Part B - Application of TPACK

Prologue:


Due to my misunderstanding of dates that assignments were due, I will not be able to fully implement the entirety of my proposed assignment in Part A of my WPP Project. However all adventures in technology integration benefit from having trial runs and tests so I will have one of my Grade 5 classes tweet out what they get up to in their classroom during a school week and get feedback from parents, students and the teacher involved. I will, prior to that, email the parents of the class with the details and introduction to Twitter (including a Jing tutorial). There, I think I'm calm now that I have that re-planned it out! Onwards!


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What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)


The core technology that will be utilized will obviously be Twitter. The technological knowledge that our Grade 5 teachers have of Twitter is good as I was lucky enough to be able to introduce the benefits and advantages of using Twitter as a Professional Development tool. They both are aware of the advantages of Twitter, how to tweet using their iPhones and the little Twitter tips that help along in the process of Tweeting.
The main, underlying concept of this project is for the students to be able to share their learning and reflections to family (and the world) as it happens. Twitter helps this teaching and learning moment in a unique and obvious way due to the immediacy of Tweets, the audience a Tweet can reach and the ability for our followers to filter all our Tweets in one area using a Twitter desktop client. 




What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)


As the learning and teaching content will be fluid, varied and can be represented in many different ways, Twitter is a perfect tool to represent all of the different facets of learning. Students will take photos, embed links to videos or any sort of media that the students wants to share. Students will also Tweet written reflections on their learning. Twitter will hone their reflecting techniques due to Twitter's 140 character input limit so it will add more of a challenge to the reflection process. Students will have to investigate their word choice and pinpoint the most important parts of their learning they want to Tweet.




What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

This project is, in essence, a solution to the problem of how students can share their learning and their reflections to their families and a wider audience for more authentic feedback and continued discussion. As it will be used in a wide variety of classes throughout the day and subjects the pedagogical approach to students learning the content will vary greatly. The most important part of our students' learning, though, is their reflections on what that have learned. So we will not, necessarily, change our pedagogical approach to teach the content but we will make sure the students are encouraged at any time to reflect using Twitter.

PART A - Brainstorm Session

As you can hear and see from the above recordings we experienced lots of echos and communication issues.

Dessa, Neringa and I had our brainstorming session on Thursday 7th April 8am my time,
8pm theirs. We had already asynchronously thought out a couple of things on a Google Docs document (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nEBPl-dF1tXt_9AcvvbhDrS32SL5Z-VG01ExRnHtXEg/edit?hl=en_GB) so we really only had to sort out some logistics as we had a good idea on what we were going to do our project on.


We chose the broad area of using Mobile Technology in the Elementary classroom specifically to assist with literacy. We were going to specifically focus on apps but Dessa only has access to an iPod Nano so she made the subject base broader.


We will use Prezi Meeting to present our tutorials as this is the easiest tool to work with as a group and to collaborate more effectively.. We will incorporate embedded videos demonstrating the areas we are each focusing on.


The Prezi will be sectioned off into 4 parts. One for each of us to our subject area and one for the introduction of the entire presentation. The immediate task was to set up the Prezi as soon as possible and we have done so and got the layout sketched out.

Colin will do Digital Storytelling and the iPad. Doink animation app.
Neringa - tutorial on app on learning vocabulary/spelling or language (how to use it, videos, etc)
Dessa - how iPod Nano recording (stories, activities, other assignments) can be used in the elementary classroom

Web Conferencing Experience

We used vyew.com. I will not use it again. I would rather use Skype and work together on a Google Doc at the same time. The document did not update or sync in real time and I lost a lot of typing. Audio was horrible and laggy also. I relish checking out new tools but my mantra is you have got to use the right tool for the right job. vyew.com is certainly not it. 

Web-Conferencing

As a group we decided to choose vyew.com. I tried to register at DimDim but for some reason I couldn't sign up.

 We all decided on a date and time and were all present and correct to start the conference on time. Both Dessa and I could talk to each other on our microphones but Neringa had issues with hers. When I spoke to Dessa I could hear my voice a couple of seconds later appear on her side so there was significant lag which slowed communications down.




At the end of the conference we were all just typing messages to each other which would have worked better on Google Chat or something as the chat box on vyew was small and cramped.

My group mates didn't tell me until after that they couldn't edit the main page although I did ask them if they could see what I was writing so along with technical faults we need to work on our communication too.

Overall I can't say I like vyew.com that much and I would not use it with elementary school kids. Due to time constraints and limited options we will still use it as the group brainstorming platform this week.

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

photo © 2010 Keri J | more info (via: Wylio)

An educational need or opportunity. This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational setting.

When I found out I was to be one of the chaperones on our Grade 5 trip to Taipei, Taiwan from the 24th - 27th May 2011 I started thinking of how we could make the learning and information sharing more immediate using technology.
I'm sure my school is not the only one that bans the use of any electronic device other than cameras(which are merely just cameras nowadays, but never mind) so I had to come up with something that could be teacher facilitated but student driven.
To put it simply I wanted to come up with a way that students could share what they are experiencing on their trip, what they are learning and I wanted parents and teachers back home to be able to see these reflections and give feedback and ask questions of our students.

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology. You need to make a clear and convincing case that your proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible alternatives.

With the recent protests in the Middle East Twitter has become the de facto way of communicating and transferring information in the most effective and immediate manner. I propose we set up a Twitter account for our Grade 5 school trip and inform and train our teachers and parents in how they can follow and interact with our Twitter account.
There are no better ways than Twitter to present our students' learning to an audience back home both anxious and excited to hear about their experiences. As Twitter is free the costs are minimal (more on additional costs later).
With instant feedback on any of our students' Tweets the opportunities for expanding upon their learning is immense with valuable feedback and questioning from our followers on Twitter.

Logistics of solution: For example…

What is the scope? (e.g., when and where will tool be used and for how long? Who all will use it?)

As the trip will take place over a number of days the whole Project will only be "alive" for around a week if we take into account any extra feedback after or any pre-trip questions before we leave Hong Kong for Taiwan.

I plan on setting up the Twitter account we create for our trip on all of the teachers' smartphones and discussing strategies for Tweeting with each teacher. My plan is that we let students know about the Tweeting activity and they are encouraged to come to any of their teachers when they want to share a photo/reflection or merely just an update of what they are doing. The additional costs I mentioned earlier will be the roaming costs we will incur while Tweeting outside of Wi-Fi zones. I have already checked with our mobile phone network and we can get 24hour limitless data roaming for around 10US Dollars which I don't see as being a problem at all.

Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon in your own effort.

A quick search on Google brings up a South Florida school who tweeted their trip to Kennedy Space Center (http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2011/02/follow_a_field_trip_on_twitter.html and Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/HeronHeightsEl ) From looking at their Tweets it is not entirely clear who was Tweeting. My plan is put down the students initials or first name and class whenever we Tweet so people back home can figure out if their child has just Tweeted. It will also give the student a sense of ownership over their Tweet. 

A college group in the United Kingdom tweeted about their sports trip to South America (http://www.gulliverstravel.co.uk/news/cheltenham-college-get-tweeting-on-tour and Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/cheltcoll2010) Looking through their feed gives a very good overview of what they were doing and experiencing as they were in each part of South America. With our Grade 5 students we will look for more learning related to what area they are in and any new information they have learned in the midst of being there.

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

I will plan everything during this course and will have everything complete by the time this course ends. I will most likely need an extension on my Implementation stage as the school trip takes place around the date that submission is required.
The overview of what I need to do is as follows:

Talk to teachers on the trip of the plan of action and make sure everyone is on board.

Create Twitter account.

Make Twitter tutorials for parents (Jing)

Send email/letter to parents with project details, Twitter account details and tutorials on Twitter

Embark on trip 24th May and Tweet as we go!
Get back 27th May and write up implementation and findings stage.

Get together the Presentation on the entire project.

Indicators of a successful project

The indicators of a successful project will be how much value the students and parents found in the whole Twitter experience. The proof will be in the Tweeting from both our students and our parents alike. The Twitter feed will tell all!