It always astounds me how quickly classes fly by. I cannot believe this semester is over. Here at Kennesaw State University it is obvious that the instructional technology department of Bagwell College of Education wants its students to be well-informed on the web 2.0 sites.
I see myself using the Adobe Spark more than anything. It combines videos and text exactly the way I expect it to. I am hoping to use it one more time with my Spanish II students before the end of school. I am disappointed to hear that some school systems are taking Quizlet from their curriculums due to student confidentiality. I am assuming it came about in those Live Quizlets. I never use it, so I do not think anything about my students has been compromised. I will forever love my Kahoots as formative assessments. They are very addictive. I am attracted to podcasts now. I had not been before this course. So many students do not enjoy seeing themselves in a video, so a podcast of the students explaining what they have learned is an awesome piece to check for mastery of understanding. I am still not a fan of Twitter for students to share information, but I do see its use. I was “blown away” with Google’s use of Extensions and Add-Ons. Since I have been at Dalton High School, we as a faculty have not had staff development where Google documents have been taught and asked to be implemented. Google is awesome for educators and students. As I wrote in my ELL module, I have shown several of my students how to use the Scroll and Text to Speech for practicing languages, and my favorite add-on was the cloud. I have placed the Cloud link into the curriculum and pacing guide for Dalton High’s Spanish for Native Speakers. As I leave Dalton High and its computer to student ratio of 1:1, I will be relying on the BYOD more often. I need to return to my ITEC 7430 blog often to refresh myself. The Bloomin Apps are now #1 on my list of “go to” for any future apps that will be developed. I spent a lot of value time trying to find some MUVEs, but, like wrote in my blog, the failed attempts discouraged me. I hope to experiment more this summer so I can glean something from their usefulness in the Spanish classroom. The Google Tour Builder will be one of the first technology tools I will use this coming August in my Classroom. I expect students to give us tours of the capitals of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. Making sure our students are protected while using the web is a must. We teachers should be constantly reminded that our students are engaging in digital safety and citizenship. Collaboration tools are such wonderful assets to global learning. My number one choice of collaboration is Skype. To wrap it up: This was an awesome course for implementing Web 2.0 tools into our classrooms. To Dr. Dias, thank you for your patience with me, and please keep up the good work with guiding your students. To my fellow ITEC 7430 classmates, keep up the good work. I hope you all achieve your goals in your academic and career endeavors. Haven Caylor-Brown.
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Spanish -ar Imperfects, Miro, Podcast & Collaborative KahootThe Georgia state standards are very vague and do not have to align with End of Course Tests (EOCs). The Georgia standards that best correlate with this lesson plan are MLII.IP2A-Written exchange of the target language, MLII.INT1C-understands instructions, MLII.P1D-uses written mechanics such as conjugating in the past imperfect, and MLII.CCC5B-uses technology in the target language. The ISTE standards are so enjoyable (I sound so much like a Teacher-nerd when I write stuff like this: A person who enjoys following standards!?) to work with. The students had been conjugating verbs in the past imperfect for a few days, but I had been the instructor making students conjugate verbs “old school” (2x3 cells- singulars on the left, plurals on the right, etc.). The students began to show their knowledge as an empowered learner when they either 1) mapped the conjugations and translations with Miro or 2) Explained in a podcast about their conjugations and translations. These standards are from standards 1C and 1D creating an empowered learner. My students have been using computers with a student to computer ratio of 1:1 for approximately 3 years. They are quite skilled at maneuvering through computers and the Internet. With their Miro mind maps, the Canvas podcast, and the formative assessment Kahoots, the students shared their innovative designs such as found in the innovative designer (4A). The standard I finished with is 6C being creative communicators. I have been teaching for 30 years. Not every student can be pleased, but as a whole, the students were energetic and upbeat creative communicators as they collaboratively created their Kahoots for formative assessments of the past imperfect. The general consensus was that they wanted to collaboratively create more formative assessments to study for their final exam. The students were required to create either a Miro mind map or a Canvas (our Cloud-based learning systems) podcast to explain Spanish, past imperfect verb conjugations, and finally to create a Kahoot collaboratively. Between the mind map and the podcast, differentiation was bestowed so the students could choose whether a visual or audio presentation suited them best. The Kahoot was a collaborative effort to work together as they create their own formative assessments before the summative assessment of conjugating Spanish imperfect verbs. The students had measurable objects to create maps, conjugate verbs, translate sentences, and list imperfect rules. There was also a rubric to make sure the students transferred their webs to the Kahoot formative assessments. Language acquisition and communicating in a target language is the pinnacle of studying a foreign language. It is real-world relevant and definitely connects to life outside of the classroom. Collaboratively working with their Kahoots will build schema to communicate effectively with the world outside the classroom. The differentiation takes place when a student can choose to physically write (Miro) or speak (Canvas recording) about conjugating verbs in the past imperfect then using them correctly in oral communication. We have quite a few students who have anxiety, and in the beginning of a learning a target language, they may be insecure with speaking the language, so writing out a mind map of conjugating is an appropriate avenue for them. There are also visually impaired students who, with help, could orally record with the podcast. There were a few students who could not hear themselves with the regular computer microphone. I made sure with our media department could provide some headphones with microphones. The headphones worked perfectly. We were very fortunate that the Miro link with the mind mapping worked correctly. No tweeking was necessary. Creating the Kahoots went smoothly as well. Instead of all the students hooking into the overhead projector, the students rotated and played the games over the shoulders of their classmates. I did not give any homework assignment to our lesson plan, so there was 100% digital equity in my classroom. I wanted my students to be empowered learners with learning past imperfect verb conjugations. I decided that they could 1) map the conjugations and translations with Miro or 2) Explain the conjugations in a podcast. Once again, the majority of the students were ready, willing, and able to complete the task. The next time, I will devote the whole time to webbing because quite a few of my ESS students needed extra time. I will provide an enrichment activity with the people who get done sooner in the future: They will web some new verbs before creating Adobe Sparks. Trouble shooting wasn’t too much of an issue. Out of 62 computers, only 3 froze or would not submit a URL to my canvas. For those issues, I simply restarted the computers or graded the map from their screen. The podcasts were turned in nicely where the process to submit the media recording went smoothly. There were some content issue in Spanish, but there were no glitches with submitting the recordings. The students who used Miro were very innovative designers. Their use of text size, fonts, square or ovals, placement of the six conjugations was very diverse. I was proud of the differentiation. When the mind maps and media recordings were finished, the students transitioned smoothly into being creative communicators. I was so glad that immediately some of my groups communicated that they had no idea how to create a Kahoot. It took some extra time, but it was necessary and valuable. They can now create Kahoots so they can create formative assessments for themselves and their friends. We have 10 sets of Kahoots from my students, and they will be very useful as we study for the finals soon. Once again, I have been teaching for 30 years, but I still love seeing my students learn with new and innovative strategies. The mind mapping with Miro, Podcasting with our Canvas, and creating Kahoots for formative assessment collaboration was a win for this veteran teacher of Spanish. Lesson Plan
Digital Safety and Citizenship Once again, our school is very blessed to have a computer to student ratio of 1:1. It just so happens that our Instructional Technology guru has been a friend of mine since 1995. When I stepped foot in the building in 2016, our friendship was renewed and strengthened, and we found we had a new bond in our friendship and that was Instructional Technology. My friend and tech guru is my first line of defense in my online presence strategy. She is a genius with technology curriculum and online etiquette so years ago she had a plan intact for teaching digital safety and digital citizenship. She helps the whole school with either a homeroom plan or now the Flex Teaching Period (FLT) which is much like study hall where the teachers and students cover digital citizenship the first two weeks of school. We are either in homeroom or FLT and we teachers cover the Digital Citizenship module created for us. It’s awesome. There are articles we read with Nearpod quizzes embedded as formative assessments to make sure we are understanding the importance of our online presence. Yes, I take the quizzes again to keep myself fresh as well. I enjoy the modules, and as both an educator and a parent I realize their importance for the online safety of our students/children. The Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA) is nearly 20 years old. I realize that rights do not change, but my goodness, the cyber world has changed so much since 2001, and I have seen so many younger children become addicted to online apps and games that I think it could use an update. Even in schools separated from online games and apps, younger students are so happy to share what they have accomplished in the Instructional Technology realms, and the cyber world is taking advantage of them, so as Maughan (2017) interviewed librarians she discovered that they make it a point to teach elementary age students digital safety and citizenship at a very early age. Microsoft DigitalI As a strategy to “educate” educators with Digital Citizenship, I highly suggest them getting certified on the Microsoft Digital Toolkit. It is great to get points with Microsoft for building your educational online dossier. I wish our school did more with Microsoft. The lessons are free and are very educational and useful. I challenged myself to obtain my 500 Microsoft points by completing the course. It took 30 minutes, and I was proud to say that I received my 500 points. During the exam, we walked through Digital Literacy, Digital Civility, and Information Literacy. It is important the we and our students be literate of the online world. We can make better-informed decisions, avoid risky situations, and can better understand how to maintain our privacy. During this and the following critiques, I am going to use my own children as examples. My household and I are constantly reviewing on how to make better online decisions. I know our children need to feel more independent, trusted, and grown up by having some private time, but they should not be setting themselves up to be hurt. It is our jobs as parents / teachers to protect our children. We should be keeping constant vigil. I don’t want my children making risky decisions. Making logical and safe decisions as children will manifest itself into making safe decisions as adults. Children must be taught to protect their privacy: Protecting bank accounts, mind, and body all together. I have been fortunate that my children (twins: boy and girl) are respectful and caring of others. In the 3rd grade, they took two of their friends who could not get along with each other yet could get along with them as brother and sister to their school counselor. I was so proud. In life and digitally, they have civility. I’ve watched and listened to them as they play Internet games, and I am very pleased so far of their online civility. From my own experiences, I know that it takes time to inculcate and evolve our information literacy. I am constantly teaching myself how to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use information from the World Wide Web to complete a task, answer questions, or research topics. This doesn’t come innately to children nor adults. It must be taught. The Microsoft Digital Citizenship course does a great job of walking teachers through an instructional journey of the Digital Citizenship with its digital literacy, digital civility, and information literacy course. We are guided and assessed on how to digitally protect ourselves, each other, and online content. Common Sense MediaI know my school has done an awesome job of teaching Digital Citizenship, but I am going to advise my tech friend/ tech guru coordinator to include the link for Common Sense Media as another strategy for teaching Digital Citizenship. I had to make myself stop watching the instructional videos. I also spent a chunk of time reviewing some of the videos with my own ten year-old twins. I’m sure Curran (2017) would be pleased with me as she shares the importance that educators and parents are an integral part of the process of educating children about digital citizenship since technology is at school and home. After reviewing the Common Sense Media site with me for about 5 minutes, my children said they would change some of the graphics to make them more “tween-oriented” , but they sat and reviewed digital citizenship with me. I clicked on the Common Sense online games, and in unison, they said, “We saw those!” I teach at Dalton High, and for two years, they were with me in the same school system in one of Dalton Public School’s elementary schools. Their counselor/tech coordinator had guided her students (my children) on how to use Common Sense Media to guide them through digital citizenship. I didn’t tell them, but I was thrilled that both they and their classmates has such great online guidance. Returning to parents, we have got to know what is going with our children. Being online is just like every-day life. In paralleling our own children with students, we need to advise our students to not to talk with strangers, don’t share too much information, and do not disclose their location (turn computer location settings “off”). I think an educator could work with the Common Sense Media site as a full-time job. It is marvelous. The last thing I would like to share with parents is that hopefully a student will come to us in the fashion where they will 1)Stop using the site when they are unsure of safety, 2) Tell the teacher 3) Review which sites they have found to be safe, then 4) Pause, reflect, evaluate then move on to a site that is secure. True teaches support their students. Nine Elements to Digital CitizenshipThere is something intriguing to both adults and students seeing hints such as making sure digital communication is true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind in a fun, digital cartoon. Completed with Powtoons (I’ve got to check into doing some Powtoons (I've seen it for 3 years, and I’ve not incorporated into my classroom), Nine Elements to Digital Citizenship is awesome for Children and an audio-visual tool strategy to guide students with Digital Citizenship. I would say this video then although I reviewed it for parents, allow students to go back through Common Sense Media. There are so many “golden nuggets” of facts that the students need to see: 1) Teens in 2015 were spending a total of 9 hours a day online. 2) 70% of teens prefer shopping online and 3) 62% of working Americans use the Internet as an integral part of their jobs. Students need constant reminders of their school’s digital etiquette like when and where is it appropriate to be on your Smartphone! The cartoon also helps reinforce what students should already know about keeping their information private: Private user names, passwords, and log out of your computer if you use one in a public forum. As I said, this video coupled with students being guided through some Common Sense Media lessons would be very useful. I also want to mention that the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship should be found on the www.iste.org site. Global Collaboration ProjectsSkypeTo incorporate Microsoft Skype as a collaborative strategy is my number one choice in participating in a Global Collaboration Project. Please visit my Microsoft Page regarding Skyping. Since March of 2018, I have been trying to use Skype’s “Mystery Skype”. When I tell my students they are going to Skype with Hispanics from somewhere in the Spanish-speaking world their faces light up. The idea of a teenager communicating with another teenager from another culture is so authentic. I have a goal to create a collaboration with a class from somewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. As I was perusing some collaborative web sites, I realized I would love for my Hispanic students and their grandparents to make connections with their Hispanic heritage. I would expect some other Hispanic class from somewhere in the world to do the same then collaborate and report their interviews through Skype with us. There are some Hispanic cultural features I would love to revive (the Roman Catholic church, respecting elders, and extended family closeness), and I would like to laud and magnify them so as to bring them back. We may not find the answer immediately, but I truly think there is so much potential here for us to find a cure to revert to the timely, awesome Hispanic traditions through collaboration Teachers' Guide to Global CollaborationHaving mentioned the collaborative Skype and awesome, Hispanic cultural traditions, I want to end with the Kindred Family History Project with family interviews as a strategy for collaboration. It is from the Teacher’s Guide to Global Collaboration. In 2019, we spend less and less time with our older relatives. They are a treasure trove of family history. In this project, the students are supposed to interview older family members about an event or events from the past connected to their families. By personal experience, I’ve always known of at least one member of a family who wants to stay connected to their family’s roots. I am one of those people. I truly believe that when younger people realize their grandparent or great-grandparents are, indeed, history, they will want to absorb more and more. The students could either use phone, Skype, Smartphone, face time, or all sorts of webcam audio devices for this collaboration. The individual collaborations are small, but they could be shared on a grander scale. Just imagine collaborating and sharing those timely, cultural, and familial connections that could literally re-connect the Hispanic world! I love positive and effective collaborations to make the world a better place. Screen Cast Walk-throughCurran, M. (2017). P-20 model of digital citizenship. New Directions for Student
Leadership, 153, pp. 35-46. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=21adb42b-e66d-482a-8e65-eb90af0c8e0f%40sessionmgr4007 Maughan, S. (2017). Teaching digital citizenship: school librarians lead students in the tech age. Publishers Weekly 264, p35-44. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=6b5ef9a4-1556-439f-9850-a38b4699a011%40sdc-v-sessmgr01 MUVEsI want to start this module with a positive tone: I thoroughly enjoyed the Google Tour Builder and the iCivics. I even got so carried away with Google Tour Builder that I did a screencast with both it and iCivics and our instructions only called for a screen shot of Google Tour Builder. However, having said that, I was disappointed with EcoMUVE and Immersive Reader. Within a span of 7 days, I set up an account with EcoMUVE and tried to download the Immersive Reader. When the Reader refused to download I returned to the EcoMUVE. There were like 13 different folders to download. I was like “What the heck! I love science and learning ecosystems, but this is going to be too involved, and I really do not know what to do.” Like all of us teachers with families, 40 hour a week jobs, and other life responsibilities (my 78 year- old mother just had a knee replacement, and I’ve been mowing her 2-acre yard to help) I gave that idea the “drop kick”. I did not have luck with my desktop computer and the Reader, so I tried to download the app on my school laptop. My children have been designing games and gaming for about 4 years, and I wanted to do the same, and I thought the Immersive Reader could help me with some Spanish-type games. The laptop would not download the app either! In so doing, I calmed down and returned to iCivics and Google Tour Builder for a thorough investigation. iCivics |
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April 2019
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