#edim 515

Before I decided on what application I would use to make my presentation, I first wanted to figure out what I would be doing during my lesson. What technology would my students need? What lesson would work best with incorporating using mobile devices? I also had to make sure that what I decided on would work with my students’ iPad minis. I decided to create an activity with my lesson on observations and inferences. Normally during the lesson I quickly have my students write down 5 observations and then later after they learn the difference between qualitative and quantitative, I then have them go back and decide what their observations were. I want to make this more interactive. So I am going to have my students go around the school and take pictures of different objects. Then create a screen cast explaining what the difference is between qualitative and quantitative and giving some examples based off their pictures. Then I plan on having my students watch several of their peers’ videos for critique as well as coming up with several inferences based off the screen cast they just watched. I plan on giving them several options to create their screen cast such as ExplainEverything, Movenote, ShowMe or Educreations. I plan on evaluating their screen casts based off a rubric. Now something I plan on trying new this time around is having the students help to create their rubric with me. I want them to have some input into how it will be graded. Maybe if they can partake in that process, they will be motivated to do well on it. I normally create the rubrics myself so of course trying something new does cause me some anxiety but I know other teachers who have done it this way. They have been successful and I am hoping I can touch base with them prior to doing this lesson to get some pointers.

When it came to writing my lesson plan, that part came easily to me. The only part I had to do some research for was the ISTE standards and literacy standards but in my weekly lesson plans I already have my standards in there, essential questions, goals, and all the details about the lesson (assessments, materials, technology needed, etc.). Since my district is 1:1 with iPad Minis, I don’t feel that it is difficult incorporating technology into my lesson plans. My students use their iPads every class period just about. Due to my district being ahead of the curve, I found the ICE model to be almost identical to what my district requires in my weekly lesson plans. Both ICE pages seemed repetitive and asked for a vast majority of the same information, just in a different layout. I find my lesson plan template to be easier to follow along with.  

I decided to use ExplainEverything as my tool to create my presentation. I have worked with this tool before on my iPad, so I felt comfortable being able to create the presentation. Within my earth science team, I am the “go to” person. They all come to me for materials, lesson plans, and explanations of the lesson. I believe that having to do this often prepared me for giving the “speaker notes” component of the presentation. On my presentation, I explained the lesson and activity as if I was talking to another one of my colleagues and they needed an explanation.  

1. URL:  https://youtu.be/UEFXZomXs-o      

The educators in this video support the usage of mobile devices in the classroom. Their biggest points of success is that students are able to access their education and learn 24/7. Mobile devices allows students to connect with their education outside of the classroom and now students can see the real life connections between what occurs in the classroom and what occurs in “real” life. The educators in this video also mention how students are now able to access their textbook, learning management system or videos at home. Students now have more control over their education and are more willing to access it outside of the classroom via their mobile device.

2. URL:  https://youtu.be/dECs3SRh8Xo  

The reason for why I shared this video to showcase the successful usage of mobile devices in the classroom because it focused on how mobile devices can help students with special needs in the classroom. Since I had recently done a post focusing on how I can help communicate with my English Language Learners, this video was also extremely helpful. It focuses on how mobile devices allow students with special needs to be able to communicate and improves their ability to understand the material. They feel that using mobile devices in the classroom is a “game changer” and allows students to become more independent, engaged, and motivated.

3. URL:  https://youtu.be/Wo6md8t8jZQ  

The special need that I focused on was English Language Learners. I went into the App Store to find free applications to use that applied to this special need. In the communication section of special education apps many of them cost money. They went anywhere from $1.99 to $249.99. Out of all the communication apps, only three of them were free which I found to be very disappointing. I have special needs students every semester in my classes who would benefit from using special education applications that are designed for their particular need. Just this semester I had two students who came from the Ukraine and another from Vietnam. As ELL learners, I was always trying to find ways to reach them and to break the language barrier. The fact that my students would only have three options to obtain for free or ask if the district would pay for another is just sad. Most of the applications were around a hundred dollars or higher. I can hardly get my district to agree to buy applications that are two dollars for my students, could I even imagine a hundred dollar application? Absolutely not. I also feel that since the device is being supplied by the school and required to be used, then the student shouldn’t have to accept responsibility to purchase something that is necessary for their education.

Out of the free apps, I found the “Google Translate” app to be the most effective and actually helpful in the classroom. When looking at this app, there were several things that I found helpful. The first thing that I really liked was that it doesn’t need Internet connection to work. For my students who don’t have Internet at home, would still be able to use the app if they needed something on an assignment translated. I also liked that it was capable of imitating a conversation between two people. So this allows me to be able to communicate with my ELL students while at the same time allows them to be able to communicate with me in their native language. This app helps to break the language barriers that I often have with my ELL students because they are all at different levels with feeling comfortable with English. I also feel that this app would help them to open up more, ask questions, and seek help because I feel that it would increase their comfortableness with being able to communicate openly.

Link to access Educreations: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?mt=8

I wanted my students to create explanation screen casts of the factor label method since this is the one topic that both my freshman and senior level students seem to struggle with the most. Since it is also one of the fundamentals that my senior level students must use throughout the entire course, I was trying to find a different way to help struggling students with the concept.

My thoughts were to have students create practice problem screen casts that explained and showed step by step how to convert from one unit to another. In order to do this I needed to find an application that would allow them to record while they drew on the screen. I also needed to find an application that would allow them to share their final product with me either through email, Educreations itself, or through Google Drive. This led me to the creation application called Educreations.

When I first went into the application I was looking for some of things I had mentioned in my “Evaluation Guide” post. I wanted to see if the application had what I call my “non-negotiable” qualities. The first thing I noticed when I opened the application is that in order to save any work, you first need a free account with Educreations. Easy enough, right? It took very little time to create an account and most of my students have already used this application before so they wouldn’t even need to do this. Then I actually tried to create a demo example of what I would have the kids do. I loved the ease at which this application worked. It was pretty much self-explanatory. You could pick different colors to write on the screen with, add text, add images from your camera roll, record voice over while adding things to the slide, etc. I gave all these qualities a check plus. The even better part, unlike the application called ShowMe that I used to use to do something similar, Educreations allows you to edit out recording mistakes. That gets two thumbs up!  

The next thing I wanted to check for was how easy it was to share once the screen cast was completed. Once I saved my project, gave it a title, description, and what it would be used for, it publishes the final product to my account. From there I can share the screen cast to multiple places. This was another check plus on my list of “non-negotiable” items. I had the option of emailing my screen cast, giving the embed code or sharing it to my Google Drive account. The fact that it had multiple export options, I found to be great, especially if they share it with their Google Drive account. Even if their iPad has to be reset at a later time or something happens to their Educreations account, they will always be able to access their work in their Google Drive that is given to them through the school district.  

Link to evaluation guide: http://www.ipads4teaching.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/evalipad_creation.pdf

I have found that finding content driven applications that pertain specifically to my curriculum are rare because most of them are paid applications. My district won’t purchase applications unless they pertain the majority of the district to use. Due to this I decided to look over evaluation guidelines for “creation apps” since these apply more to the whole and are generally the ones that are purchased for the students.

I found the items on this sheet to be valuable and important for multiple reasons. The first thing that I always look for when choosing an application for my students to create something with, is how accessible is it? Will it work with our LMS or allow students to share it to another platform? The checklist provided by Kathleen Schrock has the categories of “import”, “export” and “utilize” that when looking for a creative application, I would like to check “yes” for (2014). The students may all have the same device but will prefer different applications to others. I like to give them some voice and choice.  Due to this, it is important that regardless of what application they use to create their assessment, I need to be able to access it. So whether that application allows them to share it via email, Google Drive, our LMS, or through the application itself, it is important that it can be viewed across multiple platforms. We often times will utilize our library while working on a project so students have access to the one button studio. Here they have the options of working on desktops, chrome books, the one button studio or their iPad. Having an application that can be accessed by both computer and their iPad is another feature I look for. The next thing that I thought was valuable to have on a checklist was whether or not the application had all the necessary bells and whistles for students to meet all expectations of the assessment. Kathleen Schrock lists on her checklists the following, “record”, “insert” and “use” (2014). These categories address the applications ease of use and what it is capable of doing. Will my students be able to record their own text? Will they be able to access a library of photos and sounds to insert? Is it easy to draw directly on, manipulate items, etc while creating the product?  I feel that all of these questions should have the same answer of “yes”. These are things when looking for a new application or evaluating the effectiveness of one already in use I would say are non-negotiable and would help on any creative level.

An application doesn’t necessarily need to meet everyone one of my “needs”. For example, does it necessarily need to allow collaboration? Depending on the project, potentially not which is why I don’t feel like it is a “must”. Screencasting capabilities are nice but again not always something that students will need and therefore not a “must”. These types of capabilities I feel would be an added bonus but not on my non-negotiable list.

References:

After reading through Churches’ Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, I felt most inspired by “Bloom’s Creating” level. I got inspired after reading the justifications section. In this section of “Bloom’s Creating” level, it uses the digital addition of filming, directing, and publishing (Bloom’s, 2016). Looking at the different tools to this category made me think of having my students create their own weather forecasts in my Earth Science II class. This type of activity would require students to be creative throughout the entire process. They would need to communicate with each other, apply their knowledge of weather maps, plan their forecast, apply editing techniques to produce the final product and then produce their forecast for our morning announcements.

This would fit perfectly into “Bloom’s Creating” level because it would require planning on the student’s part. They would need to analyze weather maps and then create a weather map for their forecast. After that they would need to film, direct and produce their forecast. We have a one-button studio at our high school that would be perfect for this. It has a green screen where they could overlay their weather map images. One student could be the “meteorologist” of the screen cast, another student working the camera and then another working the computer changing the images on the green screen. Working together as a team, they would need to know their role and vision of what they want their final forecast to look like and sound like. The “meteorologist” may need to plan a script ahead of time that another student could have going on the teleprompter. After creating their forecast in the one-button studio, students would work together to edit their forecast. They could use a multitude of applications here but the one that comes to my mind is using iMovie or Explain Everything. After the students are done editing their weather forecast I would have them publish their product to use with our morning announcements called CTV. Our students do the morning announcements live every morning during homeroom. They put the daily weather forecast on in the background. My students could publish their forecast so CTV could use their weather predictions as opposed to just reading it on the screen. The “live” version would not only be more appealing on CTV but also give my students that real life scenario of what goes on behind the scenes of a meteorologist and the creative, tasking process to make a forecast for live television.  

References: