Mobile Learning Labs

One technology I am considering trying to integrate into my library next year is ipods.  I would love to be able to create my own audiobooks for students to enjoy, and even possibly check out from the library.  I think that many of my students would also love creating their own audiobooks to share with other students.  I think that using audio versions of stories created by people students know, such as myself and other students, could really increase reading motivation.  I think that parents and other teachers may also be interested in creating audio versions of their favorite stories to share with students.  Having access to ipods could also benefit struggling readers throughout the school.  Teachers of students who have difficulty reading or staying focused on reading for extended periods may want to use the library ipods either create audio versions of what students are learning in class, or books they want their students to read.  

I am somewhat interested in the idea of using Kindles in school.  However, I am afraid that using Kindles can take a lot away from motivation to read regular books.  I am also skeptical about how much benefit Kindles could really have, in relation to their cost. 

I love the idea of using Flip Cameras in school.  I think that when students have the idea that what they say or do can be recorded and saved, it motivates them to put more thought and effort into their work.  

USB drives don’t seem very useful to me.  In my school, students all have their own space to save their work on the network.  I could see USB drives as somewhat useful when transferring a project from school to home and back, or when working as part of a group, but I think that just having a small number of them available in a school would be enough.  

I am definitely still skeptical of the use of cell phones in school.  I do like the idea of disabling calling and text functions so that students would have to focus more on classroom tasks, but I’m still uncomfortable with the idea of kids being so attached to screens.  I do appreciate that cell phones could give all kids equal access to the internet and other resources, but I worry that it takes children away from regular social interaction and physical tasks. 

Part D: Findings and Implications

For this project, I have been addressing the problem of needing a structured format for my students to do research. As a Library Media Specialist, a large portion of my job is providing students with research and presentation skills.  It was becoming challenging and overwhelming to start each new project from scratch, and also frustrating to be constantly repeating directions to students I only see once each week.   I decided to create a WebQuest template in Microsoft PowerPoint to be edited for each research project I create.  This provides structure to the research and presentation process for my students over time.  It also offers some differentiation for students who need review and repetition and the opportunity for higher-level students to move ahead more quickly.  Using the template saves me planning time and allows me to focus more on creating high quality assignments.  

After two partial implementations, the project has been successful.  At this time, partially implementing the WebQuest format to research and presentation was all that I knew I would have time for.  Even finding time during our once-weekly meetings was challenging without being able to plan well in advance.  As I look to the rest of this school year and into the next, I know I will find many opportunities to use my WebQuest template to create new research projects for my students.  I will definitely continue to use this format because, so far, it was very beneficial to my students and to myself. 

I know this project has been successful so far because my students were able to easily navigate the PowerPoint presentation and use it at their own pace.  During my 5^th grade implementation, my students were focusing on creating a bibliography and PowerPoint presentation of their research findings.  They were easily able to move between screens to find the directions and information they needed, instead of having to ask me for help and wait while I worked with other groups.  Even though they had already had a lesson in PowerPoint basics, several of my students followed the links I embedded to some basic PowerPoint instructional videos for review and further learning.  During my 4^th grade implementation, my students were focusing on beginning a project learning about the Underground Railroad.  The problem stated in the opening of the presentation gave them motivation to learn and they were easily able to use the link to the resource I wanted them to use.  

One thing I realized I would change would be to add some information and resources into the presentation about how to take notes during research.  I realized that young students often write down too much or too little from their sources.  I would move the parts of the presentation that review copyright and bibliography.  I realized that my students needed to have this information earlier in the process so they would not waste time at the end searching for the sources they already used.  

Given more time, something I would do differently is to create more audio in the WebQuest.  I would embed short recordings on each slide reading the text to my students.  Not only would this help struggling readers, but also my auditory learners.  I noticed that the students who chose to view the PowerPoint tutorial videos would have benefited from some more audio, and possibly visual, teaching. 

To see the PowerPoint presentations of my partial implementations and template, see my blog entry from Part C: Implementation.

Data Visualization

First, I went to makeagif.com and uploaded a picture from my baby’s future room.  It was easy and quick to upload. Then, I tried to upload several of photos Baby’s room, but when it was uploading it said the files were too big.  I was hoping that it would automatically create a slideshow or something similar, but didn’t get the chance to find out.

I used Delicious.com in the past- I have bookmarks saved and even show up on the top of my Firefox screen for easy access.  This time, I decided to try to search for good researches on the site.  Under Tags, I clicked on education, then teaching, then cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com.  It took me to a website with a list of links to resources organized by topic such as audio tools, research tools, music tools, writing tools.  I like that Delicious takes me to sites that others have recommended, so it can me more useful than simply searching for resources.

I have also used Diigo in the past to collect resources for a group project.  We were all able to add, tag, and annotate our own links to share with each other.  It was very useful for group collaboration. 

Today is the first time I tried Glogster.  I love Glogster.  I have been trying to focus on teaching my students ways to use technology to present information from their research projects.  I like that using Glogster keeps everything in one place like a traditional poster, but gives students so many more options, like adding audio and video. This is something I would love to use with my students in the future.

I also spent a little time looking at the BBC Pinball site.  I like that it can be used so simply.  It would be a really useful tool to use when teaching and pulling out main ideas and details. 

As I was scrolling through the list of resources choosing ones to try, I was hoping to find Wordle, and I did.   I had heard of it in the past and loved the idea that it could help pull out main ideas and important words for kids .  I never used it before, so I wanted to try it.  I was excited to see that I could use it with my blog- all I had to do was post the URL of my blog, and it created the Wordle using words in my blog posts.  Now, I have a Wordle that gives me a quick overview of everything I have been working on and learning in my CEP classes.  I was interested that the words ‘group’ and ‘presentation’ were my biggest words.  It really isn’t too surprising, considering how much time I have ended up spending blogging about projects I have worked on in these classes. 

Here is the link to my Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3209316/MyCEPBlogWordle

There were also many links in the wiki that I clicked on but ended up not wanting to try, such as tools for animation.  Some of them looked too complicated for me, and definitely too complicated for my elementary-aged students.

As I was exploring and thinking about data visualization, I realized how many options there are.  There are a ton of simple programs like Wordle and Pinball that can really add to a presentation used by a teacher or a student.  I think that using some of these easy programs can really benefit our visual learners and be a simple way to integrate technology into teaching for very young students.  If I taught older students, or even had elementary students for longer than one weekly period, I would love to look into teaching my students to use some more complicated programs and also integrating them into my own lessons.

Part B: Storyboard and Script, Take 2

Our group chose to create a professional development slidecast using Microsoft PowerPoint about using Google Docs and Google Presenter.  We broke the presentation itself into 4 parts, each assigned to a different group member.  Each person was to create about 4 slides with a script that would take approximately 2  ½ minutes, for a total of a 10 minute presentation.  The job of putting the 4 parts together into one coherent presentation was assigned to me, and the last group member will do the reading and recording of the script to finish the presentation.  

After turning the project in, we found out that we needed the script to be a separate document.  I communicated with my group members via email and our class discussion forum to figure out how to get this done.  Each group member was going to send me a revised version of their script, including descriptions of the narration, text, sounds, graphics, animations, and user interactions for each slide.  After receiving these, I put them together in a Word document and also added the new versions to the notes at the bottom of each PowerPoint slide.  One group member is still working on including all of the elements for the last part of the presentation. 

This is the current, updated version of our PowerPoint presentation:

Group3 googledocspd2

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Here is the separate script for the presentation:

Group3 storyboardscript

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Part C: Implementation

The two pictures are of my 5th graders using the webquest in Powerpoint for their research project. 

This is the template I created for all of my research webquests:

Research webquesttemplate

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This is the partial webquest I used with my 4th graders:

Web quest4thgrade

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This is the partial webquest I created for my 5th graders:

Web quest5thgrade

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Part B: Storyboard and Script

Our group chose to create a professional development slidecast using Microsoft PowerPoint about using Google Docs and Google Presenter.  We broke the presentation itself into 4 parts, each assigned to a different group member.  Each person was to create about 4 slides with a script that would take approximately 2  ½ minutes, for a total of a 10 minute presentation.  The job of putting the 4 parts together into one coherent presentation was assigned to me, and the last group member will do the reading and recording of the script to finish the presentation.  

Since my role was to edit the 4 parts together, I waited until each of the parts was sent to me.  Then, I saved each segment separately and began to work on combining them into one.  I began with the slides for the introduction and instructions for creating a Google account.  Then, I copied and pasted the slides from each subsequent part of the presentation until the slides were all in order.  Next, I made sure the entire presentation had common background and added a few transition slides to help it flow.  I worked my way through the entire presentation several times to edit some of the transitions, sounds, and wording of the slides and script to pull the entire project together.  

Unfortunately, the last section of the presentation is currently having technical difficulties- the videos will not play.  After trying unsuccessfully to find a way to make them play, I ended up communicating to my group that the project was put together but that the person who created the ending slides would need to fix their videos before the due date.  I then sent the presentation to my group members through email and also posted it in our group discussion forum.  

For now, my part is done, unless I am needed to assist my group members in fixing the videos or in creating the voiceover for the final product.  

Below is the current state of our product, with the script details shown on the even-numbered slides:

Group3 storyboardscript

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Part A: Brainstorm Session, Take 2

Well, after holding our first meeting using Vyew, we decided to try again using Yugma.  Again, it had some good points, but left us frustrated in other ways. 


We were happy that Yugma is also free, and that the Chat feature is easy to use.  Talking to each other was easier this time because we actually talked on the phone.  The program gave us a teleconference number to call and then input our meeting number, and then it was like a regular phone call.  However, something tells me that if more than 2 of us had been able to sign in, the phone call would have been difficult because we would have been interrupting each other.  But, at least there is no echo this way!  Plus, there is no need for a microphone.

Even though 4 of us were available to meet this time, 2 of our group members had trouble getting into the meeting room and did not get to sign in during our short meeting time.  Unfortunately, the free version gave us only 15 minutes to meet.  We learned again that we were not able to record our meeting.  We also did not have a workspace to use to type and record our ideas. 

Fortunately, after both meetings and several emails between group members, our plan is set.  The work is divided into 6 parts, and dates are set.  The first 4 group members will create their parts of the presentation and email them by February 17th or 18th, so I can put the pieces together in order with transitions into one storyboard with a script to turn in by the 20th.  Then, Liat will do the final part- adding the voice and getting the entire presentation into the correct format to be turned in on time. 

Let's hope we have better luck with the rest of this project!

Part A- Brainstorm Session

My group decided to use Vyew for our web conference, a tool that none of us had used before.  It was easy to sign up and create a free account, and easy to create a room and set up a meeting with invitations emailed to each group member.  

Some of the easiest features to use on Vyew were chat, talk, and adding text to the workspace.  To chat, all we had to do was click on the box and type what we wanted to say.  We quickly saw that our chat space wasn’t big enough, but were able to drag the box to make it larger.  To talk, we had to be sure our microphones were connected to our computers, then click on ‘talk’.  It was beneficial to have a large workspace to keep track of what we needed to do and the decisions we made.  I signed in before the rest of my group members and listed our names, some ideas, and what we needed to accomplish during the meeting.  Then, throughout the meeting, we were all able to edit the page to add or change ideas, divide up the work and list our names next to each part of the project. 

We did get frustrated with Vyew a few times.  First, we quickly realized that we were not going to be able to record our session directly through Vyew.   We found that we would only be able to save our work by exporting it as a PDF, which only saved our finished workspace, and not our chat text or our voices.  We decided as a group that 2 group members would use Jing to try to record as much of the session as possible and to use the PDF as a backup.  Another challenge that we had was using the talk feature.  Since not everyone had headphones to use with their microphones, we ended up with a lot of echo when we spoke.  It was also difficult to talk because we realized that even without the echo, we spent a lot of time talking over each other and interrupting each other since we couldn’t predict when someone else was about to speak.  In the future, I would make sure everyone had headphones and only 1-2 people enabled the talk feature that the same time.  For our meeting, we ended up doing most of our communication through the chat feature and by editing the workspace.

Here is the PDF of our workspace:  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6MxWY47LuPfMWE4NWExZDctZGE5NS00ZGZmLTgyMjAtYzc5MTk1YWJjNmU2&hl=en

Here is the Jing recording we managed to get: (though it doesn't appear to be working)

Here is the breakdown for our project:

Our PD will be about the basics of Google Docs
We will use Powerpoint to create a slideshare (?), with voice for audio

Each of the 4 individual powerpoints should include script (there is space under the slide that says 'click to add notes'- this will be our 'storyboard and script' once they are joined

For Google Docs and Google Presenter, it would be good to have a slide about how they can be used in the classroom
10 minutes total, so about 2 1/2 min each, including any video- try to incorporate screenshots or any recording of your screen if you can

1) introduction, how to create a login (Kris)
2) Google docs basics, compare to Word (Brittany)
3) Google Presenter basics, compare to PowerPoint (Karey)
4) how to share the docs- email, link, blog, etc, and a conclusion (Andrell)
5) put 4 Powepoint parts together, add transitions, etc (Lisa)
6) voiceover (Liat)