Jones_K,+Round+2

=Digiteen - Research and Writing Phase (Wiki Phase)=

4 weeks || A varied mix of assessment types, both formative and summative: Google Forms, Socrative exit tickets, Small Group questioning and conversation, Weekly teacher and student reflection - 1. __Creation__ of a procedural text for different audiences: peers, younger students, policy makers, aged, others student's choice; (flow charts, instructions) 2. __Creation__ of a multi-paragraph informational text containing a variety of informational text features, a controlling idea, utilizing multiple sources, synthesizing varied perspectives into a cohesive, logically flowing essay that supports controlling idea; (wiki input forms the basis of the informational text, students determine the text features to add - an evaluation of those features that aid the understanding of the author's purpose and target audience - FATP (Form, Audience, Topic, Purpose) 3. __Creation__ of a multifaceted action plan or campaign to inform, instruct, explain elements of digital citizenship and how these elements are relevant and can be applied to daily practice; 4. __Creation__ of an implementation plan - answering these questions - What products will we create for use in the action plan/campaign? Who are the targeted audiences? What products are most effective for the targeted audience? How do we get those audiences attention? Who are the decision makers that we need to contact to gain access to these audiences? How do we most effectively make "contact"? 5. __Creation__ of a variety of action plan products - instructional screen casts, static ads (the poster returns...briefly), dynamic ads - Glogster, PSAs video, live presentation - drama, skit, panel discussion....open to student creativity || When Round 2 started, the plan was to have more to reflect on in terms of implementation experience. Unfortunately, as we begin Round 3, we are just arriving at the implementation of this Round 2 stage of the project. There are three categories of explanation of the delay: technical, curricular, and logistical.
 * **Title**: ||< Digiteen Project - Phase 2 ||
 * **Subject**: ||< Research Skills, Expository Text access, comprehension, and evaluation; documentation with proper citation - process, format, technique; communication - synchronous and asynchronous, distance methods - Skype, Blackboard Collaborate ||
 * **Grade**: ||< 8 ||
 * **Time Frame**: ||< How long will the activity/lesson/project take?
 * **Summary:** ||< Students are assigned to a team across a matrix with 4 areas of Awareness and multiple core competency areas pertaining to Digital Citizenship, Students communicate with team members to develop a research plan, execute that plan, contribute to a wiki page devoted to that topic and work together to edit the multiple entries into one seamless "team" post. ||
 * **Tasks** ||< 1) Describe the main steps of the activity/lesson/project here
 * Team process, makeup (roles), and problem solving;
 * Collaborative effort in general, team/group writing in particular - conceptual understanding AND technical proficiency (this may end up being only exposure to the concept) are the goals;
 * Research skills - understanding how Google works, how to use that knowledge to refine searches (queries and operators);
 * Experience with translating and transforming the acquisition of knowledge into application in the world. The overall goal of learning about the various aspects of Digital Citizenship will be with a focused view towards dissemination of the "information" to other audiences - peers, younger students, adults, and policy makers.
 * Objectives: ||< * What TEKS or other objectives does this activity/lesson project meet?
 * ELAR - 8th Grade TEKS: 110.20 a) 1, b) 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 25
 * Meaningless numbers in isolation - comprehension of informational and procedural text, research skills, writing skills, sharing and team applications to these areas of learning ||
 * Assessment: ||< How will you assess the students learning?
 * Assessment: ||< How will you assess the students learning?
 * Formative**: assessing terms and concepts via -
 * Summative**:
 * Resources: ||< * What resources will be needed?
 * Time
 * Access to Internet/individual devices
 * Repeated exploration/explanation of process and concepts ||
 * **Teacher**
 * Reflections:** || What worked....what didn't


 * Technical** difficulties with access to the wiki environment - overly complex system of access - 3 Platforms - 1. Ning, 2. Main Wiki that controls access to 3. work space wiki. Underestimation of the level student proficiency - proof that it is difficult at best to remember what it looks and feels like to "not know something that you now know". This is a pedagogical deficiency that all teachers face. Sometimes, if not mostly, this is translated into "these kids just don't get it - won't listen - can't follow directions - etc, etc". I do know from my experience with this phase of the project, that my failure is not recognizing that the level of complexity from the student perspective. It is the fundamental principle of PBL - the teacher's understanding MUST be at the level of the students AND the teacher must create easily understood models and instructional tools. I was so busy running around trying to get students "on project" procedurally, the forest, that I missed how important the trees are substantively. Though I have been trained ad nausuem in scaffolding, Scaffolding, SCAFFOLDING....I dropped the ball here. There is only so much time and I have more than almost everyone....


 * Curricular** - in that the project timeline collided with district curriculum timeline - end of grading period and curriculum based questions. I am not sure how I might have avoided this problem. Despite our administrative green light at all levels with this initiative and all that is desired in terms of classroom application and student experience and learning, the fact remains that we are housed in a very finite and constricting boxes with unbend-able walls. At best, we have 45 minutes for students to receive instruction and apply that instruction to foreign substance and procedure. (For the 1st period of the day, this is even shorter with announcements and reduced to 35 minutes on advisory Wednesdays). The district revision of the ELA curriculum is totally unrealistic within the constraints of our class time. The curriculum mandates, in terms of class time, are conservatively 11 weeks of straight instruction - forget student consumption and creation - crammed into a 9 week span. (The span is actually 7.5 to 8 weeks with procedural implementation and administrative actions/changes - if you add a desire to seamless integrate technology into the instructional scenario - subtract another week) The pressure to abandon even a deeply ingrained desire to become an effective PBL facilitator is very strong if not insurmountable.


 * Logistical** - Another aspect that eats substantially into the day goes directly to issues of access. The fact that our technology access plan does not even approach 1:1, is a significant problem for broad implementation of Tech Integration, much less PBL implementation across the curriculum (These are not the same thing!). Most teachers have 8 devices - 4 PC and 4 Apple. There are significant differences in not only the operation of each type device, but most importantly what operations/tasks each device type can and cannot perform. This is not a matter of resistance to a tech based pedagogy, it is a daily bread, practical barrier. This barrier clearly supports a lingering naysaying resistance. My device access is very close to 1:1, slightly more PC based. I realize that my "complaints" will resonate as the world's smallest violin, but the process of passing out, picking up, constant accounting, charging, logging on,and trouble-shooting for every class period is nothing short of exhausting.

That said.....

"We Endeavor to Persevere" Chief Dan George - The Outlaw Josey Wales

I want to approach this...[|Manor High Tech High]...What I am doing here is pedagogical practice for an authentic project where the teacher lays out or interprets the state standards and helps the students design, plan, implement and therefore OWN the learning outcomes that demonstrate mastery of those content standards. ||
 * **Examples**: ||< * Links to teacher or student work examples.This is pending.....please see the above explanation/rant. ||

Discussion:
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