Project Based Learning Assignment - 3 Parts

Grade 2 New Media Assignment

Part 1:  Wordle Assignment:  An Introduction to Wordle

Focus:  The following activities focus on the ability to share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society as well as, pursue personal and aesthetic growth.

Read over and discuss relevant words for Remembrance Day from books read in class.  Create a reference list to be projected on the LCD screen

Demonstrate:  Show them what a wordle is and demonstrate how you can customize the words and other effects like randomization. I indicate that not only do they need to be able to print their own wordle but that they need to be able to share the responsibilities of the group so that each of them is able to successfully create a wordle

Activity 1:

 In pre assigned groups the students are to follow the directions to get to the website wordle.  (I have already linked my class webpage with wordle to help the students go directly where to go.)

Once the students are at the web site I give them instructions as to how to navigate the site, I indicate that each student is responsible to input 4 of their own words, regarding words that they feel is important to them in expressing their ideas about Remembrance Day.  They are to type in their name and the 4 words that they use.  They then each input their information and print.

Print and pass it in.

 Assessment:   

Completed the assignment while sharing the responsibilities are evident- Quick and easy to evaluate:  Students 21^st Century Skills see rubric:

Activity 2:

The students that are in my class (2R) are going to teach the students in the other Grade 2 class (2H) how to use Wordle.  My students are responsible to give the instructions for their friends from the other Grade 2 class.  The students are to complete a Wordle using their names, each taking turns typing in their own names.  Print and pass it in.

Part 2:  Glogster Assignment:  An Introduction to Glogster

Create a Glogster image showing the different emotions that you feel regarding the soldiers that have died in World War 1 and 2 or if you  have family that have been affected by a more recent war.  Perhaps you can even create a peace message.

Part 3:  Primary Pad Assignment:  An Introduction to Primary Pad

Students are to create an account, with the teachers’ help, and set up an online discussion showing their learning about the significance of Remembrance Day connecting their personal learning to global changes that have happened due to the War.   

Students are expected to share their discoveries collaboratively online, using primary pad, applying their knowledge to their own situation, discussing how their lives would be impacted if there was a war in Canada right now. 

By creating this knowledge I would like you to consider the global perspectives influencing your lives as students today, as well as, in your future.

Assessment:   Completed the assignment while sharing the responsibilities are evident- Quick and easy to evaluate!

Students 21^st Century Skills see rubric:

Criteria is a synthesis of the following lessons in the articles:   21st C. Learner, Five Hallmarks of Good Homework,7 Essentials of Project-Based Learning, and Show us What Homework’s For
Purpose:  Did the Student personalizes the purpose of the project?	Evidence of question	Evidence of critical thinking	Evidence of gaining knowledge by reflecting, collaboration, communicating	Personalized the driving question
Efficiency:  Did you learn anything?	Shared knowledge during group discussion responsibly respecting others feelings and manners	Participated productively with the group	Draw conclusions-connect to a real situation real world events	makes informed decisions based on self assessment and group collaboration
Ownership: Personal relationship between the student and the content formed?	Applied knowledge from personal experiences to new situation	Evidence of individual research, generated new questions	Evidence that the student became involved in the decision making process during group work	Student performed activities finding pleasure in personal growth
Competence: (differentiation) Student selected activities based on personal inquiry and time restraints	Evidence of pursuing personal growth by self assessment and openness to new ideas and suggestions	Found additional information on independently	Evidence that student related activities  to personal life	Customized project and components (activities) to personal needs- different style, brochure, different medium to present the message (results)
Aesthetically Appealing -Public Presentation	Aesthetic Growth multiple components digital, visual, textural, technological	Used creative and artistic formats to express personal learning	Trying a variety of formats	Organized uncluttered Attractive Attention grabbing visuals
Self Evaluation -Any new ideas?	Identified own areas of interest-select resources that are engaging	Identified areas of increased skill	Assess own ability to work with others face to face and through digital medium	Assess own growth
Total: Each section is worth one point for a total of 24

Observations:

Movie maker time

Well now I know why it takes so long to make a movie.  To time the song with the words with the images is driving me crazy-every change I make it totally changes the timing of the movie.  I keep changing the music because it is hard to get a song that captures all of the emotion that I want to convey!-it's all about the story I want to tell, the movie in this early stage has some strong enough images that my wife has cried while watching it-this is good!

One thing, of probably many odd things, was movie maker had a problem finding the file.  This concerns me as to how I am supposed to play the movie, must have to figure out a way of saving the file somewhere for the program to find it each time in order for it to work properly, I have decided on a song and have been working on timing.  I am still concerned about showing the movie from a DVD. I am going to have to find out about this little glitch that I have experienced.

I have learned why the 21st Century Learner takes longer at getting any one thing done, it is because they are always doing several other things at the same time, switching is exactly the word, as I have been doing this myself now....uh oh!

wordle again

Well I have  created an activity that all of my students enjoyed today, glogster was a no go, but Wordle is the winner, we were able to do our spelling test digitally through wordle.  Everyone was able to get online this morning and access wordle.  I created a link from my classpage so that I could control how they accessed the site. 

Everyone was able to create a wordle of the weeks spelling work.  They had fun doing the test imagine that!

I had a great time watching the students do this and help certain students work through their social problems which is daily with my group.

I have attempted repeatedly to get the group using glogster, it is just too hard for my grade to use this, and primary pad is out of the picture...sadly.

However I have discussed the online collaboration approach with all of my students who are all connected at home and have full internet access as well as a printer, 19 of 24 is a colour printer.  They have all created wordles for their parents at home.

their homework for this weekend which they all wanted was to create a wordle at home about ideas that they like to write about or their personal interests.

Next week my kids teach the other grade 2 class how to use wordle.

awesome

growing...

Well I have not finished everything for my connected classroom course yet however I feel that the learning that has gone on is absolutely beyond. 

So much, that I get somewhat frustrated, with what certain teachers are focused on at my school, regarding what they feel is meaningful homework.  I have to hold back my comments sometimes, regarding this homework, that is really not connected, to what is culturally relevant, or even meaningful in the students' learning.  

 I cetainly ask myself what is the purpose of the homework and is it MEANINGFUL?  -before I assign any kind of class/home work!

I find myself reassessing all of the projects and homework that I would/have  assign in the past and question myself:  "Am I really giving them something meaningful and connected?", quite often I have to adapt the activity now, so that I am pleased with the learning that is going on, especiallly,  if I have opportunity to introduce any technology.  Actually I introduced a L.Arts project using a program called Comic Life, I don't really know anything about the program, but I know that my students were really interested in it and could not wait to begin to create a comic strip.   Ofcourse they would go through the process of sharing, critical response, reflecting, change and improve, critique again, and reorganize that is essential for this 21st C. learner.

The articles and research that I have done for Al and this course has impacted my teaching in ways that I am really proud of, and I feel that it has improved my teaching as well as  it has change how I view life.

 I say this because the course has added another "filter" to me as a teacher.  I am able to think about what I am teaching and how I am doing it a little differently! -and I love it!  I feel that I am becoming a significantly more effective teacher as this course goes on.

I find myself now almost naturally making this transition to the better teacher these days, I am also motivated to partake in the group activities as I am interested in the learning that is happening in my classroom.  This is huge! 

Thanks to Al Reyner my prof for this, he really pushed us but it was for the best!

I have a project that I have been working on regarding a media gift, I am unsure of the "rubric" that I am being evaluated on, if any, however I am struggling with the media, the message, and the purpose, as I am not sure how this is effecting my teaching or my students, which is usually the goal of any/all of our course assignments. 

This one feels like the "cross I have to bear" like Jesus. 

I must say that every other assignment/project/article was absolutely relevant to my learning and to my class, that this media gift has me baffled, perhaps it is to see our skill to prepare for a wedding-haha!

Power Point Thoughts

Well as I have been struggling through this research based learning project I have been learning quite a bit about preparing to make a presentation using Power Point, I have been reminding myself that the actual PPT is not the presentation,  it is merely the vehicle.

Another problem is that there is so much information regarding the  21st Century Learner that I could continue to research this in an ongoing way.  I ask myself:  "Where do I draw the line?"


Thinking about cloud technology and there is a web presentation called PREEZO, no problem sharing with anyone-appears that you have a free trial for 30 days.  I stumbled across a web discussion regarding Preezo and the presenter liked the idea of being able to share with anyone online, and not able to change the presentation.


Also Keynote from the Apple world which you can control the slides by the use of your ipad or iphone, or itouch.


Back to my learning, I have realized that I just can't go ahead and open up PPT and create a presentation, there is a sequence to follow. First prepare information on paper, somewheres else, then capture the essence into main ideas or focus statements then organize what to say and how you want to represent it on the slide.

WORDLE: a fun activity

WORDLE
My lesson today was a technology lesson, and secondly, a language arts activity.  The good news is that all of my students were able to collaborate together and create group wordles.  This time the website was not blocked for some reason.

I have been sharing my discoveries regarding Wordle with my school's staff and have motivated many teachers to try this, there has been many emails back and forth to me, with questions and comments, about how much fun their students have had creating their Wordle projects.

Self Reflection
I am extremely pleased to have made the decision to share this personal experience with my school staff.  Though not every teacher has tried or will even try to implement technology in their daily teaching practise I am pleased to say that many did try to implement this activity with a positive success. 

Who wins?
Well as I am understanding, more and more, that as I implement technology into daily teaching practise, as well as, communicating my experiences to my colleagues, who in turn make suggestions and critique my work I am able to say that I am a winner as I become a more effective teacher.  Due to this the students then are the real winners. 

This is clearly evident in their willingness to try technology and experience new things in the classroom making learning fun, meaningful and connected to their lives.

SUPERMAN

Where is SUPERMAN?
Still seems to be boiling down to the ever popular problem of funding for school and education.

Well quite a busy chunk of time spent researching this whole Where is Superman video.  Really I enjoyed working through the panel discussion the most. 

-big tasks this week are using wordle, and glogster, both website blocked at school unless using the teacher computer.  Working on these assignment has pulled me away from working on my presentations.
H
ere is the final piece of our collaborative efforts.

http://ryanlutes.glogster.com/Glog-6083/

Wordle:

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2756382/fourguysandacomputer

to make a poster...
 I was able to convert the wordle into a .pdf file and Staples can print that like a poster....if you use a jpeg you will pixelate when you expand your size

Was planning a mini project for my students for Remembrance day however we could not create our own wordles...so I had to invite the students to work off of my teacher desktop,  lost motivation quickly.

After collaboration of glog and primary pad for many hours, it takes longer than face to face collaboration.  Going through the activities of assignments put me through the paces of what students go through.  I am still struggling  with the whole group work approach as it is difficult to assess how each student contributes.

As far as group work, regarding this glogster, I was not really fond of what we finally produced.  Is it because I am not a good group work person? Is it because I did not like the assignment interfering with my time to work on other major projects?  Perhaps.

I did find the experience worthwhile to me in a sense that I mentioned earlier as far as how to assess students using this style of collaborative learning.  In the end this experiment did not work for me as I am going to recieve a mark on something that I did not do-the glog, sure I contributed as much as everyone else, but since I did not put together a glog I can't say that I have experienced the challenges and limitations of the web based program.

What's the point? 
Why do I want to know how to use glogster if I am unable to provide access to it in the classroom with my students.  Would it work if I had access and control? -yes!
Same with wordle!  Love this simple program but again it is blocked for student access as I mentioned earlier, what a frustration.  Could I see myself using wordle on a regular basis?  Definitely, could the students?  Definitely if they had access.  ( well aside from home)

Class Oct.26-Who Owns the Learning?

Well walked away from class tonite with several different emotions, relief that next weeks homework is working on our Major term projects.  Disappointed because I really needed the feedback from my "Top 10 Tips for Digital Photography"  homework assignment was not happening.  UGH I was looking for that not so immediate feedback.  This is too bad because I would like to know how am I doing with this latest assignment.

I can understand that life happens as we all are forced to succombe to it's challenges, oh well maybe a cyber comment on my assignment.(AL?)

Even taking this feeling of disappointment back to my own classroom is really just helping me along, as this is the same feeling that my students feel when I do not give them the immediate feedback that they need and so willingly thirst for on a daily basis.  These immediate moments are really the teachable moments that Ruth Culham and Lucy Calkins mention in their books on writing.

This evening felt very informative and for the first time I did not walk away feeling extremely overwhelmed.  Mark and I had an extremely good opportunity to explore the similarities in our personal research through a very focused discussion regarding Grown up Digital, by Tapscott.

The discussions that I was able to partake in with my cohort members were quite enlightening to me.  through face to face discussions I can say quite confidently that we are all discovering the underlying elements of how to teach to this generation of hyper-tech kids.  I am planning to develop another mini project based activity, as we have done for our Universty class, to craft my skills and really increase the learning in my classroom. 

Al talked tonite about a point that really had an impact with me, that was WHO OWNS THE LEARNING? - just by introducing this idea during class my mind began to race and I started to realign my teaching style to this thought, it was great, but I did develop a headache from the overload. (haha)  Keeping this in the back of my mind, I will now bring this back to my classroom and continue to improve my role as the facilitator rather than the in the forefront teacher, another to view this is to lead from behind, I see the role changing greatly, to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge by the students to be highly motivational this is what is lacking at times in my own "teaching".  From this discussion I am able to take back to class an improved appoach yet again, that is to guide the students on the discovery of the needed knowledge and then help the students learn to organize and  represent their newly acquired knowledge into their writing and personal learning.

I even flashed back to how I modelled my daily teaching back when I taught Core French, it was highly motivational for the students as this is how I taught everything, project based, that's why the student's enjoyed me as the teacher.  (Or so they said!)

So it is safe to say that there were many connections tonite in class for me!

While I was at school today I aborded several discusssions with fellow teachers regarding technology for this generation of learners.  Some teachers felt that it was "beyond them" and were just attempting to keep up.  Other teachers had valid questions such as how do the young learners sift through the bull shit that is very often found while they are researching online.  I attempted to answer this with great confidence that today's 21st Century Learner have an innate skill at "sniffing" out the BS.  as they are always questionning the validity of what they are seeing and engaging in.  However I am finding that the difference between what is real and real looking next to impossible to distinguish anymore and some of my Grade 2 students are expressing the same question,  this is good critical thinking IMO.

I recently (last year) had a take home assignment that worked real well, they were to interview a grandparent about what life was like for them when they went to school.  I remember doing this with great success as we touched on many "fun" bits of learning. Such as how to conduct an interview.  Well atleast for a 7 year old !

Fun is a great motivator.

Back to talking with coworkers...meeting the learning needs for this group has to be from the ground up, what I mean is that teachers need to make a shift in the early elementary classroom as far as how we teach, and carry on with this shift through their entire educational experience to send these young learners into the world.

There were other comments that intrigued me, such as,  the need to present back to my staff all of the wonderful learning and discussions revolving around student learning. Also the need for teachers to be taught how to use all of the technology that is underused in our schools (well atleast at some schools) so this brings me back to a point in our discussion with Al tonite, that is regarding our Final projects about the Research on the 21st Century Learner we are all doing, it is a good approach to take that I am providing Professional development for my staff about the qualities that make up a 21st Century Learner and what we need to do teach this newer style of learner and all of the other isms that come along with these hypertech kids.

Well I come back to the title of this post.  Who Owns the Learning?-we all own the learning.  Teacher and the student in a symbiotic relationship.

Project Based Learning Assignment

Just a quick note for now, I found that it took me forever to get this done, as there is so much to synthsize and then try to represent what I have learned through the various activities.

Reflect on how the assignment was presented-it is hard to get into your professors head to figure out just exactly how to set it all up ... I can only imagine what my students must go through!  This experience encourages me to be very clear in giving instruction in my classroom

I wanna know what about the teachers out there who are not currently recieving PD for Tech integration and this Net generation basis of instruction.?

Getting great tech integration ideas for my teaching however.  This is good. 

Article: Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning

The ideas introduced here follows along with the thoughts and developments of our cohort instruction and discussions.  In a nutshell this article hits the nail on the head as far as describing what every good project needs that is meaningful questions that allow the students to be hungry to find the answers.  I found the article to be written very clearly and I agreed with the points made of the article.

"It is the process of students' learning and the depth of their cognitive engagement"

The project must be personally meaningful and have an educational purpose were very clearly stated and the article supported it's statement all the way through by referring back to this underlying idea of the essentials of a project, which are

1.  A Need to Know

2.  A Driving Question

3.  Student Voice and Choice

4.  21st Century Skills-the fun stuff like technology, this part of the article aligned greatly with another article named the 21st C. Learner , even used some of the same language like collaboration, communication, self assessment, critical thinking, purpose driven.  These skills have been referenced to in great detail as the NET Generation Skills according to Don Tapscott. Great connection to what is current in the development of what and how teachers need to teach to this group who do not respond well to being broadcasted to

5.  Inquiry and Innovation

6.  Feedback and Revision

7.  A Publicly Presented Product

Article: Show us What Homework's For (for October 26)

So just how should homework be so that it might be successful learning tool for my students in the classroom?
This is the question I found myself asking while I was reading, how can this article impact my students?

I found that this article was easy to read and very clear.  (Thanks Al!)

Impact to my teaching?
Yes, how?
1.  Remember to keep my homework assignments PURPOSE DRIVEN if I can continue to individualize and differentiate my homework for specific needs of my students, target their areas of weakness and push them to get better, this will motivate!  I can do this by keeping in mind to personalize the work, purposeful work, with a real life practical approach.
2.  Remember ALLOWED VARIETY IN LEARNING to continue to touch on multiple intelligences like art, poetry, etc. 
3.  Immediate FEED BACK to focus on the part of a lesson that my students did not quite understand so that they can fix what part they did not get and show growth from there assignment
4.  NO GRADING OF HOMEWORK inorder for my students to not feel threatened about the homework I must implement a not marking this for points approach, keeping the purpose in mind this homework will be a time to show me that they can practice the specific area of weakness and require less time for the drill and kill of repetitive  homework which eats up so much time.
5.  BETTER USE OF TIME is therefore the end of result if I can continue to implement the lessons from these aarticles.  With better use of their time, my students will be able to focus on less is more as the quality of work will increase.  I will be able  to help them get to a deeper understanding of the lesson/critical points faster and easier with good homework.  With this in mind I think that my students will then experience more personal happiness which will keep them motivated and they will continue to be willing to work hard  and desire to succeed. 
6.  The Four R's-Readiness, Repetition, Review, Revision was suggested by students in article to facilitate homework, if the work is CONNECTED to something personal or if it is meaningful to my students I will make it easier for my students to learn.  In the article the students stated that the homework the wanted to do involved collaboration, reflection, personal connection, sharing to the group and immediate feedback, these qualities of good homework keep coming up in the different articles that we have been reading
7.  Projects that I am going to assign will be motivating to generate a want to perform, desire to do well, and to make if FUN to learn

In my classroom I have made changes to speak to this need by no longer providing the skill and drill work for take home, we cover the essential in class, they are responsible to learn the words any way that works for them (makes it differentiated  and personal responsibility to their own learning style) also by doing spelling in this way I can provide immediate feedback to the kids as to the spelling strategy we are learning.  I can also provide the time that some of my students may not get at home because of their other interests and sports commitments.  This also provides time for them to work together and collaborate on the answers for the activity.  With just a little more tweaking I have now developed a high motivating and high interest activity just by tweaking .  Oh yeah!  Differentiation is much easier to do now as I can personalize the work for some to do in school using a program called Co-Writer.  I have already seen significant improvement on the 3 tests that I have conducted to see if this 21stC approach impacts my class.  It has! 

Week 3-raw

Digital picture assignment week.  Spent all weekend  and many evenings at school researching tips to digital photography.  I focused on my audience, my wife, who is a point and shoot type of photographer but has a great eye.  Unfortunately it was not as simplified as I wanted it to be.  I incoroporated an attractive cover as to capture an audience if it was sitting at a magazine rack at Chapters. During the class we were instructed ot resize images.  The point of the activity was well illustrated as though we did all the reading you still need to actually put the skill to use and resize images! Still finding that there really is so much to get a handle on.

I enjoyed the hyperlinks and bookmarks assignment used it in my classroom, tried to keep the youtube links short which makes a difference for their attention, I found that many of my students enjoyed the shocking content that I included.  This was the plan, to create different environments so that I could begin to get acquainted with what makes these young learners tick aside from pokeman. haha

Something that I walked away with from this week is that my friend in the Mounties and I could actually talk digipicspeak and I could follow, he shared with me the finer details of raw images for crime scene investigative work.  If I could plan a way to incorporate our discussion with him visiting my class discussing how technology is changing the way evidence is stored and data logged I think my students would be able to connect to my Social Studies curriculum which on its own lacks anything motivating.  This is what I find myself creating - interesting fun activities that allow the children to work together and discover how technology has changed in a short period of time, and compare it to how things were so different to when there parents were students by interviewing them.

Tapscott

Tapscott brought up a great comment that I am reflecting about, this is the notion of changing how we teach to the net generation child.  As I have been reading in articles collaboration is the key as well as making it a personal journey of learning.

Tapscott video Grown Digital

Embedded in this video interview is a very strong message that this generation is out there and educators have to continue to adapt and personalize what we are teaching and how we are engaging the social learner.  I am finding more and more evidence in my discussions with family and friends, and especially colleagues that there is a significant disconnect to the student who is digitalized.  In the schools today we have a significant need to diversify the old ways of broadcast teaching and begin to embrace the newer digilearner who learns better if they are emotionally attached to the work with a social responsibility to meet certain group goals. 

The article 21st C. learner introduced the ideas quite clearly of what kinds of skills these students have and must have to succeed.  Like conclude, collaborate, communicate, organise and display knowledge by their Tech. abilities, and how it all connects to the real world. 

This is actually what Tapscott was heading toward in this video, that is that the whole world is not connected and communicating openly.  Web based discussion is eminent and we as educators must provide the social education as well as technological for the students to navigate life becoming socially responsible and maintaining privacy.

P. Routledge 

Struggle

Okay so to touch base I am involved in a masters of education program with a focus in technology. 
I have no interest in blogging but I am diving into this experience. 
Reflection on the first couple of weeks, well crazy is a word I would use to describe the work.

Ofcourse it is important to realize that life goes on with or without involved in it.  So I have felt disconnected from family because of the amount of time that is required to fulfill class assignment without even really tackling the 2 major assignments for the bang for your buck  for points race for a mark.

Struggling how I organize this preliminary rant about course objectives.

The readings have been quite enlightening, I have enjoyed the discussions and improvements that I have already implemented in my teaching.

I will be popping back later.  Life is happening again. 
Post up if you have any comments.