The Educational Value of Blogs

What do you see as the educational value of blogs in the classroom and outside of the classroom, and how can blogs be integrated into K-12 classrooms?

Blogs can serve several purposes in a classroom. Used as a teaching tool, blogs can provide students a way to interact with other students and/or classes in a safe, controlled environment. They can help students build writing and critical-thinking skills by giving them practice in organizing and conveying their thoughts. In addition, blogging allows students to learn about subjects from experts in a particular field. Used by teachers, blogs offer a way for students to stay connected to their classes if they miss school or just need to know what the homework assignment is. They can also allow students to see a different side of their teachers and get some insight into their personalities, as well as discovering additional information about the content covered in their classes.

Outside of the classroom, blogs are an excellent way for people with similar interests or professions to share information, regardless of the physical distance between them. For instance, authors can use blogs to communicate with their readers and business experts can share ideas, processes, and technological discoveries. On a more personal level, blogs can be a way for families and friends to stay connected, and to communicate with each other in a written format that’s completely different from snail mail and email. Blogs allow you to post pictures, links, likes and dislikes, and to reveal as much or as little of yourself as you want.

Blogs can be integrated into the classroom in many different ways. Classes can set up their own blogs and each student can be assigned a period of time to keep it updated with new content learned. Students can create blogs as a way of communicating with other students, both across the country and across the world. In addition, blogs can be part of a group project where members each have a component of the blog that they’re responsible for creating and building. Older students can use blogs to interact with experts in certain fields, and even to help them determine possible career choices. For younger students, teachers can create links on their blogs that can be a source of educational games and activities. These activities can help students to build skills during non-school time.

Excellent Features of Blogging

What do you see as excellent features of the blog(s) you participated in and why? What stands out from this blogging experience and why?

One of the most beneficial aspects of blogging was the freedom it gave me to focus on subjects that were both relevant to me and interesting as well. Other than the “emerging technology” blog requirements, I was pretty much free to write whatever I wanted. My team members had some great insights into technology applications and devices that I’d never used, so they were also very helpful to me. I liked the way the Google blogger application allowed each person to put his or her own personality into the blog, by the use of certain backgrounds, gadgets, and images. One feature I particularly liked was the profile of the blogger. I thought it was enlightening to readers to see the background of the blog owner, and to be able to put a face with all the written entries. Another very positive feature was the ease with which I could review and edit previously published posts. It gave me a concise list of what I had published without having to scroll down through pages and pages of blog entries.

Learning About the ActiveBoard

Because of the recent addition of so many ActiveBoards in our school, I spent some time this weekend getting familiar with the ActiveInspire software used with the boards. I quickly realized that it's not easy to figure it out on your own, and then I remembered that my county has a subscription to Atomic Learning. I located the username and password, logged on, and discovered that there are almost two hours worth of tutorials on ActiveInspire. I went through almost all of them! It was a great way to learn the main concepts in an organized manner, and to focus in on the concepts that most interested me. In some cases, I played the tutorial three times. But the tutorials were very brief - not more than two minutes each. So, you can quickly learn about just those aspects of the software that are the most interesting (or most confusing) to you. I now feel much more comfortable with the ActiveInspire application and even created a few flipcharts to use in the future. In addition, I sent an email to our staff, letting them know what I had discovered. Since many have only received an overview and won't get additional training until January, I thought this would be a great way for them to learn a little more in the interim.

What I Learned from Blogging

"What did you learn from this blogging experience about yourself and about blogs as tools for teaching and learning? What surprised you about this blogging experience? Why?"

I had no experience whatsoever with blogging prior to starting my “I Am Blogger” project. I knew it was a tool used by many teachers (mainly high school, from my understanding), but I really didn’t see much use for it in my school, especially with our student population. Not very many of our families have computers in their homes, and when they do have an opportunity to use them, they’re not likely to be accessing the school Web site or teachers’ blogs. But I realized that although our students may not use blogs, they’re a great way to communicate with others in my profession. In addition, I’m now more aware of what blogs can do, and I’ve noticed that almost every one of my high school age daughter’s teachers use one. Students can access it to see upcoming assignments, or what they need to do if they missed class or forgot to write down the homework.

One thing that really surprised me about my blog was that someone outside of my group actually read it. I posted a blog about using Camtasia, a screen casting application, and mentioned that I intended to purchase it for my school. Sometime later, I noticed that a representative from Techsmith, the company that developed Camtasia, had posted a comment to my blog letting me know that as an educator, I was eligible for a significant discount when I purchased the software. So, instead of paying almost $300 for the application, I paid less than $200. I had thought my blog would simply be a class assignment, but discovered that it had “real-life” implications as well.

Project-Based Learning Reflection

Our project-based learning group undertaking was probably the most challenging of all the projects we’ve completed. Perhaps that’s why it broadened my horizons more than any of the others did. Because our group leader, Keri Rhinehart, teaches high school math, that was the grade and subject level focus that we used. When I first realized I would have to do a high school project, I was somewhat nervous. But when I learned we were focusing on my worst subject, math, I was downright anxiety-ridden. Fortunately, the math skills we incorporated were basic and even I remember how to do percentages and adding and subtracting decimals.

One thing I felt really good about was our overall theme – using basic math skills in real life. Rather than have each person do something they felt comfortable with and then find a way to tie it together, we started out with the theme, and worked outside of our comfort zones to stay within the theme’s boundaries. Our activities – budgeting for college, basic expenses, a car, a vacation, and an event – were all realistic examples of activities the students would likely be required to do as adults. Once I really sat down and concentrated on what I needed to do, I realized that I could actually be creative with my activity.

What we produced was truly a lesson that could be used in the classroom, and by just one teacher, if necessary. I felt that Keri did a great job helping us tie everything together and lending her expertise to those of us who weren’t feeling very comfortable. All in all, what started out as a very confusing, disjointed project ended up being both cohesive and creative.

My Life as a Training Coordinator - Blog #11

Our school has recently installed ActiveBoard interactive whiteboards in all classrooms, and will soon be installing iRespond student response systems in all second, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms. Amazingly enough, however, our teachers are getting thorough training on these devices. The first training, an overview, is being provided by the device vendors, and the subsequent trainings are being provided by contract trainers from Kennesaw State University's Instructional Technology Department. As the media specialist at my school, I acquired the job of “training coordinator” for all of this. My job is to make sure all necessary staff is trained, and to coordinate dates, times, and places for all of the training. As easy as this may sound, it’s been anything but that. However, it’s also been a model example of the diverse attitudes and backgrounds of teachers regarding technology.

The KSU training is not just a one-shot deal. Our county is paying for 38 hours of training at just our school. That means the trainings will range from a few sessions on the basics, to several sessions on advanced techniques. Rather than force training on the teachers, I’ve elected to allow them to decide how much training they want. As one might predict, there are those few who don’t feel like they need any training, because they have no intention of ever using their ActiveBoards. What I really want to say to these teachers is, “It doesn’t really matter what you want, or don’t want. What matters is what’s going to benefit your students the most”. I get very frustrated with teachers whose attitude is all a matter of what they need or don’t need, or what they want or don’t want. Sometimes you just have to do it because it’s the best thing for your kids. And from what I’ve seen, the students are engaged, excited, and participating when they have the chance to use the interactive whiteboards.

Fortunately, the majority of the teachers are extremely humbled and excited to have this new technology available to them all day, every day. They don’t pretend to know everything, and are always apologetic when they have to ask me the same question more than once. It may take them a while to learn new technologies, but they give it their best, and laugh at themselves in the process. These teachers are the ones I look forward to working with everyday.

Technology Integration Article - Digital Storytelling

Gregory, K., & Steelman, J. (2008). Cresting the digital divide. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 32(11), 880-882. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from ERIC database.

In their article “Cresting the Digital Divide”, Gregory and Steelman discuss the inclusion of digital storytelling (DST) in the Catawba Valley Community College curriculum, and the benefits they observed from it. The authors felt that one great advantage of DST was the way it bridges the divide between frequent and familiar users of technology and those who are not as familiar, either because they are returning to college after some years, or because they were economically disadvantaged as high school students. One reason DST is able to bridge this divide is because there are so many diverse and creative ways for a student to express himself, and all types of learners can benefit from that diversity. Catawba also trained its instructors in DST and discovered that by doing so, they helped both the instructors and students. The authors performed a comparison between expository writing students who used DST in their curriculum and students with a more traditional curriculum, by comparing their performance in a subsequent literature course. Not surprisingly, the DST students performed significantly higher. Furthermore, DST students seemed to have both more pride and more confidence in technology as a result of DST.

I found it interesting that this particular college chose to train its instructors in DST in conjunction with its incorporation of DST into the English curriculum. Too often, teachers are expected to learn technologies with little or no training, and then turn around and both include them in their classrooms, and teach them to their students. By training the instructors, the Catawba leaders prepared them better and at the same time, got the instructors’ buy-in by getting them hooked on DST. I’m sure this was partially the cause of the success the college has had with DST. In addition, this is the first time I had heard of a comparison being done between students who created DST projects and students creating more traditional projects. The result was a reinforcement of critical-thinking skills in the DST class, as well as students being more engaged in and attuned to the various components (voice, image, music) of the DST projects.

Emerging Technology That Supports eLearning -- Blog #10

In her chapter on supporting eLearning, Egbert is very candid about the pros and cons of allowing students to participate in distance learning. Some of the issues involved with eLearning include lack of technical support, lack of access to technology outside of school, the complication involved in participating in team-related activities, and the difficulty teachers have in meeting all students’ needs (Egbert, p. 214). Although all of these challenges make sense, I think that ultimately, the success or failure of eLearning depends on what type of student is participating and how motivated and disciplined he is. In fact, Egbert quotes Blomeyer (2002) when he stated that eLearning is more about people and being able to use technology to support their interactions than it is about the technology itself. Students who participate in eLearning need to be good time managers and need to be able to keep their schoolwork organized. They need to have the attitude that they’ll succeed, and not use the limitations of eLearning as excuses not to try.

For these reasons, I think the blended, or hybrid learning environment is the best of both traditional and eLearning methods (Egbert, p. 209). Students benefit greatly from being in a classroom and being able to physically participate in discussions and group work with other students. Yet, the freedom of online learning and the potential for learning new technologies is extremely valuable to certain students as well. If the hybrid learning environment is unattainable, then a portion of the student’s eLearning should be done via videoconferencing. This would at least allow interaction that is similar to being physically present in a classroom, and help the student to create more of a relationship with both the teacher and his fellow students.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Technology Integration Article - Blog #9

In his article “Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom”, Bernard Robin begins by discussing studies that have been conducted previously that conclude there is little difference between the learning that occurs with technology and without technology. Robin obviously doesn’t agree with these studies and contends that knowing how to incorporate technology into the curriculum is the key to successfully using technology, and that Digital Storytelling (DST) can be a key factor in maximizing technology use in the classroom. It’s commonly known that integrating visual images and text enhances comprehension, but one of the greatest benefits of DST is in the development of “21st century learning skills”, such as researching, questioning, organizing, expressing opinions, and creating meaningful narratives. Robin also goes on to mention research that has been done on multimedia projects, and how the use of them in the classroom develops research and organizational skills, and creates more interest in the subject’s content. DST also positively impacts the development of higher-order thinking skills. Robin continues by introducing TPCK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge), a theory that focuses on the relationship between knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology, and how the use of DST can enhance TPCK for teachers. In his conclusion, Robin suggests that research be conducted on how the use of DST increases overall student motivation.

What interested me most about this article was Robin’s point that using multimedia projects can result in students being more interested in the content being presented. It’s well known that some teachers present content without giving much thought to making it interesting to students. It has to be taught, therefore they teach it. Many experts contend that children are born with innate curiosity about the world around them, but by the time they get to middle school, that curiosity has been all but extinguished. If it was possible to hold students’ interest and engage them more in the content being presented, perhaps school would become more meaningful to them, resulting in an increase in test scores and a decrease in drop-out rate. In addition, DST has been said to increase students’ use of higher-order thinking skills. If this is true and if students can really become more engaged in the content because of the use of DST, then students should truly begin to “understand” content, and not just “know” it.

Robin, B. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 220-228. http://search.ebscohost.com.ts.isil.westga.edu

Our Digital Storytelling/MovieMaker Experience

This month, our group has been introduced to Digital Storytelling (DST) using Windows MovieMaker. We were tasked with using MovieMaker to create a DST movie that could be used as an example of how DST can be used in the classroom. As project leader for this workshop plan, I didn’t actually have to create a movie, but I really wished I had. This is the kind of project I love because it pulls so many different elements into it and allows for a lot of creativity. But I still learned a great deal from the whole experience. For instance, there was some confusion at first because our high school teacher group members, who both teach math, struggled to figure out how to incorporate their subject matter into this project. In the end, they both did a great job by using MovieMaker to create instructional tools. In fact, since our theme was “Using Digital Storytelling as an Instructional Tool”, all of the projects we generated provided examples of different ways to use DST/MovieMaker in delivering content.

For me, being the project leader and not having any experience doing DST myself was somewhat challenging. Fortunately, I was already familiar with MovieMaker and had created other MovieMaker projects. However, when our Mac group members struggled in uploading their movies to the West Georgia server, I was pretty clueless as to how to help them. I feel like this was the most challenging assignment so far for our group, partly because of things that were beyond our control, like the final size of the completed movie and having to upload the movies to the UWG server. But it was also challenging because DST using MovieMaker demands that you combine many technologies, and getting them all to flow the way you want them to takes some patience. Ultimately, however, I think we all came to see how valuable DST and MovieMaker can be for teachers.

Emerging Technology That Supports Creativity and Production - Blog #8

Joy Egbert’s chapter on Supporting Student Production in her text, Supporting Learning with Technology, provides some excellent guidelines on this type of project-based learning. Specifically, Egbert distinguishes between very structured projects with carefully defined outcomes, and more loosely controlled projects and outcomes (Egbert, p. 183). I can imagine that the type of students you have would, to some extent, have an impact on which kind of project you undertake. Many of the students at our school appear to be somewhat unmotivated, partly due to the frustrations of struggling with language and cultural barriers. I’ve discovered that when I do lessons with them, I have to be very specific regarding my expectations. Yet, Egbert also discusses the fact that production can be very beneficial to English language learners by allowing them to communicate in various ways and to learn the content in ways that appeal to them, such as listening and watching videos (Egbert, p. 185). Production supports different learning styles, as well as providing the opportunity for students to produce the outcomes in a style that is interesting and motivating to them. Egbert also stipulates that ELL students can more readily participate in group projects because they can engage in tasks that are appropriate for their learning styles and language ability (Egbert, p. 185).

Another point Egbert makes that would help in working with ELL students is addressed in guideline #5, “Scaffold experiences for all learners” (Egbert, p. 189). Egbert stresses how important scaffolding is for such students because they may need more time, modeling, and assistance in completing production projects. Yet, the variety and flexibility of production projects would also allow ELL students to choose topics that are more meaningful to them, such as topics that highlight their culture and backgrounds. Our students also perform better when in-depth projects are divided into chunks, and this strategy lends itself well to scaffolding because teachers can more methodically guide the students through the project. I believe production projects would be very well received by our ELL students because some of the rigidity that seems to frustrate them would be alleviated, allowing them to work in an environment that gives them the freedom to determine their strengths and to build confidence in those areas.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Experimenting With Camtasia Studio 6 – Blog #7

After reading one of the chapters in Boss and Krauss’s book, Reinventing Project-Based Learning, I discovered a screencasting application called Camtasia (Boss & Krauss, pp. 104-105). Screencasting is essentially a recording of computer screen output, combined with your own narration. Consequently, it’s an excellent way to build a tutorial for learning software applications. If you’ve gone through any of the tutorials on the VoiceThread site, that’s what screencasting looks like. I had no idea there was an application that someone could purchase, so when I learned that Camtasia had a 30-day free trial, I went ahead and downloaded it.

I spent the better part of a Saturday experimenting with Camtasia, attempting to create a tutorial for VoiceThread. There are basically two parts to it – the recording of the screen output, and the creation of the final video. First you have to create the recording clips, and that’s the challenging part. I kind of figured that screencasting wouldn’t be as easy as it looked, so I wrote out a basic script to use. It’s actually amazingly simple in setup – all you need is a computer, a microphone (or internal mic), and a quiet spot. Fortunately, you can stop and start, thus creating multiple clips, but I still found myself recreating certain portions several times. I guess there’s an element of “stage fright” when you’re recording yourself, and you end up with many pauses and otherwise awkward moments! Creating the final video was a little bit like MovieMaker in the sense that you have to import the clips and then drag and drop them into a storyboard, where you can add other audio tracks, cut parts of the videos, split videos, etc.

Although it took several hours (and many takes), I finally had what I considered to be a pretty good product for my first stab at it. With Camtasia, you can either narrate the video as you explain how to use the software, or you can create the audio portion separately. I narrated it as I explained the software, but later discovered an entire two-minute segment of audio that I didn’t like. The cool thing was that I could select that two-minute segment, and narrate a new audio clip to go with it that would overwrite the audio segment I didn’t want. Although this ended up being a bit louder, I was satisfied with the new audio and other than deleting some video pieces here and there, didn’t do much other editing.

Once my 30-day trial is complete, I’m seriously considering using some of my media budget funds to purchase the Camtasia application for use in my school. It’s $300, but well worth the cost. One of our teachers’ biggest reasons for not implementing technology is the lack of time it takes to learn it. By creating some tutorials that teachers can go through fairly quickly (my VoiceThread tutorial was only 20-25 minutes in length), when they have the time, I hope to eliminate that excuse and introduce new applications to any teacher who’s willing to give them a try.

Emerging Technology That Supports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving - Blog #6

As I read the beginning example in chapter 4 of Joy Egbert’s text, Supporting Learning with Technology, regarding the case of the “alligators in the sewers” (pp. 98-99), I was reminded of students at my own school. Each year, one of my lessons with fifth graders is to examine the reliability of Internet sites. I provide a few examples – some reliable and some not – and go over what to look for when determining reliability. In addition, I go over the types of Internet domains (.com, .gov, etc.). I then give them a sheet with more examples and ask them to pick two to evaluate. Again, some of the sites are good sources and some bogus. What always strikes me during this lesson is the complete surprise when they realize that just because something is on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s good information. I’m constantly battling their desires to start Internet searches with Google or Ask.com. Unfortunately, our students struggle mightily with critical-thinking skills, and usually have to be poked and prodded to even try. Since most of our students are minority, some of the problem may be the cultural differences. But even during lessons when I have them answer questions from an online encyclopedia, they seem to want the answers to jump out at them, instead of having to dig for them. Consequently, I was interested to read Egbert’s “Common Techniques to Support Critical Thinking” (Egbert, p. 106), as well as her list of challenges that teachers face (Egbert, p. 106). Our students benefit greatly from some of the scaffolding that Egbert describes – including using graphic organizers and allowing students to express themselves in their own styles.

Critical thinking and problem solving go hand-in-hand (Egbert, p. 157). You can’t solve problems without giving at least a little thought to your decisions. One significant challenge we have with our students is their seeming lack of confidence in their abilities in school. When you throw them a problem, many of them give up immediately if it seems difficult. However, when teachers take the time to make these problems interesting and relevant to the students, they forget their doubts about themselves and really dig into it. The technology tools that Egbert provides in chapter 6 would be a great way to engage the students up front so that they don’t realize they’re having to work hard (Egbert, pp. 166-170). An activity we do weekly in the media center is a game called InfoQuest, where a new question is posted each week and students have until the end of the week to find the answer to it. If they do, they get a prize. Most of the answers can be found in reference books, or on a reliable Internet site. Overall, students love this game (especially using the Internet), even though it requires some low-level critical-thinking skills. I guess it’s all in the way you present it.

Technology Integration Article - Blog #5

Charlene O'Hanlon. (2007). Press '2' for 'Not Guilty'. T.H.E. Journal, 34(5), 52-53. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1282511081).

The article I chose to review presents an overview of student response systems, or “clickers”, within the classroom. The author describes the use of interactive devices in the past several years, noting that using the telephone to vote for your favorite idol and using the remote to change channels are early examples of this technology. The article relates a study done by Kent State University involving an eighth grade English class and its analysis of the Lizzie Borden trial. Students were presented with the evidence via a debate and then had to use the response systems to vote for who they felt won the debate. The author felt that the response systems worked particularly well in middle school where students are often reluctant to offer opinions due to peer pressure. More common uses of the systems include measuring students’ comprehension of critical concepts, and as a means of submitting data from experiments. Overall, teachers love the immediacy of the assessment, so that they can go back and revisit the areas where the students don’t understand.

My primary interest in the above article is because one of my current projects at work is to figure out how to use our student response system. We’ve had it for almost a year and a half and most of that time, I didn’t even know it was in the school. Now that I do, I’m determined to put it to use. I’d like to know more potential uses for the systems, besides just measuring a student’s comprehension level of the content a teacher has just presented. I know there are several teachers who would love to use this device, but I not only have to determine how to operate the system, I have to make decisions on the best way to set up the system, access the databases, etc. I also have to find a way to show the teachers how to use the system in the quickest and easiest way possible. If it seems too complicated, few teachers will take the time to learn it. The article was helpful by offering some different ways to use the system and by revealing teacher attitudes towards it.

Sample ComicLife - "Meeting Your Destiny"

ComicLife - Everyone's Talking About It

I had never heard of ComicLife before beginning our recent project. However, I laughed out loud at some of the examples I saw, and I was hooked pretty quickly. I struggled to come up with a media center-related application, but then I looked at more examples and noticed one that detailed a particular procedure. That’s when I got the idea of doing a very basic “how-to” guide for using our cataloging application, Destiny. I have a program on my work computers called FullShot, which allows you to do screen shots and make them into jpg files. So, I wrote an outline of what I was going to do, created the screen shots, and then enlisted my parapro’s daughter to be my representative student. She did a great job! I originally did a pretty simple version, but then realized I could open the jpg files in Paint, and create some arrows and other features that would call the user’s attention to certain places on the picture. So I basically re-created it, but I think it was worth it in the end.

I liked ComicLife and found it fairly simple to use. But, I struggled with some of the functionality. For instance, I found I had to click at one certain place on the image in order to rotate, another to make it bigger, and still another to move it completely. When the image is small, this isn’t easy to do. I was forever rotating the picture inadvertently, and then having to undo my changes. In addition, even after using the Help feature, I had some difficulty with the Style feature. Overall however, it was pretty intuitive and I could have created a simple ComicLife project without having to use the Help feature at all.

There are so many uses for ComicLife in the classroom. Just in language arts alone, students can easily create stories either using photos or pictures they’ve drawn and scanned in. In social studies, students can present research on places or other cultures by using images and creating captions. In science and math, students or teachers can develop a graphical step-by-step procedure for solving problems. The fact that ComicLife costs money may present some limitations to using it – in my county, any application that we want on our server has to go through a lengthy approval process. But, I can see purchasing it to go on the local drives of a handful of easily accessible computers so that those teachers interested in using it would have a way to do so.

Emerging Technology That Supports Communication and Collaboration - Blog #4

After reading the chapter on communication and collaboration in Joy Egbert’s text Supporting Learning with Technology, I was struck by several things. First of all, I thought the Geography Mystery lesson described in the beginning of the chapter sounded really fun. This lesson covers many content areas, such as communication skills and knowledge of U.S. geography, but the students will also have to use reference skills in order to find out information on their place. As a media specialist, I do quite a few lessons on using reference materials since it’s one of the sections on our CRCT. I cover print and nonprint resources. These are valuable skills to use in everyday life as well as in every grade of school. But what also occurred to me was the range of communication skills these students will be using. Not only will they need to communicate within their own groups, but also with students from another state.

As I was pondering the idea of collaborative groups, I wondered about the issue Egbert mentions regarding team building skills (Egbert, page 74 and 77). Even in groups of adults, there always seems to be one person who tends to dominate the group. Sometimes this is good because that person keeps the others on track, but other times the person sort of bullies the others into doing things his or her way. She also mentions social status as being a factor and I can picture that occurring quite a bit (Egbert, page 74). If a child who’s popular is in a group, the others are likely to listen to him or her more than they’d listen to others. I can see this being an even bigger issue with elementary school students who haven’t had much experience with learning to work as a group. When collaborative learning occurs at the elementary level, it would probably need to start small – like having two or three in a group for a simple assignment. That would help the students work up to being in a larger group with more responsibilities. However, once students master the group dynamics issues, collaboration would be a fantastic tool, especially for project-based learning.

Regarding integrating electronic communication tools into the curriculum, I was amazed at the number of tools that are available. I had never heard of many of the applications mentioned, such as Gaggle. But there are a few concerns that I would have about our student population and using communication tools. First of all, we have over eighty percent Hispanic students and although their mastery of the English language is quite good, the language issues make writing more of a chore. In addition, our students have terrible problems with typing. Although our computer teacher works on keyboarding skills, the students are still painfully slow and this affects much of what they do on a computer. Our students would probably benefit from using more voice communication tools. Secondly, our county is quite concerned about Internet safety issues. I try to enforce a rule in the media center that no student is allowed to use Google or Ask.com unless he or she has used the approved information-seeking tools and cannot find what they need (and even then, they’re to seek our help first).

Overall however, I love the examples that the author provides. Even if the lesson isn’t exactly appropriate for your class, it sparks ideas about other similar lessons or how you can tweak the example to fit your situation. I tend to be somewhat lacking in creativity sometimes, so I’m always looking for lesson ideas I can borrow!

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Technology Integration Article - Blog #3

Sichivitsa, V. (2007). Audacity in vocal improvisation: Motivating elementary school students through technology. Teaching Music, 14(4), 48. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ754960) Retrieved September 14, 2009, from ERIC database.

The article above describes a lesson to be used in an elementary music classroom involving the application Audacity, a program that allows you to record and edit sounds. In this lesson, the students use the software to create a voice improvisation for a jazz accompaniment. Students can do multiple voice recordings until they find one that they’re happy with, and once all recordings are made, they can choose which one to submit. The primary benefit of using this software is to minimize the self-consciousness factor for the students since they wouldn’t be singing in front of their peers. By each having their own computer, headphones and microphone, students can work independently without disturbing each other and feel more comfortable that no one else is judging or poking fun at them.

I chose this article because after using the VoiceThread software, I was interested to see what other voice-related software applications existed and how they had been integrated into the curriculum. Typically, when you think about technology integration, you tend to think about applications that are more visual or visual and auditory combined. I had no idea there were software programs that were so focused on auditory applications. Although the lesson was somewhat difficult for me to follow, since I don’t have the musical knowledge to understand some of the more technical information, I could still appreciate the benefit of using the software not only in a music classroom, but in other areas of the school as well.

In my school, our student population is over eighty percent Hispanic. We have eight ESOL teachers, some of whom work with primary students and others who work with intermediate students. I can see how Audacity could be used with these ELL learners to help them listen to and learn the English language. In the past, our county has purchased applications such as Rosetta Stone and Read 180 in order to help English learners. But Audacity is free and could even be used by students at home, if they have computers. ELL students benefit greatly from being able to hear and repeat English words, and this application would be a wonderful tool for that.

VoiceThread Reflections

I must admit that I had never even heard of VoiceThread before the demo we saw in our Technology Integration class. My first reaction was that it was pretty slick, but I didn’t take much time to consider how it could be used in a classroom. I also wasn’t sure how I would use it since I only have classes for 30 minutes at a time. I wanted to do something different and not necessarily literacy-related, and during a discussion of it with a colleague who is pretty techno-savvy, it occurred to me to use our Outdoor Classroom as the basis for a project. My colleague told me that our ALP teacher (same thing as Target) has a teacher son in North Carolina who uses it, and our ALP teacher also happens to be one of those in charge of our Outdoor Classroom. When I mentioned it to her, she was excited that this might be a great “PR” tool for the Classroom, and could even be put on our Web site or sent to the corporate sponsors who were so vital to the creation of the Classroom.

So, this project ultimately became a sort of collaboration between our ALP teacher and me. She and some of her students wrote the scripts we used, and I chose the students who would speak and took pictures of the Classroom. For speakers, I chose a few of the kids who do our morning broadcast, because they’re used to speaking into microphones and know how to speak more slowly and clearly. I gave each of them a script to take home and practice, and while they did that, I played around with VoiceThread so that I’d be comfortable when it was time to record. I found VoiceThread to be surprisingly easy to use and fairly intuitive (with the help of the tutorials). The only real frustration I had was trying to figure out if and how I could fix the order of the comments. The information flowed better if read in a certain way, and I also wanted our ALP teacher’s comments to go last. After trying different things, I just gave up and let the comments happen in whatever order VoiceThread dictated. Fortunately, the comment I wanted to be first did occur first, but the rest were pretty random.

Now that I’ve used VoiceThread, I can see some interesting uses for it in the classroom, and I’m anxious to introduce it to our teachers. The two that I’ve already shown it to seemed excited to try it, and I think that even the technology-intimidated teachers might be willing to give it a go. Also, the fact that educators can get the basic version for free is even more appealing. And now, I have an example to show them! If you’d like to see my final project, just click on the link below and take a look.

http://voicethread.com/share/606263/

Emerging Technology That Supports Content Learning - Blog #2

In this chapter, the author discusses the meaning of content learning, and how the use of technology can support and enhance it in the classroom. The case described at the beginning of the chapter sounded a bit familiar to me. I work in a high-poverty school and have seen our school receive Title I funds that must be used for technology. As the “technology contact” for the school, one would think that I might be consulted on which technology would be best to purchase. But it always seems that the administrators gravitate towards the latest and greatest technology – whatever that might be. What doesn’t seem to be completely addressed is the fact that almost no one really knows what to do with the technology once they get it. There are always those teachers who jump right into technology with both feet, but the majority hang back until they see what others do with it. In the case described, the school actually has to develop a plan for the technology before they can get the funding to buy it. I wish all schools had to do this. It might prevent school districts from just throwing money at technology and then crossing their fingers.

I was also interested in the five descriptions of effective content learning because they seemed to be pretty much just common sense. Technology is, as a rule, engaging; however students also need a focus when using it or they just find a way to turn it into a game. Another task is to help students become responsible for their own learning. This requires the teacher to not only be confident in her knowledge and use of the technology, but also to make sure the students know she’s confident. It’s unlikely that students will become comfortable with independent learning if they haven’t seen it modeled by the teacher. The fourth task discusses collaboration, which is extremely helpful when working with technology. In our school, many students don’t have access to computers at home and are therefore not as adept at navigating their way around them at school. By pairing those students with others who are more technology-savvy, both students’ learning experiences can be enhanced.

Finally, the information the author presents on creating opportunities for learning content poses some important considerations. With inclusion being implemented in many schools, teachers need to think about the use of technology with special needs students. In addition, our school has a very high percentage of ESOL students so their needs should be considered as well. And differentiated instruction is becoming more important, so teachers have to plan how the use of technology can enhance, and not complicate, that type of instruction.

Media Center Orientation

I incorporate quite a bit of technology into my media center lessons during the course of the year, and this is one example. For each class’s first visit to the media center, we do an orientation. For kindergarten and first, we just go over how to check out and take care of books. But for second through fourth, we do a few electronic games to review the media center rules. These games are just PowerPoint re-creations of the game shows “Jeopardy” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, and since I have a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, I project the game onto a very large screen (which continues to entertain the kids when I push the button to make it go up and down, even though they’ve seen it many times!). We divide the class into teams (girls versus boys is always popular) and the teams take turns attempting to answer the questions. The Jeopardy game is especially popular because I created five categories for them to choose their questions from, each category covering a particular aspect of the media center. The games really engage the students and I even had one student tell me that it was “much more fun to learn the rules with this game”. I’ve used these same games for several years but because I have a different one for each grade, the students aren’t doing the same one every year. The actual PowerPoint files were created by some anonymous person and obtained for us by one of our academic coaches. I just filled in the blanks. It’s a simple but effective way of using technology to make an otherwise dreary subject just a little bit more interesting.

My Definition of Technology Integration - Blog #1

Technology integration is the incorporation of various kinds of digital devices and media into an elementary, middle or high school teacher’s lessons in an effort to enhance the curriculum being covered, engage the students, and introduce new technologies to the students. The term technology includes, but is not limited to, computers and applicable software, digital video and still cameras, mp3 players, interactive whiteboards, student response systems, the Internet, e-books, CDs, DVDs, digital voice recorders, and video games.

Successful technology integration occurs in a number of ways. First, technology integration can be successful if teachers ensure that a lesson combined with technology will be more effective in developing a student’s understanding of an idea than the same lesson without technology. In other words, technology should enhance the lesson, not distract or confuse the student. Secondly, technology integration should educate the student not only in the course material, but in the technology itself, either through use of the technology in follow-up assignments, or by allowing students to interact with the technology during the lesson. Lessons infused with technology should also be standards-based, and should promote the development of higher-order thinking skills. Finally and most importantly, technology integration will only prevail if school administrators make technology use a priority in their schools. In order to accomplish this, they must regularly purchase new software and devices, provide adequate training and support for the teachers, and encourage and allow time for teachers to work together and increase each other’s confidence in using technology.

First Try

My group members and I call ourselves "Media Madness", and our intent is to use our blogs as a means to reflect and report on new discoveries within the world of technology integration. One of my career goals is to help lead our teachers further into technology use in their classrooms, and I know that all of the discoveries I make in this class will help me do that. Our group members are Kelly Massey, Krista Bowen, Chris Valentine, Keri Rhinehart and myself. Although I've never created a blog before and this seems a bit overwhelming, I know blogging is a technology I need to become familiar with.