Gerald talked a lot about using math technology games in the classroom and had few good suggestions for secondary education. When I think of math games, I immediately think of real-world tangible games using manipulatives and other people. My opinion is that math concepts are easier to learn when the student is hands-on with the concept. I am curious if using games online delivers the same result? I know personally I benefit more from real life when it comes to math. Heather and Mariah both shared an interest in either Pokemon Go or Minecraft and expressed some feelings about the difficulty they find in tying those games in a realistic way. They see the potential, but when it comes to certain barriers in their hometown, using those programs as a teaching tool isn’t viable. Twitter offered a great discussion this week and I felt like with all the suggestions being thrown out I kept missing the actual discussion because I was busy looking at various sites/programs/software. It was a great way to see what else is out there and what works for other people. Going into the next few weeks, I am going to slowly try and use coding in my classroom. I want to see if I can get students to code at least a few animations and then do a narrative on what they made. Like I mentioned in my blog, coding is rather intimidating, but I hope to start to feel comfortable the more I use it with my students. My challenge with this is that we don’t have many computers nor a lot of time to use the available computers. When I do have them I only have enough time to use them for an online test. Despite this challenge, I am excited for the short 20 minutes I may get to start implementing coding in my second grade classroom! For my unit project I am doing a Tlingit studies art project combined with technology. My students are going to learn about Tlingit button blankets and their importance in one of our most prominent cultures in Sitka. They will then make their own (mini) button blanket. I am tying technology into this by having my students do a voice recording of their project and an explanation of what they did and why. We are then displaying these blankets and will put a QR code next to their blanket that leads to their voice recording. I also hope to tie in technology by having them create a folk tale using Puppet Pals Pocket app. The folk tale will be about how the button blankets came to be of great importance. This will serve as their performance assessment along with their QR voice recording. They will also do a self-assessment periodically.
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Just the other day I watched 16 second graders engineer and construct a scale model of their town on Minecraft. From the roads to the building placements the model they collaboratively built was nearly identical to their hometown. This project required math skills, communication skills, science, social studies, and a plethora of other authentic learning experiences. It is gaming software like Minecraft that is changing the culture, standards, and expectations in education. Minecraft is able to reach and engage students from 1st grade to high school (Herold, 2015). These, “virtual reality learning spaces” are shaping a new wave of teachers. Though these softwares are abundant and attainable, it is the way we, as teachers, use them in our classroom. We first should evaluate their usefulness and purpose. In Assessment in and of Serious Games, games are redefined into two categories- serious games and non-serious games (2013). Serious games are both educational and fun. I believe it is important to know what learning objectives the game meets, and in order to do that teachers should look at how the assessment will drive the gaming experience. A game in an educational setting should measure their level of understanding, but as discussed in Bellotti’s article, this can be hard to attain from games. A few suggestions are questionnaires, quizzes, in-game assessments, or performance assessments. Not only are students able to learn through a different medium, but they are also being assessed beyond the paper-pencil format. Other important factors to consider are how this game can be cross-curricular. Pokemon Go is a great example of taking one gaming objective and combining a variety of subjects within it. Pokemon can turn into a social studies unit, a thematic unit, a math, science, or writing unit simply by the way a teacher designs the learning objective (differentiTECH, 2016). I have found coding to be a rather challenging learning curve, but it is something I would love to make a part of my classroom. Coding opens many new experiences for students as they create their own game or simply make characters move and interact. You can view my screen cast for a quick look at Code.org and what coding looks like (see bottom of post). Bellotti, F. (2013) Assessment in and of Serious Games: An Overview. Retrieved from file:///home/chronos/u-364f63ef4d5fa9f21f60ce2e42a6ff95d163add1/Downloads/136864.pdf DifferentiTECH. 2016. 12 Ways to use Pokemon Go in Your Classroom. Retrieved from https://differentitech.com/2016/07/19/12-ways-to-use-pokemon-go-in-your-classroom/ Herold, Benjamin. (2015). Minecraft Fueling Ideas, Analytical Thinking in K-12 Classrooms. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/08/19/minecraft-fueling-creative-ideas-analytical-thinking-in.html
This week I was able to look into programs that I have been interested in using in my classroom. A lot of the assistive technologies are great for students who may not necessarily need them, but would benefit from the extra support. My group met during the week via video chat and assigned 2 or 3 technologies. We then independently researched these technologies and then collaboratively posted them to our wiki space.
The technologies I researched were Read Naturally a reading intervention software. I also researched Head Mouse which is a mouse controller that is placed on the user’s head. This week’s group project was an interesting challenge, to say the least. Communicating with three others via e-mail and video chat proved to be more confusing than productive due to our lack of understanding the project. Looking back, I feel if we had all understood the requirements of the project we would have had a more smooth experience. Despite the communication and confusion, I think our research and teamwork was done well.
Our group’s Wiki can be found here http://ed637wk4group1.wikispaces.com/Using+Assistive+Technology+for+ESL+students Our first meeting was on Thursday where we had a long chat on Google Hangouts video chat. We established roles and divided up the work. However, to our dismay, we weren’t on the right track with the essential question. On Saturday, we had another meeting and clarified the confusion. From this meeting, we were able to divide into different categories. One person looked at A.T. for dyslexia, another was dyscalculia, and then I did ESL. We all researched how these groups need assistive technology in school and compiled our findings onto our Wiki page. My overall thoughts are that collaboration can happen in any setting with any type of person. The challenge is making sure everyone does their part in understanding the objectives and goals for the project. There was a lack of understanding in the project requirements, which created unnecessary confusion. I did not understand what was expected before our first meeting, so my input was unhelpful. It wasn’t until I understood what we needed to do that I could help my group move in the right direction. My learning curve this week was adjusting to collaborating via video chat and email. This was a new experience for me. As for the research, it was hard for me to only think about why ESL/ELL need assistive technology and not look into the tools. Nonetheless, I gained a much deeper awareness/understanding for those with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. One thing just these two weeks have made me realize is that words are not necessarily our students first language. They are digital learners. They see the world through vivid pictures, videos, text, and audio. Some of my 7 year old students can navigate three different browsers, search for a video, and play a videogame-- but cannot form a thought into a proper sentence out loud.
This isn’t to say that they are behind or too focused on technology, but it is just their societal surroundings shifting the way they express and communicate. As teachers, it is our job to bridge curriculum with their style of learning. Differentiating with technology is not a question of who or when, but a necessity for all students. Helping parents understand that we are using technology to inspire, innovate, engage, communicate, and create, is an area I haven’t been as involved with. The twitter discussion helped me realize that it isn’t necessarily something I have disregarded, but that a lot of our parents are already on board with the use of technology. However, I still feel like I have not expressed to parents the immense importance of using technology in the classroom. We can have 7 year olds analyze paintings and recreate with audio and video editing programs. They can produce films and stories with an ipad, invent and engineer using Maker’s Space, or use coding to produce a game. These aren’t technologies you can reproduce at home. My students are bored. They get worksheet after worksheet and I can tell their minds aren’t being stimulated. Although my classroom is far different from the one I grew up in, the opportunities that I am giving my students to create and innovate is not where I want it to be. A few tips and techniques I gained was in this week’s reading. Both Chelsea and I really liked the idea about surveying parents at the beginning of the year about their child’s firsts and then using this data to visually show that we all learn at different rates, but eventually get to the same place. Wonderful Wednesday is another idea that I am going to start doing with my classes. I love that it is open, welcoming, and flexible. Taking these techniques and bringing their importance back to parents brings me to the answer of our essential question. After reading through blogs we all had a similar response. Rachelle talks about creating a mutual respect between teacher and parent/adult learner. Kendra gave a real-life example of her communication with parents to support DI. Her involvement immediately inspired me to reach out to parents in the next two weeks about supporting their student at home with my math curriculum. Still, the amount of parental involvement is lacking in my district. As Jim eloquently wrote in his post, “How do we involve and engage parents more?” As technology exponentially grows, how can we use this to our advantage to also connect parents to the classroom and their child? My professional goal for the next few years is to find a platform (blog, class dojo, text app, etc.) that is best for communicating with parents electronically. |
Author2nd Grade teacher at Keet Gooshi Heen in Sitka, Alaska Archives
April 2017
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