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......