Fogel,+Denice


 * ==FINAL PROJECT==
 * ==[|Project Blog]==
 * ==**Deliverable #3 **==

__Deliverable #2__
As a Library Media Specialist, I have begun "infiltrating" the English department to bring them into the 21st century. I will be collaborating with the ninth grade English teachers, under the direction of the new English department head. The goal is to go beyond the traditional Word report and/or PowerPoint "bullet" presentations and begin utilizing a few Web 2.0 applications (that are not blocked by our filter). Listed below is the unit I am working on:

Victorian Era Lesson Plan
The core of the unit centers on exploring the Victorian Era of Charles Dickens prior to reading Oliver Twist. Because prior knowledge of the time period is important to both understanding and enjoying Dickens, the unit begins with student created projects concerning life in the Victorian Era.
 * 1. Introduction**

The prior activity leads to reading Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and then viewing the movie version of Oliver!

Following these activities, the final segment of the unit returns to student-led and created presentations. These should illuminate some aspect of the plot line and themes of the novel.

The lessons will also give hands-on experience using technology available, encourage them to become self-directed learners/producers, and require them to use higher level thinking skills.

It would be the goal of this unit to combine the achievement of English Language Arts Standards and with Technology Standards. Rather than rely entirely on the teacher and LMS to provide enrichment and teaching materials and presentations, the students would be required to provide as much to these areas as possible.


 * 2. Goals**

• The first piece will be a presentation prior to reading the novel Oliver Twist. Students will be divided into cooperative learning groups for these presentations. These groups will receive an overview of the unit and will be instructed in the Big 6 model for developing Information Literacy Skills as they conduct their research for the project. Next, the students must decide which Web 2.0 application they choose to develop regarding their topic. These applications will be viewed prior to reading Oliver Twist.

• For the second piece, students will create final additions to their Web 2.0 applications after reading the novel. This piece should build on their understanding of Oliver Twist (plot line, characterization, etc.) and some expertise developed in creating the first piece.

NOTE: When creating the Web 2.0 presentation for their project. Students will select either: • A Wiki with hyerlinks, slideshare, or YouTube components • A Voicethread audio and/or visual presentation. • Both formats will include comment moderation with feedback from classmates.


 * 3. Pre- Activities**

The English curriculum requires the reading of Oliver Twist. Many teachers are seeking to provide the students with the historical component of the novel prior to the actual reading. However, the teachers are aware that the students will usually conduct a haphazard approach to the collection of information about that time period. To improve the students’ research skills, I have proposed that we instruct the students in the Big 6 model for information literacy. The students will use this model as a guide for acquiring the information for their project.

• The students will be asked to select from of a list of topics regarding the Victorian Era, i.e. education, work force, fashion, home life, government, etc. The students will then be grouped to create a Web 2.0 application designed to instruct their classmates about a specific aspect of the time period. This will provide the class with prior knowledge of the era before they read Oliver Twist.
 * 4. Writing Assignments**

• As the LMS, I will be providing the instruction regarding the acquisition of the information required for the completion of the assignments as well as the production of a wiki and/or VoiceThread application that incorporates images, hyperlinks, audio and video components.

• As previously stated, for the second piece, students will create final additions to their Web 2.0 applications after reading the novel. This piece should build on their understanding of Oliver Twist (plot line, characterization, etc.) and some expertise developed in creating the first piece.


 * 5. Extension and Adaptation**

The nature and content of the student-led segments will vary from class to class depending on the abilities and interests of the students. Also, a major factor dictating the student-led segments will involve the technology comfort level of the teacher, the level of technological help provided by the LMS, and the range of technology possible in the school at the time. It is anticipated that the range of possibilities will grow as teacher experience, student experience, and technology opportunities grow.


 * 6. Assessment**

The teacher will establish the main rubric being used for this unit. He/she will need to concentrate on their English Language Arts standards.

I will contribute what I feel needs to be incorporated into the rubric to meet the following CT Technology standards. • Information Processing - Students will apply information from a variety of sources and formats using evaluative criteria to interpret, analyze, organize and synthesize both print and non-print material • Application - Students will use appropriate information and technology to create written, visual, oral and multimedia products to communicate ideas, information or conclusions to others. • Technology - Students will operate and use computers and other technologies as tools for productivity, problem solving and learning across the content areas. • Responsible Use - Students will demonstrate the responsible, legal and ethical use of information resources, computers and other technologies.

= = =**__Deliverable #3__** =

To: Norwalk High School Administrators From: Denice Fogel

Dear Sirs;

Our students are active participants in the technology of the 21st century; utilizing cell phones for texting, MySpace for social networking and digital cameras and camcorders as a natural part of their everyday interactions.

However, we educators have not been keeping pace with this technology. We are not integrating it into our instructional methodology. Students are constantly in some form of connection with their friends and are very familiar with collaborative Web 2.0 technologies. Some teachers have created web pages for posting homework assignments, etc. and have email accounts. They provide the URL for their web page to their students so that the students will be able to know what assignments are coming up or what test, etc. It is a static web page. The teachers also provide their school email addresses to the students in case the students have a question they want to ask the teacher or their parents what to ask the teacher. Again, the email is a form of one-on-one communication and this is often sufficient for most topics.

Proposal I would like to implement a series of professional development opportunities, during the school day, for the teachers to learn how to utilize some of the Web 2.0 applications that are available. I believe once the teachers see the benefits of utilizing these applications with their students, we will see more interactive projects that will develop our students’ communication, collaboration and technological skills.

I would like to begin by being assigned a duty period during the 4th time slot of the day. With our rotating schedule, each teacher will be able to work with me every 8th day. I have a small resource room in my library where I can work with up to 6 teachers each day. The focus of the beginning sessions will be the use of blogs. At a later time, I will be emphasizing the use of wikis for collaborative student projects.

A weblog, or "blog" for short, is an online journal that provides web users with information, generally on a daily basis. A blog's subject can range from the day-to-day notes, to updates about various events. Writers of blogs are called "bloggers" and the writing act itself is called "blogging." Blog entries called “posts” usually provide a section for comments by readers.

Utilization of blogs A blog will allow a teacher to post daily assignments and updates regarding upcoming tests and projects. This is similar to the contents of their static web pages. However, the blog will also allow students to ask questions of the teacher and view the responses to these questions. Again, similar to the use of email but now the whole class will be able to read the responses and perhaps learn additional information they might need for success in the class. Of course, for topics that should only be read by the teacher, the students would continue to use the email.

The use of class blogs will allow students to connect with others in the class. Hopefully relationships will develop between the students and the teacher that will include mutual respect. The students will be able to read the comments that came before theirs and provide them with the other opinions and ideas of their classmates. As a side bar, the visibility of their comments on the blog will hopefully encourage the students to think a little bit before writing a comment. Each blog will also be viewed as having it’s own culture, the culture of their classroom. Certain behaviors (digital etiquette) will be acceptable and others will not be acceptable. Students will learn how to respect the rules of the community. In time, the students should come to view the blog as a source of help from their teacher and classmates in solving the problems related to a class topic or project. The blog will be developing a community of learners.

Benefits The expanded use of blogs will assist our school in building the “community of learners” to which our administration is always referring. Instead of static teacher websites where the students are just “readers” the students will be able to start a dialog with the teacher and other students through the use of comments on the blog. The teacher will be receiving direct feedback regarding the clarity of a project assignment and will be able to direct the progress the students are making in the project. The teacher, through the use of suggestions (posts) would also be able to serve as a model for appropriate research methodology. The students will be able to receive answers to their questions from their peers as well as from their teacher. Often the other students will be able to identify a problem another student is having with an assignment before the teacher because they are working at the peer level.

Validity of the use of blogs The literature is full of positive assessments of the use of blogs in the classroom. Just view Will Richardson's professional and student blogs at weblogg-ed.com. Will Richardson's site offers blogging resources, including best practices, educator blogs, and technology recommendations for choosing content management tools

The use of blogs is worldwide as evidenced by this website - http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/ eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/ where the opening line states, “Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom.”

“Writing with Web logs,” by Kristen Kennedy, (Technology & Learning, Feb 2003) states that, “blogs have the potential to enhance writing and literacy skills while offering a uniquely stylized form of expression.”

Additional sites to visit include: • How Educators Are Using Weblogs - Intel Education: The Intel(R) Innovator 2003 (http://www.intel.com/education/projects/news/vol_05/elementary2.htm) - Four teachers across the K-12 spectrum were interviewed to see how they set up weblogs that help meet learning goals. • EduBlog Insights - Anne Davis, Georgia State University (http://anne.teachesme.com/) - Maintains this weblog to enable teachers to reflect, discuss, and explore possibilities for the use of weblogs in education.

Roadblocks The biggest “roadblock” to implementing this technology is our IT department. They are not consistent in the manner in which they choose which web sites should be blocked – and at which class level – and react to any suggestion that there may be an issue of student safety. Last year, a few teachers were using blogs with very positive student feedback. This past September, the teachers found that all the major blog sites were blocked by the Internet filter. When the IT director was approached about unblocking the specific blog sites of the teachers the response was “Why?” He has now unblocked “edublogs.com” and “21classes.com.” Unfortunately, the teachers prefer to use Blogger.com and this remains blocked on our school computers.

The major concerns of the IT director are related to safety and privacy. Since the school system has a few servers in each school, they could create an INTRANET that supports the blogs. In order to make a blog viewed outside of school, a teacher would have to change the settings of the blog to be “read only” to the “outside world” so that parents and the community could view the dynamics occurring among the community of learners being created but not be able to make comments or posts.

Another roadblock is the “buy-in” of the teachers. Many of our staff members are “afraid” of using technology. Our TechSmart Teachers professional development program provides after-school workshops for the teachers and awards them CEU’s. However, many high school teachers do not like the time schedule of 3:45 – 5:45 pm.; they may leave school at 2:30 pm. Hopefully, by offering our teachers the opportunity to learn about the “read/write” web during the school day, they will not simply use the “read” web. Preliminary talks with some teachers have found them very responsive to this arrangement.

Blog Applications Although Blogger is the most popular and easiest software for a blog, I probably would not use it. While Blogger is free, there is a recurring problem of preventing students from viewing other blogs, there is a link to other blogs in the header. Although there is a “work around” that can eliminate this feature, I have found that it does not always work. I do not want to be responsible for providing my students with the means to view other, perhaps unsafe or inappropriate content on other blogs while they are participating in my blog.

Edublogs.com consists of blogs from other educators at all grade levels, elementary, secondary and higher education. This software has been provided free of charge but recently the creators of the site have added advertisement to the free blogs. I would suggest that it is worth the small fee to become a “supporter” of the blog site and therefore have an ad-free blog.

Long Term Use “Communication” and “Collaboration” are key in the business world according to various sources. With the utilization of blogs, teachers offer the students an avenue for peer suggestions and guidance. Instead of the one-on-one exchange of questions and answers via e-mail between a student and teacher, a blog allows a teacher to offer guidance and suggestions to the class with one posting. The blog also allows the students to assume a form of peer support group. Whenever a student reads a comment from another student they will be able to expand on the question or idea and offer peer level ideas and suggestions. The students can then assume a more active role in the direction of their accumulation of knowledge. For example, a colleague had a blog attached to a wiki project. Whenever she posted suggestion regarding what should be included in the individual pages, other students would include suggestions regarding good web sites they had found regarding the topic, provided mini-instruction regarding how to implement the addition of a video or podcast, etc. This form of communication assisted in creating a true “community of learners.”

**FINAL PROJECT**
Although I wanted to pursue the topic of my proposal as my final project, I had to abandon it because our IT department is adamant against blogs. They will not "unblock" the specific blogs of the teachers. Therefore, for my final project, I decided to develop a wiki that would provide our high school staff with some insight into the role of library media specialists and the assistance we can provide for the teachers. I divided the wiki into 3 sections.

The first is an overview of our role and a listing of topics that we can teach their classes. I have incorporated the PowerPoint slide shows that I have used this year regarding effective searching, copyright issues and plagiarism.

The second section provides the teachers with an overview of the projects that their colleagues have completed, with our guidance, that utilize a few Web 2.0 applications. We started off with blogs and wikis and then progressed into VoiceThread. In a few weeks, I will begin collaboration with my favorite English teacher on a PhotoStory 3 project. A guidance intern has also asked for my assistant with the creation of podcasts with some of her charges. We are beginning this project next week. As these projects come to an end, I will post links to them on the wiki that I have created to serve as models for the other staff members.

The third section provides the teachers with a little professional development. We have recently switched to a web-based Outlook for our e-mail and some of our staff are still having trouble doing anything except reading and deleting e-mail. I have put together instruction for reading e-mail (for new staff), for composing e-mail (including setting up distribution lists) and setting options. Next I will be working on the use of the calendar feature. I did not have time to complete it for this project.

We have also begun to switch to Office 2007 and the teachers are in a panic about the ribbon format as opposed to the toolbar. The instruction I provide during after-school workshops for PowerPoint is slanted toward instructional design rather just plain presentations. I have incorporated the slide shows that demonstrate the use of PowerPoint for whole-group and self-paced instruction. Again, I did not have time to incorporate a complete series of instructional slides for completing specific tasks. I will be finishing this section up in a few weeks so that the teachers will be able to access my wiki as a reference for how to complete a task in PowerPoint 2007.

This wki is by no means complete. I will continue adding to the instructional section during the summer. I still need to provide tutorials for Word 2007 and Excel 2007. I hope to have a powerful resource for my colleagues come September.

Here is the wiki: []