Progress: Slow, but Sure

I want to start out this week by saying, sometimes what you are looking for can be found right under your nose. I just want to say thank you to Sarah for her comments last week.

I have decided to poll my students for the real-world issue that is important to them, instead of searching far and near for what I think is important. This "a-ha" moment came from Sarah's suggestion and from our chapter on assessment this week. I realized that I do not plan to assess my students on the topic choice. That is theirs to own, not for me to give. After reading about authentic assessment I feel it is important for me to set up this project as if it were a real film team assigned to create a real public service announcement or to persuade public opinion (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). It would be my job as "the boss" to focus on how effectively they send the message, not what the message was. I have definitely learned the importance of planning out the assessment while planning out the project, and the importance of setting clear expectations for performance.



When we get back from Turkey Day break, I plan to survey the students and continue on from there. The holidays and all of the activities that pull teachers and children away from the regular schedule may slow me down a bit on my progress so please be patient. In the meantime, I think I will modify my action plan to accommodate some time for linking assessment strategies into my lesson plan before I attempt to begin the process of implementation. Which brings up the question what types of assessment would be best? I am leaning towards an analytical rubric but would love to hear some suggestions for some formative assessments to provide feedback to my students along the way.



My other goal is sort of on hold right know as I await the arrival of my collaborative group members. Maybe by next week's post I can give you an update on that progress. I hope everyone enjoys a restful Thanksgiving holiday.



Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., (2009) Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Carrying Out the Plan

To reach the goals set in my GAME plan I am going to need locate some resources. First, I need to narrow down the broad idea of "real life issues" into some hot topics that will hook my students I think selecting some very localized topics as well as some national or world-wide topics may be a place to begin. Why just today I received an e-mail from Discovery Education about a project called the, "We can change the World Challenge". I will get more information about the details of this project to see if it will relate to my students but I know there are thousands more like it if I could locate them. If I wanted to stay closer to home a locate some local issues, I think the local newspaper and even talking to students about everyday problems could assist in the search. I believe I could get a lot of assistance from posting a request for project ideas on my Ning group, Art 2.0, as well as putting out a feeler on Twitter. I just want to find something that will spark real creativity and not just another poster contest. So far, I have not made much progress on this goal other than committing to reaching out to my support group for ideas.

My other goal of modeling collaborative learning groups is progressing quite nicely. I have tapped into some resources in my school that will be working with me on a collaborative project. First, I have a group of fifth graders very interested in filmmaking. One has become very proficient at making stop motion films using his web cam and Windows Movie Maker. Even though I personally know a lot about creating animation, my skills lie in using real film. I have dabbled in digital film-making but not on the level he has been working. I have also located a college art student (the daughter of a co-worker) who is seeking to meet the requirements of her current college course and log community service hours by working in my art classroom. She also happens to be a very experienced digital filmmaker. I have made arrangements for her to come and share her expertise. She is familiar with using I-movie not. So together, the three of us, along with the other students interested in film-making ,will be dependent on learning this whole process together. We will collectively discover what it takes to complete a full project from start to finish by each bringing to the group our area of expertise.
The other collaborative effort I am working on is a cross-curricular project with another teacher. I would like to develop a project where we both will depend on each others areas of expertise to plan and execute the learning experience for our students. I have already spoken to a few teachers whom I felt would be flexible enough and creative in their instruction to work along with me in this endeavor. I will keep you updated on how things will progress.

What's my GAME plan?

The GAME plan presented in our textbook is a wonderful way to guide my self-directed learning and help me keep up-to-date on changing technology and the needs of my students (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). After looking through the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, or NETS-T, I selected two indicators in which I would like to become more proficient. The first is indicator 1b: Teacher engages students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. My goal for this indicator is to better connect my students to issues in their world in which they could utilize their creative and artistic skills to communicate a message or solution to a real-life problem. The second indicator is 1d: Teacher models collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others, in face-to-face and virtual environments. My goal for this indicator is to engage in more collaborative learning experiences so that I feel more comfortable doing so. I have always been an independent learner and I find it challenging to work in groups. In the past, I have not encouraged collaborative learning in my students because of my personal view. As I have been integrating more and more collaborative work into my instructional strategies I have begun to see the benefits and I realize the importance of this skill.



To reach my goals I plan to take the following actions: for indicator 1b, I plan to use technology to explore the many on line projects that seek student involvement for success. Maybe some of you know of some locations I could begin exploring? Some possible actions may lie in using a favorite program of my fifth graders, Sketch Up. For example, working on a simulated model of a modern city design or even redesigning our own town would provide an real-working architects view of design. Another action could be to use digital film making as a connection to real world issues. I could see students working on public service announcements. For example, recently we worked on a campaign for staying healthy at school by designing germs that were strategically placed throughout the school building to remind students to wash hands etc. I could see my students going beyond the walls of the school to communicate messages to the world through digital media. For indicator 1d, my actions need to be focused more on what I need to be involved with to model this behavior for my students. I will need to take steps to locate other people to set up a collaboration project. Whether it be a student group that has technological skills to teach me, a group of grade level teachers willing to collaborate on a cross curricular project, or even a peer to collaborate with on line, I need to design a project that I cannot do on my own so that I will be forced to learn in a group setting and depend on others.



Since indicator 1d is closely tied to my personal view I believe the best way to monitor my progress towards this goal is through a reflective journal, possibly even a blog. This will help me document how different attempts to model collaborative learning effect the students as well as myself. By forcing myself to be dependent on others I could also document my feelings through the project to determine if certain behaviors bother me more then others and learn how to communicate those concerns to future collaborators. Indicator 1b, could be monitored through student surveys. Comparing a pre-survey to a post-survey could provide data to illustrate the impact an authentic learning experience could have on the students. Also joining an on line peer group that engages in this type of instruction could provide me with support and contacts for my own projects. By sharing the search for projects with others I will be motivated to not just let my search for ideas and lessons fall on the back burner but keep it a constant reminder. Both of these goals are based on me pushing myself out of my comfortable instructional patterns. It is easy to fall back on what we know and do when things get hectic and we don't seem to have time to try something new. I would benefit a lot from a mentor who could monitor my efforts and hold me accountable and push me forward.



Finally, the end of the game plan, evaluate. Whether I met my goal for indicator 1b, could be determined in the student surveys. I think I could also gain some insight of the impact this instruction had on students by interviewing them individually. Indicator 1d, will need to be evaluated through my reflective journal. This is an on going cycle of learning and improving. Even if I feel I have strengthened my skills in these particular areas in it just the beginning of the journey. Please feel free to suggest any ideas that may help guide me along the way.



One last note, I introduced the GAME plan this week to my second through fifth graders as we planned for the production of a clay sculpture next week. On paper they set a goal for what they wanted to make out of clay, they planned out the best way to make it, they tried a practice run and monitored how their technique worked. I witnessed more in-depth planning and creative problem-solving then I can ever remember. They are prepared for working with the real clay next week which can be very unforgiving. We plan to evaluate the project when it is all finished. I am sold on the GAME plan!

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Considering New Literacies

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to share my thoughts on all of the new information I am learning about integrating technology into the art room. My most recent class has brought to light some very interesting things to consider. The course, titled, Supporting Information Literacies and Online Inquiry, focused upon teaching new literacy skills within an inquiry-based project that teaches content. I had several revelations from the course, but the most striking one was the time it takes to thoroughly and effectively teach the proper application of new literacy skills. As I developed an inquiry-based unit, I often felt that the content got lost within the sea of searching, evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, and ethical skills. I understand that students must learn these skills to effectively absorb the content but, in my experience they are not willing to use the stairs to reach the end goal, they would rather jump. It is almost a "Catch 22" situation, I know if they take the time to learn these skills, then the process will become easier and the content will become more of the focus but, until they learn the skills I must keep them motivated by dangling the content in front of them and sometimes sacrifice its mastery until they get the skills. I suppose it gets down to the old debate between process or product. Is it more important to focus on how they got there or what "there" ends up looking like? It is a challenge in developing my instruction, but I am always up for a challenge.

The knowledge and experience I have gained through this course has already begun to influence my teaching practices. Some of it has surfaced through teachable moments like,showing a student how to effectively use a search engine, or passing on a tip on evaluating information, but the greatest change has occurred in modeling proper ethical practices. I must confess that I often get caught up in the creative moment and when I need an image I will copy it into a PowerPoint or PhotoStory and not give credit. The Internet is just a playground of images, all just a keystroke away. It can be very tempting to just copy and paste away. I have begun to model proper copyright law practices and providing proper credit in all of my presentations I use in instruction and otherwise. As my students begin to create art using the computer, I have been reinforcing the protection of creative thought and images. We have even had discussions about the classic conflict of copying others' works of art in the studio. From kindergarten through fifth grade, students always have an issue with other students taking an idea they developed and calling it their own. This concept has opened up a dialog about how people who have worked hard to create images and ideas on the Internet would feel if you took their work without asking permission and call it your own. I believe that together, my students and I, can learn how to practice respect for the creative work of other people as we move into more opportunities to utilize modern media.

After taking this course, I have set some personal professional development goals to build upon my own literacy skills. I plan to focus mainly on visual literacy since they are directly related to what I teach in the classroom. Ultimately, I would like to develop my vision of the 21st century elementary art room and curriculum. To get to that point, I must start taking some classes on different multimedia techniques and the technology aspects of modern film making. I am working on some grants that will hopefully yield some funding to acquire some needed equipment for my classroom but in the meantime I need to become familiar and comfortable in its use by making examples of my own. I have located an online mentor at a Ning site that I am a member of Art Education 2.0. Tricia Fuglestad is doing the type of instruction and integration that I would love to be doing in my classroom and I hope that by communicating with her I can gain some insight on further direction I need to take to reach my goals. I also plan to take some more classes on the technical aspects of my classroom management system that my district calls E-Learn. I have a basic E-Learn site that I am using alongside of my instruction but I would like to take it to the next level and learn how to embed code for video players to start sharing the multimedia my students produce. Finally, I have a fifth grade student this year who is very interested in film-making and I am learning many new special effects, editing skills, and software programs because of his drive to get better. It is very motivating for both of us to be learning side-by-side.

Even without all the new "bells and whistles", I plan to examine my curriculum for opportunities to practice visual literacy skills even while using traditional art media. As I pointed out earlier, I have to guide my students up the stairs, not just let them jump into a bunch of new technology not understanding how to use it effectively. Dr. Jason Ohler, professor of Educational Technology at the University of Alaska, has been focusing his research on visual literacy skills and digital storytelling. In an article about the importance of utilizing the art curriculum to support new literacy skills he states the following, "I had an amazing experience a few years ago that helped me fully appreciate art's new importance in education. I was watching a 10th grader struggle at his computer to create a multimedia presentation for his language-arts project. He wasn't struggling with the technology-like any infoage kid, he could click around the screen with considerable ease. It was the aesthetics that seemed insurmountable. As I watched him clumsily cramming together scads of video clips, graphics, sounds, buttons, and a few words, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bits: He was trying to create art, and no one had shown him how. In the process of fumbling with the medium, he was losing his sense of what he wanted to communicate in the first place."(Ohler, 2000). This idea emphasizes the importance of integrating visual literacy skills even at the elementary age level so that students can become more proficient earlier on and be able to effectively communicate the content of their thoughts and ideas. I cannot alter the state curriculum, but I plan to creatively present it so that my students can be prepared for the 21st century.

Ohler, Jason (2000, October). Art becomes the fourth r. Educational Leadership, (58)2, 16-19.

Connecting the Pieces

Looking back over everything I have learned during the last seven weeks, I have had several “ah ha” moments. To start, I was pleased to find out a lot of my personal theory of how my students learn was reinforced by the research and major theories of learning we studied in this course. That is not to say my classroom is the perfect learning environment. I know that there are some modifications I need to make. Foremost is how I plan my instruction. It’s fine to say I understand the theory but it is how it is placed into practice which is most important. That starts with the planning stage. I now see the importance of including learning theory and research into planning instruction. Some additional modifications I would make would be to create more focused structure (i.e. rubrics, clearer expectations of outcome, etc.) to my student-centered lesson plans in order to make the learning experience most effective for my students. Finally, I plan to modify how I have been applying the Social Constructionist theory in my instruction. I now have a better understanding of how to construct my lesson so that the group has a real sense of interdependence and expectations for how the social unit should succeed.

When the new school year begins I have some immediate changes I plan to make regarding my instructional use of technology. I have used a lot of technology in the past but most of it has been used within a teacher-centered instructional presentation. I plan to make the paradigm shift to using technology as a learning tool where the students are using it for active learning (Laureate, 2009). One tool I plan to use to achieve this is Voice Thread. Because this application merges images with flexible social interaction, it becomes an invaluable tool to be used in the art classroom to support the interpretation and analysis of art. It can be used as an instructional but most importantly as an active learning tool. Its ease of use encourages students to utilize Voice thread to construct their own multi-media presentations. Another tool that I will use to enhance my student’s learning is Kidspiration. My school has had this program available to teachers and students alike for years. I received basic instruction on its use years ago but I was never told why it was such an important program. It was never connected to learning theory as it was in this class. Using this technology tool in the art room will enhance my students ability to identify similarities and differences, summarize and take notes, create advanced organizers, all while practicing their nonlinguistic representations. Research shows that these are important strategies to master and this technology tool will help students to gain both guided and independent practice in their use (Laureate, 2009).

There are two long term goals I have for my instructional practice regarding the integration of technology into the art classroom. First, revolves around access to the technology tools. I have only two computers in my room and for my students to be actively engaged and interacting with the technology, it can be quite challenging. Our school does have a fully equipped computer lab but it runs on the same schedule as mine and thus is always filled with another class when I am teaching a class. We also have a portable lab top lab but it is often hit or miss to find an open slot that coincides with my schedule or that they are actually functioning. So, my goal is to either rally for a change in the school’s specialty schedule in order to allow for flexible use of the current lab or write a grant for money to purchase a mini lab that could be used by teachers needing additional computer time for students working on cooperative project building.

My second goal is to have my students move toward using electronic portfolios. I have recently begun to use paper portfolios with my students as a form of assessment and have found much value in how they focus my student’s learning experience. The idea of an electronic portfolio lends itself to a greater transformative experience through critical reflection (Stansberry & Kymes, 2007). Our school district is in the infancy stage of setting up electronic portfolios as a feature on our Moodle sites. I hope to have the chance to pilot a portfolio program which allows students to provide written reflection on their work and select artifacts to enter as evidence of learning. In addition, because I see most of these children for five consecutive years, the portfolio can follow them and demonstrate their level of personal growth over time. Instead of looking at what seems like random ideas they can start to see the scope and sequence of their learning. As I become more familiar with the application I hope to have a feedback feature that would open up portfolios to the learning community for comment; for example, reinforcement from the teacher, the exchange of ideas between classmates, and the viewing ability for parents and other experts.

I always felt that I was exposing my students to a lot of technology for the purpose of engaging them more fully into the learning experience. This class has taught me the importance of putting the technology into the hands of the students as an active learning tool instead of just using it for instruction, that thoughtful planning must go into every lesson to truly consider the outcome I want for my students and the best instructional practices I need to use so they can achieve success, and finally this class has taught me that just having “cool techno” in the classroom doesn’t make learning happen, it involves making clear connections to learning theory, instructional practice, and the correct technology tools.


Laureate Ed., Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Instructional strategies Part 2. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Ed., Inc.
Laureate Ed., Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Technology: Instructional tool vs. learning tool. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Ed., Inc.
Stansberry, S., & Kymes, A. (2007, March). Transformative learning through teaching with technology electronic portfolios. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(6), 488–496.

Voicethread

I see so much potential for this application in the art room. Please view my first Voicethread, Overcoming Interpretation, and comment. It is about a problem I have with students not being comfortable talking about art.

Connected

Humans are social creatures. This does not suddenly change when students enter the classroom. Social learning theorists believe that we construct knowledge and understand the world around us, based on the interactions we have with others. We depend on others to guide us from what we already know, towards the information we are ready t0 learn. Each individual brings to the classroom their own personal context and culture with which they construct knowledge and understanding of the world around them (Laureate, 2009). Collectively a classroom full of children presents a wide spectrum of "experts" whose diverse strengths can contribute so much to learning as a whole. The United States of America, our country, is a fine example of that idea. Our motto, "e pluribus unum", "out of many, one", speaks loud and clear of the advantages that come from many different people, from many different backgrounds, working together toward constructing a common goal.

Educators have been using instructional strategies based on social learning theories for several years now. The jigsaw puzzle, numbered heads together, literacy teams, etc. are all wonderful examples of some of these strategies. How does technology fits in? The advances in communication, simulation, and the read/write web (Web 2.0), have brought the ability to interact and learn together to a whole new level. Even though I sit here alone in front of my computer, I have the ability to contact my friends, family, co-workers, classmates, world renowned experts, international peers.......I could go on and on. Most importantly, I can not only communicate with them but I can also learn with them by collaborating on projects over millions of miles. It is really amazing to think about. Overwhelming at times.

That is what brings me to a concern for utilizing these tools in the classroom. How do you focus students on the content so that they do not get easily distracted by the social aspect of many of these resources? As I explored many of our listed resources this week I found myself easily drawn away from my main purpose there (how to use it in my classroom). I was instead checking out what everyone else was doing and saying. Some resources kept me under better restraint than others but I feel it is something to consider when using them with students. I always complain about the filter system placed on our school network, but I can see how opening some sites can become a temptation to socially learn about topics not directly tied to the school curriculum. We are only human.....

Finally, I found George Siemens theory of Connectivism very interesting (Laureate, 2009). It seems to me as though in the future it will not be as important what we know, but instead knowing how to access it. I don't know about you but it conjures many Sci-fi movie images into my head. Excuse me...do you mind if I interface with your network a while? There are some benefits to being so interconnected as illustrated in this commercial.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Social learning theories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Ed., Inc.