Unit 2 Web 2.0

Hello,

I currently teach a 4th and 5th grade split. I started with only 4th grade but due to enrollment numbers, I had to do a 4th/5th split again as last year. My situation is somewhat unique because this is only our 2nd year of the schools opening. Our students are diverse, coming from Detroit, Pontiac, and Waterford.  When viewing my student examples, keep in mind 90% are operating 2-3 grade levels lower than their current grade. I had 5th graders who couldn't read or subtract and I'm asking them to divide. There were no examples of prior IEP's. I was elated after tons of documentation, we were able to get IEP's for these students. We have a 6th grader who is 13 and was constantly being held back, no intervention ever given according to her records. We had no curriculum, besides the Common Core requirements, and our ability to effectively search for free products. I had a slight advantage because I used to work for NAT GEO learning as an installation specialist, so I had some exposure to many educational products and having educators and administrators as my clients, I received a lot of feedback.

Having said that, since we don't have many textbooks, almost everything I use is technology based or printed out.There are subscription based online programs I use. The main one I use for reading and math also has features available for messaging me and each other called "the wall". I had to disable this feature rather quickly after reading their posts of insulting each other. I wish I hadn't had to to that but I felt it necessary. I have received facebook requests from students but I never accept because I am afraid of the ramifications. I have friends from high school who use inappropriate language or post unsavory ideas which I do not want my students to associate me with. I never post anything on twitter and mostly just follow educationally based accounts. I have considered creating a teacher only facebook page since our school has one, I would like to put my donors choose project there.

I do have a classroom website via weebly which we use on a daily basis. This does have a blogging feature but I have not used it, and my students have asked about it. I use it as a long-term project page and announcements.

I believe the following would fall under  the category of modification.
I have also created a google site with a google group where students can submit assignments via the group and I can return.    
 Curriculum web

Augmentation:

On the same site, I created a page where students evaluate the project by competing a survey using a google form I created. It can be seen here. 

 The one problem I face is email addresses. Many parents at this age do not want their kids to have an email address. I also did a project under a generic gmail account and students worked on presentations in google slides under the same account and I could check on their progress. They could also access this from home, which they did. The problem arose, though, that sometimes they would go into another students project to mess around with it, infuriating that student. Why? I have no idea, because they thought it would be funny.
On one of the pages of my weebly site, I have examples of student work where they created a prezi or the google slides for a book and movie comparison. for the 2014-2015 school year, they added an option that allows for easily adding music.

You can click the student link above to view the presentations. The problem we had was adding music. At that time, prezi would only allow a certain file type of music files, and I could not figure out on the fly how to add free royalty free music files to the google slides. Prezi used to be cumbersome to use, but they have updated it and my higher level students were able to master it pretty quickly, beside the music aspect. To get around this, they added a youtube video in the background, but you couldn't do this if you presented in auto mode, only in manual mode.

Redefinition:

We have not had students create any videos as of yet, I have made videos of the class and shown them. However, due to the levels they are behind, this has been put on the back burner. We, as a whole, have made our primary goals of getting these kids on grade level in reading and math. I have tried doing videos of my students, but many have low confidence levels and run away from this. I do have students who would love it. I have one student in mind who hates reading a writimg (English is his second language), but loves talking about himself and his opinions, so the I believe would surely be doable for him.

Digital Resources for training and learning

Teaching and Learning-Digital Natives

The area my school is in is quite transient, all students qualify for free lunch, and poverty is a theme for almost all of them. Many do not have computers at home, and depend on smartphones. Many students have these or access to their parents smart phones.Yes, they do want instant gratification and rewards. They expect their technology to be instantaneous. If it doesn't power up immediately, they begin to frantically push buttons repetitively (our PC lab is pretty outdated, running XP). However, they don't know how to efficiently use a keyboard (tab vs. moving the mouse and clicking in each box, the number keyboard and num lock, hunting and pecking, searching efficiently, etc). They don't respect the technology ( I have seen them bring in devices with cracked screens). What they do well is searching for images for words and vocabulary they don't know, prefer Tumblebooks online over real books, avoid reading and would rather see it on YouTube, and click through tutorials without watching. Many of my students want to avoid reading at all costs. 
The author suggests using video games for learning. I've done this, in fact I have several games for each topic in math. Our curriculum is largely based on technology and we have few textbooks. Herein lies the problem: engaging games they enjoy. I have games related to each concept. From a kid's POV, some are not so exciting. They use a game for long division. However it's not as fun as the multiplication games where they race other students in the class, getting a turbo blast each time they get the problem correct. The long Division games are basically the paper/pencil version, except it gives them prompts to remember each step. Boring, not engaging to them.As Prensky illustrates in the article, Digital Natives grew up learning from TV and games, thus their natural inclination towards youtube. They have parents who can't do long division, who tell their kids to look up a tutorial, hence their predisposition towards YouTube.

One thing I have noticed is they don't test well using technology versus traditional testing. I use a program for math online testing where they don't have to show their work and they almost always fail. I then give them a paper test, with the instructions to show their work, to retest their wrong problems. They then do great. I think it is just too easy to click through the test if you don't have to show your work. Some students have claimed the paper test is easier, even though they are the exact same problems.
I use a complete curriculum online for reading and math. It has many features, it calculates data, students can watch an animation, they can track their own progress. The book reads to them. In class, I called to all to the Promethean board and we all read as a group. They don't like working in partners or independently for reading, because they have to actually read the whole thing without direction. As a group at the board, they have guidance. It's no wonder they hate reading, every game and book has a YouTube video or a read aloud. They did not grow up needing to read to get information. My students lack the prior knowledge you would expect to see in 4th and 5th grade. They don't make connections or think about things in a common sense kind of way. Perhaps because they do not have the life experiences that children 20 and 30 years ago always had.
I do see connections with Prensky's article and my own students. McKenzie's article mostly focused on critiquing Prensky and the lack of scientific evidence. I get that, however, I didn't really glean any new information regarding Digital Natives.
I do agree student behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs have changed. We were just talking about this in a meeting. It seems students from all social status and demographics have seem to shift towards this "No, I can't" attitude. It seems they have more power than ever and believe certain aspects of school are optional when they are not. Perhaps due to a shift in parenting where kids are so overprotecting and shielded from difficult decisions that they cannot cope? Reeves discusses this "generational transition" and is quite relevant to today's students.

About Me

Hello,


My name is Karen Wilfong. I am currently near completion of my M.Ed in Instructional Technology with an emphasis in Administrative and Organizational Studies. I received a B.A. from University of Michigan with a major in Language Arts/Education and a minor in Integrated science. I have experience within a diverse range of industries. I worked for a manufacturing company in inside sales, the medical field, health services compliance for the county, I taught science in Utah, digital publishing services for an educational publisher, and an educator at a charter school.

I also enjoy reading comedy articles and cracked.com is one of my favorite places to do that. I have laughed hysterically at some of the articles. I also like to read lists, listverse is another favorite read. I especially like to read about weird, unusual oddities and reading true crime books because the psychology behind it is fascinating. I enjoy learning new, unrelated things and my favorite way to learn is through reading, the favored mode of learning by me. Please use the following links to see my ePortfolio and examples of prior work.

Weebly: ePortfolio
Twitter: @KalynnWilfong
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