Capstone Project - Final Blog

I have loved the EDM 310-701 class because it was always fun and challenged my computer operating skills. Since putting all of the class projects into a lesson plan for the Capstone Project the pieces seem more important than the whole project. However the technology assistance for the lesson plan was great for teaching the curriculum so I will use some of the same programs in the future. Once our group got to the Capstone Project the things I had forgotten from previous projects showed but this final project reminded me of those things.

I feel as if I am better at working in a group since beginning the class. Truthfully I was intimidated by group projects but EDM 310 taught me to collaborate on serious parts of the process but also helped me have fun with the work because the rubric's left room for creativity. I also overcame some personality clashing issues with another member of the group.

Overall I plan on adding my new knowledge to my collection for the future when I will be able to truly utilize programs such as EDPuzzle and an Interactive Powerpoint for my students.

Capstone Project Overview

For our final project, my group has selected a lesson plan about American symbols. Some of the symbols include the American flag, the statue of Lady Justice, the Statue of Liberty, and the national anthem.  Here is the full lesson:

http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=33904

I think that this lesson is a great choice because the students gain identity as Americans. Specifically, at the end of the lesson the students are instructed to create a newscast interview about the definitions and importance of an American symbol in the lesson. The students first join groups of two and research the symbol of their choice. After finding information they are asked to formulate questions to ask the other group member in the mock newscast. The second part of this lesson involves the students making a graphic to display during the newscast interview.

Creating My Interactive Powerpoint

I had a good time creating this project and learned alot about Microsoft Powerpoint that I wish I knew sooner. This project opened up a new world to creating a presentation. I used a lesson plan from ALEX about the continents and then put triggers on the different locations that referenced to later slides about South America. I did not know that a few simple functions within Powerpoint could make the lesson so fun!

Since I have used Powerpoint before, I had background knowledge to get started. I used most of those skills in creating my transitions and animations and adding the material for the project into the slide show. To keep my Powerpoint simple I made it informational and hope to add more detail in later creations. I added a Youtube link to my pictures about the Amazon in order to teach about the animals, plants, and the environment as a whole. I liked that I could hyperlink to Youtube because it holds interesting videos that engage the students in the subject. Through a video the students can hear the sounds of the rainforest as well as see the many animals and plants without a long slideshow. I also added triggers to engage the short informational bullet points about South America into cues for animals sounds, when you click on "Amazon Rainforest", and the transitions to later slides. Those later slides held all of the details about a subject which made the facts more interesting.

I would use these new skills in the classroom to create presentations with fun activities, like learning games.

AT Presentation

Dennis Campbell provided many additional perspectives and details about assistive technologies with a universal design for the classroom. The fact that he is the father of a disabled child made me take to heart his suggestions. It was cool to see the board he brought in that his daughter used.

I did not learn about any new assistive technologies from the guest speaker, other than the ones mentioned in the video we watched before his presentation. However, after watching the video before class I was able to learn more details from Dennis Campbell when he showed in class. I think that even though the assigned video about assistive technologies was an hour long it was worth watching the whole video because it allowed time for so many different assistive technology devices to be shown which helped me during the presentation. Maybe a change could be made so that the devices are presented in a different way, for example putting the devices into a PowerPoint presentation. The information would then be quicker to learn without having someone present each device individually and speak about them separately. I think that the PowerPoint option would save time because each person could look at each assistive technology at their own speed.

The details that Dennis Campbell presented included the idea of a universal design for learning. I benefited greatly from that subject in his presentation. Overall I believe I walked away from Dennis Campbell's presentation with a better understanding of the needs students with disabilities require and what it means to make a lesson or task available to all learning types.

Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Assistive technology is any device or product that helps a child with disabilities learn in the classroom. For example, assistive technology includes a pencil grip or a programmed button. I learned many ways to use assistive technology in the classroom from the assigned video. I found some of the devices hard to use in a regular classroom because every student would need to be involved and that many resources would be pricey. However, my favorite device was the writer that was compatible with word and allowed students to type papers. What sold me on this device was the print option.

The only assistive technology I have seen implemented into the classroom was in a high school that provided laptops to every student. I want to see more of the resources the presenter showed used in a classroom because they are so beneficial to the students.

How do we, as the teachers, get the assistive technology devices and convince the school that it would be beneficial?
Are there programs or grants to help pay for the resources needed to involve the entire class, while all the students are using a device?

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

The Alabama Learning Exchange website looked like the main source for teaching material in Alabama. I made an account with ALEX and used an e-mail I always check so that I can use ALEX after college. I liked that I could create my own lesson plans, podcasts, or learning assets. ALEX is convenient because the website allows for a personal workspace while creating new lesson plans or podcasts. This keeps all of the work you perform in ALEX in one place for convenience. After looking through ALEX I noticed there is also a tab on professional learning that gives information for ALEX training videos or professional development opportunities. After college I would use the professional learning tab, while continuing my education for a master's degree, to help me gain skills for administration in public school.

The ALEX program also has an ALEXville tab which allows users to communicate with fellow teachers and receive ALEX news. Overall, ALEX contained more material than I could even make use of today but I definitely took a mental note of this website for my use in the future.  

EDPuzzle - Group Results

After finishing my EDPuzzle and assigning it to my group members, I reviewed the results. With three group members participating only one member missed a question at all and just the first question. I think that my EDPuzzle was effective because of those results. Concerning the missed question,  I think that my definition of a regular verb should have been simplified in the introduction. For a future class I would write out the definition on the screen instead of only saying it because the student could then pause the video and focus. Even though the video segments before a question could be replayed as many times as necessary, some students are visual learners. Writing out the definition in the future will help visual students even if they understand the material from hearing it.

EDPuzzle

EDPuzzle is a website where teachers can assign preliminary lessons to their students, track progress, and grade responses. The website was easy to use because the controls for making an EDPuzzle lesson are directly at the top above the video the teacher selects. Also assigning a class the lesson and checking progress were easy functions to use. The group did have trouble accessing the lesson I made and had to pull up the video in another browser however the extra step only delayed progress for a few minutes. The website made accessing my lesson difficult because EDPuzzle's site remembers where and when the user stopped working which is normally a user friendly setting.

The video search option from EDPuzzle was surprisingly extensive. The site lets the teacher choose from Youtube, EDPuzzle, and many other sources when picking a video. The range of the search helped me find a video that was interesting to watch, which I believe is important for participation. All in all I would definitely use EDPuzzle again because the site was easy to use, the students can watch the more difficult lesson segments as many times as they need, and I like the idea of assigning a lesson before class to free up class time.

Group Project Reflection

Reflecting back on the group video project, I learned more about how to work in a group and share ideas because everyone in the group participated well for this project. I also appreciate the tips our guest speaker gave us about shooting film on a phone. The tripod was the best piece of equipment we used. We did not use any other equipment besides the tripod and a smart board for some background pictures. Our next video project I would like to work with a spot light or backlighting to create dynamic shots.

Shooting the silly scenes were my favorite days working on this project in class. We ran short on time when it came to editing, but I learned that we need to set aside more than one day for editing. Our topic for the group video project was movement in the classroom. I loved that we were able to use a video from an actual elementary classroom as an example for our topic's argument. I also learned many facts and information about ways to integrate movement into a lesson plan. Fortunately I could even use some of the resources I found in a future classroom of mine.

A Vision of Students Today

The video taught me the problems within parts of the education system, especially concerning students. The majority of the facts in the video showed the disadvantages students work through like the high price of textbooks that are never used or the class size. The video challenged my ideas about education today because now I think we need to make some changes. One thing that I could do as a future teacher would be to learn every child's name. That was a fact presented in the video that said professors don't know their names.
I think one big problem facing teachers and learning is class size. With an average size of 115 students there is not enough class time to give individual instruction. Another change I would make is adding  creativity and the arts into the classrooms. Alot of lessons can benefit from arts based instruction like using movement or theatre. Technology can help teachers help their students because it gives the teacher videos and interactive practice websites. I would use those changes in my classroom as a future teacher.

Mr. Walker's Presentation

I enjoyed the presentation from Mr. Walker about taking video with a smartphone. I especially loved, "think in shots" idea for filming. Since I do not own an IPhone I hope there are similar opportunities available for Samsung, like the adapter he showed to the class. The biggest lesson I took away was that lighting, sound, and the angle of the shot are important. I liked how he presented instructional videos that I could easily access after the presentation and review on a later project. Once I saw the improvement from a poorly shot video to the quality that could have been shot it inspired me. I feel like I could make great videos with a smartphone where before I thought that I was limited by the camera quality. Everything I learned from the presentation I will definately use the next time I plan to take a video with my phone.

Khan Academy Featuring Videos in Education

After listening to the speech about videos in education I believe they could be brought into the classroom as a positive tool for teaching. I especially liked the story I heard about the teacher who was able to assign lecture videos for homework for the students to watch and review and then during class time the students were assigned the homework from the lessons. That seemed to free up time for the teacher to be able to go to individual students for tutoring and help instead of the students doing the work at home and waiting until class to ask their questions. Therefore, I believe that videos in education could be a useful tool for the teacher. 

Los Altos school featured in the assigned video seemed to benefit from video learning. Khan Academy videos are only one example of the possibilities with websites and databases focused on learning videos for students. The main benefit I see with video learning is the amount of time it would free up for the teacher to provide guidance during class for difficult concepts. Overall I enjoyed watching the video.

Making the App Trailer

Since completing my free app trailer project I remember the most how difficult it was to edit videos. I had trouble stopping the video at just the right moment. Using the screen recording apps on my cell phone had to be the most challenging part of the project. Converting videos from screen recordings to computer friendly versions was the main obstacle I faced. I made my app trailer about “Zap Zap Math”, a math app with 100+ practice games for fractions, addition, subtraction, and more. The app has games for all grades K-6.

                In making my app trailer I learned more about how apps help children practice the skills they learn in school. As a future teacher I want to provide many ways for a student to succeed and I see apps making homework fun.  I do hope to use educational apps when I begin to teach, especially because apps like the one in my trailer delivers progress reports to the teachers and parents. Therefore, the parents and educators know how much the child has learned since using the app. 

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

From the assigned video we all watched I took away a lesson about the diversity in learning. Some learn through sight or sound or repetition or movement and I took to heart the viewpoint he presented because he explained that diversity extremely well. Robinson's main point was that schools squander creativity in youth and then expect those same children to be creative and innovative later in life when instead we should encourage creativity in youth. It seems to me that in early childhood education children are taught that they need intellectual guidelines for thinking about their world first before they are allowed to think outside of the guidelines presented to them. I do not want to go along with that method of teaching.
I agree that when a child shows constructive creativity we as teachers should encourage those ideas. As a future teacher this video helped me understand how diverse learning is for each individual child. I hope to be a teacher that does encourage abstract thought and diverse thinking through allowing myself to be accepting and understanding about that diversity. As is common, most individuals find a structure and routine that they like and then never allow themselves to deviate from it. I hope to be a teacher that not only encourages but loves diverse learning methods.

Reimagining Technology for Education

        In general, I loved Richard Culatta's presentation! His examples were very effective in persuading me because he took the seemingly complicated subject of reimagining learning and made it simple, but still powerful. Richard's presentation made me reimagine technology implementation for education because before seeing the video I only imagined digital versions of traditional learning, the very thing Richard sought to advise against when using technology for learning. I had a strong response to the video once I heard  the new ways in which technology can change learning. I immediately wanted to use them in my classroom once I become a teacher. I would use technology for all of the reasons Richard listed: real time feedback, adjusting the pace, giving learners choice in how to learn for the day, and enabling mass customization.
        The main impact I received from the video was this: try something new. All in all, Richard Culatta's video opened my eyes to those new opportunities. Exploring new programs, encouraging the use of technology for learning, and implementing new teaching methods are the first steps toward bridging the gap between traditional teaching and new horizons. Teachers need to evolve with the technology around them; why not exploit all technology has to offer that traditional methods could not perform?