Final MMP & Reflection

Check out my final MMP here: https://sites.google.com/view/integratingtechformative/home 

Note: The Vocaroo link and Screencast guide/tutorial will be added sometime in the near future. I have been sick for the past week (or suffering from terrible allergies - can't tell) and am unable to produce a quality recording. 

Reflection  

During the MMP Proposal stage, I had created the following learning objectives.

• The audience will understand how to use technology to formatively assess their students.
• The audience will learn how integrating multimedia and technology will be beneficial to their instruction
• The audience will learn how to use various resources effectively and quickly.

While creating the MMP and going through the various stages, I found that I experienced both successes and challenges in meeting the objectives.  For my first objective, The audience will understand how to use technology to formatively assess their students - I felt challenged in the way I should best present the tools in order for it to be easily understood by someone who is not tech savy. After reviewing my proposal and trying out various websites (from Adobe Spark, to Weebly, to Google Sites) and getting feedback from others, I was able to create a fairly streamlined resource for my featured tools. I ended up organizing the tools by "type" and for each one I gave information about the pros/cons, uses in the classroom, and provided a video example or tutorial. This will also be further explained in the screencast that I am planning on creating to show my viewers how to navigate the site. I am confident that my audience is able to learn at least one new way technology can be used as a formative assessment from this site. For my second objective, The audience will learn how integrating multimedia and technology will be beneficial to their instruction, I focused on what formative assessment was and why technology is beneficial to the classroom. Before the audience even reached the bulk of the website, I wanted them to be able to go through the homepage and view the purpose/reasons behind it first. I was able to fulfill this objective by integrating the information in a clear way on the first page that the audience sees. I also included a video on formative assessment as well as corresponding text on to why it is important as well as information as to why we should integrate technology in the classroom. For my third learning objective, The audience will learn how to use various resources effectively and quickly, I focused mainly on making the website as easy to navigate and as organized as possible. I wanted it to be a simple resource that is not distracting or overwhelming. This was a challenge at first, but in the end I was able to play around with a few sites before I realized that Google Sites was best for my needs. The tabs I had used to organize the site was also instrumental to making the learning occur as fast as possible. The screencast that I will be adding is also important as it showed the audience how to browse the site and learn from it effectively. In addition to that, I took my peers feedback into consideration and ended up not including all the sites that I found but just the ones that I thought showed best practice or best uses. Narrowing the amount of sites down ensured quality for all tools that I had chosen. 

The role of technology in teaching and learning can be tremendous. For example, this course we're enrolled in was entirely online, yet with the guidance of the resources, assignments, and interactions - I could say that I've learned a lot and maybe even more than I would've if I was in a face to face classroom with no technology. Technology opens the doors to opportunities and knowledge as the internet is vast and has many capabilities that make learning an possible. For this project in particular, it was interesting to see how many different modalities and features can be put together to create one cohesive idea that is shared to others and is able to communicate innovative ideas. 

By creating this project, I have learned a lot about the resources that are out there and also about the different ways that technology can be used as a medium for learning. The composing process taught me that there's not one certain way to go about creating - especially since there are many different applications and programs that are built to do a singular job (ex: many different website creation programs). The internet and its resources, ideas, and tools are endless - and while it may seem easy to put together a lot all at once, it is important to take a step back and realize that not everything needs to be included. After reading the various articles and book assignments from this course, I've learned a lot about the rules of design and wanted to apply them in my project's overall look. Google Sites made it easy for me to keep it streamlined and simple, as I aimed to complete everything within a color scheme that was as less distracting as possible. 

In the future, I could see myself making adjustments to this MMP as I learn what can truly work in the classroom. As a pre-service teacher, I do not have the experience to say that these resources will 100% be beneficial to your classroom and work wonderfully with your students. As I gain more experience, I would like to try out each of these tools that are on my MMP and revise it as necessary. I also want to eventually be able to host a professional development workshop (in my future school) on technological formative assessments. I think it would be beneficial, especially for teachers who are apprehensive about incorporating technology into their classrooms. I would market this product to my audience as something that is "easy" to learn from if you just give it a chance with an open mind. I think that what sets apart this project from another professional development tool is that this allows you to review and go back to refer to something if needed. It also keeps all of the tools in one place, without you trying to remember - what did I want to try out again? In addition to that, this website provides support and resource communities to learn from - which is something that anyone could refer to if they are confused at any time when trying out a tool. 

Overall, I enjoyed creating this project and I think it is a great addition to my personal technology toolkit. I am looking forward to using it in my future classroom and sharing it with my fellow teacher peers.  

Blog #8 Technology Toolkit

After finding out that the website mentioned in the Blog Post #8 directions wasn't working, I decided to create my toolkit on a website I used for a prior class. This website is called Symbaloo and it is a "Free Bookmarking Service in the Cloud" where you can input bookmarks to create your own Webmix. It is fairly user friendly as you can input your own links as a bookmark or search for one by simply inputting the name of the site. An icon representing the resource shows up on your screen and you can organize them by dragging them around and/or changing the color of each background's icon. The size of your toolkit can also change by dragging the sidebars. You can also share your favorite bookmarks with anyone by sharing a link.

A screenshot of my toolkit is below, but here's the link to it if you want to check it out!: http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/technologytoolkit11

Here's a description of all of the resources located on my toolkit. I've made it a combination of tools from multimedia creation, formative assessment tech, to even a tool about brain breaks. These are all tools that I'd want to use in my future classroom, so it is nice to have them all in one place. 

Adobe Spark: Free graphic design website (and mobile app) that allows you to create images, videos, and web stories with ease.

Canva: Simple graphic design website that allows you to create designs for a variety of uses (cover photos, social media, flyers, invitations, etc...)

Weebly: Free website creator that lets you customize your own high quality website, blog, portfolio, or shop. Customizations are endless and fairly user friendly after playing around with it. 

Socrative: Formative assessment creator app that allows educators to easily create fun and engaging assessments through the use of a variety of question types. These formative assessment results can be crucial for checking understanding before progressing through a unit. It can be accessed on the computer as well as through a tablet and smartphone.

Kahoot: Formative assessment through the facade of a fun online game. This website allows teachers to create a series of multiple choice, true or false, or "jumble" questions. Unlimited amount of students can play and there is also a competitive point aspect of it which can be turned on or off.

Edueto: Online exercise creator that can make quizzes, fill in the blanks, matching, writing prompts, sorting, and sequential questions (among a few others). Students can complete their activities on their own time, and teachers can assign different students various exercises. Teacher can track each students progress on her own screen

Seesaw: Student created digital portfolios that are accessible by parents as well. Students demonstrate their knowledge by inputting photos, text, drawings, videos, and PDFs onto their SeeSaw portfolio. Students organize their materials and teacher can view it, assess their progress, and take notes. 

Go Noodle: Website that features many different types of active"brain breaks". These are quick dance driven educational videos that promote mindfulness, movement, and learning. Great to use if students are getting antsy and need to let out their energy.

Edutopia: Website that features a community of educators whom collaborate, discuss, and learn from each other. This is a great website for quick tips, technology integration, lesson plan ideas, educational articles and more. Highly recommend for all educators to check out! 

Technology Plan

This plan was created with the "Managing Technology" by Robert E. Dugan in mind. I took into account the recommended sections to include that Dugan had mentioned and created the following plan below.


User Needs / Rationale

• Identify the audience whom the technology is targeted to
• Ask yourself, "Who are they?" "What are they capable of doing?"
• Carry out a pre-assessment to identify their needs 
• What do they need to accomplish? What skills are necessary in order to accomplish their goals? 
• Determine what technology can be used best with this group of people and for their purpose. 

Plan for Goals & Objectives

• After determining the technology that is suited best for your audience and their needs, you must determine the goals and objectives
• What do you want your audience to achieve? 
• How will the audience achieve these goals with this technology? 

Accessibility

• If you're in a school district and want to implement either a PD for teachers or even just a lesson with your students, it is important to determine how accessible and realistic your goals are
• What technological devices do you need for your audience? Ex: Will there be enough computers or laptops for your students? 
• Is internet a necessary component? If so, is the connection good and/or are there any blocked websites that need to be overrode? 
• Is there any financial issues in the way - such as the need to pay for a subscription, or purchase devices? 

Implementation 

• How will you implement the activity in order for the audience to meet their goals/objectives? 
• Set off to achieve those goals and plan accordingly for the amount of time it will take 

Assessment & Reflection 

• Assess the audience in some way (could be informally) to check for understanding and if the use of technology supplemented them positively 
• Reflect on what could have gone better and what would you have done differently in the future if you were to carry this out again? 

This is a really simple/general technology plan but I think that it incorporates necessary components to keep in mind if you decide to utilize technology in the educational setting - whether it is geared towards teachers or students. 

MMP Update #2

Discussion Post #3

The Participation Gap

Before reading "Film as Identity Exploration: A Multimedia Analysis of Youth- Produced Films", I wasn't exactly sure how multimedia and identity could be intertwined. However, after reading this article, it was interesting to see that the creation of multimedia, especially by youth, is an expression of their own identity. It's not always clear to see how exactly their creations are showcasing their identities, so it is important to be able to analyze multimodal production accurately. In Halverson's article, she mentions that "The formal analysis of films (Bordwell & Thompson, 2004) guides the development of a coding scheme within these units of analysis. Following this tradition, films can be understood through the four key cinematic techniques employed by filmmakers: mise en scène, sound, editing, and cinematography" (p 2359). Keeping these techniques in mind, it is easier to see how students can express themselves through multimedia productions.

To talk specifically about "The Participation Gap", I feel as if it exists more commonly than we might think. During my student teaching experience, I could definitely see some students who would fall into that "gap". From my perspective, these students would often be struggling English Language Learners or students with special needs, as I was in inclusion classrooms with both. I feel as if their identities were overshadowed by their generalized categories, especially since they would often struggle with communicating effectively with their general education peers. In a way, their challenges would limit their ability to express themselves in traditional contexts. Since my time in both classrooms was limited, I was not able to observe an overcoming of that gap, however I feel as if it was narrowed by subtle differentiation and efforts for inclusion by the teachers.

If these students had the opportunity to learn about creating film and other multimodal means of production, then they would benefit greatly from it and be able to express themselves as an individual. According to Halverson, "...multimodal spaces [are] sites for identity construction" (p 2353) and it has become increasingly powerful as it speaks beyond words and can communicate a message that goes beyond traditional participation in class.


Reference: 
Halverson, E. R. (2010). Film as Identity Exploration: A Multimodal Analysis of Youth-Produced Films. Teachers College Record,112(9), 2352-2378.

Blog #7

This week's blog topic was definitely interesting to learn about. I don't normally put much thought into copyright and fair use, so after watching some of the videos and reviewing some of the links, I was a little surprised at what I had learned. I think that this shows how much I am lacking in digital literacy and how the terms and conditions of copyright is often not clear. When I was in grade school, I learned to simply not copy other students' work or directly copy and paste entire sections from the internet. This was enforced by programs such as Turnitin. As multimedia became more prevalent, it isn't just text that you have to be aware of, but videos, pictures, and audio as well. I feel as if students nowadays are not as commonly aware about fair use of multimedia especially since it is so easy to copy/paste, download, or re-upload pretty much anything to and from the Internet. 

One of the videos that caught my attention from the beginning was the one titled "Should "Happy Birthday" be Protected by Copyright? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzbSt0QG7mY&index=2&list=PLvzOwE5lWqhTbOCIFp_OxsN6nC-l20kMT). This appealed to me because it posed a question i've never thought of before, regarding a topic that was so familiar. The Happy Birthday song is so common in our lives that is has become a part of the bigger culture. I liked this video because it was informative and engaging as it showed references to common pop culture images throughout. This was also a great video because it is something that a wide audience can relate to as variations of the song is sung all over the world. When the narrator was talking about the Red Lobster example (and how restaurants have to pay money to Warner to use "their" song legally) it truly made me realize that "wow, a lot of restaurants don't actually sing the Happy Birthday song traditionally, they usually have their own version of it". I had never known why that was until now and it was eye opening. It almost seems wrong that a song so rooted in many traditions/cultures, is owned by a large company who can profit from it. 

After watching the video, I clicked on a few of the links provided and noticed that many of them did not work. I ended up really liking the last link that I clicked, which was the Teaching Copyright website (https://www.teachingcopyright.org/). This website, unlike many of the others, was appealing to the eye and organized in a way that you knew what the purpose of this website was and how to go about navigating it. I really like how this resource provided a curriculum for teachers to use in order to teach their students about copyright and fair use. This opens up the discussion for students and teachers so they can both maintain their involvement in creation while understanding the boundaries. Since many educators might not know very much about fair use themselves, this resource allows teachers to learn and teach their students accurately with the lessons provided. I love how this website is well rounded and has resources, handouts, and lesson plans for teachers to follow. These are extremely important for educators to teach and students to learn about as society continues to move toward a multimedia/technology ruled lifestyle. 

MMP Update #1

Here's my first update for the MMP! It is definitely not where it should be right now (it is basically a shell/outline) but as I work on it this coming week, I hope to get back on my timeline soon.

Also, quite sick this week so if my screencast does have a bit of a congested sound to it - sorry!