Hi,
Following each step of the project has given me the opportunity to reflect more on every detail that I would like to mention and change in my class.
The technology tool that I decided to introduce in my class is related to one of the main problems that my students have: improving their web search skills. Thus, I am choosing to introduce Noodletools to them as a way of helping them research, organizing the content and consult reliable sources.
www.thesearchenginelist.com/#e
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/video-search/
Blogger Help - Google Help
Following each step of the project has given me the opportunity to reflect more on every detail that I would like to mention and change in my class.
The technology tool that I decided to introduce in my class is related to one of the main problems that my students have: improving their web search skills. Thus, I am choosing to introduce Noodletools to them as a way of helping them research, organizing the content and consult reliable sources.
This new technology tool will help them to
accomplish the course assignment, mainly, a project that they have to prepare
in pairs related to teaching English as a foreign language.
The way I plan to introduce this technology
related tool to this problem is as follows:
- Students will be
firstly asked to open a blog. That will be our way of communicating and
sharing with each other whatever we come across during class.
- There will be a
tutorial class on how to use blogs, if there are students in the class
that are not familiar with blogs or are experiencing difficulties how to
open and publish in the blog.
- I will do a survey
as well, in order to get to know my students better in terms of their
intelligences, in order to have mixed intelligences and abilities working
pairs, as well as assign the proper roles to each of the student.
- Students will be
also introduced to the concept of Cooperative Learning, to foster their
collaboration in the class.
- Each pair will
report in class the topic (or one of the skills) that they have chosen to teach
in a simulated class.
- The progress of
their work as well as any other materials related to teaching and technology
tools will be regularly posted on their blogs.
- As an optional
tool, I will introduce them to Penzu so they can keep an online diary,
recording their progress or any concern.
- Students will make
use of Noodletools to search for the materials that they want to
incorporate in their final project.
- Students will be
also asked to design their own assessment tools during their project, as
it will be a simulated teaching.
- At the end, they
will create the project with the WebQuest, including multimedia elements
and have the link published on the blog.
- An alternative to
the Webquest project could be the creation of an interactive power point,
where multimedia elements should also be part of the PPT.
- Along with the
Noodletools, students will also be introduced to Prezi, Glogster or PicLit.
Their assessment will be based on their progress
during the course, their blog posts, their comments as well as their final
project task. We are not talking about a traditional way of teaching, so I will
introduce to them alternative assessment and rubrics. Rubrics will be
distributed, in the beginning of the course. They can act as instructions for
students while they will work for their final task. There will be two types of
rubrics to be used in the class, one that will be designed by the teacher and
the other that will be for peer assessment. Both the teacher and students can
work on designing the latter.
Students will be assessed for their research skills,
their content organization skills, collaboration with the partner, the originality
of their project, their innovative skills, technology skills and presentation
skills.
There will not be any formal assessment for this
particular subject, since students will demonstrate during the course
whether they have mastered the literature given during the lectures, or the
additional readings that they have to digest to master and operate the new
technology tools.
Some of the resources that students should consult are as follows:
Web
Tutorials and Information
www.thesearchenginelist.com/#e
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/video-search/
Blogger Help - Google Help
A project-based learning activity about
project-based learning - a good how-to, step-by-step approach:
http://www.sun-associates.com/lynn/pbl/pbl.html
http://www.sun-associates.com/lynn/pbl/pbl.html
Authoring
Information on the Web
Multimedia and
Authoring Resources on the Internet: http://www.library.northwestern.edu
/media/resources/multimedia.html
Multimedia
Authoring Web: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/authoring/
Digital
Video Information on the Web
Adobe Premiere:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html
Digital Movies in
Education: Tips and Techniques: http://www.apple.com/education/dv/tips.html
Digital Video with
Windows Movie Maker: http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSME/news
/articles/digitalstate.asp
Video Guide:
http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/TechHelp/VideoHelp/VideoGuide.html
Windows Movie
Maker: http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSME/guide/digitalmedia
/moviemaker.asp
Literature
review:
- Ivers, S. Karen and Barron E. Ann Multimedia Projects in Education: Designing, Producing, and Assessing, Libraries Unlimited.
- Rose, H. D., and Jenna, W. G. (2012), Curricular Opportunities in the Digital Age, The Students at the Center Series, Job For the Future Project
Dear Daniela,
ReplyDeleteI find your plan structured and detailed. New activities logically follow the previous ones which makes the whole picture of the course quite understandable. To give a list of links is a very good idea. I have also been thinking of compiling a list of links for the students, too, so that they could check any site that is included into the program at any convenient time. If a new web tool is to be introduced, they can check it and try it in advance and it will save some time later on. The links could be shared on the class blog or wiki, for example. What do you think of this option?
My best regards,
Natalya.
Hi Natalya,
DeleteThank your for the advice. In fact,the blog or a wiki (I will have to explore this as well) will serve not only as our meeting point but everything will be shared on the blog. So, if any of the students come across, not only of a new link but also of a web tool, they are welcome to share it with the rest.
They are master students and some of them may not necessarily have graduated for English, so they can share with us even their different educational background.
I had a student this year, who was actually an IT teacher, and she was doing her masters for English and she shared with us some useful ideas.
I also try to teach my students that the key to success is not withholding information but disclosing it. Sharing, as we our doing during this week, is to be encouraged in our classes.
Best,
Daniela