ABC Week 13: Is technology the solution for budget problems?

I read an article this week (http://bit.ly/d3IO7l) suggesting that using more digital textbooks and open-access materials may be a significant way to decrease the cost of textbooks.  Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary, believes that educational technology can reduce waste of money, time, and energy.  So the question is, is this true?  It depends on whether you look at it in the short term or the long term.  In the short term, it’s going to be a bit costly to get all the teachers appropriately trained in the technology and to acquire both the hardware and software.  Over the long term, however, it seems like it should be more cost effective, but you have to consider maintaining and updating the hardware and software as well as training teachers on the updated systems. It would be interesting to see some studies done on this so that we could see hard data on whether it would be cost effective or not.

Activity Reflection #7: Rubric

This week, I created two rubrics.  One rubric was for the written research paper part of the project and the other was for the final product.  Using Rubistar was fairly easy, especially since they provided potential criteria ideas for you once you chose the appropriate project from their list.  You can also make your own criteria, which I did for the final product since I wanted to have creativity and originality as one of the criteria and that wasn’t something that was included as a possibility for the digital storytelling rubric.  The hard part came when I was trying to figure out how to put the rubrics into my wiki.  Wiki-site only allows image file to be uploaded, so saving it as a webpage, pdf, or MS Word file didn’t work.  I finally found the “make it available online” link and from there, the print link.  When you click on the print link, it provides a print preview that’s online and you can use that as a link from the wiki. 

I really liked having some criteria suggestions available from the website.  Since I’m not teaching yet, I haven’t made very many rubrics and I liked being able to see suggestions for criteria that I hadn’t thought of.  Also, if you’re ever in a rush and need a rubric quick, Rubistar is the way to go.  It basically creates the rubric for you from the selected criteria because it provides descriptions of the different levels (poor, fair, good, excellent), which can be modified if it doesn’t quite suit what you want.  I still have to make the peer evaluation form for those of my students that will be working in groups.  I may be able to use the collaborative work skills rubric for this, but I’m not sure.  I might make my own form in a different kind of format for this.

http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/Lisa_T_Curriculum_Page   

ABC Week 12: Digital Equity

Now we not only have the education gap, but we also have the digital divide.  Many of the same students who are on the losing end of the education gap are on the wrong side of the digital divide.  They either don’t have internet at home or have dial-up access because that’s all they can afford.  Many of these students don’t develop the 21^st century skills they need in order to succeed in the world until they are at least teenagers if not in college (that is if they get into college).  I know that the school system I plan on working in only have one computer in the classroom and that’s for the teacher.  They have a computer lab in the library, but you have to reserve it.  They don’t even have whiteboards and I’m not talking about the interactive kind.  They are traditional blackboard and chalk classrooms, at least in the elementary schools that I’ve been in.  I’m not certain about all of the schools, but I doubt that they have much in the way of technology like interactive whiteboards or computers in the classroom.  So if I were to assign something like the digital storytelling project I’ve been developing in this class, I’m going to need to be concerned about whether my students will have access to the internet.  I’ll have to plan days in the computer lab which will take away from regular class time in order to make sure everyone has a chance to do research and work on their project.  One way that I can start to close the digital divide at my school would be to write grant proposals for more technology.  I plan to start researching grants now since whatever school I work for in this area will likely have limited technology budgets.  I’m also going to research other ways to close the digital divide.  I am definitely open to suggestions if you have any ideas.

Activity Reflection #6: Digital Storytelling Example

https://prezi.com/secure/1a3cae11bd7e9349db5d6dac97025642c9eda5a2/

This week I completed the digital storytelling example for my student project.  I decided to do economic recessions and depressions in U.S. history.  It’s really interesting to see the pattern of recessions and depressions throughout history.  I used a bunch of different sites on the history of the U.S. economy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to gather my information.  Then I created a Prezi showing what I found.  I started my Prezi with an image I created through Wordle.  Wordle sorts words from text and shows the words in different sizes depending on the frequency of the word in the passage.  I used a passage from one of the websites I used in my research.  After that, I included definitions of recession and depression because many people don’t know exactly how those words are defined.  Then I provided a timeline that I created in Microsoft Word of recessions and depressions throughout U.S. history.  Next, I pulled some statistics on recessions and depressions to compare to the current economic crisis, which some call the “Great Recession.”  After that, I discussed what it meant for us.  I probably need to do a little more in depth on the what it means for us part.

It’s a bit rough since the project was meant to be something that students completed over several weeks to a couple of months and I completed it in a week.  I think with more time, I could improve on my Prezi.  I also would hope my students didn’t focus too much on using Prezi.  I want them to create something meaningful, which could be something very different from what I created.  It could be a mini-documentary, a play, poem, or song, or a voice over digital story sort of like my Prezi.  They could also do something as simple as a PowerPoint presentation.  I think the rubric will be more helpful to them in deciding on their project and since they will have to get teacher approval, that will hopefully ensure they are doing an acceptable project.  They’ll also have to turn in a storyboard prior to completing the final project.

I think that completing a project like this will be a great experience for my students.  It will show them the connections between events.  Most of the time in history classes, they are simply taught the events in isolation and they don’t understand why those events are important to them.  Both their own projects and the projects of their classmates will help them see those connections. 

ABC Week 11: Online “credit recovery” courses

I was reading an article (http://bit.ly/9jDJsz) on credit recovery courses in Texas that asked whether they could cut dropout rates, but there is a more important question we need to ask: are online credit recovery courses a good idea?  If you’re only concerned with improving your graduation rates, then yes, but what are these courses really teaching kids?  These classes aren’t regulated the same way that regular classes are and they’re accelerating material that the student previously failed to master.  This might not be a problem for students who failed simply due to a lack of effort rather than a lack of understanding, but those who did not understand the material the first time around may not truly learn anything from these accelerated credit recover courses.  We need to evaluate and regulate the curriculum for these online courses.  They shouldn’t be an easy way out of the regular curriculum, but rather a chance for students to learn in a different way that might help them understand better.  I’m all for improving graduation rates, but it shouldn’t be done by decreasing the quality of the education the student receives.

Activity Reflection #5: Curriculum Page Creation

My Curriculum Page: http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/Lisa_T_Curriculum_Page
I’m starting work on a curriculum page project that will include a student project with task and procedures outline, resources for the students to use, evaluation, an example project, and a teacher lesson plan.  This week, I worked on creating my main curriculum page in Wiki-site (http://www.wiki-site.com).  Wiki-site is designed like Wikipedia so its pages are fairly plain.  I’ve never created or edited a wiki before, but it was really easy to edit.  I just went in and started by putting in the categories that I thought I was going to need: introduction, task, procedure, evaluation, example, and resources/credits.  I started with the introduction and wrote a little blurb about digital storytelling.  Then because I had a reference in that blurb, I went down to the resources/credits to put in the reference.  Since I was there, I started adding in resources on digital storytelling, websites with free media (images, video, and sound), software sites to help create the projects, and history websites students could check out for information.  After that, I went in and described the project under task and the steps that they will complete under procedure.  The evaluation and example sections will be filled in later after I’ve created the rubric and an example project.  I realized as I was typing this that I left out the teacher lesson plan section, so I’ll have to go add that in later.  I like the way my page has turned out so far.  It is somewhat plain, but it reminds me of Wikipedia with few distractions from the important parts (the information provided).  Although I like the way this turned out, I think the next time I create a page like this I would rather pick one of the sites that would allow me to make it look more like a custom website.  I would like to have a little more color and personality, but this will do for now.
I like wikis and Wikipedia even though most seem to think Wikipedia is evil or something.  Wikipedia is what it was meant to be, an online encyclopedia that can be built and edited by many people.  An encyclopedia isn’t really a good research source, but it is a good starting point for ideas, which is what my curriculum page is.  It’s a starting point from which students can work to create their projects.  Wikis can be a good online environment for collaborative projects.  Each student can participate in adding information and editing and the history allows the teacher to keep track of each student’s participation.

ABC Week 10: Student Rights in the Digital Age

I happened to read a blog this week about a student rights conference that I thought was interesting (http://bit.ly/b3yzHq).  Discussions about student rights in school have addressed various issues throughout the decades.  From wearing certain colors or clothing items to freedom of speech, student rights have been argued by individual school districts, states, and sometimes in courts.  Now, in the digital age, we have arguments about cell phones and the internet.  Can school officials search a student’s cell phone?  Can they punish a student for comments made on the internet?  I think the same rules as they have for lockers apply to cell phones.  If there is reasonable suspicion of say cyber bullying and administrators believe that evidence can be found on the phone then they have a right to search it.  The second question starts to get into freedom of speech rights and it really depends on when and where they make the comments as well as whether it disrupts the operation of the school.  If students make negative comments about the school staff or teachers online when they aren’t in school and it doesn’t affect school operation, then it’s the parents’ responsibility to deal with it.  However, if they’re making these comments during school then I’d say the school has jurisdiction.  It still depends on whether those comments are disruptive.  If a student makes a comment about a teacher, other students see it, and they talk about that all day rather than focusing on their work, then that is disrupting the school environment and hindering learning.  Students have a right to their opinions, but they still need to be taught how to express those opinions in an acceptable manner and venue.  Honestly, my students can hate me if they want as long as they’re learning.  I would prefer to have them like me, but the most important thing is whether they’re learning.