Final Project--6th Grade Hybrid

Well here it is. It is hard to believe this class is over. I have really enjoyed the class. It has gotten me excited about the possibilities of elearning as we move forward. I am looking forward to the next class. Thank you Dr. Newberry.

Before I present my project, I received some exciting news:

“It is my pleasure to inform you that you have passed all sections attempted of the Winter 2010 Comprehensive examination for the Instructional Technology option.” In other words I did it :)

Now my project. This is a hybrid class for 6th Graders that will be meeting in class.

Final Project
Discussion of technologies (One/Two way, Media Richness and Social Presence as well as Appropriateness).

Motivation

      As I was listening to Dr. Newberry discuss student motivation on Thursday, I was thinking a lot about my class. Dr. Newberry discussed how people could chage up the format to make it so that the assignments are scaffolded and build on each other.  Students are encouraged to discuss ideas if possible in a chat or blog format.  Dr. Newberry stated that grading is very important for students because that can be a form of feedback.  I was intrigued by the breakdown of differences in classes by differences in content, differences in students and differences in instructor preferences.  That gave me some insight on how to help my new classes.
     In two weeks I am receiving a new crop of classes. Most of them will be 6th Graders that had a computer last trimester that focused on the use of Photoshop and basic computer skills. Many of them are GATE and have two teachers who really do not use the computer. The question I am dealing with is how to engage them and get them excited about using computers for projects. In the past I have created simple assignments for them utilizing PowerPoint and Movie Maker, but I think these students are past that.

     This leads me to questions about how to I get these students excited about technology and how to use it to share information. My final project is geared towards that. I think it is important to expose them to different technologies that will allow them to be creative. My project has the students be introduced to different programs to share what they have learned. All of these mini projects will then be tied together in creating web pages with links to what they have done. I was thinking about using Google Sites for the students to create the projects and upload them to the Internet so they can be viewed, but I am having problems using it and it would just be another headache so they will do their pages in Microsoft Word and save them as web pages with links to the folder. After creating the web pages with the active links, one of the first projects is to create videos to serve as tutorials on different skills as we prepare for the CSTs in early May. I am excited to see what they are able to come up with. By having a purpose to the video, I think the students will take off on the project.

     Besides the 6th graders, I am thinking about my 8th graders who have taken my class already as 7th graders with the same curriculum. How do I get them to buy in? I watched the 8th graders I had last trimester take the comfortable road by doing projects they did last year, so they were bored. How can I get them to take the skills they have learned and use them differently? My plan is to talk to the core teachers for each grade level and find out different ways that I can help them with the curriculum. After finding different topics, I will create assignments that integrate the different ways to share information (i.e. podcasts, video, Storytelling Alice, and Scratch) with students. As long as I still let them make their CO2 cars for a project, I think I can get some good results by assigning them different topics and they being allowed to figure out how they are going to share it. Honestly it is all rattling around in my brain as I type this. I still have two weeks to figure it out.

I am including a few links to articles that I found interesting this week as I looked for articles about motivating students. Take a look for some ideas.
Who is school for?
Making the case for Social Media in Education
Interactive Activities

Final Project (in process)

     This project is a basic outline of what I am going to teach my 6th Graders for the third trimester. I will have four sections that have some computer experience. This is a hybrid class in that I have the students 1 period a day in the computer lab. I am having them create a website that will link projects together to show as an e-portfolio. I plan to try to have them utilize Google Docs and Sites if possible or will have them create the web pages in Microsoft Word and save them as web pages. They will link to the other pages and will save it all in one folder on their share drives.

I am currently working on the outline, but thought I would share what I have now so you could check to see if I am on the correct track.  If you have a chance, any feedback would help.


Project Outline (work in progress)

ADA Assignment

Name of evaluator: Chris Fisher

URL of page being evaluated: http://southridgems.org/ourpages/users/Fisher/web/techcore1.mht

Explain your procedure:
I guess if I was going to critic anyone’s webpage, I needed to look at my current class’ page. I saved my page as an MHT and uploaded it to our school’s website so that you could view it. I am using Claris Homepage to edit the pages and had just changed from the Olympic page. This is a filler page for the week before we go off track.

List Any Problems Found:
Oh where to start. The colors for the page are wrong. The background makes it hard to read because you cannot have a consistent color for the text. The power point said to avoid red-green-blue combinations. The page has links that are hard to find because of the background washing away the text. The font is easy to read but some people would say that it is too small.

Explain How to Correct These Problems:
To fix my website, I would have a solid color for the background. I would change the color of the text so that it is something that would contrast the background such as white background with black text and red links. I do not use many animated gifs but I do watch to make sure that they do not flash or are annoying.

Assignment 2: Planning for ADA compliance.

Power Point – Using Dr. Newberry’s example, I would have the power point with a creative background and a plain background so you could select which one to use. I avoid using pictures as backgrounds because the colors bleed through. The font must be easy to read without many colors that make it harder to read. I stay away from animating the text using custom animations because it makes the reader lose focus and takes away from the presentation. There should be no flashy transitions. I like the 6 by 6 rule for power point slides because we run into problems with too much text on a slide or the text is either too small or too large.

Podcast- I create podcasts to use for my class at least once a month. When I create podcasts, I create a list of points that I want covered as I record. After recording the podcast, I also post a transcript of the podcast online to go along with it. The transcript would have a plain background with the text in black with a clear font.

I really wanted to try the third option but as of tonight I was having problems downloading the software for my computer at work.  As soon as I can, I plan to play with the Closed Captioning.