Given all of the various resources, programs, techniques, and skills that I have covered I wanted to create a brief summary of all I learned and how it has altered my teaching philosophy. To start, everything I have learned thus far was to attempt to integrate technology into the classroom. As the Coronavirus swept across America, it became even more clear just how important technology integration into the classroom was. So although I was learning how to prepare for online instruction, I very quickly found myself also having to participate in online instruction for my other classes during my teaching preparation course. This gave me some unique insight into what online instruction looks like.
As a general observation, I think that offering online instruction while in class could be extremely beneficial for students. Technology has been so integrated into society that it’s important to make sure we teach students an ethical and responsible way to use technology while also gaining skills that they can use later on in either their academic or professional career. I found that assignments and skills that work the best are ones that are able to combine critical thinking with design. Some examples of the assignments that do this are the infographic, 5 picture story, and the digital story. These assignments are also very easily adaptable and can be used by various different teaching instructional strategies such as collaborative learning, self-guided teaching, and others. My favorite assignment that I intent to use is the podcast assignment. This assignment offers the greatest degree of flexibility and creativity while also focusing on some incredibly important skills and integrates technology use. This assignment literally gives students their voices and the opportunity to talk about social justice issues and their relationship to media and literacy. The podcast assignment also teaches students how to better anticipate future conversations, how to craft and design conversations, how to conduct research and use it during the podcast, and many other skills depending on how the podcast assignment is set up. For my classroom, I want to use this after each book read to have students discuss the ways in which they can tie the topics, characters, themes, events, and other literary devices related to modern media and modern society. As for my own personal experience with online instruction, I have had lot of online instruction over the years and I’d like to offer some insight and tips on how help students who are taking online instruction for any reason. First, time management is key to successful online instruction. Without the structure of having to go to class each day, the burden of managing enough time for the instruction and assignments falls on the students. For this reason, consider doing the assignment to see how long it takes you and then double it for your students. If the amount of work exceeds an hour a night, expect students to fall behind because students will have other classes as well and may not have that kind of time depending on their family life, internet access, or other reasons. Second, make sure that your instructions are extremely clear. If possible, have someone who is not a teacher read your instructions. If they are confused by the assignment the students will be as well. Teachers will not be around to provide assistance or support to students as easily or immediately as they do in a classroom. So when designing lessons for instruction, try make sure that the information is concise, but understandable and that you provide amble modeling, examples, and elaborate rubrics or instructions to help students. Lastly, offer students variety of options. Online instruction offers a great deal of flexibility for students to explore various programs, conduct meaningful research, and create digital art. Have students take their reading, writing, and analytical skills and apply them to various technology based assignments. This helps students stay engaged as it reduces the monotony of instruction, integrates the use of their own technology, and it helps students better understand different forms of creative expression and knowledge demonstration. This is also beneficial if a teacher is using a portfolio grading approach as it offers a variety of choices for the students to select the work that they believe demonstrates their knowledge and skill the best.
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Creating a podcast was one of the more entertaining assignments that I have worked with. I toyed with Anchor but due to the Coronavirus, I ended up conducting the podcast over Zoom and then compiling the video in Movie Maker 10. For this particular assignment, I conducted a podcast that breaks down various literary works and analyzes them, the author, and some of the deeper implications or connections made to the piece selected.
For this particular assignment, I combined a few different aspects of the guidelines from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). While it could be argued that depending on how the podcast is conducted that all aspects of the ISTE could be covered to an extent, the ones I mainly focused on all 3 aspects of the Empowered Professional section of the ISTE guidelines: Learner, Leader, and Citizen. The learner aspect comes from the students choice in what literary piece they want to study, their own personal research conducted, and the integration of credible and accurate information into their work. The leader aspect, which touches very closely on the collaboration aspect, occurs when either partner is the host of the show. They lead and control the conversation and have the opportunity to go "off script" if it benefits the podcast or helps address a deeper issue or meaning to the work. The citizen aspect occurs when students must work together to address the ways in which the work they selected is reflected in society and can discuss the role that they themselves could have in that reflection. As for the UDL, I tried to touch on all three aspects of the UDL guidelines. The engagement aspect occurs in the conversations that take place between the students as they research and create a podcast based on their own interests. The representation aspect occurs in the podcast itself. The images. sounds, words, tones of voice, and other elements of the podcast are all representation and can be analyzed and discussed. The expression aspect takes place in the script as well, but more so in the integration of personal opinions and the story that the podcast tells. All-in-all, podcast like assignments can be a very clever way to integrate technology into the classroom. There could be concerns for individuals who do not speak English, but the ability to add subtitles to podcast in post production can help reduce that concern. What is most important to me however, is that a podcast like assignment empowers students and takes the teacher out of the equation. Teachers can be unintentionally intimidating or their presence can cause anxiety for some students. The podcast creates a golden opportunity for students to speak in a causal way to one another without the teacher being present and the use of a script to be approved before the podcast still allows the teacher to facilitate and help direct students as needed. I highly recommend the use of podcasts in the classroom more often. This week I created a 5 picture story. The idea is incredibly simple, to create a story using 5 pictures. Typically the pictures would not involve any text, but vocabulary words could be included in the activity to demonstrate a students understanding of using both visual and written language to tell a coherent story. I created two 5 picture stories, one that tells story of Romeo and Juliet by summarizing the Acts of the play and one that tells the timeline story of Mount Fuji. While I only posted the story itself to my artifacts page, following up the 5 picture story with a reflection assignment is a great way to assess student understanding and their ability to use evidence based rationale for their creative work.
For this particular assignment, I combined a few different aspects of the guidelines from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). For the ISTE guidelines, I focused on the design and analyst aspects. The design aspect allows for students to explore a creative means of demonstrating their knowledge and understanding. The analyst aspect is used in both the decision making process of the design aspect as well as the reflection process. As for the UDL guidelines, I focused mostly on the language and symbol aspect and a little bit from the expression and communication aspect. The use of images and symbols to tell a story and the written reflection develop a connection between imagery and language. This assignment could be used as a great alternative to a typical summary and would allow for a more creative expression of knowledge in the classroom. The number of photos used could vary, but less photos requires more rationale on the reflection portion of the assignment. This assignment could also be used alternatively as an extra credit assignment, as a creative chapter or poetry summary, or could be repeated multiple times to create a larger picture story with a larger overall written analysis. This week I worked with Video Maker 10 to create an example of how students can use visual design elements to create a summary instead of a written or verbal summary. The idea was to integrate technology into the classroom and provide students a more creative outlet to in which they could present their knowledge and understanding of the book that they read.
Once again, I tried my best to adhere to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Universal Design for Learning guidelines (UDL) when creating this assignment. The video example is meant to demonstrate both the learner and designer aspects of the ISTE guidelines. The learner aspect is in the integration of video production program and the designer aspect is in the various elements that students can utilize in their video. As for the UDL, I focused on representation and expression. The representation is presented in the various ways in which students can choose to present their summary and the expression comes from their ability to determine in what way they can most effectively express their knowledge of the material. This kind of project is a fun alternative for book reports and allows students to utilize a variety of skills beyond those of writing. This style of assignment could be used for other assignments as well and it is a very easy and effective way for students to use technology in the classroom. This week I created an interactive poster using QR codes to create a more interactive and immersive experience. I used canva.com to create the poster itself, QRstuff.com to generate the QR codes, and metaverse studio to create two of the interactive portions (3 & 4) of the poster.
The intention of the interactive poster is to integrate technology into the classroom and to create a more engaging way to prepare students and parents for the school year to come. While the poster doesn't contain all of the information that I would provide to students and parents, the poster was great practice and I will likely create one that also includes the class syllabus, calendar, and other helpful tips and tricks for students. I would still keep into consideration individuals that lack access to technology and cannot access the interactive poster, but it is still a step closer to integrating technology into the modern education system. When I started this poster I was aiming for more of an informative poster, but I still wanted to try to adhere to both the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Universal Design for Learning guidelines (UDL). For the ISTE standards, I tried to include both the learning and leader aspects of the guidelines. Half of the QR codes link to resources that can help students both academically and personally as they pursue their education. As for the UDL, I attempted to create a more engaging environment by utilizing VR programs, interactive sections, and links to help students prepare in advance for their upcoming curriculum. I had to create an infographic and I believe that this is one of the most fun and engaging ways to have students work with their creative, technical, and critical thinking skills. Typically, I would have students use either Piktochart or Canva as both websites are user friendly, offer a large selection of free to use photographs, and allow you to download the file once you are finished. As long as clear instructions and a small tutorial are given, students from almost any subject will be able to utilize the skills they are most comfortable with to approach the task.
While I did not upload a lesson plan, the infographics would focus primarily on the analyst and designer aspects of the International Society for Technology in Education. The designer aspect is presented in the use of visual designs and the freedom of choice that students have when creating their infographic inluding backgrounds, fonts, color schemes, and other aspects of design. The analyst aspect comes from the use of the programs that allow students to utilize various forms of information gathering, writing, and designing. Given my understanding of the website programs, I can help the students and myself better understand where they are succeeding, where they are struggling or need improvement, and I can break down the component of the infographic to help students understand what they may or may not understand. Another focus of the lesson would be on representation aspect of the Universal Design for Learning concept. Infographics are a strong combination of visual design and academic research. The representation of the data and the supplemental support of the visuals requires a great deal of comprehension, an understanding of language and in particular diction, and being able to understand the perception given off by the infographic all tie into the concept of representation. Lastly, as far as recommendations go, infographics are a great alternative to summaries or cheat sheets for test. Have students create an infographic covering the evolution of a theme, character, or story over the course of the book or play. Have students create cheat sheets for math formulas that provide examples. Have students create art history pieces that utilize art design to create the history and tell a story. The applications for infographics are limitless and are worth looking into if you are looking for a more creative activity that still challenges your students. This week I worked on creating an interactive lesson (see artifacts page for link to the lesson) that I would be able to use in a classroom that utilizes SMART technology. It was my first time creating an interactive lesson that could take place in a classroom or in an online setting as well. I found the process different from how I typically approach my lesson planning, but quickly saw the advantages that could be offered. I decided to take more of a backseat approach as I focused on the facilitator and collaborator aspects of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). I combined this focus a combination of engagement and comprehension aspects of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This lead to myself only needing to introduce the activity and be there for any questions while students could work together to answer the questions presented and prepare themselves for their assignment.
The main intent behind this lesson, besides the obvious increase of student knowledge, is to create a low-risk environment in which students can learn how to empower themselves. The use of creative writing takes the pressure off of the more analytical and evidence gathering aspects of writing to make way for a more open ended form of expression. The letter of petition will likely use some more technical aspects of writing including using evidence, but it focuses more on creative critical thinking than technical writing, grammar and structure. If all goes well, my students should be better prepared for future writing assignments and analysis. Before today, I was unaware of what a HyperDoc was or even how it could be useful in an academic setting. It sounded great in theory, create a lesson online that allows students to learn, explore, and collaborate together to achieve a better understanding of the lesson. Creating the HyperDoc however, was more difficult than I realized, but worth the effort.
As I created the HyperDoc (go to my Artifacts page to see the HyperDoc) I quickly realized that I needed to think less like a teacher and more like one of my students. It is always my goal to teach my students the knowledge that they need to know, but beyond that I needed to think about how I could allow this to also empower my students to take their learning into their own hands. To that end, I decided that it was important to show students that the knowledge they are learning does not only apply to literature, but to all media platforms. This focus lead to the creation of a HyperDoc that provides enough information for students to understand the fundamentals while also challenging students to further expand their learning beyond the classroom and into their lives. With my focus in mind, I did my best to adhere to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards while also keeping in mind the Universal Design for Learning concept. Despite how complicated that may sound, I found that it actually provided me with boundaries and a framework through which I could design and create my HyperDoc to best educate my students. While I did my best to adhere to all standards, I placed a heavy emphasis on the collaboration and learning standards of ISTE as my main focus of the HyperDoc was creating an open and sharing environment in which students can learn together and share what they have learned in a collaborative space (padlet). I also focused heavily on the multiple means of representation aspect of the UDL as I believe it is important for students to understand that the English language is more than a means of communication, but a tool that can be used to better understand and navigate the world in which we live. The best advice that I can give anyone trying to create a HyperDoc for their students is to remember that students are curious. They want to learn and want to know that they are not wasting their time learning. HyperDocs are an effective means of empowering students and allowing them to find out for themselves how useful their education can be. |
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