Tool Box:
The ED 702 course on digital tools has completely changed my perception of this coming school year. Thanks to all that I have learned over this summer, I have begun to rethink and redesign how I my classroom will operate. This course has primarily provided me with two things:
Driving Question: How might we leverage technology to provide students opportunities to develop their metacognitive and critical thinking skills? Creating videos: At the start of this course, I was asked to consider which specific skills and tools I would like to explore. I knew immediately, making better videos! For so many reasons, I knew I needed to become better at creating, editing and uploading my own videos. I think this is a highly valuable skill with unlimited potential. As a teacher, I could create videos and tutorials to introduce and review information. Students could watch these for homework, or on their own time simply to study. As for my capstone, I intend to teach my students how to create their own videos. I will introduce my students to several digital resources for creating videos: ScreenCast-O-Matic ScreenCast O Matic is a resource with a free version and a premium upgrade. I have a premium upgrade thus I have full access and have explored the website thoroughly. I think it is a great tool and as a teacher, I see a great deal of potential. The website allows the user to record their own desktop, with the option of including the their face. One way I could use this tool as a teacher is to record myself reading through the instructions of an assignment or recording my voice of a Google slideshow introducing a new project. However, for my capstone, I will be focusing on teaching my students to utilize this resource as a means of recording themselves as they explain their work. For example, a student working on a rough draft essay on a Google Doc could create a metacognitive journal entry regarding their progress on the essay. Students could answer specific questions such as what they did well or what they found challenging. adobe spark Adobe spark was completely new to me this summer, but within hours I became hooked on it. It is a very user friendly site that allows users to create original videos complete with voice over and theme music. Users simply upload a series of images, text, or videos, in whichever order they desire. Users can choose to speak over any portion of the video, as well as select background music from a free library or upload your own personal music. Students could be tasked with creating original videos in a series of scenarios. I would like to have students work collaboratively to create videos in order to present proposed solutions to real world problems. EdPuzzle Ed puzzle is yet another great free resource for creating and editing videos. What is so unique about EdPuzzle though, is that users can add audio or text based comments throughout the video. For example, as a teacher, I could insert review questions throughout a video. With respect to my driving question, I could have all students watch the same video. Then, make a copy of that video, and insert their questions or comments either via audio or text. This would provide teachers with insight to the students’ comprehension of the material. Also, it would provide the students with a potentially valuable recording which they could revisit.
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What is Gamification?
Okay so what exactly is gamification? Well, it's nothing all that new actually. It's the process of taking something that already exists, and improving it by integrating common game elements, such as rewarding players points for accomplishing desired tasks and challenges, thereby motivating participation, engagement, and learning. To clarify, digital games don’t do the teaching, but rather reinforce the concepts that have already been taught. Teachers should really think of digital games as classroom management tools. Strategically implemented digital games can provide students with engaging practice, while providing teachers the time and opportunity to work with other students, one on one. By incorporating gaming, teachers can provide more personalized, face-to-face instruction while making differentiated instruction easier and more efficient. Resources: Kahoot: Kahoot! Is one popular digital platform that turns learning into gaming. Kahoot is free for teachers and students. It allows teachers to create fun surveys and quizzes that students can play in order to study and review material. Teachers can create original quizzes and them share them with one another to create a library of resources. I know that my students really enjoy playing, and evening creating Kahoots. Class Dojo: ClassDojo is another great digital resource. ClassDojo is a management and communication app for the classroom. It connects teachers, parents, and students who use it to share photos, videos, and messages through the school day. Teachers can utilize ClassDojo to encourage students to work together as a team. As a teacher, I have relied heavily on ClassDojo in each of my classes. It is a great tool for rewarding desired behaviors and addressing undesired ones. Class Craft: Class Craft is a new game based approach to teaching. Class Craft is very similar to Class Dojo but with some serious upgrades. While ClasDojo allows each student to have their own avatar, they are not customizable. However, in Class Craft, students not only get to completely design their own avatars, but the avatars come with unique benefits for the students. Students are able to earn and use special “powers” to support their own academic learning, as well as help their teammates when they need it. They get some other cool perks, too, for their hard work. I have not personally implemented this resource yet, but I am very excited to try it out with students! Rewards: Interactivity: Genuine learning requires students to think for themselves and to generate their own answers. Similarly, most games require players to find solutions in order to progress. Games also require players to think critically and collaborate with others, allowing them to truly own their learning and growth. Informative feedback: Students are more likely to excel when they are provided informative feedback. More specifically, students can do even better when they are provided explanations about why an answer is right or wrong. Many gaming applications will show a player why their attempts are incorrect and require new approaches. Especially educational gaming applications such as ST Math, Class Dojo and Class Craft. There is transparency in order to help students quickly learn what works and what does not. Intrinsic motivation: Finding ways to motivate each and every student can be a challenge at times. The real goal of course is for students to become intrinsically motivated to learn. Gaming techniques are very effective at motivating players to persist over and over, despite failure. Players receive digital rewards such as new titles, badges, changes to their avatars. The sensation of success and reward becomes its own motivation for the student. Remove Fear of Failure: When students become players, they become comfortable with failing. In many games, players must fail repeatedly before they can move forward. As a player, students must learn, through trial and error, which responses are most effective, efficient, and most likely to provide the desired result. In this process, students becomes increasingly familiar with the system, until they understand it comprehensively, mastering various skills along the way. Content in Context: Game-based learning is a great classroom tool because it allows for interdisciplinary learning through contextualized critical thinking and problem solving. Gaming allows for teaching content in context, playing the game involves systems literacy. That is to say, students learn the relations between the things, and removes the question, “Why am I learning this?” Flexibility: “Sandbox Gaming” is a style of gaming in which there is more than one way to win. Players can make choices that affect the outcome of the game. Educational gaming allows for multiple paths to success. By gamifying a class, teachers can offer a "main quest" or storyline that leads students through a class’s main content, while also offering plenty of "side-quests" so students can choose to investigate other paths more deeply on their own. Think of it as how universities and high schools allow students to take electives as they progress through school. While not every graduate has taken the same courses, yet they have mastered enough of the skills to earn a degree. Scaffolded Progression: Most modern games have tutorial levels in order to scaffold the gamer's progress, usually by setting up a series of simple levels, each designed to teach one new skill, and each building on previous levels. This allows gamers to build new skills within the context of game levels. This should sound very universal to the idea of learning in general. Students can and should learn in a series of steps and lessons, working their way to more difficult tasks at their own pace. As a teacher, one essential aspect of my job is collecting and tracking data. Luckily, there is a modern and free tool that address my exact needs. Google Forms are a great resource that allow users to create a range of digital surveys with a variety of answer types, including written response and multiple choice. These digital surveys can be used as an impromptu way to collect information in a variety of scenarios. Students: There are many situations when Google Forms are the perfect tool for your needs, especially when working with students. I teach four different course and typically have around 120 students each year. This means, I have many students to track, and many categories to track them within. One simple example of how teachers can use Google Forms is for getting to know their students by creating a quick poll. Teachers can ask general open ended questions and allow for written responses. However, if you wanted to make your questions more specific to your content, you could easily create a multiple choice survey that focuses on students’ experience and interest in your subject. For example, I have created a Reading Survey that simply inquires as to my students’ personal reading habits. This is a quick and easy survey that I like to give at the start of the year because it provides me valuable information about my students. Furthermore, I could give the same survey periodically to see if my students have become more interested in reading throughout the year. Google Forms go well beyond simple interest surveys. They are great for collecting and computing mathematical figures. When my students take their mandatory reading assessments and are given their Lexile scores, I have them take a survey so we can look at our progress as a class and even compare that data to other classes, for fun competitions. Google forms takes the data, and generates a visual such as a pie chart, making the information even more accessible for users. More importantly, it allows me to track the progress of my students in a quick and efficient manner. Possibly one of the best applications of Google Forms is as an assessment. Teachers can create quizzes out of surveys. There is almost no limit to the length and type of quiz I could assign via Google Forms. Students could access a hyper link, be taken to a quiz and answer either multiple choice or short/long answer questions. Teachers can even insert graphics and videos to enhance the experience and better support the learner. Personally, I am a fan of the fact that when you create a quiz, you also create an answer key. This makes scoring the quizzes even faster and more efficient. Truly, the uses of Google Forms are limited only by the imagination of the user. Parents: As a teacher, it is also important to make connections with our students’ parents. Once again, Google forms may be exactly the tool needed for the job. Teachers can create and share surveys to learn about parents’ availability and or desires to participate in the classroom. Google Forms can be easily be utilized as signup sheets. For example, at the start of each year, teachers can create a materials “wish list” for the classroom as well as a corresponding form to sign up for specific items. The same approach can be applied for signing up chaperones for field trips and classroom visits. Colleagues: Another great use of Google Forms in school is for professional development purposes. For example, the English department at my site frequently sends out surveys as a means of collecting everyone’s input on various topics and can expedite our decision making process. Recently our department was asked to pilot two different curriculum. During this time, our teams would respond to polls and surveys regarding our progress with the materials, what was working, what was difficult. Ultimately, our department was able to gather a great deal of data from over a dozen individuals and help us make an important decision. Extending knowledge of new applications. Google is dedicated to meeting the changing needs of their consumers. As a teacher, I have many needs when it comes to digital tools. Sometimes I am not even aware of my need for a tool until that very need arises. Luckily, Google offers many new applications. As I progress through my Master’s program, I have realized that while I may know some things about educational technologies, there is still so much to be learned. I would like to attend a Google training to become more familiar with these newer applications. One specific add on I am interested in learning about is Flubaroo. Flubarro is an add-on for Google sheets and is designed to create detailed grading summaries for various assessments. After students take a quiz via Google Forms, Flubaroo can provide teachers a spreadsheet of the results, showing whole class and individual student results. This is but one of the many Google extensions and add-ons that I would like to begin utilizing in my own classroom in an attempt to become a more innovative educator. Before I became a full time teacher, I spent two years as a substitute. My time as a sub allowed me the opportunity to visit nearly every school in my district. During my visits from school to school, one thing that became immediately obvious was the sheer quantity of technology. Whether forbidden or encouraged, today’s students are clearly accessing technology at school. Many schools and teachers have come to this undeniable conclusion and therefore, have attempted to embrace this new digital paradigm. This transition has lead to many changes to the traditional classroom. Teachers are now supplied with laptops, digital document cameras and projectors, even smart-boards. Students are also provided computers or encouraged to bring their own devices. A second, more important change that this paradigm transition has lead to, is the skills required by students to succeed in class.
During my short years as a teacher, I have also realized that many educators, myself included, have given students a generous benefit of the doubt with regards to technological proficiency. Admittedly, today’s youth is highly experienced with digital devices. There is a whole generation of children who have grown up with screens in front of them. But are our students truly digitally literate? They have experience using devices for texting and posting to social media and are of course avid gamers. However, their experiences are primarily as consumers. The average student does not necessarily have experience with utilizing technology as creators. Students do not typically use their devices to innovate so much as for entertainment purposes. Students have been lead to believe they know everything about technology when in fact digital literacy is something they must be explicitly instructed. How are educators supposed to teach students how to utilize technology responsibly and successfully? The same way we teach them everything else. Through engaging activities and assessments. The first step is to determine what skills your students will need in order to be successful. Will they need to conduct research? Will they need to cite their sources? Will they need to communicate and collaborate with others from far away? How will they create and present their various products? The skills that students will need for their future jobs are the skills they should be practicing in class every day. At the start of each school year, teachers should explicitly communicate to their students all the different skills they will eventually acquire and perfect. Then, different skills should be introduced through engaging activities that allow students the opportunity to explore freely and come back with their findings. For instance, I like to begin the year by reminding students how important their Email and Google Drives are. I challenge students to send me professional emails, share Google Docs with proper share settings, and create mini lessons to teach their peers how to effectively utilize various digital resources. Still, more must be done. Throughout the year, it will become evident which skills students are developing, and which they are lacking. It is the teacher’s responsibility to track student progress and present them with challenging opportunities to further develop their abilities. It is not enough to use technology simply for replacing other tools, it should be used to enhance learning. Students typing their drafts as opposed to writing them is minimally different, unless the teacher requires that students truly master all that modern word processors have to offer. An example of this might look like requiring that students share their rough drafts with three other students with the commenting feature, and give critical feedback on each draft. The teacher could then access drafts containing feedback, project them for all to seec, and together discuss the quality of the feedback as it pertains to the assignment. This is but one small way teachers can strive to teach digital literacy alongside their content. Obviously much more can and must be done. The demands our students will face in their future careers are unknown to us today, and thus we must prepare them as best we can. On my path to becoming a teacher, many people advised that strong classroom management is the foundation on which everything else is built. As a result, I began to focus on classroom management strategies. I’d come to the conclusion that the key to successful classroom management is keeping the students engaged in a positive setting. A teacher can not expect students to give them the benefit of the doubt, and blindly participate in learning, teachers must first engage the students and convince each of them that this is a beneficial use of their time. Simply put, we need to make students care. What an interesting concept. How can you make a group of strangers CARE about the objectives of another? You reward them of course. It really is one of the oldest strategies, so simple and effective. If you want someone to do something, you give them something. Payment. Well how do you pay 36 students? You pay them with points! Dojo Points to be specific. ClassDojo is a new take on an old strategy, an equally simple yet effective digital tool that has become a fixture in my classroom.
To begin with, it is free. Teachers inevitably spend money out of pocket for the sake of their students. So it is important to recognize and share free resources with one another. All you need for ClassDojo is internet access and a digital device like a laptop or tablet. Basically, it is a digital system for awarding and or deducting points to and from students. The website comes with a tutorial that suggests assigning each student their own avatar to award points to, which would make more sense in an elementary class, where you have the same 36 students all day long. However, as I have several classes each day, that would be a lot to keep track of. My student desk arrangement is 9 groups of 4. So I align by creating 9 avatars in each class, one for each group of 4. The purpose behind this resource is to improve student behavior. Now this requires that teachers first determine and communicate their expectations clearly. Users have the option of creating categories for positive or negative behavior. The site comes with several default categories but teachers are free to create their own. So a common example might be one or more students clearly getting off task. I can click the “Off Task” icon and deduct one Dojo point from that group. This is all made viewable as it is projected on the screen for all teams to see. Essentially it is a giant score board. This is where things get interesting. This resource is unfortunately underrated and underutilized. This, I believe is because it is only limited to creativity of the teacher using it. For instance, when I started using this point system, I thought I would have the groups compete against each other. While this was relatively successful, it gradually became clear that this essence of competition would inevitably lead to prizes of a more tangible nature. So, I rethought my approach, and remembered the superior power of teamwork. I explained to the class that they were now working together for class points that could lead to a class party. The condition, was that points would be solely be awarded to groups where each member completed their work. On days when HW was due, we would go group by group, asking if each member had their work completed. If so, that team earned one point for the whole class (the larger team) If a member of the group had not completed their work, that team simply would not earn a point towards the class party, but they would not be deducted any. I never deduct class points once they have been earned (unless it was revealed that a student did not in fact have their work completed.) Each trimester, I reset the points and we start all over. Which means students have the opportunity to have 3 parties. The catch, is that everyone has to do their work. It is not enough for 3 of every 4 students to participate. So, and here is my favorite part: The students motivate each other. When one group member gets off task, the others remind them that their behavior will affect the rest of the class. This free and simple digital tool has allowed me to teach students to cooperate with others and recognize that their actions can have positive consequences. All that I have said, and I have only covered the part about giving points. This resource also comes with a series of Growth Mindset videos. It also includes free homework assignments that can be printed and or downloaded for future use. Oh, and did I mention that parents can have access to classDojo? A teacher can invite parents to see how their students are doing, what points they have earned or lost. The site can track for patterns of behavior which teachers can address to improve behavior. Honestly, I could go on and on about this digital tool. I think it is a wonderful resource. I know many teachers that use it and agree. Any teacher not using it should give it a try, at the very least to use the digital countdown timer. Class: Accelerated Language Arts
Grade Level: 7th Grade Time: 85 minutes Topic: Digital Citizenship - Relationships & Communication Common Sense Media Link: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/digital-citizenship/relationships-and-communication Materials:
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AuthorThe best teachers never cease to be students. Archives
December 2017
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