UDL PROJECT

 

CYBERBULLYING

 

 

 

Week 12

Glogster Link:

Below is a link to my glogster that I made about the different parts of speech. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.glogster.com/dohaire/parts-of-speech/g-6kqi02t8q9ss2h2ejbt3qa0

Affordance T-Chart

Features of Glogster	Affordance
Uploading Pictures	·         Makes it easy to bring in pictures that you can either upload from the Internet upload from a personal library right into your Glog.
Ability to upload and post videos	·         Emphasizes certain key points that one would want students/viewers to focus on in their Glog.
Applying textboxes	·         Creator of the glog can choose between many different text templates including size, shape, color, picture and position on their glog’s wall.
Applying audio	·         Applying audio helps create an auditory experience for the viewer by listening to music, or adding narration to highlight key points within the glog.
Graphics	·         The graphics in the tool option allow the creator to “spice up” their glog by adding pictures and really hook in the viewer to make them more visually engaged.

 

Week 11

VoiceThread Link :

https://voicethread.com/share/4443135/


Article Reflection:

Reflection of, “ Evaluating pedagogical affordances of media sharing Web 2.0 technologies: A case study.”

Being familiar with the Voice-Thread web 2.0 tool, I thought that it was a simple tool that you can record your voice to and add some pictures for effect. But I was wrong! This case study really opened my eyes about what can be done with this simple, free web 2.0 tool. The article shares the technical features of the Voice-Thread, as well as the learning designs through the DiAL-e framework. As a teacher, one can introduce topics to students, have students record their own findings/data within a project or field of study, and even use it as a story telling tool. This is a great tool to use in the classroom to benefit all students and to include Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher order thinking.

Before this week’s assignment, I can honestly say that I have not heard of the term “affordances” before. However, the article made it clear to me what affordances are and what the outcomes are for particular features when using this technology or particular learning designs (in this case, the DiAL-E).

For a very simple tool, Voice-Thread can brings a lot to the table! It is a great way to incorporate many of Howard Garner’s Multiple Intelligences for all kinds of students to learn to their full potential while all students use the same tool. I am definitely going to use this tool in the near future to not only benefit myself, but the students as well both inside and outside of the classroom.

Week 10

I used the program Jing to record my voice while going through a PowerPoint that I made that kind of goes along with it. Hope you enjoy!

http://screencast.com/t/TuF5MHZS17I

Please excuse the tardiness, but below is the link to my digital storytelling video about the water cycle. I tried to keep different learning styles evident throughout the video. The music in the background supports the text throughout the video, which I think is essential in order to keep building students' literacy skills. I tried to keep in mind the different learning styles such as visual and auditory within the video. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9QUr2QqNg0

Week 9

Article Review

I found this article to be very interesting not only because we are learning about the new literacies in this class, but we are blogging as a class as well. This was a great method of conducting research which proved to answer the questions it set out to seek. However, I was not that surprised by the results found throughout the research. For instance, the research found out that the use of blogs did not improve or seem to have an advantage to the students’ reading performances.

However, I was very surprised at a couple of the results found within the research. The retention rate was a very high percentage throughout this process. I thought it was great that the results showed that even though the majors among students were diverse and that they were sharing information within blogs, the closer they became and were more willing to share personal information to each other using social media, etc.

I was also surprised to find that when reading this article, it said that the research showed that the instructors that were teaching the classes have had training with the integration of technology inside their classroom, but they still were teaching the way that they were before the training. Is this a glimpse into what is happening to schools around the country or even the world? Schools give professional workshops to teachers for them to provide the new styles of teaching that they have learned about in the workshop. However, it seems that the teachers are not putting in the time and effort to try out this new style of teaching and just stay with what they are familiar with. Does anyone else see this occurring? And if so, do you think that this trend will end anytime in the near future?

Draft of Keystone Project

1. Subject: ELA with the use of www.starfall.com
2. Grade level: 3 in a self-contained classroom
3. Standards addressed: Common Core ELA or related, and ISTE technology standards

ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS:

1. 3.RL.1 – ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text at the basis.
2. 3.RL.3 – Describe characters in a story.
3. 3.RIT.1 – ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis.
4. 3.RIT.7 – Use information gained from illustrations and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.
5. 3.W.6 – With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

ISTE TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

1.	Creativity and Innovation
	Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
	a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

4. Intended results of the proposed technology integration:

 For the teacher to become familiar with the starfall website and show how it can be used in everyday ELA teaching through reinforcement and engagement throughout the activities.

For the students to engage in the integration of technology and language arts to learn through the participation of a computer program.

5. Support and format of training needed for the effective implementation of the selected technology in their classrooms:

Each student must have their own computer with internet access throughout the activity.

6. Requirements: Computer Lab with Internet access for each student.
7. Evaluation plan (what is your plan to make sure that your training meets the goals, needs, and objectives):

My plan to make sure that the training provided meets the goals, needs and objective of the teachers and students is to first show the teachers how to navigate and use the Starfall website. Through this website, I will lead them to the section, It’s Fun To Read, which will then show the All About Me part of the website.

The students must create an avatar to complete this part of the objective. Throughout the creation, the students are asked a series of questions that they must answer, each pertaining to a certain part of their avatar. The questions are as follows:
                Are you a boy or girl?

                How old are you?

                What does your hair look like?

What color is your hair?

What color is your skin?

What do your eyes look like?

Throughout the questions, the students are fulfilling the standards listed above in the common core curriculum. After the students create their avatar, they will have to create a pet with certain characteristics that the students choose themselves given from a list. For example, a student can have a pet dinosaur, that skateboards, eats pizza, that chases a chicken. While all of these choices are being made, the students are engaged with the animations that appear by each choice that they make. This makes the students want to read the question to see what comes next, enhancing their ELA skills.

After each phase of the All About Me section is completed, another game appears. The next one is called, Where Do I Sleep? Followed by Which is My Toy. All throughout these activities, the students still see their custom made avatar along with their custom made pet throughout the activities. This makes the students want to keep going and read each question carefully and want to keep participating in the activity. When they have completed the activity on their own, they will then practice using their social skills and tell a friend and the teacher about their avatar, pet, bed and toy. I hope that I get to see some amazing results and to see the students have fun throughout the process of using the Starfall website.

Week 7

Assignment  #1

Using ADDIE model in Second Life:

This article was very interesting to read, as well as informative. Since I am new to Second Life learning, the information given in the article as it applies to the familiar ADDIE model opened my eyes to an even newer way of learning. It was very insightful on how successful it can be when used in the classroom, as well as its challenges. In my opinion, the positives outweigh the negatives by a large margin. The Second Life allows the student to step into a whole new, different way of learning. Students can design their own avatars and walk around their own little worlds answering questions set by the teacher according to the ADDIE model in education. Integrating this model is a very important concept to apply, especially in this kind of learning environment.

Multimodal Education:

It is very important for authors to use multimodal text in their books, especially at the younger age levels. At a very young age, plain and boring text does not keep the attention of the students. Authors must think outside the box and ask themselves how their stories must be written in order for their readers to enjoy them, as well as get the meanings behind the story. In order to bring out the true essence of a story, the author can visually stimulate the reader by bringing in some “not-so-traditional” ways of viewing text. I think that this is a great idea for keeping the students interested in the text because it makes them want to find out what other ways will the author make this book more fun to read. This is something that is very important to consider when creating text for students at a young age.

Assignment #2

Since I have never been to Germany, I thought that this would be the perfect time to visit! This screenshot is a picture of me overlooking a park in Germany from a department store!

 

Speaking with some ELA teachers, they have never heard of Second Life, let alone using it in ELA instruction! But they came up with some ways to utilize it in their teaching:

-Since not every student is outgoing, this would be a great way for the shy/quiet students to interact with their fellow classmates without “actually” communicating with them in person. It would be a great way to assess what they learn via text or voice messaging throughout the Second Life program.

-Instead of having students learn in the traditional way of learning by splitting up into groups at their desks, they can log in and talk about the lesson by using their avatars! It’s a great way to communicate and recap the activity at hand via Second Life. I feel that the students would become more involved with their work and take more pride in it if the use of technology was an option. It could also be used as a reinforcement.  For instance, if the student does not complete his/her assignment, then they will not be able to participate in the lesson with their avatar. This will be a new type of learning for them so I think that the students will become highly motivated if this is done in their routine schedule for learning.

Week 6 Edmodo Screenshot

Sorry I forgot to add my screenshot of my edmodo code. Here it is!

Week 6

Week 6

Assignment #1: Article

The article I chose to share is entitled, “Tomorrow will not be like today”: Literacy and identity in a world of multiliteracies by Bronwyn T. Williams. I highly recommend reading this article. It is not very lengthy, so it keeps you attention while explaining how students create their own, different identities than the ones used in face-to-face situations. That being said, it then goes into explaining how students can use online tools effectively for multimedia projects in the fields of reading and writing. Since technology is changing constantly, so should your tools in the classroom. Of course students want the new latest and greatest thing, so why not do the same thing with your tools in the classroom? This article explains how it is important to keep innovating inside the classroom.

http://igenlit.pbworks.com/f/williams%20multiliteracies.pdf

Assignment #2-1:

Both of these articles relate in that it shows that there is a need to integrate technology in the room, but it is limited due to the teachers’ expertise. If the teacher does not feel comfortable using the new literacies and integrating it with the subjects she/he teaches, then the students will not have the opportunity to be exposed to that technological, hands-on way of learning that already relates to the tech-savvy generation of students. If teachers do not take the necessary steps in order to use these strategies, then we are holding back on teaching students to achieve their fullest potential both inside and outside the classroom.

Assignment #2-2: Edmodo

Edmodo Functions:

Planner: I really like the layout of the planner function located next to the home button. It gives you a very easy to read week-at-a-glance format or a month-at-a-glance format that allows you to create new events and new tasks. This tool makes plan books extremely easy to keep up to date and well organized.

Progress: The progress icon allows the teacher to view the progress among the students that he/she adds to the group. Here, you can also give the students the opportunity to earn badges for their work. You can give them ready-made ones by edmodo, or create your own. This is a great motivation strategy and allows the teacher to see the flow of the conversations that go on inside the edmodo site among students.

Library: The library allows the teacher to post links and files for the students to navigate the suggested material effortlessly without being distracted by visiting other sites along their way to do their work. You can also create folders to keep the links organized within topics to allow students to navigate the material with ease.

Assignment: In the assignment function, the teachers allows the students to view their assignments very clearly. The teacher has the opportunity to describe the assignment to the students and choose a due date for them to abide by.

Poll: One of my favorite features of Edmodo is the poll function. You get to survey your students by asking them questions related to your topic. You can ask questions that put the students in characters’ shoes asking if they would do anything different than they did in the story. Or one can set up questions about the class in general asking about specific material. This gives the opportunity for the teacher to receive feedback from the students and make them think outside the box.

How ELA teachers can use Edmodo to enhance their ELA instruction:

Since the students of this generation are mostly tech-savvy, why not use it to provide it to them to develop their skills in the classroom? There are many different ways to incorporate this tool within regular classroom instruction. Teachers have the opportunity to split students up into groups to complete assignments.

Another way that one can use this is to post assignments, due dates, and rubrics right to the edmodo group page. It provides easy access in case there are students that are either forgetful, don’t write down due dates or just like the constant reminder. Along the way, the teacher can post alerts to inform the students of any changes, or just giving them a heads up that an assignment is due next week and so forth. Overall, I think that the use of edmodo could be extremely effective in classrooms if used regularly. It combines social networking with learning, which keeps the students engaged within the lessons and units making them successful in the classroom.

Week 5

Assignment #1

I have little experience with gaming involving the ELA. However, the experience that I do have seems to be effective and fun! There is a website that I like to use for the younger elementary grades called www.fun4thebrain.com. It has ELA games as well as Math games that are fun, addicting and hard to stop playing. Some of the games feature parts of speech, root words, sight words, syllables, and the breaking down of words. I highly recommend these games for those of you that teach on the elementary school level. The kids love playing them and it reinforces what is learned in the classroom.

Assignment #2

Philosophy of using gaming in the classroom

Teaching Perspective: The use of gaming should be used regularly to reinforce ideas taught within the classroom in the ELA subjects.

Technology Coordinator: Gaming can serve to be very important when used inside the school setting. Therefore, the right equipment should be set up in the proper location for the most effective use of the students and teachers.

Assignment #3

Below is the link to my PowerPoint containing a script to a possible game that I thought of. Hope you enjoy!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58823857/Week%205.pptx

Week 4

Assignment #1

One of my favorite games to play is Words with Friends. I find it extremely fun and addicting to play and it is pretty much an electronic game of “Scrabble”. Players must use random letters to make up words with different strategies. The goal is to have more points than your opponent when the game is over. For each word, you get a certain amount of points, depending on where you place them and how many points each letter is worth. Each letter is worth a certain amount of points depending on how frequently each letter is commonly used in words. For example, the letter “S” is worth less that the letter “Q”. There are also certain spaces on the board that give the player the opportunity to earn more points and strategize, such as double and triple words and letters.

The gaming element of text is the key element in Words with Friends. Text is what drives the game to its main concepts and gameplay. Besides looking at the letters that you need to make words out of, there are other features that text is the key component. For example, the scoreboard. The scoreboard is located away from the gameboard and shows the players’ names and the score. It’s a very good idea for the player to keep track of this because the player can strategize what kinds of letters to use and where to put them on the board.

The Visual-graphic elements are also very key elements to keep the game motivating and want the player to keep playing. There is a clear visual without any distractions to steer the player away from the game. It keeps the player focused on the task at hand and want to keep playing.

The sound element is very limited. There isn’t any music playing throughout the game, but there are little “blips” as the player receives and places letters and “chimes” to let each player know who’s turn it is.

The rules of this game are simple: make words using the letters given to you and score more points than your opponent.

Assignment #2

Grade: 5

Common Core Standards and Learning Outcomes:

5.RFS.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words

5.L.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

5.L.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading or listening.

Instructional Activities:

Students will be split up into pairs using one iPad between them. They will then go on to play a game of Words with Friends against their opponent.

Assessment:

As an assessment, the first few times the students play, they will be playing against their own high scores. Even though the students are physically playing against each other, they must keep track of their own score. The teacher will also keep track of students’ scores for progress.

What cognitive Skills this game helps to cultivate:

-Knowledge

-Comprehension

-Application

-Analysis

-Synthesis

What New Literacy Skills this game helps to cultivate:

-Reading

-Speaking

-Language

Week 3: New Literacies

Week 3 Assignment #1

“New Literacies” open up a whole new world of learning for students. Instead of just using pencil and paper work, students now have the opportunities to change the way they learn inside the classroom. Some of these tools might even seem very familiar to the students, which may make them more engaged in the activities when learning. In my experience, whenever students are given a piece of technology to work with, they seem to be more involved in the learning that they are doing. When students become more involved in learning, they tend to take pride in the work that they produce. When this is done, there is a much better outcome on learning. Using these “new literacies” can very much help students become more knowledgeable of the lessons learned in school. One student can be using Encarta Online Encyclopedia to find information about a particular president of the United States, while another student is using the Bing search engine to find out more about the Grand Canyon. These “new literacies” do not inhibit students from learning only through technology, but provide a gateway to a new type of learning.

Week 3 Assignment #2

The main idea that the ELA teachers I interviewed are incorporating into their classrooms/computer lab are online research activities. They integrate the technology of computers, search engines and online encyclopedias for students to conduct research on a particular topic.

What I can do to change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum is to recommend using other technologies besides the computer to their curriculum.

There are some steps that will need to be taken in order for these changes to be made. The new technology that can be incorporated, oddly enough, would be the iPad. One of the resources that could be incorporated with the iPad could be the Dropbox App. This would give students the opportunity to collaborate among fellow students and submit assignments to teachers digitally rather than physically. The students can then check the feedback given by the teacher all by using the iPad.

Some ideas that I have for grouping students so that they will have equal access to technology in the classroom would be to give students access to their own portable piece of technology that will be used throughout the day. Although expensive, this would be a great way to utilize the “new literacies” theory within the classroom. If this goal cannot be achieved, then the next best thing to do would be to make sure that each student has equal opportunity to have time in the school’s computer lab to use the new literacies via computer, internet access and search engines.

­­­­Week 3 Assignment #3

Grade Level:

6

Topic:

Creative Writing

Standards Addressed:

ELA Common Core Writing Standards:

6.W.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

6.W.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will:

-become more familiar with a historical figure(s) in history and

-put themselves as a character in their story collaborating with the historical figure they chose to include.

Technologies Needed: iPad

Timeline for Implementation:

Approximately one school week (5 days)

How it can be integrated and implemented in the lessons:

The iPad will be integrated by using the “Easy Writer App” for the students to type their stories. When the students are done editing and typing their stories, the App gives them the opportunity to send it to Dropbox. The students will submit their stories to Dropbox for assessment.

Assessment:

-Students will create a double spaced, three page story about going back into history. They will have to encounter a historical figure within their time travel and a dilemma that happened to that particular person in history. Students will have to include the dates in history that have to do with the particular situation. For example, if the student goes back in time during the World War II era, the student may include the date December 7^th, 1941 to indicate the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Week 1 - Intrduction to ELA

Within the new technological paradigm of teaching, more and more tools are being offered to teachers to help students enhance their learning. One of the tools that really stands out to me is the iPad. Its touch screen makes it very user friendly for younger students in the elementary school level. With the wide variety of apps available at your fingertips, there is an app or tool that can greatly help students of all different learning styles be successful in the classroom.

Reading:

With the iPad, you can download books that are level-appropriate for individual students with a variety of options to suit the students’ learning styles. There are options such as:

 “Read to me” where the book is read to the students while they follow along word by word. What’s great about this is that it’s not a robot voice just saying words, but it is a voice that the students enjoy hearing and each word is highlighted as the word is being said.  

“Languages for ESL Students” where students can read the book in their native language,

“Record your Voice” feature lets students record their voice while reading the story, and giving the teacher the option to save it. This is a great option to show growth within the students’ reading skills.

Writing:

With the iPad, there are different kinds of apps that improve a student’s writing abilities by taking notes, outlining, creating graphic organizers and even the basics of tracing your finger to make upper case and lower case letters.

Speaking/Listening:

Particular apps give students the opportunity to say things and record their voices for both fun and the use of the iPad in the classroom. With speaking and listening apps, the students can use a microphone located in the headphones, or use the microphone that is built into the iPad to hear their voice and listen to their recordings. These types of apps are very engaging for young learners and have no idea that they are learning!

Also, certain books give the user the option to read the story out loud and play it back to hear their voice. This is a great progress monitoring tool for teachers to record student data and to help them develop into better readers.

Language:

The possibilities for the use of the iPad are almost limitless! One can even learn how to speak another language just from using the iPad! These kinds of features are great for students either studying a language, want to improve the language of their native language or for ESL students that cannot communicate through the English language that well. There are features and apps that utilize the iPad’s capability to record voice narration and can narrate text in all different languages. The use of these tools is a great way to incorporate the iPad not only for instructional use, but for fun as well.

Media/Technology:

Since iPads are becoming more and more popular, it makes students very eager to use them in any setting (home or school). With that being said, why not utilize the iPad as much as possible in the classroom setting? There are a plethora of tools, techniques and apps to utilize student learning and development throughout the great use of this piece of technology. It gives the students motivation to learn kinesthetically rather than just pencil and paper techniques. They can conduct research for book reports, view interactive textbooks, and play games that enhance learning of all subjects!

ELA Teacher Interview:

I interviewed a colleague about the challenges of integrating technology in the teaching of ELA/Literacy. There are many challenges that she is facing with the use of technology in teaching ELA/Literacy. In her classroom, there is a SMARTboard, and two computers. These are the only pieces of technology that the school provides in the classroom. However, she likes to improvise when teaching. What this teacher likes to do is use a voice recorder as a microphone when telling stories. I think this is a great idea because it gives the students the feeling that they are on a stage and it gives the teacher ways to monitor language and reading throughout the year.

My school is currently in the process of incorporating iPads. There will be a cart with 25 iPads that teachers can sign up for to utilize the tools of this device. I’ll be sure to give you updates as the semester goes on!

Introduction

If I were to write a book about myself, I would call it “The Life of Derek”.

Since I like to live out my spare time on the water, I tend to appreciate the simple nautical jokes. Here’s one of my favorites:

What did the pirate say when he crashed his ship into a glacier?

“Shiver me timbers!”

Right now I am currently a TA in an elementary school computer lab. My role is to help teachers incorporate technology lessons based on what is being taught in the classroom setting. I started in the middle of the year last year, so I guess that would make it about a year of experience. In the MSIT program, I have two more semesters after this one, so I am almost down the home stretch!

I am very familiar with teaching language arts from taking an Undergraduate Class with Dr. Hsu here at NYIT.

I know that teaching styles and methods are constantly changing, so I am very interested in learning what the “new literacies” are.

I really hope that this class will educate me enough where I can put my learning into practice for years to come inside my classroom.