Artifact 2 EEND-676



Artifact 2

Image result for google site
The second artifact I chose was my collaborative Google Sites project. I am a big fan of Google Sites and using the resource in a manner that incorporates collaboration, creativity and higher-order thinking skills.

For this project, students are placed into reading groups for the graphic novel Fahrenheit 451. I spend a small amount of time reviewing how to use the technology because by the time I get to this unit students have used Google Sites for several assignments and are fairly skilled with the tool. Below is the assignment task analysis:

Assignment Task Analysis 10th Grade :

In the groups you have been placed in by Mr. Riddle, create a collaborative Google site.

1. Page 1 include a picture and all group members’ names.

2. Page 2 include definition/explanation of theme and include at least one picture.

3. Page 3 include an embedded or linked Google Doc that has the three themes your group identified, page number, quotation and explanation. Include at least one picture.

4. Page 4 include the feedback page which should include an embedded or linked Google Doc that students can leave feedback on. Include at least one picture.

5. Visit 2 other group websites and provide feedback on their feedback page. This is the last step of the overall assignment. All class sites will be posted once completed. Due date xx/xx/2017.

6. You will determine roles and themes through group discussion and agreement. All members must agree on their individual roles as well as group selections and product. This occurs through discussion and compromise.

I like this collaborative assignment because it allows all students to participate regardless if the student is an introvert or extrovert. The assignment incorporates creativity which provides students the opportunity to own their learning as well as invest more with the assignment. The main aspect of the assignment that I like is that students are providing feedback to each other. I am a big supporter of social learning and I feel that this lesson hits on all of the key aspects of a successful and worthwhile social assignment. Due to the social nature of this assignment, I remind students that we must adhere to our digital citizenship responsibilities. Student are also reminded that when providing feedback, the feedback needs to be regarding the assignment/task and not something more personal. I often provide feedback sentence starters to help students provide appropriate feedback.

Some of the challenges of this assignment are that it is time-consuming (but worth it), has the potential to go sour (if students are not careful with their feedback) and sometimes students put more effort into the creativity component and less into the academic component. With all of this being said, these issues are easily managed with practice and frequent monitoring.

Each time I implement a lesson similar to this, I find new issues and revise to navigate around them for the next lesson. I doubt I will ever find the perfect lesson; every lesson can be improved upon. One of the things I consider is what should students do with the site after the lesson. Save it for the remainder of the semester/year, save it forever, delete it. I feel that asking them to delete it takes away some of the validity of the lesson. I'll have to discuss with my peers what their ideas are regarding this concern.

Comments

  1. Heidi MorganNovember 14, 2017 at 5:00 PM

    Your positive attitude about putting in the work to manage and monitor these kinds of assignment is so very refreshing. Your desire to always improve shows your dedication to the art and craft of teaching. This is an authentic use of technology to support collaboration and learning.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EEND 678 Artifact 1

Image
ARTIFACT 1 UbD Link The first artifact I chose was the Understanding by Design Unit. Prior to this class, I had heard of UbD units; however, I had never created one. It seemed like quite a bit of work and research would be involved in creating one of these units. After creating a UbD unit, my thinking was correct - at least for me. Creating the unit was time-consuming and took many hours to plan and incorporate common core standards with the use of meaningful technology. So it definitely took some determination to complete. The article, Understanding by Design Framework by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins was helpful in understanding the concepts of UbD units. According to McTighe and Wiggins, "Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowledge, skill, or activity" (ASCD Online). This really helped me in designing my unit by knowing that I would take a less prominent role in student work, but at the same time, it was a bit difficult t...
Read more

Reflection

Image
Reflection This course was beneficial to me as an educator in that I learned not only a few new technologies to incorporate into my teaching but also how to create a PBL, a UbD and develop a grant. In the past, I had considered all of these to be too time-consuming. The PBL is somewhat time-consuming, but if you have an idea and sources, the process goes rather quickly. The UbD took considerable time. There were many components to consider, but in the end, I had a unit that will last at least a month and provide students with a unique learning experience. I was most surprised about the ease of writing the grant. I know some grants require letters of references and lots of other data, but the NEF grant that I chose was pretty straightforward. It was a form and you basically just fill it out and get a few signatures. I also looked at several other grants and many of these were simply comprised of completing a form with three or four boxes - seems easy enough. Moving forward, I plan...
Read more

EEND 677 Reflection

Image
EEND 677Y has exposed me to many resources and tools that I was unaware existed. Two of my favorite new tools that I was exposed to include Vocaroo, a voice recording site and Adobe Spark which is a great site for making videos. This course also introduced me to both virtual reality and augmented reality for learning. I knew about virtual reality and how it is used for entertainment, but I was unaware of the potential it had when used academically. The same applies to augmented reality. I had heard of it being used in games and in some academic settings, but I have no experience or knowledge on using either of these tools in class myself. I was uncertain as to what the main differences were between these two technologies. According to the article Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality from Augment Online, the main difference is virtual reality places the user in the experience through site and sound in contrast to augmented reality which includes computer-generated enhancements ...
Read more