term: "classroom documentary". The first thing I realized that I did not consider was time. Time is definitely an issue. In this blog entry, Jeri claims that her students required a lot of time to make a film, but she doesn't regret it. She said it is possible to do other things while this project is going on, and that's good.

Another issue are the objectives of this project. Some teachers may claim that students need to focus more on writing rather than making movies, but, as Jeri points out, it was definitely worth it and that students are learning regardless of whether or not they are writing an essay, taking a test, or creating a film. It all goes back to that age-old question of assessment. Some teachers are willing to take risks and assess in a way other than a test or essay.

So, as I muddled through the other blogs and sites on digital storytelling, I became a big discouraged. It seems like it requires a lot. A lot of planning, a lot of time, a lot of patience. But then, I saw this blog.

Doug Johnson's very inspiring blog post about how to design research projects that "rock" really gave me some hope. His comments about how motivational research projects really encourage higher-level thinking, make material relevant, and gives students choices and ownership of the assignment.

It may be a hard road ahead, but I think I'm going to attempt this digital storytelling thing. How bad can it be if it does all of those things Johnson claims it does?

Response Blog Number 1

Social Networking: Taking Over the World? 

Note: Be sure to click on the links in this blog entry! I included them all to make a point about the increasing prevalence of social networking in the news, but all of the stories are pretty interesting!

Our class discussion last class about Twitter really got me thinking about social networking and how it is influencing our world today... not only in the "real world" that we live in, but in the world that our students live in. I always thought that social networking sites such as FaceBook and Twitter were simply that: other outlets for people to socialize. However, these sites seem to be morphing into a creature that is overtaking every aspect of our lives! Take, for example, CNN. You can now follow reporters on Twitter and respond to their comments with your own. And did you happen to see the 104 year old woman who is addicted to Twitter?  Moreover, you can become a fan of just about any talk show there is on FaceBook.  And even social networking etiquette is being examined more and more as it becomes increasingly popular. And people are finally realizing that caution should be taken when posting things on social networking sites, because it may come back to haunt you when you apply for a job. It seems like Facebook and Twitter are everywhere in the news today! 

But, we all know that already. What I really wanted to reflect upon was the impact that this is having on our students today. Prensky's podcast summed it up best: students need to be engaged. He used the classic example of kids having the radio on, while typing instant messages to 8 friends, with the TV on in the background. This is the typical life of a 21st century student. Some people may claim that they are "over-engaged" but I don't think they are. I think students are craving challenging lessons and activities from their teachers and social networking sites may just be the way to do so. 

Think about it: students interact in the classroom and outside the classroom with their teacher, other classmates, and even other students from different parts of the world. As a social studies teacher, I know it is extremely important for students to realize that there are different cultures out there. But now comes the tricky part: how can we, as responsible educators, go about making this happen? I think the best way is to start small and keep challenging ourselves as educators to learn more and incorporate technology into our lessons. I, for example, am slowly incorporating a wikispace into my classroom. I successfully "test drove" it last year and I am utilizing it more this year. But, I still need to do more work... maybe incorporate a class blog or something that gives the students more of a voice. It's something to think about.

So, as we get incessantly bombarded by social networking news stories, we need to not be overwhelmed, but inspired. We all know this is the direction the world is going... why not embrace it and make it work successfully in our classrooms? I know I'm going to try to do just that. 

Goals for the Class

After looking at the NETS for teachers, I was somewhat overwhelmed by how "advanced" these standards appeared to be. Words like "authentic learning experiences", "technology-rich learning environments", and "model digit etiquette" makes me nervous. How am I, a busy adult with limited time, going to get enough practice time with new technology? And get enough practice time that I'll feel comfortable demonstrating to a class of 28 15-year olds? And moreover, to design lessons that meet advanced standards that echo the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy? And therein lies my goal for this course: to gain the experience, practice, and wisdom to be confident enough to try these new "Mindtools" in my classroom. Eventually, I would really like to design units around specific mindtools, but I'm going to start simple: stick with that previously mentioned goal and take it from there.

Overview: Slavery Final Project

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