Playing Around with Glogster

I spend some time today playing around with Glogster, a web-based multimedia poster creation software.  Here's what I came up with as a response to week 5's discussion question #1:

http://rtomes.edu.glogster.com/glog-6926/

I had hoped to embed the "glog" here, but there is not a way to adjust the size of a glog to fit various web spaces.  Nevertheless, the software was interesting.  Please check out the "glog" for more thoughts on Glogster in the classroom.

Making Digital Assignments Accessible

 I had high hopes for completely digitalizing all homework assignments for my classes this year.  However, I quickly ran into trouble with students who did not have regular home access to a computer with what I consider basic software.  Here are a few thoughts I have on how to be successful in assigning digital assignments in schools with limited technology access (These are in no particular order):

1.     Digital assignments should allow for ample time for students to make arrangements for computer use.  I typically allow a week for all take-home assignments that require computer access.  This way, students can plan with parents to get to a library or a ride home from school after spending time in the lab or my classroom.

2.     Try to ensure sources are compatible with older versions of software.  I’ve had students explain they couldn’t complete an assignment because their flash player or browser was out of date.  In a perfect world, I’d like to think that parents would understand the importance of regularly updating their home computers.  However, at least in the population I work with, this just isn’t currently the case.  It might be worth it to have regular access to a computer with an older browser or older version of flash, just to test out a site you’d like to send students to.

3.     Finally, I think it would be worth it to try to work with URLs that are as simple as possible for students to type correctly.  This has been such a sticking point for my class web page that I’ve been working on this year.  The site is hosted through our county’s Google site, and two months in, students still claim my site “doesn’t work.”  It does – they just struggle with the details of typing the URL in correctly.  Any way to minimize user frustration, I think, would lead to a more positive digital experience for students.  For now, I’m considering getting bookmarks or pens made up with my URL – anything to bombard my students with the importance of correctly typing in URLs.

Developing a Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Unit

Developing a Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Unit

This past week, the faculty at my high school voted on the topic for what will become a school-wide interdisciplinary unit.  The topic chosen was “21^st Century skills:  What’s an Education Worth?”  Admittedly, I’m not particularly excited about the topic, but being a government teacher, I can respect any decision made democratically.  To clarify the topic, the group that suggested this topic explained the unit to be one where students explore careers in fields related to the subjects they take.  The culminating project will be a school career wiki that includes student videos and writings.

This unit is still very much in the planning phases – we have yet to even set a date for when the unit will be taught.  In preparation for our next collaborative planning meeting, I feel the need to use this space to ask and answer a few questions that I think our faculty should consider as we prepare this interdisciplinary unit.

1. Does our high school have access to the hardware necessary to make this project happen?  If not, then how will we acquire/compensate for any inadequacies?

I think our school really needs to take a very close look at this.  The most useful computers in the building are the freshly replaced laptops issued to each faculty member.  Other computers in the building are seriously out date.  If we have access to A/V equipment, it would be news to me.  Sure, we could rely on students’ access to technology at home and through their mobile devices.  However, I’ve made that assumption once already this year, and regretted the extra work it added when I had to devise an alternative assessment because some students had no access to take simple digital pictures.  For this unit to work successfully, I think we have to be able to ensure that we have the tools in-house to make this successful.

2.    What software(s) will be used for students to collaborate and share their pieces of the project?

Richardson gives numerous examples of very good wikis and uses for wikis in chapter four of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools.  Which one will be best for this project?  Will we host the videos on another site, then imbed them in the wiki?  Will the videos be hosted on www.youtube.com?  Will we use another source?  What about images?

3.    How will student collaboration be facilitated?

This question, I think must be answered before all others, and I fear that right now, this is the weakest.  Administration’s approach seems to want to leave much room for the individual content areas to develop their own assessments and criteria for student contributions.  Personally, I think a common thematic unit should also involve a common rubric.  This would be a great opportunity to create discussion on what rigor really looks like (which is a strong theme throughout many faculty meetings this year).  Teachers, like their students, learn by doing, and this may be a great tool to improve our craft as well as create student understanding and learning.  If I had it my way, I suggest that content areas create “production teams,” like you would find at a commercial site that.  Students would contribute in one of a number of different ways – some may be responsible for acting in a video, others would be responsible for creative design or written content.

Over all, I think this has the potential to be a really fantastic project.  Now we have to work out the details.

Blogs and Current Events in the Social Studies Classroom

One of the most prevalent uses for blogging that I come in contact every day is are blogs written by news columnists and political cartoonists.  It seems that any regular contributor to a newspaper, magazine, or even broadcast news outlet consistently updates some sort of blog.  One of my favorite such sites is Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index.  While primarily a site that collects current political cartoons, there is a great blogroll on the right side of the site where contributors take the opportunity to both analyze trends in political cartoons and have discussions on topics relevant to what cartoonists are drawing about.   One of my favorite current posts is by Will Durst, called "Trickle-Up Economics."  Here, Durst comments on the current "Class War" debate that was started with President Obama's introduction of the "Buffet Rule."  I have to agree with Durst's conclusion that perhaps Obama should fight the rhetoric by using terminology like "trickle-up economics."

Such blogs, I think bring to mind two ways blogs could be used in the social studies classroom.  First, students could start their own RSS feeds (of both liberal and conservative columnists) and follow a couple columnists' views throughout the school year.  The other use I see is having students contribute to a class current events blog, where they themselves have the opportunity to synthesize news stories and commentary.

Both of these uses offer a couple of challenges that I have already identified.  First, students will need lessons on bias and editorials in order to help them understand points of view and the difference between opinion and fact.  Second, students would need a strong background in how to cite sources - perhaps such  a blogging assignment would be best done in coordination with their English classes.