Final Project

For my final project, I have created the wiki englishz (z for Zobitz) to use for my Mythology unit. I have never taught mythology before, so I was creating a unit from scratch and decided to use it as an opportunity to implement several of the Web 2.0 tools we have been studying this semester. My final unit has four components:

1) Reading a fantasy or mythology book and keeping a blog
2) Creating a graphic map to organize the Greek gods/goddesses
3) Researching a Greek god/goddess and collaboratively creating a wiki page for that Greek god/goddess
4) Writing an original graphic novel

I had a specific purpose for each component in order to give my students a balanced understanding of Greek mythology. I chose a fantasy or mythology book for their outside reading assignment, so they would get additional exposure to this genre as we study Greek mythology in class. We have been using the book Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin as our classroom text.
My goal was to provide my students with a general understanding of Greek mythology as a whole, as well as specific knowledge on a Greek god/goddess. To accomplish the general understanding of Greek mythology and how the Greek gods/goddesses are connected, my students have been creating graphic maps of the Greek gods/goddesses discussed in our text. They had the option of using bubbl.us or inspiration. I am having them print their graphic maps for display; however, once my school has Moodle available I will alter this assignment and have them attach their link or document to the Moodle site. Their assessment is based on depth, organization, and visual appeal.
To gain specific knowledge of a Greek god/goddess, they will collaboratively create a wiki page for a Greek god/goddess. I plan to assess the content of the page based on the specific criteria on my wiki and additionally assess each student’s contribution to the page. The concept of working collaboratively will be a new task for my students and therefore, I have provided specific criteria for them.
The final assignment in the unit is to create an original myth as a graphic novel. I currently have my students re-writing the story of a god/goddess in the form of a graphic novel because they wrote original myths for me last year. I also have them drawing the artwork by hand because I wanted to incorporate an art project into this assignment. However, I think that next year I will implement this as an original myth for a creative writing assignment and I will have them create their graphic novel using one of the comic strip technologies.
I have put all the assignments and their assessments on the wiki page, but I primarily set this wiki up as a tool for my students to create a collaborative wiki page. I created a page with a list of many Greek gods/goddesses and I created links from each god/goddess to their own page. Additionally, I have attached the unit assignments to the handout section of the wiki. I think this will be helpful for absent students or students who have lost their assignments.
My current classroom unit of Greek mythology didn’t involve all of the pieces on the wiki, but I hope to use the wiki in full next time I teach this unit. As I have implemented different aspects of this unit, I have already found things that I would revise next time. Additionally, when Moodle is available in my district I hope to incorporate it along with the wiki.

E-Portfolios and Class Reflection

I really enjoyed going back over my blog posts. When we started this class and started keeping our blog, I considered it a place to complete my assignments. It wasn’t until this week that I realized the benefit of keeping a blog all semester. I realize now that it was a place for me to reflect each week on what I was learning. Prior to this course, I was not integrating technology into my classroom because I didn’t know where to start. The lingo (blog, wiki, etc.) was confusing and I was unclear of the function of each. This class has helped me develop a clear understanding of the technologies available and their uses in my classroom. The next step for me is to move forward with some of my ideas and to foresee the problems that will be a challenge, so I can work around them.

I would like to have my students use e-portfolios to organize their work and then be able to re-visit their writing and improve it. My school is suppose to have Moodle up and running 2nd semester and I envision this as a medium for this organization. I also think that reflecting on their work is very valuable and I would like to have that be a practice in my classroom.

As I mentioned in our class discussion, the e-portfolio or blog almost serves as a pre-writing assignment. I found that I was able to go back through my blog and use several of my previous ideas in my final project. Therefore, I think that having students use a blog throughout a novel would prepare them to write. For another class I did a unit where my students were analyzing the writing techniques of the author of a book as they were preparing to write their own short story. I had them keep a journal throughout the unit. I think I would change the journal to a blog. I also hope to use the wiki I am creating in my classroom. Lastly, I would really like to do literature circles using technology. I don’t think I can currently use a Ning site in my school, but I am hoping that the Moodle can be used similarly.

I have really enjoyed this course and I look forward to gradually adding many of the technology tools into my classroom.

Giving Student Feedback/Rubrics

As I work on my final project, I have three assignments that I plan to assess. I plan to have my students research and write about a Greek god/goddess that they have studied. They will be responsible for creating a wiki page for that god/goddess. They will need to use relevant links that allow for interaction on their page. To allow for peer response, one of the requirements will be to comment on their partner’s page. Through this activity, they will be able to share what they like about the page and any suggestions they have for their partner. I also want students to be able to add to a page if needed.

This type of peer response will be new for me. I currently have my student review someone’s work before it is turned into me. They have always done this the traditional paper-pencil way and they have only traded with one other person. I would like to use track changes more in my own grading, as well as have students use it to peer respond. I really liked the idea of having students respond in different colors to several different students. This would provide many responses for each student giving them more ideas for improvement. This doesn’t fit into my final project, but it is something that I hope to use in my classroom in the near future. I also like the idea of teacher response via a podcast. I definitely find it easier to verbally share my thoughts than to write several comments on each paper.

The other two projects for my final project are a graphic novel and a graphic organizer or mind map. I have attached rubric ideas for both.

I was unable to attach my rubrics. However, they are on the Ning site. Thanks.

Digital Text/Powerpoint Presentation

After reading this assignment and understanding what components make up the readability of a website, I started to consider websites I visit often that I either like or dislike. The website for my daughter’s swim team stands out to me as hard to navigate. I then started to contemplate why. It is on a primarily white background and it isn’t as busy as some in terms of the written material. However, it is almost outdated in its approach. In order to get any type of needed document you have to navigate your way through the downloads section resulting in a list of yellow word folders. You then need to find what you are looking for and download it. There are several different swim teams (based on age and level) and I feel that if they had each team as a tab across the top it may be more effective to navigate. According to our Beach textbook, people read online text for a specific purpose and they are looking to find their information quickly. The first time I used this site, it took me a significant amount of time to find the information I was after. Additionally, the site is not appealing. It has files listed on the front page and is lacking visual images.

Here is the website.

A website that I visit regularly and enjoy navigating is the Sesame Street website (my son’s favorite site). This website utilizes bright colors and vivid images of your favorite Sesame Street characters. There are tabs across the top that bring you to various games, and videos, etc. It is designed so that a child can navigate the site.

Here is the website.

I am not sure what kinds of activities I would use in my classroom for this topic. I don’t plan to have my students create websites. However, I found the information useful for myself as I am beginning to create online digital texts. I do have my students create power point presentations and I think that giving them examples of traditional vs. interactive power points would help them in developing effective presentations.

I found creating an interactive power point presentation challenging. I actually do not feel that is was successful. I wanted to create a power point that I would use in my classroom. I have to admit that I have only made a few in my career. I decided to create a presentation that would introduce Greek mythology to my students. I tried to use a storytelling approach in my presentation. However, it isn’t as interactive as I would like it to be. I posed questions throughout, but I think it would be stronger if I linked to other websites. In the original presentation, I had many effective transitions and music throughout. Both features enhanced the overall product. However, when I uploaded my presentation to Google docs all of the features disappeared. I was disappointed in that and I need to see if there is a way to avoid that from happening.

Presentation link

Comic Strip

I created my comic strip using Comic Life. I chose that option because I am not creative at all and I wanted to use my own images in the comic strip. I thought the most difficult part of the assignment was coming up with the topic to base the comic strip on. I finally decided to use several photos from my recent experience on a high ropes course. It proved to be a useful medium to express my emotion on this particular topic. I found the program very easy to use and fun!

I think that the use of comic strips gives students a fun way to practice their summarizing skills. I think I would use this to have students retell a story by summarizing the key points of the story. It could be part of a lesson on the parts of the plot and their comic could follow that plotline. I am starting a mythology unit soon and I am thinking of having each student create a comic strip to tell the story of the Greek god that they choose to study. The concern I have is that the programs didn’t seem to have a lot to choose from as far as images, and I don’t know how difficult it would be to create images of Greek gods.

November 10 - More Podcasts

Initially, I wasn’t sure what I would use a podcast for in my classroom. I am excited about all of the ideas that I read about in our readings for last week and on our Ning. I love the idea of having students podcast for book talks. Book talks always take up a lot of class time and it would be great to give the students the experience of doing a book talk, but not using class time.

Another idea that I had was having the students do a poetry reading. I feel that they often are hesitant to recite dramatically in class, but they may be more comfortable in their own home. Especially, since they can play it and then edit it to improve it. I think it would still be beneficial to share these with the class, but less stressful for the student than presenting in person.

I love the idea of having students write and share via podcast their This I Believe essay. I actually just got the book This I Believe which is a compilation of essays. I also was able to download middle school lesson ideas from their website. I am excited to have my students do something with this.

I created my first podcast to share directions for an assignment. It will work great to catch up sick students. I could probably attach it to my website for students and parents to access. I found it very easy to create and not time consuming at all. I liked the fact that I could write out what I wanted to say and read from it.

Lastly, I love the idea of using a podcast to give the background of a time in history to the students. This would be useful before teaching To Kill a Mockingbird and Anne Frank. Students would benefit by gaining an understand of the time period and I would probably present this background information more effectively if I had it scripted out.

I am excited to start using podcast in my classroom!

November 3 - Podcasts

I have decided to make a pod cast for a recent writing assignment that I assigned to my 7th graders. It is an assignment that I introduced and discussed in class, but also an assignment that requires some participation from their parents. I emailed the parents a brief explanation, but later thought that if I could have attached a quick pod cast, it might have helped clarify any questions or confusion. It also could be useful with so many students absent. I could refer them to the podcast rather than explain it to students individually. The use of pod cast is not something I am familiar with and this is a good introduction to their uses.

As far as Skype goes, I am not clear on how I would use this in my classroom at this time. We have used iChat to talk to my parents. It has been fun for my kids to see Grandma and Grandpa on the computer and it keeps them up to date on the activities in our house.

Here is my podcast:

Digital Video

I decided to create a small video highlighting a northern vacation. I enjoyed learning how to use imovie 9. Here is my digital video. Enjoy!

On-Line Role Play

I chose Judy Jetson as my avatar to capture the future teacher. My position was to be against the question of “Is Google Making us Stupid?” and to promote technology in the classroom. I posed as an English teacher who had been teaching several years. My stance was consistently that Web 2.0 is not going away, so we as educators need to embrace it. I argued that as a current teacher, I need to connect and relate with my students on their playing field to keep them engaged in learning.

Initially, the discussion was heavy in pro roles, which made it hard to get in the discussion. Of the strong players were Richard Jones, Kyle, and Rich Moneybags. All three came on the scene early and held strong to their opinions. I think that being in the early stages of the discussion gave these players a stronger voice. The weaker roles were the ones that came on for the first time during the on-line class. I felt that their voices were lost as there were so many posts being posted at that time. I also think that the roles that had the power were more convincing in developing their characters.

I introduced my character and replied to a few post prior to the on-line class. I additionally, compiled some research (and saved to my laptop) to support my stance. However, at 4:30 (walking in the door from work) I booted up my computer and received a message saying that the computer could not start up and I could try to “restore” any lost information. Thankfully, we have a home computer I was able to use, but all my prepared research was unavailable. This made supporting my argument difficult. It also made me very aware of how unreliable technology can be at times and that our students will inevitably run into the same roadblocks.

My personal beliefs align with the role I was playing. Therefore, I was able to support my argument with all the information I have learned throughout this course. The positive to this was that I was having a computer crisis and I was still able to participate in the discussion. However, it seemed harder to support since so many of the articles I read were pro. I wonder if your argument in a role-play would be stronger if you really had the opposite stance. I also found it more difficult to create a character that was so similar to my real person.

I really like the idea of role-playing and having students take sides on an issue. I think that this would serve as a great pre-writing activity where students could then reflect on the discussion and use the arguments to write persuasively. I also really liked the idea of having students step into the characters in a novel and discuss/debate from that character’s point of view. This gives them an opportunity to establish a “voice” in their writing.

I would implement a few things before trying this in my classroom. One would be to have several posting due dates. I would have liked to see our discussion continue. Therefore, I think if students post by a certain date and then have to post repeatedly over the course of a week or so, it might help mange the discussion. This would also help participants to gather their thoughts and adequately do their research for their counterarguments. I think our students would need that time to research their side effectively. I also really liked the sub-discussion that developed in our class discussion. They helped give the discussion a focus. In addition, it was easier to be heard since there were fewer participants in the smaller discussions.

Overall, I thought the on-line role-play was very engaging and thought provoking. I think that it would serve as great source of collaboration for students and would give them the opportunity to see several sides to an argument.

Wikis

I have to admit that the only experience I have with wikis is when our school district set one up for teachers to collaborate lesson plans - it wasn't used and I lost my password. With that said, I am excited about using a wiki in the classroom. I can think of many uses for them.

One being just a place to organize classroom material for the students. Having each unit up with all the attachments that they would need for that unit. It seems like a place to organize material and I have to keep reminding myself that it is a collaboration tool.

I liked the idea of having students share novels with one another. I have my students read various novels about the Holocaust, but due to time they each can only read one or two. It would be neat to have them summarizing on responding to the novel they read on a wiki that the other students had access to and could learn from. They would all get exposure without reading all the novels.

I also have considered using a wiki for a mythology unit were the students each have to research a Greek god. The sidebar could be the different Greek gods and students could contribute information they have found to the different categories that would be used in a final project.

I think that there would be several challenges, starting with whether or not I could have students access the page from the school computer lab. I also think that it would have to be a graded assignment/expectation to have students editing and adding to a wiki. If it wasn't I worry that it wouldn't get used like the one at my school.

I created an account on PBWikis, but I am not sure how I want to initially organize it or for which idea. I would like my wiki to be set up for my final project, which I keep changing. More to come...

I will share that as I sat here writing this I had an idea. I am currently working on a committee to adopt new text books for Language Arts in our district. Several text book reps. came to present their materials to us last week, but we didn't have time to discuss our thoughts afterwards. The other teachers on the committee are all at different schools...maybe I need a wiki.

My wiki: http://englishz.pbworks.com/

Adirondacks

The pictures I chose to share were all taken in the Adironacks in upstate New York. This is a place were I spend every summer of my childhood. My parents now have a cabin there and I have been able to share my childhood experiences with my husband and children. All of the pictures capture the beauty and essence of the area. I wanted to portray relaxation and fun in the photos. I used my own photos because there weren't pictures of the area in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.

I think using this could be used in the classroom for the students to introduce themselves and where they are from. However, the Creative Commons may be limited for their location. I also think that it could be used to focus on a theme that they are interested in exploring. They could then write about the pictures.

Here is my Voice thread
http://voicethread.com/share/654213/

Week 3- My Vlog

Attached is my first vlog. I found it hard to record myself and I had to start over several times. Hopefully, you learn something more about me.

Week 3 - Digital Concept Map

I am interested in exploring the possibilities of research using the technical tools we have been studying. Attached is my concept map for my final project. There are still details that I need to understand more clearly to be successful at implementing my ideas into my classroom.

MinnPost - Minnesota video-bloggers: the best and the brightest

MinnPost - Minnesota video-bloggers: the best and the brightest

Shared via AddThis

Week 3 - Vlogs

I watched several of the attached vlogs and realized that vlogs can have many different purposes. The one I liked was "2012-The End of the World". It was intended to be informative and had a definite focus. She spoke rapidly throughout the vlog. She opened by throwing out several natural disasters and illness in rapid succession. The image was edited every few seconds, which worked well with the pace of her speaking. Throughout her vlog she used a sarcastic, light tone to inform her audience of a serious issue. The audience is probably anyone interested in this topic or someone following this topic. Since the image was spliced, she continued to enter the frame from different angles (close up, etc.). This keep the viewer interested in the vlog.

What to do with all this information?

I don't know that I have a clear idea for my final project at this moment, but definitely a few initial thoughts. I originally wanted to create a blogging projects where my students would post responses to a piece of literature and then follow and respond to a classmates blog. At this time blogger is not available at my school, however they are creating a school Moodle site. I think that will be a great place to start.

After reading the assignments this week, I am interested in how my students can use all of these new tools to do research. They do a research paper in 8th grade and are required to use internet sources. We talk about a more valid source being a source that is .edu or .gov. Also, a source that has an author and copyright date, etc. I have always warned them against wikipedia because others can add to it and therefore it may not be as reliable. I am beginning to realize that there may be formal sources and collaborative sources that come together in the research process of the 21st century.

I would like to explore the possibility of my students using Delicious or Diigo and tagging to collaborate their research, however I feel that I need to understand how to do this effectively myself before I can teach them how to do this. I did set up a Google Reader, Delicious, and Diigo account and I started adding a few RSS feeds to my Google Reader. I agree with others that sifting through all the information to find what is relevant will be a challenge and could be very time consuming.

Other tools that seem natural to use in the research process are note taking, clustering ideas, and outlining tools. I would like to explore these tools further to see how to incorporate them into a research project.

As far as my our research habits, I am guilty of Google for quick searches and the university library system for formal projects. I do tend to feel that what I find online is more unreliable than what I find at the library. This is an area that I hope to become more familiar with as this course continues.

Week 1 - Digital Writing Blog

I will start by saying that I have never had a blog. I actually never really understood what they were. The use of technology has always intimidated me probably because I didn’t grow up using it regularly. I already feel that my 9 year old is more comfortable than I am with technology. The reservation I need to overcome is the vulnerability of it - you are out there for anyone to read. However, I feel that I have developed a much clearer understanding in the last week of the benefits associated with this technology.

After reading Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, and Podcast, it became obvious that I need to use a blog and become familiar with it before having my students use one. I also realized that there is a lot more to it than just setting up a blog. Parent and student education as well the district restrictions are all aspects that would need to be considered.

The question I keep asking myself is how digital writing will fit into the curriculum or more accurately, how will I change my approach to incorporate digital writing into the curriculum? I think a blog would be an effective way to do journaling. I also think that it would be a useful tool for literature circles. Being able to see what your classmates write and how the teacher responds adds another layer to learning. As I became more familiar and comfortable with the technology, I will hopefully be able to provide more opportunities for my students. At this moment, I see blogging as an enhancement to the writing I currently do in my classroom, but not a replacement. I am curious to see if my thinking changes as I learn more throughout this class.