Weekly reflection-Module 6

I firmly believe that if we hand students iPads, we are also responsible for teaching digital citizenship with a 9-12 systematic approach. Currently our district doesn’t, and I believe that is irresponsible. In my own children’s district, there is a systematic approach in the elementary and middle school and as a parent, I feel as though I can trust that my son is using his electronic device appropriately and responsibly.

This past year, I took a course on digital citizenship which mostly used resources through Common Sense Media. I incorporated a lesson plan in my English class, but at that point it was difficult to know what they knew and didn’t know because we don’t have a district-wide approach. Most of the material through this course was on social networking, the dangers and how to form positive, healthy relationships safely while on-line. 

This past week, I learned some new things as well. I am familiar with the term digital footprint, but the videos on students promoting positive messages through social media enabled me to think differently. I started to consider how I could use social media in my classroom as a way to encourage students to think  outside of their world. Currently, most students use it to socialize with friends, but the potential for it academically is far-reaching.  I was able to express this idea through this week's lesson plan in a way that promotes positively to a student’s digital footprint, while reflecting on their current habits. The other two resources that hit me was the website on “Spread the R Word” because I can say until I am blue in the face that the word is offensive, but this website, with the social media implications, makes more of an impact. In addition, I have avoided using Twitter, even though I have an account, because I don’t quite understand how it works. But the website on “Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags” gave me some insights on how I could use it in my work-life and in school. 

Despite everything I have learned, it doesn’t do much, if it isn’t applied. I can’t just piecemeal it into my classroom. Consequently, like many things I strongly believe in, it takes small steps towards a common goal. First this class, then collaborating with other like minded people, then hopefully incorporating it into the culture of our building. I believe we now have a principle where that kind of action is supported, so perhaps the goal can be realized, and it will become systematically part of our school culture. 

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Weekly reflection-Module 5

Alen November’s article was certainly a rationale for how to create a culture in our schools where students take more responsibility for their own learning, foster a global work ethic and understand how to organize teams of people from around the world to solve complex problems. Although he didn’t specifically mention E-Portfolios, it is certainly something that embodies the school culture he is describing. He had a few helpful suggestions and links for how to do create this culture in an actual classroom.  Dr. Barret’s information on using Google Sites and Google Drive to organize student portfolios enabled me to visualize using them in a classroom setting. Going through the exercise of providing our own artificats enabled me to visualize how I would organize in my classroom, possibly for a final exam experience. I wasn’t sold on Google Sites necessarily, but I did watch the short video on “Google Drive iPad Portfolio” and realized the many options for downloading work students have which they can showcase, including Notability, Explain Everything, Book Creator and iMovie.  By the end of the year, my students will have used each of these programs in English class, and could use them as artifiacts in a portfolio. 

On the Edutopia website, there was an article called “Digital Portfolios Pull Double Duty” and a teacher Martin, believes that preparing digital portfolios can also help students prepare for college, because they can be organized like a job portfolio. Today, when people apply for jobs and college, it is mostly on line and being able to represent knowledge, understanding and student work in a presention that is visually appealing is a useful skill in landing a job. The exercise we did this week where we viewed student E-Portfolios made me realize the challenges of doing this large scale, especially across content areas. While I believe is would be a valuable experience for our students at the high school, it takes so long for change to really happen, that it is doubtful it would happen large scale. Where is could happen is within departments, with the leadership of a department head, or within a program like Learning Alternatives. This week has motivated me to start small scale with E-Portfolios, and use it within my English and possibly Ecology class as a final exam.

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Weekly reflection-Module 4

Collaboration in the workplace and in the school environment is a necessary and important skill, and therefore we need to teach students how to effectively communicate both face to face and on-line. In the article “Preparing 21st Century Students”, there was a quote that stood out to me, “employers note that although oral and written communication are among the top four skills they seek in new hires, all graduates are lacking in these areas”.  Although written communication is stressed in English and other content area classes, oral communication is not.  Oral communication is something that our school should focus on, but we are not. 

One of the most successful ways I have implemented collaboration in my classroom is through project based learning; specifically with our school garden and recycling projects. In both instances, I have had outside community organizations come in and work alongside my students to create change. Although I give them the tools necessary to work towards a common goal, as a group they need to reach the destination. The journey or process is also looked at closely, in addition to the individual roles students play within the larger group. Challenges for PBL have included group dynamics, conflict resolution and lack of attendance. The benefits include students gaining ownership of the project, discovering skills not often developed in other classroom settings, and seeing students problem solve versus repeat back information they think I want to hear for the grade or to just get by. 

The one collaborative tool students have used in the past has been Twitter; however once that group left, it didn’t continue into the next year. Google forms may be one way to communicate with this current group. I found several good ideas looking at the link “79 Ways to use Google Forms”.  Here either myself or other students could create forms to collect data, communicate progress or report out. 

Currently we check in as a group at the start of class. I pose questions to the group about our status in the project and students give feedback. On one of the Edutopia videos this week, “Five Tips for Building Strong Collaborative Learning”,  I saw some collaborative tools an English teacher did with her class, which may work well for this group. Students sit around a big wooden table so that they are all able to see each other. She also has student roles for the discussion including scribe, mapper and moderator. I have never heard of having someone visually map the conversation, but I really want to try this with my group. 

The collaborative activity this week using Explain Anything, was fairly useful. It did force me to play with the tool and brainstorm ways I can use it in my own classroom. Tom and I work closely together physically, so it was easy to add slides and brainstorm lesson ideas.  Steve and I also worked together, but in different areas of the building, and we shared through Google Drive, which took a bit more time, but did work. I did run into some technical difficulty exporting the document. As a collaborative tool, I am not completely sold. I do see how students could express their own understandings and skills using a slideshow. Collaboration is something I enjoy doing in my own workplace and I see the value. I need to continue to develop curriculum where my students are able to collaborate within other content areas besides science. 

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