Technology Play Testing 4-Content Objects

www.commonsensemedia.com

Content Objects

Content objects are can add so much value to the classroom.  In choosing this I wanted to focus on growing my resources and tools in my classroom to share a variety of ways students can learn.  This year my school is collaborating to create student clubs.  Students and parents were given QR codes that linked to a google form.  Students were asked for input on what type of clubs our school should offer.  One of the clubs that will be offered next semester is a Coding Club.  Not knowing much about coding, only through the eyes of my 10 year old son, I am intrigued to know more.  I went to the Common Sense Media website (https://www.commonsensemedia.org) where educators can look up EdTech Reviews and Resources.  This where my search began for different content objects I could potentially use for this club.  On the website you can find top picks from educators and parents and can narrow your search according to grade, subject, and skill.

I chose to explore under Best Picks for Early Childhood STEM learning.  Before diving into different tools the website offered a teaching strategies module to hep teachers bring coding into the classroom.  There were a few I explored before l decided on the content tool I will use with my class.

ScratchJr

ScratchJr app is an intro to programming.

LIKES:  Students who are new to programming can use drag and drop on the ipad screen.  The app uses basic commands that makes creating and problem solving easy.  The app is free!

DISLIKES:  Being an introductory app, students will need teacher guidance and support to begin.

Kodable Class

Kodable class is an app for beginning coders.  I have used this app in my own classroom as a way to teach cardinal directions.  My class loved it!

LIKES:  The program gives students step by step instructions that is helpful for beginners.  It is great for sequencing and students can work at their own pace with the ability to save their work and come back to it.

DISLIKES:  The site can be overwhelming.  There is a lot students can do and students may miss the opportunity to begin due to exploring.  There is a free version which I used with my class, but the paid version has many more options for the app.

These tools could have easily been used and would support the learning that will happen in my classroom with coding.

Code.org

Code.org is the tool I chose to support the learning in the coding club at my school.  The content goals for using Code.org would be using creativity and critical thinking to apply to math and science content. 

This free website has lesson that allow all skill levels to enjoy programming.  The modules begin very basic and students increase their in-depth learning with each module.  The lessons can be chosen based off of student interest and the activities have familiar characters from popular games, like Minecraft.  The website also offers videos from famous people, like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.  In the videos, the connection between the virtual and real world is shown.  For the coding club, teachers are allowed access to monitor and watch what students are working on.  Many teacher reviews claim that it is an "awesome gateway to coding for kids"!  The website overall allows student choice, student pacing, and collaboration.

Technology Play Testing 3-Creativity Tools

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Creativity Tools

Creativity tools are an important addition to classrooms.  When students use creativity tools they are exploring, creating, problem solving, and showing other ways to think.  Traditional paper and pencil tasks in our digital world don't offer the "sparkle" or engaging outlets that these creativity tools can offer.   This week's play testing was to explore some creativity tools that you could use in the classroom that allows students to create and produce something.  Here are three apps I tried out:

1.  Toontastic is a creative storytelling app.

LIKES:  Creativity at its finest.  Students can create a cartoon by selecting characters, setting, the problem, and the solution.  There is a wide variety of characters and settings.  The finished product looks more like a movie than a retell of a story!

DISLIKES:  In order to get all the bells and whistles the paid version is the way to go.  Students are very limited with the free version and will loose interest quickly.

2.  Educreation is an interactive whiteboard and screen cast app.  

LIKES:  This is a free app I have used this in my classroom.  First grade students can easily take a picture of work and voice record their thinking about their work.  This is a fun tool to use for feedback between peers or for hesitant writers.

DISLIKES:  Not many bells and whistles (which may not be a bad thing).  Not visually as stimulating as some of the other tools reviewed.

3.    Telestory is a reality video camera where students can record their own TV show.

LIKES:  Quick and easy for young students to learn and manipulate.  Fun and engaging way to tell stories at the click of a button.

DISLIKES:  Story structure may need to be tweaked or written ahead of time to include all story elements and details.

The Telestory app would fit into the TPACK model by embedding it into the content and pedagogy of the classroom.  In my first grade classroom students are expected to leave first grade able to retell a story in their own words with detail.  Using the Telestory app, the learning outcome is for students to retell using detail.  The activity would be to read a familiar story that a child has reread multiple times and can retell without using the book for support.  Using Telestory, the student can create a TV show of the retell using their own props and settings.

Telestory would be a great creativity tool for use in a variety of classrooms.  I can see using it in my classroom for our weather unit and having students create a meteorologist report or using it to report on the development of our chicks in the incubator during our life cycles unit in Science.  The ways to use this fun app are endless!

Technology Play Testing 2: Eportfolio Tools

Eportfolio Tools

Sixteen years ago as I wrapped up my final semester for my Bachelor's of Science degree I began assembling my enormous 3 inch white binder with a picture window in the front.  I used the Microsoft Office XP program in the computer lab on campus because it had a color printer attached and created a table of contents, my teaching philosophy decorated with cute clip art, and a number of other random tidbits I had learned in my education classes.  The crowing glory was artifacts from lessons I had taught in the child development lab and the counting book I created using baby blue card stock and bear stamps!  This was my portfolio that I would use to take into interviews with principals as I hunted for a teaching position.  Little did I know then that this portfolio was not me as a teacher or a person, but merely a collection of work I made for a grade.  

Eportfolios now have the biggest advantage of being digital.  Anyone, anywhere can access your portfolio.  It sure beats the traditional binder with papers assembled into neat page protectors.

Eportfolios, like non-digital portfolios still aim to deliver the same message; a collection of evidence to show you as a learner.  Students, professionals, and life long learners can all benefit from a showcase of evidence tailored especially for them.

When I began exploring Eportfolios it was more out of necessity.  Last year, our school district rolled out the new T-TESS evaluation system.  Included in this new evaluation was an opportunity for teachers to be appraised not just on a specific 45 minute lesson, but to showcase evidence of learning using an Eportfolio.  On campus we have a Technology specialist that meets with teachers to design lessons and model new ways to approach technology.  Not knowing much about digital portfolios I set up a meeting with her for help on creating an Eportfolio.  After looking at several types of digital tools, like Weebly and Wiki I decided to use Google Sites.  Knowing that my school district is a Google Apps for Education and that all students are now being required to have an Eportolio made my decision easy.  The new format that Google Sites is using for Eportfolios is also so user friendly, even for the ones of use that would still care around a 3 inch binder!
Using Google Sites also has some affordances that are very important to me.  Most important, Google Sites can be made public or private to fit your needs.  The privacy laws state that information is not shared or sold to third parties.  As a GAFE school, I can create an Eportfolio using the same tools and features as students in my classroom.  Google Sites can also be used as assessment; both formal and summative.
When considering having students use an Eportfolio in first grade my eyes twitch a little.  In the past we have used See Saw as our Eportfolio.  It is very user friendly for 6 year olds and parents have easy access.  Now as I begin to research more about Eportfolios I am beginning to think that this school year I may still use See Saw but link that data into Google Sites.  Giving first graders a jump start into Google Sites, when they will be required to use it next year, might be a best practice.  I would of course begin slow, like starting with lots of modeling and practice on how to log into Google using their school provided email.  Then as I model how I created my Eportfolio my students can at the bare minimum create  a homepage.  For more extension activities I would allow students to extend beyond just adding a home page to their portfolio.

I have included a snip below that my school district uses as an Eportfolio rubric for students in grades 3-5.

Credit: Northwest ISD ePortfolios

Below is my link to my beginning stages of my Eportfolio.  This will be developed over time as I begin to collect, select, reflect, and connect within this learning journey.

https://sites.google.com/nisdtx.org/brookewoods


References:
*EPortfolio Wordle.  Digital Image.  https://hacklibraryschool.com/2012/03/30/eportfolio/.  30 March 2012.
*Rubric Grades 3-5.  Digital Image.  www.nisdtx.org

Technology Play Testing 1

So you wanna make a blog?  Where to start?  What to share?  How to do it?  There are many sites that offer free blog space, like Blogger and Wordpress.  There is Edublogs for educational blogging for both educators and students.  I have chosen to use Blogger as my blog host is because I have both a personal blog and a professional blog through this host.  I feel the most comfortable using this host because I know its features and it quick access to creating a blog.

What is a Blog?  A blog is an online diary or journal.  The entries in a blog are usually updated frequently, if not updated daily.  This style of writing shows the personality of the author and is in nature informal.  A blog is someones written work, whereas a Vlog my be a video diary or journal.  On my personal page I have made several Vlog's that have been uploaded to my blog.  I look at a blog as what I once stored under my bed with a lock and tiny key as a child.  In our current world people tend to share openly their thoughts that may in the past have been put on paper.  The computer screen acts as a barrier or level of protection when sharing about ourselves.

What are the features of a blog?  Within a blog there are many choices to add to your blog.  These features in Blogger are known as gadgets.  Gadgets can include but not limited to posts, links, video bars, polls, lists, virtual pets, and a profile of the blogger.

What affordances can a blog offer?  A blog offers a  different approach to writing.  Students and teachers can interact virtually using this avenue.  They can contain many variants of media, including audio and video.

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Content:  In my classroom, first graders in Science are expected to observe and record life cycles.  Our first grade team sets up a blog that students use to record and summarize the life cycle of a chick and give update each day on the development of the eggs.  At the end of the 6 week unit, students then upload their recordings, observations, and classwork into their SeeSaw account that is linked to their report card for parents to view.  Our Project Based Learning extension is for each student to create a chicken coop with certain parameters that students mus take into account when creating.  The creation process is very open ended; some students will physically build a coop to house chicks in, while others have designed them through drawings and blue prints, and other students have used Minecraft to create a chicken coop inside their Minecraft world.

Pedagogy:  According to Shulman in the article, Those Who Understand:  Knowledge Growth in Teaching (Shulman L. , 1986), is transforming the content and subject matter to show multiple ways to represent it, and the teacher can adapt the instructional materials to adjust to the students’ prior knowledge.  This pedagogy is so vital to student learning.  We know that a room full of students will have a room full of ways they learn best.  By adjusting the lesson and planning various ways of learning, you will meet the needs of all students and each child can feel successful in their own learning.  Through this activity based on the life cycle, each child could find a way to showcase their learning and be able to express it in different ways through technology.

Technology:  Within the framework of this learning activity, students were able to justify their thinking by first learning the fundamentals of the learning objective and through observation.  Students then had the blog opportunity to journal, add images, upload chicken coop designs, and embed their learning into their own eportfolio using See Saw.  This lesson provided students to be the authors, illustrators, and most importantly the creators of their learning.

Using a blog in the classroom has many benefits.  The first benefit I can think to use in my classroom would be to use it as a writing tool.  I have found that many children have an aversion to traditional writing, using pencil and paper.  I can see giving the option to use a blog format would increase writing and give children a added space to share.  Students, especially in early childhood, love the idea of being the "test pilot" for something new in the classroom.  Using a blog can help with spelling errors that are worrisome to some children and I can see how a child could video themselves and add it to the blog as their writing.

Using a blog can prevent some challenges in the classroom as well.  I can see with younger students that this would take some time to practice and would be very teacher driven to begin with.  As with any technology used in the classroom, appropriate usage and rules would need to be managed and procedures would need to be put in place in order for blogging to be an effective tool in the classroom.

I believe blogs in the classroom can be a valuable tool and enhance the learning of both the student and the teacher.  I look forward to incorporating this tool more into my classroom.

References:
Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.
 *Blog image:  http://www.holemanlandscape.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/iStock_000008508482XSmall.jpg
*Top Reasons image:  https://goo.gl/images/r7PR5P