Presentation for RPDS Mini-Grant Poster Session 9/29/11

1. Free cool tools (and a tech assistant!) for increasing student outcomes (with connections to the Common Core Standards and 21st-Century Skills) Heather Sheridan-Thomas, TST BOCES Cynthia Sarver, SUNY Cortland July 21, 2011

2. Goals Begin developing a long-range, interdisciplinary, project-based unit plan that: Integrates Common Core “Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects”; and Embeds 21st-century skills Play with, learn (and even take home!) a few “cool tools” that will help with the above: Flip video camera Ning Google docs Delicious

3. Goals (cont’d) Clear up misconception that 21st-century skills = technology (integration) 21st-century skills ≠technology (integration)

4. 21st-century skills or 21st-century learning = P21’s “4 C’s”: Communication Collaboration Communication Critical Thinking

5. Web 2.0 Technology Enables 21st-Century Skills and -Learning Enhances: Your teaching Students’ learning By expanding and extending your: Personal Learning Network Classroom Pedagogical repertoire Disciplines’ relevance Students’ world

6. Freewrite (6 mins) What is your definition of “learning community”? Can you describe a successful learning community, broadly defined, that you have been/are involved in?

7. Flip Video Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEQ9xwdVZSs

8. PLAY AND RECORD! Henry Jenkins and the New Media Literacies Collective http://newmedialiteracies.org/the-literacies.php Play Performance Simulation Appropriation Multitasking Distributed Cognition Collective Intelligence Judgment Transmedia Navigation Networking Negotiation Visualization

9. UPLOAD to YouTube/Vimeo, then UPLOAD to Ning http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=vimeo Youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6vErybZTh8

10. Ninghttp://tst21stcenturylearning.ning.com/ Tasks (to do now and throughout the day): i) Upload video ii) Answer Profile questions iii) Upload a photo (if you have one; otherwise do it later) iv) Add a link to one of your favorite apps or websites (try a textbox is you’re brave!) v) Comment on the profile of someone else (not your partner) vi) Set up a group for you and your partner (on the front page) OR do we want to set these up in advance vii) PLAY!!!

11. Problem-Based Learning http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-introduction-video http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/2011/01/project-based-learning-from-commoncraft-.html

12. Unit Planning Find local problem relevant to your team’s “content area”; outline a unit plan that will engage students in researching, analyzing, and making a “digital intervention” in the issue. -- Common Core Standards for ELA and/or Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and the Technical Subjects (Focusing on Anchor Standards in Writing) -- Cool Tools #3 & #4: Google Docs and Delicious

13. Common Core Standards http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/

14. Project prompt & outline Students research and analyze the issue Write short research reports Transfer findings into a digital/online format (e.g., video, website, wiki, and/or social network) in order to make some sort of “digital intervention” in the issue.

15. Student Process Suggested Project Timeline: Presenting the problem (Anticipatory Set, Motivation, Inquiry, Constructivism) Students inquiring into the problem and developing essential questions (Asking Questions, Inquiry, Analysis, Multiple Perspectives, Constructivism) Seeing the problem through a disciplinary lens (Application, Synthesis) Students researching the issue: traditional research reports (Research Skills) Students sharing their research and reconsidering the problem (Synthesis, Evaluation, Reflection) Students acting on their understanding: What are we going to do about it? (Action, Application, Culminating Project)

16. Brainstorm Your task: Locate a real-world problem related to the (curriculum of the) content area discipline that students can researching, analyze, and make a “digital intervention” in. Brainstorm a list of possible topics with your partner. Winnow this down to one-two ideas.

17. Google Docs Google for educators http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html cynthia.sarver@gmail.com

18. Delicious My delicious http://www.delicious.com/ Delicious in education More on delicious

19. Share unit so far Go to team Ning. A. Rename it; B. Link your Google Doc page to the toolbar; and C. Subscribe via email to their group’s Delicious feed D. Link this Ning to the TST learning community Ning (under your Group, which they also should rename, if need be).

20. Wrap up Share work Next steps: Finish unit Plan for implementation (preferably in fall) Plan to work with students present today and those in the fall. Talk to your student partners today about this. Plan to stay connected through the Ning, and through other social media (including ENG 506 social network), which I will subscribe to on my page on the TST BOCES Ning

21. Thank you! Have a great summer! Heather and Cynthia hsheridanthomas@tstboces.org cynthia.sarver@gmail.com

22. Details

23. Participants Three “teacher teams”: Two from South Seneca Schools and one TST BOCES Community School Graduate and undergrad students from SUNY Cortland Facilitators Future Participants (F2011): Graduate Students in AEN and New Media course

24. Projects 6th grade English + Math: A unit to help kids figure out what to do after they have eaten their lunch. Instead of having nearly no options, we thought it would be a great idea to have the kids create and lead activities for their classmates to participate in. High school ELA + High School “Living Environment” Science: A unit to help students explore and develop a sustainable agricultural project in response to inquiry guided by their reading of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. High school ELA + Yet-To-Be-Identified Content Area Teacher: Project details TBD

25. Feedback “The workshop was fun in terms of being able to work with a colleague to plan an interdisciplinary unit.” “I would hope that BOCES would offer more programs that are suited to help teachers learn how to use 21st century skills.” “I feel teachers (myself included) need a better understanding of how 21st Century skills fit into the new CCLS. [….] Workshops such as this one help teachers to become comfortable with this kind of technology very quickly and efficiently.”

26. Facilitators’ Reflections “Be ever mindful of my ‘expert blindspot’when it comes to introducing brand new social media to folks: I take for granted that the ‘concept of the tool’ (or its paradigm-shifting potential) and the tool are one in the same, but for new usersboth can take quite a while to get used to (just as they did for me!).” “[T]here is a large learning curve with most new technology and just getting comfortable with using it takes time. We will continue to create workshops that give teachers time to just ‘mess around’ with technology enough to figure out how it can support student learning with the new Common Core Learning Standards.”

27. Plans for the Future After lunch activities (Math + ELA) to be implemented in Fall 2011 Agriculture project (HS Science + ELA ) to be implemented in Spring 2012 ELA +Yet-To-Be-Identified Content Area Teacher: implementation schedule TBD Student Teams from “ENG506: Computers and the Study of English” will assist teams as they move through/toward implementation