The Digital Classroom Expectations - Blog #8

The concepts I have gained concerning the 21st century classroom will be immensely useful in my classes; immediately improving the way I teach. Students will be more motivated to learn because of the multi-media content I will incorporate into my syllabus. Introducing a greater use of digital devices does not come without many potential problems. The concepts of classroom expectations that I have learned must be integrated into my syllabus if I am to develop a digital classroom.

Their are many negative outcomes that could arise with the use of technology as a tool, for both the teacher and the student.  I will have to continually evaluate the use of technology in my lesson plans to insure that its use is organized and effective, and actually improving the classroom as opposed to a more conventional lesson plan without technology. The students will have to follow the classroom expectations in order to make these lesson plans effective. In my university classes it is distraction that I foresee as being the main problem of using digital tools in the class, so the students must learn what is expected of them and the consequences of not following these expectations.  Teaching the nine elements of digital citizenship will also be a major contributing factor to establish classroom expectations and the success of developing a 21st century classroom.

                                 

Movie Unit

I've finally finished my movie (after 20 laborous hours) and I'm happy about the outcome despite it's short-comings.  It was a new experience for me that I enjoyed immensely. I chose the 'how-to" video concept because I think my students can relate to this idea and be able to make a video of their own. They understand directions because I give them directions everyday, so they have become competent at this. I intend to give them a video assignment handout which includes a rubric, so they will understand what they need to do and how I will grade them. They will practice giving directions in a "how-to" video.
This has been my favorite assignment in our grad class.  I think you will find my You Tube video a step above the others in this topic; thanks to Windows Movie Maker.  Enjoy!

Website - Dave's Guitar School

Here's a link to my website. It's a sample (with the content not fully completed) for university student's to use to build a website of their own to create a small business with a hobby they enjoy.

Dave's Guitar School

Classroom Expectations

The following document will be included with my syllabus for students in a future class.

Classroom Expectations

Audio Recording Assignment + Sample

I have developed a lesson for my 3rd year university students that will require them to explain the form and use of the tenses we have studied in class. The students will be expected to submit the assignment as a Soundcloud file to my Google Drive in a file created for their class and this specific assignment.  They will be required to open a Google account and a Soundcloud account in order to do this.  They must use a personal computing device to make this digital recording of their tense explanation. I will also have the assignment instructions (which includes a rubric) in the Google Drive file for them to read and follow. I have created a Soundcloud example for the students to follow.  It may also be necessary to use screen casting to help them open the accounts,  record their assignments and upload the files to Google Drive.

A Few of My Favorite Things - Blog #7

In our grad class we have been learning the value of digital technology and learning its practical use in the classroom.  The combined use of many tools can be implemented by students and teachers to enhance education.  If I had to choose just one as my favorite I would have to pick Google Drive. Its difficult to choose just the one tool for me because using Google drive would include the use of other tools, too, like blogs for example.

It is my intention to create a paperless classroom with Google Drive. In the next semester at the university where I teach English I will make it part of my expectation of the students to learn and use this tool. It will be my pleasure to reduce my use of photocopiers and lose the stack of wasted paper on my desk, effectively lending a hand to the efforts of reducing environmental waste.

If my students are all submitting assignments in a Google Drive folder I will become much more organized. This will also eliminate the issue of handing assignments in late because there will be no excuses for missing due dates. The internet doesn't give any leeway to lateness. Students will also learn and use other digital tools to prepare their assignments.

The educators of the world could all be using Google Drive.  I can't imagine the amount of paper that would be saved if schools around the world applied a paperless classroom policy. It could also be a small step towards globalizing education as a standard tool in a global curriculum.

Collaborative Learning - Blog #6

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, written by Will Richardson, is an article about the cooperation between individuals, and groups of individuals sharing the wealth of information via digital technology.  What he calls, "The Collaboration Age" is about forming networks and sharing information. Students, and teachers alike, are challenged by the fact that our current school curriculum is being rendered outdated by technology and the collaboration age.

Students are working in networks, forming their own curriculum, which is in turn reread, reapplied and remixed. The video Everything is a Remix points out how the government and corporations don't accept this due to copyright restrictions but the memes of social evolution are going to evolve whether they like it or not. These memes that students acquire through blogs, Skype, and wikis that are transformed and combined to create new ideas are not copies from any individual's property, so the capitalists are just going to have to sit back and watch while the digital age of collaboration evolves. Social evolution has proved that the system of copyrights and patents has failed in regards to the common good of people and the current networking of ideas in this age of cooperation will evolve with or without their authorization.

Now, educators must develop a new way to educate which includes the collaboration of information and model this to our students in order for them to gain the correct virtual information to copy, transform and create new ideas to solve the current problems in today's physical world.

 

Global Curriculum - Blog #5

The article, Three Ideas for 21st Century Global Curriculum, by Terry Heick, examines the ambiguous idea of globalizing education. World markets have already extended into the global markets but education has fallen behind. He states that starting in small steps is the viable solution and gives three ideas of how to globalize a curriculum.  He proposes to let students choose the curriculum, use project based learning to find solutions to physical problems, and use optional pathways of studies, through digital technology.

There is no doubt that the world has entered the digital age, so educators must embrace it. The absence of top-down control in the virtual world has set the world free, so it may be that his idea to give the students control over their curriculum may be an idea worth establishing. By establishing, I'm referring to his plan to make small steps, locally, slowly converging into a global curriculum.

His ideas of using problem based learning has failed in the past, as the commentary pointed out. However, I believe that the digital platforms used today might actually effect the outcome of accomplishing a global curriculum with this old idea, and help make this old idea work for the students.  Students need to develop skills to use existing global ideas and crate new ones.  Despite that capitalist forces of governments and corporations want to control existing ideas, they must be used by students to tackle the problems that they will be subject to solve in the future.

As educators, we must investigate new ideas to globalize education through a manageable plan that will not waste the students ability to develop or waste taxpayers dollars. As we plunge into the digital age it is only logical that education must also follow. How to do so is the ambiguous question at hand for educators to probe.

Curricular Presentation - Money

Included in this blog is my Cirricular Presentation Prezi and the actual Money Lesson Prezi, a lesson plan and an evaluation rubric, and a worksheet assignment (with a numbers reference sheet):
 

Title:   Money Lesson Plan – Dollars and Cents		Teacher: Dave Field
Subject: ESL  - Shopping		Level:  Low to Mid-Intermediate ESL Elementary/ High School /University students
Broad Areas of Learning:  To enable students to read and write money to complete a shopping lesson and use the language in physical situations.
Cross-Curricular : This is a sub-lesson used within a shopping lesson.
Learning intentions and Rationale: The aim is to integrate students into the North American culture. This lesson will allow students to feel more knowledgeable about carrying on a dialogue which includes money. They will feel comfortable expressing money with foreigners in dollar and cent values.
Time: 50 min	Materials: 1.A computer, overhead projector and screen 2.Prezi presentation 3.Worksheet – Writing assignment/numbers review
Process: Introduce the topic with the Prezi presentation.  Explain their goal is to learn to proficiently read and write money in order to complete a shopping lesson. Practice repeating the dollar and cent values three times. Insure comprehension; that dollars are on the left of the decimal and cents are on the right. Emphasize to say AND after the 100s and in place of the decimal. Have the students try to read one on their own.  Pass out the worksheet and inform them they will be marked on their spelling and pronunciation of the denominations. Check and review their results. Practice pronunciation of the worksheet denominations again.
Differentiation for students requiring assistance: Some students may require a review of numbers. The review sheet will facilitate their accuracy of numbers, with assistance from the teacher, as needed.
Evaluation Rubric: Criteria Grading Scale Pronunciation 5 Vocabulary was accurate and pronounced exceptionally well. 4 Vocabulary was not perfectly accurate and/or had difficulty pronouncing some words. 3 Vocabulary was inaccurate and mispronounced. Spelling 5 Worksheet was completed without error. 4 Worksheet had less than five spelling mistakes. 3 Worksheet had five or more spelling mistakes and/or only partially completed the worksheet . Participation 5 Participated throughout the lesson. Showed enthusiasm towards learning the material. 4 Participation wavered and showed partial enthusiasm.   3 Participation was weak. Disinterested in the lesson.                               Total = 15

Money – Dollars and Cents

Write out the following amounts of money in English.

a.       $4.99

b.      $99.99

c.       $149.99

d.      $1.01

e.      $0.99

f.        $9999.99

Numbers Reference

1  one              6  six                11  eleven                   16  sixteen

2  two              7  seven           12  twelve                   17  seventeen

3  three            8  eight             13  thirteen                  18  eighteen

4  four              9  nine              4  fourteen                 19  nineteen

5  five              10  ten             15  fifteen

20  twenty                                          100  one hundred

30  thirty                                             1,000  one thousand

40  forty                                              10,000  ten thousand

50  fifty                                               100,000  one hundred thousand

60  sixty                                              1,000,000  one million

70  seventy                                          1,000,000,000  one billion

80  eighty                                            1,000,000,000,000  one trillion

90    ninety                                            1,000,000,000,000,000 one quadrillion

Screencast Assignment

The learning curve to use Screenr is fast but there are a few things to get used to. First you need to download and run Java to use the program.  After a few tries you will find it is fairly simply to use.  Once you have recorded a screencast you can click on share and copy the URL or imbed the page

www.screenr.com/NoYH

My Favourite Lesson - Blog #4

Even though Canada has the best reputation in the world, I've found that many Asians do not know the names of the provinces or cities across the nation. Unlike our neighbours popularity, most people are only aware of the names of a few major cities, Toronto and Vancouver. Teaching Korean students the names of Canadian provinces and capital cities has been one of my favourite lessons.

I used a Powerpoint presentation, as well as a handout to teach this vocabulary lesson, focusing on the pronunciation of the names. Although it was primarily a vocabulary lesson, I also included some simple present questions and answers.  

The first time I taught this lesson was at a girl's high school.  They were not usually very enthusiastic classes but this lesson seemed to catch their interest. This could be attributed to the fact that I informed them that some of the material in the presentation would be on the their exam. 

After introducing the topic and showing them some satellite photos and colourful maps, I had the students "repeat after me" the city names. They found this fun because the names were somewhat peculiar to them. I pointed out the origin of some of the names. Then I passed out the handout of the cities and instructed them to practice the pronunciation in pairs.

I would also show them the Stompin' Tom Connors Canada Song music video on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgOQDUOGAg  They found this humourous, too, because of Stompin' Tom's country tone, and willingly joined him, singing out the capital names. I've always found that singing makes students happy.  Happy students translates into a successful lesson.

And I did consider this lesson successful.  They may not have memorized all the cities (that wasn't the point) but they did learn some new words and improved their pronunciation skills. The proof was evident on their test when most of them correctly answered that I was from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

My Digital Footprint - Blog #3

After searching for my digital footprint I have become aware that I am a digital ghost.  If a future employer searched for any information about me they would not find anything but a Facebook account and a few Youtube music videos of my past rock bands to refer to. Upon referring to this information they would probably be less than impressed with my value as an employee, unless they are seeking a guitarist. Rethinking and reinventing my digital reputation is a crucial step to prepare for my next career move as a teacher if I intend to attract prominent employers.

Evaluation of my Facebook account revealed several issues that would not be condoned as part of a professional digital footprint.  Six years ago, when I first opened the account, my plan was to message family and friends and pass along photos of my adventures in Asia.  I wanted to convey the message of travelling, rocking, and generally having a great time.

Of course, this is not conducive to a brillant teacher's reputation. I'm sure that even some of my friends and family are not impressed with some of the content of my Facebook page. Having realized the importance of my digital footprint, both professionally and personally, I need to rethink my plan as to what kind of personal information I need and want to publish online.

Initially, I need to address some of the unsuitable photographic content on my Facebook page.  A potent stain remover ought to unsoil any inappropriate photographs, posts and comments and virtually renew my happy-go-lucky online reputation.

Once that is complete, my new plan will go into effect.  I will make an online reputation with profiles on specific sites that portray a highly effective and well-trained teacher that employers will want to hire and others will be impressed and inspired by. These sites will include; Twitter, Google, and Facebook (and more when I become aware of other satisfactorily interesting sites). Podcasts and Youtube videos are also methods that I will make use of to portray my digital reputation. I will also publish a professional portfolio on an impacting webpage in hopes of improving my online reputation immensely for future employers and colleagues, as well as, family and friends.

This plan will reinvent my old digital footprint and kickstart a new one.  Once my profiles have been established on these social networking sites, I will continue to develop my reputation by staying active and updating my profiles and settings as required. There is a lot of information to be gained from a lot of individuals online. Commenting on other's posts and receiving comments on my posts will certainly keep the information flowing and help me develop an effective, marketable online reputation.

Becoming a More Effective Presenter - Blog Post #2

Every person who has ever made a presentation of any kind wants to be outstanding.  None of us were ever as outstanding as we wanted to be in the first few presentations we ever made, so we all strive to become better presenters. We want to show our confidence and our competence.  We want the audience to believe in us and whatever it is we are representing. We want a lasting effect on our audience.

Conventionally, we learn to be more effective presenters through improvement of our physical actions. Our image is indeed of utmost importance because we are undoubtedly being judged by our audience by the way we look. Care must be taken in the style of our clothing with regard to the type of audience we are presenting to. We also learn to project our voice with a posture that opens our airways for a clear range of pitch. It's equally important.to consciously keep our speech slow and leave room for pauses to make emphasis on certain points. Furthermore, we learn to make eye contact with our audience. Many professional presenters have offered hundreds of tips to be aware of our physical actions in order to become better presenters.

Moreover, we must be entertaining and show the audience a strong feeling of the topic. Without humour or passion we can easily lose the audience's interest. However, being entertaining is not effective without a concentrated focus on the topic. We must plan and design a strategy to get our message to the audience effectively. Story telling is an entertaining and very memorable experience for the audience.

Just as we had used flip charts, overhead transparencies and 35mm slides to capture our audience's interest, we are now using Powerpoint presentations, and more recently Prezi. These have become efficient tools to accompany a speaker and get the message to the audience. Careful consideration of many factors must be given to the use of these software programs to ensure that psychological principles are taken into account. These principles include the colour associations of the background and the font colour, font size, and the psychological tendencies that people are predisposed to when viewing graphics

Foremost, presenters should strive to prioritize the key messages, keeping the presentation focused on the main point. A content strategy of the digital presentation should include consideration of only a few messages. One message is most effective.  The presenter can easily lose the audience's focus on the main point with information overload. The catch phrase, "quality over quantity" encapsulates the idea of minimal key messages and the psychological predispositions of graphics.

Finally, importance must be placed on the presenter's preparation to give the presentation and insure the message is conveyed to the audience. Writing down everything that will be said and saying it out loud are two ways to memorize a presentation. This builds confidence and prepares the presenter for an effective speech. Understanding the key message (and all aspects of it) is of utmost importance to show confidence and insure competence. Know your stuff and practice your presentation.

Digital Citizenship - Blog Post #1

In this digital age, the standards for digital learning and teaching includes the importance of digital citizenship. What we do and say in the virtual world can most certainly affect the way people think of us in the physical world. As the availability and use of the internet grows, our digital citizenship will become more and more important, both online and offline.

The standards of online conduct have become a pressing matter. Some 'netizens' have developed inappropriate behaviour and attitudes that they are personally protected by distance and anonymity against any legal and/or ethical repercussions from what they post online. Students must learn to practice responsible use of the internet.

Teachers are obligated to advocate the development of a humanistic manner when communicating online. Just as we all learned throughout our physical lives to be socially acceptable, and that inappropriate behaviour and negative attitudes are not generally socially acceptable, we must also develop a socially acceptable manner when communicating on the internet.

Teachers need to help students understand that the ethical issues they learn and experience in society everyday also apply to the internet and their manner of communication online has a strong impact just as it does in society. Many students have not been taught appropriate use of online communication. If the students develop positive online attitudes then the educational value of internet communication will increase. The students will learn to collaborate with one another and the productivity of online assignments will be much more effective.

Legally, internet users are not protected by distance or even anonymity. Students must understand the law and learn to be safe about their identity and property, and other people's identity and property.  Teachers and students need to follow copyright restrictions online as they would in any other manner.  Posts must not be blatantly plagarized. Citations must be made where they are due. Any disregard of this can certainly result in legal issues.

The standards of conduct as a digital citizen must be taught to students in order to maintain a respectable media for teaching and communicating. As responsible digital citizens we maintain an online experience conducive to the development of digital education.