HTML Blog 4-28-14

INTERACTIVE DESIGNING

It is an absolute necessity to ENGAGE in whatever you do today in the classroom with your students at any grade level while at the same time educating and making them aware of their responsibility to digital citizenship.  There are many resources available for the 21st century teacher.  This evening we experienced hands-on VoiceThread and Prezi two very different ways to present material for your class.  The VoiceThread is a straightforward tool that you can use to have conversations with your students if you were to get your school to become a member.  The cost for the year is approximately $89.  With this application your students can build their own presentation or they can participate with one that you created for them to interact with.  It can also be downloaded onto your phone and you can begin to immediately record with your picture.  It gives you face time with your students even if you are not there.  It is a wonderful instructional tool.

The Prezi is a visual template which allots for the content to be linked.  It can be presented anywhere and anytime.  It is for Windows, MAC, iPad, iPhone and can be presented from desktop, across the table or across the globe.  You do not have to have an Internet connection.  All the Prezis are accessible and up-to-date in one place regardless of where you created them.  It is faster and does not depend on the speed of your Internet connection.  You can then tell a multi-dimensional story.  It has a quick Zoom/Pan feature which adds to your professional look and makes your presentation more interesting.  you have flexibility because you can move around freely from the overview to the details in the presentation going to wherever your audience takes you.  You can even appoint a team leader for a particular assignment and change the leader for each group.  I feel this would work in our diversified classrooms wherein we have different leveled ELLs.

Integrating this type of presentation applications into the classrooms gives teachers a chance to experiment more and provide information that is very current and engaging.  A Student has more control as to when to move from one slide to the next or to repeat as needed.  I feel this gives them more control over their learning experience.  They are empowered.  We are just guiding and supplying the information they need to learn for a particular topic in any subject.  Both VoiceThread and Prezi gives you that freedom to incorporate technology to the fingertips of our students and get them communicating with each other, exploring their prior knowledge while stretching for new knowledge.  It  even keeps them from cyberspace harm because we are able to monitor the activities and have them conduct themselves as digitally smart citizens.

We are on campus this evening and we had a tremendous discussion about The American  Dream.  Our professor showed us examples of trailers for our next assignment to stimulate our creative buttons so we can produce an intro to our web-cast project to teach a lesson on a particular topic.  The imprint these videos left on me, especially the ones created by high school students at Francis Lewis High School, were compelling and reminded me of my family who came here from Italy so long ago.

It is truly amazing to forget living here as a third generation resident, why people came here to America to live.  Some of the reasons simply have not changed, war in their own countries, catastrophic changes from earthquakes, tidal waves, Tsunami's, etc.  My grandparents came to escape the perils of war from Mussolini who was partnering with Hitler to destroy and conquer the rest of the European world.  My grandparent's marriage was arranged by my great-grandfather who was a judge in Italy so that he and his daughters would not be in danger of dying.  They picked my grandfather who was a tailor and his daughter, Gaetana (Ann) to be wed and quickly put on a boat for America.  They passed through Ellis Island, like all the other immigrants and finally were allowed to go to Manhattan.  Story has it they lived in Harlem on 116th Street.  Imagine, new to the country, no English, just skills, hope and a dream. 

The struggle is the same today and the hope is here but somewhat clouded by disappointment and the economics.  But technology has opened the door for more people to connect and to find their way here.  In viewing the Francis Lewis High School trailer to prep for the making of our own trailer, they students were very frank about how it is not so important the connection to the American Dream is because it is no the same today as it was then.  Perhaps some of the reasons are the same why people come here, but it is not translating to our youth in the same way.  Some have to cling to the culture they are reared from and do dare shed their skin, if yo will and simply do the academic work to please their family only to be sent back home to their original land.  Others, come back and forth and never get a chance to really learn English and are limited in communicating here and then cannot get that idle job.  Still, some just sit back and ride the wave, never making waves or causing trouble to stand up and say that things in the politics of their new home are wrong or going in the wrong direction.  They become domicile. 

The American Dream is still alive for me, even though I am not directly from another country and I have been here only speaking English for a long time, because things like the Internet reinforce my idea that you can become and do whatever you put your mind to do.  Even if education is now under reform and that ride will get worse before getting better, I like to believe that when I complete my master's, I will make the Venetian difference and I will find my way to help resolve some of those issues and get everybody with the use of technology not as the enemy, but as a great tool, to improve and get back on track.  Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted, " All of life is a constant education."  I am always learning and in doing that i am always growing as a person, even from the days when my grandparents arrived here in America no knowing what would happen, how they would eat, where they would live, just the close on their back and some money great-grandpa gave them, they learned by doing, by trial and error.  They survived, raised three sons in Harlem, New York in the 30's.  My attitude is, if they did it with less than what I have, I certainly can continue the American Dream regardless of the corruption in education, in our politics, business and so on.  They moved forward and never looked back.  Technology is unlocking that closed door.  We as teacher's just need to continue facilitating and guiding.  Students will do the rest.

Technology is not the culprit in keeping students mindless, but rather enhances their knowledge capabilities by making information available at  a finger-tip.  The divide of accessibility between the classes is shrinking as a result of the Information Age of the 21st Century.  As teacher's, we have a responsibility to educate our students on their "Digital Citizenship".  Yes, that's right, not just American Citizenship, but "Digital".  You may ask yourself what am I talking about.  Let me explain. 

As teacher's we have a responsibility to teach our students to be aware of the positive and negative attributes of using the Internet and all other media technology.  They not only need to have career readiness, learning and social skills, but they need to possess good, strong work ethics while on the Internet, their phones, IPads and so on.  They need to realize whatever they do, leaves a "Digital Footprint" and can be traced back to the original user.  This is why it is essential for all teacher's to spend time to explain the "ins and outs" of good ethical habits when seeking information, using information, passing information and filing information for personal, academic, and professional use.  They need to know to not plagiarize and give the appropriate credit where it is necessary and to be careful how information is used. 

In addition, they need to know that they should check the validity of the information they are using to be sure it is current and fact not subjective and possibly false.  Basically, this can be understood by these three letters, "REP":

• R  respect yourself and others
• E  educate yourself and others
• P  protect yourself and others

What you say, what you write, the kinds of pictures you take of yourself and others, the sites you visit, may one day prevent you from getting the job you always wanted.  You have to aware and you must even check yourself out on the Internet to see if there are negative inferences, or illegal comments made that would affect your ability to get hired.  Though currently there are minimal laws for the Internet, e-mails, there are laws for copy writing, prostitution, bullying, etc., that we still must abide by even when on the Internet.  Cyberspace law is still in it's early stages and our local District Attorney Offices have some guidelines that they use to determine when a cyberspace incident warrants legal discipline.  I am in the process of getting a copy of the latest guidelines and will post next week my findings.  I believe we need to know some of those "laws" so we can protect ourselves against future problems.

On the positive side, with the teacher as a facilitator, students can enjoy the benefits of using the Internet and all of its resources for more academic purposes, to learn, to share and to grow as individuals, to be part of a greater community unlike the live community you have in a classroom.  It becomes global, we can reach out to so many for help, for encouragement, direction, and exchange information or just play games, like chess for instance. 

We need to create a better understanding that while the potential is so large and abundant, we must continue to ask questions about the environment online as well as in the classroom.  Setting goals would be crucial in keeping a focus and not getting distracted by the pop-ups, advertisement and false correspondence that asks you to send money through a Western Union.  In every technology there are predators.  We need to protect ourselves and be smart.  We need to seek relevant information to achieve our goals and we certainly must remain curious. 

Microsoft has a foundation that created a system in which people who cannot speak, can communicate by pressing the keyboard, they can watch their favorite movies, read a book, speak to family members.  That is the ultimate positive in technology that I believe is the way we all should strive for, to do good, to be helpful and to use it wisely.

Please visit: www.spectronicsinoz.com to see a list of items that can be used by people with different types of disabilities that make their lives more functional and restores their sense of independence.  Also read the article, " 7Tech Breakthroughs that Empower People with Disabilities," by Kelli Shaver, October 5, 2011.  This article will blow your mind as to the technology available, blind people driving a car, or The Dynavox EyeMax System for people who cannot use their hands at all.

Until next time, lets keep teaching our students to be alert, to use wisdom in what they do on the Internet and to continue to explore this phenomenon.

After reading, " Constructive Learning Environments on the Web:  Engaging Students in Meaningful Learning, " by David H. Jonassen, I now understand what is meant by the term "Constructive Learning" (CL).  I often confused it with its counter, "Objective Instruction" ("OI").  This article clearly said that "OI", "problems function as examples/applications of the concepts and principles previously taught.  Wherein "CL", the problem drives the learning.  Now that spelled out the difference in learning and cued me in as to the kind of environment one would be teaching in.

I could spend the time listing the elements, of which there are 6 referenced in the article, but one should read it for themselves to see what they relate to and need to know.  In short, there are 3 integrated components that need to  be included in the problem/issue/case/project for the learners to resolve/solve:  Problem Context, Problem Representation/Simulations, and Problem Manipulation Space. 

As a teacher currently in front of eager minds, eagerly awaiting to be engaged in a new lesson, I have to always pose a problem for them to think about before we get into the ways in which an idea, a word, or a situation needs to be answered/solved.  For instance, 4 year olds love to play and that is a fact.  When I am teaching them about early addition concepts like the Zero Family or even the Ones Family, we play a matching game with cards.  Here they are engaged in recognition and then they must covey their findings to another student on their team.  It begins with giggles, calling out, correcting answers and explaining why they are correct by representation, a drawing or pointing to the card with the correct number on it, picking it out from a bunch of cards, and sharing that solution aloud with the class.  My students love this, they get to play teacher.  I get to direct the problem as the facilitator.  Here they arr manipulating the environment. 

For me, I can now identify what I have been watching, constructive learning.  During our classes, we explore reading as a team, we look at new words and I put them on a Word Wall for all to see.  What the students do is visit the wall after class and play another game with each other.  They find the words that start with a certain letter and sound out the words as I did when I put them on the wall.  the cycle does not end there.  When other students come in for playtime, some of my students call those over to the wall and ask, "Do you know what this word is?"  The response is, "No."  Now, my student begins to demonstrate with pointing and sounding out what the words are as both students take turn in repeating the process.  Again, they were doing this, I was just watching.

This article definitely helped me to understand with modeling, coaching and scaffolding that I could create a CLE and not even know that I was doing it nor did the students know either. 

Welcome to Faye Blogger's Blog, my first universal site to discuss/create/vent/ about educational issues here in the United States and across the world.  I hope to hear from all others either in the field of teaching as teachers, faculty members, students and so on.  Perhpas even some administrators who would like to anonoymously add to our discussion on the day to day implentation of what goes on behind closed doors.