Week 5 reflection on PBL and Web 2.0 use

This week’s readings gave me a lot to think about as this semester is coming to a close.

As a teacher, I plan to implement a variety of the tools I’ve used in the classroom, including incorporating those tools with project based learning, which was discussed in the article titled, Effects of group reflection variations in project-based learning integrated in a Web 2.0 learning space. This research article had a very good over view of the literature on the topic and the outcomes were interesting as well.

Going through a teacher preparation program I was taught about Project based learning and the benefits it had in social studies classrooms. I was not taught, however, to use PBL with Web 2.0 tools or how students will respond to this format of learning. PBL in general provides students not only with communication and critical reasoning skills but allows students to be creative thinkers.

In the article is mentions that by using web 2.0 tools, where the teacher can monitor students’ progress, holds students accountable for their learning and actions. When pairing PBL with a self-reflection component, students conveyed self-discovery and growth. With these facts, I think using PBL and web 2.0 tools is a great way for younger students to develop their character.

This study also provided guidelines for teachers or those administering PBL. It is important for teacher to monitor the group discussions during a PBL lesson to resolve tensions between the students who are “free-riding” and those that are participating to the full extent.

Tiny Letter

So during week 4 of this course I began playing with Tiny Letter, the online tool that lets you send out newsletters to up to 5,000 subscribers. I thought this would be a cool tool to use in order to involve parents more in whats happening in the classroom or at school.

I began playing around with it and sending some newsletters to myself through this tool. I found out that at the bottom of the email it includes your address that is in your profile. As a teacher, I would not want my address going out to parents and students so I attempted to delete my address from my profile. Once I did this however, It would not let me send out an email. So what I would suggest if you are using this for teaching, to put the school's address instead.

I think this would be a great tool if your school doesn't already have Edmodo, team or school-wide newsletters. By sending an email directly to the parents it allows them to me more informed and hopefully more involved in the classroom and their child's learning. In terms of being beneficial to students, sending out a newsletter to parents holds them accountable for class assignments and projects.

This might be a good tool to send out if your looking for more parent involvement or student accountability, so check it out!

What Your Friends Lists Reveals About Your Brain

While scanning through my social media apps I cam across this article  describing what your facebook friends list might reveal about how your brain works. It mentions being an information broker, or someone who connects people who wouldn't have known each other. If you are the person who connects friends together than you might be better at solving problems and be more successful than most people.

The article goes on to mention studies done relating to what social media networks reveal about our brain and thought process. This article in general made me start thinking about our upcoming PLN project and how my social network is connected to my thought process and what this says about me.

While I'm not sure if I am an information broker, I know I have a variety of friends and followers throughout my different social media accounts, friends from work, friends from school, and teacher accounts. But I think its a interesting thought that the networks I create are unique to me and no two people have the same.

Check the article out and let me know what you think!

YouTube in the Classroom

YouTube has been around for a while and I have used it several times in the classroom with my students. I have found supplemental videos and recorded my own as part of “flipped” lessons. While this is a great tool to use in the classroom to engage students, it does come with some downsides.

What I have learned from using YouTube is YOU MUST PREVIEW EVERY VIDEO before you show it in class. It does not matter if it looks like it is from a reputable source, it is still important to preview it. (I once found a video from History Channel on Ceasar and during the interview with the historian there was a very anatomically correct sculpture of a man in the background.) Now I preview everything, because even if a video is labeled “clean” version it might just mean “cleaner” version (history of the entire world video).

Besides a few hiccups with using this tool, I enjoy being able to find videos to supplement my lessons because I feel it can engage students. Sometimes they would rather listen and watch a video about tell about the journey of Mansa Musa instead of their teacher explaining.

YouTube does now have a sub section called YouTube EDU which includes videos curated into playlists that may fall into the #education tag. After looking through this section more closely this week I find that it is hard to navigate through all the videos to find a certain topic. There are playlists and other sections that can help narrow the search but you might be better off just searching google or YouTube for the topic and sifting through the videos yourself.

YouTube does have some reputable channels from PBS, Ted-ED (my favorite!), and CrashCourse, so don’t shy away from using this tool in the classroom, as long as your preview the video first!

FERPA

Throughout my time enrolled in EME6414 I have been introduced to many new tools that make me excited to to use the classroom. Things were given to us as such speed I was jotting down ideas such as class blogging, a class Twitter or Instagram, but I had not thought about FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, until I read Social Media and Instructional Design in this week's readings. 

After reading this, I thought to myself "how did I not think about FERPA?!", since it has been ingrained in my mind and professional development since I began teaching. As teachers we are warned about FERPA when sending emails to parents or families. Since school email is public record we cannot disclose any grades or other private information regarding the student's education records through this communication format. I am always very cautious of this, therefore, I use the phone as my most prominent form of communication. 

As it states in the article, "Although this act does not altogether prohibit use of

social media for educational purposes, it does limit the types of student information that might be

shared and the types of student interactions that an instructor might conduct in a public, online

setting" (Dennen), teachers do not have to shy away from social media use, but rather be cautious about student privacy. 

I am concerned about students' privacy and do not want their educational materials to be available through a google search.  I think educational sites like Edmodo are a good way to combat this problem to make sure they can interact with the class in an online setting in privacy. In preparation for this upcoming school year I am going to play with some more educational sites that might be of use in the classroom. 

Reflection on "Digital natives" article

This week in EME6414 I read an article titled, The ‘digital native’ in context: tensions associated with importing Web 2.0 practices into the school setting, by Charles Cook. I found the results of this study quite surprising as it analyzed students' reactions to web 2.0 technologies and using those in the classroom. AS educators we might expect students who are digital natives to welcome technology and social media in the school setting with open arms but according to this study, that is not the case.

First off, I was surprised by the few responses from students who preferred and trusted books over Google searches when doing research. The students were concerned with the trustworthiness of multiple conflicting internet sites and believe books to hold more truth.  I think if this is the case, the students being wary of information on the internet, students should be taught to determine the validity of websites. Also, students believe that by using books good information is easier to pinpoint versus on the internet where you have to sift through a multitude of information on Google.

Another thing I found interesting from this article was the fact that students were not interested in collaborating with each other through VLE. They said they would prefer to talk and work on projects in person. On the other hand, they think it is beneficial to reach out to teachers through web 2.0 technologies to get homework help, get missing work, and turn in assignments.

The students also mentioned that they would not like the context collapse associated with using their personal social media accounts for school related activities. They felt as though if these platforms converged they may face embarrassment from other peers or teachers saw the more personal side they presented on social media. However, the downside to not using the same platforms for school was their concern that they would not think to log in as much and participate.

Overall, this article was very interesting because I assumed that students who are "digital natives" would be welcoming web 2.0 technologies with open arms, but that was not the case in this study. Since this study is about 6 years old, I think I would like to see this replicated with the same age group today. Maybe 6 years has made a difference and teenagers are even more immersed in web 2.0 technologies than in 2012.

Using Google Earth in Ancient World History

This past year when teaching Ancient World History I began to incorporate Google Maps Street views into my geography lessons. I would type in a location such as Mt. Everest or the pyramids of Egypt and play a time machine sound effect and the class would "travel" to the far off location. I enjoy using Google Maps when teaching geography because I make it a point to show the students that the same geographical features that we talk about in class are still the same features on earth today almost 10,000 years later. 

The students love when we pretend to teleport to other countries, but after exploring even more ways to incorporate Google Earth into the classroom I think there are some creative ways I can incorporate this tool even more. Not only is google earth pro now free, Google provides many ideas and lessons through Juicy Geography to use for history and geography lessons. 

I like the idea of traveling back in time to historical places to see how they have changed. The students can compare and contrast these images and places. I also found an idea where students can practice differentiating between physical geography and cultural geography through Google Earth. 

I'm looking forward to playing around with this tool more and reading into the lesson plans provided by Juicy Geography and Google. I think using Google Maps and Earth is a great tool to use to extend the learning beyond the four walls of the classroom and engage students in the subject matter. 

Teachers and Social Media

This past week while reviewing articles for the Online Learning Community assignment, I stumbled across an interesting one, titled, Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately? Teachers' Use of Social Networking Sites. It described an instance in a preservice teacher course where one student posted his MySpace page (this article is from 2008) as a website he could teach with in the future. To the professors horror this website displayed graphic images of a bloody hand and an icon of a wrist with a dotted line labeled "cut here". After this incident, the instructor realized a conversation with the whole class about social media should be made.

First of all, this is shocking to me that someone in a teacher preparation program would even think to show this to a professor or classmates. Its unfortunate but sometimes it feels like as teachers we have to be even more cautious as to what we put online, because if parents see something they don't like, then its all downhill from there.

Going through my teacher preparation courses in undergrad, I received this talk. As I was going through Facebook was really popular and Instagram was just starting to gain momentum, so the professor talked about what should not be posted on Facebook or any other social media site, such as photos from parties. He also suggested we put social media account on private, which I immediately did.

Today I am still very cautious as to what I put on Facebook because I have more professional contacts on that site. Instagram, however, I sensor a little less due to the fact I only have friends and people I trust as followers. I'm sure that students (and parents!) still try to look me up to see if my profile is accessible, so I try to make my profile picture appropriate for a teacher as well. I also have changed my Instagram handle so it does not resemble my full name to make it less easier for students to find. My facebook and twitter on the other hand, have my full name due to the fact that I use those often for my own schooling.

Then I began to think about the issue of having students or former students on social media accounts. When I first began to intern I was in a high school classroom and immediately I had my students trying to follow me. My mentor teacher had to step in and address every class and have a conversation with them about how it is not appropriate to follow teachers on social media. I know some teachers absolutely refuse to ever have students on social media, and others say the students have to wait until they graduate. I do not know my stance on the issue yet since I currently teach middle school students and they haven't tried to add me yet.

What is everyone's opinions on social media accounts for teachers? Should we limit ourselves on these sites because of our profession?

Minecraft Education Edition Middle School Project

Before starting this project in Ancient World History Students will be introduced to how civilizations came to be in Mesopotamia. They will be introduced to the 6 characteristics of every civilization, GRAPES, an acronym from a source I found on Pinterest.  

 

Once the students are familiar with the chapter vocabulary and how to recognize the 6 characteristics, it's time to introduce the introduce the Minecraft project!

 Create your own civilization project has four (4) components:

1.     Rough drafts (60 points)

2.     Participation in class (40 points)

3.     GRAPES Final Write Up (50 points)

4.     Minecraft Portfolio (50 points)

Rough Drafts.

Students will be required to write a rough draft for each of the 6 characteristics of a civilization. A rough draft will be assigned for homework and must address the guiding questions for that characteristic. If they do not turn in a rough draft that has been assigned for homework they will not get to begin construction on Minecraft for that day.

Participation in Class.

Students will spend approximately 10 days in class working on building their civilizations on Minecraft: education edition. To receive full credit in this category the student must be actively working on building their civilization and working well with others inside the digital word. Points will be taken away for the destruction of others’ civilization, off task building, and playing Minecraft in other classes.

GRAPES Final Write Up.

The students will edit and revise their rough drafts to create a final write up describing their civilization and how it meets the 6 characteristics. They should have one (1) paragraph per characteristic adequately answering the guiding questions.

Minecraft Portfolio.

As the students go through building their civilizations they will take photos using the camera tool on Minecraft. The photos should be supporting evidence of the 6 characteristics of their own civilization. The photos must be in order (GRAPES) and accurately labeled.

Submission.

Submissions for this project will be done through OneNote in the “Create your Own Civilization” tab. There will be one page for each part; Rough Drafts, Final Draft, and Portfolio.

Rubric for Final Project

Feel free to adapt to fit the needs of your students! 

*Adapted from "Learning first, Technology Second" by Liz Kolb (2017).