Week+8+-+Mar+8th

=Thoughts & Reflections... =

Reading #8 - What If? Technology in the 21st Century Classroom - an OPSBA (Ontario Public School Boards' Association) discussion paper

This reading works around the premise that the public education system is in danger of being left behind by the students it serves because of its failure as of yet to universally embrace and integrate technology into the daily life of the classroom.

It notes that 96% of all youth (both rural and urban) admit to using a computer in the past twelve months, and that the majority of students choose the internet as their research tool of choice when completing classroom assignments. However, studies have shown that there is a dramatic decline in intellectual engagement among students in grades 6, 7, and 8, and this decline continues, albeit less dramatically, in grades 9-12. The reason for this, according to the authors of the paper, is because traditional school curriculum and teaching methods are failing to provide an engaging and stimulating environment for today's students.

That said, effectively integrating technology into the daily life of the classroom so as to engage students and facilitate their academic success, is not as easy as one might think. According to the authors, "connected relevant learning is not about bolting technology onto traditional methods of teaching...it is emphatically about engaging students and guiding them to be far reaching in their inquiries as well as critical and principled in their use of knowledge at their fingertips."

So how might we achieve such a scenario you might ask?
 * technology courses need to be embedded into effective classroom strategies at Faculties of Education - they should no longer be relegated to elective status
 * Teachers need to see themselves as guides and partners in their students learning. Most students already have a mastery of the technology, but they need someone to show them how to properly use and evaluate the validity of online and technological resources
 * There needs to be established a comprehensive set of guidelines for ALL teachers that describe how they can use technology to promote innovative thinking, collaborative work, and meaningful assessment and evaluation
 * The importance needs to shift from learning about many things to learning how to learn - this is a skill students will be able to use throughout their lives and with all technology
 * Teachers need to realize the value of internet tools as powerful ways to bring parents into the classroom life
 * Educators need to stop viewing technology as separate from learning - this is no longer possible in today's digital world

While some school boards across the province of Ontario have introduced some very exciting technologies in their classrooms, the practice is by no means universal and there is still much work to be done. Nonetheless, here are examples of some of the technologies that have been adopted by forward thinking school boards:
 * Peel District School Board has established board wide websites for students, teachers and parents
 * Simcoe County DSB has introduced video-conferencing in its schools
 * Private schools across the province have established several "virtual" schools that offer "anytime, anywhere" learning
 * Toronto DSB has established "The Academic Workspace" that allows students virtual 24 hour access to school and classroom resources, materials, and assignments
 * Trillium Lakelands DSB has established a Virtual Learning Centre (an online school) that gives students who are not able to physically attend school more flexible options for completing course credits

I agree with the authors of this article that if changes are not soon made, schools will be left behind by students who no longer have a use for archaic and traditional methods of teaching. That said, I can see why the transition to a technologically favourable environment is difficult and will take time.

First and foremost I believe money is one of the biggest issues. Many school boards simply do not have the money to allocate for the purchase of this new technology or to update their networks so they can properly run the new technology. Although it would be an investment in the future, and money could be saved in the long run on things like textbooks and photocopying, many school boards are not able to think beyond the immediate restrictions of their budgets.

Furthermore, there is the issue of training a large number of teachers how to even use this technology, something which many teachers, especially the older ones, are very resistant to. Nonetheless, I believe it is a necessary step in the right direction, and I fully support all of the suggestions made in this article. Just because something might not be easy to accomplish, does not mean that one should not attempt it.

=Information & What I Have Learned... =

This week we discussed...

Information copied from: []
 * Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) [[image:images.jpg width="182" height="134" align="right" caption="http://flickr.com/photos/reckon/2816021093"]]**
 * A Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist.
 * **McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the** **cornerstones of the study of media theory**.
 * McLuhan is known for the expressions "the medium is the message" and "global village".


 * Media Literacy**
 * Media literacy is the ability to use critical thinking skills to assess ALL types of media (i.e. music videos, web pages, advertisements, virtual displays, etc), questioning what lies behind them, what their message is, and who the message is intended for and why
 * The 3 main stages of media literacy are:
 * managing one's "media diet" - choosing what media to expose yourself to or not
 * learning how to critically view all media content
 * moving into a deeper analysis of the product (i.e. who produced it? for what purpose? who profits? who decides?)
 * Virtually all we know beyond our immediate experience now comes to us through the media, thus media literacy (an ability to look critically, coherently, and actively at media) is becoming increasingly important in today's society
 * All across Canada media literacy is now a mandatory part of the curriculum from K-12
 * According to an article by the [|Association for Media Literacy], when thinking about the media it is important to remember a few key points
 * All media are constructions
 * Each person interprets messages differently
 * The media have commercial interests
 * The media contain ideological and value messages
 * Each medium has its own style, technique, conventions, and codes
 * The media have commercial, social, and political implications
 * Form and content are closely related in the media
 * It is our job as educators to teach our students media literacy - this is a job that rests with EVERY teacher, not just language arts teachers
 * **Text**, **Production**, and **Audience** form the **Media Literacy Triangle**
 * The traditional writing process places little emphasis on the "production" aspect of the triangle, however the media literacy writing process underlines the importance of this stage of the writing process, asking students to think about such things as: process, techniques, tools, copyrights, etc.)
 * This triangle has not really changed the traditional writing process, it has simply brought it up to speed with today's technology and created the potential for writing projects that are more interesting and engaging for today's students


 * The Horizon Report (2009 Edition)** available at: []

"technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication & socializing, and a ubiquitous transparent part of their lives"
 * "The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. " (copied from: [])


 * Bloom's Digital Taxonomy ->

**

This is an update to Bloom's Taxonomy, which attempts to account for the new behaviours and actions that come out of integrating technology into the curriculum. It attempts to show that higher order thinking is very possible when using technology and should not be overlooked. Also, this digital taxonomy is about how to use emerging tools and technologies to facilitate students learning - using technology simply for the purpose of using technology is not longer acceptable.

=Software & How to Use... =


 * [|Comic Life]**
 * Comics and graphic novels have gained much respect in the literature and educational worlds. They offer an alternative to traditional novels and plays, and really seem to be popular with boys - an important fact to keep in mind when considering issues with male students and literacy
 * When dealing with comics and graphic novels it is important to remember they possess their own codes and conventions
 * All comics and graphic novels begin with an "establishing shot" to establish the setting
 * Format is important - bright colours can suggest urgency, capital letters are yelling, jagged edge speech or thought bubbles suggest urgency or a loud noise
 * Panels, tilt and shadow all have meaning
 * Gutters and the space in between them can infer time (more space can mean more time has passed)
 * Comics are read in a "Z" pattern
 * What is important in comics is not so much what is in them, but what has been left out of them
 * When working with Comic Life in the classroom, it is important to understand which curriculum expectations you are targeting and to know how you are going to assess the final product - what are you assessing? Writing or media literacy, or both? You will definitely be assessing writing, but be sure to not get caught up in the formatting of the assignment (i.e. the comic page is pretty but contains no real content)
 * It costs $19.95 for a school to purchase a single license for Comic Life, but it is available to download for a free trial

How Comic Life Could Be Used in the Classroom -
 * Its applications are obvious and many when it comes to the language arts classroom. Students could use it to compose their own creative pieces, and to interpret poems, stories, or songs
 * This program could also be very useful in the history classroom, as students could use Comic Life to compose timelines and create narratives about important historical events and people
 * It could be applied to Math and Science courses when dealing with timelines or problem solving
 * In my opinion, it can really be applied to any course - essentially it could make ANY concept fun

Although I found Comic Life to be very user friendly, please have a look at the following YouTube video for a more in depth explanation on how to use this program.

2 important things to keep in mind when using comic life > media type="youtube" key="b_83FgdOlM0" height="364" width="445" align="center"
 * When saving your final product select" export" and "export to images"
 * Save the file as a .JPEG for optimal quality

Here is my attempt at using Comic Life...



Here are the Bitstrips people I created, and this is them at the park...
 * [|Bitstrips]**
 * A website where you can create comics or cartoon character versions of yourself or other people, and view other people's comics and cartoon creations
 * You can make your own characters or choose from a selection of pre-created characters to create a comic or "bit strip"
 * Bitstrips seems to be even more user friendly than Comic life as it takes students through a step by step process creating characters, picking a background scene, adding in props, etc.
 * However, unlike Comic Life, students are limited to using the characters and images provided on the Bitstrips website. Even when students create characters they are limited by a certain number of choices - this is good in that it prevents students from using images illegally and it removes the stress and time waste of finding appropriate images, however it also limits students' creativity
 * This would be a great program for a language arts classroom as it allows students to manipulate their characters to convey very specific emotions. This function could also be useful for students with exceptionalities who may have difficulties conveying and recognizing emotions on their own
 * Unfortunately I do not see Bitstrips being as useful as Comic Life outside of the language arts classroom, as the selection of possible characters and scenes is very limiting




 * Co-writer**
 * Is an assistive technology that is used with applications that accept text
 * As students type, it recognizes the word and offers word options (this aids with spelling and figuring out the word you would like to use)
 * This program also has a speech option, that can be turned on or off, which will repeat words or sentences as a student types them - this could be helpful for students with vision difficulties as it orally repeats what they student has typed
 * This program would also be useful for students who had difficulties typing, as you only have to type a few letters of a word before the program recognizes it and then you can choose your word from the list of possibilities and avoid typing the rest of the word
 * I personally did not find this program to be very user friendly. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get the text I typed in the program to transfer into a Word document (or any other document for that matter). Likewise, I noticed that while offering word options, it did not correct spelling mistakes made by the typer. I feel as though this might have been a useful add-on to the program
 * One benefit is that the program eventually "learns" words frequently typed by the user, thus increasing the speed at which it can process text


 * Write Out Loud**
 * This program offers the option of text to speech. Thus students are able to improve their writing skills by listening to what they have written. This will facilitate the proofreading and editing process as students will be able to "hear" their mistakes, and it can help those with reading difficulties as the program provides the correct pronunciation of words for the student to follow along with
 * This program could offer much assistance to those students who find the writing process difficult and thus increase their motivation and engagement in writing activities

I do not believe you need to be a Special Education teacher to be able to use these programs. Both are relatively easy to figure out how to use (even though Co-writer could be more user friendly in my opinion) and could easily be mastered by students in a short amount of time