I have to admit that before this class, I had not given much thought to what gaming or gamification were and how they could be utilized in the classroom. I had a difficult time telling them apart as well. Now I know that gaming is when students play games in order to learn about specific content matter, while on the other hand, gamification is when students are in a game simulation themselves. For example, Class Dojo, where students can get points for doing well in class.
Gaming and gamification are excellent ways in which students can learn in a fun and engaging manner. Students will be learning while enjoying playing the games and they can stay more focused on the task at hand if they are acquiring points or badges along the way. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to explore games and gamification with my students at the moment, as a result of sitting in as Assistant Principal at our school sight. These last few weeks have proven to be challenging for me in terms of trying new things with my students and being more hands-on with new tools. I know that some of the students I serviced in small groups are using various tools with their homeroom teachers. For example: Class Dojo, I-station, Reading Eggs, Brain Pop JR, Prodigy, and Star Fall, among many others. I hear they love to play these games and are much more engaged during this time in their classrooms.
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EdPuzzle: As I was able to navigate through edpuzzle.com I realized how much I liked it. I had never used it before and being able to search for videos caught my attention. It meant that I would not have to compose videos myself, nor did I have to learn how to link them from a different website. I feel like saving time and effort in one area can free up more time to research the actual website, more in depth. I felt like this website was fairly easy to navigate and use videos. I was excited to see that it allowed me to create a class and invite students to join. When I selected a video to add and “show to my class”, it was actually allowing me to add data such as a due date for students to view the video and it allowed me to collect data as to the percentage complete. Since I have been assisting as the Vice Principal at our sight for the past few weeks, I have not been able to try this with my students, but I am excited to use it to teach my students in the near future again. Since I am in more of an administrator capacity and my capstone project will also have more of an administrative perspective, I think I will also be able to use this as a resource to add.
WeVideo: This is another tool I had not utilized before, and I chose it because I had heard about it from colleagues and classmates. I felt like this tool was not as user friendly. I felt confused as to how to actually make a video. When I clicked on the option of a quick step-by-step tutorial, it loaded some videos, but they were just sample videos. I expected to come across a “how-to video”. I felt quite discouraged when I saw a downloadable manual. I immediately thought, “Oh this will take me significant learning time!” I was hoping that it would be as easy to navigate as Edpuzzle.com. I could have also been discouraged by the fact that I did not spend as much time researching and digging deeper into this particular tool. If I could figure out how to create a video I could definitely use it in my classroom because I liked some of the finished samples I was able to see. Adobe Spark: Adobe Spark is a tool I was quite interested in learning more about. I chose it because I knew that it is a tool that we will be asked to use to complete our book review presentation with our partners in EDUC 791 (at least I remember her mentioning it). I thought it would be quite useful to know how to work with it, ahead of time. It reminded me of power point or google slides, but definitely a newer more updated version of it! I like that it has icons you can click on directly on the page for adding a background, videos, pictures or text. I feel like it was something easy to navigate (maybe because it was similar to something I knew how to use already). I think this will come in handy in my classroom as well as with presentations (a Board Presentation which I am currently working on). I am excited to use it more and be able to compose presentations that can be linked to my capstone as well. I have to admit, that before beginning this Master’s program, I did not think I could make use of or incorporate Google Forms and other technology into my classroom, since I don’t really have a regular classroom. Yet, as I have been introduced to many things that I had not used before, I realize that there are many ways in which I could potentially use these in my groups.
I could make use of the google surveys to survey the classroom teachers whom my students come from in order to acquire more information about the students we share. I could also use Google Forms to create quizzes for my students to take. Flubaroo is an ad-on that could prove to be quite useful in grading these quizzes and saving me time in doing so. I could also survey my students (and teachers, as I already did) to collect data as to their preferences when it comes to reading and the reading curriculum we are utilizing during my guided reading groups. Google Forms can also be utilized for my Touro action research/capstone project. I can use it to create a lesson plan for guided reading, I am also thinking of creating a survey for the users, in order to gauge how useful and easy to navigate my website is. Linking the Google Forms I used during my research last semester, is also a possibility. I am still not completely clear as to what my end project will be, but I am sure that there are many more ways in which I will be able to incorporate Google Forms. When looking to use social media as an avenue in ones’ classroom, it is important to consider your end result; what do you want out of using social media. Only then can you choose what social media is appropriate to use. To be honest, before this class I viewed social media as having more of a personal use for me; I did not really see it as something I can use with my students; on the contrary, I have actually declined student requests on Instagram and Facebook. Yet, this class is allowing me to see how I can effectively incorporate social media use with my students. I am realizing that as professionals we can use Instagram and Facebook among other social media to post homework assignments and class discussions. In the past I have communicated with my colleagues mostly through e-mail or text, and a few times I have had the opportunity to collaborate them through the use of Google docs and surveys. Yet this class has opened my eyes to how social media can help me develop, collaborate and communicate through social media with my colleagues and many other professionals in education. Pinterest and twitter are a couple that I am currently exploring for development, collaborating and communication with other educators. As I explore, a bit more, the use of social media I have come to realize that there are so many connections that I have yet to make and that my networking possibilities are endless…Now if only I was better with this Twitter thing; handles and hashtags, oh my!
If I were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of my students outside of school, I would definitely address the issue at hand. Depending on the severity of the post, I would involve administration and the parents. I would also speak directly with the student in order to communicate the importance and severity of his or her actions. I would not make it a discipline matter, instead I would use it in the classroom as a teachable moment. I would not use the student’s name, but I would still let the students know that it was a post I came across, so that they feel the authenticity of the experience. I would use this time to teach about digital footprint and how even though we might think it is private, it is public information. I would also use examples that I have read about where Universities have declined a student even though they were a great candidate. Something that they think is a simple post can affect them in the future in an extremely powerful manner and I would like for them to understand that. I do not consider myself "techie" at all and given my current assignment as an intervention teacher, I only had access to my laptop for many years, although now I also have access to chrome books for students. I have not used much when it comes to technology with my students, aside from assisting teachers in their own classrooms with having students complete assessments through Front Row. I have become a bit more familiar with google doc and google slides, yet, I feel like I have a lot to learn when it comes to technology in the classroom and it shows through this blog.
Why did I choose it and how will I use it? I chose to review Google Slides; but, by no means do I feel like an expert. I chose the Google Slides because I do not have much experience with other tech tools and also because it was something that was readily available to me and to my students. I also felt like it worked very similar to power points, which I had used before. I plan on having my students use Google Slides to create retells of the stories we read in our groups. Once I have my students begin working with google slides, I will be learning along with them. Google Slides can have a wide array of uses from retelling a story with written words and images, to digital storytelling, to name a couple. How long did it take to get up to speed on how to use the tool proficiently? I feel like after a couple of slides I became more comfortable with using google slides, but I still do not feel completely comfortable that I know all of the ins and outs. What worked well for you and what didn’t when using the tool with your students or for your own project? I was able to create multiple slides with words, as well as, incorporating pictures. I think this is going to be a good start for my students, once I have them start to use google slide for retells because they will be able to share their work with me and with each other. They will also be able to add more if they don’t finish in one session and possibly work with voice overs as well. Since many of them get nervous when speaking in front of others, this will allow them to share out with the focus being on their work and not just on them. Were you using the right tool for the right job? How do you know? Yes, believe I chose the correct tool because I was able to complete my presentation and add a voice over successfully in order to present to classmates and colleagues. How will I begin to teach Digital Literacy? As I sit here and think about this question I realize it is a tough question to answer, given my current teaching assignment. I am a part-time intervention teacher. I currently work with students from Kinder-3rd grade. I teach students from our bilingual program as well as students from our regular English- Only program. I service students who are struggling the most in reading, and I also have one group for Math. Since I work with our struggling readers, the curriculum I am given to use is quite structured and does not really allow for much deviation. Also, I am limited to a designated amount of time with each group.
With that in mind, I feel like there wouldn’t be much time for independent, digital literacy lessons. Yet, I could incorporate digital literacy information into our group discussions about the stories we read. I could look through the stories I am provided and see if any of them are related to media use or digital literacy in any way. Then, I could incorporate specific aspects of digital literacy that I see fit. I was thinking of having my students begin to use google slides or story-telling add-ons, to retell the stories that we read. When I introduce this to my students I would take some time to touch on digital literacy, possibly a few minutes before each time they have to do a retell. I know this would not be diving in deep to digital literacy, but I feel like it would be a start. I could also ask other intervention teachers if and how they incorporate digital literacy into their instructional time. As I navigated through the links, readings and all of the information provided on the topic of digital citizenship, I realize that teaching digital citizenship to my students had not crossed my mind before. One of the reasons why I didn’t not consider teaching my students digital citizenship is because I work with small groups of students from different classrooms. I deliver small group instruction in the areas of reading, writing and math, for students in K-3rd grade this school year. The students who come to me do not get to use technology, nor do I have access to technological tools, aside from my personal cell phone or the chrome books (for some of my groups). They do have 1:1 access to chrome books or tablets, in their own classrooms, so I assumed that their homeroom teachers were addressing concerns with regards to digital citizenship and technology. I realize my assumption was wrong because other teachers that are part of the cohort are also colleagues from my school and they voiced that they were not teaching digital citizenship either. I feel much more comfortable now, when it comes to knowledge about digital citizenship. I feel like the Common Sense Media Website and the other links provided me with a plethora of useful information, tools and lesson plans to start my students off on the right path towards knowledge of digital citizenship. The lesson I chose to modify is a lesson on digital footprints from the Common Sense Media website. I modified it in order to be able to teach it in no more than two sessions during my group sessions for my second grade group. Since most of my students are not communicating through social media yet. I want to make it personal for my students by emphasizing how dangerous it can be to have a big “digital” footprint and how sharing private information on the web or in social media can have negative effects. Just like we discourage them from talking to strangers, we discourage them from sharing their private information on line, since there a many strangers on line as well. I feel like most of the groups that I service are not aware of many aspects involved with our growing digital world and it is imperative for us to instill in them the sense of responsibility and safety, at an early age. (I remember learning about this through the Common Sense Media video as well.) If I continue using this lesson for my other groups I was pondering about modifying the character in the lesson the cartoon characters of their liking, in order to get more buy in from each different grade level. The world of education and learning is always changing and evolving! Throughout my years as an educator I have experienced many of these changes. Yet, in the position I currently hold, as in intervention teacher, I don’t see very much change anymore.
Competency-based learning and personalized learning seems to be where education is heading. It is quite different from the traditional direct teacher instruction. I am excited about the idea of students taking ownership of their learning and participating in their own improvement. As an intervention teacher, the curriculum we utilize to support our struggling readers is quite scripted and involves a great deal of direct teacher instruction as well as completely guided lessons. I feel like there is no buy-in from the students because they cannot see a clearly defined goal aside from having to improve their reading scores. I believe Educational Technology can support CBL and personalized learning a great deal. Not only can technology increase student engagement, but it can also assist teachers in being able to make learning more meaningful to students. Technology can open the doors to a completely different educational environment for students of all ages. It would be interesting to see how educational technology could be incorporated more in intervention groups in order to assist our struggling readers. |
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April 2018
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