Day+Six


 * Welcome to week 2 of Communicating, Collaborating and Creating With Technology.**


 * Last week** we spent most of the time exploring many new web 2.0 tools and discussing some of the new media literacy skills. This week we are going to focus on digital storytelling, building a project using some of the tools you've used and talking about digital citizenship. We need to be finished our work by Thursday. Friday morning we can show case everything for our class and then we will head to the Grammar School at 10 am for snack, closing ceremonies, and the draws for the computers and a few other things.

During the week please take time to check out everyone's blogs. Leave comments. You are all doing some excellent and very entertaining work.


 * Today**


 * Please click on this link to go to the [|discussion forum] to tell me how things are going. If there is something you would really like me to cover now is the time to let me know.**

There are still lots of you who need to place a marker on the Google Map. Once you have created a gmail account you can click on this link and go in to edit the map adding a place marker with your name, picture, and information about where you live. You can also get there by clicking on Where We live on the side bar.

A. New Media Literacies

Transmedia Navigation **:** the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple media. Anyone who needs to do research needs a good understanding of transmedia navigation - how to follow threads through video, still photography, written work, music, online sources etc.

Students learn about multimodality and transmedia navigation when they take time to focus on how stories change as they move across different contexts of production and reception, as they give consideration to the affordances and conventions of different media, and as they learn to create using a range of different media tools.

Go to CogDogRoo This is a wiki which features over 50 storytelling tools. The creator Alan Levine has used these tools to tell the same store about Dominoe the dog. Spend some time exploring at least 5 different types of tools. Blog about the ones that interest you the most.

Judgment **:** the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources. If you're worried about your students using Wikipedia at inappropriate times and taking everything they read on the internet as gospel truth, you're worried that they aren't exercising good judgment. But judgment also includes knowing when sources are appropriate for your use: for instance, sometimes Wikipedia might be the appropriate resource to use.

Check out this youtube Video Evaluating Web Sties Tutorial. media type="custom" key="20347688"

There are many other great sites on the web that will help you teach your students how to evaluate the material they are taking from the web.


 * B. Digital Storytelling**

Digital storytelling is a really powerful tool that allows us to combine various multimedia tools including voice, images and maybe music together to tell personal narratives. These stories can be used in every subject area.

There are many different kinds of digital stories. This digital story is an example of the type we are going to make. media type="custom" key="20348506"

The most important component of a digital story is the the story- It is core. Without a good story you have nothing.

Task

Write about what you see in your picture for five minutes. Write about what is not in the picture- the story behind the picture- for 10 minutes. Your assignment for homework is to write a good story for tomorrow. This story should be about 2 minutes long or about 200 words. Remember all good stories have characters, conflicts,and resolutions.


 * C. Twitter**


 * Go to Twitter and set up an account. This is not mandatory. ( If you don't not wish to have a Twitter account your can use this Wiki Forum to respond to the video we will watch) Once you have set up your Twitter account we will be using it for a collaboration tool.**

Check out 10 Top Twitter hash tags for Educators.
 * Our group Twitter site- Make sure you put** **#ITDominica** at the end of your Tweets so it will show in the feed.


 * Watch the following video.**

media type="youtube" key="YmwwrGV_aiE" height="315" width="560"

Task

As you watch this video Tweet some of your thoughts and respond to those of your colleagues.


 * D. Your Project**

Now you will have the opportunity to create an on-line project that you could use with your students. You can create this project in Wikispaces, Wordpress, Kidsblog, or Moodle. You have been using Wikispaces and Wordpress for the last week. Moodle is an open source Learning Management System that your Ministry of Education would like to start using. It can be a very powerful tool that will allow you to do everything we have done in our wiki and our blogs as well as create tests, keep track of grades, upload any teacher created resources you have and even keep track of how much time your students spend on-line. It requires a bit more assistance from outside sources. Unlike a wiki or a blog you will need someone(from the Ministry of Education) to help set things up and also to maintain the moodle site. The upside to the wikis and blogs is that you can set them up yourself and you don't have to worry about someone else maintaining them. The upside to Moodle is that it has many great options and you can share your sights with other teachers so it is great for collaborating.

media type="youtube" key="GMETu-eCWc0" height="315" width="420" Task

Developing Your Unit

Steps to successful unit design:
1. Select the concept or theme. 2. Brainstorm/concept map interdisciplinary possibilities. 3. What are the Big Questions students will seek to answer within this theme? 4. Write 3 to 7 Unit Outcomes and their Demonstrations/Assessments. The outcomes should be a demonstration of a synthesis of the learning that took place during the unit. They are NOT a test for memorization of discrete facts and skills.

5. List the Enabling Outcomes for each culminating Unit Outcome. Final outcomes are within upper three levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy


 * 6. Simultaneously develop the assessments for each outcome. **

Higher-order thinking essentially means thinking that takes place in the higher-levels of the hierarchy of cognitive processing. Bloom’s Taxonomy is the most widely accepted hierarchical arrangement of this sort in education and it can be viewed as a continuum of thinking skills starting with knowledge-level thinking and moving eventually to evaluation-level of thinking. A common example, used by Dr. Chuck Weiderhold of the application of the major categories in Bloom’s Taxonomy, is show below, applying the taxonomy to the Pledge of Allegiance: Can the student USE the new knowledge in another familiar situation? Can the student DIFFERENTIATE between constituent parts? Can the student JUSTIFY a decision or course of action?
 * Knowledge** statements ask the student to recite the pledge. Example: “Say the pledge.”
 * Comprehension** statements ask the student to explain the meaning of words contained in the pledge. Example: “Explain what indivisible, liberty, and justice mean.”
 * Application** statements ask the student to apply understandings. Example: “Create your own pledge to something you believe in.”
 * Analysis** statements ask the student to interpret word meanings in relation to context. Example: “Discuss the meaning of ‘and to the Republic for which it stands’ in terms of its importance to the pledge.”
 * Synthesis** statements ask the student to apply concepts in a new setting. Example: “Write a contract between yourself and a friend that includes an allegiance to a symbol that stands for something you both believe in.”
 * Evaluation** statements ask the student to judge the relative merits of the content and concepts contained in the subject. Example: “Describe the purpose of the pledge and assess how well it achieves that purpose. Suggest improvements.”

Can the student GENERATE new products, ideas or ways of viewing things ?

(Wiederhold, C. (1997). //The Q-Matrix/Cooperative Learning & Higher-Level Thinking.// San Clemente, CA: Kagan Cooperative Learning.) When we promote higher-order thinking then, we are simply promoting thinking, along with the teaching methodologies that promote such thinking, that takes place at the higher levels of the hierarchy just provided, notably application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Critical/creative/constructive thinking is closely related to higher-order thinking; they are actually inseparable. Critical/creative/constructive thinking simply means thinking processes that progress upward in the given direction. First one critically analyzes the knowledge, information, or situation. Then they creatively consider possible next-step options, and then finally, they construct a new product, decision, direction, or value. The evaluation step listed above with the Pledge of Allegiance would require this sort of thinking.