Collaboration Without Boundaries

I have been pretty excited about using the Collaborize Classroom platform for my online Literature Circles in partnership with another school. My students have a completed a few Collaborize Classroom “Icebreaker” activities that focus on appropriate online discussion behaviours and how to respond to a classmate’s post. The “netiquette” activities were created by Catlin Tucker, a teacher in California but were available to me through Collaborize Classroom’s Topic Library; downloading to my classroom page was simple and I could edit the document to suit my needs.

Initially, some student responses were short, off topic and contained “text talk.” One of the activities involved students agreeing to follow specific online discussions rules and express their opinion about the rules. A few students were disappointed that there was an “avoid sarcasm” rule but it created a lively online discussion thread. Students were able to voice their affection for sarcasm with others but they also were able see that sarcasm was not going to move online discussions “forward.”

Here is a student response to “the rules” of online communication: “When you keep a postive attitude and follow the rules that are applied then you are  going to keep a good online conversation going. I like the rule that tells you to use people’s names because then you know who’s talking to you or who the message is directed to! The hardest rule is probably keeping an open mind because not everyone agrees and it usually becomes a huge online fight..”Posted By XXX on 04/05/2012 08:42 PM Reply

I recently started using Collaborize Classroom to create my own assignments and have found it to be quite easy. I have been very careful about creating assignments that require students to:

1.  read or view something
2. think about what they have read/viewed
3. respond in writing

My students are getting better at writing and expressing their ideas in such a short amount of time.   I noticed a big improvement (quality and quantity) in student’s written responses when I required them to type their response into a googledoc or word document, proofread it and then copy & paste it into the reply box. Students  found it helpful to use sentence starter prompts when replying to another person’s post.  I found the sentence starters to be an effective way to reduce the number of “Good job Eric/Erica!” comments. For the time being I decide who each student must reply to so that no one is left out. Maybe I will use some sort of stickpin app this week to make choosing easier for me and totally random. Is anyone familiar with such an app?

I have found Andrew Churches’ wiki invaluable for Digital Taxonomy rubrics.  I love the recent edition of Starter Sheets for various Web 2.0 tools.  Starter sheets introduce a tool or technology, provide  step by step processes for getting started, offer ideas for using the tool in a variety of settings and also provide an alternative web-based option.  This is a resource you will want to check out!

Lately we have been using a new  iPad app called Skitch.  We have been using it to document the last couple of science experiments that we have done in class.  I introduced the app to the students using my new Apple tv wireless connection (which is fantastic and I now use as a document camera and for Google Hangout and for Skype calls) on my SMARTboard.  I showed the students how to take a picture and how to import a picture, then how to label them the photo.  We use this app daily to document and record development of  our experiments and our hatching eggs.  I noticed that some students were more keen and so I have used these students as teachers to other students.  Two other classes in our school are also participating in our current  seed experiment and my students have gone over and taught other students in those classrooms how to use Skitch to document their experiments.

Initially my students were just labeling with single words, but now I ask that they use specific theme words to create sentences.  After the student has annotated their picture I have them save the picture to Evernote with the date and their names in the title.  I can then asily add this picture to their student portfolio and post the picture to our classroom blog, students can also choose to tweet out their pictures or email it home.

Our first attempts

Writing Sentences

Teaching other Kindergarten students

As always before I introduced this app I thought very carefully what skills it would develop.  The other day someone said to me that they could tell technology was my passion.  This statement worried me a little because while I am excited by the use of new tools in my class,  my real passion is to help my students become more capable communicators.  Reading and writing are my passions, I always keep in my  mind how is the technology going to help develop my curricular goals.  New and shiny is exciting but I must remember to try to bring it back to what skills am I trying to emphasis.  While  learning to use the tool is fun and makes the activity different it is still about teaching skills to students.

My next challenge is to have students use the technology in their Student Led Conferences.  Students will be using this app, making words on the SMARTboard and creating Number Stories that they will record on the iPods.  I can’t wait to see my students teaching their parents.

That apps are your newest discoveries?  What apps do you feel help develop communication skills?  How are you/do you imagine using Skitch?

This morning I watched as we had a frenzie of fluffy white snow swirl around, which of course got my son all excited and abuzz! However this mini snowstorm only lasted a few minutes, and left no real visible traces on the ground. My son calmed down and life on a Saturday morning returned to normal, with a few occasional flurries continuing to swirl. This excitement and then calming made me think of the use of some of technologies in our classrooms. In the beginning, we had that excited buzz about using the smartboard, ipod and ipads. Everyone wanted to touch, use, engage with them. Now, they have become less of a buzz, and more about the tool we need in order to teach a lesson. A prime example is when I first started using a document camera in my classroom, students and I were so excited and put everything up to be looked at. A little while ago, it was out of use for a day or two. This caused me much stress, as it had become such a part of my lessons. It seemed life in the classroom was disrupted and once it was fixed, life returned to normal and our class seemed at peace again! As we move into engaging kids with our smartboards, ipod, and ipads we must remember the strategies used by colleagues prior to smartboard use so we have these “tools” in our pockets too!

What technologies are you depend on? Do you have a similar story?

Just my thoughts,
Christina

One of the aspects that I love about digital portfolios is the idea of live recordings of students completing assessment activities. I have used the livescribe pen to record writing and thinking that students are doing with me (running records), independently (journal entries) and with other support staff in the school. We have also used our iPods/iPads to record oral reading, take pictures and record thinking or events that happen in our class.

Recently we have been working on equations in our class. As part of my assessment of the student’s understanding of addition and subtraction I gave them number sentences and students were to come up with “stories” that described what the equation described. We came back together as a group and shared our stories with each other and recorded them using the iPods.

Students were very respectful during this session listening and learning from the other students so the recording were quite good. I also would recommend using a tripod to record. I then took the footage and edited in iMovie to create these little clips which are posted on our class blog (HERE) and if students wanted to they could post them on their personal blogs (HERE). I will then take these clips and file them in their Evernote assessment portfolios as well they may choose to post them on their personal blog portfolios. I will then ask students to reflect on their story by writing or discussing them with me.  This activity created an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning, me to evaluate their progress of this concept and parents to get an direct view of their child’s undersand.
Here is an example of what we did;

How else do you use recording devices to collect data about student’s progress?  How do you have students do self-reflection about their learning?  Do you have any ideas of ways to capture student learning?

During this project I am working to create digital portfolios for students.  This journey began in conversations with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.  Silvia helped me on my first big collaborative project with her students in Florida and my Grade 1 class during the 2010 Winter Olympics that were hosted in Vancouver.   She started me thinking of ways to capture student progress using technology.  KathyCassidy also spent a far bit of time talking with me about this project – Thank you Kathy!  After discussions with these ladies and others (many through twitter – did I mention I love the educator community on twitter )  I decided that I would have 2 types of portfolios.

The first portfolio  highlights student’s work that they choose.  This portfolio will be comprised of the child’s Kidblog.   My hope is that students will post writing, post photos, projects and audio recordings of the student’s choice and begin to reflect on their progress.  These blogs have been started and we are getting there, it is not as simple as I had anticipated it would be, but that is what this project is about – learning.

The second type of portfolio is an assessment portfolio that will be for my evaluation purposes and shared with parents as an evidence of their child’s progress.  This portfolio will be hosted by Evernote.  These portfolios are also coming along nicely, the sorting of notes is becoming easier because I am getting better at tagging and naming notes.  I love the ability to email myself notes, recordings or pictures from other devices and  I have also been trying to use googledocs forms to collect data on students quickly and easily.  It is also nice that the notes and recordings made with the livescribe pens can be sent quickly & easily to Evernote.  Currently these portfolios are more summatize than I would have liked and I had hoped that this digital collection would help to guide my teaching more.  I think that more familiarity with the tools I am using for collection will help to make it easier for me to think of ways to use them for collection of students’ progress.

There have been other unexpected pieces that have proved to be very beneficial during this project.  The personal reflection on my teaching during recordings and I also like that I can have support workers make notes/recordings in Evernote on the students in my class that they are working with.  These notes are easily accessible to both the support worker and me, easily reviewed and discussed when needed.

These portfolios provided a strong reminder to me this last month.  While I know the importance of student choice for motivation this note provides me a clear and immediate reminder of this.  This reaffirms my belief that children need to be  given choice about their learning and when they are given the freedom to feel in control of their learning they are excited and motivated to learn.  This note will remain in this child’s portfolio as a reminder of how I need to appeal to his interests and engage him.

These photos are worth a thousand words.

What suggestions do you have for simple ways to have students record their learning?

How are you using portfolios to show student progress?

How do you make use of portfolios as formative assessment?

This week-end was one of those unforgettable moments. Turned on my computer to find the black screen staring back at me with nothing! To my dismay, my hard drive was not responding and my recovery disks were not loading! Talk about a stress, how would I blog, now I would have to work from my school desk instead of my mobile laptop! But worst of all I have to redo all 24 of my report cards because I did not back them up. As I sat thinking I began to realize how my students feel when they have worked so very hard at word processing some of their pieces of writing and by some touch of the keyboard it goes missing. Now of course, sometimes we are able to find their words using the undo key, but not always are things recoverable. So, my next lesson will be on saving to the shared drive so I can help my students avoid some of the frustrations I am currently feeling!
Learning patience and how to post on the iPad!
Christina

We used Songify, a free app, to create wonderful songs about Hallowe’en creatures. We brainstormed different Hallowe’en creatures and words in our classroom, then we went to PHSS (Mrs Walkus’s English/First People’s 10 Buddies) and we wrote and recorded our chants. The older students then emailed me the Songify files and I uploaded from itunes. This was a great Hallowe’en activity using descriptive words.

Emma

Biancas_song

Mason

Julienne & Cheyanne

Greg and mackenzie(1)

Frankenstein

My piece of our project is mainly about digital assessments.

My original idea was for students to create a digital portfolio of their learning that parents could access that was an authentic display of their child’s  progress. After much discussion with colleagues, fellow teachers on twitter and much research I realized that I needed to create 2 portfolios.

The 1st portfolio will be created by students and will be embedded in their Kidblogs.

I love kidblog.

It is simple, easy to use, free and most importantly easy to use for Grade 1′s. I am hoping the Kindergarten students who have joined us will also find it simple. Kidblog is not as flashy as some blogging platforms but I like it. I plan to use this blog as a collecting place. Students will learn to embed various online applications, add photos and add audio recordings. This blog will also be a record of each student’s writing progress. Parents and families will have access to this blog at home anytime. In all of this process my students’ safety is my primary concern. Parents have been informed all along the process. Each child has signed school AND specific classroom permission forms in order to create these blogs. We will also be reviewing and following our Blogging Guidelines

The 2nd portfolio is designed to be what I am calling an assessment portfolio.

This portfolio will also be digital, but it is my goal to work smarter, not harder. I plan to use

as my platform.

I have created an anonymous notebook in Evernote for each student. These portfolios will not be available to parents online, but will be accessed when we meet to discuss their child’s progress.   There is an option that I can share these portfolios with parents using email but I haven’t investigated this option much yet.  These notebooks will be tagged with each child’s initials so they are easily pulled up when evaluating or discussing progress.  This portfolio will include each student’s blog as well as audio recordings, photos, pdfs, livescribe pencasts and notes on progress.  As well as these assessment portfolios being evidence that is collected by me, I am hoping to have students choose evidence of their learning themselves and add a self-evaluation piece.

Wow!

Even just writing it all down makes it seem a little overwhelming. 

Is it going to be perfect the first time? No!

  Am I looking forward to learning, changing and working through this process?  Yes!

Do I need a little help from my friends? Yes!!

Please comment and let me know how you are using these tools in your classroom.  Please share links to your examples of student portfolios or how you are using technology to work smarter, but not harder.

The first full week of school has ended and after some busy days with class and grade re-organization, I find there is alot to reflect upon.  My grade 2 group of learners has become a grade 1/2 group of learners and with this I found myself not willing to begin using our  new technology week.  So the question to me, was Why?  I usually am more than willing to jump in with two feet and figure things out as we go along, but for some reason I am not quite ready to relinquish the reins of my new technology “tools”.  Although I am not too sure why, I am certain that some of it is that it’s hard not to be the “expert”, as many of the children have so much more experience with this technology than I have. The second reason, that came out of my reflections was that I wanted to be able to ensure ease of access to the apps that I wanted the children to use. I remembered a wonderful colleague, Mrs. Brown, expressing her love of a site where she was able to “Pin” other sites she liked with great ease.  This piqued my curiosity and when I read about a site called Pinterest on an apps recommendation list, I had a strong hunch this was the site Mrs. Brown loved. Thus,  I learned about Pinterest, a great site where students are able to click on a visual of a site that I have pinned to my board and they will be redirected safely to that site. I am hopeful that I will be able to link our ipads to this site so kids have ease of access to the pinboard that is created for them. 

A second method I learned on how to organize the apps for our classroom i-pad was simply to drag all of the apps I wanted the kids to use into folders of their own.  It is truely amazing how easy it was to google what I wanted, watch the 2minute video and then put what I learned into practice.  

Hope everyone has a good week, I know this is the week for me to”jump in” !

This week I had the opportunity to do a lot of learning at Cowichan Valley’s Touch ‘N Go technology camp.  Sarah and I traveled down island to take part in two days of the five day conference. One of the reasons I was so excited about attending Touch ‘N Go was that they were offering sessions directly related to the news show the students and I will be working on this year as part of this project. Kelly Janzen, an Apple Distinguished Educator from Toronto, was ready to fill my mind with all things iMovie and Garageband.

The iMovie session was a full day of hands-on movie making magic. We started by learning about all the different parts of a project: pre-production, production, and post-production.  I can see that last year I did not spend as much time in pre-production as I should have.  She had some great ideas for story boarding and made me see how important it is for the students to have all aspects of the movie thought out and in their minds before shooting ever begins.  When we begin working on the news show students will have to present their:

• Treatment-the basic story idea
• Storyboard- What the viewers will actually see
• Script-What will be said by the actors or as a voice over
• Set/Costumes/Location
• Plan for work distribution- how they will share the work

Using iMovie is really going to change how we handle production and post-production.  Last year we only had the Flip and the software it came with to do our shooting and editing.  This year we will shoot our video and stills using the iTouches and do the editing on the iPads.  In our session we learned about using stills and video in our projects and about using voice overs (something I had never thought of) as a great alternative to just having the actors memorize lines.  We also learned about creating soundtracks to go with our projects (a post about what I learned in the GarageBand session will be coming soon).

After learning the basics of iMovie Kelly shared some examples of different projects we might want to do with our students and we saw some amazing student work samples. I think that both the documentaries and the infomercial parodies could be worked into our Tech Club news show. The documentary style would be a great way to add some community pieces to the show later on in the year once we are comfortable with the basics.

In the afternoon we learned about green screens, looked at iMovie on the iPad, and made our own short movies. I am really excited about how easy the green screening was using iMovie and can’t wait to try it with the equipment purchased by our school PAC.   I did find out though, that iMovie on the iPad does not include the green screen feature and so I am looking at purchasing a Macbook that I can use at school for this.

I can’t wait to get started with the Tech Club kids!

Does anyone have any movie making tips to share?

Do you have any advice for using iMovie with students?