Today is the official ‘Earth Day‘ and I just wanted to say Happy Earth Day to everyone! Hope you are doing your part in taking care of our planet!
Lets not forget everyday is Earth Day… so take care out there! ;)
Feel free to test your eco-knowledge and see how much you know about the environment here.
Ttfn.
: )
In ECMP 455, we were asked to chose a collaboration partner and I was paired up with Jennifer Swanson and fellow classmate Brandee Braaten. Working with both of them was a great experience! I’m glad we had the opportunity to research the importance of Digital Footprints. It was an exciting and new experience to teach online to her 8th grade class in De Pere, WI. Brandee and I found a ton of useful information on digital footprints that will be great for our own classrooms one day. And Jennifer seemed to be very pleased with what we came up with. I hope I will be able to work with her again!
Brandee and I would like to Skype in with her class again once finals are over so we can talk with the students about Canada, etc… as well as hear some more about where they live. These are mine and Brandee’s previous posts on what we have done….
Collaborative Projects-Final Post
Ttfn!
Over the semester in my ECMP 455 class, a question was proposed that really got me thinking…
“In what ways do we communicate EFFECTIVELY with each other in the world today?”
We need to rethink the way in which educators are teaching students. Visual aspects of learning have become a major influence on the way students are able to learn and retain information. I think technology and the crucial part it plays in many people’s lives is a huge part of why Visual Literacy is so important for us educators to implement into the classrooms
(and future classrooms). When it comes to PowerPoint in particular, these are some of the aspects we have learned about that I feel are really important…
Elements of good design:
1. White/negative space. (Idea of filling up the entire slide is a bad habit –too much information at once. Like the saying says, a picture can be worth a thousand words if you pick something meaningful; the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text.)
2. Font and Colour. (Recognize they matter but still use default settings. Is there meaning in the font? Readability? Sans Serif Font versus Serif Font; bigger is better, what you do should be intentional; fonts on images..is it readable?)
3. Focus on the story. (The thing that your trying to create; everything should be intentional and well thought out)
4. Bullet points aren’t necessary. (According to Cliff Atkinson, “Bullet points on a screen make information harder to understand, not easier. The core purpose of communication is to cohere: to coalesce fragments of information back together
into a single understanding. That’s the most difficult task of communicating. And it’s actually the origin of the word
communication: to “make common”, or to bring together. Bullet points can do many things, but they do not cohere information. In fact, they do the opposite—they fragment understanding into little pieces. Break any topic into a title, sub-headings and bullet points, and you’re de-communicating, because you’re not helping to bring a single idea together.”)
5. Study Exemplars. (TED talks, etc. You can always learn something from other people whether it is good or bad)
6. C.C.- creative commons images (No Google or clip art; credit photos and/or don’t be scared to use your own photos either)
7. You are the presentation , not your slide
s. (Slides should be guidance to what you want to talk about. Keep slides to the point)
Those are the things I believe are most important when creating PowerPoints. Feel free to leave a comment with more ideas or additional information to what I have already posted. Thanks!
Ttfn.
After all our research, Brandee and I finally got to present our presentation to Jennifer Swanson’s 8th grade class. We began the project a few weeks ago when we got this assignment in ECMP 455. We emailed back and forth with Jennifer many times discussing ideas and asking questions on what she wanted us to do. After Brandee and I met together a few times, we finally put together enough information to show Jennifer. Last week we Skyped in and showed her our ideas while she gave us some feedback. Then, on Monday afternoon we went into Elluminate (thanks to Dean!) and uploaded our Powerpoint and got links ready to throw in the chat box. All the students and Jennifer signed in before we first Skyped in again to introduce ourselves to the class. Jennifer wanted us to do this before hand because her students had never used Skype before. After we introduced ourselves we went back in Elluminate and began talking to the students about Digital Footprints. It was a great experience, and we learned a lot throughout the process. If you would like to take a listen to our session you can do so here. Jennifer was kind enough to send us feedback the students gave, which I will put at the end of this post. I found it rather entertaining that they thought we had an accent. I never really thought we would sound different to people only from Wisconsin, but we did! Haha. I agree that we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to present our ideas (because we had a hard time finding a time that worked for everyone). Hopefully, after finals are done we can Skype in again and talk with the class about our country and home town so they have a chance to ask us any questions they have about Canada, etc. You can also read Brandee’s blogs on the experience here. Thanks again Jennifer for everything! : ) Ttfn.
From Jennifer:
I asked them to give “constructive criticism” – one positive, and one thing that you could work on.
Comments from the kids:
· They gave a lot of information about tracks that can be left behind. They explained every question that we had. They commented on questions we asked in the box. I liked the Skype thing.
· I enjoyed using the chat room, I think that they presented good information. I think that they could improve on their fluency.
· They spoke very well. They were educated and knew of what they were saying. They were friendly to everyone.
· They were prepared and knew what they were doing. I think they need to talk more about stuff; they went fast.
· Good job on the presentation with all the facts. Maybe slow down a little bit, they talked too fast.
· I thought they did good presenting but sometimes they just said, “um yah” and had a weird pause. I really liked it; a little too fast.
· I enjoyed the fact that they explained things well, but they didn’t over explain things. They could improve on not talking off of the slides as much.
· Organized; speak more clearly.
· I enjoyed the YouTube videos. My favorite was the did you know video. Elluminate was cool. They could work on maybe explain some stuff in more detail like the stuff that is most important. I also think we could have seen them on video the whole time instead of just listening to them.
· I liked the videos and PowerPoint.
· I liked how they answered our questions and kept it interesting. They could have worked on talking a little better. It was hard for me to understand them sometimes.
· I liked all the videos and now know what a digital footprint is. I would’ve liked more things to do.
· They had lots of cool videos which I liked. When they read the thing off the screen they should have not read it word for word and had pictures.
Overall, they REALLY enjoyed the presentation. I think our time crunch was tough…it would’ve been nice to go a little slower but there was nothing we could’ve done about that. The talking comments made me giggle – although you don’t have much of an accent, I think it was just enough to throw them off a couple times.
I thought you both did an excellent job. Thank you for compiling all of this information for my class. I look forward to using parts of this during my other 8th grade sections. Have a great summer! If you ever want any other technology opportunities through my class, let me know. I would be glad to work with you again!
Jennifer Swanson
Thank you so much to Michelle Bourgeois for taking the time to answer some of my questions about using technology in the classroom! Here are the responses I received after sending her my questions!
Hello Joni,
Best of luck in your continued studies! I began my teaching career as an elementary teacher of grade 5 in Louisiana over 20 years ago. I think you’ll find working with younger students is such a joy – seeing the world through their eyes means you’ll learn something new every day.
Questions:
1. How and what technology do you use (in the classroom)? Favourite(s)?
Regardless of the hardware or software I choose to use, there are a couple of areas where technology provides us with expanded opportunities:
A. As a tool to make connections and facilitate conversations within and beyond the classroom.
Some of my favorite projects:
Art Portfolios using Voice Thread – http://voicethread.com/share/85264/ and http://voicethread.com/share/261474/ In the first example, the class worked together to select 1-2 pieces of work from their portfolio that year, reflect on their selection and offer feedback to one another. The next year, the teacher opened the feedback process to a global audience and students received feedback from many sources. It was a great opportunity for students to understand that there are others outside the classroom who are interested and paying attention to their work.
Student blogging – http://blogs.stvrain.k12.co.us/potter/ This is a simple idea, but in Mrs. Potter’s class, students spend a few minutes at the end of the day summarizing their day and posting it on a classroom blog.
B. As a tool to synthesize understanding and make connections between concepts in ways that are beyond the basic “write a report”
Chaucer Space – In English class, students are asked to read Chaucer – the middle english and arcane references make it difficult for high school students to struggle through. Their teacher had them translate a passage (which is what she had used as their project every year for the last 10+ years) but then used a wiki to have students create “myspace” style pages for the pilgrims. http://chschaucer.wetpaint.com/page/Wife+MySpace+Blibbey
Great Expectations – http://chsgreatex.wetpaint.com/ – in a related project with a class of below-grade high school readers, the teacher had students take the role of characters in the book Great Expectations and have students write letters to one another.
C. As a tool for student creativity and self expression
Some of my favorite projects are from students who’ve shared their talents and thoughts such as the examples on my digital storytelling wiki – http://beyonddigitalstorytelling.wetpaint.com/page/Story+Projects Giving students access to digital cameras, microphones and other tools for media creation is powerful and something I’d love to see happening more. Other examples are a project between a class in Florida and a student podcaster in Nebraska as they talked about winter in their part of the country – http://www.schools.manatee.k12.fl.us/261FSNYDER/winterinflorida10/ and TheStudentCreative project.
2. What technology have you found most useful and not very useful? If possible an example/specific incident when something worked and one that didn’t?
I’m a fan of tools like wikis and blogs as well as simple and powerful creativity tools like the iLife suite (iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie, etc). To me, what makes a tool useful is when the entry point is low but the ceiling of what you can do with it is high. I’m not particularly fond of systematic learning programs such as SuccessMaker and other automated learning programs, especially when they become the de facto function of technology labs.
One of the best-worst examples I’ve seen is a grant that funded carts of laptops for selected classrooms in grades K-5. For two years, the teachers worked in collaborative teams to develop activities where students were creating media, writing, publishing, and generally constructing artifacts to demonstrate knowledge on a daily basis. Initial data showed gains in student scores in both reading and writing. However, in year 3, the district purchased a SuccessMaker license and mandated that each student spend at least 30 minutes per day using these supplemental instruction tools. As a result, the classroom laptop carts were reallocated to be used as machines to support SuccessMaker content delivery and labs were booked daily with the same. The ability of teachers and students to use computers to create, communicate and collaborate went from a daily integrated practice to something that happened rarely. Students hated the mandated time and damage to machines skyrocketed. In general, student scores on standardized tests made similar gains – no great leaps were seen.
3. Why do you think a lot of teachers don’t use technology in the classroom? And is there enough information/awareness for teachers to use technology effectively? How did you get your start with integrating it into the classroom?
There are a couple of things that I think hold teachers back. First is time – developing activities with new instructional tools can be time consuming. And if they don’t have access to the tools as they plan (I’m a big proponent of laptops for teachers), they’re less likely to thing of technology as a part of their regular instructional toolset. Second is lack of knowledge – if a teacher hasn’t had much experience in using a tool, they’re less likely thing about its instructional uses. Thirdly, I think lack of regular access to equipment can be a hindrance. If a teacher has to plan weeks in advance in order to check out one of only a few projectors in her school or if computer lab access only happens when it’s “your turn”, then the magic of using technology to support learning as it happens isn’t possible. Finally, I think the lack of support is a big hindrance both from the management of equipment and from the lack of collaborative supports to think through lesson design which incorporate technology. I’ve seen great teachers with great activities swear off of technology use because they’ve been burned once too often with stuff that doesn’t work, is blocked, or is generally too tough to work around the restrictions placed by well-meaning IT support staff.
Saying all that, I think that I’m on the fence as to whether teachers have enough information and awareness. The info is out there – but do they know where to look? The tools are available – but can they find and learn to use them? In my current role in instructional technology at a district, I worry about whether I do enough to support teachers – it’s partially their responsibility to ask, but do I communicate well and often to pique their curiosity and to encourage them to explore? And with 2 instructional technologists supporting 1400 teachers at 50 schools, how much can we do?
When I graduated from university, I had one class on integrating instructional technology under my belt – it taught us how to make transparencies for an overhead projector and how to use a thermofax machine. This was back in the mid-80s and so technology as an instructional tool was something that was just beginning to be considered. I was lucky enough to land a job in a district where the math department was very interested in technology integration. With the district’s math coordinator, I wrote grants to support the addition of 6 computers to my classroom, along with a modem and software such as KidPix. My students collaborated with another school across town (there were only two of us with access to “the Internet” in the district – and by the internet, I mean a selection of dialup bulletin boards and one another…)
So, my technology experiences didn’t come from formal instruction. It came from the fact that I realized students wanted and needed tools for creating, exploring, and sharing. Crayons, markers, paper, clay, math manipulatives and the like were great physical tools, but by adding technology, I saw kids who didn’t think of themselves as artists or writers or mathematicians able to experience learning at a level that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
4.What are your thoughts on the use of cell phones in the classroom? Do you think they are beneficial in the learning process? Why or why not?
As with any technology, I’d say it depends. What are the learning outcomes you’re trying to reach? What are the types of activities and interactions you’re looking to create? I’ve seen great uses of cell phones by teachers who use tools such as wiffiti and polleverywhere to create opportunities for student feedback and interaction. I’ve seen teachers who help students learn to use their phones to organize and prioritize tasks and become better managers of their time. I’ve also seen the power of allowing students to communicate directly with one another as they text and email one another for support in their learning. But, all of these require that the types of instruction happening in a classroom change significantly. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve seen teachers who are completely unaware that their students are videotaping class misbehavior and texting answers to questions as they stand in front and lecture or sit at their desks while students are supposed to be silently working.
Banning any tool seems silly – but that doesn’t mean that they’re appropriate at all times. I really, really want to see teachers and students spending time talking about how they use specific tools and helping students to learn how to self manage their behaviors. One of the things that scares me the most is the that by banning/blocking/forbidding specific uses, we’re not helping students learn that skill.
5. I saw you use Twitter…how has it helped you connect with other educators? Do you find it useful? Why or why not?
I do use Twitter often. It’s a place to connect with educator friends I’ve made across the country and to get a feel for what’s going on in other places. I love the fact that it lets me quickly gather new resources, ask questions, offer suggestions, give encouragement, get feedback and learn from others – even from those I’ve never met in person.
I think of my blog and podcast as a place where I can more deeply reflect and share my learning with others, but that takes a level of time and commitment that I find hard to keep up when work and life get really busy. The same goes for reading and commenting on blogs of people I follow.
However, Twitter helps me to feel like I’m still a part of the larger learning community. Even when I have only minutes to dip my toe in the waters, I know I’ll still come away with something worth knowing.
Funny enough, my new job in Colorado came as a result of meeting and connecting with others. Bud Hunt (@budtheteacher) and I met and began conversing through Twitter over a year ago. When I began my search for a new job as we moved to Colorado from Florida, it was through my connection with Bud that I learned of the opening in his district, applied, and was hired. And then once I was hired, I connected with other educators in the community months before I moved by using Twitter. It gave me a chance to meet and interact with my new district even before I entered the state.
6. How do you feel technology has enhanced your students educational experience?
How has it not?
And of course any final comments you would like to add. Tips? Etc.
As you start your teaching career, remember that you’ll always be a learner. Explore. Try new things. Take risks. Ask questions. Be open to failure. And most importantly, make sure to let your students see you doing all of those things.
Thanks again for allowing me to share.
Michelle Bourgeois
Instructional Technologist
St. Vrain Valley School District
Tweet me at http://twitter.com/milobo
Listen to AlwaysOn at http://web.me.com/alwayson
Read more at http://web.me.com/mlbourgeois
Found this interesting video on Youtube. Dan Brown created a whole playlist between himself and two other Youtubers. Feel free to check that out here. If not…just watch this video and let me know what you think! I would like to post another blog with some of your comments, as well as mine. Thanks. : )
Ttfn!
Thanks to Rebecca, who posted this video ‘The Class’ on her blog, as well as our ECMP 455 class Ning. It’s a mock up of ‘The Office’ with an educator who is trying to teach his students about technology, and doesn’t know anything. I’ve only watched ‘The Office‘ a few times and this was quite entertaining. But taking it a step further… Is this really what some teachers are doing? Trying to incorporate technology into the classroom but don’t know how to start? Is there enough information out there to help teachers who want to learn, while informing teachers who need to learn? How strong is the pressure to use technology in the classroom? Is it really better to incorporate technology if you don’t know how to use it?
This sort of reminds me of my ELNG professor this semester. We began the class with overheads and written work on the chalk board and have now moved into using PowerPoint. It is amazing how far our prof has come from when we first started the class. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with my ELNG prof about my ECMP class and what we were learning. We discussed how beneficial technology can be in a classroom if used properly. It all started at the end of one class when Brandee and I were watching a Youtube video on a positive digital footprint. She came over and asked what we were watching, and sounded interested so we said we were working on a collaboration assignment to teach a grade 8 class about this topic. We began talking and even discussed some examples of students blogging and doing assignments over email at such a young age. Now, the prof has offered to let us email in our assignments instead of bringing print copies. I thought that was really interesting, and I’m glad we had the chance to talk. This is how educators can learn about integrating technology in the classroom. We can’t just keep our mouths shut and leave it up to others to do the job! Someone has to start the conversation and why can’t it be you? : )
Ttfn!
*Spoiler Alert*
Do not read this post if you have any intention of going to see the movie Remember Me staring Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin, and Pierce Brosnan.
This past Sunday evening I went with my friends to see this movie and wanted to talk a bit about what I felt after watching this film.
Now, for those who have seen the movie or care to read this post I have one word to describe my experience…WOW. This movie was not at all what I expected it to be. Based on what is shown in the trailer, I would have never expected the movie to play out as it did. The ending completely shocked me, as did it every single person who came with me! Remember Me is the story of two people who have both experienced tragedy in their lives–through this they are able to connect on a deep level and begin to fall in love. But soon after the unlikely circumstances that bring them together, the lies begin to tear them apart. Beyond the romance between these two characters, this movie shows the strength in families uniting and the importance of living life to the fullest. *Spoiler Alert* The ending is a shocking twist that brought most people to tears while watching. After relationships begin to mend and Tyler and Ally both begin to find peace with everything that has happened, as well as declaring their love for one another, Tyler is killed in the 9/11 tragedy, waiting for his father to meet him at his office. Like I said before, I was completely not expecting this movie to finish the way it did. Looking back now, there were so many foreshadowing moments that clued you in as to why it was important to live with no regrets.
I can’t believe this film ended the way it did, but it made it a much more powerful story. This was just not at all how I expected the movie to end. 9/11 occurred almost ten years ago now and I forgot how much of an impact this still has on life today. I was so young when it happened that I don’t think I really understood how devasting this tragedy really was. I just remember that my Auntie and Uncle had visited the World Trade Centre buildings a few days before the attack, and my family was very worried about if they were okay. Looking back I can’t imagine what people were experiencing there, it was just so sad. After watching this movie last night, it really got me thinking how important it really is to live your life right, with no regrets, and always keeping close to the people you care about. I also recently read a book by Nicholas Sparks called “The Choice” and it too had a story of circumstances that you would never want to experience, not being able to say goodbye when the last thing you experience with someone was unhappy. My Dad always says to me ‘never go to bed angry with someone’ and that is something I really take to heart. Anyways, thank you for reading my post and rant on this film. Although I didn’t expect the outcome, I still really enjoyed this movie and recommend you go and see it!
Ttfn!
Diigos
