Feedback I thought your Blendspace was interesting to view. As you have stated that your Prototype will keeping changing as you are working through it, is what I also predict with my Prototype. Having the students use Schoology is a great way for the students to collaborate and discuss their learning. There are also many other apps that the students can use to complete this task. Having the students research the apps/software that they want to use makes it more of their own and they can take ownership of their project. Having them take ownership makes the project theirs and will increase engagement. As for the teacher, they will be more of a facilitator which will allow the teacher to monitor all of the students’ projects in a timely matter. This is a transformation of a classroom. Going from the direct instruction to having a project based learning environment changes the way teachers and students think of the classroom environment. Sharing their final project with the whole class is a way for all to learn, but maybe the students can use different avenues to share their final project such as video, voicethread, Powtoon or other apps that they can research.
Hi Shari, I really like your idea of allowing the students choices when it comes to presenting their final projects. While it is beneficial for the students to watch all of the videos of students working with preschool children, allowing the students to compile their information in format of their own choosing is a wonderful idea! This will add another layer of ownership to the completed project. Thank you for your suggestion!
I have been eagerly anticipating your Blendspace explanation for your key assignment because we are both reading the same book. I found Blended to be hugely beneficial, and learned so much about blending even with limited tech resources. -If I could, I would flip the class like you did. My first attempt at flipping was very much appreciated by those with computer and internet access at home. I was able to form flexible groups very quickly based on what students had done at home. I attempted to have students without access complete the assignment first thing in the morning in the classroom, and had some success with that strategy...except that there are too many students and too little time once school begins. Unfortunately the children without internet access are also those for whom a trip to the library is problematic, and who rely on bus transportation, and thus cannot arrive early or leave late. The feedback I got from students who completed a lesson at home was that it was much more meaningful than taking home practice work. They felt more prepared for the work of the day in flexible groups. I would like that experience for all of my students. What can we do to make at home access equitable? Did you experience any difficulties with home access? - I loved the step by step explanation in your voice thread of how the course is organized. Schoology is something I have used in courses I have taken, but not in school. For now we are required to stick with Google Classroom. My hope is that Classroom will improve to incorporate some of the features you pointed out in Schoology. One feature I do have is that I can hand out a document digitally to each student, and as students work on their documents, their work is assembled into a single folder. It is very easy to manage for me. I am assuming you have the same capability in Schoology. -Have you tried flipping anything else yet besides your child development course? -I second Shari's idea about presenting using a choice of digital tools. Of course, this assumes you have time to add that feature. -I am wondering if flipping changed the overall pacing or length of the class. I found that with blending and self paced learning my weather unit was completed sooner and the learning deeper. I am not sure that would always be the result, and so I am interested in your take. - We have to stay in touch!
Hello Ros, Thank you so much for your feedback. I would love to stay in touch. I still have four more classes to go, but I will email you my gmail address so we can contact each other outside of Lesley. My school district asked members of the Blended Learning Initiative to test out three different LMS. The choices were Edmodo, elementary teachers seemed to gravitate toward that choice, Schoology, and Google Classroom. During my Blended meeting last week, the consensus between the high school teachers was that the current version, Beta, of Google Classroom was not working for us. It offered little in the way of organization and many teachers found it to be very frustrating. Since our school is a Google school, many teachers felt that they had to give Google Classrooms a try, but now they are moving over to Schoology; especially seeing how I have been able to use it in my classes. I found it very interesting that your school is making you use Google Classroom. You bring up a very valid point about what to do if students do not have technology at home. This is an ongoing concern in my school district as well. There has been mention of becoming a 1:1, but the funding eludes us at this point. My work around was having my students use their cell phones. Schoology is offered in both Apple and Android platforms. Even the few students who do not have Internet access at home have a Smartphone. It is funny because high school teachers are constantly asking students to put their phones away in class, but I often ask my students to get them out. If you can't beat them, join them, right? It is really funny because I have 12 student computers in my classroom and yet most students prefer to use their phones. It must be nice to still have good eyes that can read such small print, huh? I really liked Shari's suggestion and I offered it to my students today in class. I even went as far as to show them your PowToon presentation and they loved it! I also showed them Todd's use of iCreate and they liked that as well. However, they seemed reluctant to veer away from the tradition paper report, but that could change. I am thinking if I offer them a tutorial on how to use the different apps, then they might have the courage to give it a try. As for flipping my other classes, I am in the process of doing that in my Accounting course. I am trying to figure out a way to digitize all of my documents without purchasing a high speed scanner. It seems like the high speed scanner that was in my classroom at the beginning of the year as disappeared. I am not sure if Flipping has changed my pace, but it has made our class discussion much more meaningful. I agree with you that Flipping has made my learning deeper. I find myself moving from more and more from the "Sage on the Stage" to the "Guide on the Side" and I really like it! I am eager to continue our conversations...thanks for suggesting that we stay in touch!
As always, Tracy, your attention to detail is amazing. I really liked how you inserted a video on you using Schoology. This looks a lot like our Moodle course. Your concept of a "Flipped" classroom really has me thinking about ways to flip a couple of my own lessons. My districts biggest concern is that not every student has internet or computer access. How do you get around this? I am required to have hard copies of everything for those who need them. As you did with my resource list, I too have copied a few of your resources on flipping a classroom.
The other concept I really agreed with is struggling with doing all the ground work. Working with high school students, I feel like so many want/need to be spoon fed all the time on projects and as I am "setting the ground work," I too feel like the learning is lost if I am the doing all the work. I think you are going in the right direction by giving them journals to read and discover new possibilities on their own. THE Journal is an excellent resource for sure. I never thought to have students use it.
One of the biggest struggles with projects as this, is finding community partners. My community is very resources but it is a lot of work coordinating all the events, as I think you have realized in setting up the mentors. Kudos to you for not giving up because the students will truly benefit in the end.
Final project idea: I noticed Shari mentioned giving choices in how to present projects to the rest of the class. This is a great idea. Maybe create a list of possible choices and I think creating a Weebly website would be fun (and fairly easy)! :-)
Hi Jess, Ros had similar questions as you; how to work around students who do not have Internet access at home and implementing Shari's suggestion. I am going to copy and paste what I wrote to Ros:
You bring up a very valid point about what to do if students do not have technology at home. This is an ongoing concern in my school district as well. There has been mention of becoming a 1:1, but the funding eludes us at this point. My work around was having my students use their cell phones. Schoology is offered in both Apple and Android platforms. Even the few students who do not have Internet access at home have a Smartphone. It is funny because high school teachers are constantly asking students to put their phones away in class, but I often ask my students to get them out. If you can't beat them, join them, right? It is really funny because I have 12 student computers in my classroom and yet most students prefer to use their phones.................. I really liked Shari's suggestion and I offered it to my students today in class. I even went as far as to show them your PowToon presentation and they loved it! I also showed them Todd's use of iCreate and they liked that as well. However, they seemed reluctant to veer away from the tradition paper report, but that could change. I am thinking if I offer them a tutorial on how to use the different apps, then they might have the courage to give it a try.
I think I will build upon Shari's idea by adding your suggestion and make a list of possible suggestions for my students. Maybe I could upload a few tutorials to our Schoology account to help them get going?
Thanks for the feedback Jess. It is always a pleasure to work with you and I am looking forward to our next class together this fall!
I really like your final problem of practice. Having taught exploring childhood previously I think it makes the milestones much more tangible to the students. I had suggested that you video tape a role play exercise where the students act out a child of a particular age group and the characteristics they have learned they should be exhibiting, but I like the way you incorporated the video into your problem of practice better. Using it as an observational tool to monitor the child's actions and manipulation of the applications is a much better way to use the technology. I was simply looking for a way to add more technology, but yours make much more sense for the project.
Did you provide the students with a list of apps to choose from or were they given free reign to choose from the many? With so many different options available I was curious as to how much time it takes them to research the apps and actually pick one. If you are unfamiliar with it, it must take a bit of time to get to play with it to see how it fits into the project or if it fits at all.
Hi Michelle, The only list of apps that my students had to work with was the list of apps that the class shared after brainstorming. We listed them on the board, eliminated duplicates, and that gave the students a long list of places to start. Most students had their milestones and apps chosen within a couple of days and were working on putting their plan together. Since these were apps for children ages 3-5, the learning curve was minimal. The greatest amount of time was finding the best match between the milestone being assessed and the app that had the capability to assess what was needed.
I still like your idea and I used it in a similar project. My students worked in groups to create a video to share with the class during the introduction of developmental theorists. It went very well and the overall grades for both the presentation and the written summative were excellent!
I also plan to implement the flow chart idea that both you and Jess added to my Coggle because I see some benefit in that as well. Being the only person at our school who teaches what I teach, I have to say that the brainstorming activity was really beneficial for me. Thanks for the ideas!
I am very impressed by your Key Assignment. It's thorough, comprehensive, and extremely clear. It was a pleasure to read (and re-read!) as I contemplated your problem and journey to (and through) your solution. I really like how you've chosen a problem of practice born from a true need in your professional work and then used technology to help accomplish it. Sometimes it seems that technology is forced in a course, but certainly not in your case!
Your use of data/quotations to support your problem is very effective. The description of your problem, district initiatives, muses/inspirations, and experiences with blended learning/Web 2.0 is clear and does a great job of setting the stage for your approach to your solution.
I'm curious if Schoology was a personal choice that you made or whether your district is supporting a Schoology initiative as a part of its 21st Century Learning Goals? I ask because we also use Schoology in my district, but we only went with it as a district because many teachers were already using it with their classes. They made the personal choice to use it and the district's support of their use followed it. As I work on my own problem of practice, I'd be (selfishly!) interested in hearing more about how you ended up with Schoology and how your experiences with it are so far.
It's really interesting to see the way that your solution/project uses technology in two ways - first, to assess development milestones and, second, to record the child taking the technology-based assessment. Technology is truly being made a key part of the assignment! You write about the shift this project creates in your classroom, since you are empowering students to have freedom in making choices about the tools they use to complete the project. I love the idea of empowering them, but I wonder how that will work for less tech-savvy students? I also think it will be important for you to have some clear standards for the apps that students choose and for what the final outcome of the project looks like; the challenge, I think, will be finding that balance between freedom and structure - since too much in either direction can be a problem of its own!
Your description of the "testing" phase is fascinating. I'm glad you had a chance to do such in-depth testing of your solution and that you also had willing student participants! You talk about using Schoology as a repository for student work, but have you also thought about using it for the "discussion" that you talk about throughout the project steps? Schoology has really easy to use discussion forums, as well as comment features on posts. Particularly with your interest in blended learning, I think taking advantage of these features will be really useful to you and your students.
Regarding your discussion of SAMR, you've talked about both Schoology and other video technologies, but I'm curious if you have any specific ideas about other tools for students to use as part of your solution? Or, based on your testing phase, I'm curious what tools your student used to produce and edit the video, which app for testing developmental milestones, etc? As I mentioned before, I think there is a hard balance to find between freedom and structure (for lack of a better term) in the project, so I feel that your solution might benefit from some more concrete examples of apps or tech tools that students would/could use for the project. Some of this might be based on the technology that is available to students already in your school. With such a tech-heavy assignment, I think it's important to ensure that all students have access to the resources that they need to complete it, so you may want to consider how the tools your school already has will work for this as opposed to assuming (not saying you are!) that students have access to tech resources on their own.
I really enjoyed reading/watching/exploring your project! Nice job and good luck as you refine it based on your testing!
Thanks so much for the feedback! You asked if I used Schoology by choice and I do. As part of the Blended Learning Initiative in my school district, I was asked to choose between Schoology, Edmodo and Google Classroom. I have investigated Edmodo before, but it felt more appropriate for elementary teachers. I contemplated Google Classroom since my school district is Google based, but it did not offer the simple and effective organization that I need. As soon as I started working in Schoology I loved it. The interface was user-friendly and the organization worked well for my needs. I will continue to use Schoology until my district moves to its own LMS, probably a few years out. The teachers who are participating in the Initiative are giving feedback so the district can create an LMS that is best suited for our needs.
You brought up a very good point of consideration; the balance between freedom and structure. I did spend time with the class discussing apps and what a "good" app would look like for this project. My students did have time in class to work on their assessment, so I was available to support each student. The interesting thing is that my support really wasn't needed. The students in this class are honors level students taking a college-level course and they are excellent problem solvers. The conversations that were taking place within the classroom as the students were working were extraordinary. Having said that, I would probably need to spend more time guiding my standard level students through a similar technology-based project. I completely agree with your statement about balance and sometimes it can be a challenge to find that "sweet spot". Hopefully, being cognizant of this potential problem will make keeping the balance a little easier.
I should also share that my "test" student did share her experience through the first page of the guideline with the class. I did not want her to share her discoveries when working with the child because I did not want her experience to influence the other students. By sharing our dialog and discovery when working through the steps the first time and by encouraging questions, the class as a whole seemed to be on solid ground and ready to proceed.
I use the discussion area of Schoology with each lesson! I love it! It is a great communication tool for the students to collaborate and for me to oversee. I require the students to post a comment and then comment on a post made by another student. The discussions have been exciting to watch as they unfold. When I first introduced this practice and the use of Schoology, there was some resistance, but now our Schoology space is the first place they go.
The videos are not edited. We needed to see what happened during the assessment and we did not want the date to be altered. I feel that the feedback from the preschool teacher outweighs any video editing skills that may be gained throughout this project. As for the apps that the students chose, I will have to wait until their presentations to have that answer. I have listened in on conversations, and viewed some apps as the students were working, but I have not asked them to share the names with me as that information will be included in their final presentation.
I agree with you, it is crucial to ensure that all students have the technology readily available to them so they can successfully participate in a project like this. Before I introduced this project, I made sure that the technology was in place. This is not the first technology-rich project that I have done, but since I had to work within the privacy issues of working with young children, I had to bring in several of my own devices from home for the students to use. Thankfully, I have a strong Wi-Fi signal in my classroom, and 12 desktop computers for back-up. Each of my 22 students has Smartphones, so I am taking advantage of that as much as I can. I know that this will not be the case with each class, but I will find a way to even the playing field when the need arises.
Feedback
ReplyDeleteI thought your Blendspace was interesting to view. As you have stated that your Prototype will keeping changing as you are working through it, is what I also predict with my Prototype. Having the students use Schoology is a great way for the students to collaborate and discuss their learning. There are also many other apps that the students can use to complete this task.
Having the students research the apps/software that they want to use makes it more of their own and they can take ownership of their project. Having them take ownership makes the project theirs and will increase engagement. As for the teacher, they will be more of a facilitator which will allow the teacher to monitor all of the students’ projects in a timely matter.
This is a transformation of a classroom. Going from the direct instruction to having a project based learning environment changes the way teachers and students think of the classroom environment.
Sharing their final project with the whole class is a way for all to learn, but maybe the students can use different avenues to share their final project such as video, voicethread, Powtoon or other apps that they can research.
Hi Shari,
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of allowing the students choices when it comes to presenting their final projects. While it is beneficial for the students to watch all of the videos of students working with preschool children, allowing the students to compile their information in format of their own choosing is a wonderful idea! This will add another layer of ownership to the completed project. Thank you for your suggestion!
I have been eagerly anticipating your Blendspace explanation for your key assignment because we are both reading the same book. I found Blended to be hugely beneficial, and learned so much about blending even with limited tech resources.
ReplyDelete-If I could, I would flip the class like you did. My first attempt at flipping was very much appreciated by those with computer and internet access at home. I was able to form flexible groups very quickly based on what students had done at home. I attempted to have students without access complete the assignment first thing in the morning in the classroom, and had some success with that strategy...except that there are too many students and too little time once school begins. Unfortunately the children without internet access are also those for whom a trip to the library is problematic, and who rely on bus transportation, and thus cannot arrive early or leave late. The feedback I got from students who completed a lesson at home was that it was much more meaningful than taking home practice work. They felt more prepared for the work of the day in flexible groups. I would like that experience for all of my students. What can we do to make at home access equitable? Did you experience any difficulties with home access?
- I loved the step by step explanation in your voice thread of how the course is organized. Schoology is something I have used in courses I have taken, but not in school. For now we are required to stick with Google Classroom. My hope is that Classroom will improve to incorporate some of the features you pointed out in Schoology. One feature I do have is that I can hand out a document digitally to each student, and as students work on their documents, their work is assembled into a single folder. It is very easy to manage for me. I am assuming you have the same capability in Schoology.
-Have you tried flipping anything else yet besides your child development course?
-I second Shari's idea about presenting using a choice of digital tools. Of course, this assumes you have time to add that feature.
-I am wondering if flipping changed the overall pacing or length of the class. I found that with blending and self paced learning my weather unit was completed sooner and the learning deeper. I am not sure that would always be the result, and so I am interested in your take.
- We have to stay in touch!
Hello Ros,
DeleteThank you so much for your feedback. I would love to stay in touch. I still have four more classes to go, but I will email you my gmail address so we can contact each other outside of Lesley.
My school district asked members of the Blended Learning Initiative to test out three different LMS. The choices were Edmodo, elementary teachers seemed to gravitate toward that choice, Schoology, and Google Classroom. During my Blended meeting last week, the consensus between the high school teachers was that the current version, Beta, of Google Classroom was not working for us. It offered little in the way of organization and many teachers found it to be very frustrating. Since our school is a Google school, many teachers felt that they had to give Google Classrooms a try, but now they are moving over to Schoology; especially seeing how I have been able to use it in my classes. I found it very interesting that your school is making you use Google Classroom.
You bring up a very valid point about what to do if students do not have technology at home. This is an ongoing concern in my school district as well. There has been mention of becoming a 1:1, but the funding eludes us at this point. My work around was having my students use their cell phones. Schoology is offered in both Apple and Android platforms. Even the few students who do not have Internet access at home have a Smartphone. It is funny because high school teachers are constantly asking students to put their phones away in class, but I often ask my students to get them out. If you can't beat them, join them, right? It is really funny because I have 12 student computers in my classroom and yet most students prefer to use their phones. It must be nice to still have good eyes that can read such small print, huh?
I really liked Shari's suggestion and I offered it to my students today in class. I even went as far as to show them your PowToon presentation and they loved it! I also showed them Todd's use of iCreate and they liked that as well. However, they seemed reluctant to veer away from the tradition paper report, but that could change. I am thinking if I offer them a tutorial on how to use the different apps, then they might have the courage to give it a try.
As for flipping my other classes, I am in the process of doing that in my Accounting course. I am trying to figure out a way to digitize all of my documents without purchasing a high speed scanner. It seems like the high speed scanner that was in my classroom at the beginning of the year as disappeared.
I am not sure if Flipping has changed my pace, but it has made our class discussion much more meaningful. I agree with you that Flipping has made my learning deeper. I find myself moving from more and more from the "Sage on the Stage" to the "Guide on the Side" and I really like it!
I am eager to continue our conversations...thanks for suggesting that we stay in touch!
As always, Tracy, your attention to detail is amazing. I really liked how you inserted a video on you using Schoology. This looks a lot like our Moodle course. Your concept of a "Flipped" classroom really has me thinking about ways to flip a couple of my own lessons. My districts biggest concern is that not every student has internet or computer access. How do you get around this? I am required to have hard copies of everything for those who need them. As you did with my resource list, I too have copied a few of your resources on flipping a classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe other concept I really agreed with is struggling with doing all the ground work. Working with high school students, I feel like so many want/need to be spoon fed all the time on projects and as I am "setting the ground work," I too feel like the learning is lost if I am the doing all the work. I think you are going in the right direction by giving them journals to read and discover new possibilities on their own. THE Journal is an excellent resource for sure. I never thought to have students use it.
One of the biggest struggles with projects as this, is finding community partners. My community is very resources but it is a lot of work coordinating all the events, as I think you have realized in setting up the mentors. Kudos to you for not giving up because the students will truly benefit in the end.
Final project idea: I noticed Shari mentioned giving choices in how to present projects to the rest of the class. This is a great idea. Maybe create a list of possible choices and I think creating a Weebly website would be fun (and fairly easy)! :-)
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jess,
DeleteRos had similar questions as you; how to work around students who do not have Internet access at home and implementing Shari's suggestion. I am going to copy and paste what I wrote to Ros:
You bring up a very valid point about what to do if students do not have technology at home. This is an ongoing concern in my school district as well. There has been mention of becoming a 1:1, but the funding eludes us at this point. My work around was having my students use their cell phones. Schoology is offered in both Apple and Android platforms. Even the few students who do not have Internet access at home have a Smartphone. It is funny because high school teachers are constantly asking students to put their phones away in class, but I often ask my students to get them out. If you can't beat them, join them, right? It is really funny because I have 12 student computers in my classroom and yet most students prefer to use their phones..................
I really liked Shari's suggestion and I offered it to my students today in class. I even went as far as to show them your PowToon presentation and they loved it! I also showed them Todd's use of iCreate and they liked that as well. However, they seemed reluctant to veer away from the tradition paper report, but that could change. I am thinking if I offer them a tutorial on how to use the different apps, then they might have the courage to give it a try.
I think I will build upon Shari's idea by adding your suggestion and make a list of possible suggestions for my students. Maybe I could upload a few tutorials to our Schoology account to help them get going?
Thanks for the feedback Jess. It is always a pleasure to work with you and I am looking forward to our next class together this fall!
Hey Tracy.
ReplyDeleteI really like your final problem of practice. Having taught exploring childhood previously I think it makes the milestones much more tangible to the students. I had suggested that you video tape a role play exercise where the students act out a child of a particular age group and the characteristics they have learned they should be exhibiting, but I like the way you incorporated the video into your problem of practice better. Using it as an observational tool to monitor the child's actions and manipulation of the applications is a much better way to use the technology. I was simply looking for a way to add more technology, but yours make much more sense for the project.
Did you provide the students with a list of apps to choose from or were they given free reign to choose from the many? With so many different options available I was curious as to how much time it takes them to research the apps and actually pick one. If you are unfamiliar with it, it must take a bit of time to get to play with it to see how it fits into the project or if it fits at all.
Hi Michelle,
DeleteThe only list of apps that my students had to work with was the list of apps that the class shared after brainstorming. We listed them on the board, eliminated duplicates, and that gave the students a long list of places to start. Most students had their milestones and apps chosen within a couple of days and were working on putting their plan together. Since these were apps for children ages 3-5, the learning curve was minimal. The greatest amount of time was finding the best match between the milestone being assessed and the app that had the capability to assess what was needed.
I still like your idea and I used it in a similar project. My students worked in groups to create a video to share with the class during the introduction of developmental theorists. It went very well and the overall grades for both the presentation and the written summative were excellent!
I also plan to implement the flow chart idea that both you and Jess added to my Coggle because I see some benefit in that as well. Being the only person at our school who teaches what I teach, I have to say that the brainstorming activity was really beneficial for me. Thanks for the ideas!
Hi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed by your Key Assignment. It's thorough, comprehensive, and extremely clear. It was a pleasure to read (and re-read!) as I contemplated your problem and journey to (and through) your solution. I really like how you've chosen a problem of practice born from a true need in your professional work and then used technology to help accomplish it. Sometimes it seems that technology is forced in a course, but certainly not in your case!
Your use of data/quotations to support your problem is very effective. The description of your problem, district initiatives, muses/inspirations, and experiences with blended learning/Web 2.0 is clear and does a great job of setting the stage for your approach to your solution.
I'm curious if Schoology was a personal choice that you made or whether your district is supporting a Schoology initiative as a part of its 21st Century Learning Goals? I ask because we also use Schoology in my district, but we only went with it as a district because many teachers were already using it with their classes. They made the personal choice to use it and the district's support of their use followed it. As I work on my own problem of practice, I'd be (selfishly!) interested in hearing more about how you ended up with Schoology and how your experiences with it are so far.
It's really interesting to see the way that your solution/project uses technology in two ways - first, to assess development milestones and, second, to record the child taking the technology-based assessment. Technology is truly being made a key part of the assignment! You write about the shift this project creates in your classroom, since you are empowering students to have freedom in making choices about the tools they use to complete the project. I love the idea of empowering them, but I wonder how that will work for less tech-savvy students? I also think it will be important for you to have some clear standards for the apps that students choose and for what the final outcome of the project looks like; the challenge, I think, will be finding that balance between freedom and structure - since too much in either direction can be a problem of its own!
Your description of the "testing" phase is fascinating. I'm glad you had a chance to do such in-depth testing of your solution and that you also had willing student participants! You talk about using Schoology as a repository for student work, but have you also thought about using it for the "discussion" that you talk about throughout the project steps? Schoology has really easy to use discussion forums, as well as comment features on posts. Particularly with your interest in blended learning, I think taking advantage of these features will be really useful to you and your students.
Regarding your discussion of SAMR, you've talked about both Schoology and other video technologies, but I'm curious if you have any specific ideas about other tools for students to use as part of your solution? Or, based on your testing phase, I'm curious what tools your student used to produce and edit the video, which app for testing developmental milestones, etc? As I mentioned before, I think there is a hard balance to find between freedom and structure (for lack of a better term) in the project, so I feel that your solution might benefit from some more concrete examples of apps or tech tools that students would/could use for the project. Some of this might be based on the technology that is available to students already in your school. With such a tech-heavy assignment, I think it's important to ensure that all students have access to the resources that they need to complete it, so you may want to consider how the tools your school already has will work for this as opposed to assuming (not saying you are!) that students have access to tech resources on their own.
I really enjoyed reading/watching/exploring your project! Nice job and good luck as you refine it based on your testing!
Best,
Jason
Hi Jason,
DeleteThanks so much for the feedback!
You asked if I used Schoology by choice and I do. As part of the Blended Learning Initiative in my school district, I was asked to choose between Schoology, Edmodo and Google Classroom. I have investigated Edmodo before, but it felt more appropriate for elementary teachers. I contemplated Google Classroom since my school district is Google based, but it did not offer the simple and effective organization that I need. As soon as I started working in Schoology I loved it. The interface was user-friendly and the organization worked well for my needs. I will continue to use Schoology until my district moves to its own LMS, probably a few years out. The teachers who are participating in the Initiative are giving feedback so the district can create an LMS that is best suited for our needs.
You brought up a very good point of consideration; the balance between freedom and structure. I did spend time with the class discussing apps and what a "good" app would look like for this project. My students did have time in class to work on their assessment, so I was available to support each student. The interesting thing is that my support really wasn't needed. The students in this class are honors level students taking a college-level course and they are excellent problem solvers. The conversations that were taking place within the classroom as the students were working were extraordinary. Having said that, I would probably need to spend more time guiding my standard level students through a similar technology-based project. I completely agree with your statement about balance and sometimes it can be a challenge to find that "sweet spot". Hopefully, being cognizant of this potential problem will make keeping the balance a little easier.
I should also share that my "test" student did share her experience through the first page of the guideline with the class. I did not want her to share her discoveries when working with the child because I did not want her experience to influence the other students. By sharing our dialog and discovery when working through the steps the first time and by encouraging questions, the class as a whole seemed to be on solid ground and ready to proceed.
I use the discussion area of Schoology with each lesson! I love it! It is a great communication tool for the students to collaborate and for me to oversee. I require the students to post a comment and then comment on a post made by another student. The discussions have been exciting to watch as they unfold. When I first introduced this practice and the use of Schoology, there was some resistance, but now our Schoology space is the first place they go.
ReplyDeleteThe videos are not edited. We needed to see what happened during the assessment and we did not want the date to be altered. I feel that the feedback from the preschool teacher outweighs any video editing skills that may be gained throughout this project. As for the apps that the students chose, I will have to wait until their presentations to have that answer. I have listened in on conversations, and viewed some apps as the students were working, but I have not asked them to share the names with me as that information will be included in their final presentation.
I agree with you, it is crucial to ensure that all students have the technology readily available to them so they can successfully participate in a project like this. Before I introduced this project, I made sure that the technology was in place. This is not the first technology-rich project that I have done, but since I had to work within the privacy issues of working with young children, I had to bring in several of my own devices from home for the students to use. Thankfully, I have a strong Wi-Fi signal in my classroom, and 12 desktop computers for back-up. Each of my 22 students has Smartphones, so I am taking advantage of that as much as I can. I know that this will not be the case with each class, but I will find a way to even the playing field when the need arises.
Thanks again for your feedback!