Hello Everyone!
I am very proud to say that my final project for my Technology Educators Class is complete! I am very pleased with how it came out! I know that it is Kindergarten friendly and age appropriate.
Please take a look, comment and/or share with other educators! Please click HERE
Together we learn, share ideas and grow!! 🙂
Yours in Education,
Amy E. Ayers
This week in my Technology for Educators class our task was to create a rubric for our digital storytelling project that we created. Shelly, Gunter and Gunter describe a rubric as “a detailed scoring guide for assessment, based on stated criteria” (p. 396). Our textbook and module readings this week discuss how rubrics need to be given to students before students begin their specific task so they know what is expected of them and how they will be evaluated. My only “real” experience with rubrics has been in my college and graduate level classes. I feel like it is almost a “to-do” or check-list, I know what I need to do to get the points that I want. I like being able to say, “yes, I met this goal”, “I did this”, or “I need to add that”. A rubric leaves no surprises, it lays out the plan for the learner.
I teach kindergarten and I never have used a rubric to evaluate my students’ work before—we don’t even give specific grades. In my grade book I have a list of skills and my students get marked off when they master it. So when I found out that we had to create a rubric for the digital storytelling project we designed, I was a bit apprehensive. I felt that way because I wanted my rubric to be kindergarten friendly. I wanted to make sure that I did not compromise the age-appropriateness of the grade I teach. I wanted my students to understand the rubric and what was expected of them.
Our textbook and modules state the “planning is the key” (Module 12). When I began to plan my rubric, I reviewed my digital storytelling project that I created as an example for my students. When I did this, I wrote down all of the things that I felt were important, such as: title slide, facts found, slide requirements, story slides, pictures, voice, grammar, presentation flow and so on. I made a plan for the criteria that I wanted included in my students’ presentations and when I did that I had the components of my rubric.
I chose irubric to get started and to create my class rubric. It is a very user-friendly site and I felt safe in its ability to allow me to create the type of rubric that would best suit my students. I found myself using the list that I previously created with the components of my project and I actually began with the highest level of points offered on the rubric—3pts. It was easier that way and then I worked my way down—I added the criteria for 2pts and 1pt.
After I completed my rubric, I viewed my own digital storytelling example again and I graded myself. I wanted to be sure that my example showed all of the components that I expected in order to achieve the maximum amount of points possible. I know with a proper example and clearly detailed rubric—my students will be on the right path when it comes to this project.
Yes, rubrics do take a lot of time to create, but the planning is worth it. With this rubric, my students will know what is expected of them and it will give them the tools necessary for success.
I am including a link below for you to view my rubric. If you have any comments, please feel free to include them. Thanks for your time.
Click Here: Let’s Get Buggy Rubric
Yours in Education,
Amy E. Ayers
References:
Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Integrating Technology and Classroom Media in the Classroom. Boston: Course Technology.
Evaluation. It is a word used A LOT in education. We evaluate if our students are meeting the standards required of them, we observe how they interact with peers and develop social skills, and we measure our students’ growth or lack their of. Teachers also evaluate ‘taught’ lessons, student group pairings, decisions made, personal teaching styles, and students’ individual needs everyday.
This week in our Technology for Educators Class, I was asked to reflect on how I evaluate educational technology in my classroom…. Honestly, I don’t think I ever really formally thought about it. I basically just use whatever technology I have and do the best I can to integrate it in my lessons. Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter (2010) define evaluating as “determining an items value or worth” and evaluating educational technology “involves determining if technology is appropriate and enhances the teaching and learning process” (p. 392).
I know that the technology I have access to in my classroom does enhance the teaching and learning process. I regularly use AlphaSmarts (small keyboard computers), my overhead projector (ELMOS soon to come) and 6 classroom computers. For software and computer websites, I love to use KidSpiration, StarFall, Iknowthat.com, Mightybook and Tumblebooks in my classroom. We have two computer labs in my school. One is strictly used for SME (Success Maker Enterprises) and is utilized by 1st-5th, so my kindergarten students do not have access. SME is a computer-assisted program that focuses on reading and math. It works with students at their level and moves forward as the students’ move. The other computer lab is called our Disney Lab. It is an open lab. I often take my students up to that lab to work on KidSpiration projects or to all access a few choices of websites that go along with what we are studying. At our school we have a large population of ELL students and they are required to use a computer program called iStation, which is a reading development and support program. Other programs that our school uses is FCAT Explorer, Fast Forward Lab and Knowledge Box. In kindergarten we do not use FCAT explorer or the Fast Forward Lab (which is a Title 1 language development program), but we do use Knowledge Box. In evaluating Knowledge Box or KBox, I have found that it is a great resource to supplement learning in the classroom. It offers lessons and technology integration on all subjects. It is age-appropriate and my kids love it.
I think, looking back at how I look for and obtain websites or software to use in class—it seems, to me, like I have always done a very informal evaluating process . I constantly search YouTube to gather educational videos that relate to what I am teaching and create DVD’s for my team to go along with our themes and units. I look up educational websites all the time to compliment my lessons. When I look at websites and the activities they feature—one of my main focuses has always been age-appropriateness, content, and the design. After reading the textbook, I realized that I have taken some official evaluation steps of websites! Shelly, Gunter & Gunter describe the following website evaluation criteria that should be considered: Authority (is it credible?), Affiliation (who is the website associated with?), Purpose and Objectivity (the reason for the website and the process of interpreting the Web page), Content and Learning Process (the information the Web page provides and how the students’ acquire the knowledge), Audience and Currency (the group intended to view and how up to date it is), and the Design (how a website is arranged) (p. 399-401). Our textbook gives examples of teacher and student friendly website rubrics to help evaluate their effectiveness.
I personally don’t have a TON of experience evaluating educational technology (other than websites or software), but I did recently evaluate and purchase one of my most favorite classroom educational technology pieces. In 2008, I went to the FETC (Florida Educators Technology Conference) like I always do with my parents, and I saw Eblocks. Eblocks is a collaborative, hands-on program that offers interactive software in both language arts and math. There is a large panel that hooks up to the computer and the students work in groups to use blocks to interact with the program. I researched what Eblocks offers online. I wrote to the consultants and discussed how and if it would work in my classroom. I was even given sample slides of what Eblocks offered so that I could see if it would be appropriate for my students. When I decided that it was something I wanted—I wrote a grant and received the money needed to purchase it for my classroom. It is honestly one of the best things I ever did. Eblocks has helped improve the phonemic awareness in even some of my most struggling students and it has levels that challenge my high achieving children. My students learn by having fun. They are engaged with the program and even want to play it during our free time at the end of the day. I am so glad that I researched and studied this educational technology–it was a lot of work–but it was so worth it because it is something that my students benefit from daily.
One very important point that our textbook discusses is the Evaluation Cycle. “Evaluating educational technology happens before instruction begins, during the instructional period and after instruction has taken place” (p. 392). I find this particularly important because we need to be sure what educational technology we are using in our class is effective.
Evaluating educational technology doesn’t have to be overwhelming—you can start off with baby steps. You can check with your school district or state DOE. Our textbook states that “many organizations compile software evaluations that provide guidance on subject specific software” (p. 392). You can check with your technology facilitator, ask colleagues, attend conferences, read catalogs, join a professional educational organization or surf the web for evaluated resources. EDTECH is referenced in our textbook. It is a list serv that includes teachers, administrators, technology coordinators and other educational personnel who all share information, ideas on educational issues.
Find a rubric and take a look at what you have, explore something new or let your kids evaluate too! Once you begin, you will see you probably have been evaluating technology in some way all along! ☺
Thank you for reading.
Yours in Education,
Amy E. Ayers
References:
Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Integrating Technology and Classroom Media in the Classroom. Boston: Course Technology.
Technology can be intimidating but exciting at the same time . You have to really jump in and familiarize yourself—you have to take risks—and you often have to step outside your comfort zone.
This week in our graduate level, Technology for Educators class, we had to create a curriculum page on the wiki we set up last week. According to our textbook, a curriculum page is “teacher-created document containing hyperlinks to teacher-selected Web sites that assist in teaching content-specific standards and objectives” (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010, p. 162) and a wiki is “collaborative Web site that allows users to create, add to, modify, or delete the Web site content via their Web browser” (p. 82).
Before I even started creating my curriculum page on the wiki, I mapped out a plan. I thought of the information that I wanted my page to offer. I researched the links and references of curriculum page examples given by my professor and I (as my textbook suggests) thought about my audience. I teach Kindergarten—so I wanted a vibrant, colorful and inviting page! I also didn’t want it to be extremely overwhelming with lots of information all in one place that is why I decided to have different pages all linked together.
My curriculum page is centered around a bug theme that we will be beginning in a few weeks. The project that my students are required to do is to create a digital storytelling project on bugs. They will research bug facts and find pictures. The kids will use books, real-life nature and also the websites that are listed on the curriculum page. A curriculum page can be a lot work for the person creating it, but it is definitely safer for your students (on a side note, if everyone on your grade level team took a different unit and made curriculum pages—think of the collaboration between team members and all of the resources your students would have).
I chose to use wikispaces for my wiki. To begin, all I had to do was sign up. It was so easy! When I think about how I “did” creating my curriculum page—I think the process went well and I feel good about it. I actually didn’t watch any of the tutorials. I am more of a “get in and go” type of person anyway, so I just got on my wiki, and got started! I think because I have a class website through my school county—it was a little easy to “figure out” the website lingo and steps needed to get started. I also believe that because I had “my plan” it was quite simple know where I wanted to go. I just started playing around with the tools and what the wiki had to offer.
The part that took the longest in creating my curriculum page was researching safe, age-appropriate, relevant and kid-friendly websites. With my searching I found just how important creating a curriculum page was. I had to go through at least 30 websites and found 11 that were appropriate for my project and for kindergartners. I have a subscription to Clipart.com and that is where I obtained my images for the curriculum page. I set up my curriculum page on my wiki in parts. I did this on purpose. I did link everything together so hopefully everything will be easy to access.
The use of my curriculum page in this digital storytelling project is integral to the assignment. My classroom project is relying on the assistance from the parent volunteers that come into my classroom each day, every week. My plan is to have them go through the curriculum page, assist the students in finding their bug and researching the various resources. The curriculum page also offers resources for creating PowerPoint presentations. It will eventually include a lesson plan, rubric, and examples so my students will know exactly what is expected of them.
My students are familiar with finding facts in books, have basic typing skills from using AlphaSmarts in class, have computer mouse control from using computer programs and also have used images in KidSpiration. I know that with direction from myself and/or a parent helper each student will have a lot of hands-on input in creating this project. Once my students have their facts and pictures, with the help of their helper, they will begin putting the information on PowerPoint slides. My goal is to have every student create a few slides as a digital story. The presentations will include lots of pictures and/or video and my students voice from microphones. This is very important because many of my students can read only basic, decodable texts—and typing in facts will mean nothing to many of my students if there is no audio to go with it.
I also want my students to contribute their own pictures, voice and facts for our “Guess my Insect” whole class project that we will create in iMovie. I think it would be a fun guessing game that my students would LOVE to do and see! ☺
I know that my curriculum page is a work in progress, but I am excited to share what I have done so far. Please feel free to take a look and offer your constructive thoughts, also if you have any other great bug websites that I don’t have listed—feel free to share and I will check them out! I thank you for reading this. Have a wonderful day!
Yours in Education,
Amy E. Ayers
References:
Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Integrating technology and classroom media in the classroom. Boston: Course Technology.
Hello everyone!
Have you ever heard about Digital Storytelling? It may sound scary—but have no fear—it can be as simple or complex as YOU want to make it! You may be asking yourself……WHY? Why even change up my normal story time routine or lesson presentation style? Well, for one reason— we know today’s kids need more!
Take a look at this presentation that I did for my Technology Class for Educators this week and let me know your thoughts! 🙂
Thanks for viewing,
Yours in Education,
Amy E. Ayers
*When I originally made my PPT there was music throughout, but I don’t have the upgrade to do that here. Sorry*
You know who you are as a person. You know what defines you in the classroom. But think about this question: Who are you through the searches of the Internet? I think at one point most people have Googled themselves just to see what is out there—what their own individual name produces. I never thought about the importance of my digital image and online identity until this topic came up in my Technology Class For Educators. I had always maintained a class website and worked toward getting my name out there in my county, but hadn’t thought about the impact that my own online identity can and does hold.
To begin my quest, I did a couple of activities to assess what my online identity was. First, I participated in the activities from the Reach Online Identity Calculator. I was very surprised how many results my name turned up—22,900! The majority of the immediate results were about a criminal case where my name was also the name of the victim. There were also links to certain people that had my name on social networks like, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook—but none were actually me. The results that the Online Identity Calculator gave me was that I was digitally disguised. “There is absolutely nothing about you on the Web.” I knew this wasn’t entirely true because I do have a classroom website and I have a blog now so I know there had to be some kind of Internet trail that I have (no matter how faint it may be). When I searched my name, Amy Ayers Seminole County fewer results were produced, but there were more accurate ones offered. I also did the MIT’s Personas Project and the majority of items about my name on the Internet fell into the category of illegal! This was shocking to me and it was mostly involving a trial of a person with my same name. But I didn’t like my name being producing only negative results.
It was amazing that I never thought about this before! The more I think about it—as we continue to move forward in this digital age, I think that it is important that teachers create and define their online identities. Daniel J. Solove (2008) states in the Future of Reputation : “We’re heading toward a world where an extensive trail of information fragments about us will be forever preserved on the Internet or displayed instantly in a Google search. This record will affect our ability to define our identities, to obtain jobs, to participate in public life, and more” (p. 17).
Now one may think, where do I begin? Shelly, Gunter & Gunter (2010) give many ideas to help create an online presence. Web pages were mentioned as one way to mark your place among the vast Internet. Web page design is not as painful or impossible as it sounds, (even for the technology novices out there). Shelly, Gunter & Gunter referenced many user-friendly Web development tools and programs that make creating a class Web page almost easy and even fun to do. Web pages can serve as a great informational tool. They can allow communication between the teacher, students and parents, sharing of students’ work, classroom/school information, pictures and classroom project ideas or needs. It can be whatever you want it to be . In making sure that your online identity is deemed professional, it is important to make sure that your Web page is accurate, professional, easy to navigate and designed well. Shelly, Gunter & Gunter offer many useful tips to help make the Web page successful for all parties involved. Other suggested ideas to put your “stamp” on the Internet is: creating a blog, wiki, or podcast. I love the ideas and benefits that Shelly, Gunter & Gunter suggest for using blogs in Education. It really made me see all of the ways to use this great communication tool!
Seeing all of the wonderful ways to incorporate technology to create a digital place for myself has also made me think about how careful I need to be participating in other activities on the Internet, whether it is a personal blog, podcast, or a page on a social network. I have observed in the news how people daily losing their jobs due to something that was posted on a blog or on a social network. Solove (2008) references the “six degrees of separation”—which means we are all connected through the information is shared. When watching the Friedman and Seidman’s video Transparency and Connectivity in the 21st Century (2007) one quote stuck in my brain, “ In a world where everyone has a cell phone with a camera—everyone is a paparazzi, in a world where everyone has a blog—everyone is a reporter, and in a world where everyone has access to YouTube—everyone is a filmmaker“. That was so powerful to me! I know that I cannot control others, but I can try and remain in control of how I want to be seen. I have to make my mark on the ever-growing Internet! I need to get out there and continue to incorporate new technologies that enhance the learning for my students. I need to dive in and build my own Personal Learning Network. I need to always ask myself—How do I want colleagues/students/parents to see me? What does my name bring up? Who am I? I need to put myself out there and control my own online identity because if I don’t— someone else will do it for me.
Yours in Education,
Amy Ayers
References:
Friedman and Seidman’s video Transparency and Connectivity in the 21st Century (2007)
Shelly,G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Integrating technology and classroom media in the classroom. Boston: Course Technology.
Solove, D. (2008). The future of reputation: gossip, rumor, and privacy on the internet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hi, Hi Everyone!
For some reason, I was inspired to write a little poetic reflection of how/why I chose to go with Diigo to store and retrieve websites from this course or personally that I have found. Sorry in advance for my dorkiness! Here it goes…..
Bookmarks and favorites were all that I knew,
Until I began studying EME5050’s module # 2!
I explored Delicious to share and store my websites
But decided to go with Diigo, because it looked and felt “right”
A few pros about Diigo that intrigued me so—
Was how easy it looked to research and grow!
Collaboration could be one click away,
To share information with a group any day.
I also liked that Diigo could be shared all around
I see myself sharing bookmarks and websites I’ve found.
One more feature of Diigo that I find cool,
Is the highlighting and note-taking tool!
It will allow me to highlight with care,
While the website can be open to share.
So I have found a new way for my bookmarks to store,
And I feel like this is opening a door.
I am allowing other professionals to share in turn,
While I’m building a bond with others to grow and learn.
So as you can see from above, I have chosen to use Diigo to store and share my sites. I am thinking of bringing this up to my tech person so that we can possibly make one to share at our school. Teachers have so much to share. I have also thought that a valuable professional development would be to visit another school or two and share ideas on crafts, management, lessons or technology. How neat would it be to share websites, links and ideas via one common place? A place anyone can access from home or school?
I have always considered myself a big-time “Googler”. If I ever have a question, need a website, an image, a video or a definition I Google it. In fact, Google is my home page. I really love it. Although, I felt that I was completely at ease with “Googling”, I realized after reading our textbook, there were a few tricks that I did not know. For example, using the * when searching is a neat tool because it allows variations of words. I never knew that! I also like ways to make the searches narrower with quotations or omitting “unnecessary” words.
As a teacher, I am continuously working on refining my craft. I am always reflecting on lessons, analyzing ways to improve and researching ideas. The Internet has become one of my favorite places for gathering ideas. A few of my favorite websites that were mentioned in our text are: http://www.atozteacherstuff.com, http://www.education-world.com, and http://rcls.org.ksearch.htm . All three sites offer a great deal of ideas for printables, lessons, crafts and more. One more website that is not mentioned in our book, but I absolutely LOVE is: http://www.proteacher.net . It is a website where teachers post ideas, share ideas, get advice, encourage and motivate each other. I think this site is a must for educators!
Another resource that can be very valuable for teachers is their own county website. My county site offers links for learning for parents, students and teachers. It also allows access to calendars, curriculum, transportation, food services and many other departments. It is very user friendly and offers a wealth of information.
Until our week 2 assignment had required, I had not been on the Florida’s Department of Education website in a VERY long time. While I familiarized myself it once again, I found that it holds a great deal of resources for parents, students, administration, community and teachers. I liked seeing the discounts that are offered to teachers—that is always nice to see! Did you know that you might be able to get into aquariums or concerts at a discounted price? Or you can get 15% off T-Mobile? If that is your carrier of choice. Pretty cool! I also found the links to conferences helpful to see because there are some in our very own backyard that teachers could attend to grow and learn.
Ultimately, growing and learning is part of being an educator. You cannot help your students learn if you are not learning yourself. Part of learning is being open. It is taking a risk, putting in the effort and always remembering that what we do—is for our students. We need to remember that the Internet is a place that holds a vast amount of information and ideas for exploring and sharing. So take some time–discover what is out there and be open to its’ possibilities! 🙂
Thank you for reading my blog. Comments are welcome! Have a lovely day!
Sincerely, Amy
Amy's Blog 