This wiki is a balance of definitions, classroom application ideas, and program descriptions/links. What makes it different than other wikis is accessibility. The terms and descriptions are accessible in American Sign Language. The audience is primarily teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing, but there are some sections which could be beneficial for students. The criteria for sites and programs to make the wiki were how user friendly they are, cost (free), and visual accessibility via video or other conceptually visual layout.
The purpose of the wiki is collaboration around some of these basic web 2.0 concepts. If teachers become comfortable with these 7 areas in their classroom (regardless of programs they select), their students will be exposed to digital writing options that help keep them even with their peers. The web is generally a wonderfully accessible tool--with some interpreted materials, digital literacy is attainable regardless of disability.
Looking over my blog I see a few changes. Generally, I became more comfortable with the tasks each week and started to see them as stand alone pieces. I've mentioned this before, but one of my mind-shifts this semester has been to look at digital writing pieces as their own creations rather than a "digitalization" of previous writing. It was fun to see some of the early tasks and thinking about how much mental energy went into those. Now I'm cruising those sites making the most of them.
The platform I would likely select for a portfolio would be a wiki. I like blogs, but they do feel a bit permanent and one sided. The flexible nature of a wiki (and it's collaborative feel) has the vibe I would want for a portfolio. I want students to value the flexibility in the writing process. By collecting feedback on their wikis, I would like to see them create a 'polished works' page and link to the texts they feel are the best. With that format, classmates could also link to the ones they like best.
Material selection for a portfolio is difficult because I've never had anyone ever look at a portfolio I've designed. I worked really hard on lots of pieces in my portfolio, and it feels devalued because it hasn't been looked at. My students would be asked to put in the piece they like the best, the one they improved the most, and an example of something they would like to revisit. It would be very important to provide a final piece of writing (less than polished) that talked about the process for each of those selections and their reasons for choosing them.
Implementation idea 1: I will use my final project wiki as a collaborative community with the larger teacher of the Deaf/HH (TDHH) community. There are lots of pieces I didn't have a chance to get to the level I want, and I will work with my peers and colleagues to make the wiki an active center for tech tool/digital writing collaboration.
Implementation idea 2: I will learn to walk my talk :) I've tried to learn to love Google Reader, RSS, and Diigo, but I lack community. I need to continue to work on those three technologies because I see the logic behind their powers. I want to use them to 'glue' all these other pieces together and to help the web work for me. Working to 'read the web' the way my students do will take some time, but with these tools, I can get there.
I have learned a great deal about tools working together to create individual works of digital writing, and I look forward to having my own classroom to apply all of this! For the time being, I will have to live through my wiki members.
My final project is focusing on a wiki for deaf education teachers and deaf/hard of hearing students to learn about these different applications and systems. It is difficult to predict how the site will be used, so I decided to discuss my changed concept of assessing digital writing.
I like to include a variety of assessments. I am not a fan of static rubrics--I strongly believe they need to be flexible and well developed. I cannnot change what people think about rubics, so I want to improve my rubics to act as models. Adding hyper text elements into the assignment structure and the rubric is a new challenge. I usually just had the tech tool as an add on rather than something that contributed to the way the work was done. A major change I would make in this area is considering the purpose of selecting THAT tech tool and how the studnet utilized it to the best of its functionality.
Rubrics for digital writing are something that should be their own structure. I don't think it is wise to retro fit an old rubric to a digital writing rubric. Until teachers (including myself) view digital writing as so much more than a digital version of 'regular' writing, we are doomed to static rubrics that do not offer meaningful feedback.
Throughout this course I have been made aware of more 'tech tools' that can help my students collaborate with each other, and there is no reason those collaborative tools can't be made into feedback tools as well. I would work with them to develop feedback skills through explicit instruction and modeling. This time away from what I 'should be teaching' is an investment in all that I will be teaching!
I spent a little time walking through the sites I go to most often, and I started to notice some elements that make a site easier to read than others. The elements I found most useful included: *Color schemes that weren't distracting (too loud or busy) *Sites that had SOME color--not just black and white *Tabs and menus that remain the same throughout browsing *Information set up with headings, bullets, etc (not just chunks of text) *Tone of voice appropriate to the site and its audience After reflecting on these sites and their design elements, I returned to the two sites that I manage and changed some of the layouts! I think both of my sites are much better having thought through these issues.
Powerpoint thoughts: I have used Powerpoint or some kind of presentation software for a very long time. I used it in my teaching as well, but I tried to avoid the death-by-powerpoint approach. To be honest, I still had plenty of slides that were very dry, too big, too many bullet points, and too much one sided information. Over time, I worked on including more stopping points and handouts that had gaps for students to complete. When our school got Activ boards (interactive whiteboards), I used their presentation software everyday. Built in their software is an interactive quizzing program. You are able to embed questions into the presentation and have students respond with remote 'clickers.' You are able to ask them to respond with T/F, ABCD, Rank, type a response, and Use numbers. Our interactive presentations improved a GREAT DEAL after we had that program. Now that I no longer teach there, I will need to continually focus on what PP has to offer and how to keep things interesting. Along this journey, I found the "Prezi" program listed on our class Ning. I LOVE this program! For me, it makes a lot of sense for teaching that concepts are connected and interrelated. It was a lot of fun to make the presentation that I made. I focused on the word "therm"--teaching a word part is the idea of the presentation. I will use this program when I get my own classroom again one day and will include it on my final project website. I wanted to really get a feel for it, so I signed up for a 1 year membership.
What fun! I had a really good time playing around with the different platforms for comics this week. I struggled with a couple of the platforms and trying to decide what I would focus on, but if someone had an idea, any of the 3 would be good.
I have some students who have limited English skills, and encouraging them to tell a story however they can is a great way to start working toward printed English. I will play with these programs and share them with my students in the future as well!
I ended up making a one page comic about my sister and I. If I were creating a comic story, I would try to take more 'action shots.' Since I just wanted to use pictures I already had, I decided to stick with something where posed pictures are okay. I would ask my students to use pictures that help forward their story.
For my podcast, I've decided to create a narrative of a Christmas list. In my family, we always send Christmas lists by the first week of November. It never fails that people wish they could have been more descriptive (to reduce how many exchanges they have to negotiate). So...since I was working on our family lists, I decided to narrate them and send the audio file instead of a typed description. It was fun to work with Audacity. I will play around with it more to do some layering and other fun things.
My experiences with Skype have been all positive. My husband and I used Skype while he was deployed overseas. It was pretty reliable, and he is tech-challenged, so the plug-and-play aspect was very helpful.
For my students, I would likely use podcasts as a brainstorming mechninism as well as the ability for me to give feedback to individual students. Since my students cannot receive audio files (deaf), I would need to keep my responses in video format for podcasts, but the practice working with audio files got me thinking about other ways to use these programs. This Christmas list practice session might lead me into snipits of information for my other websites and sending my voice for particularly special e-mails (rather than lifeless words on a screen).
I was trying to come up with something really creative, but I ended up just using still shots focusing on my 2009 cruise. Since I don't have access to iMovie, I went with Movie Maker. I was pretty impressed by my classmate's ideas and use of imovie, so hopefully that's a program I will get to spend some time with in the future.
I have done lots of video and photo editing with my former students. I even taught a TV broadcasting class. We didn't have enough computers when we were working on projects, but it was always wonderful to see how creative and unique their productions turned out to be.
I would like to learn more about hypertexts embedded in videos--that isn't something I know anything about. Digital storytelling is an accessible way for low language students to tell a story and then expand to writing or another kind of literacy skill.
Here is a short video of photos taken on my cruise last August. I couldn't get the embed code from Media Mill, so I went to YouTube to get the embed code.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I overlooked this reflection assignment, but here are some thoughts about the role play about Google on Ocotober 20.
My role was one of ‘conflict’—questioning the use of these technologies for our youth yet using them at the same time. I found an image that had a fun/wild feeling to it (Fraggle Rock Character) and used her as my image. My general tone was not too far off of how I actually felt; looking back on how others handled it—I could have stretched my character a bit more. I think I missed the boat on the fun of the role play and running with an identity.
Initially I wasn’t challenging anyone. I made posts with my positions regarding the weakened face-to-face abilities I truly do see today. After reading posts by others, I found myself questioning them. My approach was to ask a question that challenged their point then offer some thoughts/solutions on that question. I cited other work only minimally. It was a dialogue centered experience for me, and I didn’t focus too much on ‘proving’ what I was saying. Again, I think that was all part of my flawed character. My character was too much of me, and I wasn’t able to step out and try a different perspective in a way that I could have.
I believe the most effective voices were extreme/caricatures of ‘old business men’ or ‘young teens.’ Their tone was very strong and consistent leading to a concrete point of view. Additionally, frequency of posting was another contributing factor to ‘effective vs non effective’ roles. The roles that were memorable and effective also answered points directly by using people’s names (roles) and going point for point through their ideas. I usually went with the bigger picture of what I thought they were getting at and didn’t pick point for point as much.
My personal beliefs were essentially what drove my role. I AM confused on the place of these technologies and their effect on our world today. That part of my role was not a stretch. My personal views didn’t really change as a result of this, but I was challenged to think through more specific aspects of the arguments as a result of having so many ‘perspectives’ in the discussion.
I think ‘hiding’ behind a role will provide some safety for hot button issues in the classroom. If I were addressing an issue that students would be motivated to respond to but wouldn’t want to be known, this would be a great way. I think I would use a role play as part of the school policy debates we often have. Students usually have pretty strong opinions about what should/shouldn’t change with school policy, but they have a hard time articulating it in front of their peers. They fear that agreeing with a rule will make them ‘brown nose’ people and be alienated by their peers. I would have to know my group fairly well to choose a topic that they would be both motivated by as well as willing to not know who is who for the roles.
Overall I enjoyed the experience, but I MUCH prefer a synchronous chat because I like the live give and take. I feel it is much more effective; keeping up with so many tails of conversations and forum links could get tremendously confusing!
I have some experience with Wikis, but not tons. Fortunately, my first experience with them was GREAT, so I'm open to working with their quirks and making things come together. My first experience was a collaborative final project with a grad class in the summer of 2008. We all were responsible for creating information, application, and resources for 4 different content literacy strategies. I still visit that site from time to time, but the experience of creating such a useful 'document' was great!
For my students, I like the idea of collaborative writing when we are doing pre-work and specific writing assignments for a text. My students often need a high degree of background knowledge to make reading successful, and to that end, allowing them to create resources for each other as well as asking them to become authors is a great exercise. For example, when we read Of Mice and Men or Holes, we would be able to create pages dedicated to each of the characters, the various locations, and I would likely work with them on bubbl.us to create a character map and embed that into our page.
Another area of writing that would lend itself is persuasive writing. If students are able to create a 'pro' or 'con' note on a wiki page and then find resources that support that point of view, they would have the makings of a very rich debate when the event moved from the Wiki to actual classroom performance/activity.
An area of concern I would have would be reliability (preteaching is a must to reduce these issues), as well as students feeling reluctant about working with hypertexts (as mentioned in Beach et al). For students who have to work hard to read a 'static' text, I think many would be less than thrilled with the idea of clicking through a text and making higher level decisions about where they go and how they read through the text. I do think there is great potential in 'freeing' them from the static way of reading, but it will take some convincing. Hypertexts will feel like extra work to them when actually they are reading 'aides' to any concept they might not quite understand.
I like collaborative writing overall if it has purpose (any writing assignment MUST have purpose) and if the students are guided through the process. It is a mistake to take 'group work' and put it online and call it collaborative writing. There needs to be a higher level of planning and use of the flexibility of the program/tool.
Many positive uses--hopefully I get back into a classroom before all of this changes too much and I have to start learning all over again! :)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
For my Flickr slideshow, I decided to focus on Arlington National Cemetary. I have very special memories and a deep connection to Arlington. Although I don't know anyone who is buried there, I am a military wife, and I have been there five times. Each time, I am overwhelmed by a magical reverence that surrounds the entire grounds.
As I was selecting the pictures, I was purposeful in choosing ones without people's faces (very few are close enough to be seen). I made that decision because to me, Arlington is a place of individual majesty that is dedicated to those who are buried there. I am struck by the power of realizing the individual stories that each of those headstones represents. Every person buried there has an amazing story to tell--they are there because of their sacrifice. They may not have all died in battle or in a dramatic way, but they all gave something to this country. They have wives, husbands, children, parents, and friends.
I was also striving to find pictures from all the seasons. I have been to Arlington during all different times of the year--it is majestic anytime you go. I have a special affinity for springtime in Arlington because of a personal journey that found new understanding while I sat and reflected under a cherry blossom tree on one of the high hills at Arlington overlooking DC. There are up to twenty eight burials there each day--yes, up to 28 each day. I have been passed or witnessed 8 horse drawn caissons and cried when I saw each one even though I don't even know the names of those interred.
It is a place of dignity, majesty, and respect. The honor and pride I feel when I am there is captured in many of these photos--it makes me feel like part of the great story of our country to be among those fallen while also making me feel like one in a sea of many.
Below is my voice thread with pictures from my wedding. I shared a few stories about the day and how we got there. I enjoyed using the program and find it useful for hearing people. I am not sure how I could adapt this for deaf students since using any kind of video would mean layering or picture in picture--more complex than I know how to do. There are video comments, but since that can't really be layered, I think it is a little limiting for use with ASL.
I think both of these tools would be very strong story telling devices. I found myself very engrossed in how other people represented the words I typed into Flickr. I played around with different adjectives and was sucked into searching layer after layer of tags and photos. The quality of the pictures would also give students lots of creative ways to look at the stories in their lives. The ease of both Flickr and Voice Thread would be great tools for students to play with and use with brief tutorials. Photos can be so powerful, and with the ease of creating great slideshows with Flickr students could be challenged to tell a story without any words.
One project that would be interesting and challenging would be a 'year in pictures.' Students would need to reflect on their past year (or one year in their life). They would then need to find 12 pictures that convey the EMOTION or EXPERIENCE they had during that period of the year. They would first have to identify what they were looking for and then find images they see as portraying that feeling.
I had a really fun time seaching for vlogs and watching them. I've seen some pretty good ones over the past year as I've discovered them, but this was a fun assignment. My favorite vlog I saw this week was focused on 2012 and narrated by Karen Alloy. Her humor and tongue in cheek approach was amusing to me. I liked the simplicity of the video paired with a variety of camera shots. The editing was smooth while still creating that 'tick tock' feeling even after the actual tic-tock sound was stopped. In addition to the camer photo-style shooting, the plain background with a close up of her speaking created the 'tension' feeling they were going for. It starts off with typical big-picture issues but then takes a turn for the silly. This keeps the viewer guessing as we watch her work through the information.
The intended audience was likely people who are neutral about the 'end of the world.' She is putting a lot of history into a tight package and giving opinion/analysis while bringing people up to date if they aren't familiar with the whole Mayan prediction hype. Her use of humor and consistent tone made the video fun to watch and interesting as well.
For my final project, I am considering creating a site or digital book of some sort that is all accessible with American Sign Language to teach about these tools (RSS, Diigo, Blogs, Vlogs, etc). I would have two audiences, students and teachers. As a deaf educator, I see so much potential in all of these tools, and while many people have already started using them, I know the school I worked at is not employing these tools. We are “stuck” in the past using old fashioned ways of looking at research and information. We are not preparing our students for what is next. Part of making a successful step forward will be ACCESSIBLE information that is not dependent on verbal or even printed text. I want to make the site as accessible in ASL as possible. This is a huge task, and I doubt I’d finish it in this semester, but it is something I’d like to see happen.
For the research piece, I will rely heavily on Will Richardson’s text as well as other texts and research databases. I often use search indexes on the University’s site. I also hope that as I become more comfortable with RSS, feeds, etc that will allow me to collect resources, blogs, community resources, videos, etc that could be used to this end. The specifics of the search are hard to outline right now. I know there aren’t that many sites out there that are accessible in ASL. There are some sites that feature vlogs, but they are not usually teaching based; they tend to be video replacements for printed text blogs. I will need to do a lot of research on understanding how to use these tools and be able to explain them in clear, meaningful ways.
Using tools like Diigo, etc is hard right now—it doesn’t feel natural yet. I can’t picture using Diigo in my research yet—maybe as the semester goes along and the platform becomes more comfortable I will see how to use it. Right now it feels like one more thing I am obligated to visit and search on behalf of other people. I hope my view changes (I am open to it changing!). I am new to RSS and to things like Diigo, and their very concept is overwhelming right now. I, like the students in the text, like the idea of collaborative learning, but I am very leery of depending on other people’s tags and ‘interests’ to help me do research.
I have added a few different subscriptions in my Google account. I decided to start with key words that are of interest to me rather than something related to my project. I want to get the bugs out on a topic that I am really motivated to know about. As I learn to selectively read everything collected in my Reader, I hope I get faster at it. It’s AWFUL right now (smile). I was very glad to go back and read what Richardson said about how it might seem overwhelming at first…it does right now!
As far as bringing students into these strategies—I am too much of a novice to go in that direction right now. I am looking forward to going through this process myself this semester and as I settle in be able to adjust and think of ways my students could benefit from these tools. They say it is tough to teach something you don’t know, and that is VERY true right now. I want to share these tools with my students (and former students), but I can’t articulate what they do and how to live with them yet. That will come.
I decided not to accept the itinerant teaching position that I interviewed for. It wasn't the right job for me right now. I was excited to use all sorts of tech-tools in this position to bring a community of people together in new ways, but alas, it is not to be this time around. Now I just need to fight through this late summer cold and get my homework done before looking for other jobs. Doors and windows...the Lord is good at managing them.
The use of blogs in my classroom is something I wish I would have taken an active step toward while I still had my classroom. I have known about blogs for years and had one for my husband’s overseas deployment, but I didn’t bring it into the classroom. I am committed to changing that when I return to classroom teaching. For my current job as an itinerant teacher, I think blogs might be just the ticket to linking the community I serve! Many of those students are isolated and are living with a hearing loss without anyone else in the district or region (or so they think!). I would like to settle into my job a bit and then set up a Ning (with blog pages) or something similar to allow them to connect in a safe environment that I can help to moderate and connect them as peers and people in a community--albeit one separated by miles of corn fields.
As a student, I am keeping two blogs this semester but have not kept an active blog for school purposes. I like the ideas shared in the PDF article about using a blog to share thoughts about the class with my students or teaching peers. I get nervous about the time commitment to keeping all the connections current and relevant though. As a student, I would be frustrated if my teacher didn’t respect the time it would take to create, maintain, and comment on each other’s blogs. I’ve had that kind of experience with a web-based course I took. The professor saw the online piece as an add-on and didn’t respect the time it took for us to read and respond to each other. I didn’t like collaborating because my time wasn’t respected and it became a chore rather than a valid piece of the learning culture in the class.
In the future I would like to apply blogs more consistently for myself as an educator (to connect with other educators) and as a way to promote community and writing. Many of my students struggle with writing, and having them write in an environment like this that is lower stakes (or at least feels that way to them) in a community that I can control the audience could be a very ‘safe’ and appealing way for them to write more often. They need to write more in order to progress in their skills. Additionally, so many times there are great thinkers in the class who do not participate in the group. It would be great if they could all have a safe place to read, write, and respond to each other without the pressure of processing time or the class dynamic interfering.
Additionally, I want my students to recognize the power of writing always in-progress. Too often today we have a due date where students complete work, turn it in, get a grade and recycle the paper (if we're lucky!). I want them to recognize the power of thoughts and writing in progress. There doesn't have to be an end-date to everything (although teaching time management is still important). If they are able to compose, interact, edit, change their minds, and go through this whole process continually, they are stronger learners and able to collaborate and grow as they would in a face to face community.
Some goals I have for myself this semester are to become more comfortable with the daily investment of blogging, using wikis, Nings, etc as a means of extending my learning. I am able to keep a blog (when I want to), but I am not skilled yet at linking and incorporating various sources into my approach. I like the idea of collaborating, but going out to find things is time consuming and creating my own personal ‘web’ of information seems sticky. I’m hoping to shake that conception and find ways to meld various 2.0 tools together. That epilogue sounds like a really great place to teach/learn. I would LOVE to be able to integrate all of these tools to that level and work in a community that can do the same.
Nearly time for school again!? Wow...summer went by so quickly!
This is my second blog, but I didn't want to blend them because the first one was driven by my husband's deployment. We blogged to keep family and friends updated on our experience; it was fun! I'm looking forward to blogging again.
The topics of digital media, using digital writing in the classroom, and increasing the integration of these with the 'standard classroom' is exciting. I am looking forward to further reflection and finding ways to take action on them.
I don't have a classroom this fall because I just moved out of state and am still getting settled. I will be consulting with the school I used to work with in MN and be a sub teacher in local Des Moines area districts. It will be disappointing not to have a classroom where I can take these ideas for a test drive, but I will still reflect and learn through my classmates.
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