1.0 to 2.0

In our summer class, I came across an interactive website that utilized details from William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, as a review of specific plot elements. In my original lesson plans, students were working with the material on the website after having read the novel in full.

For many students, the novel is a challenging read. The characters can be hard to imagine and the symbols intricate and not always easy to understand/analyze. If I were able to implement this lesson as using web 2.0 tools, I can imagine the students would better be able to interact with the material.  

In the classroom realm, I imagine implementing blogs as students read through the text. As they read, students may be asked to blog in response to a specific writing prompt that also analyzes the text. Even if I don't have students personally blog about the text, I could post a thread on edmodo, a site currently being used in my classroom, and require students to respond with their analysis. 

While the already created game for Lord of the Flies on Nobelprize.org is well created, it is also limited. By extending the lesson using web 2.0 capabilities, such as blogging or responding to discussion threads, I am able to further my design and engage students further. The text will be given a chance to have more meaning and students are given an extended opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the novel's plot, characters, and symbols. 

That's a wrap!

I'm a little late to the blog for this past entry and I think much of my delay is my thought process as I consider our topic of digital video editing. As an English teacher, I see so much potential for using this technology in my classroom. My fear is, however, that I won't find the correct affordance and the process will end up being a recipe for disaster.

In the past, I've taken the time to teach my students film analysis techniques. Unfortunately with the year of snow we're having, I just don't have time to fit it into the curriculum. In the future, though, if I'm able to spend some time teaching my students the benefits of film and how a story can be masterfully told through images and digital video editing, I can easily see how I can implement this technology in my room. 

In the past, my lesson entailed reading the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and then watching the Showtime movie with the same title. One of the difficulties in transferring this novel to film is that throughout the entire novel, we are provided a first person perspective of primarily internal narration. As we watch the movie, students are tasked with watching the film for diagetic and non-diagetic sounds, camera angles, use of zoom, use of shadow, and numerous other techniques to analyze the impact of the images on the screen as they are retold as a story.  

What I understand as a designer is that my students are more than capable of completing this task, but also doing so as advanced learners. If I am able to channel these same skills and create my students as directors, I can see turning any literary piece we read into a scene or short with the help of digital video editing. What I need now...tiny little directors chairs and the funding to begin my own film school! 

Movie Monday

This year, my schedule worked out that I am only teaching 1 academic level 9th grade English course. In the past, I've had at least two sections of the course.  Somehow, it worked out that I was left with only the one this year. I was little bummed, as prepping for one section of one course can be frustrating, but I decided that I would go ahead and make the most of it.

The class happens to also be a team taught class and after talking with my team teacher, we decided that we should develop a routine for the students. While I always start with some sort of warm-up or journal with all of my classes, I wanted to do something different. I wanted there to be a specific expectation for each day of the week. In a school that uses A/B Block scheduling, I can't do this on days that I have sections of the same prep on different days. With only one section, however, I felt at an advantage. After thinking for some time, I decided that every day of the week would be a different type of warm-up.  Mondays would be movie days, Tuesdays would revolve around a topic, Wednesdays would be a warm-up to review material we are studying, Thursdays we would discuss three curriculum details, and Fridays students would get a chance to free write in their journals. The schedule has worked out really well and has allowed for a very specific and comfortable routine.  At the same time, however, students still are given a variety in their day. The days they most look forward to aren't necessarily Fridays anymore, instead, they may be Mondays.

Movie Monday has turned out to be a success. I don't show a full movie, but instead take what we've learned in the ITS program about integrating TV/VIDEO into the classroom and apply it to my lessons.  My team teacher and I find clips that are either relative to the content we are studying or provide inspiration and we then share the videos with our class. The clips are generally no longer than 10 minutes and our class then spends time responding to prompts that we create in conjunction with the material the video contains. After watching the video, students spend time independently reflecting upon the prompts in their journals and we often debrief as a class. Students have been very open to the concept and are fully engaged as we watch the "movie." I think that really, the students appreciate a chance for the use of a different medium in the class. 

What I've begun to wonder, however, is what is the best way to share out after movies? Since I already use edmodo in my classroom, I'm beginning to think that it would be neat to have the students respond the prompts in an open forum instead of in an isolated and personal space. While reflecting in their journals is effective, one of the purposes of the videos is to hear others' thoughts. Students are often hesitant to share out, therefore, I wonder if a social networking site may be more their speed. As we well know, our students are more than comfortable writing in an open forum in that manner. What if I prompted students about the video in this manner?

At lunch today, we were discussing the 1 to 1 device concept in LCPS. According to our TRT, the hope for next year is instead a BYOD that we've been reading out in our ITS program. The WIFI network is often jammed with traffic and next  year the plan seems to be to increase the bandwidth and encourage students to bring in the devices they already own. If that happens next year, and I maintain the schedule/routine that has worked so well for me this year, I can see transferring the movie reflections to a social networking site. In the meantime, my students will continue to sit back and enjoy the show. 

To network or not to network...that is the question!

In our current state, social networking so often gets a negative rep. As a high school teacher, I know why. I am appalled at some of the drama I've seen and heard about on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I personally have been jaded by the sites of Twitter and SnapChat, but refuse to bow down to the evils of the sites. Last year, I had a student tweet completely inappropriately about me and it turned into an ordeal. It was upsetting, unnerving, and needless to say, completely unnecessary. I've never loved the idea of Twitter, especially after seeing some of the perils as my high schoolers bring me the drama it contains. This incident only added to my dislike of the site. This year, a similar incident occurred with SnapChat and my only saving grace in both scenarios was individual students who reported the inappropriate postings. As upsetting as the experiences were for me, I cannot discount the benefits of social networking and their capabilities in our schools. The sites have their demons, but I can fully recognize the positive impact social networking is capable of within the realm of education. 

With technology literally at our students' fingertips, we cannot ignore the powers of social networking. What me must realize as educators, however, is that we must model the proper and appropriate ways to utilize the tool. With Edmodo, that is possible. I was introduced to the social networking site a few years ago and integrated it into my classroom this year. I very slowly began to use the site to remind students of upcoming quizzes, post worksheets so that students could access them at home, and send messages to students who were missing assignments. This year my knowledge of the tool has grown and I've begun to use it much more frequently.  In my Creative Writing class, I am able to briefly introduce a lesson and then send my students on their own as they navigate through assignments and notifications I've posted on Edmodo. The site has allowed my students to use their prior knowledge of social networking in order to guide them educationally. There was, of course, a learning curve that took place. 

When I first introduce Edmodo to my students, I know that I must take time to let them play around. With this in mind, I spend more time than needed in the computer lab to introduce the tool. Being well versed on the site's capabilities, though, I know that I don't have to worry about some of the issues that often come with social networking such as cyber-bullying. Edmodo allows the teacher absolute control of her students as they work on their class page and only have access to direct messages to the teacher or the whole class. As the moderator, I'm able to delete and manage all student postings and even passwords. After the first week or so, it isn't necessary to monitor my students because they learn how to properly use the tool and begin to do so without much assistance at all. 

Edmodo isn't the only tool I've integrated into my Creative Writing class. Pinterest is also a great tool for my students to use as motivation for their creative flow. Unfortunately, the site has been blocked for students, as have many social networking sites. I understand the concern for the site being blocked because of the vast amount of images the site contains, however, if I am encouraging to use the site for specific reasons, shouldn't I be the judge of it is acceptable to be used in my classroom? 

Going forward, I want to consider ways that I can acceptably use social networking in my classroom. Edmodo works great and when Pinterest is working, it works well, also. But are these the only sites that I can utilize? With the plethora of sites available, I can't imagine those are my only possibilities. What I need to figure out, though, is if the learning curve is worth my time in what I'll be able to get out of the tool, as well as what are the affordances I must meet with the tools, and really if students will benefit from using social networking in the classroom.  

You talkin' to me?

Before being in the ITS program, the concept of podcasts were very foreign to me.  Sure, the term is one that has slowly made a name for itself in our culture, but I never fully understood what a podcast truly was.  After some investigation, I discovered that podcasts used to be referred to as "audioblogging." That makes absolute sense to me, especially after learning about blogs and their uses.   But, what I still wanted to figure out was why the concept of a PODcast.  Cast makes sense... like a newscast or a broadcast, but pod? My common sense tells me that Apple may have something to do with it. Seems very interesting to me that an entire concept of technology has been taken over by a company such as Apple, but since so many people began to listen to these RSS feeds on iPods, the language shifted to begin calling them podcasts.

Podcasts are everywhere on the internet.  If you google podcasts, there are about 66,700,000 results. Imagine once you link to all of those sites how many podcasts you could actually access! Just navigating through, I found some really neat podcasts from NPR and am afraid I could spend hours just basking in the glory of all those words.  What's so neat about podcasts is that you can search for anything and find an audioblog that doesn't take more than 15 minutes (on average) to listen to! Some are even less than 5 minutes- perfect time for a class or even just a busy teacher.

When I first began searching for podcasts, I felt a little lost.  The more I meandered, though, I realized it really wasn't that much harder than a google search and being more exact in my search. I figured out it was pretty easy to find free podcasts through iTunes.  So often, I hear podcasts advertised in different realms.  My church even publishes sermons on their website, clearly easily accessible. 

Here's my struggle, though. I see the freedom of podcasts and I understand their benefits, but how do I implement podcasts effectively in my classroom? The learning curve that it will take for me to teach my students how to draft a script, record, and publish a podcast could potentially take weeks. It will take even longer to just get in to a computer lab during testing "season"! When we worked on podcasts with our groups in the ITs cohort, even that was a learning curve. I'm imagining 30 9th grade students clustered around me trying to figure it out....and my brain officially feels like it will explode. 

What if, however, students already knew how to create podcasts and I could implement them seamlessly into my lesson? Or why not use the benefit of Audacity, that many students already use in their foreign language classes, and take it just a step further? I need to remember, too, that these kids are netgenners and the time it will take to teach them anything this "technologically advanced" really won't be that difficult.  The challenge now...what should my students create podcasts about that would really supplement my curriculum? 

Wiki-who? Wikis work!

The world of wikis used to be such an abstract concept to me.  When I heard wiki, inevitably I would think of Wikki Stix that I used to play with when I was little.

Does anyone remember these? Of course, that is not at all what wikis are... but a few months ago, ask me and that's what I would have gushed about on the subject of this sticky web of creativity.

Of course I had been exposed to the now infamous Wikipedia, but if I had to define what a wiki was, well forget it.  After going through the ITS program and discussing the benefits of Wikipedia, it has completely changed my perspective.  In the past, if students asked if they could use Wikipedia for sources or for a reference, I would respond with a head shake, eye roll, and absolutely not- it isn't a reliable source.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  When Dawn told us that Wikipedia actually employed fact checkers and their sites could certainly be used as resources, I realized I needed to change my stuck in the mud way of thinking.

The world of wikis, a world set in web 2.0 and set up as a collaborative site, may be fairly new to the field of education.  The more I learn, however, the more I realize that wikis are an excellent tool to use in the classroom.  As an English teacher, I do recognize that there would be limitations for creating a wiki that was really the most appropriate affordance could get dicey.  Although, as I consider the possibilities for implementation, my mind reels with the various ways I could introduce wikis in the classroom.

In an ideal world, I could introduce a lesson on grammar, literary terms, or plot details and allow my students to collaborate and contribute their knowledge base.  I really like how we, as ITSers, have been working together to complete the ITSOPEDIA pages and implement our skill sets.  The same format could easily take place in my classroom.  Additionally, as students add facts, edit details, and improve the elaboration, they could also add connections to the literary works we read in class.  Essentially, the wiki could be a asynchronous tool that the students complete to build so many literary skills.

As a designer, I have struggled with ways to accurately assess students in order to provide meaningful feedback.  My school has worked with the implementation of formative and summative assessments and the world of wikis only adds another perspective to the conversation.  Wikis would be an excellent tool to support any unit plan that students would need numerous formative assessments to prepare them for their summative assessment.  Novels, for example, have so many layers of intricacy and creating small groups who are responsible for different skills sets within the unit would be such a different way to approach the material.  Wikis allow the educational world to transcend the classroom and bring students fully into web 2.0.

Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about...

So often I watch my students engage in hearty conversations and sit back and smile at their ability to discuss so freely. Of course, sometimes these conversations aren't the discussions I foresee coming, but I am continually impressed with the depth of their contributions. Just today, I started a lesson with my students as in introduction to the play Twelve Angry Men.

The students haven't been told yet that we are moving forward to begin the play, but instead I introduced the concept of bias to them. After taking time to look at images and being told to note their observations, we led quickly into how our biases impact all of our viewpoints. Students very quickly chimed in and enthusiastically voiced their opinions on how our biases are developed. I was thrilled at their observations, but at the same time saddened that I was the only one being able to hear their highly intelligent perspectives.

Thinking about it now, it would be such a great opportunity to have my students continue their thoughts after a lesson has "ended." I know that after I leave class, my brain is still reeling with ideas and I would love to imagine that my students have the same experience. Class today ended in perfect timing with the bell ringing as soon as I posed a very deep concept to my students.  I saw in so many of their eyes that there was a genuine A-HA moment happening. I was giddy with excitement and cannot wait to see them again to hear their reactions.

But what if I didn't have to wait? What if I created a blog that was a venue for my classes to continue the discussion well after we left the school building? My students and parents have shared that conversations that stem from class discussion are happening around the dinner table, but I am not privy to the continued banter. If I had a blog that allowed for an open forum of discussion, I would be able to hear all the thoughts that are now just getting lost in their teenage brains.

Maybe I don't quite yet know what form a blog such as this would look like, but I do know that so often my students are leaving me with excellent concepts mulling around in their brains and I never get to salvage those musings. In Richardson's Blogs, WIkis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, he makes the point that blogs act as ". . . an audience for . . . ideas." In classes of 30 students, it is rare for me to hear every opinion of every student.  If, however, students were able to leave class and continue their conversation in individual blogs, I would become their audience. 

Obviously, Richardson does discuss the need to scaffold the implementation of blogging, but the ideal would be students independently blogging. Initially, I could take baby steps and work my students into the concept. If I started a blog for my classes, I could require each student to respond a certain number of times or even to a certain prompt.  A prompt could be as simple as, What did you think about after the bell rang today? 

While a discussion based blog is certainly plausible for my classroom, Richardson's notion that students ". . . could be asked to reflect and build on previous ideas, incorporate feedback from readers, synthesize readings from a number of different sources, and advances new ideas or interpretation of the topic" is intriguing. If students were able to reflect in such an open forum, imagine the possibilities of the discussion. My giddiness as the bell rang today doesn't have to suspend mid-air and slowly dissipate as the hours tick on until I have to wait to see my students again. No- my giddiness could continue as I read all of the detailed discussion points my students blogged about into the night. Not only that, but I could sit and marvel as my students comment on each others' blogs. Even better, I could be thrilled to see that my students were discussing the points we raised in class with other classes! I would not longer have to think silently to myself, "Gee, I wish block __ could have heard that point!" Instead, students would be "hearing" their peers as their blogs flowed with brilliance! Sigh, a girl can only hope. I wholeheartedly agree with Richardson that " . . . Weblogs can play an important role in [my] classroom." 

But the big question is...where to start?