Assignment: Given the 5 portraits, what are the similarities or differences that you find in the 5 cases? What generalizations, if any can you make on cyberbullying based on these 5 cases?
In reading these five portraits, it is easy to become discouraged and even angry when you see the similarities among them and ask, “Why couldn’t we see this coming?” Of course, each of the five portraits has their differences as well, but the same signs are present in each case, although they can often be elusive.
Cyberbullying is a complex issue, much more so than more traditional bullying because for one, it can easily extend beyond any one physical location like a school, playground, or hangout spot. And for every new advancement in technology, regardless of how good the original intentions were, there is the potential for it to be used to further advance the reach and damage that cyberbullying can cause. An example of this became apparent in my school with the introduction of Skype. We had thought of Skype as a great way for students to collaborate on group projects and communicate with experts outside of the classroom walls on topics they were learning about. We weren’t prepared for how easily this technology could be misused and abused to commit acts of cyberbullying.
One similarity I observed across the five portraits is that we as adults tend to fall into the trap of wrongly assuming that these teenagers and pre-teens think and rationalize the same way we do. As the complicated saga of Phoebe Prince illustrates, students say and do things without the benefit of fully understanding the consequences of their words, tones, and actions. Their perceptions are often one-sided and fail to acknowledge the possibility that what they’ve done could be interpreted differently from their original intensions.
Another similarity in the five cases is the role that we as adults play in these unfortunate circumstances. Let’s face it, it’s not easy for adults to gain access to the communication and culture that is student life. In many of the cases the student victim was strong in academics, into athletics and/or extra curricular activities, and a student who we would enjoy having in our classrooms. And yet behind these rosy pictures were stories unfolding that contained fear, despair, and hopelessness that would eventually conclude in a horrific event.
The mission that lies before us as educators is being able to identify the warning signs of bullying, and now cyberbullying, and developing an intervention strategy that involves the school, the home, and law enforcement.
Assignment: As you reach the conclusion of the core and required coursework for your Master's degree in Education, it is appropriate to consider what has been achieved and what that achievement means for you as a professional. This paper is to be an articulation of the major THEMES which have emerged for you over the course of your Master's degree program and a consideration of the implications they have for you as you plan your professional future.
We continue our tour of the landscape of the impact of technology on our culture, including our schools, by way of articles, talks, radio stories, and online videos. There are so many sources which means you should be able to find some things that particularly interest you. Select TWO articles (ONE of which is a TED Talk) from the link READ/WATCH/THINK list to read, watch, or listen to. Write up a short commentary on each of your selections.
Ken Robinson talks about creativity and how we are educating our students out of it and as a result are doing both them and our future a huge disservice. As examples, he refers to several stories about how young children have used creativity to help make sense of their world, from the 4-year-old who tried to understand what frankincense was to the little girl who was drawing a picture of God. If you look on YouTube, you will find dozens, if not thousands of other examples of children being similarly creative because, as Robinson puts forward, they not afraid to be wrong and take risks.
I see a lot what is talked about in this video resonating within my own sphere of education. The idea that taking risks is okay has become so foreign to our students at the middle school level, that the “risk-taker” component of our IB Learner Profile is constantly promoted and referred back to in our lessons and activities in an attempt to help them unlearn this fear of being wrong. At lunch, a common them I hear from the two 6th grade math teachers is that the Everyday Math program is so structured, so spelled out, so tight in its plan that it doesn’t leave any room for them to be creative. When I introduce to them an interactive math website that I think students would appreciate, their response is too often, “Thanks, this looks great, but I don’t have any room in the EM program to integrate it so that it will do any good.”
I think one of the reasons why education has shunned creativity is because it is not something that can be easily quantified or measured using some form of a standardized test. And, if something can’t be measured on a test then it get put on the back burner, shoved into the corner, or thrown out altogether with the bath water. How sad is that?
Finally, Robinson talks about several people who became quite famous as adults and asks us to think about them as children (e.g. Shakespeare at age 7). This part of the discussion caused me to ask the question, “What would the teachers of famous scholars, performers, innovators, etc. say about them as students?” It makes me wonder if, within the 22 students of my Day 4, Block 5 class there sits the next Albert Einstein or Amelia Earhart? And then I think, am I doing right by them as a teacher, as a guide to help them realize their talents? Obviously, there is no way for us to know what the future holds for our students. However, I think it is important for all of us to constantly ask the questions that Robinson asks in his presentation.
My first thought as I starting watching this video was, if these students are “digital natives” of the 21st century then why are they using dry-erase boards for their messages, a technology from the 20th century? Why are they using iPads? Granted, the iPad/eReader technology explosion hadn’t happened yet when this video was produced, but tablet technology did exist in 2007. I guess what I’m getting at is, I wonder what these students would have come up with had they been asked how they should communicate these words and phrases to the audience?
One of the slides in the presentation I have to take issue with. At approximately 3:13, the students ask us to let them use the World Wide Web Whatever, Whenever, Wherever. Having just completed a curriculum unit in our previous Lesley course on Internet Safety, I can’t say that I agree with this concept. Just because a student is a digital native or 21st century learner or “plugged in” doesn’t mean they know how to use technology and the Internet safely. I mean, we have adults who are apparently still lacking in some of these skills. Just look at the number of adults who have gotten themselves into trouble because of the choices they’ve made about posting content onto Facebook. Then again, perhaps these concerns were not as apparent in 2007 as I believe they are today.
In the end, I think this video shares a similar message with that of Ken Robinson’s presentation about the death of creativity. Students need to be free to be creative, take risks, and explore their potential. Teachers need to act as guides and help students nurture these skills in a safe and supportive environment, not to mention being allowed to be creative and take risks themselves. And administrators need to see the value in this approach and provide support to both students and teachers so that they can be successful, and one way they can achieve this is by being creative themselves.
Please prepare a summary School Profile (your own, your children's, your community's; as appropriate) including basic descriptive and factual information.
Student Body profile
The student population at MSK is mostly Caucasian (approximately 97%). The remaining three percent are made up of representatives from African American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American heritage. Of the total number of students enrolled, approximately twenty percent have qualified for free/reduced lunch support. The student-to-teacher ratio is estimated at ten-to-one.
Teaching Staff
MSK employs a total of 47 full-time teaching staff, with an additional 82 staff employed in various rolls from Ed. Tech. to Food Services and Maintenance to Special Education personnel.
Test Scores
In looking at test scores from 2012 for the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), students at MSK scored the following:
In the area of mathematics, 80 to 85 precent of students in grades 6-8 met the standard.
In the area of reading, 86 to 89 precent of students in grades 6-8 met the standard.
In the area of writing, 62 percent of students in grade 8 met the standard. No results were available for students in grades 6 and 7.
In looking at test scores from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), students at MSK scored the following:
Students in grades 6/7 made improvements in both those who met the requirements and the number of students who showed growth between 2009-2010 in the area of reading. Students in grade 8 showed a decrease in both meeting requirements and showing improvement.
In the area of mathematics, students in grade 6/7 showed improvement in their growth between 2009-2010, but showed a decline in the number of students who met their target scores. Students in grade 8 showed improvement in both categories.
Instructional Technology Resources
MSK is equipped with two general purpose computer labs and a third Special Education computer lab; all three are outfitted with Apple iMac computers. Each 6th grade classroom is outfitted with an interactive whiteboard (i.e. SMART Board) including all three computer labs, five special education rooms, and the main library.
Each full-time teacher in grades 7/8 has access to a Apple MacBook via the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI); teachers in grade six also have MLTI laptops purchased through the state laptop program. The ratio of students to laptops in grades 7/8 is 1-to-1 as a result of the MLTI program. The entire school building is equipped with a WiFi network, which is also provided by the state via the MLTI program. Through a grant, the 6th grade is equipped with two mobile labs in an attempt to bring the entire school closer to a 1-to-1 laptop environment for students across all three grades.
Student computer use at home
It is estimated that about 85 percent of the student population across the district has access to a computer or electronic device at home. This figure is partially inflated due to the presence of the MLTI program in that one of its goals is to provide both students and parents at the middle school level with access to a WiFi-enabled laptop computer capable of accessing the Internet. Students who qualify for the free/reduced lunch program may also qualify for Internet access at a reduced rate through Great Works Internet (GWI). The state program will also provide students with a modem to connect the state laptop to this service.
Why are numbers significant to know and what do yours show?
These numbers are significant because they help paint a picture of the overall population that the school is serving. Student body and staff profiles help to determine what kind of teaching and learning environments are possible and if the current status is even sustainable. Testing numbers can give insight into how effective school instruction and assessment is with respect to student learning and comprehension, although often administrators and/or school boards can add more weight to these numbers than what is appropriate or realistic. Instructional technology numbers can expose inequalities in access across grade levels and schools. For example, when a new elementary school was built in Kennebunk every Kindergarten through third grade classroom was outfitted with an interactive whiteboard. While this was a huge innovation and step forward in technology integration for the students and staff, it created inequity with the elementary school population in Kennebunkport. Hence, the school district spent the next two years devoting budgetary funds to install similar technology until the Kennebunkport school was on par with the new school.
The intent here is to link the simulation exercise directly to you, and to your experience. Think about the adopter types and the chart on levels of use of innovation (also found under Lab Activities under Making Change Simulation) to reflect on your own experience. BRIEFLY answer the following questions and post your answers on the Discussion board in the designated area. There is a table attached here to also help organize your thinking.
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1. Where were you on levels of use of technology two years ago?
Two years ago I was two years into my new roll as a technology integrator at the middle school and witnessing the decline and eventual demise of our 21st Century Classroom program due to a lack of funding. I was overseeing the deployment of “Round III” of the MLTI 1-to-1 laptop program and continuing to develop my computer literacy course with little to no input or feedback from the administration with respect to curriculum.
Upon reflection, I find that my level of technology use leapfrogs all over the place, depending on which aspect of my job I focus on. I was in the mechanical stage with respect to the 21st C.C. program due to the decline in support from the administration and growing discontent and lack of interest from teachers in the program. If I look at the MLTI program, I think I had a foot in the refinement level as I was overseeing the initial deployment of new technologies and I wanted the transition to be smooth and successful for both students and staff. I wanted them to know what new tools they were going to have at their fingertips and how to successfully integrate them into their teaching and learning. Upon reflecting on my teaching through my computer literacy course, I think I was finally moving into the integration level as I wanted to make deliberate connections between the content I was teaching and the projects students were being asked to create in their other classes.
2. Where on this scheme are you now?
Today, while they have changed my job title from integrator to coordinator, I feel that I have been able to maintain a strong presence in the refinement and integration levels. From time-to-time I am able to get a foot (perhaps only a toe) into the renewal stage as I try to find alternatives to achieving goals by way of integrating new technologies. However, each time a new technology comes along I revert back to the orientation level in order to define what this new innovation is, how it could be integrated, and where could I coordinate its introduction into the classroom.
Where on the chart do you see yourself when you finish your degree program?
I don’t see myself really changing where I am when I finish this degree program. I think by the very nature of being an integrator/coordinator of technology, you have to have the flexibility to travel up and down the levels in order to be successful. However, my hope is that in the future I will be able to motivate students and staff to make these treks with me and collaborate at each level, thereby developing concrete and worthwhile strategies for technology integration and innovation.
Assignment#1: Work in groups with Intel's Visual Ranking Tool to consider these essential conditions in your school districts.
Assignment #2: After
you have read the essential conditions and have used the Visual Ranking
Tool, reflect on the conditions present in your own school district
and/or teaching situation.
In my school district, the essential conditions have primarily focused on getting “buy-in” from everyone in order to move ahead with any technology integration plan. During my ten years in-district, too often funds were spent on a piece of technology or service because someone thought it was “cool” but would move ahead without consulting with or even talking with the personal who would do the actual implementation. Now our district is trying to correct this error using a District Tech Team that has teacher representation from each school building. In addition, each proposal now includes plans on how we will fund the technology, how will support for successful integration be provided, and how will we know when we have succeeded. This is still a new process and we are still working to get everyone on board to this different approach.
One area that we are still lacking in is Supportive External Contexts. It is only with the recent hardships with trying to maintain current funding levels, let alone funding for future growth, that has pushed the administration to seek out ways that we can build stronger support from the community. The plan is twofold: improve communication with the community while also showing them that we are doing this at a cost savings to the community. For example, we have reduced the amount of paper and ink used to print off notices in favor of an Altert-Now automatic email system, a Twitter feed that is available by both our website and by following, and just recently an Apple TV setup in the main lobby to showcase what students are doing each day within and outside of the classrooms. We have not had these systems in place long enough to assess whether these investments have paid off or not, but administrators remain hopeful (as do we in the IT department).
Assignment: Do
a search on your own to find other articles on
“Understanding” and write your own definition what “Understanding” is
and how do you know you or a student has achieved understanding.
Understanding is the ability to take knowledge and/or skills that has been learned and knowing when and where to apply them to when confronted with a situation/problem. It is not simple regurgitation of facts or recounting of information discussed previously. Instead, it is the ability to know when to employ them given different situations with different and sometimes unique variables. For me, that means constantly reminding students that the knowledge and skills they learn from me in computer literacy classes are flexible and can be applied to events and challenges in other classes. For example, say I should students how to take a Keynote and show them how you can export the file into different formats including images. Then, when they are working with podcasting and adding images to make an enhanced podcast, I want them to be able to remember what they learned from their Keynote study and realize they can use it to create their own custom images to go into their podcast project.
Take a moment to reflect the following quotes. Which one do you agree with most and why?
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” By Aristotle
“If you truly want to understand something, try to change it.” By Kurt Lewin
The first quote is an important point to keep in mind because, as was brought up in our class discussion, there are educators out there who know their subject backwards and forwards but they do not know how to teach it to others. If you understand the subject matter then you can better respond to “left-field” questions, perhaps even the bizarre ones, that might catch you off guard. Understanding will also allow you to be ready to accept new information, evaluate it, and accept how it might change the circumstances of the topic. In this way, we “advance” our understanding of the topic to include the new information. (Perkins & Blythe, 1994)
The second quote I think lends itself to the idea of turning students into teachers in order to building understanding. In order to change something you have to know how it works and how it interacts with the surrounding environment. Similarly, in order for a student to take something they’ve learned and turn around to teach it to another successfully, they have know how it works and how it affects the people and things around it. They know how they were affected by the knowledge, and now they see how another person responds to the information and whether or not the response is similar or different. This experience can give a student a change of perspective on the topic and further their understanding.
Article: Picture a World Without Pens, Pencils and Paper Bromley, K. (2010). Picture a world without pens, pencils, and paper. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 41.1, 97-108
ECOMP 6016 - Assignment #8: Reflect on your final project using the articles provided on multimedia and learning, multiple intelligences, and multiple learning techniques.
Articles referenced:
Tapping Into Active Learning and Multiple Intelligences With Interactive Multimedia: A Low-Threshold Classroom Approach, (2008) by Tom Schrand
Integrated Instruction: Multiple Intelligences and Technology, (2007) by Ian J. McCoog
Multimedia Information and Learning, (1996) by Lawrence J. Najjar
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Creating a movie is a form of expression that opens many doors for students of a variety of intelligences. As a result, I thought it was important to create a movie that would give students an overview of the whole movie making process. Making a movie can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it, depending on the quality of the finished product. Make no mistake that the process requires an investment of time, energy and planning. But the rewards that movie making can bring due to its ability to allow each student to utilize their learning style(s) can be amazing.
When making a movie, you need to start with a storyboard. This tool supports logical-mathematical learners because it helps them solve the problem of what is the best way to organize the story components so that it will make sense to the audience. The learner must answer questions about volume levels, types of transitions, video vs. still images, and when and where to deploy there various multimedia pieces throughout the movie timeline.
While not all movies involve dialog (our “introduction” project demonstrated how images can be a powerful medium for telling a story), many do and a movie’s script can make-or-break the success of the message being communicated. Script writing is where linguistic learners can shine and devise interesting ways of expressing ideas. For my movie, I wanted to show how the written word can be more powerful than the video, illustrated by the example of text stealing the spotlight in step three from yours truly.
Spatial and musical learners are valuable strengths in movie making since it is through these two mediums that all story components are communicated to the audience. In my final project I needed to find that happy medium between which visual/audio components best support the story and which components are just plain cool. Sometimes the picture-in-a-picture component was the best choice, other times it was using the green screen tool, and yet there were instances that involved going outside of the iMovie application to Keynote to introduce an animated component to the scene.
Bodily-Kinesthetic learners are presented with a unique choice when it comes to movie making, especially with the advancements in video-editing software: when should the actors try to use a real location for a scene versus creating a virtual location using green screen tools to best tell this part of the story? In my movie there were some scenes where it was just easier to find a real location to film the scene (e.g. the school stage and podium) while other times being able to travel virtually to another place using a green screen (e.g. the pirate/Harry Potter clips) was vital to the success of the scene.
In evaluating my final project with respect to multiple learning techniques, some interesting points came to mind. In Najjar’s paper he talks about “redundant multimedia” as a way to improve learning because its method, pace and type of interactivity is consistent. The beauty of movie making, especially an instructional movie like mine, is that the user can replay all or part of the video as many times as they want. While not part of my final project, I have seen strong evidence for this in providing support to my staff and their MLTI laptops. In this example, my old way of PDF tutorial documents were not utilized by staff, but when I created video “screencasts” of my tutorials instead my audience responded quite positively to learning via this medium because they could play, pause and re-play the video as many times as they needed.
Another learning technique that Najjar discusses, the dual coding of information, lends itself very nicely to the medium of movie making. According to the theory, information is processed via two channels: verbal information such as text or audio and nonverbal information such as imagery and sound. As students work through their movie, in both the storyboard stage and the editing stage, they must constantly evaluate which channel will best communicate the scene in support of the overall story. Sometimes a simple text slide can be more powerful than a video clip with green screen effects applied, or the right sound effect/soundtrack can help complete a scene. One of the benefits of our “The Making Of…” assignment was learning about movie soundtracks and how much work goes into its construction so to successfully support the scenes in the movie.
In conclusion, this final project has provided me with insight into the power that multimedia projects can have in reaching students with a variety of intelligences. Everyone has a story to tell, and students are no exception to this rule. If anything, middle school students have a greater need to tell their stories as they work to define themselves and what makes them unique. I hope that my How to Make a Movie project will be a helpful tool for teachers who want to integrate a movie component into their curriculum and that the skills I’ve learned in making a movie will make me a better support resource for both students and teachers in the future.
ECOMP 6016 - Assignment #6B: Select a commercial online and analyze for its persuasive techniques. Reflect on the commercial and its use of persuasion.
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Commercial: Mac vs. PC
What is the commercial about? The Mac vs. PC commercial series is about the comparison of Apple’s brand of computers vs. those running Microsoft’s Windows Operating System. The commercials are from Apple’s point of view. NOTE: The YouTube link goes to a collection of commercials which allows you to see a variety of persuasion techniques being employed.
Who is the intended audience of this message? The overall intended audience are users looking to buy a new computer. However, each ad attempts to address smaller groups within this audience such as people who want more built-in equipment, access to pre-install photo and movie-making software, or those fed up with the constant battle against computer viruses.
What values, lifestyles and points of view are being transmitted in this message?The commercials are meant to portray Apple computers as fitting the lifestyle of the average person who wants to be able to use a computer with relative ease and without a lot of time devoted to maintenance. PC is often portrayed as being for the business world while Apple is portrayed as for the family and users both young and old.
What creative techniques are used to attract your attention? The commercials use the basic persuasion techniques of association (e.g. for the family), beautiful people (e.g. making a movie), bribery (buy a Mac, get a built-in webcam), fear (vulnerability to viruses), and repetition (their introduction is very well-known and often parodied). Intermediate techniques include charisma (Apple obviously), euphemism (PC often tries to downplay his issues), and simple solution (whose is more ready to use “right-out-of-the-box?”). An advanced technique employed in some of the ads is analogy, such as when PC is going in for “surgery” to upgrade to Vista. There were also several examples of card-stacking, but not in Apple’s favor. In one instance PC has a “cold” and Mac claims that he doesn’t get viruses, but that’s not the whole story (e.g. the recent MAC Defender virus). And I don’t care what type/kind of computer you have, every computer needs a restart once in a while.
One of the reasons I chose this commercial is because I just came across a great parody made by two 7th grade students from Michigan entitled, “Hi, I’m A Textbook And I’m A Tablet.” This is a example of how an idea turned into a commercial has provided a vehicle through which students can tell their own stories.
ECOMP 6016 - Assignment #6A: Watch two movies that make claims about how media influences people, then write a reflection based on the following questions:
What do you agree or disagree with what they claim? Explain.
What is your perspective on the media's influence?
What evidence or counter-evidence of what they are claiming do you see with your own students?
Video #1: "Touch Guise" by Jackson Katz
Video #2: "Advertising's Image of Women" by Jean Killbourne
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Good golly is this a huge topic, with so many points of views, philosophies and conclusions that is hard to know where to start…
Jackson seems to come right out of the gate attaching the media as the source from which men learn how to commit violence. But later on he points out that the media is not necessarily creating the violent culture but rather is a reflection of the violence that is in our culture.What is so scary is that our society, at least with respect to our opinions of what good “media entertainment” is, seems to be okay with this. As I listened to Jackson talk about how men are getting tips on what it means to be masculine from the media, it makes me wonder how much of the masculinity we see portrayed is an accurate representation of the real world, or is it more what a small group (e.g. the entertainment industry) thinks masculinity is? He also goes on to look at how the media portrays violence by students at school in the vocabulary they use, i.e. using the term children and rarely that of boys or young men. Unfortunately, I think there are times when the news media is less concerned with the facts or being specific then with being politically correct and/or gender neutral.
For Kilbourne, she attempts to take on the huge powerhouse that is the beautification of women. Just like Jackson who says it takes more courage to challenge the ideas of perceived masculinity, Kilbourne points out that challenging the stereotypes that clothing, cosmetics, and even plastic surgery advocates claim as femininity requires great strength and perseverance. Another interesting point she makes is what would happen if the media took their attitude toward the female body and applied them to the male body.
When I look at my own students there are some that I can see potentially fitting into some of the stereotypical labels, but others do not. I have also seen counter-evidence to claims that it is males that are the primary source for violence; often female teachers tell me that girls are much meaner to each other than boys, and I think we may be beginning to see this surface in the entertainment media via reality TV. And speaking of girls, now that the weather has turned warmer we at the middle school had to address the issue (again) of appropriate school attire.
As educators and parents and well, adults, I think we need to stress to students the difference between what is “real” and what is entertainment and fiction. Going back to Week #4’s assignment, one of the reasons why I love DVD technology is because it gives us the opportunity to see the “Making Of…” and see the work that it took to create all that drama and action and violence…and how nobody got hurt doing it. Interviews with cast can also show them what it takes to create the image of the characters we see, such as how much weight the actor had to loose in order to “fit into” the role. The point really hit home about how the media has gotten very good at dehumanizing people, creating artificial expectations for women about what it means to be beautiful and for men what it means to be masculine.
ECOMP 6016 - Assignment #5A: Watch a "Making Of…" special feature on a commercial, television show, or movie and write a reflection about what you learned about the movie-making process.
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When the Lord of the Rings came out on DVD, I had to buy them. J.R.R. Tolkien (author) is an unbelievable storyteller and Peter Jackson (director) did a great job of transferring the book to the big screen. However, when the “extended” versions of the movies came out I had to buy them as well with a need greater than before because they included so many clips and extras about HOW they did, well, everything. In fact, there was so much to the “Making Of…” that they had to divide it up into sections such as locations, costumes, special affects, miniatures, props, the editing room and more.
One section of the “Making Of…” dealt with how they chose the locations for filming the scenes in the movie and then what they had to do to transform that location into a place from Middle Earth. For example, when they found the mesa that would become Edoras the government informed them that they would have to restore the location to exactly the way it was before they arrived. So, we got to see the green houses they built to keep the local flora and fauna that they removed alive while they filmed and would then replant afterward. In the section about costumes, one of the actors commented that, while he was putting on his armor costume he noticed that the artist had carefully chiseled a beautiful crest into the inside of the chest plate. Now, the camera would never see this attention to detail, only the actor. This realization made him feel special and used it as a vehicle to get into his character before filming.
When you watch the “Making Of…” section about how the movie was edited together, you get to see what footage the director is willing to part with and what he simply can’t live without. It taught me that directors often go back to film additional scenes or “pick-ups” to help fill in missing pieces or better connect two scenes together. And, being a techie, I now make a point to try and determine what type of computer the team used as well as the computer software they used to edit the film.
