January 2011 Archives

For the past few weeks, we've been talking about benefits and strategies of giving your students the opportunity to choose which technology to use in their project.

For teachers new to integrating technology, Choice 2.0 with Microsoft Office is a safe bet. If your students want to create a poster or brochure, you have Publisher or Word. If they want to create a presentation, they have PowerPoint. These programs are straightforward and almost all schools have Office or some equivalent.

But, what if the students want to use other programs or hardware that you don't have at school?

Do you let them pursue their choice of technology even if you might not be familiar with the specific technology program?

Do you let them pursue their ideas even if you might not be able to supervise them using the technology during class?

Providing evidence that your students have learned the content helps you let them pursue their ideas and choices. So, it's important that you build checkpoints for understanding in your project.

Although many teachers may be in contexts where students can research and build their product at the same time, in a context of a socio-economically and culturally diverse middle school, I prefer having checkpoints where students must complete their research and get approval from the teacher before going forward with the creative technologies.

The challenge with multiple tasks in open environments is that some of the struggling learners may get overwhelmed with the amount of choices and not make sufficient progress with their research. Sometimes a student might spend a whole period in front of the computer and have little to show for the effort if left unsupervised or without adequate direction.

This is precious time lost, especially in the demanding assessment and data driven culture of our classrooms.

Enforcing regular checkpoints allows the teacher to document student progress, which is important in this current culture of data and accountability. It's also important for the teacher to continue giving mini-focused assessments during these projects to check for understanding. Short warm up assessments or quizzes are easy to do for the first ten minutes of each period before letting the students free on the computers. Requiring the students to submit their research notes at the end of each period is also a possibility to ensure that time is well spent.

There are many ways to have checkpoints for understanding. These structures must be built into the project creation process so that teachers can balance providing regular feedback with more open ended project based experiences.

Although this focus on evidence of understanding is part of the data-driven reality we work in, one advantage of ensuring that basic competencies are met is that we can then afford to take risks and give choices for students wanting to pursue their ideas for their products.

So, if the students have met your criteria for completing research and have completed other assessment activities that show proficiency with content, let them pursue their ideas and choices.

Set the deadline and see what happens.

Let them take the risk and learn the responsibilities that come with such freedoms.

I offer these real examples using the Chesapeake Bay Conservation project (for 7th grade science) mentioned in earlier posts. These students did not want the Microsoft Office option and wanted to pursue their own ideas. Since they met the criteria for our checkpoints, we set them free...

What happened?

Watershed Awareness Reality Documentary: Using the video camera on a cell phone, a student walked around "live" in the apartment complex filming footage of a person washing a car, a person doing laundry, and a person doing dishes.

Each segment had the student questioning the "interviewee" asking, "Do you know where that water is going?"

When the person would give a confused look, the student then gave that person an impromptu brief lesson on watersheds- all on the video.

The authenticity was refreshing. To be honest, I was very surprised with the results. For all my suggestions of storyboarding, script writing, and planning each scene when creating a video, this student just improvised in real time and pulled off an entertaining and humorously educational reality style video of real people doing everyday chores that impacted the environment.

Using the cell phone to make the video was a terrific idea in terms of maximizing available technology and resources since many families have cell phones with this capability, but may not own a "stand alone" video camera.

Chesapeake Bay Video Rap: Two students stayed after school and videotaped a rap about the Blue Crab. They wrote their lyrics and brought a CD of the "background track". Total recording time after school? Only 10 minutes. Years later, I still show their video as an example of a music product. Priceless!

Creating a song was not one of the choices listed in the original project, but the students knew what they wanted to do and found the necessary tools to help them complete the task. They met the expectations of integrating the content into their song. They were creative in a way that I could not have taught them since I don't rap very well.

Environmental Website Designer: The student told me that he could build a website at home. Two days later, the student returns with a website built with Dreamweaver, a professional level website builder.

When I asked the student how he was able to use Dreamweaver, he responded that his dad was a website designer and was teaching him how to use the program. Requiring this student to use Microsoft Office would not have challenged this student at his level. When he encounters Dreamweaver in a high school technology class, he will be years ahead of the other students.

These are just some of the successful stories of what happens when students are allowed to make their own choices.

Sometimes, things don't go as planned, but the experiences are just as meaningful.

The News Show: A group of highly motivated honors students plan an elaborate news show with director, newscasters, and different scenes.

They all insist that they could finish in one day over the weekend.

I remember asking them, "Are you sure? Tell me exactly what you are going to do."

They tell me about their script (that kept changing) and their ever growing elaborate plans. They are excited about the project. They insist it can be done. Since they have passed all the checkpoints and understand the content, we let them pursue their ideas.

On Monday, they showed up with nothing. Each student had a different story of why they couldn't film and the challenges they encountered.

When we talked to their parents about the project and how they could finish their work, the parents were very supportive of the freedom the students were given with the project.

One parent reaffirmed, "Project management and working with different personalities and work habits on a team...They need more real experiences like this!"

These highly motivated students get an important lesson on setting realistic expectations and working with people with different strengths and schedules- a lesson that will help them as adults in the corporate workforce.

So, if your students have completed the research and you can verify that content is learned, give them the chance to pursue their ideas.

Students may surprise you with what they create. Beyond the content and technology, you will teach them important lessons in organization, collaboration, and responsibility.

Thanks again to Ms. Goble, 7th grade English Teacher, for our continuing work with giving choice in her research projects.

Posted by Patrick Ledesma at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last week we explored the benefits of giving students the opportunity to choose which technology to use to demonstrate their knowledge.

In our Choice 2.0 example, students choose which technology to use to research a topic and give a presentation for a specific purpose. Compare this with the traditional Choice 1.0 technology integration lesson where students usually researched a topic, created a PowerPoint (for example), and submitted the presentation to the teacher.

Choice 2.0 Example

The health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is deteriorating.

3) Panel Presentation: You will present your advertisement or commercial to a panel of experts and explain how your project helps middle schoolers learn about conservation. Your colleagues will be in the audience.

In Choice 2.0, students have purpose, a real world problem, and a real audience. Their choice of technology will depend on their preferences and strengths. Students will use a variety of higher level thinking skills to create their final product.

Facilitating this more open ended type of activity can be challenging since students will be working at a more independent level. Inevitably, students will be moving at different paces. Students will be using a variety of technology programs at the same time.

In order to minimize difficulties with research, the teacher should provide adequate structure and guidance with these types of open-ended, long term projects.

Providing Structure: The Choice 2.0 Project Checklist

These simple questions will help you plan an activity appropriate for the strengths and needs of your class. The target age for this checklist is middle school, but this can be easily modified for your grade level.

1) How do you keep your students on track throughout the project?

For example, will you include a calendar or timeline of due dates? This helps students build independence in their own planning and helps parents understand your expectations.

2) How will you guide student research?

Where will the students do their research? Left on their own, many students will use Google or Wikipedia and use the first article they see. Will you include books? (Or, is that too 20th Century for you?) Are you going to recommend some teacher approved or recommended websites? Or, do you require students to use a minimum number of websites or books to verify the information? These are things to think about.

3) Where will the students record their research so you can monitor their progress?

Will you trust your students to take notes on their own paper? Will some remember to bring paper to class? Will they type their notes electronically on a Word document? Will they remember to save their work if they take notes electronically?

Many teachers provide a graphic organizer, chart, or specified format to help the students organize their notes.

You know the needs of your students. Sometimes, taking and keeping notes from research is a challenge!

4) How will students cite their work?

Students hate citations. Actually, so do most adults. But, it has to be done. Here's a helpful online citation tool.

5) How are you supporting your diverse learners?

Will all students have the same amount of work and resources? Or, will you provide additional resources on a simplified reading level or reduce the number or project components? Will you "suggest" certain topics for certain students that may have difficulty with more abstract concepts?

6) Do you have a checklist? Or, will you have checkpoints throughout the project where you require each student to conference with you so you can review their work and progress?

Checkpoints break larger projects into smaller tasks. This prevents the "teacher surprise" if some students are falling behind, having difficulty, or have nothing to show after spending a whole period in front of the computer.

Checklists build independence. Some students can organize independently. Others need some help and a few might need a lot of help. All could benefit from some kind of structure that you model through the supports you provide.

7) Will you provide a folder or packet? Where will students keep everything?

Many teachers provide their student with a project packet that has all the calendars, graphic organizers, checklists, etc.

Having the packet as a guide allows the fast learners to progress at their own pace independently, allowing the teacher to facilitate and directly help other students.

The packet also facilitates work at home since parents understand the format and expectations.

A packet with their research notes and drafts is concrete evidence of their progress.

8) Technology Approval: Will the students research and build their presentation at the same time? Or, will you require that you approve their research before allowing them to build their presentation or product?

At the middle school level with a diverse socio-cultural group of students, we've found it helpful to make sure that students do all their research (Internet and library) before allowing them to use technology to create their product.

Requiring checkpoints maximizes time to make sure content is covered and basic expectations are met. Although many students may be able to research and create their product at the same time, some students may have difficulty organizing all steps necessary to complete a large project and become distracted by unstructured time on the computer. Breaking a larger project into manageable components with opportunities for feedback and requiring completion of tasks at each stage ensures that all students will be successful.

Next Steps

With all of the research complete, the teacher can feel confident that content was covered regardless of the technology used. After all, most content teachers have to balance keeping up with the curriculum pacing guide with allowing time for larger projects. An organized approach to research helps ensure that content objectives were covered.

This is important, since next time we talk about incorporating more flexibility and opportunity in allowing students to exercise Choice 2.0 with their chosen technology.

Next Time: Choice 2.0: Risk as Opportunities to Learn

Special thanks to Ms. Goble, 7th grade English teacher, for our continuing work with Choice 2.0 projects with students.

Posted by Patrick Ledesma at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Have you used Microsoft Office or some other publishing software in your classroom?

Did it go something like this?

1) Research a topic.

2) Use PowerPoint to make a presentation to display information.

3) Submit PowerPoint to teacher.

Or, maybe you used another program like Microsoft Publisher.

1) Research a topic.

2) Use Publisher to create a poster to display your information.

3) Print.

4) Submit poster to teacher.

Or, maybe you used a slideshow program like Photostory.

1) Research a topic and find pictures.

2) Create a slideshow with text to show your information.

3) Submit slideshow to teacher.

Sometimes students would share their work if there was extra time, but for the most part, there was a familiar pattern to these lessons.

Research and use one program to show what was learned, then submit to teacher.

We've all done these types of lessons to integrate technology.

For teachers nervous about integrating technology, these types of lessons are a good start to get comfortable using technology with students. We learn how to design a lesson using the technology and manage/problem solve all the details with implementing the activity with real kids.

Students using these tools for the first time learn the mechanics of using the program; however, as students start using these tools at younger ages, teachers are challenged to expand the way they integrate technology in the classroom.

So many teachers ask, "What's the next level for technology integration?"

Many educators think the next step up is using fancier technology- maybe creating a product with multimedia authoring tools, a website, animation, or using a cool hardware. These activities could be an option, but more meaningful technology integration isn't always about fancier technology or using the latest shiny device.

It's about using technology in a more meaningful instructional way.

Fancier isn't always better. Sometimes, those who focus on using the latest and greatest complex technology focus too much on the technology, rather than the instructional application or understanding of content. Or, using fancier technology may be out of the teacher's comfort zone resulting in ineffective use of time due to mismanagement or fumbling with a new device or interface.

Or, what happens most of the time, rushed use of new and untested technologies result in lost time due to glitches and problems that haven't been fixed. In the tech world, I think techies refer to this as "beta testing". In education, we refer to ourselves as "piloting" the unproven technology.

Are there other options?

Yes. Choice! Actually, in keeping with technology nomenclature traditions, let's use Choice 2.0, since Choice 1.0 meant having only one option of which technology to use.

In Choice 2.0, we allow students to choose which technology to use to demonstrate their knowledge.

Why Choice 2.0?

Choice 2.0 Leads to Purpose

Giving students the option to choose which technology to use allows the teacher to stay in familiar territory, but ultimately encourages the teacher to examine the purpose of the activity.

How does this happen? Because in giving choice, one actually starts to change how the lesson activity is designed and implemented.

First, the activity will look something like this...

1) Research a topic.

2) Use either Word, PowerPoint, or Publisher to show what you've learned.

3) Submit your work.

But this seems a little strange and disjointed.

The activity lacks purpose and coherence.

As the teacher begins to think about purpose, the teacher starts to ask, "Why are the students researching the topic? Why are they using the technology?"

We begin to incorporate concepts of problem solving and authentic learning experiences in our activity.

Here's where the change starts. One realizes that technology integration becomes more meaningful when there is purpose to using the technology. Perhaps, a real world example is needed? Or, maybe the students need a focus.

Here's the brief summary of a sample project used by colleague, Ms. Goble, a 7th grade English teacher:

The health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is deteriorating.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation wants to start an advertising campaign for middle school students to learn about conservation. As future citizens, it's important that you and your friends understand the various conservation issues that affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

1) Research a topic on conservation.

3) Panel Presentation: You will present your advertisement or commercial to a panel of experts and explain how your project helps middle schoolers learn about conservation. Your colleagues will be in the audience.

Some students used PowerPoint to create a transcript and slideshow that could be shown at schools or other events and venues. Others created brochures and posters using Publisher. Most importantly, all the students showed their products to their colleagues during a formal presentation.

From a research and technology perspective, is this activity any different from the activities described at the beginning?

Not really. The research is the same. The technology is the same.

But when the activity is enhanced with giving choice and defining purpose, the activity becomes much more meaningful for both the teacher and student.

Students and Teachers Learn

Students begin to think about their use of technology and which tools best meet their needs and goals. Since they know that their colleagues will see their work, they are more enthusiastic and motivated. Since they plan and give a presentation, they develop their voice and presentation skills.

Teachers benefit since they create a more challenging activity that incorporates technology while staying with tools that are familiar. They begin to facilitate individual learning as each student plans their own project. The teacher guides each student as needed.

Compare this process with the initial projects where every student had the same product with information presented almost in an identical manner.

What's Next?

After a successful and fun experience integrating Choice 2.0 into their lessons, some may ask, "What's the next challenge to integrate in their lesson?" For example, some teachers ask about more group oriented projects and how to include other technologies that students may want to use.

More on this next week....

In the meantime, if you want a more challenging lesson with technology, offer Choice 2.0!

Posted by Patrick Ledesma at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend