avoca_wordpress

  Using the School Website to Enable Positive Student Technology Footprints 1. **The problem or question.** What is the problem (or opportunity) you wish to address with your project? Describe what you wish to change, for example, aspects of content (e.g. test scores), process (e.g. ability to collaborate), climate (e.g. morale), or tech use (e.g. embedded use of technology in instruction). Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to change.   cmb: elaborated on these [|here]  other info can be found at [|Why Weblogs?] some research examples at the bottom of this post

KZ: How can we give our students a voice and have our use of Word Press blog not only impact teachers but also impact students? Blogs ranked as #2 in the Top 10 Web 2.0 tools for young learners in the most recent article of The Journal...http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23898_2 //**#2 Blogs** (in the top 10 web 2.0 tools) Nearing the top of the list, the versatility of blogs, said [Gail] Lovely, is what makes them so valuable. Blogs provide opportunities to reach out to a range of community stakeholders including administrators, other teachers and students, parents, and the community at large. "Blogs have the power to give kids an authentic audience," she said. "It gives them a voice."// Brian Crosby, one of the expert voices has shared a lot of insight with us on blogging. His latest two entries on the NING site are very applicable: http://illinoisohioplp.ning.com/group/collaborativetools/forum/topic/show?id=2318805%3ATopic%3A15247 http://illinoisohioplp.ning.com/group/collaborativetools/forum/topics/the-important-book-as-a

gls: Students are doing amazing projects at school which they do not typically share outside the classroom walls. They take them home on a CD at the end of the year. Now they only get shared if their teacher posts them. Even then, are parents seeing them? We need an easy way for __students__ to share their work (online) and receive feedback from their families/friends/teachers. KJ: Yes. I caught myself thinking about that the other day; what amazing products are produced every day, and then get forgotten or deleted or recycled without a second thought, when their work could be inspirational and beneficial to many other potential audiences, most of whom we would not even imagine until they showed up on our WorldMap!

SR: I think this could work if it is not too much on the classroom teacher. I am worried that classroom teachers will look at this as ANOTHER thing to manage within their classroom. We need to make sure this is student-based and NOT teacher-based. A good idea might be to start teaching kids how to manage their portfolios in Encore Tech and then eventually when everything is set up and the kids know what they are doing... show the classroom teachers the possibilities. Some teachers will run with it while others will still need some prodding to use it. If our students are excited about it though and know how to share their work online it will be easier for the classroom teacher to find small amounts of time to allow this to happen within an already very packed school day.

ddp: Anything that we do the classroom teacher will probably look at it as ANOTHER thing to do. That's just the nature of the beast. The hope is that the majority runs with it especially since it will hopefully be student based. The question I have at the middle school level is there really a problem being addressed here? I see this being applicable at the k-5 level, but my question to middle school teachers would be that is the fact that the students are not publishing their work for grandma and grandpa really an issue. Now, with that question aside -- I do think that this idea provides the students and the teachers an authentic application to using a 21st tool Kids do love to share their work with others. Students' parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc will be thrilled to see work and comment on it.

2. **Objectives and Assessment** Develop objectives and authentic assessments for determining what you want learners (adults or students) to be able to know and do after the project and how you will determine they have indeed mastered the objectives your project laid out.    cmb: students will develop age-appropriate, positive uses of online tools for collaboration   KZ: here is an interesting link: http://mgolding.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/behaving-well-online-middle-school-edition/

gls: Students will post projects they do in school on their blog. This could be as simple as posting a picture they created in KidPix in Encore Tech in first grade, or posting their "I love you more than..." poem in Second Grade. I do not see this project as adding more to the already full curriculum, but more as a way to share what we are already doing. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">KJ: that would be a big plus to teachers who are already bogged down with stuff...

SR: Maybe start out small with classroom teacher expectations... post one project per semester to start.

3. **Networked Design** Then think about how you will design your project so participants can share, connect, collaborate, or move to some type of collective action. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">cmb: this wiki, other collaborative tools, and f2f meetings <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">

gls: I think grade level teams can discuss what kinds of things they would like for their students to put on the blog. Technology facilitators could help with this discussion during team meetings. Kim mentions 37 ways to use word press below...and I think that is a great idea.

4. **Set the Context** What have others done (at your institution or elsewhere) to address this problem? Do some research as a team to see what others have done. Get ideas. Divi up different research roles to individual team members. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> cmb: there are a number of examples of implementations through our expert voice groups, class blogmeister, and other individual schools. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">

5. **Proposal** How will you plan to solve the problem or answer the question? Describe what you will do to address the problem/opportunity described earlier. Are you doing anything differently than others have attempted? Why or why not? Why do you propose that your approach will succeed better than prior attempts or will work better with your students or faculty? <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> cmb: seems as though most have used this for student writing and while that is a noble goal I think it could be expanded to be more of a portfolio of student work and research findings. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">KZ: I agree. As an Encore Tech teacher I would like to see this house their digital media projects! Curre ntly, we are posting projects to our teacher websites which is not giving students ownership of their work. I think it would be neat to do "37 ways to use Word Press in the classroom for each set of grade levels K-2, 3-5, 6-8."

SG: I love the "37 ways" idea, and of all the projects (which I think would all have value to our district,) I think this one would impact our students the most. It seems to be the best way to help our students become 21st century learners and in turn, we as a staff, will grow with them. I think it's also important to choose a project that will involve all staff & students at all grade levels, and this would do that. Even specials teachers could be actively involved. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> gls: I like this project because it is one that can grow with us over time. It is easy to start small, but yet also has amazing potential. I agree with Susan that it is a project for all staff and students at all levels. I think it would be more importantly embraced by the students and the families at Avoca! Let's bring our students into 21st century learning and sharing! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">KJ: I agree that it has definite immediate application to everyone without having to struggle too hard or add to workload. Plus, it would have the most impact on the students, who would be equipped to apply the concepts outside of the classroom, as well.

6. **Evaluation** How will you determine the success and effectiveness of your solution and the impact of your project? Do you plan to determine pre and post results? How will you know that the behavior of your students/faculty has changed/improved? Note: You may not be able to obtain your results by the end of your year. However, you should have a plan in place to evaluate your project and report on the results. The idea is to develop a solid plan to share with others. If you implement this year or next is entirely up to you. When possible make this an action research project. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> cmb: amount of student posting/comments, quality of interaction from teacher survey <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> gls: student surveys/parent surveys

7. **Timeline** How will your project progress? Indicate the dates of project initiation and completion for each step of your design, implementation, and evaluation. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> cmb: focus in technology grade level meetings for initial instruction throughout the Fall, followup as needed, support from avoca expert voices.

gls: Look at the need for encore technology class blog instruction/integration especially at the younger grades without a 1-1 program. I believe we need to start small with this...and not put a lot of extra work on classroom teachers. This should be for the students. (We could introduce it as part of the encore technology class at the elementary school. I am not sure how that would look at the middle school.) May be we could set minimum posting guidelines (very small in the beginning). I believe that student interest will drive a lot of what is posted! <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> 8. **Documentation** How will you document your progress along the way? Will you share in your team group room in NING? Will you create a collaborative blog? A wiki? A Google Doc? Choose one and then everyone will use the document to make the process transparent. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> cmb: examples will be online for all to see and comment on <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/volume8/no1/JLTv8tech.pdf <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> http://bonsall.schoolwires.com/1512109262125477/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=277322&C=55071 <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">[|http://www.sad6.k12.me.us/~besty/collaborative.pdf] <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"> _ <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"> _http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume6/Drexler.pdf__ Other examples:<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"> __http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/__ media type="youtube" key="1vVFQ5u4kaA" height="344" width="425"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"> From our illohioPLP group: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=226543&blog_id&listclass=27129- check out Mandy's second graders who blog.

This one worries me. Individual student pages seem like a lot for a teacher to manage, and I still put a lot of value in keeping the work of the class together. I think that builds community. If they have separate pages and do a group project, will the project appear on each child's page separately?

By the way--parents look at work on my class page all the time, as do relatives of the students all over the world. The students have pretty deep sense of ownership of their work and the work of the class as a whole.

--jm