Check Out My Tools... My 2.0 Tools ;)

Designing Lessons Using the Correct Affordances Can Make All the Difference 

In Summer of 2013, I took an online class in which I had to design a lesson plan for my school or class to implement BUT I could only use web 1.0 tools.  Now, I have to say that when we normally think about the internet and sharing on the internet...what comes to mind? Facebook, Blogging, Twitter, Google Docs, etc. I was unable to use any of those kinds of internet based structures.  

My Plan was this... 

Educational Purpose of Project:  In this project, students are able to have a hands on learning experience to be published authors. The Newsletter Connection provides students with an opportunity to publish their written work.  Students will be motivated to improve and utilize their writing skills in order to have their work published in the school’s electronic newsletter.  Students will submit their work to an online website set up by the school to allow other schools around the world to vote for which articles, poems, songs, etc. to make the next issue.  There will be a two weeks timeline to submit work and two weeks for voting to take place.  Students are able to reflect upon 

their work by reading the comments submitted by the voters. 

I took what I had at the time to produce this lesson and make it happen... NVU ( a web design software program..Cheap version of Dreamweaver) was being used. 

Description of Project Plan:  Newsletter Connection is a project for students to submit work to an online website for other schools to comment and vote for the best work to be published in the schools newsletter. For example, if I wish to have my students at a local elementary school make a newsletter for the schools I would create a profile for my school and select a topic for the students to write about.

Example: Flint Hill Elementary students will now have the opportunity to be published authors! Fifth grade language arts classes will be responsible for establishing the quarterly theme, reading the submitted work and selecting appropriate samples, contacting the authors if changes need to be made, and organizing the published pieces on the newsletter.  All students K-6 are eligible to submit work connecting to the given theme.  Submissions will be collected for a month and then displayed for a month.  Each quarter the cycle will repeat.

            Teachers at a school that wishes to implement this type of project must set up an account to the Newsletter Connection Website.  After submitting a form to the website a confirmation email will be sent back to the teacher letting them know they are all set up to participate and a name for them to use when submitting their entries (flinthill k-6). There will be a strict timeline that all classes must follow.   Students will then be able to submit their work based on the topic that is set up by the school.  Other schools that are signed up on this website will be able to vote for your submission.  The voters are also able to leave positive and constructive feedback to each entry.

            Once the submissions are voted upon and the voting has ended, the website will let the teacher know which articles have won.  The teacher will then be able to place the winning articles into a template to publish or allow a news team at their school to conduct this activity.

            This activity could go on multiple times during the year, either monthly or quarterly. 

Now... step to WEB 2.0 TOOLS..

I could take this design make it into a newsletter that is collaborated on using wikispaces, blogger, google sites... You NAME it I could make my school newsletter by allowing my students to use the tools that allow them to collaborate, communicate and design together or apart. 

With the upgrading of the internet tools, I could take my design to allow people around the world to view our school newsletter, add videos, announcements daily- the skys the limit. 

EdTech.. Digital Classroom

Video in the Classroom...yepp, you read that correctly. Students- Your KINDERGARTENERS!- are using video cameras in the classroom.  Yes!

In addition to being fun and motivating, video projects teach students to plan, organize, write, communicate, collaborate, and analyze.  A successful video project has undergone a process of researching, scripting, organizing, filming, editing, and publishing. Students also have the opportunity to apply artistic and dramatic skills to their academic work.

With the proliferation of webcams, phone camera, flip cams, digital recorders and editing tools already installed on computers, video has exploded in the media lives of students.  Many of them spend as much time, if not more, watching YouTube as opposed to television. As I learned at the Google Summit in Charlottesville, some colleges even include video submissions as part of their application process. As this media further matures, students may need to be able to express themselves as effectively through moving imagery as with the written word.

And you thought, Kindergarten Teachers had troubles getting a student to hold a pencil correctly?!?! 

But as I have learned in my Graduate studies, using video could be as simple as recording a student oral presentation for future review, or as elaborate as producing an original short film or PSA. Depending on the complexity of the project, consider the steps needed to ensure that your students create thoughtful final products that demonstrate their knowledge rather than pieces full of flash but potentially lacking in substance. 

Remember with little ones- a video project does not have to only include actual footage captured by a video camera. Still images can be combined to create an animated slide show or to enhance existing footage that the students took. Many audio tools on programs such as iMovie, or Windows Movie Maker allow students to create a narration to accompany the imagery or add a sound track. Most editing software also includes the ability to add titles or captions to both video as well as image files.

Not every student is the next Ron Howard, but little minds are surely creative... 

OMGoogle! #gafesummit

Presenting at the Google Apps for Education Summit

This weekend I drove down to Charlottesville, VA with my team member Shannon Kuykendall to present at the 2nd Annual Google Apps for Education Summit.

To access my presentation: Please click on the link here. Comment below if you have any questions regarding Google Apps in the Elementary Classroom.

Erase Law?! What the Social Networking!

As I ponder what I am going to be writing about I click on the Fox News Icon on my Facebook Page and what story appears California allows minors to delete social media posts, with 'erase' law. 

Teens using Social Media from Fox news

This is the first law in the country and is being hailed as a good step toward giving "under-18 internet users a chance to remove regrettable postings and preserve their reputation".  James Steyer, founder and chief executive of Common Sense Media has said, "This puts privacy in the hands of kids, teenagers and parents, not under the control of an anonymous tech company."

I must say that I do not agree with this new law.  I'm a true believer that everything you do shows your true character.  I don't believe that teenagers should be able to put down someone on the internet through any form of media and then be able to take it back.  I understand that it will help the victim in the case, but why help the reputation of the child that decided bashing someone online was a good thing to do in the first place.  They should be able to feel the repercussions for their actions. 

Besides this new form of legislation that begins in January 2015, a bullying outbreak in Instagram has begun in recent months.  Have you ever heard of the Elimination game? 

Did you know that there are Beauty Pageants on Instagram? That 'besties' are doing this to each other? Wow! I'm sickened by what I was reading on the internet after I typed in a few words about the Elimination Game! 

See, right now, as I sit here typing this, there is a tween girl with an iPhone somewhere making a grid out of four pictures of her besties using Instacollage. When she's finished, she will post that grid on Instagram, and then write something along the lines of: BEAUTY CONTEST! VOTE SOMEONE OUT! Did you just throw up in your mouth a little? 

But wait. That's not even the worst part. Because what happens next is this: People will actually vote for who they think is the least attractive in the comments, and whichever girl's name is written the most will be awarded a big fat X drawn across her face. Do you want me to repeat that last part? Of course you don't, but I'm going to anyway. Whichever girl's name is written the most will be awarded with a big fat X drawn across her face.

Then the question will be repeated two more times, until there is only one gorgeous X-free girl left standing, the fairest of them all!

Can you believe that teenager girls are doing this to their friends?!? I'm sorry, but a friend that is going to put you up on a 'contest' like this is no friend at all. 

Some states are fighting back.. check out this investigation at Ladue Middle School in St. Louis. 

With all of this happening on Social Networking sites today, I'm sure more laws about internet bullying with appear in a few years.  Bullying has become more mainstream with the use of the internet, because students who are too afraid to say it to a person's face can hide behind a computer screen and say it there.  

Teens need to remember that Beauty if Only Skin Deep and that whatever you say on the internet, even with a law, can never be erased from the person's mind that you wrote about.  Think before you write.