Final Project: Point of View (15)

Technology Integration Matrix

Point-of-view plays a huge part in how a story is portrayed, so this lesson teaches students different viewpoints in well-known stories as well as their own stories.

(All of the students already have a Blogspot account from prior assignments.)

Session 1:

The first session of this lesson is to show the viewpoint of the wolf in the well-known story, “The Three Little Pigs.” As the teacher, I will read the two stories to the students. Then, I will put “The Three Little Pigs” and the alternative story, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” on the Smartboard. The class will then be able collaboratively mark the stories with the Smartboard pen where they stray from one another. 

After we discuss the two stories, the class will be separated into pairs and given a handout of questions to ask each other about a vacation that they have gone on. After both of the students have filled out this graphic organizer, they will be expected to go to a computer and write a story about their partners vacation as if they were a fly on their shoulder. This exercise will give them a first person view of a third person story.

For the formative homework assignment, the students will be expected to share the stories that were written in class on their Blogspot account. The students are to comment on two of their classmate’s stories. There is no direct instruction for this process, except that they have to be respectful of their classmates. They will also be asked to read a section of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Session 2:

Session two will focus on editing their stories as well as introducing To Kill a Mockingbird. As an example of how to edit, a story will be pulled up onto to the Smartboard to make the correct marks to help and give constructive criticism. The students will then be asked to give a copy of their story to me so that I can give it out to another student. In class, the students will have about ten minutes to talk to the owner of the story that they were handed, but the rest will be homework.

After that, we will talk about To Kill a Mockingbird and the point-of-view discrepancies. They will be given a worksheet to assemble their thoughts about the story, then they will each go to a computer and take a quiz that I have created for them. The quiz will contain questions from all three readings that we’ve discussed in class. After everyone is finished with the quiz, I will put the quiz on the Smartboard and go over it with them.

For homework, the students will be expected to edit their partners paper by hand and scan their edited version onto their blog so that their partners are able to see them. Then the students are expected to have their story edited for the next class session.

Session Three, Four, and Five: (over a weekend)

For sessions three, four, and five, we will discuss the presentations that the sets of partners will have to do. The students are expected to create a presentation and present their point-of-view stories with their original partner however they’d like. They can act it out, make a video, make a lookbook, or any other way they can think of. The one stipulation is that they need to use some form of technology in their presentation, whether it be technology in the classroom or technology in the production. 

Session three will be devoted to discussing the presentations and answering any questions that the students may have. I will also show them a few examples of past presentations using the Smartboard, computer, or CD player. Session three will take place on a Friday. Session four and five will take place after the weekend, and those are the days that the students will present. The classroom will have all the technologies that they will need for their presentations.

Following the presentations, the students will be expected to write a response to this project on their blog. This assignment is to see how they reacted to the presentation and how they did. They will also be expected to comment on a fellow classmates story on their blogs and give them two positive comments and one constructive comment about their presentations. Because their blogs are public to the class, they are expected to respect my class and my students, and if they fail to do that, they will lose points not only on their comments, but also on their responses about the project.

Lesson Plan, Page 1; Lesson Plan, Page 2

eBooks (14)

This infographic terrifies me. As an English major, I love books and everything about them. One of my favorite things is opening a new book, smelling the ink, feeling the crisp pages between my fingers. Unless you're an avid reader, you probably don't appreciate these petty things about a book, but my fellow English people will definitely agree. Anyway, the reason that this terrifies me is because soon enough, classrooms will no longer have books; they'll have eBooks. To me, this almost seems a backward thing to do though. eBooks, though they are great on the outside, I think that they could do more harm than good in a classroom. Having the freedom of an electronic device in a classroom is inevitably a dangerous solution to real books. Also, with funding within school districts and the economic strife that we are in right now, I think that keeping regular books in classrooms have more economical benefits. One, they can be used and used and reused. Two, other than losing pages or ripping, they cant't break like an eReader would be able to, Three, they are a lot cheaper in bulk than eBooks and eReaders are simply because there's no liability aspect of bound books. Four, if a student breaks, even by accident, an eReader, they are going to be expected to re-buy that item, and they are not cheap, therefore not necessarily affordable to everyone, whereas a paperback book could be afforded by most. Though I think that eReaders and eBooks are great (for some people and places), they do not have a place in the classroom.

Social Media: Do you believe it? (13)

Infographics can tell you a lot about a specific subject, and I think that they are way underrated. This one stuck out with me, because it is so relevant to today's world. 

Social media plays a huge part in the way we run our lives now. However, how reliable is the news that it presents to us? Can we always trust it? According to this, "fast doesn't always mean factual." Though you can have a story in your hand within five minutes of it's release, there's a chance that it was fabricated or made up in order to make it to said social media sites. I do believe, however, that news from social media does have a special place in the curriculum or a classroom, especially in a social studies or journalism class. Both of these classes are about what's happening in the news around them, therefore they need to have the news in the quickest way they can to keep the class relevant. It's just a matter of fact or fiction when it comes to believing the things that social media presents to it's readers.

Good or Bad? (12)

In this New York Times article, there is a discussion about whether or not technology in the classroom is as goo an idea as everyone would like for it to be. In one seventh grade English class learning Shakespeare, "...students are bent over laptops, some blogging or building Facebook pages from the perspective of Shakespeare’s characters. One student compiles a song list from the Internet, picking a tune by the rapper Kanye West to express the emotions of Shakespeare’s lovelorn Silvius." But, with the budget cuts and lay-offs, if this really the better future of classrooms?

I’ve said in some of my other posts that it seems as though robots will soon be taking over the classroom, but will that help? Unless there’s some kind of stimulation within the classroom for the students to better grasp their education, technology isn’t going to fill all the voids. There needs to be something other than the fallback to technology to change what’s happening, or better yet, not happening, in the classroom.

The article states “Some backers of this idea say standardized tests, the most widely used measure of student performance, don’t capture the breadth of skills that computers can help develop. But they also concede that for now there is no better way to gauge the educational value of expensive technology investments. ‘The data is pretty weak. It’s very difficult when we’re pressed to come up with convincing data,’ said Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an investor in educational technology companies. When it comes to showing results, he said, ‘We better put up or shut up.’” 

I think that that’s a good phrase to sum up what’s happening within districts when it comes to funds and lay-offs. If nothing is being done to help, then how is anything supposed to get better? There needs to be a change, not just an update. In order for this to happen, someone needs to realize that technology isn’t going to fix everything, and it’s definitely not going to fix it over night.

Teachers or Robots? (11)

In this New York Times article, it is discussed how a degree from a postsecondary school is more and more necessary, but that it’s hard for students without the funds to afford the education needed to succeed. But, there are funds that are being put forth that will help with online classes and students with a lower income. However, it goes on to say: “Just how effective technology can be in improving education — by making students more effective, more engaged learners — is a subject of debate. To date, education research shows that good teachers matter a lot, class size may be less important than once thought and nothing improves student performance as much as one-on-one human tutoring. If technology is well designed, experts say, it can help tailor the learning experience to individual students, facilitate student-teacher collaboration, and assist teachers in monitoring student performance each day and in quickly fine-tuning lessons.” (source). Not only are these funds being put forth to aid in college courses, but they’re working towards helping K-12 as well. Though technology is a huge part of the next generation of students learning, there is also a strong demand for human-to-human contact, which some people are assuming isn’t going to be needed with all the advances. This is a very scary thought. Not only because teaching is a passion of so many people, but I think that more parents would be more reluctant to send their children to school where robots have taken over the classroom. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen any time soon, or preferably never.

Inconsiderate (10)

This New York Times article is from 2007, but it is still as relevant today as it was then. Like I’ve been saying in my posts thus far, teachers and professors from a different generation than ours are not used to the technology that we’re used to. We are used to having the internet and the ability to talk to anyone at our disposal at any given time. Older generations of teachers who are stuck in an era of chalkboards and clapping erasers don’t realize the necessity that we have associated with our cell phones and the perks that come with them.

In the article a professor takes a students (fake) phone and smashes it with a hammer because it went off in class. Ten years ago, I would have been in sixth grade and nobody would have had a cell phone going off. Now I know students as young as second and third graders are carrying cell phones, and no doubt trying to use them during class. Sitting in a college classroom, 9 out of 10 people are on their cell phones, most likely checking their social media site or texting their boyfriend/girlfriend about how they’d rather be anywhere but in that class. I am one of those people, but I only do it until the class starts, then I put my phone away. 

With this increase in technology within the classroom, not counting the ones that the teachers uses, there has been a serious decrease in respect. I’m not sure if it’s the parenting or the lack there of maybe that’s forcing students into completely ignoring their superiors and blatantly disregarding the feelings of the people around them. I know that when I’m a teacher I will let my students have one cell phone slide, but that’s it. More than once and something has to be done or the student will continue to walk all over me, and I will not have that. My theory is that if I’m putting in the effort to teach you without having my cell phone blowing up my pocket, you can do the same thing. Nothing huge is going to happen in 45 minutes, and if it does, you’ll either find out from me or after class is out.

Stealth (9)

Though this isn’t classroom technology related, it is education and technology related. This New York Times article is about the Educational Development Corporation would remove all its products from Amazon’s ‘shelves’ due to them being a “predator.” “Educational Development Corporation is a United States-based trade publisher of educational children's books produced in the United Kingdom by Usborne Publishing Limited (Usborne). The Company operates in two segments: Home Business Division (UBAM) and Publishing Division (Publishing). The UBAM division distributes books through independent consultants who hold book showings in individual homes, and through book fairs, direct sales and Internet sales. The UBAM Consultants also distribute these titles to school and public libraries. The Publishing division markets books to bookstores (including national chains), toy stores, specialty stores, museums and other retail outlets. It also owns the Kane/Miller Book Publishers” (source). In the article, it talks about how Amazon lowers the prices so much that the company they’re taking away from the actual funds of the company. Though EDC doesn’t sell e-books, they are noticing the substantial price cut with their physical books therefore they removed their 1,000+ books from the website to stop Amazon’s taking over of the company.