Gracez Realm of Educational Technology

Overview of Final Project: My Classroom Blog

gracemcleod — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:00:02 +0000

For our EC&I 831 Computers in the Classroom course, I created a classroom blog, called Grade 9G Classroom Blog, using Landmarks Class Blogmeister. The original intent for creating this space was for my students to interact with one another via blogs. I also devised the classroom blog to aid with their learning in our Language Arts units.

My experience began when I started browsing classroom blogs on classblogmeister. When I first imagined my classroom blog, I envisioned a site much like Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog. I wanted to post pictures and videos of student activities in our classroom. I wanted students to blog about what they learned. I wanted students to comment on each other’s blogs as well.

Although the technical aspects of creating and implementing a classroom blog were sometimes trying (like trying to figure out how to embed a video – which I have yet to learn to do on classblogmeister), my discovery learning experience has led me to believe that I came across four major areas I considered to be the barriers (that I hope to overcome in the near future, including future classroom experiences) of creating and implementing such a site: consent forms, time, interaction and participation.

Consent Forms

I created consent forms for students to take home in hopes of hasty replies so we could start our blogging. The first day I sent them out, I got back 3 signed and approved consent forms. I was ecstatic. I thought the others would return the rest the very next day. It took a total of two weeks (including one report card day) to get as many consent forms back for us to start blogging – less than half the students had brought them back that week. 7 students returned their consent forms with their parents/guardian allowing them to participate in the classroom blog and one student brought the form back stating they were not allowed to participate. The following week on report card day, I explained what the classroom blog was all about to the parents/guardians that did show up. I had 5 more students signed up for our blog, including the one student that wasn’t originally allowed to participate. Altogether I have 12 students that were allowed to use the blog, 6 students kept on forgetting to bring back their forms, and 3 other students kept on insisting they weren’t allowed. It may have helped if the 9 students’ parents/guardians (the same 9 students that did not bring any form back at all) had shown up for report card day for me to explain our classroom blog. The students that do not participate in our classroom blog still need to complete the required assignments. The only difference is they have to print it out and hand in their assignments instead of posting their assignments on our blog.

Time

So far we have three posted assignments on our blog and, I tell you, they take up a lot of time to get through one. Each assignment takes approximately 1 to 1-1/2 weeks to complete. We started each assignment in class as part of our Language Arts units (e.i. Romeo and Juliet and “Indigenous Narratives”). After the students had written up their assignment in class using the writing process, students would publish them on the computer using a word processor. Seeing that we only had three computers in the classroom, one computer class out of a six-day cycle, and 21 students that needed to complete their assignments, it was only logical to spread these special assignments out into weekly assignments. I learnt this ”logical” idea after posting the first formal assignment: Finding a song for Romeo and Juliet.

I knew the students would have a blast with this assignment because most of them love listening to music and it would be a perfect opportunity for them to listen to music in the classroom. Well… they couldn’t make up their minds which song they wanted to choose… so, they were constantly searching on YouTube for a song that they believed to be, as I stated, THE SONG for Romeo and Juliet. I cannot stress enough how much time it takes to get an assignment done, especially one I thought we would zoom right through.

Interaction

After many frustrations and wondering why students didn’t interact with one another – it dawned on me – I suppose it is too early on in the game for me to expect too much – after all, it is new to them as well. I remember when I started this class I was a little sceptical about writing and commenting on blogs and socially interacting with people on twitter (which I am still an avid lurker on).

Our classroom blog ended up being a place where students posted their assignments without any of the interaction (i.e. commenting each other) I hoped would be created (online that is). Although at first I was disappointed with the results, there was an upside to our blog – students could read each others’ writings and any links they posted as well. I have seen my students reading other students’ posts and I felt that our classroom blog did serve a purpose – it is on “online classroom bulletin board”: students showcasing and sharing their assignments with other students in the class through the classroom blog. Come to think of it, Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog is the ultimate “online classroom bulletin board.”

Participation

Although I have 12 students on board for our classroom blog, not all have posted assignments to our blog. I do not want to say much about this subject because I think that a lot of the missing assignments have to do with the irregular attendance in my classroom. As these assignments require the five stages of the writing process (brainstorming, rough draft, revising, editing, publishing, PLUS posting), time and attendance play major factors on whether a student is able to complete an assignment or not. So for the most part, students get partial marks for the works they have done in class.

So, that is what I have experienced thus far on my final project for this class. I say thus far because I am going to continue with my classroom blog – just maybe learn more from it and keep improving upon it as well. Again, I would like to mention that I would like to expand my classroom blog to include much more bulletin board material as Mrs. Cassidy has done with hers.

p.s.

Please leave any comments on what kind of improvements I can make if you have any ideas. Thank you!

To My Classmates: It’s the Climb!

gracemcleod — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:49:17 +0000

WOW, can you believe we’re almost done this course and our Master’s program????

Each time I’m on the computer in my room, Miley Cyrus’ new song comes on while my kids are watching the Family Channel and it never fails to remind that we are almost there. This song always gives me a good vibe and an outlook for the future. When you think about it (and taking some words right from the song), it is “the climb” that keeps us going, to see what’s on “the otherside”, “that dream” we are all dreaming, but we have to remember that this is not the end because there are “other mountains” we will want to climb - and that’s the beauty of it – it is the climb – Don’t you agree?

My Experiences Using EdTechTalk: Women in Web 2.0

gracemcleod — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:27:13 +0000

This evening, I participated in an EdTechTalk webcast called Women of Web 2.0. I enjoyed the show very much because the speakers talked about technology in the classroom – plus, there was no pressure for you chat, just listen to the guest speakers. I suppose the only downside to this webcast was that there was about a 30 second delay from the voice and chat, so there was really no instant interaction between the speakers and listeners, but I was okay with it – it helped me focus on what the speakers had to say, instead of juggling back and forth between chat and audio. The guest speakers offered websites for using technology in the classroom which emphasized on students driving their own learning. If you are interested in viewing ALL the websites they recommended you can go to the show’s sharetab to see a preview of all the sites they mentioned.

I browsed through the websites (very quickly that is) and came up with my personal favourites and will be visiting these sites more often:

New Mexico State University Webinars - much like edtechtalk (I think), “a list of webinars for k-12 teachers, administrators, counselors, educational assistance, etc.”

GO2WEB20 – “web 2.0 tools and applications”

Young Novelist Workbooks – a website I found through Jackie Gerstein’s Discovery Change Wiki, under Writer’s Workshop (which also has brilliant ideas on student writing.

Wee Web Wonders – if you want to see how students can use web tools in the classroom then check out this site. It is “an interactive site to showcase creative uses of some of the major web tools”

NGA Kids: The Art Zone – Apparently, kids can create online art using photos on this site, but I was not able to see anything because I couldn’t install Shockwave on my computer. It looks very interesting though. I would like to go back when I’m able to install Shockwave.

I enjoyed listening in on the webcast on edtechtalk so much that I am going to join another webcast in the near future. The Women of Web 2.0 offered SO much ideas for using technology in the classroom that I look forward to listening in on other webcasts. I hope you do too

To see a listing of future edtechtalk sessions/shows click here.

I Found an “EC&I Movie Trailer”

gracemcleod — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:42:41 +0000

I was browsing Youtube and came across this movie trailer our professor, Alec Couros, had made in 2007:

What I want to know is… Alec, how did you make this video? That was neat!

Marc Prensky’s “The Role of Technology: in teaching and the classroom”

gracemcleod — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:06:39 +0000

Thanks to a recent comment that was added to my blog, I looked further into the works of Marc Prensky. A comment left on my “Talk about Techno-Influenced” post suggested I read a link that lead me to read more about the author, Marc Prensky. Prensky’s website proved to be time well-invested. In Prensky’s article (one of many interesting ones I might add), ”The Role of Technology: in teaching and the classroom,” Prensky offers a realistic use of technology in the classroom as a learning tool, rather than as a hindrance (i.e. texting in class and messeage managers, etc.) to learning. An example of how to use technology in the classroom that Prensky suggests is as follows:

Instead of coming in with lesson plans that begin “Here are the three causes of [whatever], please take notes,” they need to say “There are three main causes of [whatever it is]. You have 15 minutes to use your technology to find them, and then we’ll discuss what you’ve found.

This example that Prensky gave within his article makes me hunger for more ideas on how to integrate technology into the classroom, ideas that are more student-centred/ social-centred rather than teacher-centred. In the past, I thought I was being “techno-savvy” by transferring my notes and lectures into powerpoint, when actually, the students would probably benefit more from finding the info themselves. Does anyone else have any other ideas out there on this topic?

Social Networking and Kids

gracemcleod — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:59:11 +0000

While browsing through Couros’ readings and media links for our class (EC&I 831: Computers in the Classroom), I came across a couple of videos that did not sit well with my nerves. I have children that use the internet a lot. I have 10 and 11 year olds that have their own bebo and penguin accounts. I do look at their sites regularly to make sure the comments and posts are age appropriate but it is scary to think that ANYBODY can view their profiles. My children have uploaded their own pictures on bebo and its scary to know that there are people out there that would not use these pictures appropriately (see “Flickr Perversion” as well).

This video is called “Everyone Knows Your Name”:

This one is called “Think Before You Post”:

Talk About Techno-Influenced

gracemcleod — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:06:54 +0000

I just thought I’d share this picture I took of my students’ puppet stage back in October. I had to be away during the last week of October last fall so one of the assignments I gave my grade nine students while I was gone was to create a puppet stage. When I came back, I had visualized a traditional looking puppet stage (in my eyes anyway)… Well, I was really surprised when I walked into my classroom to see this:

Puppet Stage

Wasn’t that a creative idea? We now have this stage ready to go if students want to make a puppet play as a final project in Language Arts (by the way, my major project focuses on the multiple intelligences). A couple of students had used it already for their projects back in December.

My students also fool around with it (once in awhile) by pretending to “plug in” the computer headphones on the side of the stage while another student sings silently inside.

Students and technology: where do you draw the line?

gracemcleod — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:11:47 +0000

This evening I had a very interesting class session on eluminate about “sharing” information on the internet. Our guest speaker for the session was Dean Shareski. I browsed through Shareski’s website and the “Podcast 44: Facebook, Filtering and all that” post got my attention. I would like to do the same here by posing the following question:

Where do you draw the line when it comes to student networking in the classroom/ computer room?

At our school, Bebo has been banned for student use. I let students use msn messenger before class starts and afterschool while I’m still in the classroom (we have 3 computers in the classroom the students can use). But what about when we have the computer room booked for assignments or researching? We only go into the computer lab once in a six day cycle and it is hard to see where everyone is at in there because there’s not much room to walk around. By the time I do get to a students’ computer, they’ve exited out of certain “windows” they probably don’t want me to see. Of course there are filters in our system and certain sites that are blocked for students, but they do have their ways of getting around these firewalls (I can’t even imagine how they do it). How do I know if my students are working on an assignment or simply chatting with other students (most of the time it’s the student right next to them)? What can I do about this situation?

A colleague of mine suggested standing right at the back of the classroom so you would know where all the students were at. Can you imagine yourself standing at the back of a computer room for almost an hour to watch what your students’ are doing? I couldn’t…

Computer Lab

My Daughter’s Project

gracemcleod — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:30:19 +0000

This past weekend I helped my daughter with her Science project (she’s in grade six). She was assigned to make a model of the Jason 1 Satellite (which I had no idea what it looked like when she approached me with the project). Thank goodness for the internet! All we had to do was type “jason 1 satellite” on Google Images and we found more than what we needed to get started. Unfortunately, we ran out of ink on our printer so we had to go back and forth from the computer to the kitchen to look at the pictures on Google Images (one of the disadvantages of living in the north - can only get Kodak ink from Prince Albert). It was fun making the model with her that my other children wanted to pitch in to help paint. While I was cutting the cardboard pieces for my daughter, she brought out my camera and I thought “what a great idea.”

The model turned out pretty good compared to the original (taken from wikipedia), omitting a few minor details:

Using Videos in Class – Some Last Minute Ideas

gracemcleod — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:07:45 +0000

I like using videos in class to either introduce a unit, emphasize a point, or to end a unit as well. The trouble I’ve had in the past is that our library collection was very limited, mostly came in the VHS format, and quite frankly, seriously out-of-date. Another option I’ve used is borrowing from PNLS. PNLS has tons of videos on practically any educational topic. PNLS is a very useful resource centre for us northerners but you really need to plan way ahead of time (1-2 weeks) if you want to borrow from them. That’s all great if you are good at planning ahead early but, if you’re anything like me, the great ideas don’t usually show their faces until the last minute. For those teachers that need a quick video or clip – there’s Youtube. I’ve been using Youtube in class for the past year and have found it to be a very resourceful tool. A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon something similar to Youtube called Teachertube. I really like using both these sites when the opportunity arises for me to do so in the classroom.

Yesterday, I came across another idea on using videos in the classroom. Every once in a while, I like showing movies that relate to the content I am teaching in class (or at least some relation, hehe). I had everything planned from last week, knowing at the back of my mind that I had the DVD of the movie at home for me to use. Sunday evening came around I thought I’d get a little ahead by putting the DVDs I wanted to use in my school bag. I couldn’t find my movie ANYWHERE. I thought of downloading the movie on my Limewire but had remembered how long it took the last time I had did that and knew I wouldn’t have the time to download and burn a copy. So I went on the internet. I stumbled upon a website called watch-movies . There were certain steps you need to follow though if you don’t have the right software. For instance, I had to download FireFox, Adobe FlashPlayer, and DIV-X Player to actually watch the movie. After I did all that, I found out that you can only watch about 52 minutes of the movie and wait another hour before you can view the rest. I’m sure if you invest some money in it you could view and download the movie, but again, this was just one of my last minute brilliant ideas because I thought I had the DVD handy at home the day before I was going to view it. It worked out okay since we only had about 50 minutes to watch the video anyway.