Appropriate Usage Guidelines?

McNabb, M. (2001). In Search of Appropriate Usage Guidelines. Learning & Leading with Technology, 29 (2), 50 – 54.

“What are two issues raised in the article? Explain solutions and/or suggestions to these issues posed by the author.”

One of the issues raised in this article is the potential damage to growing children by overexposure to computers and other tools of mass media which take time away from normal physical and social development (a necessity for the overall health of a child). To combat this time taken away from physical play and child-to-child and child-to-adult social interaction, the authors suggest following the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines of limiting children’s access to all mass media (television, movies, videogames, print media, etc.) to no more than two hours a day. In addition, they observe a lack in high-quality digital content as well as suitable modeling of best practices for children approaching the Internet. Since the majority of time spent on computers by children ages 2 – 17 is in the home, according to statistics, the authors seem to suggest that this modeling take place in the educational setting, to offset primarily unguided home use.

“Describe the Children’s Internet Protection Act and why it is important to know about as a future teacher.”

Implemented in April 2001, this Act requires public libraries receiving funding through the Library Services Technology Act to censor material that is obscene and “harmful to minors.” Opponents of this Act argue that it violates First Amendment rights and essentially does not work – for what is considered “obscene” and “harmful” is subjective and impossible to determine through censoring software. This is important to know because this is a highly controversial ethical issue and the concerns are very real. The question is: how do we best serve the needs of children to ensure their healthy development? Though we all have the same goal, there are very different opinions on how to reach that goal, and as teachers, we need to be prepared to take a stance. This issue – and issues like this – affect every part of our and our students’ lives, and our beliefs will be revealed in how we choose to teach.

Software for Multiple Intelligences

McKenzie, W. (2003). Find the Best Software: Using Bloom's Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences to Select and Use Software. Learning & Leading with Technology, 30 (8), 54 - 58.

“What considerations need to be made on selecting software for the classroom?”

The considerations that must be made on selecting software for the classroom are whether or not the software addresses the various needs of multiple intelligences present in the classroom (as described by Gardner), and whether or not the software is designed to stimulate the level of thinking that the lesson requires (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy). The context in which the software will be integrated must also be taken into consideration – for software that may address “lower-level thinking” skills might be appropriate and challenging in a context that addresses higher order thinking in the classroom. And vice versa, a program that might appear complex enough in its design to address every intelligence could neglect all but a few intelligences in its minimal application.

“Describe what you feel is most important to consider after reading this article?”

When evaluating software programs for use in the classroom, it is most important to consider how that program could be seamlessly integrated into lesson plans so that the technological component of the class does not seem isolated and irrelevant.

“How might software address multiple intelligences?”

Tutorial and Assessment programs, in their dependence on a learner to recall, restate, or identify addresses the logical and verbal intelligences. Guided and Independent Practice programs, in which learners may find and apply patterns and make sense of content in different context, apply to musical and naturalist intelligences. Heuristic and Simulation software, which require problem-solving and student engagement in virtual environments, address the emotional intelligences. And Productivity software, where students create their own products using specific tools, can address every intelligence.

“Find at least one site on the Internet that explains multiple intelligences and why they are important to consider.”

http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_957This article on the edutopia.org web site describes the philosophy behind the educational approach of the Key Learning Community – a K – 12 school in Indianapolis that has integrated Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences into its entire curriculum. This is a good example of how this theory has been successfully integrated into an entire school, with tangible examples of its success.

Contributing to History

Levin, H. (2003.) Making History Come Alive. Learning & Leading With Technology, 31, 22-27.

In response to this digital project accomplished by the students at the Urban School of San Francisco where they interviewed twelve Holocaust survivors and published the videos to a website, I think that I could easily use this same digital approach in the High School English classroom. One idea that comes to mind immediately would be a project where students research and interview local authors, or authors that they know from their own communities. I think this would be a very good way to make literature come alive for students, and to make them “contributors” as well as learners. Their video project could actually be a documentary that would examine the backgrounds and influences of particular authors (geographical, social, familial, educational, etc.) as well as the nature and influence of their works. The documentaries would be written/planned by the students themselves, but they would be given suggestions and parameters for the kinds of footage and information that they might want to include, such as: interviews with the authors; interviews with family, friends, and/or associates; footage of the “landscapes” that may have influenced them; student enactments of selections from the books; other artistic representation (videos, digital storytelling, music) of the authors’ works; etc. Like the Holocaust project, the finished products could also be used to create web pages that would expand public knowledge of perhaps-lesser-known authors and artists. (With their permission.)

Tips for Digital Storytelling

Bull, G., and Kajder, S., (2004.) Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom. Learning & Leading With Technology, 32, 46-49.

Had I read this article before embarking on the production of my first digital story, the guidelines provided would have been very useful. In retrospect, they are, perhaps, doubly useful in that I can get a feel for which parts of my exploring did not work so well, and compare it with suggestions that would make for a simpler yet more sophisticated story. The tip that strikes me as particularly challenging and yet essential is the idea of economy. Reading this made me realize that I tried to fit more images into two minutes than a brain could comfortably process. I see that there is a subtle skill in picking out just what is essential for getting the mood and message of the story across. It is a skill that shouldn’t be too foreign to most of us in this culture, where the thirty-second hook has been perfected in incessant television advertisements. I can appreciate also, however, the personal nature of the digital story, and the suggestion to use one’s own voice in the telling. This transforms the endeavor from one of advertising imitation to personal expression. If I cannot coordinate these skills in a two-minute film, I imagine it would be much more difficult to try it on a film of some length.

Digital Video in School

Hoffenberg, H., and Handler, M. (2001). Digital Video Goes to School. Learning & Leading With Technology, 29, 10-15.

1. The skills students are developing in the process of making a video are:
- the technical skills involved in making and editing a video,
- visual literacy skills,
- and, the higher-level thinking skills of analyzing and synthesizing the information
they want to present as they come up with a point or focus for their work and as they decide what details to include in their videos.

2. The types of video formats that fit well as a culminating activity are:
- video newscasts,
- documentaries,
- infomercials,
- and video clips for a Web page or multimedia presentation.

3. Curriculum characteristics that make sense for a video are:
- emotion,
- heritage or culture (the story and the storyteller),
- memorable experiences,
- change over time,
- a process,
- a phenomenon in nature,
- and a process slowed to view frame by frame to better understand it.

4. The guidelines for video use are:
- planning ahead by choosing a familiar subject, considering audience and purpose and planning a storyboard, and thinking about shots that will best convey the videographer’s message, etc.,
- shooting the film,
- and editing.

Spinning Treasure

Richards, P., & Royer, R. (2005, November). Treasure hunts for better reading. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol 33 No 3.

1. The four main sections to this new model design for Internet treasure hunts are:

Understanding Statement – This is designed to help avoid fact-based activities, rather, developing “enduring understanding,” which is what students aught to be able to state once the treasure hunt has been completed. The role of this section is to guide the teacher in forming questions and to give the students an idea of what they should understand by going through the treasure hunt experience.

Introduction – The role of the introduction is to provide motivation for students to engage in the hunt (ideally by making the topic relevant to their own lives) and to give instructions for how the hunt is to be completed.

Questions – The authors suggest a very specific guideline (outlined below) for posing questions that avoid over-simplistic fact-regurgitation and yet do not go over students’ heads with requests for analysis and synthesis that are too complex. All of the questions should relate to the
Understanding Statement, and at least one of them should incorporate response to a visual image to give the students practice with finding meaning in visual media. The final question should have students clarify any questions they may still have about the Understanding Statement.

Putting it All Together – At the end, the students should be given a “performance task” that will ensure that they comprehend what they have learned well enough to be able to apply it to a specific task.

2. The four levels of questioning outlined by Richards and Royer in the development of Internet treasure hunt questions are:

Right There – This is found within the sentence and requires no interpretation. Example: What is the capital of Montana?

Putting it Together – This answer is found within several sentences. Example: Describe the series of events that led up to the start of World War I as outlined on the following page.

Author and Me – The answer to this question requires some information supplied by the text and some experience, information supplied by the reader. Example: If Gauguin had not left Europe for the tropics, what do you think his later paintings would have looked like?

On my Own – This answer is found in the student’s own background knowledge. Example: What role would you take if you found yourself in the American West in 1852?

3. Webquest Resource: “Instant Webquest”
Through this web site, hosted by InstantProjects.org, you may register to create your own Webquest for free. Here are its features:

• Create a WebQuest in 15 Minutes
• No HTML knowledge required
• Free Hosting Create
• Unlimited WebQuests
• User Friendly Navigation
• HTML Editor Integrated (Like MS. Word)
• Uploading Images for each page
• Uploading any type of external Resource documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Picture etc.) and more..

Also included are over 450 sample Webquests organized by subject (Art & Music, Business/Economics, etc.), and very simple, detailed instructions on how the process of creating a Webquest works, including FAQs.

“InstantWebQuest.” (Online.) Accessed July 23, 2006. http://www.instantprojects.org/webquest/main.php.

Visualize...

Visualize, Visualize, Visualize: Designing Projects for Higher-Order Thinking
By Pearl Chen and Diane McGrath

1. Based on your experiences, what are some ways in which you might apply ideas presented by the authors in this article?

One way that I might apply the knowledge strategies for countering difficulties with Self-Regulatory Learning would be similar to an art project I once designed for a high school class. An idea for an interdisciplinary project-based learning model is to present an introduction to a particular culture (I chose the Navajo in my previous experience) and have students work in pairs or small groups to be responsible for cooperatively becoming “experts” in a particular aspect of this (unfamiliar) culture for the ultimate purpose of creating something tangible that represents this culture. The product could be as diverse as a model (of a village or structure), work of art, meal, multi-media presentation, item traditional clothing, etc. This would fulfill the first goal of teaching students to think like experts and encouraging learning strategies other than rehearsal because they would be solely responsible for, first of all, doing enough general research to focus in on one aspect of the culture, and second of all, specializing that research to learn enough about that one aspect to report on it and create a representation of it. The collaborative aspect would “make thinking visible and maintain attention to cognitive goals rather than task goals” because students would have to problem-solve with one another in the process of gathering information, to use analysis in determining how to best represent their findings, and to use synthesis to determine combined skills and strengths in the production of the physical project. This would also give students a “legitimate role in the community of learners” and give them “more responsibility for contributing to each other’s learning” because, not only will they be adding to knowledge within their small groups, but, as a whole class, every group’s individual research and representation will contribute to a collective image of a culture previously known very little about. In general (as in my experience), the students become so absorbed in their own learning processes that it truly shifts from “teacher-based” to project-based.

2. What is project-based learning and how does it affect the classroom and the way you will teach?

Project-based learning is a pedagogical strategy that takes the focus of learning away from the teacher (the “expert”) and places it in the hands of the students by engaging them in projects wherein the importance is placed more on the process than the product. In this article, they specifically target cognitive PBLs – those which encourage the use of higher-order thinking skills by making the thinking process itself more visible. This affects the classroom by empowering students to take charge of their own learning, or, by giving students the freedom to have confidence in their abilities to think for themselves and to become aware of that thinking (through reflection and communication with others, etc.). I think this will affect the way that I teach in that I will be more mindful of the need for space to allow students the time to observe their thinking processes during and after projects. I will also most likely practice designing more projects that can have as much of students’ authorship as possible.

3. What is an example of higher-order thinking?

An example of higher-order thinking would be someone drafting a chart of her ideas, reflecting upon it (comprehension), and discovering where the gaps in her thinking process exist (analysis). After filling in those gaps (synthesis), she might then write a reflective piece describing her writing process and making suggestions for how she might approach it differently in the future (evaluation).

4. Locate at least two more articles or resources that either support project-based learning or argue against it.

a) http://www.illinoisloop.org/project.html
This web site, Illinoisloop.org – a forum on the state of education in Illinois – offers a page titled “Projects vs. Learning” which discusses the possible cause for the trend of “ill-conceived and excessive projects”. The view expressed here is that the flurry of projects in classrooms has degraded into shallow busy-work that parades as progressive education. The proposed solution is to educate parents on the counterproductivity of this trend so that they will speak out about the “dumbing-down” of our children. There are links to three articles furthering the discussion.

b) McGrath, Diane. “Designing to Learn: A focus on design in project-based learning.” (2003). ISTE vol. 30.6, 50-4.
McGrath discusses certain elements of design that educators need to be aware of when approaching design-based projects. Specifically, she examines the importance of the design skill that a student brings to a project, the methods of planning available for the designing, the importance of audience in shaping design choices, and the challenge of setting and maintaining high standards for students’ work.

Wikis?

Point/Counterpoint: Are Wikis Worth the Time? By Dean Shareski and Carol Ann K. Winkler.

1. In researching Wikipedia in light of this article, I first explored a topic that I am very knowledgeable about: the Art of Living Foundation. I have been involved with this organization for 11 years and am very familiar with all aspects of it. The first thing that struck me about this entry was the tags bannered across the top. Since I am a relatively new user of Wikipedia, I had not come across these notices before, and it gave me a feel for the malleable and interactive qualities of this database. The first banner posts a suggestion that this topic be merged with another, which is the identical subject under a different name. I wondered how many times information is repeated because posters are using different titles and are unaware of other references. But because the system is open to continual correction (or, at least, alteration), when such instances occur – as evidenced here – they are brought to light. The next two banners were of a policing nature: the article needed to be “wikified”, or formatted according to the guidelines, and, appropriate references were lacking. Finally, a small tag proclaims that, “the neutrality of this article is disputed,” with a link to a discussion.

This last notice was understandable after I read the contents, for most of the information had been more or less lifted from the Art of Living promotional materials that I have heard a million times from within the organization. The discussion about this neutrality issue, however, was disappointing. It consisted of just three posts of a few lines or words each – none of which, of course, being elaborated upon or developed. Perhaps this was a relatively recent addition, or perhaps there really isn’t that much interest in this particular issue of neutrality. For all intents and purposes, though the information comes from within the organization and is not as critical as some would expect from a scholarly article, it does explain in as general of terms as possible what the organization is about. I found nothing particularly laudatory about the presentation of materials (moving into my “critical” stance as much as possible from my familiar position).

Another thing I found interesting is that the sub-headings within the article seemed to be authored and/or added by the same party until close to the end, when a seemingly random note had been interjected by someone with an obvious bias against the organization. The bit of information had to do with the internet habits of organization members, who supposedly “roam” the internet adding laudatory comments about the founder whenever and wherever possible until they are considered spammers by “some blog authors.” I would not consider this “encyclopedic” information, but then, I am free to respond to it.

2. I then searched for a topic I know little about: the archeological site Catal huyuk that I read about recently in a book discussing the goddess-worshipping societies of Old Europe. This article had no tags or banners. Because the subject is presumably more cut-and-dried than that of a guru-led humanitarian organization, there seems to be less potential for subjectivity – nestled safely in the realm of archeological science, the article primarily inventories the findings and offers only brief snapshots of analysis. It is a bare-bones description but the external links and further readings provide a trail that ought to prove far juicier.

3. Finally, I looked up a topic that I could imagine teaching one day: William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In this entry I found a synopsis of the story (helpful for those who want the “cliff notes” of the play, but not so helpful for those who don’t want the story given away before they’ve had a chance to read it. There is, however, a courteous “spoiler warning” which alerts to the fact that the plot/ending are revealed.) There is also a fairly in-depth and sufficiently-critical study of the themes of anti-Semitism and sexuality in the play – the two loudest and most discussed. This would be helpful in getting ideas for classroom discussion, for there are bits of information and angles of criticism that I had not come across before. Also helpful is a list of all of the film adaptations (5 of them) which might be interesting for students – or for me as a teacher to create a montage to incorporate into lecture or discussion for more visual learners. And at the end, a handy list of Shakespeare’s complete works.

The most useful thing about this kind of presentation of information is the hyperlinks referencing almost anything that could be further elaborated upon, and of course, the list of other resources. Imagining myself as a teacher, I can see this tool as being extremely valuable, for it manifests what we already know to be true: that everything is connected, and that intellectual (and emotional/spiritual) conversation can lead anywhere, down infinite paths to form infinite patterns of connection. This is where English meets History meets Science meets Religion, all so much more easily and obviously through our evolving technologies.

4. With that said, I suppose I am naturally segueing into my positive opinion of Wikipedia. I am always open to hearing the opposite viewpoint to any issue and was looking forward to having my increasing favorable opinion of Wikipedia healthily challenged after reading Dean Shareski’s praise for its educational utopianism. I was disappointed, however. I feel that Carol Winkler missed the point. She fixated so much on the potential horror of “bad information” and the degradation of our children from being exposed to it through plebian scholarship. True, there’s nothing appealing about contributing to the rot of our society by setting our children up to be bad decision-makers because of being fed slop, but the real issue seems to be that our entire paradigm of learning is changing. The children of the present simply don’t/won’t learn the way we “always have” because the whole world is changing – and fast. The biggest point is that no one is saying “this is authority, this is truth” about Wikipedia. It exists in a completely different paradigm from Britannica and the “Great Conversation” as we have known it thus far. Built into it implicitly is the understanding that this is communal knowledge, and, instead of turning kids’ brains to mush because the information they gobble up could be “bad”, I see instead that it makes their minds ever sharper, because we all know that we cannot know the “truth” of something based on a concept of someone’s authority. We must sharpen our critical skills – more than ever! – so that we can gauge someone’s level of “authority and expertise”. It can only increase our confidence in ourselves, and our confidence in the information we root out and evaluated for ourselves. If we are afraid of our children getting something negative from an inevitable technology, it is our duty to educate them so that they can acquire skills to use that technology to their benefit. (In reality, it’s already happening – and, more likely, they are teaching us.)