Final Project

http://northhighschool.webaloo.com/turnerenglish10.aspx

My active English 10 course page. I have developed an entire trimester to digital media and media literacy. In addition to the curriculum, the website itself functions as part of my final project.

In previous years, we have had a short (3-4 week) unit on Media Literacy, and the unit has seemed rather stale, with old videos from the 80s and worksheets, not the kind of thing I want to be using while telling students about how to use and read new media. I spent the majority of my thought from this class creating the class website and the curriculum itself for the entire trimester. I have created distinct units: Blogging, Newspapers, 2D Visual Ads, TV Commercials, and Newscasts, along with other internet and new media experiences. While I have been able to maintain the required writing assignments, vocabulary, and grammar, they have become incorporated into hands-on project units. So students will not only learn literary and media terms, but they will have to apply them in the creation of a professional-like product, while also writing about the choices they made, focusing on the vocabulary and grammar pointers along the way. Students have so far responded quite enthusiastically.

Digital Poem

Creating a digital poem using PowerPoint was difficult, but well worth the effort. It can make a poem more interactive and also I am able to highlight aspects of the poem that I find significant; therefore students would be able to do the same. I did however take a long time and requires for many of the triggers and motion paths, much PowerPoint ability and patience. I think that the activity may be too difficult to expect students to do well only at home, and without having excessive amounts of computer lab and tutorial time, the assignment may be too difficult in my current setting. The power the project unlocks is exceptional though--again, the power to add multi-media to the poem, to create a veritable thought web while presenting the poem, sounds, images, ideas, highlighting alliteration or rhyme within the poem's words, adding video and hyperlinks--there is just so much to engage the reader with the poem. The final problem I have run up against is the fact that I cannot seem to get the poem posted to the internet without ruining the triggers and timing of the PowerPoint since it is not simply a series of slides, but runs more like a movie.

Vlogging and Video Production

I have always loved the use of video production in the classroom. It allows students to explore texts through role playing and acting out moments from books or history, or informative videos or presentations, etc. It also allows students to draw together many images and video clips in an abstract manner without acting needed. Video production encourages high-level organizational and thinking skills for students to be able to synthesize the amount of images, sounds, text, etc. with preparation and editing. While any video production project can be engaging, and creative, while stressing high-order thinking, it also requires vast amounts of time and technology. Just transferring video from camera to computer let alone acquiring a camera, computer, or editing software can be hard for many students, and their teachers. It also requires the teacher to relinquish quite a bit of control since students need to be able to work independently and at their own pace on longer, in-depth, and difficult tasks. Vlogging on the other hand eliminates much of the technological, planning, and time constraints with only the need for a webcam and YouTube. There could be many applications down the line for Vlogging, from allowing teachers to lecture or explain assignments online with visuals, non-verbals, and facial expressions to go along with the materials available online. It could provide an interesting grading tool as well.

Creating a Class Wiki

http://northhighschool.webaloo.com/turnerenglish10.aspx

After much time experimenting with PBwiki, I finally created a class website through my district's website. The benefits of a class website are numerous--I can easy post assignments and discussion questions and students seem to respond to it much more than a normal journal or writing the assignments down in a planner. I can easily work from any computer with Internet access--transferring files, downloading, and uploading at will. When I find interesting tie-ins to what we are doing in class, I can simply add the Internet links to the website--this allows me to capture news stories, youTube videos, pictures, online newspaper stories, literature posted online, any audio and traditional website links. At first there was difficulty in the amount of time it took to maintain the website. However, I learned that if I never doubled everything up and just did everything online instead of creating a word document or a plan of some sort first, that I could spend the same amount of time in my planning as I do normally, while offering students a much richer learning environment. There is also the added benefit of more flexible timeframes for assignments, since students can submit their posts from home. I am able to track how often students check the website and especially nice is that every submission has a timestamp. Students are already much more accountable for their work and I am seeing an improvement in timeliness since they know there is some flexibility, but ultimately no way to lie to the computer and me about an assignment, and there is no way for it to be lost.

While a wiki would give students an opportunity to shape their learning space, and certainly could decrease the amount of time I spend on maintaining the page, the power for many of my students may be too great. I am already seeing some students taking advantage of the fact that they can post anything to the message board. I have had to delete 3 posts already. The other concern is that students are not able to access the Internet at home or don't have a computer, and with our school only having 30 minutes of computer time available in the library after school, some students are feeling like they are being left behind. So far I have allowed them to do the assignments all by hard copy, but that has been doubling the amount of time I spend preparing once again. While not perfect, the website for the class is especially valuable and a powerful resource. I will continue to attempt a wiki--it has simply taken too much time and effort to get off the ground compared with a normal website through the school server, which is already set up for me.

Interactive PowerPoints

I created many PowerPoints for my final project for a unit I am doing on Media Literacy. I tried to include more questions in these PowerPoints, along with activities that I used in conjunction with the slides. I reduced the length and amount of text, and in others, included pictures and videos instead of words. I wish that I could imbed more videos in the presentations, but I just didn't have the time before the lesson to get all of the information. I also made us of using the PowerPoint to jot down notes from the students directly on the PowerPoint, making students feel part of the presentation, it allowed for all students to see what someone just said--nothing needed to be repeated and there is a log of what was said that we could go back and work through and analyze. When used in class, students seemed to be interested much more than with a regular PowerPoint--usually they groan when a teacher puts on a PowerPoint because so many do it and it usually means notes notes notes and listening. I wish I could have added more moving objects and better more interesting transitions and animations. The PowerPoints were wonderful once created, however, the creation process takes quite a bit of time compared to less interactive ones. Finding multimedia to imbed, sounds, images, videos, etc. etc. took quite a bit of time, however, I feel it is better that way so it is worth it. Having students respond and asking questions in the PowerPoint is helpful, effective, and quite easy. However, I fear that too many questions and using that strategy too often just creates a new "tradition" of PowerPoint presentations. 

Introductory PowerPoint on Media Literacy




PowerPoint on Communication

My Trip to Asia Pacific University

Online Role-Play

I didn't feel as involved in the discussion as I would have liked to--while I was interested by the argumentative aspect, I just have a difficult time talking online. I have limited access time on the computer and was limited this week from that point, but it was compounded by the nature of the posting. It was not linear, it was not divided by issue or stance, so at times it became impossible to respond--to know whether someone has already made you point, to know if anyone would read a response that was to a post three days old, to pick and choose who to respond to, etc... Most of my time was spent reading the other posts and then I was either too tired, bogged down with thoughts, or out of time to respond.

I also had a hard time know what others thought of my comments since the discussion was not synchronous or in person--I have a hard time arguing deeply without instant reactions. Collaboration was difficult and shallow at times because I felt there was too much competition, I couldn't build on others well because small nuances were unexplained to me. Evidence was also so abundant that there was no time for a discussion of the bias or appropriateness of the evidence. Without the time, and the voice of power (as I was a student) I felt I was on the outside and not taken seriously or able to keep up with where the discussion was going. The discussion was also too free-flowing and not ordered by argument for me--there was no closure on the issues or clash.

Personally, the discussion didn't affect my opinions much. I am very neutral and don't feel that I could have an educated opinion on the issue yet. I think if there was indeed an actual policy proposal I would be more inclined to do research and become more involved. I think that the role-play is great in allowing anonymity in your arguments because regardless of personal belief, you can be free to be anyone you want. I personal enjoy taking the opposite opinion in a role-play of what I personally believe--I feel I can argue for the opposite side better because I understand who I am against better. All and all the role-play is something I would love to try to incorporate into my classroom and use it as a conversation starter and teachable moment as well.

Digital Storytelling

When teaching storytelling, I am always frustrated by story boarding--it is so useful in developing visual image text, but students never want to sit down and draw by hand all of the images. But using technology makes the repetition of images easy and fast and other programs that have the storyboard template make the logistics manageable and opens up a space for the student to focus on the story itself. Adding visuals to their written stories--using visuals and technology after the initial writing--can add vital details and create odd associations and new meanings to the text, which students enjoy. Pictures can provide or amplify the twists and turns of the story and alter the meaning altogether. This is how the modern world works--students are getting their news on the TV or internet where images are everything and advertisements are getting better and better at flying under the radar. If my job is to create responsible, educated citizens, then it is my job to also teach students how to read campaign ads and political news, and/or what type of propaganda or otherization they may not see occurring all around them. Working with technology and visual images allows students to understand how others are using them and how to properly read them--this is what students need to be prepared for. I plan to explore these digital writing methods next trimester beginning in December with our media literacy unit and continuing into the poetry and writing units. 

Thoughts on Video and Pictures

Animoto and other resources are really fun to work with and make it much easier to make something that looks professional. Many students need to use visuals and not just words- so using these picture and/or videos makes anything you are doing more fun. I would like to use videos and images in my second trimester when we do the media literacy unit. But I would like to figure out some ways to use these resources during our reading and writing units, grammar, vocabulary, etc. Though, the pictures and music used was limited/limiting, especially since I cannot make the slideshow mix specifically or control how the pictures are used. There are limitations, but for the time, effort, and professionalism --these resources are great to use.

Thoughts on Japan - Video Version

Images of Japan

It seems to have been a long time since Japan, though it has only been a little over a year. Part of me is still left in that country, in a place where everything seemed simpler. I fell in love with the traditional Japanese culture, which in most parts of the country are nearly obsolete, but I was fortunate to live in a very rural area where I could be taught. I searched Flickr for some images of the traditional houses, calligraphy, and gardens that I fell in love with, but I was disappointed. Flickr yielded no quality pictures, but a google search gave me some beautiful calligraphy. After learning how to do shodo and giving it a concerted try--I fell in love with the art form--the difficulty of the stroke, the ability of a talented artist to capture the act of writing within the final product. This image shows great skill in controlling a vibrant and at times wild stroke. The use of space and position of the kanji is superb--every time I would give it a try I would go off the page and/or end up floating off to one side as I went--clearly the verticality is maintained, while producing active diagonals, demonstrating refined control, a sign of a mature and talented Japanese artist.

I had to add a couple more of my favorites:

Bubbl.us

I was finally able to get the image of my bubbl.us bubble diagram about a school uniforms brainstorming session off the website and onto my blog. I think that mind maps like these are wonderful to get kids to brainstorm or summarize/synthesis their understanding of material, however, I did face significant technological barriers and I worry that my students would face similar challenges, especially as we only have one computer lab for the entire school to use, which is usually booked. I usually have students do this by hand, and honestly, I am not convinced that the digital version is any easier or quicker. Though it is adaptable and editable, usually I use this technique as a quick brainstorming or visualization before a paper, discussion, or research.

Digital Activities

While reading To Kill a Mockingbird's trial scene (Ch. 17-18) students could enact the persona of a modern-day political blogger reporting on the day-to-day of the trial. We would look at existing blogs and what kinds of things the students view. It would easily dovetail into our required bias instruction and then students would also become bloggers themselves, taking on a biased persona of their own. This would help students identify pieces of text that support their interpretation, developing a voice, etc. within an environment that seems more authentic than an essay or in-class assignment. Blogs could also be used instead of in-class journaling. While reading our texts, it could help students create a digital conversation between each other and how they read and identify with the text. I also have students read outside of class--a class blog could help students bring all their texts together in conversation with each other...

Search Methods

What I use for research varies depending on my purpose and audience. Typically for academic research I will use the online U of M databases or actually go to the library and read the journals and books. For most research, I will use books, since most information is simply not on the Internet, and I do not typically trust its accuracy. I usually will use academic search premier, lexis-nexis, OED online, ERIC , etc. If I need current event news I would consult the New York Times or Star Tribune. I mostly use the Internet for sports news and getting quick facts, usually wikipedia does a good enough job.

Validity is a concern of mine on the Internet--I simply will distrust all of it unless I know where it is published and who published it. I prefer to read things from their primary documents and make my own opinion or read an author's interpretation. What I enjoy most is reading about history, in which case I love reading how an author interprets events, how they synthesize, and what they choose to bring together. I typically will listen to MPR or search their website to begin the bibliography trail and then continue as long as my interest takes me . I enjoy searching think tank cites and Congressional commissions--CATO, Heritage, Heartland, RAND, etc. I guess that I typically only use the Internet for entertainment or listening to radio online or watching shows and movies--I can't say that I have ever taken the Internet seriously for any sort of research.

My students are mostly aware of wikipedia and general searching, but what they don't know are the government and think tanks and commercial websites like Amazon that can be helpful in doing research. MostlyProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age

Using My Blog

I have never used a blog before and I am not someone who journals often, so maintaining this blog for me is going to be a difficult task, but I am up to anything new if it can help me become a better teacher and person.
I don't really know yet how I will or could use a blog as part of my teaching--it may be easier to keep track of student journaling and other writing than through hard copies which I do now, however, in my district the digital divide is prevalent and demanding that every student have a blog or post online is difficult at best. We are currently using some online editing and paper submission tools and it has been a train wreck for some and extra headaches for teachers, however, when it works, it can be very powerful.
Blogs allow asynchronous conversation like e-mail, except it is accessible by many more people. It can be written anonymously, which can allow students to write with other voices and without the pressure of their peers and maintaining a certain identity.
I hope that communication over a blog would be better, but I still question whether all students can access the blog equally and whether asynchronous discussions are healthy for understanding how to converse with others. Without the nonverbals, often times it is difficult to pick up on the nuances. Also, not knowing your audience, it may be difficult to craft your posts for your audiences to understand the jist and nuances of your posts. However, this may force bloggers to use adjectives and descriptors in a more accurate manner. I fear at times that blogs only escalate polarity in argumentation, since agreement is never necessary since bloggers never actually have to work together or even meet each other.
I also fear, as I see in my own writing that I tend to loose thoughts and ramble more while typing as opposed to writing by hand. But despite my many fears and apprehensions, I think that I will be able to figure out how to use a blog or webspace in my classroom.
I worry about the amount of time it takes to set up all my class stuff online and setting up and maintaining blogs or wikis or a/synchronous discussions when no students will access it. My homepage now doesn't get my hits even though the students know about it and I have e-mailed parents and sent letters home explaining the website.
I don't even know what I want to learn about digital writing, since I don't know what is so different about digital writing from regular writing.