Digicitizen: A member of the great state of the WWW

This K12 Online Conference video about digital citizenship profiled a North Carolina High School's continued project to teach younger students about how to be a model digital citizen. The students used the idea of project based learning to learn about the different aspects. Each group chose a different area of study for their project. At the end they gave a presentation to explain what they learned. The presentations were in several different formats. Some of the presentations were videos, and some were powerpoints. No matter how they were presented the information given was very useful to everyday life, and life in the classroom. One presesntation was about "DWT" Driving While Texting. Because the problem has been in the news so much lately I was aware that more people die per year in accidents caused by DWT than DUIs, and that the level of impairment is the same. But, it was presented in such a way that the statistics made more of an impact on me than they have in the past. The short section on stealing identities online was also presented very well. I was also very impressed with the Digiteen Island, and the information on Digital Literacy.




If you would like additional information the teacher and class maintain a website: Digiteen.ning.com

Reaching the Multiple Intelligences

The idea of project based learning is one that I have seen quite a bit about lately. During the PBS special DIRT! The Movie they showed how effective the strategy can be with any age group. They featured an inner city school that started a garden to teach the students about all of the parts of a garden. They also featured a New York Prison that started a garden program for the inmates. The inmates in the program are also able to later enroll in a program to help beautify the streets of New York by planting trees. The narrator pointed out that the prisoners that enroll in the garnden program have a better re-assimilation rate and are less likely to be repeat offenders when they leave the Department of Corrections.

Edutopia's video, Project Learning: An Overview, made a strong case for project based learning. The main idea of prject based learning is to learn by doing. Throughout the video they gave several examples of different types of projects that have been worked on in the classroom- both in and out of the tradiditonal classroom. During the video they interviewed a man named Seymour Papert. Papert is an educator that believes that all classrooms should be project based. One of his quotes stuck out to me, "Standardization is a guarantee of low standards." He continued to say that "the standard I would like to see is thinking differently, and the individual having the right to pursue individual interests." I completely agree with him!
The video also mentioned John Dewey's progressive movement because it is very similar to the project based learning system. As an inexperienced educator I am still unsure about HOW I will be able to integrate these ideas in the classroom. I fully believe that the methods will be able to reach students with all of the three primary learning styles- auditory, visual, and kinesthetic- as well as the all of the other multiple intelligences, but, I am concerned with the fact that it is almost impossible to asses a students true progress when using the ideas of progressivism. Naturally the next question is- do standardized test truly asses a students progress?

Luis un líder de la comunidad y la familia

This Edutopia video about a young man named Luis told the story of a very family and community minded high school student. Luis is active in several extracurricular activities, while also helping his immigrant family with household management.

Like many Luis is constantly surrounded by technology, but my most significant takeaway from this video was the many ways that Luis has used technology to help his family and better his community. By day Luis uses technology to help his parents manage the household by paying bills online, and also entertains his mother by finding her favorite telenovelas on youtube. By night Luis uses technology to help many different extracurricular groups. Luis is part of several! He is part of a peer mentor program called the "tech wizards." Within this group Luis works with other students to make educational videos that highlight different aspects of his community. Luis also teaches elementary school students how to program robots for an annual competition. I was also very impressed with the fact that Luis helps his city survey the health of the local trees, and was chosen to go to Chile to give an international presentation.

Luis's story was very inspiring to me as a future teacher. I plan to teach in my home state of Oklahoma. In Oklahoma there are several students like Luis who are second generation immigrants who speak a second language at home. Statistically these students do not do as well, and have a very high incompetion rate. I was inspired by Luis because he has overcome all the difficulties immigrants have, and has succeded on all levels.

WALT - We Are Learning Too

This K12 Online Conference video entitled A Peek for a Week - Inside a Kiwi Junior Classroom shows how a grade 2 teacher, Rachel Boyd, has integrated technology into her classroom.
I continue to be suprised at how many ways technology can be integrated into the classroom. Boyd has succesfully intigrated all of the subjects her students need to learn. One assignment shown described the writing process the students used to write stories of their own. Her students use YouTube.com videos for physical education. They also play math games online that compare their grades to other students around the world.

I really liked how the students were able to work with other students in another area of New Zealand through a shared wiki. I think sharing ideas with other students their own age is a wonderful learning tool and plan to integrate the idea into my own classroom.

The Changing Face of Technology

wr blogingbudys to day

This video “We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors” tells about a study done by Patrick Lewis with the University of Regina. His Education major students blogged with first and second grader students in Kathy Cassidy's class. The students also communicated through Skype and met at the end of the semester.

Lewis found that there was a positive relationship for both the education students and the grade school students they were blogging with. The education students had more experience deciphering the made up spelling new language students use, while the grade school students had experience writing for an audience. The grade school students also learned quite a bit about punctuation.

los libros

My class survey was about my favorite hobby- reading books. I personally read a variety of genres and I was interested in which genres other students read.
The first question I asked was "Do you read books as a leisure activity?" Two of my readers responded with yes, and the third responded "When I have time."
The second question I asked was "What is your favorite book? Please tell why." One survey responder said their favorite book was Dear John. Another responder responded with a repsonse about a book called Texas Lucky: "This book is a romance but the characters are so stubborn that the impeding romance is so hillarious to follow! I also love this is takes place in a country setting." The third responder talked about their favorite series as a child, "My favorite would have to be Moreta from Anne Mccaffery's Pern series. I have fond memories of getting the series as a birthday gift when I was a child and my favorite character from the series was Moreta, the namesake of the book."
The third question on my survey was a list of genres to choose from. The first responder chose both Romance and Fiction. The second responder chose Romance, Western, Classic Literature, Fiction, and Non-Fiction. The third responder chose Text books, Sci-Fi, Fantasy. I thought it was interesting that only one of the students responded that they read textbooks.