Tech Play 4: Teaching Information Literacy

According to the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL), information literacy is “a learner centric instructional template that, if applied strategically, can foster the development of independent, self-sufficient learners.”  So it makes perfect sense to teach students how to effectively define, access, evaluate, manage, integrate, create and communicate information. And because technology has infiltrated almost every aspect of our lives, it is important that our students know how to use technology to develop these skills.

I used the NFIL infographic categories (please see below) to explore some technology tools that I could utilize in my classroom.  For this tech play, I was aiming to find tools appropriate for the fourth to sixth grade age level.  I attempted to find both computer and smart phone options (specifically iphone since that is what I currently own) that incorporated the different learning styles of my future students.  Some categories were easier to search for than others, but I was able to find tools for each and have listed and described some of my favorites below.
 

 

To explore technology tools for media literacy I tried a few different online searches.  All the searches for the broad category “Media Literacy” left me pretty empty-handed so I moved to the subcategories.  I began with “Visual Literacy” and found an amazing blog called The Book Chook by searching with the term “visual literacy activities for kids”.  The post provides examples of online resources that support visual literacy.  Two of my favorites that I could see using in my classroom were Howtoons and Origami Kids.  I liked Howtoons because it used dynamic visuals to show kids how to build all sorts of things and Origami Kids because it used easy step-by-step visuals to create a variety of origami art.  Both of these websites would be great for both visual and kinesthetic learners. Origami Kids also had some instructions with videos that had narration for auditory learners, but I do have some hesitation because there are advertisements on the site that may not be something I want the kids to have to see.  Another thought to improve visual literacy was to use a photo sharing website, like Shutterfly, and have students create picture books of their own.  For the smart phone, Scribble could be used to create images to accompany stories and Animoto could also be used to visually tell a story through pictures.  I didn’t focus too much on “Computer Literacy” since most kids already are pretty knowledgeable with computers by fourth grade, but there were two sites that had lots of different activities that I thought I may be able to incorporate into lessons: http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/c/students and http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/tguidesitemap.htm. I liked the Macmillan site because it offered a variety of computer activities related to different readings.  I didn’t like that the actual computer literacy lessons look a bit outdated, but it could still give me lots of ideas to bring into class.  The Scholastic site offered a variety of computer activities covering different content areas that could be a lot of fun for students while they also learn.

The next information literacy category to tackle was “Research and Library Skills”.  This was probably the easiest search because the very first term I used “how to develop internet research skills” gave me a great website called Kids Computer Lab.  It has tutorials and activities aimed at improving online research skills, using primary and secondary sources, documenting online sources, school reports, and school presentations.  Lo and behold it also has tutorials for computer skills so it ties into the “Media Literacy” category too. I also searched “tools to develop internet research skills” and found another fantastic website called Edudemic that suggested sites such as Boolify Project, which visually shows the Boolean search process, and KidRex, which is a safe search engine designed for kids.

The “Critical Literacy” tool search was a bit trickier but through perseverance I was able to find Learn421 by first searching “critical thinking online tools” and then clicking on related searches “critical thinking problem solving tools”.  Some of the online resources for creative thinking included How Big Really, Kids House, Edheads, and Storyline Online.  Learn421 also provides online resources for research and information fluency, creativity and innovation, and digital citizenship so I could use it to locate a variety of sites to utilize in my classroom (needless to say I was very happy about this find!)  I’m sure that there are a lot of apps that could help develop critical literacy skills but the one I found called Creatorverse was pretty neat.  I didn’t find anything specifically for the “Critical Reading” subcategory, but I figured that could be done pretty easily by finding any reading online and providing assignments that have students dig deeper to enhance clarity and comprehension.

Finally I searched for “Information Literacy” tools.  For the subcategory, “Copyright” I thought it was important to teach students how to correctly cite their sources so in addition to Kids Computer Lab and Learn421 websites that discussed this, I found two options online EasyBib and Citation Creation by doing an online search for “citation tools”.  There is an even an EasyBib app on the iphone where you can scan the book’s barcode and automatically have the correct citation.  I searched “teaching kids online safety” to look for tools for “Security and Privacy”.  The search, surprisingly, was unsuccessful because I couldn’t find anything that would be interesting for the kids.  A lot of the information was geared towards parents, not the students.  I did discover Educational Freeware and it gave some online resource options for different age groups, but then I remembered recently discussing the website Common Sense Media and I found a plethora of tools available there regarding internet safety.  Some of my favorites were the videos, toolkits, and the Digital Passport suite that I could easily and effectively use to help my students learn how to become responsible technology users.

I know this post might be information overload (no pun intended) but I think it is so important that students develop skills in all areas of information literacy.  Having these skills and knowledge will only benefit these kids both now and in their future so I really didn’t want to leave out any category.  I also sought out tools that engaged visual, auditory, kinesthetic and combinations of learning styles.  I don’t think researching online should replace researching in libraries, but I do think it can enhance it.  I also don’t think “Media Literacy”, “Critical Literacy” and “Information Ethics” should solely be taught with technology either.  I do think, however, that incorporating these tools that I’ve just discussed will be a great start to foster the development of independent, self-sufficient learners and I am excited to see the results when I begin teaching.

Tech Play 3: Playing with Creativity

This week the Tech Play assignment had a big emphasis on “play”. Researching and playing with different creativity tools was so much fun!  There were some that I played with on my laptop and some on my iphone.  There were some tools that I really liked and some that I didn’t like so much.  All in all, I believe this assignment was a major success in providing me with some new and exciting ways to effectively integrate technology into my classroom.

The tools that I didn’t enjoy too much included Wunderlist and Intro Designer Lite.  I really don’t need another task organizer, though if I ever get to the point where I need to share my to-do lists with others I may reconsider using this tool.  With Intro Designer Lite, perhaps if I had more play time or had the money to purchase the non-lite version I might have liked it more, but to me it just wasn’t very exciting.

The three tools that were my favorites were Animoto, Puppet Pals and Prezi.  With Animoto, I had so much fun playing around with the templates and liked how easy it was to add my photos and captions.  I was able to turn a few pictures of my kids into a little movie that they kept wanting to watch over and over and over again.  I didn’t like some of the editing features and had a little bit of difficulty adding videos, but it is definitely a tool I would like to have in my arsenal.  Puppet Pals was also a blast.  The free version was pretty limited to the amount of characters and backgrounds, but I was able to come up with a few silly shows with the free characters that at least my kids seemed to enjoy.  Finally, there was Prezi.  Now granted this one may not have been as much “fun” as the other two and I’m still trying to learn all of its capabilities, but I feel like I am finally getting the hang of Prezis and am really looking forward to exploring it more.

Puppet Pals is the technological tool that I wanted to reflect on how to utilize it in my classroom.  The content I chose to focus on was for 4^th-6^th grade English class, specifically reading a book.  The technology would require iphones or ipads, which may be an obstacle if the school district doesn’t have and/or allow these devices in the classroom, but for this discussion I am going to say that this isn’t an issue.  Some of the different lesson activities would be for individual students to re-enact a portion of the book, partners to work together to predict what happens next in the book, and groups to portray how the story might be altered if set in a different time period.  All of these activities should help students better comprehend the reading, keep the students interested in it, and give them an opportunity to express their creativity.  This tool shouldn’t be limited to just English though.  Any content area could use this tool and it’s especially great for the students that are shy or embarrassed to get up in front of a class and do a presentation.  Because it’s not the student doing the talking, it’s the puppet, and sometimes that small little fact can make a world of difference.  Science classes could use the “Arthropod Armada” and “Space” characters, history classes could perform “Thanksgiving” and “Wild West” puppet shows, and there’s even “Political Party” characters for a government class.  And these are just the obvious uses.  Puppet Pals allows you to upload your own photos and backgrounds so the possibilities are really endless.

It is so important to give students outlets to express their creativity.  All of these different technological tools allow them to think in ways that tutorials and instructional games just can’t.  Students are able to discover and enhance their inventiveness and resourcefulness in really fun and exciting ways.  These tools also provide them with new outlets of self-expression and connect them not only to their teacher and classmates but to the world around them.

Please see below for some of my favorite creativity tools’ “play”:

-Animoto: My Short Movie

-Puppet Pals:

-Prezi: My Presentation

Finding Treasure

As my eportfolio journey continues, it has become less a rollercoaster ride and more of a treasure hunt of sorts. Whether it was looking through past assignments and accomplishments trying to find artifacts I’d like to showcase or searching for inspiration through photography and famous quotes, I have felt like a pirate with a partial treasure map.  I say partial because at times I have known exactly where to look to find my treasure, but at other times I have been pleasantly surprised (like who knew that Microsoft Clip Art had so many beautiful images to choose from?)

After looking through my classmates’ eportfolios last week, I checked out Wikispaces and Portfoliogen to see if I wanted to change from my Wix website.  Though I decided to keep my eportfolio website I did like Wikispaces a lot more than Wikia so I have been playing around with that site so I can hopefully include a wiki in my completed eportfolio.  This week has really been about completing the website design, which I tried to keep simple yet still show a little bit of who I am and my creativity.  I also completed the first draft of my educational philosophy, which after a brief panic due to my lack of teaching experience, I am actually pretty pleased with it.

I still need to upload artifacts, contact past classmates about using group assignments, explain my design elements, write quite a few more sections and update my resume, but I am happy with where I am at and what I have been able to accomplish so far.  I hope that these next few weeks I will also be able to keep discovering new treasure along the way, and who knows I may even have to borrow my son’s pirate hat.  Ahoy Matey!

You can see the progress on my eportfolio website by clicking on the following link: http://froggy1128.wix.com/mljportfolio

 

Tech Play 2: The ePortfolio Roller Coaster

Let’s just say this week of exploring possible eportfolio tools has been a roller coaster – lots of ups and lots of downs!  But also like a roller coaster, just when you think you can’t take anymore and you want off the ride, it gets super exciting and you realize you are actually having a good time. 

I started my exploration by searching for wikis.  I had absolutely no experience with wikis so everything about them was completely new to me.  I attempted to start a few like Bloomfire but was turned off by the free trial period.  I finally found Wikia, which seems to be 100% free.  The setup was simple enough, fill in information here and there and voila I had my very own wiki.  But after the setup, simplicity was quickly replaced with confusion and frustration.  There were many buttons that looked familiar (bold, add link, etc.), but I was at a total loss as to how to create my page(s).  After playing around on it for a while, I decided that a wiki was not going to be my eportfolio tool and I was going to leave it at that.  But not so fast! After talking to some teachers who teach in my desired school district, they said that wikis are currently a requirement for teachers.  So even though my decision to not use the wiki as my eportfolio still stands, I now realize that it would really be in my best interest to learn more about them and try to have one to share in my eportfolio.  I discovered some tutorials and have been viewing them to get a better handle on wikis, but I know I still have a long way to go. So for now, here is the link to my “wiki in progress”: http://outside-the-blocks.wikia.com/wiki/Ideas_for_My_Wiki

Websites were the next tools on my list, which I was super excited about.  I had created my very first website with Wix for a Summer 1 class, and I really enjoyed it, but I wanted to try out some different options.  Weebly was one site that I was very interested in exploring so I created an account and began looking through their themes.  They had so many it was almost overwhelming, but I ended up picking two that I really liked. I really liked the simplicity of the dragging and dropping of text and pictures, but I felt a little restricted regarding positioning these items on the page.  I also tried Portfolio Village because it seemed to be geared towards students and teaching, but again with this site I felt restricted by their templates.  So I went back to the tried and true, Wix.  I actually tried a Wix template too and had the same results as the other two sites, but with Wix you have the option of choosing “Top Navigation HTML”, which is basically a blank slate where each page can be as long or short as you want it to be.  This was the freedom that I was craving and as they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  I finally had a contender to be my eportfolio tool: http://froggy1128.wix.com/mljportfolio

The final tools on my list were the proprietary tools.  This search was the most difficult. I found numerous eportfolio sites that charged money for their services (Digication, Pebble Pad, Chalk & Wire) but very few that were free.  I am sure that the pay-for sites offer a lot of really cool things, but at this particular juncture in my life I need a free one.  Then I found Foliotek.  I was surprised at how much I liked the simplicity of it.  I also found the reflection questions very helpful and the sharing options (publicly, privately, etc.) as a major advantage. Unfortunately, the sharing options turned out to be the downfall…to share I must pay, and like I said before, right now I just can’t afford to pay. (So sorry I can’t post a link to share. Sob! Sob!)

So the winner is my Wix.com website eportfolio!

And that was just the beginning.  Then I started thinking about which artifacts I wanted to share and how to describe my teaching philosophy and how much information I want to include (this was about the time that I felt like I wanted to get off the eportfolio roller coaster.)  I took an ice cream break with my kids and by the time I came back to the computer that evening I was feeling excited about it all again.  Most of the work I have done since then has been offline so as of now there isn’t a whole lot to show, but I know in the end I will have a life-long and life-wide eportfolio that I will not only be proud of, but will also hopefully land me the job of my dreams (as long as I can figure that wiki out!)

A final thought since I am doing all of this to become a teacher, is to consider what tool I would want my students to use to create their own e-portfolios.  Part of me thinks that a website would be beneficial to students because of all of the creative possibilities it allows students, but there is another part of me that really was drawn to the proprietary tools, especially one called Epsilen that seemed to have a lot of amazing tools available, but of course, at a price.  So I guess it really just depends on the school district.  If they are paying for some amazing proprietary tool I would definitely be on board, but if they aren’t then I think websites (or even blogs) would be my eportfolio tool of choice for students.

 

 

 

 

  

Tech Play 1 - Blogs In The Classroom

Since I haven’t taught yet and I’m becoming certified for EC-8 as a generalist, for this particular assignment I chose to concentrate on 4^th grade English.  I would assign the class to create a blog at the beginning of the year on which they would post journal entries on a regular basis.  Some  assignments would provide formats and strict guidelines, while others would allow for more freedom and creativity for the students.  Some example formats would be book reports, creative writing, and even artwork.  Part of the blog project would also be to have students post comments on classmates’ journal entries and also discuss posts during class to further encourage participation.

The blog project would allow students to both evaluate and create, among other things, which would tap into their higher order thinking skills.  Because I would be attempting to play more of a supporting role as the teacher and students would be an active part of the learning process, the learning theory being applied is constructivism.  Student blogs would offer social, communication and creative affordances.  They would connect to other students as well as myself, their teacher; they would have an outlet to express their thoughts regarding books, discussions, and assignments; and they would be able to use their creativity through not only words but pictures, artwork and videos.

Some other possible uses for blogs in the classroom could be for a student-generated newsletter, a hub for posting the class calendar, assignments and projects; and even a suggestion box about how to improve classwork and procedures.  Obviously not all students would have Internet access readily available to them outside of the classroom, but I think as long as I provided opportunities to work on the blog assignments during class I could overcome this hurdle.  If any other obstacles arose, I would try with all of my might to conquer them because I feel very strongly that blogs have the potential to be great classroom tools. They provide such an inexpensive way for students to utilize technology and are also a great vehicle for them to creatively express their thoughts and point of views all while learning how to become responsible users of the Internet community. 

Top Ten Reasons I Chose The Blog Name "Outside The Blocks"

10. It is short and sweet.

9. “Outside the Box” was already taken.

8. It isn’t as generic as “Michelle’s Blog” (which I’m pretty sure was already taken as well.)

7. Since I am studying to become a teacher I thought about blocks as letter blocks which are first learning tools for many.

6. I found a cool block pattern on the template background. (Pretty nice, right?)

5. One definition of block is “a mold on which something is shaped” and I believe teachers help mold future generations.

4. The words looked good with the font I chose.

3. Blocks make a great foundation, which is what I want to help students create.

2. “To block” can mean “to obstruct” so being outside the blocks inspires to not let anything get in one’s way.

And the number one reason, I chose the blog name “Outside the Blocks” is…

1.  I really do love creative thinking and since a block both sounds like and looks like a box I thought, “hey, why not?!?” (Did I already mention that “Outside the Box” was taken?)