EDIT 2000

Your Step 1 should be completed before today’s class (I'll be grading while you work on Steps 2 & 3 today).

Find a partner with a similar teaching context (e.g. similar subject areas and/or grade levels, not just your neighbor/friends). Discuss Step 1 with your partner and help each other check off the items on the checklist – the blue box on the lesson design guide (especially those included on the grading rubric).

Innovation-in-Action

Now you’re getting ready for Step 2 – it’s time to use what you know from Step 1 and come up with ideas for teaching. You don’t need to do this alone. Use ideas from the Strategy section of Step 2′s big yellow box. You can find lots of sample lesson ideas here. Make sure you know what components to include for each of your ideas (it’s all explained in the big yellow box!)

Decision Making

Once you have your ideas generated, it's time to make some decisions. Re-examine Step 1 for good decision making criteria. Then have your partner from earlier evaluate your 2-3 activities. Don't forget to evaluate your own, too! Based upon these evaluations, finish out Step 3. Both Steps 2 & 3 are due before class on Tuesday. Tuesday will be another make-up absence work day. If you do not come in on Tuesday, make sure you finish out Steps 4 & 5 before class on Thursday, Mar 7 as well.

For Tuesday

1. Finish Step 2.

Before we get started, take a minute to watch some some digital stories from the past few semesters:

• 5th grade mathematics
• High School Chemistry

As we continue brainstorming ideas for our digital stories, let's look at how you'll make it. There are so many tools available for you to use. In the past, EDIT 2000 students have used PhotoStory, MovieMaker, VoiceThread, Storybird, and iMovie. Use the chart below to help you select your tool. Select a tool you’ve never used before, but will also be the best to tell your story. Note that each tool name links to tutorials and info about how to use it. You can select a tool not on this list – just check with me before you start.

Tool	OS	Access	Still Images or Video	Narration	Music	Ease of Use
iMovie	Mac	Installed	Both	Y	Easy	Intermediate
MovieMaker	PC	Installed	Both	Y	Difficult	Intermediate
Photostory	PC	Download	SI	Y	Difficult	Beginner
StoryBird	Both	Web-based	Stock	N	N	Beginner
VoiceThread	Both	Web-based	Both	Y	N	Beginner

You’ll be using original still images or video that you’ve captured for your story. If you select Storybird, remember that you're limited to the stock illustrations within their website. Please avoid using images from Google and other sources if at all possible. Cite your sources if you are using them from other locations. If you don’t have access to a digital camera or video camera, you can check them out from OIT in Rm 232 Aderhold. The checkout period is for 5 days and you’ll need to present your Student ID.

Enjoy next week, but keep in mind that the assignment will be due the Thursday following Spring Break!

For Tuesday

1. Class will be open work time so attendance is optional. If you have missed more than 2 classes so far this semester, it is expected that you will attend to make up an absence
2. Keep in mind that Digital Stories will be due at the beginning of class on Thursday, March 24

Do you think that schools kill creativity? Maybe it's time for a learning revolution.

But, what does this have to do with technology integration? Are there tools available that enhance students' creative thinking? Are there tools that will enable students to share their divergent thoughts to a broader audience? What types of activities might be possible in your grade/subject area?

One of the NETS addresses creativity and innovation:

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

1. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
2. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
3. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
4. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

Brainstorming tools are used frequently to support creativity in K-12 classrooms. Since you’ll be tasked with coming up with an idea for a digital story this week, we'll be exploring a brainstorming tool first to help you get some ideas.

Digital Storytelling

For this next assignment, you need to create either:

1. An educational video for use in your subject/grade level.
2. A video that showcases a personal talent.
3. A commercial for your major.
4. A TED talk about something you are passionate about. (What is a TED talk?).
5. A new video about UGA to replace this one.
6. "Director's choice" – send me your idea for approval on or before Tuesday, March 22.

Your video should:

1. Tell a story – not simply instruct
2. Have a beginning, middle, and end
3. Identify the age of your audience (within the story or preferably on your Creativity and Innovation page that will go on your Portfolio)

You can produce fiction or non-fiction, but remember:

1. If you are writing fiction you need characters and conflict.
2. If you are writing nonfiction – your readers need to know why they should care about your topic.
3. Regardless of fiction or nonfiction – your reader should learn something.
4. The story will likely be 2-3 minutes long. Nothing bad happens if it’s a little shorter or a bit longer.

If you want to be able to create a visual of your brainstorming, try using Bubbl. Spend a few minutes getting used to the tool and then begin a brainstorming web for your story ideas. Your web might be a large cluster of different ideas for a story or you might already have an idea so your web is just laying out what you want to include in your story. However, if the technology gets in the way of your creativity – don’t use it! You might also consider using Kidspiration, Inspiration, Xmind, or Edistorm.

By now you’ve identified the curriculum standard you want to address (Step 1) and you’ve listed several problems that could occur while teaching this standard (Step 2). Then you selected one of these problems to work on (Step 3).

Once you have narrowed down the instructional problem, it is time to brainstorm ways to teach the curriculum standard while ensuring minimal instructional problems. The most important thing you need to do is use all of your available resources to come up with as many ideas as you can.

Generating Solutions

What are you thinking about doing for your lesson activity? How is your solution going to encourage communication among your students? What type of communication does your instructional solution encourage – one to one, one to many, or many to many? Are students just talking to each other to get work completed? How is technology assisting communication? How can you create a solution that will encourage students to communicate with people outside of your own classroom?

How is your solution going to encourage collaboration among your students? Are they just working in groups? How is technology assisting collaboration? How can you move past traditional (and not always effective) group work?

Don't forget to consider the communication technology examples in your text on pages 78-81.

Something to consider: if your solutions are really just different versions of students working in groups to create PowerPoint presentations to communicate information to the class, are you really doing anything interesting? Are your students? How does this activity meet the needs of the students you described on your “in my classroom” page?

Once you’ve come up with ideas, you’ll trade topics with a partner and brainstorm as many ideas as you can in the allotted time.

Peer Review

Now what you need to do is get feedback from a classmate or two about the instructional problem you selected. Using this class roster, find two classmates who have selected the same subject and/or grade level and have them review your Design Guide. Make any adjustments to your plan based on the feedback you receive.

For Tuesday

1. Complete Step 4 in your TLAT #1 Design Guide to review your solutions and eliminate 2 that seem unreasonable or don’t make any sense
2. Add 2 new possible solutions by asking other people how they would teach your curriculum standard (note these 2 new items with a * next to them in Step 4 of your Google Doc)
3. We’ll work on Steps 5 and 6 in class on Tuesday

Today we begin our first Think Like a Teacher activity (henceforth referred to as: TLAT #1). TLATs are intended to help you think about how you can implement the tools you identify during the exploration tasks. For this project you’ll need to refer back to the Georgia Performance Standards, think about the communication and collaboration tools we learned, and information from Chapter 3. The final product will be a 2-3 page report that details a learning activity that you design for your grade/subject. This learning activity MUST incorporate a communication and/or collaboration tool (not necessarily the tool you used in the Exploration activity).

Usually, when planning a lesson, you must identify the end goal, steps to meet that goal, and what tools are necessary at each step. For instance – let’s suppose that you want to teach your roommate how to bake. In order to teach this lesson, you’ll need a recipe, cooking materials, and ingredients. Typically, you find that you make one cake with your roommate and they'll make the next one on their own. So, you'll have to:

1. Identify a skill (baking)
2. Determine how you will when the skill has been acquired (your roommate successfully bakes a cake on his/her own)
3. Identify necessary resources (recipe, ingredients, baking materials)
4. Model the skill (bake a cake with your roommate)
5. Have the learner demonstrate their understanding of the skill (your roommate bakes a cake with little or no assistance)
   
6. Assess the learning process (Does the cake look good? Does the cake taste good?)

Whether you're teaching in a classroom or you're teaching friends or co-workers about a new tool, the process is essentially the same. Regardless of the group of learners, they all have different experiences, levels of motivation, and abilities to be considered when designing the lesson. It's very likely that you've already taught someone how to do something. This activity will simply help you document a process that comes naturally.

Imagine that you have been asked to submit a proposal to do develop learning activities that use technology to improve the opportunities for communication and/or collaboration. Remember, NETS encourages students to use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Thus, lessons should encourage students to:

1. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
2. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
3. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
4. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Your proposal should consider the following points:

1. The activity should engage students in content learning by addressing GPS or other learning standards.
2. Technology should be used to promote one or more types of communication and/or collaboration described by the NETS.
3. The activity should allow every student to participate in and contribute to their group work with clearly defined roles.

Make sure that the proposal addresses all areas mentioned and reflect clarity of thinking as the lesson activity is developed.

We’ll be working on this project in class for several days, but it is due on Thursday, February 24 at 1:45PM  as a new webpage on your portfolio. To see how you'll be graded on this project, refer to the TLAT #1 Rubric.

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Let’s get our materials ready so you can start thinking like a teacher. Make a copy of the TLAT#1 Design Guide in your own Google Doc account to help you with this stage of the project. For today, we're only concerned with the first 3 steps in the doc.

For Thursday

1. Complete the first 3 sections of the Design Guide
2. Share your Design Guide doc with me
3. Explore samples in the textbook to come up with ideas for this project

Creating an Online Presence

Even if you don’t have a website, it's very likely that you already have an online presence through sites like Facebook and MySpace. As a learner in the 21^st century – it is important for you to understand how this presence affects how others perceive you. Everything you share, from pictures to links, sends a message.

1. How do you control this flow of information?
2. Do you use security settings to protect what is visible?
3. Do you have separate personas for personal and professional endeavors?
4. Have you thought about how potential employers will view you based on your online presence?

Today, we’re building the structure of your new website, creating an introduction page, and writing your autobiography page. You’ll use your website throughout the semester to store, display, and reflect upon course projects. The tool for this project is Google Sites. This tool works like a combination website, blog, and wiki all rolled into one, and we’ll use it for all three functions. You dont' need any knowledge about HTML or coding to use this tool, but feel free to show off any skillz you may have. Here are a few samples of websites created using Google Sites:

• Konini Primary School
• West Hills Tech Center

If you'd like some help with designing your site, check out Complementary Colors and Website Design Tips. Don't forget to visit Content Layouts Over Time for a snapshot of how sites have generally transitioned over the past sixteen years.

Your Assignment

1. Create a home page
1. Insert an image
2. Write a few sentences about what you hope to learn this semester
2. Create an “About Me” page
1. Insert images
2. Include links to relevant websites
3. Write a brief bio
3. Create a page for your "Learning Story"
4. Edit the sidebar navigation
1. Make sure there are links to all of your pages from the menu
2. Order the pages to start with Index/Home, About Me, Learning Story

It's ok to make mistakes, edit, re-create, and undo changes. As we get more comfortable with the tool, using it will become second nature.

For Thursday

1. Finish your “About Me” page
2. Make sure to have your book for class