Web 2.0 Tool Review for Synthesis

A great tool for helping students synthesize information is wiki spaces. A wiki is an open communication site where both students and teachers can post, edit, and share information. Many teachers were at first skeptical about wikis, as most saw it only as a burden since each of us already had a school “website,” but as our principal encouraged us to move over, most did. Wikis are extremely easy to use, and update like one would publish a Word Doc to the web. The navigation is simple, and there seems to be no limit on how many links and pages one can have on their own site.

The easiest use for the wiki is to simply post notes and extra information about a topic on the website. Then absentee students, parents with questions, or the student that is constantly “forgetting” their book bag in their locker, can have access to digital notes anywhere they have internet service. Another great use of a wiki is that it allows the site facilitator to post assignments, links to articles, web 2.0 tools, and give directions for students to synthesize and understand on their own or in a group. I especially like this for PBL's and learning contracts. Currently, I have posted on my wiki a learning contract for our novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Students are able to pick from a variety of assignments and web tools to amass the number of points needed for the grade desired. This type of activity also helps with differentiated instruction as students are able to pick and choose the projects and presentation mediums that they are most comfortable with.

As Gardner talks about synthesizing as a way of thinking about connections, I also like to pose my thoughts and connections on a topic as I present the information to the students. During our persuasive writing unit I post how I came to my topic, created a thesis, and refuted an argument. My goal is that if students are able to see my thought process, and how I came to my end result, they will have a better understanding of how they should synthesize their own information gathered into a complete essay. This was the first year that I posted my persuasive writing thought process on my wiki, and my students responded with some of the best persuasive essays that I have received in a long time.

My wiki space can be viewed publicly at www.MrLongstaffEnglish.wikispaces.com

For students to edit and post on pages not accessible by the public, they are given a user name and password from the school district that allows them to log on to the page privately.  

Discovery Education - Digital Assets

Poetry Unit

Main Goal/ Focus: For students to demonstrate an understanding of how figurative language is used to create vivid images within an audience.

Secondary Goal: For students to demonstrate an understanding of figurative language through a variety of poetic mediums.

Secondary Goal: Analyze meaning through the author's use of figurative language, make connections to past and present life experiences.

Poetry is a complex and many times daunting subject for middle schoolers, especially teenaged boys whom loathe the thought of having to share their “feelings” through poetic mediums in front of the class. Because of this, my poetry unit takes on a more humorous tone to ease tensions, create trust, and ultimately get students ready to take on the task of analyzing a poem through the use of figurative language on the PSSA exam.

To ease student fears that all poetry is “roses are red, violets are blue...” I could use the video Post War Poetry: Stream of Consciousness, to introduce the unit. As my school's demographic contains a large section of military families that travel to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, set in rural York County, many students might be able to make connections to the artists poems and images of a simple, beautiful life after seeing the horrors of war. A class discussion could center around why many of these American Poets who were involved in the war chose to idolize and capture the beauty of the American Landscape. As my district is set in a farming community, students could make connections to their own lives, property, and any relatives and family members that were once in the service.

Discovery Education also provides many different videos that help define and give examples of figurative language. My only issue with many of them is that they would be low interest videos to middle school learners. Before Discovery Education Online, I have a video tape (yes, VHS) of a Discovery Education Video called “Quack”. This video outlines the different types of figurative language used in writing with humorous examples. This video infuses movie clips, music, and mock interviews in a short 15 minute presentation. Though this video is older, as it was given to me by my Co-Op at the end of student teaching, it is one of those videos that is so cheesy it is memorable and fun.

Discovery Education provides great videos about the emperor penguin, and Boris, the Lifeguard Dog, that tell stories infused with figurative language about these animals. Not only are students supposed to pick out when an element is used, but at the end of the video, the author or narrator explains to the students why they chose to use the figurative language they did. This, believe, is one of the most important aspects of teaching a poetry unit. Its not just that the students should be able to identify and create, but also understand why figurative language is so powerful, and can create better connections wit their audience.

Introductory Blog

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Christopher Longstaff, I teach 7th grade English and coach wrestling at South Eastern MS in Fawn Grove, PA.

2. What is your primary goal for taking this course?

My goal is to become more progressive in my teaching style to better suit 21st century thinkers and learners.

3. What is your philosophy of education?

Facilitate rather than dictate, so that students can question, discover, and create.  

4. What do you see as the greatest benefit of using technology and/or digital media in the classroom?

How quickly students can reference information, define vocabulary, and extend learning to real world situations, stories, and articles.

5. What is your biggest concern or challenge with using technology and/or digital media in the classroom?

I teach in a rural district with a high rate of poverty.  If technology is used as a part of project, lesson, or assessment, many students can not complete it outside of the classroom.

6. Provide an example of how you currently use technology and/or digital media in the classroom.

 I have a wikispace that students can use for notes and references to lessons and material.

7. How does your classroom today differ from when you were the same age as your students?

My school has a BYOD policy, which allows students to carry and use their own devices at any time during the school day.

u05a1 - NETS 2.0

u05a1


Nets 2.0 


As education continues to change and evolve, so must the standards and practices of teaching.  For 21st century learners, the use and integration of technology is a must in order for our students to be ready for cutting edge careers.  The International Society for Technology in Education has created the National Educational Technology Standards for Students, or NETS-S, so that educators can aligned material with technology in order to integrate core standards.  Student use of communication, collaboration, and publishing Web 2.0 applications can help students to meet the NETS-S. 


Communication is one of the most essential and fundamental practices of being human.  Our ability to speak and write is what separate us from common animals.  It is an inherent need.  The world of communication has changed as technology has advanced, and so common practices of paper writing need an upgrade.  A simple upgrade, like the use of blogs, such as Google’s blogger.com can provide students with a new way to write and submit papers.  The use of this type of technology will also allow teachers to meet the NETS-S standards of Technology Operations and concepts and Creativity and Innovation.  A students prior knowledge of Microsoft Word applications can be embedded and transferred into a blog.  Blogs also provide a way for parents to view student published work, an added benefit.  Communication and Collabotation Standards can be met using digital tools such as Skype, Google Hangout, and Tangler.  For students with access to computers with webcams and microphones, Skype and Google Hangout allow for real time student collaboration outside of the classroom.  Tangler is a great site for use of live forums.  Students can ask questions and other students and even their teacher can answer them with little wait.  


New technology has extended collaboration beyond the walls of the classroom.  The NETS-S call for Communication and Collaboration as well as research and information fluency.  Both of these standards can be completed with the use of a variety of web tools.  Some of the most user friendly, especially for students, are Wikispaces and Edmodo.  Wikispaces is a collaborative web page tool that allows for students to upload, edit, and imbed documents and research.  Most students are familiar with famous wikis such as Wikileaks, and wikipedia.  For a teacher to meet both core stnadards and NET standards, students could do a researched based project, with the final out coming being a published wikispace.  Each student could have a specific role, as wiki allows for multiple users to create and edit information.  The students can also create works cited references to show where digital information has been gathered from. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decisions Making standards can also be incorporated with this digital projects if each student is given a part of the project, a specific problem to solve, and the use of technology to complete it.


Using new technologies to publish also has man benefits aside from the creative benefits.  One of my favorite aspects of publishing on the web is the ability for it to be easily seen and shared.  One of the biggest problems with teaching, especially in a middle school setting, seems to be communications with parents on the side of their own student.  I think almost all educators have experienced the frustration of tests, papers, and information never getting from the student to their parent.  When web aplications are used to published final products, it makes reviewing the material for teachers, students, and parents much easier.  My two favorite platforms are animoto and glogster.  Animoto is a fun way to create videos.  In my classroom we use this publishing feature for book reports, as the students create a “movie trailer” for the novel they had just read.  Glogster is a great tool to create online posters.  It saves paper, and also eliminates fears that many students have because they “lack artistic ability” when creating projects.  


With all of these Web 2.0 applications, teachers are able to monitor their students’ work and progress to make sure that becoming respectful digital citizens.  Using any Web 2.0 application will allow educators and their students to meet the NETS standard of Digital Citizenship.  Monitoring these online behaviors in a classroom setting will hopefully transfer to safe digital citizenship in their own lives.  Having students meet the NETS-S is an easy process with Web 2.0 technology, it just takes some creative planning on the part of the teacher to integrate already created lessons and activities to web based platforms. 


Animoto.com. (2012). http://animoto.com/intro/animoto/22?gclid=CPuniY-QwLECFYao4AodGx4AWA.
Blogger.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.blogger.com/home.
Glogster.com. (2012) Retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com/.  
Google Hangout. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). National Educational Technology Standards for Students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx.
Skype. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home.
Tangler.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.tangler.com/.
Wikispaces.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com/.

(uo1a1) PBL - Blog

(uo1a1) PBL - Blog

According to the Buck Institute of Technology, Project Based Learning is, “a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks”(PBL-online.org).  As an educator in a quickly evolving and changing field, it has become our duty to facilitate rather than dictate our subject knowledge to students.  The circumstances and design principles that each specific school and project had in common was their empathis on meeting state standards, new and relevant technology used, and the student based learning and leadership that was involved in the completion of the project.

Due to the need of each teacher to meet the individual curriculum requirements of their state, each article made mention that the project not only met a variety of standards, but students would have a better grasp since they have explored, researched, and used rather than memorizing and forgetting once the test was taken.  In  March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies‘ Migration, Fran Koontz notes that her students are more careful with their writing because they know that someone real is going to be reading it; a peer in another country.  This shows that they value and are taking ownership of their work, creating a more meaningful experience.  Along with writing and sending butterflies, the students plot and track the monarch’s migration using state of the art computers and technology.  They are also able to collaborate with real scientists in the field.  Because of the enormous scope of the project and the technology used Koontz is able to integrate almost every part of her curriculum into this high interest project. 

In, Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning, Eeva Reeder has her students design a school for the future.  Each design must meet specific set of requirements while using concepts from her Math class.  Eeva Reeder mentions that her colleagues often ask her how she has the time to create such an undertaking at the end of the school year when there are so many concepts to cover, especially when preparing students for high stakes tests.  To that, just as with Koontz, the students are tasked with using a wide variety of concepts before presenting their final project.  By using and demonstrating, rather than reading and memorizing, the students create a more meaningful experience through the project.  And just as with Koontz’s monarch project, Reeder has the students collaborate with experts in the field.  Reeder’s geometry students are not only able to speak with, and gain advice from actual architects, but are graded by them as well.  Another similarity in Reeder’s project is the use of technology, like that of CAD to help create the final design.  This is a real world program that architects use in their careers.

As in the previous two articles, More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!  Makes it clear that one of the prime focuses in project based learning, is the use of new technology and its real world application.  Students in Newsome Park Elementary school are making word webs, researching animals, and following the stock market all with the help of new programs.  In Robert Lirange's fourth-grade class the students were able to follow the stock market and research the crash that lead to the Great Depression.  As students became more involved they created their own company and sold shares of said company.  Newsome Park’s principal, Peter Bender, noted that not only have scores increased, but behavioral problems have gone down, as well as absenteeism.

The roles of the students and teacher in each scenario seem simple enough; the teacher facilitates the students by helping push them in the right direction by giving them the appropriate materials and questions to lead them into acquiring knowledge on their own.  When students learn by doing, or participating in the constructivist approach, they are more likely to take ownership of their work, write more carefully, create more freely, and engage in conversation with their peers on how to better their final output.  Finally, one of the best arguments for PBL, as in all three cases, is the transfer of the activities to real world applications.  After the success of Robert Lirange's fourth-grade class, a fifth grade class secretly plotted to buy a majority share the company’s stock, and thus control the company.  This kind of hostile takeover happens on Wall Street and in real world business practices.  Eeva Reeder’s students must present their school to real architects as if they are trying to win a contract, and Fran Koontz’s students collaborate with scientists and other students from around the world.  It is within these meaningful interactions that students learn how to transfer school learned knowledge to the real world.

References:

Armstrong, S. (2012). Geometry Students Angel into Architecture through Project Learning. Edutopia.
http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (2012). More fun than a barrel of… Worms? Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2012). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies‘ Migration. Edutopia.
http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Larmer, John. (2012). What is PBL? Buck Institute for Education.
http://www.bie.org/

First post

This is my first blog post just to make sure everything is working properly before I begin the first assignment.