MVP'S Space

Ed Tech 700 Finally Final Project

mamim — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:42:22 +0000

After several computer issues, aka, “the old pc,” I have finally been able to complete this assignment.

I went with a blog. Earlier I was toying with the idea of a blog or wiki, but keeping my users in mind, young third graders, I decided to develop a blog page and keep it simple. Many of my students are English Language Learners and come into my class still acting like second graders. Therefore, I made the page clean, simple and very easy to read and navigate. As the year goes on and my students develop mentally and academically, I will enhance the blog.

Check out my screen cast made with Jing. Can I mention how fun and simple it was to use it?!

Ms. Perez’s Third Grade Blogger

Addie – Evaluation

mamim — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:24:51 +0000

I will know that this site is helping my students merely by the fact that they can use it without constantly asking me to help them. This occurred last year when visiting our classroom website. I learned that I need to be stern and upfront with my desired goal that they can type the url in by themselves and log in as the “blogger” of the week and update the site with appropriate material that I provide for them.

I will also know it is helping my kids by the way they react to it and the language they use. Like I said before, my goal is to teach this year with a 21st Century approach. I will be a happy teacher if my kids are able to discuss blogs or wikis and know how they are used in our classroom and what they are good for.

Addie – Implementation

mamim — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:17:34 +0000

The site will be introduced the first week of school. I will introduce it right away to help set the tone of the year. I want the class to know and get excited about the fact that we will be a “21st Century,” class in 2008 – 2009. With the installation of our new Promethean board, I want the children to understand that we will not just be using it as a glorified whiteboard. It has several uses and capabilities, including the use of a class blog. I will navigate it whole group and walk them through the blog and the steps needed to use it. After practicing this with my class, I plan to allow them to use it individually on a classroom desktop or in the computer lab.

In speaking with the district Office Tech staff, they advised me that this would not be a problem as long as I serve as the facilitator and the children’s use of the blog is restricted to class work and done with my supervision.

Addie – Development

mamim — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:11:59 +0000

In order for this site to run and stay up, I will need access to the internet and working computers. At my school site they are working on keeping classrooms stocked with computers that work and available class time for each grade level in the new computer lab. Another tool that is going to be important for the site is management. As the teacher I will have to oversee the project and do a lot of guided instruction before I can expect my users to achieve the goal of using it successfully.

One customization I will implement on my site will be where I add the students as users in order for them to perform the job of “blogger” of the week. This will be done by adding them to the site with a “hack” email. A strategy discussed in class.

The site will be minimal at first and expand with the year and the class.

Addie – Design

mamim — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:04:40 +0000

This will be a recurring effort for my class. It is my hope that we use it throughout the year. If it goes well I will implement and enhance the project next year.

When using the the blog/wiki, users should be able to do the following:

Locate the blog/wiki by typing in the url
Navigate the page appropriately and successfully.
Contribute to the page as the “blogger” of the week without guidance.

Addie – Analysis

mamim — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:08:54 +0000

Analysis

The users for my intended project are going to my third grade students. The students at Las Palmas Elementary come from diverse backgrounds and speak languages other than English. The majority of my families are Mexican and Filipino. The students in my class are ages eight and nine. Even though the majority of users are English language learners, there are a few English only students within the group. This helps because they serve as language models for the rest of the class. In addition to the students, their families are intended users. I expect some hesitation on their part and difficulty accessing the site as well, but I am confident that the students in my class will serve as great facilitators.

As a result of using the web site, I want my users to feel comfortable accessing the site as well as make useful contributions and take away knowledge. Most importantly I want my users to adopt the site as part of their everyday learning and living. This will take work on my part. As the instructor and designer of the site I will have to promote it and mold wiki/blog heroes in my classroom.

Several classmates in the Ed Tech Comet program have already adopted classroom blogs. Grade levels of users range from primary all the way through high school. In my school community there are no other classrooms using a wiki/blog page at the moment.

As mentioned earlier, I anticipate hesitation among parents, but I think the children will be on board. If I share my enthusiasm for the site the children will too. One performance driver I foresee interfering with learning, skills and knowledge is time management. It will be a huge committment for me to make time available for the “blogger” to work on the site and I will need to make time to update it weekly to make sure it is always current with the happenings in our classroom.

My Classroom Constitution Podcast

mamim — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:32:12 +0000

Well it was fun. Took some time to figure out importing audio under my voice, but I finally got it. I hope to use this after the first week of school. I can play it off my Promethean Board and then link it on our classroom blog page. This is a first and I liked doing it.

audacitypodcast1

- MVP

Wiki or Blog for my final project?

mamim — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:24:14 +0000

I have a fabulous idea for my project…I would love to implement a wiki or blog for my third grade class. This is going to be an exciting year for my classroom, we will finally have a Promethean board. So I would like to utilize it as much as we can. Therefore, a class wiki or blog would be awesome to use as a whole group on the board and they could also use it individually. I could also upload video of center directions that the children can access and view on their own while in a center. This would give me more instruction time with another small group.

I would like the space to contain our newsletter, weekly updates and reflections on lessons. I would also like to assign the job of “blogger,” to a student for a one week period. This would entail a lot of training and practice, but I am sure they can do it.

My only issue is the question of doing this through a blog or a wiki? I need to decide which forum would be easier and more appealing for the children.

Pondering My Project…. what should I do?

mamim — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:33:12 +0000

Well I am looking at the ADDIE Model for inspiration. This should help, I hope.

WOW!

mamim — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:03:12 +0000

So I just uploaded links to most of the projects I have already done in COMET. Seems like I have too much going on. I feel guilty now for not updating a lot of it!