Introduction This presentation draws upon my experiences teaching a 7 th grade Digital Literacy course
Digital Literacy course: 1 Semester 11 lessons 8 sections ~140 students Pass/Fail
Source: Barbara R. Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne L. Flannigan: Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century ; http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/ConnectingtheDigitalDotsL/39969 Question: What is your definition of digital literacy? Video Timer Source: Video Source: 4noF. “[2 min] Timer.” Video. 10 Sept. 2010. YouTube. 28 Oct. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juHx72qmbok&feature=fvst Source: Jenkins, Henry, Puroshotma, Ravi, Clinton, Katherine, Weigel, Margaret, & Robison, Alice J. (2005). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, available at http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf .
Video Source: Jenkins, Henry. “The New Media Literacies.” Video. 11 Nov. 2008. YouTube. 14 Oct. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEHcGAsnBZE
Source: Robert J.Vallerant, Professor of Psychology at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. Vallerand, R. et al (2003). Les passions de l’aˆ me: on obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 85 (56), 756-767. Retrieved from http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/documents/2003_VallerandBlanchardMageauKoesterRatelleLeonardGagne_JPSP.pdf Question: What is your definition of passion? Remember: we are focusing on STUDENT passion, not YOUR passion or making them passionate about your class Motivation in action learning Video Timer Source: Video Source: 4noF. “[2 min] Timer.” Video. 10 Sept. 2010. YouTube. 28 Oct. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juHx72qmbok&feature=fvst
Source: Motivation Problems Scene from Office Space Movie (1999) | MOVIECLIPS . Dir. Mike Judge. Perf. Ron Livingston. MOVIECLIPS: Movie Trailers, Previews, Clips of Old, New & Upcoming Films . MovieClips.com. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. http://movieclips.com/2pyJo-office-space-movie-motivation-problems This clip is from Office Space; do you see any parallels with your students and/or have you ever taught a student like him?
In What Works in Schools, Marzano identified three types of factors that influence learning. Admins focus on School-level factors Source: Marzano, Robert J. What Works in Schools Translating Research into Action. Alexandria: Assn Supervn & Curr Dev, 2003. Print.
PD often focuses on teacher-level factors Source: Marzano, Robert J. What Works in Schools Translating Research into Action. Alexandria: Assn Supervn & Curr Dev, 2003. Print.
We can’t overlook the student-level factors because motivation affects learning. Source: Marzano, Robert J. What Works in Schools Translating Research into Action. Alexandria: Assn Supervn & Curr Dev, 2003. Print.
If it were only this easy… Source: "Motivation Demotivator® - The Original Demotivational Posters." Despair, Inc. - Creators of Demotivators® Posters, Calendar, Coffee Mugs, Apparel and More . Web. 17 Oct. 2011. http://www.despair.com/motivation.html
Source: Kellaghan, Thomas, and George F. Madaus. The Use of External Examinations to Improve Student Motivation. Washington: American Educational Research Association, 1997. Print.
It’s important to have a framework for designing learning experiences. I chose Understanding by Design (UbD) to bring structure to the course. Source: Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2006. Print.
An Essential Question: causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content; provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions; requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers; stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons; sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences; naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.
These are the big content and skills “take-aways” from the course
This is how we’ll know if we achieved our goals.
These five topics are our focus today
It’s important to understand that the DL course has two strands for student work(flow): Internal and External
The CITE Instrument was administered to our students via a Google Form and the results presented in an individualized student report. The Learning Specialist helped students interpret the results; these results were shared with parents and advisors. Source: Babich, Burdine, Albright, & Randol (1976). C.I.T.E. Learning Styles Instrument. WVABE Instructor Handbook, Section 3, 2003-04. Retrieved October 17, 2011 from http://wvabe.org/CITE/cite.pdf.
These 9 categories represent the most common forms of student learning styles. When students understand how they learn best, they can more effective use technology to support their learning. Question: Which style(s) would you expect to be the most popular? Question: Which styles do you most frequently use in your classroom?
The two lowest areas are Auditory-Language and Expressiveness-Oral. The differences between boys and girls on these two areas is pronounced.
Developed by University of Connecticut professor Joseph S. Renzulli, the Interest-A-Lyzer is a questionnaire devised to help students examine and focus their interests. There are versions for younger students, MS/HS Students, and Adults This activity takes TIME because it causes the students to reflect Students were asked to share their results with their advisor, friends, and family The results could ultimately be added to a student portfolio Source: Renzulli, Joseph S., Mary Rizza, Thomas P. Hébert, Michelle F. Sorenson, Vidabeth Bensen, and Ann McGreevy. Interest-a-lyzer Family of Instruments . Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning, 1997. Print. Available online from: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/CurriculumCompacting/SEC-IMAG/ialsecon.pdf
Source: Renzulli, Joseph S., Mary Rizza, Thomas P. Hébert, Michelle F. Sorenson, Vidabeth Bensen, and Ann McGreevy. Interest-a-lyzer Family of Instruments . Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning, 1997. Print. Available online from: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/CurriculumCompacting/SEC-IMAG/ialsecon.pdf
Educators frequently speak about the power of networks; how many use them with students? The Digital Literacy Learning Network, powered by Schoology, connects students in a walled garden. Source: &quot;'Millennials' Leading the Way on Social Media | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.&quot; Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project . Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2010/Millennials-leading-the-way-on-social-media.aspx>.
Students complete their profile and discuss what/what not to share Students can browse classmates’ profiles and make connections Creating this network provides perfect opportunity to discuss online behavior Resource: http://www.schoology.com
Source: Hill, Karhmir. &quot;How To Teach Kids 'Digital Literacy'? Build A Private Social Network Playground For Them. - Forbes.&quot; Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com . Forbes, 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/10/13/how-to-teach-kids-digital-literacy-build-a-private-social-network-playground-for-them/>
These topics are fairly mainstream but students need a context for exploring them. Ideally, they would be connected to the other core subjects but this isn’t always feasible given the varying pace of curricula
The research project is used to teach/connect the important digital literacy skills The topic for the project is the student’s choice (i.e. his passion) Each student learns the same core course content and skills but within the context of his topic of choice
The research project was outlined on our DL Wiki (Wikispaces Private Label) Each student has his/her own page This made it easy to monitor student progress and provide feedback
We chose to make the wiki public to the school but private to the outside world. At present the wiki is open for the benefit of this presentation. Displaying work online helps students develop a sense of audience.
The affinity groups remove the teacher as the content-area expert This is one of the hardest, but most important, aspects of this project Henry Jenkins would refer to this as a participatory culture
Although students have diverse expression styles, we often limit their forms of expression to oral and written work. Source: Kettle, Karen E., Joseph S. Renzulli, and Mary G. Rizza. &quot;Exploring Student Preferences For Product Development.&quot; Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development . University of Connecticut. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/exprstyl.html
These 10 styles represent the most common forms of student expression. This approach facilitates differentiation and provides CHOICE Question: Which style(s) would you expect to be the most popular?
Question: which style(s) do you use most frequently with your students? Question: Which styles(s) do you use most often as a teacher?
Once students identified their preferred ES, they were directed to supporting technologies. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OnRMXvjsgJiR9OPTLgYRM2zWsFIGIFfmN6m84oipQA0/edit?hl=en_US
These projects were visible to the School only but have been opened up for this presentation
Creating a rubric to assess different project types is challenging, but if you have the UbD framework it’s a lot easier.
I graded each project (pass/fail) and wrote a comment to the student Each student presented his project to his advisory The public nature of presentations cuts both ways; some kids were outstanding, some were lacking, but most enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about themselves and each other We now have a window into each student that can help us help them succeed Source: &quot;Motivation Demotivator® - The Original Demotivational Posters.&quot; Despair, Inc. - Creators of Demotivators® Posters, Calendar, Coffee Mugs, Apparel and More . Web. 17 Oct. 2011. http://www.despair.com/recognition.html
This student’s project was featured in a local paper and has been viewed ~15,000 times online since it was published in Nov 2010
Remember: passion was used to master the content and skills more deeply; they can now be applied to other subjects
The more support you get from colleagues the more powerful the learning experience