Emerging Technology that Supports Communication and Collaboration (Blog #4)

While reading this chapter I thought immediately of the common content collaboration (CCC) meetings at my old school. These meetings were developed for the purpose of content support through communication and collaboration with other teachers in our content and grade level. When first introduced we were very reluctant to follow the protocol developed by our instructional specialist, but as time passed and through many head banging secessions things started to smooth out. One of the goals of the CCC was to create effective communication about content. According to Egbert communication is "a general term that implies the conveyance of information either one-way or through an exchange with two or more partners" (p. 67). This is an easy term to understand but not so easy to master when it comes to content and individual understandings of the content. The other goal was to have teachers of the same content collaborate on an understanding of standards, and the creation of lesson plans, assessment, and project based activities. Egbert states that collaboration is "social interaction in which participants must plan and accomplish something specific together (p. 68). Once again it sounds simple. Over time we learned how to communicate and collaborate with each other and our teaching became richer for it. One side affect of our CCC meetings was as we became better at the communication and collaboration we noticed that we were teaching our students to do the same. This year I am working at a school where my previous students now attend with students from another feeder school. Many teachers comment on how much better the communication and group work skills are from the students from my previous school. A final thought is that in order for teachers to effectively teach communication and collaboration skills to our students we must possess those skills ourselves. In order to effectively integrate technology as a form of communication we must also be able to communicate with that same technology. We cannot teach from the side line, in order to truly be effective then we need to get into the game.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Article on Comic Life

Create Your Own Comic Strip with Comic Life

retrieved from the WWW on 9/23/2009

Although this article is not about how the Comic Life software can be utilized in educational settings I felt that some of his points were relative to school age children. While discussing how the software can offer a new and different way to present pictures he mentions that creating the comic strips with Comic Life is not only "easy" and "fun" for the creator but fun to view by the intended audience. I had the same experience with the software and immediately understood how it can engage learners while creating and presenting class projects.

Comic Life in Math

Comic Life is a downloadable software that allows the user to create comic strip/book style photo displays. While creating a comic book on metric/customary conversions I enjoyed the creativity and the freedom of expression that I want my students to have. Any questions on students wanting to engage with this type of software was answered when my 7th grade son started watching me create my project. He participated in the building of my comic book and enjoyed the process. He even asked if he could do a school project using this software. This is from a boy who hates doing class projects and never plans ahead. I am thinking of ways I can incorporate this into my math classes. The only draw back would be the cost to the students to have this at home or asking my system to purchase it for the computer lab. For a one time project there is a free 30 trial offer. Other than that I am open to suggestions for application. Please comment on ways to use this in a Math class.

Voice Thread Technology (Blog 3)

I always enjoy learning something new and the Voice Thread technology was no exception. Whenever I learn something like this my mind begins to wander on all the things I can do with it. The different applications for my Math 1 class are coming to me every time I try the program. Today I set up an interview about technology integration and sent it out to my target audience. While doing this I thought about a KWL and how this can be done through Voice Thread. While working with team members on our project I got many more ideas for its uses. The most valuable part is how Voice Thread engages students in conversation and discussion.

Today a teacher I work with was telling me about how she wants her students to create documentaries in science and social studies. She ws asking about software where she could record her students voices. She didn't want the audience to have to read. I told her about Voice thread and this weekend I am going to help her set up a Voice Thread for her class to create these documentaries. I will enjoy finding more uses for this technology and implementing it into my classroom in the near future. Let me know your ideas for voice thread in a math class.

7 things you should know about... VoiceThread

I found an article on the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative website titled 7 things you should know about…VoiceThread. It starts with a scenario of a student learning from a presentation through VoiceThread. The scenario continues to tell how the student incorporated VoiceThread into her own education through required presentations. Finally the student realized how through the discussion of others she felt part of a strong community of learners. The article then breaks down the understanding of VoiceThread into seven simple topics.

1. What is it?

· A media aggregator that allows community feedback on posted media.

2. Who is doing it?

· Developed for educators the applications are limitless for many other fields or for personal use.

3. How does it work?

· After uploading media images comments or stories can be added by the creator or others through appropriate source buttons.

4. Why is it significant?

· It takes presentations to a richer interactive stage through communication and discussion.

5. What are the downsides?

· Due to the variety of browsers it is sometimes slow and not uniform for different users. Accessibility can be a problem for those without internet. Simultaneous access for multiple users is not allowed and some content can be changed or deleted unintentionally.

6. Where is it going?

· Constantly evolving to alleviate downsides and further applications.

7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

· Offers students an online interaction though presentation of projects, discussion of media, and defending of work among peers.

Commentary

This article is a summary of the VoiceThread software that allows anyone to get a quick glance at what VoiceThread can to in the classroom. The article is written in ways that will entice educators to try the software.

Emerging Technology that Supports Content Learning (Blog Entry 2)

As I read the chapter Supporting Student Content Learning I began to relize how much my school reflects some of the points and how far we are from some of the other points. . I felt the explanation of the different types of knowledge was strangely familiar but didn’t know the labels places on these types of knowledge. I feel that having this understanding of the three types gives us a better picture of student learning. When I was a child we learned our basic math facts. This was the declarative knowledge. Today our students struggle with the facts because they are not asked to memorize them. I say this because my own children were not asked to memorize them but to explore patterns. When they got home we asked them to write the facts and play games with flash cards. We were then asked to solve problems that had multiple steps and we applied knowledge of what adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing did to our numbers to estimate answers before writing down our calculations. This structural knowledge allowed us to piece together information so we could eventually problem solve. Problem solving or performance standards utilize the procedural knowledge discussed by Egbert.

Now through the integration of technology we have enhanced each level of knowledge. To goal is to use the technology in the best manor. The book listed several ways to utilize computers in the classroom and labs. Unfortunately my school utilizes the incorrect ways. On the bright side my school has many teachers obtaining degrees in Instructional Technology and as time goes on hopefully these methods can be corrected. My system also seems dedicated to better integration of technology through Promethean boards, wiki spaces, podcast, and online lessons.

I also like to think that we are moving away from the idea that the use of technology will be fun for the students. We no longer load math games on the computers in order to get students to work independently on math. I related to the statement that student work does not always have to be fun. It does need to be engaging, interesting, and meaningful. I love my job, but it is not always fun; sometimes it is hard.
In addition, I feel that the workbook format of this book allows us to evaluate our own teaching on how well we incorporate content learning with our own technology integration.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc

Reflection from the Voice Thread project

The other day I was asking my 9th graders to write in complete sentences a discription of the long division process. I wanted to make sure that they could follow this process with polynomials. When I walked around most all papers were blank. I asked several students why they hadn't written anything and all said that they didn't know what to write. So I switched it up a little and told them to look at the person next to them and just tell them the process used is solving long division. You could have heard a pin drop. All my students can solve a long division problem but when it comes to discussing math they feel very uncomfortable. They are scared that they will not communicate the consepts correctly.

As I worked through the voice thread project I began to see how valuable this tool is in creating discussion and communication about math. I read once that when you can communicate to another a skill that you will retain about 95% of that skill. We need our students to communicate openly about math. It is difficult to get students to do this. I found that the voice thread is an innovative way to encourage them to do so. The fact that they can try as many times as they like until they get their message the way they like it before posting it means that more will be willing to try. Another bonus is that in order to discuss the topic they get to use methods that they are comfortable with like texting, e-mail, or video messages. I would love to get permission to allow my students to answer question and problems during class using their cell phones. My eyes have been opened to this wonderful technology. The best part is that it is free and I don't have to beg my administration to get it for me.

Ideas and Suggestions for Voice Thread in Math.

The purpose of my sample voice thread (embeded below) is to show how problems can be posted for students to discuss and solve. The discussion will help those who understand the problems teach others as well as for those who don't understand as much to learn form their peers. The discussion also has students revisit skills practiced during the day and allows our students an avenue to talk in the language of the standards.

These are some other suggestions on how to use the Voice Thread software in a math class.

• At my school I teache single gender math classes. I teach the boys. One thing that I do with my boys is create a unified group, a team. Boys love to be a part of a team. The voice thread would be a great way for my students to get to know each other. Each student can make a slide with a photo and a comment that tells something they want to share. Once completed a requirement for the class would be to go to the project and post one positive comment or question for each student. I think that this would help the boys get to know and understand each other in a new and engaging way.
• With math I love the idea of posting a few questions or problems so my students can revisit the days skills. On of the standards in Georgia is that student must speak in the language of the standard. By creating discussion on math the voice thread softwear helps me achieve this standard.
• I would love to use the texting responses in class. How my students would love to take out their cell phones and text in answers and comments to problems posted.
• With Geometry Proofs student struggle with memorizing the proofs. By creating discussion I feel that students can learn from each other and also retain the information longer by discussion and debate.

As I explore this software further through integration into my classroom I will post other ideas that I come up with.

Voice Thread Project

The purpose of the VoiceThread project is to gain an understanding of how this software can be used in the classroom to enhance learning. As a group we have created examples from science, math, and language arts. You can preview these examples at the links provided inthe links section of this blog. I discovered that by using the VoiceThread software my classes can utilize this technological tool to promote discussion and interaction between the teachers and students. In addition our group has collaborated and created a workshop that will teach and inform other educatiors about integrating this technilogical strategy in their own classrooms.

Focus and Theme

This blog was designed as part of my pursuit of an Educational Specialist degree in Media/Instructional Technology. For my first class, MEDT 7464, Integrating Technology into Curriculum, this blog will be used as a communication portal with other class and project members about the various ways that educators utilize technology to enhance student learning. Another goal for this blog is to share technology-based projects using Voicethread, Comic Life, and MovieMaker that I have created throughout this class.

Technology Academy

I recently read a review of a long term professional development academy for integrating technology into educational settings. It discussed 4 main barriers to integration of educational technology as being institutional and administrative support, resources, training, and teacher attitude. The long term professional development academy was designed to target all of these barriers. Funded by the U. S. Department of Education this technology academy supported educators with thorough and on going training that changed the educators attitude about technology. These teachers were chosen from institutions that guaranteed administrative support. Systems supported these educators through time off for training and a commitment to resources. The academy supplied some resources to the teachers and they workd with the systems so secure others. The overall effect of the academy was positive.

Check out this article through the ERIC database titled, Effects of a Long-Duration, Professional Development Academy on Technology Skills, Computer Self-Efficacy, and Technology Integration Beliefs and Practices by Brinkerhoff in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Volumn 39 from the fall of 2006