Innovative Learning Blog
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Blog: Reflect on how you might use Google Forms 1)in your practice and 2) for your Touro action research/capstone project. What might be the best uses for your particular situation?
If you already have been using Google Forms in your practice, explain how you currently use them and what you might do to extend your knowledge to new applications/situations. Comment on at least 3 other peoples’ blogs. I am very interested in using Google Forms with my second grade students. I would like to create tests for my students, such as pre and post tests. Google Forms is a great way to expose students to 21st century test taking as well as an efficient way of administering a test, collecting, and analyzing data. The only way for my second graders to access Google Forms is by bringing them to the computer lab. In my classroom, there are only three Chrome Books available for students to use, so when I want all my students on a computer I have to reserve time in the computer lab. I could also use Google Forms with my colleagues in order to get some feedback. I am interested in forming a "Garden Committee" at my school, and to quicken the process of implementing ideas created by the committee I could use Google Forms to get feedback from other teachers and staff members from the school. I have thought about incorporating Google Forms into my research/capstone project. For example, I can use Google Forms to formulate a questionnaire for my students regarding their interest in digital storytelling. I can also formulate a questionnaire for my Capstone audience (educators). I can embed a link on my website for educators to access, which will lead them to a questionnaire (created by Google Forms) regarding my research. In my presentation, I can have my audience placed with a device accessible to internet and have them interactively participate in my presentation via Google Forms. So far, I have never used Google Forms other than the homework assignment for this class. However, over the past three years I have received numerous survey's from my administrators and from Professional Development courses and it wasn't until this class that I realized that the professional looking questionnaires were created easily using Google Forms. Thanks to this class I know how to access Google Forms. It was really easy to create a test and I look forward to incorporating it into my practice.
Creating digital videos inspires me. I love learning new programs such as Animoto and Powtoons. I like that those programs provide background and music to help create a video that is entertaining and professional. I also appreciate that it's easy to access and available for free. I've been able to use Animoto with my students, however, I haven't tried to use Powtoons with them. I've had a lot of connections with the what I have been learning and how it applies to my practice and action research. For example, Baggio stated that when presenting information "Less is More". In regards to my practice, when teaching my students how to create digital videos using a program like Animoto I must be cognizant that the content must be delivered with the least amount of text as possible. That doesn't mean to strip away academic language or content. As Baggio wrote, "The more facts you cram onto a screen, the less likely it is that those facts will be remembered". Baggio illustrated that graphic excellence is "That which gives the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time, with the least ink, in the smallest space." In regards to my action research, there is misbelief (according to Baggio) that a final project should be filled to the brim with text. I have already decided to deliver my action research project with a succinct design. An observation that I have made is that people are interested in how second grade students create digital videos and how much time does it take to create them? When teaching procedures, whether teaching second graders how to create digital videos or teaching adults how they do it, both what I have learned from Baggio and Clark apply to my practice and my action research. Baggio explained that we learn reading from left to right (and top to bottom). He went on to say that content should be placed on the left and visuals on the right. Of course, he failed to highlight that in certain cultures (Ex: Hebrew) they learn right to left and that solving addition and subtraction problems in our own culture is done from right. However, I agree with his generalized statement that we learn from left to right. That is good to know because when I present my website and poster as well as present information to my students I will make sure to be intentional about where I place content and visuals. I saw a connection between Baggio and Clark in regards to putting content on the left and graphics on the right. Clark wrote that "when (an audience) is learning procedures (they) need a clear display of the steps that make up the procedure, with illustrations as appropriate". This is important to know if regards to constructing manuals/instructions for my students as well as manuals/instructions used to present information from my action research project. The steps of the procedure should be written on the left and the illustrations on the right. From Baggio, I also learned about mirroring content and graphics to grab the audience's attention. When I partnered with Kelley she practiced with mirroring graphics. At one point, when analyzing our graphics, I questioned why one graphic (created by Kelley) kept grabbing my attention as if I needed to fix it. The reason why it grabbed my attention was because it was a mirrored graphic in comparison to the previous one and I thought that it was bothering me but in reality it was just grabbing my attention. I thought dang," I just got mirrored by my own presentation!" (Good job Kelley!). What is innovative that I will be doing this semester is learning how to create digital videos from scratch using WeVideo. Using WeVideo will enable me to use whatever background song I want and it will easily allow me to incorporate video. These are significant limitations from previously used programs such as Animoto and Powtoons. Whereas Animoto and Powtoons offers pre-packaged aesthetics, WeVideo allows the user to create a more organic product. As we know, ORGANIC is BETTER! Well, not always, but that's for another blog! Dilemmaa for me is time. I want to eat more slices of new technology than my life schedule allows me to consume. I know what carts I want to create, it's just that I don't have many horses lined up waiting to drive the creation. In time, the horses will arrive and so will the creation of the carts. I take solace in that when the horses arrive I will have a good base of how to design the carts effectively and efficiently. Participate in a Twitter chat on a topic relevant to what you teach, your Driving Question, or Capstone.
As did Karly, I used Participate.com to access my Tweet Chat (TC). The topic of my TC was startling identical to this week's homework assignments. The first question of the chat was: "Do you use social media in your classroom?" The entire chat was about social media. It was great because I felt like the chat was an extension to everything I had been doing for this week's homework assignments. What group norms did you observe? One of the group norms was that the five mediators of the Tweet Chat would post questions and the rest of the people tweeted responses. The mediators would respond to what people had tweeted. As Karly noted in her blog, there was a lot of encouragement offered by the mediators such as "I really like the passion in all the tweets". Mediators also encouraged everybody to share photos, ideas, links, and useful information. Many people tweeted links, photos, and texted about useful social media. At first, I noticed some people would initiate their response by posting "A1:" if answering to the first question; "A2:" if responding to the second question and so on. This was to let everybody know which question corresponded with their response. However, so many tweets were posted that people eventually just tweeted and didn't bother worrying about starting their tweet with A1: if answering to question one. Another norm was that everybody was friendly. Nobody tried to "play devil's advocate" or "stir the pot" with controversial responses. The chat was share knowledge and the platform was welcoming and supportive. What did you learn from this chat? I learned how to join and participate in a Tweet Chat (TC). I was a little confused about how to join a TC at first. My first time trying to join a TC, I was unsuccessful because it was late at night and all the TC's had finished for that day. From the TC that I did join (the following day), I learned a new site to possibly practice social media with my students called Flipgrid. The person who texted about the site was a first grade teacher, which let me know that social media can be accomplished at the lower primary levels. I also learned that educators all over the world are pushing for social media to be incorporated into classroom instruction. As one responder tweeted, "Students are using social media everyday and everywhere except for at school." Was it helpful to your practice/Capstone or not? It was helpful to participate in a TC for my practice because the more I get my feet wet into social media technology the more I enhance my digital skills/knowledge. Participating with Twitter and TC's catches me up a little bit to current social media technology. It took a master's course to get me using Twitter and participating in TC's, whereas for today's youth sending a Tweet and being a Tweet master is almost second nature. I have to expose myself to current technology/social media and embrace it's uses so I can catch up to what my students use on a daily basis to communicate and share knowledge, ideas, and opinions "outside of school". Embracing social media change and learning how to use it allows me to motivate students by tapping into their social media background experiences and prior knowledge. I'm not sure how social media will effect my Capstone, but I have a feeling that I will be threading my Capstone to various social media outlets. Every time I learn a new digital tool or social media platform I think of how I can incorporate into my Capstone or my practice. I am now considering how to incorporate Twitter, Twitter Chat, and Social Media into my Capstone. Review this article/letter. http:/dt/eechteacher.org/social-media-posts-patrick-larkin/ and blog about the following:
A.) How can social media be used to help me develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional? What are the critical issues to consider? Darrel West (2012) wrote "The appearance of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis, social media, and video games has altered the way individuals and organizations relate to one another. There is no longer any need to wait on professionals to share material and report on new developments. Today, people communicate directly in an unmediated and unfiltered manner." The more social media tools I learn the more I develop my social media skills, which I can then teach to my students. As crazy as it sounds, I can see a future where (at least some of) my 2nd grade students are writing blogs instead of writing in their journals with paper and pencil. At my school, 5th graders are using Google Slides instead of pencil and paper for their writing journals. There is still benefit for writing with paper and pencil, so the 5th graders do their written homework assignments one week with pencil and paper and the next week with Google Slides. There are also numerous benefits with having students use Google Slides to present their writing. Below is just a few of the benefits from students using Google Slides: 1.)According to 5th graders and 5th grade teachers, when students use Google Slides they are more engaged with their writing and write twice as much compared to when they use pencil and paper. 2.) Google Slides offers a lot of student choice in terms of designing the background, visuals, and images. 3.) Google Slides teaches students how to professionally communicate. (Nobody communicates these days using pencil and paper. Everybody uses the internet, or texts, tweets, blogs, e-mail, and services such as Google Docs,Google Slides, and Zoom.) Even if I don't teach my students some of the social media tools I've learned, the students still benefit because these tools have improved my collaboration and communication with my colleagues, which has made me a better teacher. Social media enables people to collaborate effectively and quickly in comparison to how people communicated 5-30 years ago. For example, my grade level team collaborates more efficiently and with better results using Google Docs than previously (just 5 years ago) when everything was written and recorded using Microsoft Word. Today's world also communicates instantaneously, easily, and productively. For example, Malala used blogs to tell the world about the injustices occurring in her home country, which helped her become recognized throughout the world. Her recognition stemmed from using Social Media. Eventually, she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. One critical issue with social media is access. Not all social media is free. Some are not supported by the district's bandwidth and policies. Another issue is for the teacher finding the time to learn the social media, teach it to the students, help them create and/or manage student's social media accounts, and regulate the content. It can be difficult and time consuming to incorporate social media into a curriculum that has no social media embedded into it. The major critical issue is digital citizenship (DC). First, you have to create or find the lessons, then you have to find the time to teach them. DC is important because without it, students won't have rules and regulations that guide them in safe, respectful, and responsible manner. DC is something that will probably have to be revisited frequently if social media is routinely used in class. Another possible issue is convincing parents the benefits from it. Some social media resistance may come from parents, but it would be the least of my worries. My main focus would be that students are using social media appropriately and that I'm able to control and regulate the appropriateness of the content. B.) What would you do if you were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of your students outside of the school. Do you address the post and, if so, how? Whom do you involve in the conversations? What considerations must you make in determining your course of action? In my opinion, any type of social media issue that becomes controversial inside or outside that involves a student should be brought to the highest authority, which in this case would be the principal. I would debrief the principal with everything I knew and collaborate to come up with the appropriate action plan. I would let the principal decide whom was to be involved in the conversation and how to discipline/support the student that made the post. At our school, we have a teacher who teaches digital citizenship via Common Sense to all 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I would recommend involving him in the conversation as well as the parents of the student. |
AuthorMy name is Joe Hall. I am an elementary bilingual teacher in Napa, CA. Archives
July 2017
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