Future Vision project and Reflection

I appreciated this course for its professional learning network.  I started out this course with concerns of my first-time use of Prezi in a grade 6/7 class.  Initially the review of literature for my blog (Jan 19^th and 24th) supported my idea that Prezi would assist in student learning.  The encouragement from my course colleagues, that my student’s would enjoy using Prezi and they would be able to navigate the site easily, helped to reduce my anxiety of introducing a new program.  Tips on how to have students sign-in, and how to see their work in progress were very useful.  Learning that Prezi can be built collaboratively by students when students share access to a Prezi, opens the possibly for me to use different teaching formats in the future.  Right now (or at least in a few moments when I finish this post), I am marking some wonderful inquiry research projects on extreme environments that my students created on Prezi!

I have clearly heard that my experience with finding and selecting French language

resources for immersion schools, and the feedback from my teachers on their appropriateness would be useful to share to create a larger PLN for myself.  When I review the hits on my blog, they are mostly 10 to 20, but the one on “Sources of reviews of French language resources” (Feb 6, 2014) has over 130 hits.  I know a lot of this traffic was encouraged by Aaron’s retweet.  By looking at hits, I have also learned that sharing my knowledge is a combination of Twitter and Blogging.  As Aaron said “one is the River” of streaming knowledge and the other is "the shore” of socially created knowledge that readers can return to.  The importance of Twitter in sharing and learning was re-emphasized by a recent Twitter post by Jon Campbell (@MrCampbell57, Apr 4) “Twitter might be the second biggest source of Pro-d info I have after my colleagues in the prep room, #edfling”.  I see this as my post-course challenge to develop a larger PLN than my School District, by reaching out with Twitter and Blogging.

 

http://www.inuksite.com
 

I was very pleased that I could do a final project that met course requirements, but also met the needs of teachers of French immersion community in my School District.  Here is my final vision,  a list of recommended websites appropriate for kindergarten and primary French immersion students.  I have curated my recommended websites on Delicious.  Or I should say the “first draft of my final vision” as I continue to receive teacher feedback and hear of new websites to include.  As usual, I appreciated that we did background research before starting our project.  One quote that I found, that kept been repeated in my mind as I curated these websites (blog March 4) was “activities should provide context to help the students create meaning of the vocabulary, which brain research, has shown helps students learn and retain information” (Characteristics of Young Learners 2009).  To finalize this project, I will add these sites to our school website to assist students in accessing and using these resources.    

I loved the collegiality of this course!  I think using Google+  for chats and being able to visually meet my colleagues really helped me build my PLN.  I look forward to meeting you in person at future Teacher-Librarian or Teacher conferences.  Thanks for your energy!

References:

Characteristics of Young Learners.  2009.  Pearson Education.  Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205535488.pdf

Jon Campbell.  April 4, 2014.  Twitter post retrieved from https://twitter.com/MrCampbell57 .

Learner considerations: Who is this project for and why?

The audience for my project, identifying French websites for early primary students, is French immersion students in Maternelle (K) and grades 1 and 2.  These students are just starting to learn French and also to read and write.  The students have a variety of experiences with communication technology; some have played on cell phones, ipads and/or computers prior to attending school. 

These young students: (Morrison 2010)

·         are energetic and cannot sit still for a long time;
·         are learning to control their emotions and social interactions
·         have an active imagination,
·         are often confident and eager to be involved,
·         want to be helpful and cooperative,
·         are solitary and independent workers at the same time,
·         like to talk.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the teachers would like to have opportunities in their “computer time”, or on classroom computers, to not only promote technology skills, but also French language learning.  I found a couple of research articles that support the use of computers and computer games for young students learning a second language.  McCarrick and Li (2007) reviewed a number of studies and concluded that “computers may not enhance gains in language development, (but) computers do provide an environment in which children use a large amount of language.”  Turgut and Irgin (2009) found that when the language is contextualized in video games, which provides settings and situations, players increase vocabulary use and have opportunities to practice vocabulary repetitively.  The following video (Early Childhood videos 2013) shows how the computer can provide repetition and take concrete concepts and make them more abstract.  In this video we see that computer work is more valuable for a student when the teacher is nearby to help with student’s questions.

Computer activities for this age group should be quite short, due to their attention spans.  The activities should provide context to help the students create meaning of the vocabulary, which brain research, has shown helps students learn and retain information (Characteristics of young learners 2009). Computer learning may appeal to students with different learning styles of types of intelligence (Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences).  Using a computer to learn will provide students with another activity to engage and play with second language, reinforcing learning. 

The identification of computer programs will support teachers since teachers are already busy with planning classroom activities.  Having a selected, curated links on the school website will minimize time spent teaching students how to locate learning games.  These links will also be available to the students at home providing repetition and enhancing language and other concept learning.

References:

Characteristics of Young Learners.  2009.  Pearson Education.  Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205535488.pdf

Early Childhood Videos.  Jan 30, 2013.  Introducing Technology to Young Children.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ylsrxof48 (imbedded)

McCarrick, Katy and Xiaoming Li.  2006.  Buried treasure: the impact of computer use on young children’s social, cognitive, language development and motivation.  AACE Journal, 15(1) 73-79.  Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/25814/0000377.pdf?sequence=1

Morrison, G. S. 2008.  What are Kindergarten Children Like? From: Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education. Pearson Education. p 237-238.  Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.education.com/reference/article/what-kindergarten-children-are-like/

SRI International.  2014.  EduSpeak® Speech Recognition Toolkit.  Image retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.sri.com/engage/products-solutions/eduspeak-speech-recognition-toolkit

Turgut, Yildiz and Pelin Irgin.  2009.  Young learners’ language learning via computer games.  Prodedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1.  760-764.  Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.gsedu.cn/tupianshangchuanmulu/zhongmeiwangluoyuyan/language%20learning%20via%20computer%20games.pdf

Supporting teachers learning ICT

Supporting teacher with ICT in classrooms requires teacher training, technical infrastructure, supportive peer networks and school administration support (Trucano, M. 2005).  To provide teacher training I realize I need to move beyond talking about potential CT programs teachers can use in their classes, for example “Little book of ICT ideas” to showing teachers the programs being used with students.  Also I need to share why students should use technology for improving their learning, like the twitter post I read by Brett Gruetzmacher.  Since teachers set “learning goals based on what is relevant to their needs and practical for them personally” (BC Min of Educ. 2002), they must see relevance in using ICT tools with their classes or themselves or they will not engage in learning about it.

Two years ago, I attended the BCTLA meeting (2012) and heard a great presentation about using cameras to encourage student literacy.  I felt this was a great fit for a French immersion school where the focus is oral language.  I contacted the presenter and asked if I could share her presentation with my school.  Susan Henderson very generously sent her PowerPoint presentation and I did a short session on one of our Pro-d Days.  This presentation resulted collaboration with a primary teacher to video her class.  We have continued again this year.  Now my collaborating teacher plans to share her videos in her grade group meeting to show how it can work in our school.  I think by seeing the ICT used educationally with young children helped this teacher take on this challenge, and the successful collaboration has helped her spread the success of this ICT tool. 

To encourage teachers to use ICT in their classes, just like sharing Mrs. Hendersons presentation, I don’t have to be able to do it all by myself but can

·         book presenters for our school and District Pro-D;

·         encourage teachers to attend ICT sessions at both local and distance conferences, for example presentations at our upcoming SD57 conference includes: Smartboards in elementary math classrooms and Goodbye Google, better ways to for building learning resources (PGDTA 2014);

·         share posted online presentations;

·         share links to interactive online educational opportunities, for example LearnNow BC webcasts;

·         share links to discussion groups using ICT, for example our inquiry learning group shares ideas through our FirstClass community website; and

·         you-tube tutorials for ICT’s.

 

Then I need to follow up these learning opportunities by providing collaborative time to help teachers use ICT with their classes or in library time. Providing scaffolding (Vygotsky’s theory of proximal development) like we do with all students with new learning.  If I don’t feel proficient or we cannot schedule time, then I can ensure they take advantage of our school’s tech teacher to work collaboratively with them and their classes.  Thirdly, I can help pair up teachers that have experience using the tools, either in my school or in other schools.  I have a great PLN with other TL’s in my School District on FirstClass who would be willing to provide me with teachers that would be good peers for learning about ICT.  I have also recently learned that our School District Learning and Curriculum Program has money for some release time to pair teachers that want to work on developing and sharing skills.  I can encourage teachers to use this funding to develop their skills with ICT.  It is important to “build opportunities for teachers to talk to each other about the skills they are learning”   since |much learning occurs through social interaction” (BC MoE 2002).

Sharing learning and creating supportive peer networks are just part of enabling ICT in classrooms, however teachers also require sufficient access technical infrastructure to use ICT tools with students.  In my school of 390 elementary students there is only one computer lab, and 6 other student computers in the library.  This arrangement limits student computer use to scheduled blocks of computer time, with some access to either early finishers or students who are late on assignments in the library.  Another step I want to take is to be more proactive promoting a mobile computer lab to increase computer access for students using ICT tools.  Proactive steps include collaborating with the Tech teacher in my school; looking for funding sources; and talking with administration. These proactive steps may also involve a conversation with teachers  and administration on where the best place to spend the school technology budget should be, since some teachers want Smartboards.  My preference is for tablets since Smartboards are much more expensive and limit teaching to one location in the classroom.  While tablets are portable and can be “connected to video projectors, digital monitors or internet broadcasts to draw, highlight and interact with whatever is on their screens without the aid of a Smartboard” (Fowlkes 2013).

 References

Anderson, M.  2013. Little book of ICT ideas.  Retrieved Feb 16, 2014 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/50091789/little-book-of-superb-sites

BC Ministy of Education, Standards Department.  2002.  Working with colleagues, a guide for ICT mentors.  Retrieved Feb 16 from https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/applied_skills/support_materials/mentors.pdf

Fowlkes, K. 2013.  Why Tablets will kill Smart Boards in Classrooms.  Retrieved Feb 17, 2014 from http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/why-tablets-will-kill-smart-boards-in-classrooms/d/d-id/1108091?page_number=1

Gruetzmacher, Brett. Jul 6 2013.  What do you want kids to do with technology! Twitter post.

Henderson, Susan.  2013.  Creating Collaborative Projects with Technology Integration. BCTLA conferencehttp://bctf.ca/bctla/conference/2012.html
Kidcode 2. Wordle tutorial. Retrieved Feb 14, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhL5D9nz5aI .

LearnNow BC.  Retrieved Feb 17, 2014 from http://www.learnnowbc.ca/.

PGDTA. April 2014.  Spring Fling conference.  Retrieved Feb 16, 2014 from  http://springflingconference.weebly.com/ .

Trucano, Michael.  2005. Knowledge Maps: ICTs in Education.  Washington, DC: infoDev / World Bank.  Retrieved Feb 16, 2014 from http://www.infodev.org/articles/teachers-teaching-and-icts

Vgotsky theory of proximal development.  Retrieved Feb 17, 2014 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm

Personal Interests and Issues in Educational Technology

I am in my second year as a teacher-librarian at École Lac des Bois.  The school is a 4 year old single track French immersion elementary school in Prince George BC. I am realizing that I want to continue to develop our school library into a Learning Commons.  Last year I started on the first steps by reorganizing library space and developing a library webpage (École Lac des Bois).  This year the school webpage is being improved by a supportive technology-savvy teacher.  We both think there are many opportunities to expand information sharing in our school both for students and staff using this web page.  For the staff, this could be good location to share online professional resources which are harder to find for French immersion elementary students, and I could curate.   For students the web page could encourage them to share digital classroom projects with other students in the school and beyond.  For example I am teaching a grade 6/7 class on inquiry research projects.  The students will be creating a Prezi to showcase their learning on a personal research question on extreme environments.  This project is supported by my Professional Learning Network[1] (PLN) focused on teaching with an inquiry learning approach.  The students would increase their learning about digital literacy if they work was published online.  I think publishing would help students become part of the global community (Kist 2013).  I also think that by publishing student work other teachers would be interested in trying similar types of projects for similar literacy goals.  I would like to explore how we can safely and legally develop a Learning Commons to share student work.  Fortunately I have support from a teacher-librarian PLN[2] that is exploring how students can share and create online within current provincial legislation.

I also think technology provides great opportunities to provide French immersion students practice in speaking and listening to oral language. Another area that I would like to explore is technology that could be used to provide the students opportunities to record and listen to French, for example digital storytelling (Robin 2008).  Currently I am working with a grade 1 teacher, we are teaching her students to run the video cameras to record fellow student’s presentations at the beginning and end of the year.  This gives the teacher a record of the student’s oral skills, and the students work hard on practicing their oral language skills before they are recorded.  Videotaping can be used at all grade levels but I think there are other digital opportunities for students to use for practicing French oral language skills, that would allow more students to use them at once, and/or provide more immediate feedback.

In the future I also see an opportunity to collaborate with teachers to create a safe collaborative online learning environment (Schoolwires 2013).  All students in our school system have access to an email account.  I think students in grade 6 and 7 should be taught netiquette and learn how to use the internet safely for collaborative learning.  I would like to learn more about what social sites could be used collaboratively for education in an elementary school setting, for example blogging, creating group projects, etc.  Potentially our school web page could provide the links to a virtual learning commons.

Possible topics and Keywords:

Library commons:
Library commons
virtual learning commons
digital learning commons
technology tools
online learning

open educational resources

oral language:

digital scholar
digital literacy
open educational resources
voice recording
digital storytelling
educational uses of digital storytelling
engaged learning
multimedia
multimodality
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
imovie
 
collaborative online learning:
collaborative environments
cloud computing
technology integration
student virtual spaces

virtual classroom

social media in education
social learning / social learning environments
e-learning
electronic classrooms
social networking
 

Resources:

Banawzewski, T. 2002.  Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom.  Multimedia Schools Jan/Feb 2002.  Retrieved Jan. 12, 2014 from http://hdhstory.net/school/lit/Digital%20Storytelling%20Finds%20Its%20Place%20in%20the%20Classroom.pdf

École Lac des Bois Library website.  January 2014. http://www.ldb.sd57.bc.ca/index.php?id=6867

Kist, W. 2013. The Global School: Connecting classrooms and students around the world.  Solution Tree Press.   USA.

Koechlin, C. E. Rosenfeld and D. Loertscher.  2010. Building a Learning Commons, a guide for school administrators and learning leadership teams.  Hi Willow Research & Publishing. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mr. G Online. July 22, Edtech cheat sheet: understanding new trends in educational technology.  Retrieved Jan 8,2014 from http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/files/2012/07/20120721-074913.jpg

Nevin, Roger.  March 2010. Improving learning, engaging students and changing the collaborative culture of a school through the learning commons.  Retrieved Jan 11, 2014 from http://tmcanada.pbworks.com/f/Paper_For_Edmonton+Rogeszr.pdf

Robin, B.R. 2008.  Digital Storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21^st century classroom.  Theory into practice 47:220-228.  Retrieved Jan 12, 2014 from http://digitalstorytellingclass.pbworks.com/f/Digital+Storytelling+A+Powerful.pdf

Schoolwires.  2013.  Creating a safe social learning environment to improve student success.  republished in Internet at school. nov/dec 2013.  vol 20 (5) p 8-13.

University of Houston.  2013. Educational uses of digital storytelling.  Retrieved Jan 12, 2012 from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/archive/index.html .

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[1] SD57 TL Learning Team Grant “ Challenging the culture of research”

[2] SD57 TL Learning Team Grant on Digital Literacy