Generational Differences

I think that it is important to understand that there are differences in generations and the longer you teach, the more you will see of it.  Not only is it important for understanding your class, but also your co-workers.  I don't think that the entire instruction should be redesigned to accommodate different generations.  I think that instruction should be adjusted to accommodate the individual needs of students every year.  No two classes will be the same.  What worked for lasts year's class might not necessarily work for this year's class or next year's class.  Adjustments should always be made.  What works at the beginning of the year might not work three months later.  I think Reeves (2008), puts it well when he says, "Instead of worrying about whether Boomers, GenXers or Millennials will learn more from direct instruction or virtual reality games, instructional designers and educational technology researchers working closely with practitioners and subject matter experts should begin by identifying the needs of any given set of learners, design the best possible prototype learning environments in situ, and then conduct iterative cycles of formative evaluation and refinement to optimize the solution and reveal robust design principles"(p.21).

There may not be any evidence that this "Net-generation's" brain processes information differently, but it is important to get to know your current students.  Maybe their interests are video games.  Maybe they're sports or ranching. You can still help students learn best when you meet their interests and keep them engaged.  With the use of technology, you can make your instruction more engaging.  If students are able to create something instead of take a paper-and-pencil test, they will be more motivated to learn. It is my belief that this newest generation still needs engaging, interesting instruction that caters to the learners' specific needs.

Reeves, T.C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum from January 22-25, 2008 at http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf

Guest Entry: Jon Smith on Book Creator

Jon Smith is a Technology Integration Specialist for Alliance City Schools.  He was a special education teacher for 12 years and continues to have a desire to allow special education students to create wonderful content to enhance their learning.  Jon’s daily duties include teaching students about technology tools, helping them with projects and giving professional development to teachers and district staff on incorporating technology in the classroom.  He is also an instructor for The Communicate Institute.  Jon teaches a graduate level course to teachers on engaging the 21st century learner with technology.  Jon is an Apple Distinguished Educator. He is married with two children and loves golf.

www.mrsmithtrt.weebly.com and tinyurl.com/classibooks

I love the iPad. It is one of the most powerful technology tools available in my opinion. As much as I love the iPad, I don't like to promote a bunch of apps. There are many apps that do things well, however, there are only a handful of apps that do things great. Book Creator is one of those amazing apps. With Book Creator, you and your students can create wonderful eBooks with a variety of media in them.

What is it?

Book Creator is an app that allows students and teachers to create eBooks.

How much does it cost?

There is a free version of Book Creator that allows you to create one eBook. After you make the one book, you will need to delete the eBook and start a new one. The paid version of Book Creator costs $4.99 and it is well worth the price. As a matter of fact, I would pay $4.99 per month to keep the app. I believe that strongly in it.

Why do I believe in it?

Book Creator is simple. Very simple. I don't want anyone to feel bad but I have a story to tell. I taught this app to a group of second graders one sunny afternoon. We were putting together a poetry book. Each student had their own iPad and their instructions were to create a one page poem with a selfie and a drawing attached. I gave instructions on how to use the app (5 minutes in length). After the 5 minutes were over, I let the kids loose. The kids were fully independent in the app after the simple 5 minute instruction. So, if a second grader can figure out the app after 5 minutes, you can too.

Book Creator is fantastic for keeping everything on the iPad. There is no need to take pictures on another device and import them into Book Creator. One device is all you need. Videos, photos and amazing app smashes are only a few taps away.

I also believe in Book Creator because of how easy it is to share your creations with people...lots of people. We have created over 43 iBooks for people to read and download using Book Creator. It is exceptionally motivating to the students when they realize that people from around the world have read their eBooks. Book Creator allows you to share eBooks via PDF, ePub and YouTube.

Components:

Book Creator has some very simple parts.

1-add pages with different styles from plain white to colors to special papers (graph paper).

2-add photos and videos from your camera roll or directly from the app.

3-add text of various styles, languages, colors and sizes.

4-add audio files to your book from iTunes music to voices of students.

5-add shapes and comic book style call outs.

6-my favorite feature allows you to add anything from your camera roll into the book. This means that any app that can export a project to the camera roll is fair game for being added to the Book Creator book. This is fantastic.

Conclusion:

Students need to be making things and sharing those things with a global audience. It is no longer good enough to collect student work and keep it for ourselves. Book Creator makes this simple and fun. The bottom line is this: There is no better app than Book Creator.

Thanks so much to Jon Smith for being my guest blogger.

Commentary Blog Hackathons as a New Pedagogy

http://www.edutopia.org//blog/hackathons-as-a-new-pedagogy-brandon-zoras

While I was reading this article from Edutopia, (one of my favorite blogs to follow) I became very intrigued.  The first thing I thought of was the movie called The Internship, with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.  The movie is about two adults faking their way through an internship at Google.  They are put into teams and have different challenges to complete.

This article sounds similar to some of the challenges.  Students are put into teams with students of different abilities to come up with a solution to a problem.  The solution can be code based, wearable technology, analog, or anything else.  The sky is the limit.  Students are assigned roles as the hacker, hustler, or designer.  These jobs are the code writer, the marketer, and the designer.

This sounds like such an amazing activity for students to put their talents to good use.  It is a combination of project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and STEM to solve a 21st-century problem.  It also teaches students about failure and what to do if the first idea doesn't work.  What a great learning opportunity for today's learners.

Discussion Question: Screen Time

I am a second grade teacher and we implement the Daily 5 structure to our guided reading groups. This means that there are 5 rotations during the guided reading block.  Listen to Reading, Work with Teacher, Read to Self, Work on Writing and Word Word are my rotations.  Last year was the first year that my classroom was 1:1 with iPads, except the students are not allowed to take them home.

My concern is, how much screen time should I allow the students? During Listen to Reading I would let them get on Storyline Online to watch a video of a real person reading a story to them, or they could get on Epic! and read an ebook.  Epic! also had some audio books on it.  Work on Writing started as them writing entries in their writer's notebook, but as the year progressed, they started writing letters to me on a Google Doc. which saved so much time in responding to them.  During Work with Teacher, we usually had a paper article that we could annotate.  By the end of the year I scanned the articles instead of making copies and we used digital annotations.  During Read to Self time, I made them read an actual book from the classroom library.

I'm not sure if I am letting students on the iPads for too much time or if it is fine.  Scanning articles instead of making copies saves the school a lot of paper and ink, but then they can't take the article home and read it again for homework.  What do you think?

List Entry Apps for Reading

As a second grade teacher, I am always looking for ways to get my students excited about reading. Many students love to read, while other students are reluctant to read.  I know that just using an iPad can motivate a second grader.  Why not let them read or do a reading activity on an iPad?  Here is a list of some reading apps.

1. Say Word: This is a free app for middle to upper elementary students.  It helps them with vocabulary and concepts in a challenging and interesting way.

2.  Epic!: This is a free app that offers thousands of kids' books from well know publishers.  It tracks the students' reading progress and reads some of the books to the students.

3.  Books that Grow: This is a Google Chrome extension.  This has a leveling system so that students of different abilities can read the same book.  The library includes biographies, folktales, science, social studies, and more.

4.  International Children's Digital Library: This is a free app that has thousands of children's books from sixty countries.  Books in other languages also have summaries in English.

Links Entry Netiquette

One of the first things students need to know when using social media is netiquette.  It is very important that students understand how to behave online and how to stay safe.  Here are some links to sites that provide more information on netiquette and cyber safety.

1.  Cyber Safety- this site will provide you with a free one-hour training and let you download materials to discuss digital citizenship and online safety with elementary students or your own children.

2.  The Core Rules of Netiquette- this site is geared toward older students and adults. It contains the rules for behaving properly online.

3.  Learn the Net- this site is an interactive site that includes the basics of using the internet for older students or adults.  From surfing the web to staying safe, you can learn it on this site.

4. Netiquette for Kids- this site provides a list from the Boston Library for Kids of ways to be a digital citizen.

5.  15 Essential Netiquette Guidelines to Share with Your Students- This site shares guidelines to posting in an online discussion board.  It turns the guidelines into a poster to help students remember.

Melanie Shoffner's Preservice English Teachers and Technology: A Consideration of Weblogs for the English Classroom

While reading Shoffner's article, it made me a little sad that I did not have a technology class when I was in college.  I took a multimedia class where we had to make powerpoint presentations and a lesson on transparency paper for overhead projectors.  You might think this dates me, but I graduated college in 2012!! This article really makes me think that a technology methods class could have benefited my class immensely.

I really like the questions that Shoffner mentioned in her article on page 249.

1. Why do I want to use weblogs?
2. How can weblogs enhance my ability to reach curricular goals and meet content standards?
3. Are my students capable of handling weblogs? How much previous experience have they had with technology, in general, and weblogs, in particular?
4. How comfortable and knowledgeable am I with weblogs?
5. What weblog technologies are available to me?
6. What am I teaching my students with weblogs?
7. How am I going to assess the weblogs?
8. How will the school environment affect my use of weblogs?

I think these questions can really help you implement blogging into your classrooms.  In second grade, our end of the year DSPA is a persuasive letter.  I could have students blog about their opinions and reply to other students' opinions.  They could practice agreeing and respectfully disagreeing.  They would also be able to defend their own opinions.  I could have them write letters to each other to practice the format.  Not only could they write letters to other students in my class, they could write to other classes.

Right now, in my school I am the only second grade teacher with a classroom set of iPads, there is a first grade teacher with a classroom set, and all three third grade teachers are getting a classroom set.  My students could blog with the other classes, but I have to ask myself some more of the questions from above.  Are the first grade students going to have enough technology and weblog experience to interact with my students?  I will also have to check with the third grade teachers and find out if writing letters is part of their curriculum too.

I really thinking that students would be so motivated and engaged by using weblogs with other classes.  We would have to start out slow and work on it all year.  It would be an authentic experience for students to have other classes see their postings and be able to comment back to them.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello!
My name is Amy Mitchell.  This is my second session of classes in the masters program.  I am also enrolled in 503 Instructional Design this summer.  I am a second grade teacher at Wagonwheel Elementary in Gillette, Wyoming.  I just finished my second year teaching and I am very excited to learn how to incorporate blogs into my classroom.  Last year was the first year that our district provided classroom sets of iPad minis to 34 teachers.  This year, they will be providing 25 more sets to teachers throughout the district.  It is amazing how technology can transform your classroom and your teaching style.  I am eager to get to know everyone over the next seven weeks!