Tech Play 4

a.       In keeping with the original purpose Discuss the tools you explored, what you liked or disliked about each one and which one you selected one to continue to reflect on.

The tools I chose to explore this week were The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and Brain pop Jr.  The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project that began in 1999 to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis).  Virtual manipulatives are free, available to the entire class, and working with them does not require tables or other large spaces.  Virtual manipulatives do require computers, ideally with internet access, but many can be downloaded and used offline.  Students enjoy using virtual manipulatives and find them easy to use.

http://nlvm.usu.edu

 

BrainPop Jr. is an animated website which provides educational movies for K-3 students in the areas of science, social studies, english, math, health, art, and music. The site also offers homework help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. I think BrainPop Jr is an excellent teaching resource for young children.  I think the animation is a wonderful asset of the website, as it helps to hold the interests of early childhood learners.  However, BrainPop Jr. requires an account and charges a monthly usage fee. If a student’s school district has an account, a student may use the site if he has the username and password but only during school hours.

www.brainpopjr.com

 

 The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is the tool I choose to reflect on.   I teach 2^nd grade, and one of the skills taught at this grade level is regrouping in addition.    

b.      Describe how this content object that you selected might fit into the TPACK model. Specifically, describe the content, pedagogical and technological aspects of some student work that uses the creativity tool you selected. Make sure you discuss the type of work you would design around that tool so that students would learn the information required by the standards.

I would use this tool to teach place value. The NLVM has a place value mat with ones, tens, and hundreds.  The mat is actually for teaching regrouping in subtraction, but it can be used to teach place value also. The mat allows ones, tens, and hundreds base ten blocks to be manipulated to create numbers up to 999.  I would have the students to work independently on their computers to express a given number in base ten blocks. This activity allows the students to improve their math skills, while utilizing technology.  This activity would fall under the TCK part of the TPACK model.

c.       Identify other ways that students could use the content object you selected.

Students could use the base ten blocks to learn regrouping in addition and subtraction. By manipulating base ten blocks, students can get a better understanding of how we add and borrow tens and hundreds when regrouping in addition and subtraction.

Tech Play 3

The creativity tools I chose to explore this week were Toontastic and Voki.com.  Toontastic is a storytelling and creative learning tool that enables kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons with friends and family.  In Toontastic, the child builds a story one scene at a time. He or she starts by selecting a scene type (Setup, Conflict, Challenge, Climax, and Resolution) and then mixing and matching characters, settings, and actions to define the story event for that scene. The goal of this exercise is not to create a script per se, but to establish clear and succinct story events around which the emotive structure will turn. The story arc is then drawn by adjusting energy levels for each scene and by choosing appropriate emotional themes, thereby determining that scene’s background music.  Once the child goes through all the steps of setting up, he/she gives the story a title and sets his/her name as the director. It is a really cool tool to use, the movie even has credits rolling at the end just like a real movie.

Voki is a free tool that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on a blog, profile, or email message. Voki is easy to create and very user friendly.  First, you must create an account using your email address. Then you just follow the steps to creating an avatar. You can customize your character, give it a voice, choose a background and a player, and click Publish.  Voki is a unique way to enhance learning in the classroom.  Students can create a Voki to help answer questions or a concept in class.  They are 30 seconds to 1 minute videos that help students use technology in the classroom.  A teacher may give a question for the students to answer.  The student can create a Voki to answer the questions.  This technology can help engage students in the classroom.  Teachers can also use a voki for read aloud modifications in the classroom by producing them to read the quiz questions.  Voki also provide the use of different languages.  These are just some of the ways Voki can be used in the classroom.  Because Voki.com proved to be the most user friendly of the two creativity tools I explored, I choose to continue using voki.  I will use Voki in the classroom in many ways.  I feel Voki can help students express ideas while being creative.  Students can create their characters to respond to questions or concepts.  It was user friendly which means students can produce videos easily.  Here is an example of a lesson I would assign using voki:

1. Break students into groups (strong readers with slow readers, etc)

2. On the smart board or on students’ computers, upload the Prince Charming on MeeGenius.com

3. Have students follow along with yellow highlighted words-read together until the prince

arrives at the castle.                                                                                      

4. When the prince arrives at the castle, the students read alone.

5. When the group has finished reading, they should work together to list the positive character

traits of Prince charming

6. Find textual support for these traits: “Where in the book does it say these traits? How do you

know”? etc

7. Once each group has listed these positive character traits, student groups work together to

create a character on Voki.com. At the end of the lesson, each group should have answered

these questions:

a. What are the positive character traits the prince shows? (Bravery, Kindness, and

Honesty)

b. Where does he show these traits? What acts does he do to show these traits?

c. Who is your character?

d. What trait does your character have?

e. How does he or she show this positive character trait?

8. This character should represent someone in history or in their lives that possesses these

positive traits.

9. Using text-to-speech, each character should say something that represents this character trait

(bravery: I was not afraid when the house was on fire. I still helped my friends).

10. Students will present their character to the class or teacher, and turn in their group paper.

 

I think using this tool to complete the above assignment incorporates the technology and content portions of the TPACK model.  With this assignment the students are using technology to demonstrate what they know about character traits.

 

Give a young child a couple of toys or a box of crayons and he or she is likely to play for hours, deeply engrossed in an imaginary world. In both art and dramatic play, children construct settings, create fictional characters, and act out fantastic storylines that would be the envy of many Hollywood scriptwriters. Yet, ask that same child to write out a story in a blank notebook or a word processor and you would be lucky to capture a fraction of the depth and splendor of his or her imagination. Play inspires and scaffolds the creative process from an early age, but there is a persistent gap between the origins of imaginative play (ages 4-5) and kids’ adoption of the formal discipline of creative writing (ages 8-10). Creative tools are an excellent way of bridging that gap.  I think is important for students to use creativity tools in the classroom, because it allows students to tap into their own imagination and be creative on class assignments.  By allowing students to be creative, they are taking a certain amount of responsibility for their own learning. When students are allowed to take responsibility for their learning, the learning becomes more meaningful to them. We live in a digital age, our students are exposed to technology on a daily basis. If we are to hold the interests of our students we must expose them to activities beyond written work.

Tech Play 2

This week I explored a several websites for creating my eportfolio. I looked at wiki.com, eportfolio.org, google.com, and weebly.com.  I must say I had a very difficult time with some of these sites. I was looking for a free website and some of the eportfolio sites charged a fee for use. Most of them had interphases that were very construed and were difficult to use. Weebly.com was the one I eventually chose to create my eportfolio. It seemed to be the most user friendly for a technology novice like myself.  The tabs for each section were very easy to create, and adding the pages was not difficult at all.  The best thing about it was the help button which provided assistance if you had difficulty using the site. The affordances offered by this tool were an easy user interface, self-explanatory options, help was readily available, and last but not least, it was free.

 I probably would not have my 2^nd graders create an eportfolio. I feel they are probably a little too young for such a huge endeavor.  However, I do believe students should be introduced to technology as early as possible. I think it would be great to have students learn one a new aspect of technology each year, beginning at kindergarten. Students would be required to create something using this tool. Each year, the student would learn to use a new tool and add to their project from the previous year.  At the end of their elementary school years (5^th or 6^th grade), the student would have an eportfolio of their elementary school years. Of course, there would be the potential issue of students transferring to another school, which is why the project would need to be implemented district wide in order to be successful.

I think an eportfolio is a tool better suited for high school and college students. It would be an excellent tool for high school students to display their accomplishments when applying to colleges. It could also help college students who are applying for jobs or internships.

The link to my eportfolio is http://vandaedwards.weebly.com/

Tech Play 1

1. Begin by describing student work that you might design using blogs. Use the TPACK Model to identify each aspect of the work. The following questions will help guide your thinking:   

 Content--What content you addressing? Considering the verb in the standard and Blooms Revised Taxonomy, what is the desired level of thinking from the standards?

We have a really big push in our district to begin preparing our students for the 4^th grade writing test as early as possible.  Blogs provide an excellent opportunity for students to read and write. Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to develop writing skills with the added benefit of an instant audience.  Students can also participate in cooperative learning activities that require them to share ideas or suggestions.   For this reason, I would use a blog in Language Arts, to help build students writing skills. I would have students to submit their weekly writing compositions to through a blog. Students would be required to read the contributions of their peers and provide comments or suggestions. These types of activities incorporate the synthesis and evaluation components of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Pedagogy--What pedagogical stance (or which learning theories or theorists) does this work support? In other words, whose “shoulders” did you stand on?

 This would involve integrating teaching and technology in order to address all learning styles.

Technology--What affordances can you identify for the technology selected? Justify the match of your pedagogical stance/strategy with the technology affordances. 

Students would need to have access to a computer and internet connection.  Most of the work would be done at school, so even if students did not have a computer at home they would be able to use the school computer lab or classroom computers.

2. Discuss other ways that this technology can be used in the learning environment.

A blog can serve as a classroom management tool. Blogs can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notes, or homework assignments. A blog can also serve as a question and answer board for students who may be having problems with an assignment.

3. Identify any obstacles to using this tool. What makes this tool worth using even with these obstacles?

I think the biggest obstacle to using this technology is the lack of access to a computer.  Outside of school, most of my students do not have access to a computer.  I work in a low socioeconomic area and most of my students are unable to afford computers in their homes. On top of that, we do not have a computer teacher, so most of them are extremely lacking in technology skills.  O teach them how to do an internet search , however even that can be seen as an obstacle, as they have a tendency to get off task and do searches for game sites and anything else they have an interest in.

Even with these obstacles, it is still very important for our students to be knowledgeable in the use of technology. If we are to prepare our students to be competitive in the job market of the 21^st century, it is imperative they have as many technological skills as possible. Even though the students may not have computers in their homes, the tiny bit of exposure they have in school could mean the difference between being employed and being unemployed. Therefore, I would still employ this technology in my classroom.