Fnal Blog Post: Teaching and Technology

I want to train my students to use technology in many ways, including research, collaboration, and making multimedia.
One thing I want to teach students to do that we did not cover in this class is how to research, whether with library databases, or Google scholar. I believe that learning to find reliable sources using the internet--and determining that they are reliable--is a very important part of English teaching.
The internet is definitely good for collaboration, typically between students, but also in other ways. I remember the IIC entry about skyping with other students across the country, with each sharing what they know. I think this is a neat idea. They gave the example of skyping with students from New Orleans.
Another way students can collaborate is with Google docs, mindmeister, and other websites. I have to admit that I prefer Google docs for word processing--essays and things--because I believe that Google will soon have a program that can handle MLA formatting, and because it's simple. We learn in education classes that students, especially ESL and lower economic class students learn best in small groups. That's why it's nice that they can collaborate online as well as in the class. However, students should not just collaborate on the internet. Face to face is very important for their social skill.
One way that students can collaborate face to face and yet with technology is when they create educational multi media together. Video is a good way to do this, as is PowerPoints, and other collaborations. One key is getting students invested in the finished product. It can be difficult to have group work when three students sit and talk while the other does all the work. That's why it's important to give each student an assignment--so that every student is responsible for their own part, and yet they collaborate as well.

I think the most important thing I learned in this class in general was how to get instructions online. I've become proficient at Googling to get instructions or videos that explain to me what to do when I'm stuck. I don't know that you taught that, but I did learn this as I worked on many assignments.
The most important thing I learned in the class for educating my future students is probably just the different options for activities: Glogster, mindmeister, online publishing, etc. Some of the best education classes are taught by the older generation and so while their methods are best because they have the most experience, they are excited to hear about the different activities you can do with your students using technology. I should keep your website handy so I can look at your ideas for personal technology projects and use them.

Wiki Contribution

For the wiki, I put up my Instructional Plan for the IIC, which focused on using Glogster. Because the instructional plan is so long, I put it in a Word doc. For the most helpful blog, I put up one on teen fiction picks--Suite 101.
When I'm a teacher, I plan on using a wiki Prof. Ostenson keeps with examples of grammar in classic and young adult literature. For my class, students can keep character profiles in wikis from the novels we read.

Internet Safety with my sister

My sister is 18 and we were able to discuss how she learned about internet safety growing up, and things that she still didn't know. I specifically told her about how her facebook and MySpace can affect if she gets a job, or not. Right now she's trying to get a job on campus at ASU in a writing center-type thing (I only know the BYU name), and so it's important to her to know who can see what. Although hers is hidden, it's important to make sure nothing too strange gets put on.
I think this has also reminded me about my own safety, especially with silly things. I think I'm going to clean up my facebook a little, too. I know I'll have to do a lot before I actually become a teacher--I don't think it's acceptable for students to try and "friend" me on facebook.
Back to Sarah, she told me about when she put pictures of herself by a dance studio she went to--that had the address in the picture--and how dad made her remove the photo.
safety isn't just about having an internet filter, either. Filters aren't fail safe--not only can you get around them, they don't black everything they should, and then they block things they shouldn't.

Internet safety

Frontline: Candace Kelsey (teacher):
--Parents are ignorant to believe that they can just tell their kids to get off of MySpace. Social networks are now a big part of being a teen, and teens find other ways to access. Kids should be taught to use these responsibly
--All of frontline really seems to address "talk to your kids about the Internet. They're doing it anyway."

Isafe looks interesting, but I can't really figure out what to click to see the internet safety tips. all I see is, "We're wonderful at telling you internet safety tips." I think you have to log in to see things, and I know I don't like registering for everything just to get some tips.

NSteens.org has some interesting, really accessible videos for teens about internet safety. One talks about how things online can change your job future, what schools you're accepted to, etc.
Other things include cyberbullying, and offline consequences.
I think it's an interesting idea to have safety stuff for teens online--because it's teens who are online that need these tips.

On the parents section, it tells some basic tips. I really like the one where it said that if your child has posted personal info online, you can contact the website to try and get it removed. I wouldn't have thought about doing that.

ikeepsafe.com talks about the different things teens need to be careful about: innappropriate material, posting personal info about yourself, and lastly, being disinhibited to saying mean things online. I think parents often know about the first or second problem, but they forget that all three are issues that they need to discuss with teens.

Internet Safety Podcast:
When deciding about giving technology to young people, you have to think a lot: what signals do you send to kids when you give them a cell phone? Are we saying, "If you have trouble, the only people you can trust are your family?" Societal Breakdown?
I think that kids should be able to call their parents for help, but it depends on the situation. I know that a female alone on a road broken down should probably call someone she knows, but in the middle of the day on a safer place, it's probably okay for her to get help from passersby.
I think that there are 2 things about always calling for help: actual safety, and comfort. I think it's okay for people to call for help, even if it's just that they are scared when, in trouble, they need help.

I think, by and large, the websites talked about a lot of problems, but I didn't really learn much new; it's easier to find people talking about implications of the problems than actual solutions.

Yet, I think part of this is that I've had a lot of internet safety training, and do consider myself safe online. There are many things that I do, such as making sure I don't put weird things online about myself, that I forget not everyone knows about.
I think maybe part of teaching internet safety is refreshing what I take for granted so I don't forget the important things.
I taught my little sister about some important things in internet safety because that's important for her.

Reflection--Microsoft Word and MLA

I think one thing that's important for college-bound students to know is how to format things correctly in MLA (or APA...). Sometimes it's hard to get a works cited page to look right because, although you know you want all the lines indented except the first lines of each citation, you don't know that this is called "hanging." I think the most important part about teaching is just to have web resources that explain how to do things for different formatting on different programs--whether it's between different versions of Microsoft, or if they're using the free Open Office.

IIC Competition Entries

I enjoyed seeing many of the entries, but I was really interested in Brittany's. She was talking about history, but the ideas could easily be applied to English. Her website is really nice looking--it can be easily navigated.
The differing views on the civil war can be used... in conjunction with Civil War literature! No surprise there. Students will be similarly involved in a historical analysis of the text.
I recently heard a suggestion that you teach students critical theory--the different ways of analyzing a text--by taking a novel and analyzing every chapter with a different kind of criticism. The historical criticism would definitely be different using a presi or making a web drawing, or anything else the teacher chooses to do. Different students learn by different methods, which is why it's best to change your approach often (and not just for changing your approach).

Reflection

I found a blog about reading: Reading Rockets
Here are some readily-available young adult book suggestions. It talks about the biography of Mark Twain, supposedly being born "fully grown with a cigar between his teeth" and other favorites. This website references a lot of things that I, as an English major, have already heard of; however, it could be a good tool for getting students interested in these things as well. Just pull up this blog and you have some ready-made explanations for your students. Or have the students look up books.
I don't think I ever had a teacher have us spend time choosing the books we read. It was our responsibility to come with a book every day and if we didn't have one, we had to read one of the teacher's boring books. I'm an English major, and I remember being bored. But if I could go online and search out what I wanted to read or have the teacher or my classmates present good books, I would definitely have enjoyed the required reading time more. Of course, I did enjoy it, typically. Yet I'm not the typical English student.
Its an English teacher's job to make reading interesting. Why not a blog?

Reflection

I see technology all around me and yet I worry that it'll be hard to get in my future classroom. However, I realize that creative teachers can really do a lot--and the most important part of getting this technology in the classroom is to do research and try, ad not just say, "I could never have that in my classroom."
For an assignment in a teaching literature and reading, I got to design my dream classroom. I decided, if I could have anything, I'd definitely have a computer projector on the ceiling, just like in so many BYU classrooms, as well as a laptop locker so all my students could have laptops (if you're wondering, I also had a lot of non-technology items, too).
Thinking, I realized that maybe when I'm a teacher, it might be easier to get enough laptops that every 3 students could have one so they could do group work in the classroom.
Now I do think a laptop for every student is a little silly. I own a laptop, and I hate to carry it around. Also, it's been proven that students who take notes on laptops don't remember and understand the notes as well (or so my Student Development teacher says--maybe I should find his sources). In fact, many parents think it's innappropriate for their children to own laptops because they bring them in their rooms where a parent can't monitor. I suppose this one is easy enough to solve--parents need to enforce rules, not teachers.
I prefer the idea of teachers having class sets and allowing students to use them at designated times (which can be often) but not allowing them all the time.
But back to my dream classroom: even if I could only get together 1 for every three students, they could still work in groups in class (and working in groups is one of the best ways to learn.) about anything, including internet searching.

Reflection

I've missed some reflections, so I'll just post a few.
My first reflection is about a class facebook group. For one class, we are supposed to have discussions on Facebook--doesn't sound like a bad idea, right? Yet, it doesn't seem to go very well. First, students are always forgetting to get on; second, students have trouble keeping all of the threads straight--for example, because it is discussion based and we are English majors, we each have a lot to say, so our posts are longer than Facebook allows without the reader having to "click to see more"; third, some students have a personal vendetta against facebook while others, like me, have very silly profile pictures.
Okay, the third concerns aren't really too big. The first concerns can be aided by developing rules; we're college students and so we don't need as many rules as middle or high school students.
First, teachers can require at least a weekly post. In a discussion type of site, they can quantify how many words or lines or something a post has to be (not just "I agree").
Second, teachers can prevent facebook's look from preventing long posts from being read by having students post it as a discussion, rather than just a wall post.
Also, there are other types of sites that can host students; this can be especially helpful when parents dislike their children being on Facebook because it gets such a bad rap (and publicity is everything). Look for discussion boards.

Copyright Project

This Youtube video is from 1951 and is a 8 minute movie on what to do on a date.
1) There is no evidence that the person who put it up has any rights to it, and there are no credits. 2) It seems fairly complete in nature, so I do not think that this is less than 10% of a work. Besides this, there is no indication that this is really for educational purposes, and so the law that you can use 10% of it may not apply.
3) There's music in the background, but we don't really know what it is or have a citation on that.

You can watch the video and see. I thought it would be funny, but it's really not that entertaining.

Now here is a video for the Innovative Instruction Competition.
1) They used an image, which is cited for just a moment below the image the first time it is seen. This is done correctly. Personally, I think they should also put this in the credits for further clarity, but their technique still works.
2) They use music, which they cite in the credits
3) They also use different technologies, which they decide to cite in the credits. This is good--although I didn't realize that this citation is necessary.
4) Lastly, they also cite some other people who helped them with their movie. I'm sorry Catherine and I didn't put your name in our video, Brother West.

My movie--Entry for IIC

Magazines Corrupting Teens?

http://jvidinha.glogster.com/magazines-corrupting-teens/
This is a sample of what a student might write about persuasion.

Movie Script

Catherine and I have been hard at work at our movie script--we're still working on how to present the last section. My little brother has made stick figure animations, but I hear that they take a lot of time. We just need an interesting way to present the Grammar Checker portion.
Here's the Google Doc of the current script.

Fair Use

After last lecture I realized that I just needed to look up a fair way to cite the pictures in my Glogster. Sure enough, Owl at Perdue has the answer: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Looking at my Glog and the website that I thought everything was kosher to use (once I figured out how to cite it) I realize that some things are obviously not fair use--like one is looks like a scanned image from a calendar. I'm going to have to clean up a lot.
I used images from Flikr (the website that the technology competition suggested), but I didn't make sure they had the symbols that allow me to share. Looking at the photos, I think the only one that I might be able to use is of Severus Snape, and that would be if I got permission. See, all the other photos look like they were stolen and put online, but this one the user actually painted it using a computer program (she also posted the original that she took Snape off of).
So, yes, I've learned how to Glog, but I need better images.
My reflection for this week is going to be howstudents need time to use these technologies because there are problems: for example, I need to find some new images for my Glog because the pictures aren't fair use.
I think that as teachers who want to use technology in the classroom, we're going to have to be accomadating to these problems.
As a TA, I know that some English second language students accidentally plagarized parts of their Book of Mormon Final. Yes, they were allowed to use other sources because they do not speak English as well, but they copy and pasted material from the web and I happened to find it--2 students copy and pasted the same thing from the web.
That sort of thing can get you kicked out of BYU or get my future students in really big trouble.
I think the point is that we teach as we go along and accomadate and make time and even allow for real mistakes.
The students at BYU did not get into trouble, but they were introduced to what plagerism is. I hope it's okay that I shared the story on this blog.

Just a reminder, I'm in the competition and will complete my fair use project later.

Teaching editing and grammar componants with grammar check

Potter, Reva and Dorothy Fuller. "My New Teaching Partner? Using the Grammar Checker in Writing Instruction." English Journal. 98.1 (Sept. 2008): 36-41. Web.

For another class we read a great article about a teacher who used grammar check to get students interested in editing. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
First, they had the students type papers with grammar check off. Then they had them turn it on and see all the squiggly green lines appear underneath. Next they had them write down what the grammar checker. The class then tallied what kinds of errors occurred most often in their papers (comma splice, fragment, passive voice, etc.) Then the class chose what errors were most interesting to them and that is what they learned about. What is a comma splice? A fragment? (yes, I just used a fragment here to talk about fragments.)
Next, students got the opportunity to purposefully trigger the grammar checker. Go on, write a fragment! Next, students worked in groups with the goal to try and trigger the checker when the sentence is correct ("Little Women was a good book"--the checker would probably correct it to say, "Little Woman were a good book.")
Throughout this students learned 2 valuable things (hopefully)
1. they learned grammar concepts. This gives the opportunity to slip in "Here's how you make sure you have a complete sentence"
2. That the grammar checker doesn't know everything. They can't just trust it because it's often wrong. And yet, they'll learn how it's a good tool, as well.

This is the next direction I think I want to take the competition. It's simple, but I imagine it working--and it worked for these two teachers. Yes, if I use this, I will cite them and possibly send them an e-mail letting them know.

Glogster and weekly assignment

Our lesson plan is working out pretty well for the Glogs. Catherine and I are making some basic Glogs. I used free images, but still need to figure out how to cite them (I did save where I got them from).
Here's my persuasive Glog example for the students. Hopefully Catherine comes up with a good rebuttal.

Glogster

While creating my Glogster poster for the competition, I noticed how trendy the site was. It had a lot of fun images and things that were specifically aimed at teens. It also included categories like, "me," movies," "school," and "wtf."
I hope I didn't just offend anyone.
I think that I need to explore Glogster some more and make sure it's appropriate for the classroom. Also, it's an online community-type thing, where you can friend people and comment on each other's posters.

Glogster Lesson Plan

Catherine and I have a lesson plan using Glogster. It's only part of our instructional plan. We scaled the competition up from 5th graders to 10th graders.

MSE Competition Proposal

Literacy Challenge:

You are a 5th grade teacher preparing students to take a state-administered writing test. Your students will be required to plan and write a persuasive essay in response to a prompt provided to them. They will be required to compose their essay on the computer. Prepare a teaching sequence to help your students, focused on the genre of persuasive writing and the use of accurate mechanics.

Instructional Plan Proposal:

Catherine Lyon and I realize that students are going to need to learn basic computer skills as well as basic composition skills. Students should use the computer on many steps of the process to insure that they are comfortable with typing; teachers should recognize that while many children are better at computers than many adults, not all are and so the computer skills need to be taught.
The first skill students will need is an understanding of a persuasive essay. Sudents should be given a topic which they can argue for or against, and then make an online poster supporting their side of the argument using Glogster.
The next goal will be to help students organize their ideas into paragraphs. After using Glogster, this might be easier as students have seen where they position and relate things on their posters. However, it could be better if the technology used here is a machine to project the computer screen as teachers and students work at composition together.
Another idea is to let students play some typing games (or check to see if the school already owns suitable games) to help students become better at the computer.
Here is a free one. Before we use this in the classroom, it would be best to make sure that the website--and the school computers--can handle so many students playing the games at the same time.
One way to help students with ideas is to use mindmeister
We will also use the 6 writing traits in the classroom to discuss what all the important parts of an essay are.

Useful Grammar Website

Here is BYU Professor, Ostenson's, grammar models website. The idea is that English teaching majors in his grammar class find interestingly-constructed sentences in literature that could be used in a middle or high school. They post on this website for anyone to use with their students. This gives real examples from exemplary, professional authors, rather than something the teacher just made up off the cuff. Also, learning will be more interesting to students when they get it from the novel they are studying in class, or maybe one they read for fun.
http://eng329ostenson.pbworks.com/

Class Website

I just realized that I finished my class website over a week ago and I was so proud and I even made sure that my extra page had a link to the website so that it could be found. And now I realize that I never posted the web address here, so no one has been able to look at it.
Sorry about that Bro. West!
Ms. Minch's Class Website

New Blog

Here's a blog specifically for English teaching majors/grads from BYU. This is great for exchanging ideas, especially because professors will help you out with comments as well!

Technology application for classes with trouble makers

One of my teachers last year was fairly insistent that the best thing to do with a trouble maker is to give him or her a special job to show that you trust him or her.
The other day in an English class there was a technology malfunction and we, as students offered our suggestions. This is when it occurred to me that maybe the best kind of task to give your trouble makers could be to help with the technology; most kids are good at technology and with some extra time, presentations can look extra nice. Also, students love to use technology.
The only danger, of course, is giving a trouble maker too much free reign.

PLN Assignment

I've been looking at blogs: One talks about using blogs and technology in the classroom.
Another talks about poetry for children, with lots of fun poem suggestions to use.
Here's one called Suite 101: Teen Fiction that is an official website for reviewing teen fiction.
This one is a middle school librarian who reviews fiction herself--it's called Reading Rants and I think it's going to be my favorite.
Last is the class Diigo group.

I have one subscription that I already decided I hate, but I don't know how to unsubscribe.
Above is a screen shot of my Google reader. Click it to enlarge.

First Assignment

My 14-year-old brother has made blogs in a few of his classes in school and enjoyed them. I once used them in a college literature class myself. I can see how they can be useful in the classroom and help students to connect quickly.
My worry with student blogging like this is that students need to be given class time in a computer lab to do this. That's fine--it gives all students an equal opportunity, even if they don't have access to it at home. However, it seems like many students, including my little brother, always are simply playing online. I guess this is fine for a technology skills class, but in my English courses I won't want my students to sacrifice learning about English in order to learn technology skills. I think a good way to do this is to have blogs be on topic to English subjects and for us to not blog too much--I could choose to do a 4 week unit with a blog rather than have them work on it for an entire semester.
On the other hand, the internet can have a lot of good classroom needs. In some of my classes we work on novels, writing classroom activities to go with each. These are posted online for everyone to borrow ideas off of.
Novelinks
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