Reflection and Evaluation

As I worked through the steps of 5 3/4 things, I realized that I have probably left some steps out when teaching researching. For example... evaluating websites. I know that is important but I usually limit the sites I expect the kids to go to so I have already done the evaluation part but I should take the time to teach at least some part of evaluating websites because I won't always be leading them through the research project.

I don't really know quite how I will use this series of blog posts except as an example of the process one can go through to break down a large project into manageable steps that can each be evaluated. From this experience I have started a wiki that I will use with teachers and students. I have begun this wiki, but am not near finished. This is the biggest thing that has grown from this experience.

http://bulldogsresearch.pbworks.com/FrontPage

This version of "23 Things" was more sequential with an end product in mind from the beginning. The other versions of "23 Things" were more experiential. I think both types of learning experiences are valid and I imagine that some people prefer one type over the other. I personally enjoyed both of the learning experiences. This one felt a little more limiting and as I was thinking about how to adapt it to use it with others that is where I landed on the idea of a wiki. Always some more to learn! :)

Thing 5: Sharing

I guess I got a little head of myself due to excitement because I posted my video in Thing 4! I also posted it on YouTube with the tags of sbisdL2P3 and athens. In Thing 4 I also wrote that the audience that it is intended for would be 5th graders doing research on a city of country or an after school technology class completing a research project. It could be adapted for other research projects if the various components were discussed such as the title and ending page, the editing of the stills and the layering of the voice over and music.

You can find my project by searching the tags athens or sbisdL2P3 or clicking on this link!

Thing 4: Creating

The creative process was helped by sticking to my storyboard. I was tempted to add a number of more images but tried to stick to the idea that less is more. Since I am thinking this is a model for either the 5th graders or an after school technology class, I also needed to remember my audience and not make it to difficult to render something similar to it. As I have been working through this process of the 5 3/4 things, I have been wondering about setting up another blog or a wiki with steps for completing this project that students can go through.

My second pair of eyes that viewed my video thought the comparisons to Houston and Texas would be helpful for elementary students. She wondered if students would know about the literacy rates of other countries, but I think that the 5th graders study that as a marker for developing countries verses already developed countries - I could be wrong. She was also glad the visuals moved slow enough so she could get a good look at them.

Thing 3: Planning

I will try to post one page of my storyboard at the end of this post (but you can see that even though I tried to do it at the end - the image jumped to the beginning - ah, blogger, will I ever really figure you out?). I actually did the storyboard and planning yesterday and was so tired of the whole thing by the time I finished that the thought of scanning a page and posting it just disgusted me so I left the activity until today. I need to remember that feeling of "yuck" so I make sure the students don't feel it. I guess I worked for too long at a time without any breaks and it left me CRANKY. Then last night at the Astro's game well... I am still a little cranky today but here goes!

I looked at a number of storyboards and decided to use the digital storyboard designed by Jason Ohler (www.jasonohler.com/storytelling). I printed it out and wrote on it because I like the organic feel of working with a pencil with a sharp point and doodling when I am thinking, drawing arrows, making notes of information I still need to find - the whole bit. Some students might like a printed out version and some might rather use a storyboard on the computer. I have the feeling that they will still view it as they do a rough draft which is...but why???? (Even though we all know rough drafts make better finished product).

The benefits for me using a storyboard and for them using a storyboard are many. It organizes one's product. I could clearly see the information that I am missing and still needed to locate. My script is almost totally written and all the images are neatly gathered in a folder on my desktop. As I was creating the storyboard yesterday I had a couple of good ideas because it made me think about my audience as well as each piece of what I am trying to create.

I think I will take another break before I create my iMovie!

Thing 2

Both of the websites for my selected project evaluated well using 2 of the evaluations. The main differences between the two check lists were not in the areas of criteria used to evaluate but in vocabulary used in the questions to the user of the evaluation. My student audience is elementary students where at least a third are not strong readers so vocabulary and ease of usage is a primary concern. I liked parts of both of the evaluation sheets with Kathy Schrock's being the best but it was too long and needed to be updated. The ending part about having the students write a little paragraph about what the student learned about the website he/she evaluated is a good idea since it synthesis learning and is another area of an example of writing which so many teachers need in evaluating learning or as additions to the students writing folder.

As far as making it a natural part of the research process, I liked the quote Joyce Valenza had on her site "when in doubt, doubt." So many times students are gullible and believe anything they hear or see whether it is on the web or what they heard from their neighbor. Evaluating information comes from practice and exposure to both good and bad information using some type of criteria whether that it a formal checklist or taking a moment to self-question a site with the simple question : "Hey, what are they trying to sell me?" This is an area that I need to address more next year in the library especially with the older students in the 3rd - 5th grades.

Thing 1

Since my topic is to research a city in another country and the Greek Gods are still fairly popular, I decided to focus my topic on Athens, Greece. Aquabrowser didn't open for me (I have been having internet issues lately) but a Merriweather search throughout the entire district's resources vetted a nice assortment of books (both fiction and nonfiction), videos and websites about Athens, Greece.

The three search engines I decided to look at were CyberSleuth Kids, Awesome Library and Bing. I have noticed that a lot of students have begun using Bing and Ask.com. I think the Bing users have been influenced by the funny commercials and the Ask users like the search format of a question (although they often seem bummed when the site doesn't give them a brief answer and they still have to read!).

CyberSleuth Kids gave me 0 hits for Athens, Greece yet 14 for just Athens (some were about the Civil War - Athens, Georgia). One site (lonelyplanet.com) looked particularly good for students because it had fast facts on a sidebar, good white space and nice pictures but the vocabulary was difficult right off the bat using works such as myriad and hallow - yikes! Awesome Library was less than awesome. The websites it directed me to were mostly on the Olympics and Ancient Greece. Not really what I was hoping to find. Bing gave me a ton of sited divided nicely into categories with tabs at the top. Using the folder tabs the students could quickly find information such as web, maps, images and wikipedia. I will probably use Bing more next year with students.

The databases of the Smithsonian and of course Encyclopedia Britanica gave a lot of basic information that would be good for elementary students learning about a city in another country.

The most surprising result from this first activity was in using social networking sites to get information. Youtube had a number of videos similar to what I have thought about creating. None are exactly what I would like to create but a few would be worth showing as examples of what to do and what NOT to do. I also had not thought about blogs as a resource for a student activity (I don't know why b/c I use a number of blogs regularly for gaining information that I use as a librarian!). My search of blogs resulted in finding an interesting blog, The Real Housewives of Athens, Greece. Who knew!?

Bringing It All Together

After 2 previous summers of exploring a variety of technology tools, it is good to bring it all together to create a learning experience for students and teachers to follow.

I am still thinking about what topic my project should embrace, but after thinking about it for over half of the summer (I read the assignment in early June but just have found other things that "need" to be done!), I really feel I must just jump in with something or it will never be finished and hopefully I can later adapt these steps to fit other topics of study. With that in mind, I think this project will focus on creating a iMovie about a city in another country. This is similar to an assignment the 5th graders do at the end of the school year so perhaps they can use these steps next year and create a product other than a poster.

There are many TEKS/TAKS that this topic would cover. Most would be in the area of Language Arts and Social Studies. As I get into this project, I will try to list the various TEKS/TAKS for future use.

Presenting the topic and having the students create a product in a technology influenced manner will be exciting for some students because it is new and they already spend so much time on the computer/internet and it will be different. For some students who are terribly successful with assignments in their current form, they might not feel so excited by the change and will have to rethink how a project is completed learning new things - even some kids don't like change! Overall, I believe students will enjoy learning through technology.