680 Artifact Reflection #1

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Professional Development. It's a very interesting word.

A word that conjures this notion that information, discussion, and practice improves our profession.

Educational PD topics are broad and limitless; usually tied to school improvement goals, established by administrators, or (hopefully) shaped by teacher input. As I approach another school year, no doubt chockfull of PD opportunities, I reflect in this post about my opportunity to design a day of professional development and reflection.

In Module 6, I developed a full-day PD opportunity designed around the Edcamp model which

• allows educators to take charge of their own PD and attend sessions that most pertain to their needs or goals
• allows educators to collaboratively determine session topics
• encourages educators to facilitate sessions by sharing experiences and conversations, not a planned presentation

Edcamps were “born” to include sessions about using technology in the classroom but don’t always; many times it’s related to general education topics.

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I’ve attended a few edcamps through conferences I’ve attended and was pleased by the overall outcome. I walked out feeling better educated on topics than if I had attended an individual conference session with one main presenter talking to me. Edcamps are hard to implement if the school climate isn’t receptive to this sort of idea. Some teachers are comfortable being told what to do and where to go. Those teachers sit through sessions and (usually) don’t pay attention but are perfectly content to waste a half-day sitting there. But, there are other colleagues I work with who would like to see more personalized PD that relate to topics in education or technology that we grapple with day after day, year after year. Why not experience PD together and be expert presenters together?

With these ideas in mind, I developed a professional development day for the CTE, Science and Math Departments at my school. The design of the agenda allowed for teacher choice, personal reflection, and small group work that would continue throughout the year during PLC meetings. I was pleased with the outcome and hope to present my ideas to the building administrators at my school.

677 Artifact Reflection #1

My high school Earth Science students have been engaged in a unit related to sustainable farming. In the last four weeks, my students have looked at the past, the present, and the future of farming in the United States. I would like to share my thoughts on two multimedia tools that I was introduced to in Module 2 and how I used them to create an EdPuzzle video related to the 1930s Dust Bowl.

The first resource I learned more about was a site called Listenwise. This is a free platform that provides snippets of National Public Radio (NPR) shows as podcasts for teaching and learning. Every day, NPR puts out many incredible stories and some of those stories have tons of learning potential for teachers and students. These stories go beyond the written text in helping teachers and students connect to topics like never before.

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I thought a library of podcasts that a person could keyword search was pretty impressive, but Listenwise goes further in providing comprehension questions, discussion themes, vocabulary, listening graphic organizers, quizzes connected to the podcast, transcripts so that students can read along, and class activities related to external resources.

Although it didn't directly relate to the creation of my EdPuzzle video, the Listenwise resources I found helped supplement my unit. I look forward to using this platform in the future for other units I teach.

The second resource that I used to create my Module 2 assignment was the website called Critical Past. This is another free platform that provides historical video clips and images. The collection has thousands of videos and thousands more of still images. All the media are available for viewing online, or for immediate download. Critical Past includes some of history’s most notable moments.

I was looking for some media on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the Great Depression and found a speech that FDR gave to a crowd of citizens from the Great Plains during his presidency. Critical Past's site is well-organized and easy to use. With a few different keyword searches and some time to listen, I had found what I was looking for! And because EdPuzzle allows users to upload their own videos, it was easy to download a video taken from Critical Past and turn it into a teaching tool for my farming unit!

I found Listenwise and Critical Past to be very useful multimedia tools. I even went so far as to suggest these two platforms to several science and social studies teachers at my school. After reading this reflection, I hope you too have an opportunity to discover these versatile resources!

676 Artifact Reflection #1

About a year ago, I added a post to this blog about academic integrity that you can read about here. In the time since that blog post, I've significantly increased my awareness and responsible use of digital material. I've also made a more conscious effort to teach my students about using other people's ideas and material in the hope of developing more responsible digital citizens.

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Module 5 was a stepping stone that furthered my understanding of fair use, copyright, and a person's digital footprint. Things you share online are permanent, just like a tattoo! Digital footprints are unimaginably long trails of information that follow a digital consumer everywhere. As a teacher of a Gen-Y society, it's increasingly frustrating to witness a student's careless approach to using digital media and images without permission from the owner. Students (and many adults) go straight to Google and search for whatever they need, copy it, insert it, forget to cite it, and move on.

Terms like public domain, creative commons, fair use, copyright, and plagiarism need to be regularly used in context, no matter what the age, grade level, course or discipline. Far too many students and adults are irresponsibly using digital media and risking hefty penalties and fines for their poor choices. Why take that chance?

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The artifact I'm providing for this blog post includes the copyright scenarios I analyzed. Although educators have a little more wiggle room when it comes to fair use of digital material, a teacher must always ask - is the use of this material TRANSFORMATIVE? If the answer is YES, then in small quantities, digital material may be used for educational purposes. In large chunks, a teacher should seek the permission of the owner before using it in class.

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Here are a few important facts that summarize Module 5:

• Copyright applies for any creation. A teacher or student should generally assume that everything is copyrighted. Using copyrighted material without the owner's permission is illegal. Fine can cost $250 to $150,000.
• If digital material is part of the public domain then copyright law doesn’t apply because it includes lots of creative works that are freely available for anyone to use.
• When people want their work used by others we call these open educational resources (OER); a growing hub of FREE materials.
• Showing a full-length feature film in class is often a violation of the movie’s copyright!
• Just because you bought a song or album doesn’t mean you can use it however you want. Only use small chunks of the media for personal use. 

The copyright scenarios were a unique way to question my use of digital material and challenges me to regularly address these fair use and copyright situations with my students. Everyone has digital rights that promise to protect privacy, property, and speech, but more importantly, every digital consumer is responsible for respecting the rights of others and abiding by the law.

676 Artifact Reflection #2

The artifact created in Module 7, was a collaborative project on sustainable farming that I have used in my high school Earth Science class for the last several years. Before our school was 1:1, everything for this project was written out or done as a (boring) PowerPoint presentation. Since the introduction of student Chromebooks, my students have been able to collaboratively create and manage virtual farms that avoid the destructive pitfalls of weathering and erosion, employ sustainable practices for maintaining fertile soil, and encourage the use of alternative forms of energy.

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Not only do my students manage a "farm", but they also get to practice their digital skills using Padlet, Google Drawings and a screencast platform of their choice (Screencastomatic, Screencastify, or WeVideo usually) to organize and present their entire project. Each web tool has collaborative capabilities and is easy for students to learn and use. I have been pleased with the final products each student group has produced and have been grateful to use technology to make my students look and sound tech savvy. Once the project is complete, students are responsible for adding their project to their digital portfolios for all to see and enjoy!

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The task for Module 7 included a rubric that assesses a student's ability to work collaboratively. The project already included a grading rubric that detailed the project components. I liked how the addition of a student collaboration rubric came together using the resources provided in the module and was pleased with the overall product.

For those teachers new to creating rubrics - my advice is to ask an expert in your building. Don't feel afraid to ask for help generating a rubric for a performance task or project. They are not easy to create, but there are plenty of good resources you can access to help you along. One that was recommended in Module 7 came from the Buck Institute for Education, providing a number of rubrics for presentations, projects, project design, creativity, and innovation. It's definitely a good starting point with plenty of vetted rubrics.

I'm looking forward to using this new-and-improved project at the beginning of the second semester and will ask my students for feedback to improve the rubric if necessary.

676 Course Reflection

With the completion of this course, I'm officially half-way to finishing the endorsement program through the University of St. Francis. It has certainly been a learning process as I incorporate what I already know about technology and learn from the expertise of other classmates and my instructor about collaborative web tools.

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Bill Nye said, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” Words for anyone to live by! To work collaboratively means to interact with, communicate, and learn from each other to reach a common goal. This course has given me a better perspective on collaborative student work and methods to fine tune collaborative student discussion using a variety of web tools.

The article 5 Useful Ways to Kickstart Student Collaboration in the Classroom by Tricia Whenham suggested that teachers embrace a little chaos in the classroom. I've always been a supporter of this statement, not only because I'm a science teacher and we "do" collaborative science every day, but also because students think and work their best when allowed to problem solve with each other out loud! As the teacher, I shouldn't have all the answers. It took me several years after my rookie teaching season to realize it's okay to "not know"; to help students arrive at an answer without just giving it to them. Their confidence as learners grows when you let them do the thinking together. A loud and messy classroom is oftentimes where problems are best solved!

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My school has been 1:1 the past four years, and the level of collaboration since that time has skyrocketed in my classes. Not only are they doing collaborative science together, but they are using the resources at their fingertips through digital devices to enhance their learning experience. The Google Suite (including docs, sheets, slides, drawings, keep, classroom, forms, calendar), digital portfolios, student blogs, and open educational resources (OER) have all increased collaboration among students, both in and out of the classroom.

Another article I read for this course that I found useful for teaching collaboration and digital citizenship skills was 8 Digital Skills We Must Teach Our Children by Yuhyun Park. In the article, it specifies eight skills that make up a person's digital intelligence: digital identity, digital use, digital safety, digital security, digital emotional intelligence, digital communication, digital literacy, and digital rights. As I reflected on each skill and the description the author provided, I felt comfortable knowing that I was making a valid attempt to teach and model these skills, especially the communication and literacy ones. It's important to be the best models for our students to demonstrate how to be responsible consumers and learners.

EEND 676 is my fourth course in the sequence of courses for the Teaching with Technology Endorsement. I didn't learn any new tech tools per se, but it was a rewarding eight-week experience using my curriculum to develop and modify materials to be more collaborative for my students.