Tech Play 4 - Information Literacy

Information Literacy

Since training students to be a lifelong learner is a major priority, I chose

Option 1: Information Literacy because it allowed me the opportunity to to explore tools that will maximize student learning when teaching fundamental information literacy skills. It’s never too early to introduce these skills to students.  Mastering these skills at an early age provides a stronger foundation for developing literate individuals.  In the end students will know how to sift through multiple resources, decipher and evaluate the important information, and accomplish the specified goal in their learning.    

A simple search on Google quickly led me to some useful tools that support learning information literacy skills.  (Honestly, I never knew such tools existed, and I’m glad I chose option 1 for this assignment.)  The UAB Libraries site (http://uab.libguides.com/c.php?g=83910&p=1442388) shared many resources that furthered my investigation.

The first tool I discovered was TRAILS: Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (http://www.trails-9.org/index.php?page=home).  I completely support using data to drive instruction, and that’s exactly how you use TRAILS.  It’s a web-based tool that measures students’ strengths and weaknesses of the skills they possess when seeking new information.  After setting up a FREE teacher account and student accounts, the program easily guides students through the assessment to provide detailed information so you can start planning lessons.  The categories tested include develop topic, identify potential sources, develop, use, and revise strategies, evaluate sources and information, and use information responsibly, ethically, and legally.  The program is specific to content standards aligned with grades third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth, but they can be used for assessing grades above or lower than the specific age.  The ‘Related Resources’ section offers many sources for planning lessons and activities related to the specific needs of your students.        

Also, on this site, I found ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange http://alex.state.al.us/).  When you search ‘information literacy’ it provides multiple lessons plans, specified to grade levels, focusing on particular information literacy topics.  Using the data received through the TRAILS assessment, you can peruse through the different lessons that meet the specific needs of your learners.  

Another informative link was S.O.S. for Information Literacy (http://www.informationliteracy.org/). The American Association of School Librarians voted it one of the best websites.  There are different options with this site to support the learners’ needs.  You can either search for a specific lesson (i.e. information literacy skills) or you can peruse any of the featured sections (lesson plans, teacher ideas, buILders) to search for the support needed.  I liked the variety of choices offered, whether it be a lesson plan, video, or presentation needed, to manage the learning to specifically fit the needs of your students.  Plus, all plans submitted are reviewed for quality before posted to the website.  

The last website reviewed was the Critial Evaluation section of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything (http://www.schrockguide.net/critical-evaluation.html).  A subsection titled ‘Critical Evaluation Information and Lesson Plans’ provides a plethora of important areas for training students on information literacy, related to evaluation resources.  I know first-hand that many second graders have yet to learn that not every website is a reliable source. I’d love to share this evaluation tool http://www.2learn.ca/kids/backpack/div1netscheck2.html  with my students because it would teach a valuable lesson when conducting their investigations.

All of the above websites offered exposure to multiple areas of the infographic from the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL).  If one particular area of the site didn’t expose students to a particular area, another section or lesson did.  Using the TRAILS assessment will allow some parts of the infographic to be dismissed when students already show mastery in that particular area.  Therefore, those specific areas won’t be neglected when improving the skills that showed weakness.    

As always, the learning standards should guide your instruction.  When combining the learning goal with these beneficial resources, it will improve my teaching and yield more information literacy skills by learners.  By making certain that the resources I share with students touch on all areas of the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL) infographic I know all of my students are developing the crucial skills of information literacy.  I know how critical it is for students to acquire these requisite skills in order to be successful in the future, therefore I’m confident in finding resources that will positively impact student learning.  

Creativity Tools

It’s always nice to have extra time to explore new technology that can be integrated with learning.  There are so many tools available that I found it difficult deciding which ones to examine further.  Some of the new resources I played with this week included PosterMyWall, Do Ink, and Tellagami.  I found a lot of other tools like Glogster, Prezi, Tiki-Toki, and Pixton that I’d like to investigate more another time, when I’m ready to pay more fees. Many offered a trial period, but I didn’t want to feel restricted with time because I found  immediate uses with the other resources.  Therefore, I chose to research those first.

PosterMyWall offered many, positive features.  I liked PosterMyWall because it’s completely free to teachers, the content students view is filtered, all projects are kept private, and there are no ads.  Even with the great qualities, I didn’t think my students would benefit more from using it than Google Slides.  Also, I felt like the templates for posters would limit creativity for students.

Tellagami is a free app used to create animated, short messages or stories.  It allows you to choose characters and their mood, the setting, and you can either add text or voice recordings for dialogue.  When you finish the video there are multiple ways to share the video.  I liked Tellagami and don’t have a lot of negative comments, but I didn’t think it would offer as many benefits as Do Ink.  

The Green Screen with Do Ink says when you use this app, “you can tell a story, explain an idea, and express yourself in truly creative and unique ways.”  Although this app costs $2.99, I found the price to be minimal when considering the affordances.  The app is so easy to use that I’ll be introducing it to my second graders very soon.  The app has many positive attributes.  You can move, trim, scale, and crop images.  The video can be trimmed directly from the timeline, and there’s a unique tool that can be used to adjust the color quality of the video.  Do Ink also allows the use of multiple images and video to create a movie that can be shared in many ways to showcase the learning of your students.

I plan to use this app during our study of weather.  The readiness standard says students can measure, record, and graph weather information, including temperature, wind conditions, precipitation, and cloud coverage, in order to identify patterns in the data. Working collaboratively, and after groups collect their weather data, they will become meteorologists reporting on a weather event of their choice.  Using the guiding question, “How do meteorologists collect information about temperature, wind conditions, precipitation, and cloud coverage to identify weather patterns?” students will have to investigate the job of a meteorologist, explore the different tools they use to gather data used to predict weather, and apply their knowledge of different weather scenarios to create a script for producing their movie that answers the guiding question.  Some added movie props can be replicas of homemade weather instruments that they create.  Also, students can incorporate their created weather graphs and map images to improve the final product.  In the end, students will have access to multiple videos showing different weather events to unveil their learning.  This type of learning is authentic, engaging and relevant. Students complete multiple tasks, sharing visible connections to the real world, while integrating technology in their learning.       

I can see another use of this tool when we investigate famous Americans and their contributions.  After students research the different characters, they’ll apply their new knowledge of those Americans when scripting dialogue for the movie.  

Also, we might use this tool when we learn about the importance of Thanksgiving.  Students could imagine they’re a Pilgrim and share their experiences in the New World or they could pretend to be an Indian and discuss their feelings at the First Thanksgiving.  When combining the two points of view in one movie would make the new learning more evident.  

When we have an author study students could become a character of their favorite story to retell the story, using scenes that replicate the setting.  Then we’d compare the creations to compare the plots and settings of that author (our learning standard).

The possibilities are endless with this app.  I forsee a lot of growth when integrating Do Ink with student learning.   

It’s extremely important to stay informed of creative tools that can be implemented with learning. These tools offer students a way to creatively express new learning in a novel way.  The tools also offer student engagement while learning.  Students look forward to investigating new ways to apply new knowledge when integrating these tools correctly.  Creative tools are different from drill and practice and instructional games because students are just recalling basic information when using them, the final product is always different, and it most definitely requires a different level of thinking when using them.  

Reflection of Writing Philosophy

Writing my philosophy for educational technology took some time. I know my beliefs and what I wanted to say, but it was a struggle putting my thoughts into sentences.  Plus, you can't just say what you believe because you have to support your thinking with evidence.  I even found my original portfolio (three ring binder), from seventeen years ago, and referred to it as guidance for reflecting.  It's amazing seeing the hard proof of how much education has changed, including the work produced.  One of my artifacts in the binder was a review of the Internet.  Reading that and thinking about present today, solidifies my thoughts of the necessity for technology.  I can't function without the Internet! Taking this class right now wouldn't be possible without it.  Using my previous portfolio helped start my philosophy.
The readings from this week were useful resources to use as reference for writing my philosophy.  I also referred to the famous philosopher Dewey for insightful quotes.  Using the TPACK framework is important to me, so I included my beliefs about it too.
My philosophy is written in a chronological format, and a true reflection-written from the heart.  Writing my philosophy was an endeavor I was happy to partake because it forced me to review my beliefs and see how they've changed over the years.

Creating ePortfolio

Creating my eportfolio wasn't the easiest task because using Pathbrite is still a new tool for me, but setting it up and creating the different sections was great practice.  It takes time to become familiar with a new resource.
One problem I ran into was keeping my categories (different sections) from disappearing. With Pathbrite, the audience can either view all sections in display, or they can view each individual category by clicking on them at the top of the page.  While manipulating the categories and adding information it appeared as though they were disappearing from display.  It happened a few times, but it might be related to the operator (me).
The capabilities for adding different artifacts is beneficial because it's very easy to do, and you can add them to the sections by layering them.  I really like this function.
I look forward to playing some more with my eportfolio and becoming a pro with its features.
https://pathbrite.com/devinh/iZaa  (***see below)

***Since my previous post with the link to my ePortfolio, I decided to change to Google Sites.   After spending more time with Pathbrite, I didn't like its navigation or the choices for adding my own style. Therefore, I returned to Google Sites to create my ePortfolio.  Here's the link to it: https://sites.google.com/vanalstyneisd.org/dhilleportfolio/home

ePortfolio

Portfolio vs. ePortfolio~

What do you picture when you hear the word portfolio? If you’re reminded of a five pound, grotesque, three ring binder spewing with an abundance of semi-categorized artifacts, then one could assume you haven’t been introduced to the modern day eportfolio.  I was that person, until a few months ago.  Now, I’m shocked I didn’t hear about an eportfolio sooner.  A digital portfolio has the same idea as the original, hard copy form, but with many more capabilities. Now, with a digital portfolio you can capture photos, include video, digital media, and other documents.  Using the digital format you can show-off your skills that you wouldn’t be able to do with the regular, hard copy binder.  Plus, you can add graphics and other design to your eportfolio to capture the attention of your audience.  With the eportfolio you’re allowed to show what you can truly do!

The only thing left to decide, which platform is the best choice for me?   

Reviewing Choices~

I’m a huge fan of any product related to Google, so before exploring the options for holding my portfolio I assumed I’d use Google Sites.  However, I wanted to keep an open mind to trying something new.  

I’m glad we had the opportunity to explore the different choices because Wiki is one that I’d heard of, but had little knowledge about it and absolutely zero experience with it.   I didn’t even realize there are so many hosts for Wiki.  That’s one part that I found confusing.  I checked out Wikispace, which is a 30 day free trial and $10 per month after the trial, but I didn’t want to start my portfolio and then be required to pay later or forced to move because I didn’t want to be charged.  From my research, it doesn’t sound easy to create, edit, and link content to a Wiki.   With too many options concerning Wiki hosts and because I didn’t feel confident enough to build it, I decided to table the Wiki idea for now.   

Foliotek was another option I explored.  It, too was a new tool that I’d never heard of.  I created a free account to get a feel for the site, but I didn’t like the different plans for purchasing.  You aren’t given a lot of product with the basic, free account. A few negatives included the limited file space (50 MB), restricted to only one project, and you don’t get the “eportfolios” feature. Considering that is the main reason for reviewing this platform, I crossed Foliotek off my list.   

As I said earlier, I just knew I’d love Google Sites and it would be my final choice, but...I was wrong.  I loved the easy navigation with Sites, it’s very user-friendly, and I can easily upload documents and other files I already have on my Drive, but I found the layout too simple.  After reviewing the other sites and seeing the capabilities of end products with those platforms, I wasn’t convinced Sites could offer the same.   

Finally, I found Pathbrite.  I had heard of it before, but didn’t know a lot about it.  Pathbrite has many affordances. Pathbrite has many of the same capabilities that other sites are charging users, like extra storage space, video, graphics, and no restrictions on projects.  It will showcase my work using the simplest tools.  You can use any device to access the site. Pathbrite offers a more professional look too.  Also, I want to investigate Blackboard and Moodle to integrate into my current classroom.  Using Pathbrite, I can pull evidence of integrating those tools into my portfolio to secure my strengths of following the TPACK model when teaching.   

If I were integrating ePortfolios with my second graders, I don’t think Pathbrite would be the best tool for them.  It wouldn't be easy enough for them to navigate.  However, I would definitely recommend using it in middle school and with high school students.  Plus, high school students could easily use it to collect artifacts to share with future college applications.  I would probably try Google Sites with my students because they’re more familiar with the other tools in Google and would probably feel more comfortable navigating it.

Since my previous post with the link to my ePortfolio, I decided to change to Google Sites.   After spending more time with Pathbrite, I didn't like its navigation or the choices for adding my own style. Therefore, I returned to Google Sites to create my ePortfolio.  Here's the link to it: https://sites.google.com/vanalstyneisd.org/dhilleportfolio/home  

Devin Hill's ePortfolio
https://pathbrite.com/devinh/iZaa

Tech Play 1 ~ Blogging

By Definition~

A blog (in the form of a noun) is a website containing the writing of a person (or a group of people) to share opinions, observations, etc., or it could be considered as a single post or entry on a website (dictionary.com).  In my words, a blog is a platform to creatively express the thoughts, ideas, news and all other visions an author feels inspired to share with others.  It feels more like an online journal.  With a vlog, video is the primary presentation piece.  Where as a blog is lead more by text.  You can always upload video to a blog, but it won’t be the only piece of the site. Integrating a blog offers many affordances. It provides opportunities to explore and apply cognitive thinking using a different medium. It can also provide social interaction when evaluating the thoughts of other viewers, which can help settle confusion through authentic interaction one may have on a given concept when learning.    

Choices, Oh Choices~   

After seeing the many, free choices for starting a blog (overwhelming), I first reviewed Weebly.  Weebly offers a website design panel, but it seemed more geared to company profiles and not user-friendly. Also, the free set-up provided only 500MB of storage. It would cost $8 per month to move up to the next level of membership.   

Another site that caught my attention was Edublog.  It had nice appeal, so I took a peek.  The basic start-up was free, but you’re only allowed the bare minimum (post and customize the look), and the storage space is extremely limited with only 100 MB of storage. To move to the “Pro” membership it would cost $7.95 per month and allow 10GB of storage.   

WordPress was another contender to create a blog.  WordPress would be my second choice.  The free account was still limited with basic design and themes for customization, but I like that it offers a forum to answer questions (a plus for newbies).  Through WordPress I also found helpful blogs to use as reference when starting a blog.  As said, the free membership is still limited, but could be okay for starting out, the next level is only $2.99 per month.  

There are many choices out there and many are free, but you have to compare the features because not all are easy to use, especially for those with limited experience.  After spending the time comparing choices, I returned to Blogger.  I liked that it’s free, user-friendly, and doesn’t have as many limitations as some of the others reviewed.  Plus, already having a Google account made the decision much easier.   It’s very easy to create a post, and Blogger offers a scheduler if you want to post something at a specific time.  Blogger is the original interface I chose to begin my previous blog.  I’m hoping that after using it to post my reflections in the coming weeks, maybe it will give me motivation to return to my original blog.   

My Experience~

I won’t say I have zero experience with blogging because I have attempted (I say that lightly) to integrate a classroom blog (using kidblog) with my second graders, but it wasn’t easy for them to navigate and quickly lost its appeal.  I blame myself for failing because  a) I shared it with my students the first week of school (c-r-a-z-y) and  b) They could barely log in to a computer, let alone navigate through the site.  What was I thinking?  So I abandoned it and never looked back.   Then, after attending a workshop on blogging, I created an account for myself right then and there...and (again) that was where it ended.  In teaching, time is our worst enemy and you HAVE to make the time to blog or you’ll be left with no followers, outdated posts, and when you’ve been inspired to blog that amazing “something” you probably won’t remember your username and password (like me).

Student Work~

When studying graphs, the readiness standard says students must write and solve a one step addition or subtraction word problem using data presented in a picture or bar graph.  Using my blog, I would create a survey link for the students to partake, which would then turn that information into a graph for all to review.  Students would use the information to write one addition and one subtraction word problem.  Those problems could either be shared in their Google Classroom, on a padlet, or used during class to share, evaluate, discuss, and answer with peers.  Word problems can be such a struggle for many students.  The affordance of this activity is the ability of providing a real world connection. When students are more invested in the work and take ownership, they’re more committed to the learning.

Another idea for integrating my blog with student work involves students making inferences and drawing conclusions.   This is always a difficult concept for second graders.  I would use a movie clip, like this one http://viewpure.com/WjoDEQqyTig?start=0&end=0, and include a padlet link (open forum for discussion) for students to share their thinking with other students.  The padlet would include questions that fosters deeper thinking and directions for supporting their thinking using evidence from the video clip.  Completing this activity using the blog provides a few affordances.  First, it allows students to watch the video as many times as needed to capture all ideas to draw their conclusions.  They can pause, rewind, and skip to different parts of the clip as needed when providing their evidence.  Second, the padlet provides the learners an opportunity to view the thinking of others and providing time to process the information before posting their reflections.

The Mishra and Koehler SITE Keynote shared the idea of Moodle that I would love to investigate more. An open forum discussion that restricts users to see other posts until an original post is made can have a positive effect on learning. It allows students the opportunity to articulate their thoughts and ideas before reading the reflections of their peers.

I can identify with the constructivist theory of learning, and  completely agree that real world experiences make a huge impact on the way people learn.  Three years ago I moved from a school where students fell into a completely different socioeconomic status.  I didn’t realize the impact it made until I moved to my current title one campus.  Even in the smallest task of using schema to build comprehension, it blows my mind knowing some of the children have never been on a vacation.  Therefore, the only way some of these students can learn, or build on their learning is by collaborating with their peers, who share other experiences, so they can all grow.

  

Another Way~

Using a blog could be a valuable asset in reserving more class time.  I’ve always wanted to try flipping with my class.  I could use the blog to share new material, and offer links and other resources for students to explore, practice, and reflect on the the content shared before returning to class.  A blog could really be a storage center (so to speak) for collecting valuable resources we use week to week in the classroom.  That way the information is always at their fingertips, should they need to review it later.

 

Obstacles~

The most difficult obstacle I would face, coming from a title one campus, would be restricted computer access.  We share devices, and are limited with usage in time. Also, many of the students do not have home computers or tablets.   I know many parents have cell phones, but with limited data plans.  

I know the pros of integrating a blog certainly outweigh the cons, so this tool is an asset to share with students and parents in the near future. https://sites.google.com/vanalstyneisd.org/dhilleportfolio/home