School Wide Wiki -Fair

As the technique of "Advocacy" can present some very creative & effective learning activities, designing, assembling, and posting an online advocacy site seems like a tremendous undertaking. While the various tasks associated with an online advocacy site could be very numerous, the potential for a 'live' adocacy site that contains downloadable brochures and documents, powerpoints, video essays, and podcasts is certainly an age & skill appropriate acitivity for high school students.
As I have several students that have just won award medals for their quality presentations at the district science fair, an equally doable and challenging activity would be a school -wide, content specific 'Wiki -Fair'. The challenges in completing this kind of activity would be many. Each 'content area' ( Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, Health & Physical Education, Fine Arts, FACS) would have to establish a "theme" to drive the 'issue' that each advocacy site would address. The school system and building administrators would have to approve the use of school hardware & software for such an activity. Individual teachers would have to dedicate some of their class meeting time(s) to introducing, assisting, and co-facilitating such an endeavor.
Equally important would be the issue of how such an activity would be "graded", assessed, and evaluated for both the awarding of "1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, etc..." and credit towards the grade on the student's report card. Surely all of these issues and challenges could be met, but who would lead that effort??? School Administrators? Content teachers? Technology Resource teachers? County -Level School System Administrators? The answer probably lies somewhere in a combination of all of these groups, or should students and parents be afforded the leadership roles???

Online Portfolios.... Possibly?????

As my graduate cohort's portfolio display is fast approaching, I have begun to think about the potential for this as a "final exam" style activity for high school students. The SOL tests that are administered in May of each school year now, have become the defacto 'finals' that students genuinely prepare for. And many educators lament the task of trying to "review & prepare" students for another large test/exam right on the heels of the SOL tests. So, my question is, given the relatively open access to computers and the internet to high school students, would a web published 'portfolio' of yearlong learning displays be possible in most core subjects? And if not, what barriers are most likely preventing it? (Technology 'barriers' or Human "barriers' or a combination of both?)

Advocacy Websites

As I have helped to assemble and produce a web based "call to action" website, I feel the potential of the web based means of advocacy are almost limitless. The key is, that you must update and revise it much more regularly, but that in and of itself seems to be the advantage. In the past, advocacy was much more static, consisting of paper brochures & newsletters that could only be revised on a monthly basis(at best). Radio advertisements also were included, but again, had to be planned & produced often months in advance of being "aired". The ability of a web based site, complete with video, podcast, and down loadable 'documents' allows almost anyone the ability to produce & exhibit a very compelling message display. It would appear that two main drawbacks are what keeps the web based advocacy from completely becoming the primary means of conveying a persuasive message. One being, that according to the 2000 census only half of all U.S. homes have internet access. In the last few years, additional "mobile technologies" (such as blackberries & I-Phones) have increased those percentages, and today the numbers of people in the U.S. with some form of personal internet access(home PC, laptop, palm device, etc...) has probably increased to 75% or more. Yet that still leaves a significant number of people unable to be reached with your electronic "message". Also, the ongoing time commitment of frequent updating & revising of a web based media can pose challenges for some. It would seem that you have to factor in the dimensions of "Who are you trying to reach?", and "How are you going to be able to invest your time in the message advocacy?" .........

Planning A Podcast

While 'podcasting' seems to be a "new" type of lesson technique, much like teaching a lesson using the production of a 'flip video', the real technique for spawning learning comes from the planning & creation of an 'authentic problem'. Podcasting, like any other tech based learning activity can quickly lose the focus of being a "learning activity" without being anchored in a real(or seemingly believeable) problem or issue. Besides a "discussion series", I have found that developing an 'authentic problem' for which to build a podcasting activity around is the most challenging part of devising a lesson using a podcast. Or is it just a matter of knowing your subject matter better and merging that with some creative thinking????

Discussing a Discussion Series

This week I participated in a small group activity that produced a series of short PSA's related to advocating for daily physical education in schools. The process in many ways seemd to mirror the wrting process, and our group was able to utilize the DEAPR steps in our production methods. This activity seemed to have a lot of potential for some great classroom lessons, yet the biggest challenge our group faced was 'quieting' the background and making it free of other noises that seemed to really interfere with sound quality when recording. The technical aspects of using the audio software was actually the easiest part of the production process. It would seem , that conquering our 'background noise' issue would be even more of a challenge in a high school classroom setting, or possibly that issue could be resolved via the audacity software.......

Podcasting for Visualization

Tonight our class began the first phase of developing our group's podcast, assembling a treatment and storyboarding. As we developed a 'practice podcast', what really came to mind were the days of the 30 minute radio 'shows' of the 1940's and early 50's. The combination of voice influctuation, background music, sounds, and verbal "accents" of the speakers all came together in a 'sound' form to aid the listener 'visualize' the scene they were "hearing". That seems to be the main focus of the 'treatments' and 'storyboards', to decide how the features of the audacity software will be utilized in a way to help the listener not just "hear" the message, but visualize the setting as well......

Advocacy Public Service Announcements

This past week my advocacy group put together our advocacy message, and the process seemed to somewhat mirror our video essay unit from two semesters ago. Yet this particular production really required more technology and software skills, while the video essay seemed to revolve more around the 'writing process'. While both seem to have a lot of potential to serve as a good authentic problem, I can really see the advocacy public service announcement being much better suited for high school students as opposed to middle school, or even k-5 learners. Each has their advantages & disadvantages form a teacher's standpoint, I guess you have to decide which format works best for your individual situation.......

Blogs for the Classroom

In my last post, I discussed some possibilities for the use of a wiki in the classroom. After giving some thought to possible uses of blogs, I came up with the idea of implementing a student-run blog during my nutrition unit which lasts about 2 weeks. I would divide my classes (about 24-25 students per class) into groups of four. As the unit on "Nutrition for weight control" is the central them of the unit, I would assign each group(of 4-5 students) to create a blog, and take a "position" on the topic of which 'dietary strategy' is the best for weight control; "Low Carb", "Low Fat", or "Balanced Diet". Everyday, one group member is responsible for posting a 'thought' on their groups blog, and posting a comment on one of the other group's blog. This is manageable for me as a teacher, as I won't have to keep track of 150 blogs, instead i'd have to follow only about 20-24 total blogs, and I'd only be doing that for one two-week unit. Also each student wouldn't have to post everyday, but by the end of the unit, they'd have made 2 postings and 2 comments, which is doable for them too. I think the 'small group' format is the way to go......

Lesson Plans for Wikis

In our last class meeting we were assigned a Wiki Lesson Plan to devise. While we are just now working on our cohort wiki using all the concepts we have learned from the perevious semesters, I still find myself kind of reaching for a lesson idea that would use a wiki as the central format to display learning. I'm thinking more of a series of small group wikis, putting my students in groups of four to five and each group creating their own wiki based on a small concept. My feeling is the bigger you try & make something the 'first time around', the greater the likelihood of problems that as a teacher you will have to deal with, and the greater the liklihood that some kids will get 'lost' in the scope & size of the project. Any thoughts on this?

Wikis for Collaboration

In my earlier post, I introduced what I felt would be a good use of wikis in the classroom, and fater viewing some other blogs of the same topic( uses of wikis in the classroom), it seems that a book study is a common use for middle & high school students. Elemenatry teachers seem a little harder pressed to come up with ideas that are practical and doable for the age group they teach(especially grades k-3). Now at LCHS, we have a group of junior & senior student athletes that participate in a program called "Raider Readers". This groupof LCHS students spend one hour per week at Catoctin Elementary reading and sharing reading activities with various students at Catoctin, and this also presents a great way for a wiki to become part of what the high school students are doing. The high school students could set up a wiki and frame the main concepts of that week's reading in the wiki. The little ones could then log on a add the 'details' to supplement & complete the frame. The high schoolers would get great experience managing & editing the wiki, and the elementary students would get to share what they've learned with the high schoolers and each other. Just another of the endless possibilities......

Uses of Wikis in the Classroom

Tonight in our chort meeting we discussed the many possible uses of wikis for the classroom. In particular I liked the idea of a "book study". Most classes in public schools have a 'book' that either supplements or augments the textbook. If not, then there are many online 'books' and articles that can be easily accessed to this end. The wiki format seems to closely mimic that of the "sequential creations" that I participated in during the summer session. The key when implementing a wiki as part of a 'classroom activity' with students is to encourage very short snips of information in the begining(bulleted statements) and then progress to fully formed sentences. If you can really get this across to kids, then you'll be off to a good start......

Report Cards - Necessary Barometer or Obsolete Dinosoar?

Today was our system's 'report card day', and while most high school students already have an idea of what a lot of their grades are, its still a big deal for many to see them in black & white. This 'time honored tradition' of handing out papers with letters assigned by teachers that supposedly represent what students have learned is coming more and more under the gun to answer the question - Just how accurate is this 'letter' in reperesenting what a student has learned since the last "report card"?
The SOL tests were supposed to end the debate once and for all. The 'passing score' on SOL test is required in concert with a 'passing grade' to form a "verified credit". But the essential question still remains; how accurate is all/any of this in representing a true qualitative 'measure' of what a student has learned in their classes over the last 9 weeks? And the debate still ensues......

Today's Thought: Using blogs in Physical Education

While a lot is often discussed about blogs potential to support classes where "writing" is a large segement of how students display what they have learned. In physical education, blog would be more of a 'reflective tool' for students to share their learning experience from a class, or a video program, or even a sporting event they've attended. A great opportunity exists for 'out of class' expieriences to be shared by students, or for activities that students are already participating in (travel soccer teams, pony baseball, aau basketball) to become part of class discussions & lessons through their blog postings and comments........

Today's Thought

Today we are on a "2 hour delay", and one of the first questions we get peppered with by students on days like this is "what are we doing today? While most teachers do a "wrap-up" at the end of each lesson that includes reminders about what "next class" will include, now whatever you had going on for that class has to change. Blogs would be a great way to quickl get out to your kids - "what were doing today, since the bell schedule & class time is very different & shorter". I know most middle & high school teachers can identify with the need to get out to kids "what were doing today" without having to verbally repeat it 49 times over the course of the day....

Blogging about Blogs

I've been reading a lot about how to use blogs in the classroom, and there surely seem to be a lot of potential for many different teaching & learning streams that can "flow" from a class blog. There are a lot of opportunities for collaboration, interaction, web publishing, and analytical thought to become part of regular class experiences. Their ability to accomodate documents, images, sound & video, as well as their feature that allows for tracking really enables seemingly endless opportunities. I sense an authentic problem here......

Today - the first blog in the next blog of your blogging life!

Today was the first day in our cohort's final semester, we are all re-energized and ready for the culminating charge. I feel as if I have an additional connection to the seniors at the high school where I teach, as they are begining their "final semester" as well.