VivaVideo: Bringing Learning to Life

       This week in my Instructional Applications of the Internet course, we were asked to explore active learning. It is an approach to teaching in which the students are engaged in purposeful activities. They are not just idle bodies passively listening to lectures, which is the norm in traditional learning environments. Instead, students are given opportunities to explore various concepts and ideas in a hands-on, minds-on manner. I know that my most memorable and effective learning experiences as a student were those in which I was able to interact with the content or create something. It only makes sense for educators to provide those types of experiences for the students in their classrooms, because we all know that they work.

        In addition to reading about active learning, we were asked to create an "elevator pitch." Essentially, we had to figure out a way to record ourselves giving a brief (30 to 60 second) overview of the ideas we have for a mobile learning application that we think would benefit both teachers and students. At first I struggled with how I wanted to develop my video and make it unique. Then, I found an excellent mobile application that was just the ticket. It is called: VivaVideo, and can be downloaded for free or the pro version can be purchased for a one time fee of $2.99.

       With VivaVideo, people have the ability to easily record themselves using a mobile device. They can then add all kinds of personal touches. This includes changing the filter through which videos are recorded to make them look as though they were filmed at dusk or by an old school camera or on black and white film. Those are just a few of the options. Music can be added to videos as well, along with text, stickers, sounds effects, and more. The pro version of the application gives users their videos without the VivaVideo watermark and does not limit how long the recorded films can be.

          While the VivaVideo application worked great for this week's assignment, I recognize its potential in an active learning classroom. There are limitless ways in which educators could use it with students, regardless of what subjects they teach. Students could write their own stories in Language Arts and then be recorded as they act them out. They could archive their lab work in science throughout a semester in order to look back at it and draw conclusions. In music, the students could write their own compositions and then share them with the class. In this day and age, there are many ways in which students can video record themselves, but this application has the added advantage of including many different editing effects. If your administrator has asked to see a lesson in which the students are active and constructing their own knowledge, remember the potential of VivaVideo and see what kinds of interesting learning opportunities it leads to. 

      Until next time...

Learning Unleashed

          One subject that has always interested me is sociology. In fact it interests me so much that I minored in it during my undergraduate studies. Education ties into it, but sociology expands into the study of other social institutions as well. My first exposure to the subject came in high school when I had a beginner's sociology class in my schedule. One of the assignments that I remember we had to complete was a paper that explained which side we were on in the nature versus nurture debate. I found that I did not side completely with one or the other, and wrote my paper to explain why I believe that humans are who they are as a result of both the environments they grew up in as well as their genetics.

         When it comes to learning theories, I feel much the same way: unable to completely side with one over another. For years, educational psychologists and theorists have debated about how students learn. Whereas the likes of B.F. Skinner held fast to the belief that a stimulus in our environments is what directly affects our learning behavior, Lev Vygotsky supported the idea that humans learn as a result of their social interactions with adult teachers or mentors. As I was reviewing the four broad human learning "perspectives" for my Instructional Applications of the Internet class this week, I had the same thought that I did in my high school sociology class, which is that there is no right answer or absolute truth about how people learn. Each perspective has its own merits, which I say based on my own teaching experiences. 

       In my classroom, I used sticker charts and a ticket system to reinforce positive behavior and found that it worked like a charm for the majority of my students. They knew the rules and expectations, and received either a ticket or sticker for making good behavioral choices, such as helping a friend, offering to clean up materials without being asking, actively participating during a lesson, or working quietly on given assignments. Full sticker charts, or a certain number of tickets, resulted in special rewards. In a classroom environment full of attentive, helpful, and non-disruptive students, the opportunities for learning are optimal. As a result of my own personal teaching experiences as just described, I agree with the main ideas behind the behaviorist learning theory. In a nutshell, the theory states that an environment can shape learning and behavior. I found this to be true. 

 Students would take their tickets from out of the apple, 

which you can see in the photo if you look closely! 

        However, I also have observed learning happening cognitively. This theory states that learning and the processing of information comes from the learner doing a combination of retrieving, comparing, storing, and organizing information mentally. It also states that new learning is connected to what people already know. Students always had the most success in my classroom when they were able to connect what they already knew to content they had never encountered before. For instance, an understanding of how a new seed grows through the process of pollination was stronger by those who recalled to memory an experiment in which we had dissected lima beans and identified their specific features. Personally, I know that my own learning is enhanced by considering what I already understand, and I am constantly storing and comparing new ideas. 

         The humanistic theory focuses on the role that emotions play in learning. It supports the idea that a person's choices, sense of responsibility, and motivation influence what and how they learn. In recent years, this theory has once again shifted into focus in the educational community. Angela Duckworth's studies on grit directly relate with this theory as does Paul Tough's bestselling book: How Children Succeed. Though it is clear that a person's personality and emotions play a part in how they do (or do not) succeed academically, it remains unclear what role parents and teachers can play to affect or change a child's grit factor. 

            Finally, the social learning theory states that humans learn best in group activities. In my classroom, there were always plenty of opportunities for collaboration amongst the students. When students work in groups, they are forced to share ideas and learn from one another. While I saw the power that many minds working together can have, I also recognized the importance of students working on their own to construct knowledge or learning alongside a mentor teacher. 

        To string everything I just mentioned in this post together: my overall belief is that there is no single learning theory that trumps the rest. All four perspectives were seen at work in my classroom. Educators must keep in mind that a balance is necessary. Though they must consider the environments of their classrooms and how it affects behavior and learning, they also have to promote grit, collaboration, and constructivist thinking. 

     Until next time...

Mobile Mania: Changing the Way We Teach

           According to Thomas Cochrane and Roger Bateman (2010) in their article: Smartphones Give You Wings, there were more than 1.5 billion iPhone applications available in 2009. It is now six years later, so we can assume that number is even greater. At this point in time, we can find mobile applications on our phones, laptops, and other such portable devices that help us to do our shopping, manage our bills, find the best happy hour specials, and know exactly how to dress based on the most current weather conditions. And this, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. Many people use mobile applications for pure entertainment purposes, with literally millions of games and social networking capabilities to choose from. You have seen it: the guy waiting next to you for his oil to be changed while playing Temple Run on his phone or the girl in the chair next to you at the salon perusing Facebook. Maybe you have even been that person. Whatever the case, there is no escaping the fact that mobile applications have taken the world by storm and are not going away anytime soon. As educators, we need to find ways to use mobile applications effectively in the classroom and to help young people recognize them as being useful learning tools as much as being fun things to play on. Children have been exposed to mobile technology from a very young age, but how they view the devices is based in large part on how they have used them at home.

           In my classroom last school year, each third grade student had his or her own personal Chromebook to use each day. The problem was that several students viewed these devices as toys rather than pieces of important learning equipment. They were more concerned about their background pictures when their time spent using them was supposed to be dedicated to such things as research or math practice. We, as educators, have to figure out ways in which to change this mindset. Modeling appropriate usage of mobile devices for learning purposes on a routine basis, and making a clear distinction between how mobile devices might be used at home versus how they are expected to be used at school, are a few ways in which we can do this.

           Yet, teachers have an even greater job to do than just modeling and explaining the expectations for using mobile devices. Yes, they have to be cognizant of the fact that students view mobile devices a certain way based on their home experiences and address that, but they have to make sure the ways they have students using the mobile devices is pedagogically sound. Case in point: our school purchased a classroom set of iPads a few years back. Teachers could sign out the cart in order to give their students time using the technology. The problem is that in many cases the devices were used as somewhat of an after thought. They were available for students who finished an assignment early, for instance. Students were getting onto applications related to school topics, such as fractions and phonics, but it did not mean that true learning was taking place. I have found that a great deal of mobile applications are terribly designed and have little, if any, educational value even though they claim to. In my opinion, and speaking as an "instructional technologist," mobile applications that are being used by students in the classroom should not be only for purposes of rote memorization or to fill time. They should be carefully selected and designed to make students think at higher levels.

          One example of how I have used a mobile application successfully in the classroom was for a writing project. Students had read the book: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (one of my personal favorites!) and then had to develop a food-related wacky weather report. They accessed the free application called: Popplet, and used it to brainstorm and organize their ideas. When it came time to formulate the actual report into complete sentences, the students were able to open Popplet on their devices and pull up their brainstorming webs to guide their composition. Not only did this help to solidify the steps involved in the writing process, but it was motivating for the students as well. They enjoyed using the technology, but were doing so in a way that required creative and developed thoughts. The same cannot be said for many of the "educational" games that are available. This is not to say that I have always used technology perfectly and in the most educationally sound ways, but I try to make a conscious effort in doing so. In many ways it is trial and error. Still, I strive to make mobile applications an integral part of a lesson, rather than using them as backup tools to fill extra time. It is my belief that more teachers (myself included!) need training that would give them mobile application choices which are known to promote higher level thinking, and ideas on how to incorporate them into lessons. In one of my recent course readings, a great point was made that connects to all of this: we need to use technology to actually change (and improve) the way we teach and not just use it to instruct in the same old ways as always or in the limited ways in which we might understand them.

Until next time...

Spin-a-Lesson

           So when I think about instructional applications of the Internet, I think of how educators can use the World Wide Web to find tools and resources that will enhance their instruction. In my experiences, I have found it to be very time consuming to locate top notch lesson plans on the Internet without having to pay a fee for them. Excellent instructional ideas can be found for free, but it requires a lot of hours in which to search for them. As I think about continuing my blog after the course ends (which was the initial reason I created it in the first place), I know that I would like for it to be a place where I can share lesson plan ideas and resources with elementary school teachers. Since this week in class we do not have any readings to reflect on, and I have already written about WebQuests, I thought I would attempt a "trial post" of my idea.

         The first thing educators will do upon visiting the blog is to watch a short video letting them see the grade level and subject area that will be the focus of the post. Take a look: https://youtu.be/NwnTRFdfs-Q. 
     
 I will then provide a lesson plan that is aligned to the Common Core Standards (specific to Ohio) that coincide with the subject and grade level I spun. Since the spinners came up as "Kindergarten" and "Science" this time, those will be the focus of this first lesson plan idea that I will provide. 

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Subject: Science


Duration: This is meant to be an introductory lesson used at the start of a study of the four seasons. The lesson provided here will focus on the season of fall, but it should be taught when green leaves can be picked from the trees, in either spring or summer. Other lessons should follow that focus on the remaining seasons. 

Standard: Weather changes are long term and short term. 

Objective: The students will understand that there are four different seasons that occur over the course of a year, with each one having unique weather and observable weather patterns. 

          Materials: 
          * the book: The Seasons of Arnold's Apple
          * flashlight
          * globe
          * copies of the printable book on the seasons
          * 3 leaves (from the same tree) 
          * rubbing alcohol
          * spoon
          * jar
          * plastic wrap
          * paper coffee filter
      
Anticipatory Set: To get the students excited about the lesson, pull up the current temperature on the projector. Since you will be teaching this lesson in the spring or summer, plan to bring winter gear with you to school (i.e. hat, gloves, snow pants, boots, parka, etc.) If possible, plan to teach this lesson as the students are coming back from recess, lunch, or a special. When they enter the classroom, you should be dressed in all of the winter gear. The students should find this funny, as it will be out of place considering the actual weather conditions. When you ask the students why they are laughing, or if they think you are dressed right for the afternoon, have a discussion about why these are not appropriate clothing choices based on current weather conditions. Talk about when they would be important to wear and begin to discuss the concept of seasons: although there is definitely a time and place for winter gear, it is not all year round (where they live) that people need it.

Procedure: 

1.) Have the students come to the carpet/gathering place and share the story: The Season's of Arnold's Apples. 

2.) When the story is over, talk about how the reason for the apples changing is because of weather changes that happen over the course of a year called seasons. Show the students how the earth moves around the sun at a tilt in order to get the different seasons. Use an exposed lightbulb from a lamp and a globe to do this, but make sure the globe is always pointed in the same direction as you move it around the lightbulb. Also, be mindful of students keeping their distance from the hot bulb. Although this is a higher level concept, a marked spot with a sticker above where the students live on the globe will help them to visualize when the area is getting a lot of light compared to when it is getting very little. 

3.) Show the students just how the globe looks when it is the fall, or autumn, season. They should see that our area of the globe is sharing light with the lower half (you can refer to these as the northern and southern hemispheres, but be sure to explain what they are in very simple terms as well). Let the students know that the difference between fall and spring (since both of those seasons get the same amount of light in the northern and southern hemispheres) is that in fall, the earth is moving toward where it is positioned during winter, which is away from the sun.

4.) Tell the students that today they are going to focus on learning even more about the season of fall. Have a discussion about the weather during that season and what it looks like outside during that time of the year. 

5.) Ask the students if they have ever wondered why the leaves change color in fall. Have them provide some possible answers as to why they think it happens, and explain that today they will actually find out. Tell the students that leaves get their green color from something that is inside of them called chlorophyll, and hold up one of the leaves to demonstrate this. Next, have student volunteers break the leaves you have into tiny pieces. Then, pour rubbing alcohol over the leaves until they are covered. Have a student volunteer help to mush the leaves up with a spoon until the liquid turns greenish. Now, cover the jar with plastic wrap and set it into a bowl full of hot water. Once again, make sure students stand back as you demonstrate this part. Tell the students that you will be leaving the jar in the hot water for about forty-five minutes to an hour.

6.) In the meantime, give each student a copy of the My Little Book of Seasons. Have them fill in the first page of the book for fall. Their sentences should say something about the earth and weather during that time of the year. Decide whether you want students to come up with what to write individually or if you want to decide what to write as a whole class. This will depend on the specific needs of the students in your class. 

7.) When the hour is up (it is possible you will have moved onto a different subject at this point), take the jar out of the bowl of water and cut a strip out from the coffee filter. Remove the plastic wrap and set the strip into the water so that one part is still sticking out and resting along the side of the jar. Liquid will travel up the coffee filter strip leaving colors behind. The strip should be left alone for about an hour, or even overnight. 

8.) Have the students observe the strip. Explain that the color, or colors, they see on it is the color (s) the leaf turns during the fall. It is there all along, but the bossy chlorophyll green color usually takes over. As the weather in the autumn season gets cooler, it causes the chlorophyll liquid that is inside of the leaf to break down and the other color(s) finally get to show through!

Closure: Review with the students the number of seasons that exist, the fact that each has observable weather patterns, and what the earth is like during autumn. 

Credits: A special thanks to these sources  -

Teacher Idea Factory: http://teacherideafactory.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-09-29T09:04:00-07:00&max-results=7

How Wee Learn: http://www.howweelearn.com/science-experiments-for-kids/

         Until next time...

Faulty Lightbulbs are as Useless as Faulty Links

        This week, in the course Instructional Applications of the Internet, we were asked to visit a few different WebQuest sites and critique them based on the requirements of the evaluation rubric. The whole premise of a WebQuest is to provide students with a higher level thinking task and useful resources they can visit in order to help them accomplish the given task. For instance, one of the WebQuests I looked at for the course assignment required the students to study important achievements in ancient Mesopotamia by visiting a variety of informational websites. They had to then determine the three achievements they felt most strongly impacted both ancient and modern society, and create a poster and presentation to explain their selections. 

         The ideology behind creating and utilizing WebQuests in the classroom is well thought out and instructionally sound. They are intended to promote higher level thinking skills, and the students are provided with sites that an educator has already determined are useful and reliable. You do not end up with students all over the World Wide Web, hoping against hope they will find information that is valid and that pertains to what it is you want them to learn. The most common problem I have noticed with WebQuests, however, is that many of the links no longer work properly. If you do a search for a WebQuest that matches the content you are working on in class, be sure to read through the entire site and check to make sure each link works. A faulty lightbulb is as useless for providing light in a darkened room as a faulty link is for providing information to students to use in their research.

          My recommendation for you teachers out there is to create one solid and well designed WebQuest every summer on a topic you know is covered in the standards in one of the subject areas that you teach. This will give you ample time (that you do not have during the school year) to locate interactive and worthwhile websites for the Internet quest, and to develop your site so that it is both engaging and visually appealing. I would encourage you to go through the WebQuest as if you were a student the week before you plan on using it in your classroom. This way, you can ensure that all of the links still work properly in order to access the resources. Over time, you will find that some of the websites are taken off of the Internet and are no longer worth having linked to your WebQuest. If it is a WebQuest that you have created, you can simply go online to find another great website to replace the one that no longer works. I am not suggesting that you should never use WebQuests you find on the Internet made by other educators, but would strongly encourage you to create your own seeing as it is easy to make slight changes and adjustments as needed. If you find an online WebQuest that works great one year, but then the next year three of the links are faulty, you no longer can use the resource as part of your instruction. If it were your own, it would be a quick fix.

        Our group created a WebQuest through Weebly. It allows you to build websites of any kind (though we used it to build a WebQuest specifically) and it is completely free of charge to use most of its features. For an additional yearly fee, you can include HD videos and audio clips. We found that Weebly provides more liberties and options in customizing your WebQuests than you get with building sites such as Zunal. If you are just getting started on WebQuests, here is a basic chart showcasing what to include: 

     

Until next time...

The QUEST for Inquiry in the Classroom

           The word 'inquiry' was a prominent part of the educational lingo that I learned about in my undergraduate training, and it continues to be relevant today. In fact, it was the primary focus and term this week in my Instructional Applications of the Internet graduate class. The basic premise of inquiry is for students to be given the opportunity to ask questions, explore, and discover answers on their own. It is open-ended and requires higher levels of thinking. Some educators shy away from inquiry, given the fact that there is not a set process to follow and that there is not a single, predetermined outcome. For instance, it's safe from the science teacher's standpoint to have students mix baking soda and vinegar to get a reaction. The exact steps are known and can be easily followed by students, and the outcome is the same every time the experiment is carried out. Though these types of activities are highly engaging and entertaining for students, they do not promote constructivist learning or critical thought, and should be used more moderately in the science classroom. 

        I had the amazing opportunity to learn about inquiry in greater depth a few years ago when I took a graduate level course offered through Miami University of Ohio called Earth Expeditions. If you ever need credits in order to renew your teaching license, and you have a bit of an adventurous spirit, I would highly recommend participation in one of the courses that are offered. My travels led me to Australia where I studied the Great Barrier Reef alongside educators from many areas around the country. Throughout the weeks we spent abroad, the professors had us participate in inquiry investigations in order to not only learn more about our surroundings, but to also be able to take the knowledge from our own experiences of the process of inquiry back to our classrooms to use. 

Our accommodation for most of the trip was Reef HQ, which houses the world's largest living coral reef aquarium among other extraordinary creatures. On the first night, with the aquarium closed to the public, we were put into groups and instructed to explore the establishment, find an interesting creature in one of the tanks, identify distinguishing characteristics, and use books to determine which "family" we thought the creature belonged to in the reef. We had a purpose, but it was completely open ended. The professors had no idea what animals we would choose, what observations we would make about them, or what questions we would ask. Our group ended up studying the sawfish. I found myself asking questions that I never thought I would be interested in before and being more engaged at the aquarium than I ever expected. 

            So it was reading about inquiry this week that made me think back to the Earth Expeditions trip and the acronym they taught us in order for students to learn the steps of the inquiry process. It is Q.U.E.S.T., and oddly enough the word WebQuest has been another major component of this week's module, though the two are completely unrelated. I will share here what this Q.U.E.S.T. represents. Q stands for Question and Observe. U stands for Uncover a Comparative Question. E stands for Explore Predictions. S stands for Start an Action Plan and Collect Data, and T stands for Think Hard About Findings and Share Discoveries. One example of how I used it in my elementary classroom was during a study on seeds. The students posed questions after closely observing the seeds, and we devised ways, as a class, to make those questions comparative. In the end, the students ended up wondering about whether a seed would grow with any kind of liquid. We tested this with water, juice, and soda. The students would check daily to see what was happening with their seeds, and after about two weeks time, we discussed the results and why they thought the juice and soda didn't work in helping the seeds to grow. I loved that the students were driving the lesson based on their own curiosities. That is the essence of inquiry. I am excited to see how our group's inquiry-based WebQuest will turn out and what others in the class will think of it. 

       Until next time...

Critical Thinking

            I don't know about all of you, but a lack of critical thinking seems prevalent in many areas of our society today, particularly when it comes to the 2016 presidential campaigns. I couldn't help but think about that as I was reading on the topic of higher level thinking this week in my Instructional Applications of the Internet class. One of the biggest challenges we face as a population is getting people to question ideas and to thoughtfully evaluate the information they see or hear. For instance, not to get too political here, but is it rational to hope for a leader that openly offends women? Would critical thought really tell us that makes sense? I think that Daniel T. Willingham addresses this issue in his book: "When Can You Trust the Experts?" Although the book is primarily focused on using good judgment when choosing an educational program for your school, I think his arguments are much more far reaching than that. At one point in the book he talks about something known as "social proof," which is when people come to believe something simply because other people do or because it is familiar. He writes: "Social proof can become a real problem if an inaccurate belief becomes widely accepted."So how do we combat this situation? Is it even possible?

            I think that it is, and I believe that it starts in our classrooms. We have to encourage students to think for themselves, construct their own knowledge, read, research, question, create, and analyze, and we need to have them doing those things on a very regular basis. We need to talk to them about how to find accurate resources and how to cross-check information amongst several different sources. I had a student last year doing her biography project on Sacajawea. There was conflicting information amongst two of the books she had read about Sacajawea's early life, so I had this student look for at least two other resources and go with the information that came up most often. Cross checking facts is time consuming. Critical thinking can be a challenge. Isn't it easier to just turn on CNN or FoxNews and believe everything they say? Or to tell students to believe every word of their teachers as truth? I am not suggesting that all of the information reported on major news networks is wrong or that everything teachers say is invalid, but rather that listeners and viewers need to actively process and evaluate the information they are given and understand that there could be inaccuracies or biases. We need citizens to formulate their own thoughts. The future of our society depends on it. 

            In one of the articles I read this week, the author suggested that a way teachers can help students learn how to think critically is by having them actually think about their own thoughts. In my classroom, we always referred to this as synthesis. Disney Pixar's latest production, "Inside Out," would be an excellent way to get students to acknowledge those little "voices" in their heads. Although the film focuses primarily on the emotions that drive us, viewers definitely get an opportunity to view the brain as a complex place. It gives us the ability to process our feelings, but the brain also stores our memories, drives our interests, and lets us think in depth about an endless number of topics. I would show snippets of the movie to students at the beginning of the year in order to introduce the complexity of the brain to them in a child-friendly manner. This would provide an illustration that we could refer back to throughout the year. In order for students to think critically, they have to consider what they know, don't know, have forgotten, want to know, and so forth. You could figure out a way to do this at any grade level, but my suggestion is for elementary-aged students. There are short clips from the film online you can use or you could wait for the DVD, which is slated to be released on November 3rd. 

          After sharing some clips from "Inside Out," I would have the students participate in a collaborative critical thinking activity. One of my favorites is called: "Saving Sammy." The children absolutely love it, and the lesson requires both critical thought and problem solving skills. The students are given a scenario in which a character named Sammy (a gummy worm) has had his boat capsize and cannot swim. He needs to get to his life preserver (a gummy Life Saver) in order to float safely to shore. Each student in the group can only use one paperclip as a tool to accomplish the task. There are different ways that students figure out how to successfully complete the mission. For photos and full instructions, visit: http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/saving_sam.html. I hope these ideas might be useful to you as you kick off the process of critical thinking in your classroom. Even though we are a few weeks into the school year, it's never too late to start! Until next time...

Reference:
Willingham, D.T. (2012). When can you trust the experts? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.