One of the goals in my GAME plan was to incorporate technology into two activities per unit. I also wanted to loosen the boundaries to allow my students to be more creative. I recently started a unit and wanted a multi-day activity to fill the half days of school prior to Thanksgiving. This caused me to think of an activity that closely aligned with what we were doing at the beginning of the project. The students had just learned ratio and started using ratios, percents, fractions, and differences in comparison statements. The textbook gave example of advertisements and I decided to have my students create an advertisement. They were required to look up factual information about a company of their choice. From there they were given the freedom to be creative and design an advertisement and the only requirement was that they had to write 4 comparison statements, include 1 in their advertisement, and explain why they chose it. I did give the students the option of creating their ad using technology or using a poster. A majority chose the poster because that’s what they were comfortable with. There was a student who created a video and others who used Publisher. Regardless, technology was used in some way in each child’s project.
So far I have not needed to use the internet for my own research. I came up with the idea of the advertisement and it evolved through conversations with other teachers. My colleague also did the project with her class and they, too, seemed to have fun with the creative nature of the assignment. Some embraced the technology more than others.
At this point I do not think I need to alter my action plan. Throughout the first 3 weeks of this course I have developed many ideas as to how to implement technology so I do not think it will be as difficult as I originally thought. Some things I am truly excited to get to with my students because I want to see how it will affect their learning.
So far I have learned that my mindset had to change. I was always trying to force the technology because I wanted my students to have that experience for Math, but because it was forced it was not beneficial. In the past I was also avoiding technology because the technology at our school is so bad, but I now know that I just have to suck it up and deal with it because the value outweighs the struggles. Lastly, I had to realize that I need to look at my lesson plans and see where technology would fit naturally and be a good resource for the students in what it achieving the objective.
In doing the advertisement project with my students, I was hoping that more students would pick the technology as a means of presentation. Perhaps it’s because they have not had enough experiences at this point with enough software to feel comfortable with them so they are playing it safe and doing what they know. Should I force the technology upon my students or continue to let them choose? I kind of feel like at some point I have to force them to use something they might not be familiar with or else they will not make any growth. Thoughts?
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Emma, was there one particular form of technology that you thought would work really well with this particular project? I think you're on the right track when you said that students avoid using technology because they don't feel comfortable using it. Choose the technology and teach them how to use it. Not every student will like using every form of technology or software, but if you're able to use a few different types over the course of the year I'm sure every student will find one they like using. It's like making them eat their vegetables. They have to at least try them.
ReplyDeleteIn 7th grade the students learn Microsoft Publisher in their computers class, so I was hoping that most would use that to create a magazine-type ad. I was also hoping that more than one student would be adventurous enough to record a commercial using a digital camera. They didn't have to put it on YouTube, but the one student who did make a video saved it at home and the software was not compatible. Therefore, I suggested he put it on YouTube so we could access it at school. I was doing this project during the half-days before the break, so I didn't have time to teach them a technology or software and tell them to use it. In the future I will do that if time permits.
ReplyDeleteEmma,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this technology idea for a math lesson. I have been looking for ways to use projected based learning in math and coming up with advertisements that use the math concepts being covered is a great idea.
I have had similar experiences with students choosing the poster board over technology because they feel safe producing this for an artifact. I wonder if we could pair students together, with one being stronger with tech projects and have them teach the other? Have you tried this yet?
Jim
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried pairing the students up yet. Because I only see my students for 90 minutes a day and we don't use technology all the time, I don't really have a good grasp on their technology skills. Some of it depends on if they've had computer class that year or not and again that's hard for me to know. There is a good possibility that more students would go with the technology if you have the knowledge to pair them up that way.