Final Wicked Project

WOW! 8 weeks has flown by and here I am now presenting my final presentation for my Wicked Project.  What an interesting lesson/unit it was to teach.  I learned a few things about ways to get studetns to respond and even sparked some interesting adaptations to make for next time.  Overall the students had a great reaction to the lesson and therefore were able to learn something but I still wanted them to learn more.  What inspired me to choose this topic was the fact that students are using social media sites as the new bathroom wall, so to speak.  They are writing things and stirring up problems without the thought that this is slander and can hurt people.  To solve this problem, the unit I created had the students deductively researching the answers as well as the effects of negative social media.  We used role playing to showcase scenarios that students can learn the appropriate way (not RT something) to respond. One thing that was added late to the unit was the fact that I had such great support from my principle.  She was very willing to sit down with me and share many of her experiences with kids and negative digital citizenship.  What I hope to do next time is similar to the scared straight program.  Instead of having criminals come in and speak to the kids about bad decisions, have students who have lost scholarships or been expelled due to negative social media come in and explain their first hand accounts.  This is something that, regardless of the topic, students relate to.  You can tell someone something but until they hear a first had account, it is almost like they think "that will never happen to me".  Overall, I really enjoyed creating this project.  It really made me consider options that I hadn't.  I had always seen this problem but now I can see a solution to help me in the future deal with this.  Teaching kids before they fall victim to the poor choices the rapid expansion of technology has.

PLP

Learning is an everyday occurrence in life.  When I began my courses this summer, we were assigned a Professional Learning Plan to create.  While creating this plan I established a few goals for myself.  Through the completion the certificate program at MSU, I have completed a few of those goals but also established a few more.

One goal that I saw myself completing was learning more than just Smart Boards and technology I am currently using in the classroom.  I was able to go into the school year with excitement about technology and seeing that it isn't just what I currently have in my room.  I will be able to incorporate blogs and Google Docs into my daily lessons that will allow students to create portfolios and long assignments that can be worked on from course to course.  This is one thing that I have added into my plan: the idea to carry assignments from year to year. I will be able to achieve this because I will have my students for 4 years.

A second goal that I had was really using Twitter.  The Academy Director and my school district both use Twitter but I never saw it as anything more than "this is what I did today".  After this course I really see the impact of Twitter.  Sending substantial Tweets is beneficial and useful in education and the classroom. I can convey messages to my students and parents without the fear of students having my personal cell phone number.  I was always unsure of how to do this without giving my phone number and this course showed me that it was a possibility.

While not 100% sure of how to use it but with a desire to learn about it more, I have created a podcast. This was a beneficial lesson because I learned a great deal about podcasting.  The idea I would like to pursue with podcasting is how can I use this to convey thoughts and messages to my students.  I think it would be interesting if my AVID students created a podcast where they are each responsible for one cast.  This could range from topics to make it more of a AVID/school wide talk show.  They could have guests and topics relating to life at the school.  I'm not sure how I would convey this idea and actually fulfill it but it is something that was sparked in my mind following the completion of the lesson during this course. 

To help accomplish these goals I plan to involve peers as well as continue on into the Master's program at Michigan State.  This will help me to learn more about different technologies that I can convey to my students and peers.  After completing these CEP courses I have a desire to finish strong and finish as many technology courses as I can .

Get up and going on Twitter

Twitter is something that, as my students say, is the new Facebook.  Being able to use Twitter effectively or just simply use Twitter is a challenge.  For my groups tutorial creation we decided to teach about the use of Twitter.  This is something that every teacher will have to become familiar with in the future since many students are beginning to use it. Having a Twitter account is not only a one way communication but rather it is a tool that can be used to communicate with classes as a whole.  While developing this tutorial I learned a lot not only about Twitter but conferencing tools.  One such tool was Google Hangouts.  This was something I had only dabbled with but with the support and help of my fellow group members I learned about the amazing elements of the Hangout.  I also learned about creating lists with Twitters.  This is something I think would be useful to transfer to my class. Having students grouped into Twitter lists would allow me to send specific messages to classes rather than as a whole.

If I were to do this project again, I would focus more on a specific element of Twitter.  Rather than simply of starting a Twitter account, I would focus on the use of Twitter in the classroom.  This is something I feel is beneficial to educators using Twitter because it is something that can be beneficial in a classroom setting.

Mobile Learning Lab

Using technology in the classroom has changed greatly from when I was in high school.  Even since the early to mid 2000s so much has changed in such a short time.  I can remember when I had my first cell phone and we never even thought of being able to text.  Now I am learning about how text messages can be used in the classroom.  One way I can do this is by using a texting poll service - Poll Everywhere.  This was a really neat experience.  I began by asking the simple question "should students be able to use their cell phones in the classroom as part of the daily lesson?" Since it was summer vacation when I tried this, I sent out the request to some of my friends, this gave my results both a parent and student response.  One thing that surprised me was the hesitation on the students part to respond.  It was almost like they were unsure of the system.  One of my friend's daughter's even asked me if this was a trap?  I had to laugh but it showed me that even though students may want to always use their cell phones, they are unsure of how to use it in a educational way. Previously the only way they have been able to use their cell phones in school were when we did scavanger huts around the school and they needed documentation.  I believe that I will be able to use this service in the classroom however, I don't think I will be using it during the school day.  I could use this by having the students view the question at home at text their response by a certain time.  This could help us generate what we will discuss the next day or something along those lines.

Another tool that I find interesting and would like to try is using the Flip Camera in the classroom.  I know my students love to film and make videos so by having the flip cameras, I can have them create simple videos that can be used to show their creativitiy and is something different than the average shcool play.  I am also interested to try e-readers in the classroom.  Gaining access to an iPad lab next year, this is something that I can actually achieve.  Our school also has adopted a new textbook for high school math and there is a possiblity that this textbook is available in e-book.  If so, it will be interesting to see how having the book in digital form changes the students learning.  If this will improve the students understanding since we are now entering such a digital age.  A challenge from having the textbook digital is that there are some features you get from a book that you don't have while looking at a screen. 

PART D - Findings and Implications

Looking back at everything that I have done while working on my Wicked Project, I find that a few things didn't go as planned.  Since it was over summer that I began trying to implement this it was a bit difficult to find an appropriate audience for me to use.  Because of this I wasn't able to 100% implement the project the way I planned.  I had to pick and choose the settings.  For example, while working with a few of my students during summer school I would poll them and try to implement as many aspects of the project as I could.  A plus side of trying to implement the project with a small group of students during the summer is that I was able to get all the small "bugs" and glitches out of the project before going on a larger scale with all 150 of my students.  This allowed me to really see what worked and what the students could relate too. 

To show the success of addressing the problem of responsible social media and digital citizenship was a bit of a challenge because I wasn't sure at the very beginning how to do this.  After completing the project, I decided on a new way of evaluation.  I have drawn from my experience in actually creating the project: a blog tracking progress.  By having the students document their thoughts and reflections while completing the project (over the entire year) we can see really the progression and the understanding of digital citizenship.  By doing this exact thing for this project I have personally experienced the positive effects of blogging.  This is a change to how I evaluated my small group of students.  Originally for the assessment, I was having the students just take simple pre and post test.  This really wasn't an acurate evaluation of the students learning and growth because they were simple questions that did not require the students to truly evaluate their learning and see how important the content was.

One thing I learned that I shouldn't be scared to try and implement technology, such as blogs and twitter or something like that, or overly commit to using too many forms of technology.  This was something that I began with.  By having too much technology and trying to really incorporate technology I began to get frustrated myself.  Really the lesson is, take it slow. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to use all the new technology I discoveredin this course and wanted to make sure that I was using it.  Instead of thinking that I had all year and multiple lessons to use different forms of technology.  I had to tone myself back from using too much, realizing that I have more opportunities to come.  All these things will be put into effect when I begin implementing this in my classroom.  One thing I will have to do is really spread out the lesson.  Instead of doing this in a few weeks, I have all year and can really drill in the importance with a variety things.  I would keep most of the implementation the same but change the assessment.  I would also try to bring in more aspects of digital citizenship.  What I focused mainly on for this project was the use of Twitter and Facebook but there are so many other aspects of digital citizenship that need to be addressed.  By including the blog reflection, I am showing the students another aspect.  This is something I will have to think about more as time goes on; the ability to incorporate more into the students learning in a sneaky way.

Part C: Implementation

NOTE: I apologize for the messed up recording.  Working on fixing the file and hope to post it tomorrow ASAP.

Well this has been an interesting post! This is now my first Podcast and it was really a learning experience.  It took me a while to figure out how to actually do a Podcast and then time just slipped away from me. Somehow everything fell during the same 2 weeks! Who knew?  With that aside....enjoy.

UPDATE: August 2, 2012.  I have tried something different to try and publish my first podcast on Blogger (and my first podcast in general).  I am really going to have to work on podcasting for the future.  Have a great weekend everybody and enjoy! I have included the file 2 different ways.

PART B - Storyboard and Script

Our group began working on the storyboard for our project.  Before we began we had a Google Hangout to establish what we were hoping to accomplish and what direction we wanted to head in.  When we began discussing, we established that we were trying to make the project to detailed.  So what we ended up doing was breaking down the project into a more manageable tutorial about how to use twitter...just the basics.  This was very helpful because we were able to really nail down what each person was going to do.  To help with the storyboard sketches, we placed screenshots of helpful moments in the twitter process.  While Cindy was able to use the actual Twitter set up for hers, I was able to find some examples of how to retweet or send a DM.  These simple screenshots are now used as a basis for what direction we want our presentation to be.  We also discussed the use of integrating some live elements into the presentation.  For example, we would screencast the actual setting up of a twitter.  This would make the presentation easier to follow.

After we completed our individual parts of the storyboard, we had another hangout discussing the breakdown of the project.  One idea we came up with was to have 2 people work on the creation of the presentation file.  This will allow multiple people to have an input on creative elements that are going into the project.  This now leaves one person to work on the script and actual recording of the presentation.  Once this is done, we can all have an hand in publishing the final product.  We will all be able to proof and provide input for the overall project.  By completing the final screencast this way, everybody has an important role and no one role is more important than the other. This method aslo allows us to each contribute to the final cast and not have one person doing all the work.  The program we have discussed using to capture the screencast is Jing. Jing is something we are all familiar with, so we wouldn't have to learn a new system while completing a major assignment.