Stanley-Marino,+Susan

Cool Tools Review and Lesson

Carousel: These sessions were a bit of a review, but I did enjoy the storytelling options I was not familiar with—Sock puppets, Blabberize and Sliderocket. I am exploring Prezi now and want to check out Sliderocket in comparison. I thought that the search “contest” idea with Ms. Wilson would be a fun activity for students to prepare for a research project. It was nice to be reminded of useful tools I don’t maximize—Google forms, and rubric sites especially.
 * Cool Tools Reflections: **

Hot Topics: I attended the English/Language Arts online role play session with Dr. Beach. This was a fun, rich resource I will definitely use in my English classes. I felt the role-playing not only encouraged writing and research skills in a fun fashion; it was also a safe way to demonstrate and teach “netiquette” and tone skills which are so important in this age of very uncivil communication. My English IV students must write an argumentative research paper for their senior project and the ning seems to be a great way to get them started.

Online Research: I attended the English/Language Arts session with Dr. Coiro. This was a great extension of her earlier session and gave lots of ideas for helping students go deeper and complete research. Her middle school level example and rubric will take very little tweaking to use with a standard level English IV class. I am planning to have students complete similar exercises as they begin their senior project research papers. I found her manner and information pleasing, in-depth, and very efficient.

Student Audience: 9th-12th grade Intermediate Theatre Arts students Essential Standards: I.CU.1.1-2;2.1-2. Rubric changed to American playwrights only—P.CU.1.1-2;2.1-2. (proficient level) Time Frame: Two 90-minute class periods—tweaked as needed Resources Needed: Computer and internet access for all students Prior Knowledge: Basic computer skills, Internet searching skills As part of a unit on influential playwrights and their works studied from a dramaturgical, design, and performing aspect. Students formerly created a large baseball/Pokemon style card and then went on to read and perform a scene from their playwright's work.
 * Cool Tools Lesson: Prezi **

Students will be given a list of influential playwrights to research and evaluate. Using a rubric, students will research at least 3 different reliable sources focusing on: Students will create a Prezi presentation to share with the class explaining and highlighting each of these elements. Prezis should include a photo or artist’s rendering of the playwright, 6 or more slides conveying the playwright’s world and influence and a video of one of the playwright’s scenes. (These videos may be student made or found online using youtube, Public broadcasting, etc.) Lastly, students must provide a slide of the sites they used. Students should be prepared to discuss their prezis with the class.
 * A brief summary of the playwright’s career, writings, awards, etc.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The author’s background and its influence on his or her writing.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A description of the world surrounding the playwright, specifically the historical, social, political and cultural influences of this time. Students should include wars/revolutions/political upheavals, change in government, scientific/religious/philosophical theories or discoveries, change in class structure, trends in gender roles, sexual identity, cultural influences such as entertainment, fashion, etc, as well as personal challenges or life changing events.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students should analyze how these factors affected the playwright and specifically influence his/her writing of particular plays?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students will be reminded NOT to simply cut and paste information but to put their facts into their own words.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Prezis will be graded on: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Required content: 60 points <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Student analysis of research for influence: 25 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Creativity and use of technology:15

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Closing Reflections <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I don’t believe my definition has changed, but it has certainly broadened. I think I would include more tools and applications than I would have previously. New Literacies include the openness to and abilities to use and apply the tools that the internet has opened up. They are new ways to respond, to question, to learn, and to communicate. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Some new tools I learned about this week are nings, toondoo, blabberize, tricider, and voki. I had heard of many others but got a chance to see them in action this week. Being able to see them in action, talk to people about them, and experiment with them is so helpful. I think these will be a fun way for my theatre students to explore technology while staying in our curriculum. Perhaps one of the most useful things I discovered this week was not something new, but a better approach to helping my students (and myself) research more wisely and efficiently. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Technology is moving at such dizzying speeds that new literacies have no choice but to emerge. As students are quicker to experiment with new technology, education must keep up to remain relevant. It is not enough to merely understand what the new technologies are; we must encourage students and instructors to create new ways of doing things and new ideas on combining these technologies. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">While content generally stays the same, how we interact with it does not. In an English class, we can now read a novel on the computer or tablet and research, comment, and analyze right with the text. New concepts and vocabulary can be accessed and learned immediately. Potential synthesis of information is much broader; however, the new task for instructors is to make sure we are guiding students in using the rich information pool wisely. As a grammar teacher as well, I do find the new digital world a challenge for students…whether typed on a phone, computer or written on old school paper, clear communication still depends on basic grammatical knowledge. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The changing face of communication demands that we approach the classroom differently. It is silly to spend our lives using smartphones, social networking, and other Web 2.0 tools and then require that we(students) put them away when it is time “to learn”. We must use these new tools to not only keep learning at the forefront, but also to demonstrate that education—as a lifetime journey—cannot ever be “turned off”. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In a way that often seems uncomfortable for educators, new literacies and digital knowledge creates relationships and synthesis that is more difficult to compartmentalize. As students are working at higher levels of knowledge—creating—so many educational aspects are occurring that it may be difficult to assign specific “standards” based on course of study. Of course, that is education at its richest and most valuable. I believe online relationships that incorporate learning and exploration are the pipeline of educating and creating lifelong learners. The fun part is that when new literacies are operating at their best, students don’t realize how much they are thinking and growing. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As with any creative endeavor, the act of creating gives birth to more and more ideas. Theorizing and discussing ideas tend to be an end unto itself, where designing and creation leaves us with many ideas yet to be explored. As we developed our project, we keep coming up with more and more ideas and activities. Creation and design, by construction, forces engagement and commitment to the learning that lower level activities cannot duplicate. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I think I have a pretty healthy online identity but perhaps some of my privacy concerns are unrealistic and even stifling. While we shouldn’t put all of our business out on the web, a strong professional presence and communication avenues with both students and other professionals is wise and could provide many opportunities. I continue to be both shocked and inspired by people who have created careers and lifestyles from their blogs, websites, and other online activity. As an instructor, having a teacher Facebook page and other means of communication has made my interactions with students stronger and I believe, improved their understanding of classroom expectations and projects. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I would like to learn more about video and film editing. I want to start a film production class and will be introducing film making into my theatre classes this year. I know that I will be learning a great deal from my students and I would like to have more knowledge myself. I definitely feel that storytelling through film is an important skill for students interested in theatre arts. As I look at the place of theatre in the average citizen’s life, film is clearly a much more relevant and accessible art form. It is also a great way for students in any curriculum to process and engage information.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Closing Reflection **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Now that you’ve had this professional development experience, how are you defining “new literacies?” How do you think your definition has changed or evolved this week? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Describe some new literacies that you learned about this week? What did you know about these topics before the week began and how has your experience this week contributed to your understanding of these new literacies? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. In what ways are the new literacies prompted by technology? How do they affect one another? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. How do new literacies affect the way we think about academic content? Describe an example of how some specific academic content is affected by changes in the ways we read, write and think (i.e. new literacies). **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">5. How do new literacies affect the way we think about our teaching practices? How do they affect the development of new teaching practices or approaches to teaching? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">6. During the week, you learning about several conceptual / theoretical frameworks for understanding the new literacies including, project-based inquiry, TPACK, Bloom’s revised cognitive theory, online identity, and global literacies (i.e. cultural competence, cultural awareness, cosmopolitanism). Describe your personal perspective on new literacies as it is informed by these conceptual and theoretical ideas. **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">7. How does the design process you learned about in your design studio work and the video digging deeper session support your understanding of the creative process? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">8. You learned this week about how to manage, and in some cases create, your online identity. What action steps will you take (are you taking) to manage and further extend your online identity? **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">9. If you had one more day in the Institute, what would you like to learn more about and why? **