Reflection on Unit Redesign:
This lesson involves students writing an opinion and supporting that opinion with logic and facts. Before the redesign, the lesson made little use of technology. Students were given the same real-life problem of figuring out what to purchase for indoor recess, and then would draft, edit and publish their opinion, with a hand-drawn picture. The only real technology involved typing the final draft of the opinion piece. Students would share their opinion with the class one at a time, and there was little means for collaboration. It was a very passive learning experience for everybody, with little time for comments or feedback.
With the redesign of the lesson, students became the active drivers of the entire lesson. From the start, they brainstormed ideas collaboratively about possible choices for indoor recess materials. They shared their ideas and wrote the rough draft of their writing. They still went through the writing process, which first graders need to master, but with the introduction of Kidblog, students were able to have a meaningful discussion to solve the problem. The students share their ideas and comment on each other’s posts. Students could then respond to comments to their ideas and further explain them. Students were then given a choice of different venues to visually express their opinions. Through the feedback and interactive discussion, students could hone their ideas and make the support for their opinions even stronger. Finally, students were able to make the final decision through a secret ballot using Plickers.
With the redesigned lesson, the students took the assignment whichever way they wanted, and the outcome was reflective of that. The transformed lesson became a student-centered learning activity.
In terms of the SAMR model, the old activity was at best substitution, using a word processor instead of handwriting the final product. In the redesign, the activity falls under modification and possibly redefinition. Parts of the lesson could not be done without the technology to create a safe environment where everyone could be heard. There were also many more opportunities for students to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of ways. It went from a completely teacher driven activity to a mainly student driven activity.
The activity meets many ISTE Teacher and Student standards. The standard most addressed in the activity is ISTE-S #2: communication and collaboration. With regard to the teacher standards, it particularly satisfies ISTE-T #1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. The redesigned activity inspires students because they are invested in the topic, a real-world issue they care about solving. Using Kidblog, responding to each other’s comments, and refining their own opinions, the students were able to work as a team, solving the problem together. As a teacher, I was not running the blog. Instead, I became one of the bloggers, collaborating with the class instead of telling the class what to do.
The lesson could be improved further, and meet more of the ISTE-T and ISTE-S standards. First, students could be asked to incorporate more data, including looking up popular games online, or gauging the level of interest by previous classes, or other classes in the same grade. That would have the added effect of broadening the audience for opinions and create a more global purpose for the activity. Second, I would give students more options for how to express themselves. Currently, students could only create an image, using PowerPoint, Pixie, or Toondoo. Students could also learn how to use other technologies to use either a song or a skit to express their opinion.
The biggest barrier to those improvements is the need for one-to-one technology to give students the full range of choices in the time allotted. We were fortunate that we were able to have one-to-one technology with school laptops for about four days of the activity, but it is difficult to achieve a redefinition without every student having a device every day necessary. Also, while some schools have a technology teacher who assists with teaching technology skills, in my school, the classroom teacher is the technology expert, and there was not enough time to model and share additional technologies. As a result, the options that students had to express themselves were limited to creating images, rather than including audio, video, or other methods that would allow students to express their opinions in the most meaningful way for themselves. That would have transformed the lesson from modification to redefinition.
Looking back, I learned a lot about not only the integration of technology into learning, but ensuring that the technology enhances the learning environment and is meaningful to the students. I look forward to incorporating Kidblog into other lessons for my students, and improving on this and other lessons in the future.
This lesson involves students writing an opinion and supporting that opinion with logic and facts. Before the redesign, the lesson made little use of technology. Students were given the same real-life problem of figuring out what to purchase for indoor recess, and then would draft, edit and publish their opinion, with a hand-drawn picture. The only real technology involved typing the final draft of the opinion piece. Students would share their opinion with the class one at a time, and there was little means for collaboration. It was a very passive learning experience for everybody, with little time for comments or feedback.
With the redesign of the lesson, students became the active drivers of the entire lesson. From the start, they brainstormed ideas collaboratively about possible choices for indoor recess materials. They shared their ideas and wrote the rough draft of their writing. They still went through the writing process, which first graders need to master, but with the introduction of Kidblog, students were able to have a meaningful discussion to solve the problem. The students share their ideas and comment on each other’s posts. Students could then respond to comments to their ideas and further explain them. Students were then given a choice of different venues to visually express their opinions. Through the feedback and interactive discussion, students could hone their ideas and make the support for their opinions even stronger. Finally, students were able to make the final decision through a secret ballot using Plickers.
With the redesigned lesson, the students took the assignment whichever way they wanted, and the outcome was reflective of that. The transformed lesson became a student-centered learning activity.
In terms of the SAMR model, the old activity was at best substitution, using a word processor instead of handwriting the final product. In the redesign, the activity falls under modification and possibly redefinition. Parts of the lesson could not be done without the technology to create a safe environment where everyone could be heard. There were also many more opportunities for students to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of ways. It went from a completely teacher driven activity to a mainly student driven activity.
The activity meets many ISTE Teacher and Student standards. The standard most addressed in the activity is ISTE-S #2: communication and collaboration. With regard to the teacher standards, it particularly satisfies ISTE-T #1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. The redesigned activity inspires students because they are invested in the topic, a real-world issue they care about solving. Using Kidblog, responding to each other’s comments, and refining their own opinions, the students were able to work as a team, solving the problem together. As a teacher, I was not running the blog. Instead, I became one of the bloggers, collaborating with the class instead of telling the class what to do.
The lesson could be improved further, and meet more of the ISTE-T and ISTE-S standards. First, students could be asked to incorporate more data, including looking up popular games online, or gauging the level of interest by previous classes, or other classes in the same grade. That would have the added effect of broadening the audience for opinions and create a more global purpose for the activity. Second, I would give students more options for how to express themselves. Currently, students could only create an image, using PowerPoint, Pixie, or Toondoo. Students could also learn how to use other technologies to use either a song or a skit to express their opinion.
The biggest barrier to those improvements is the need for one-to-one technology to give students the full range of choices in the time allotted. We were fortunate that we were able to have one-to-one technology with school laptops for about four days of the activity, but it is difficult to achieve a redefinition without every student having a device every day necessary. Also, while some schools have a technology teacher who assists with teaching technology skills, in my school, the classroom teacher is the technology expert, and there was not enough time to model and share additional technologies. As a result, the options that students had to express themselves were limited to creating images, rather than including audio, video, or other methods that would allow students to express their opinions in the most meaningful way for themselves. That would have transformed the lesson from modification to redefinition.
Looking back, I learned a lot about not only the integration of technology into learning, but ensuring that the technology enhances the learning environment and is meaningful to the students. I look forward to incorporating Kidblog into other lessons for my students, and improving on this and other lessons in the future.