Reflection on the inaugural Teasleypedia project

          The language arts teacher and I were eager to try the wiki research project with our students.  The students’ excitement was palpable when we introduced the concept of the wiki and creation of online encyclopedic entries.  The essence of Web 2.0 is collaboration and building knowledge together as an online community.  The goal of this instructional sequence was to review research skills while integrating technology to engage learners.  Connected learning via the Internet necessitates an openness to change.  The collaborative relationship I have with the language arts teacher allowed us to journey into uncharted territory.  The wiki concept is new to us and to the students.  As we collaborated on the unit, we adjusted for problems that arose and made note of changes for the next time we facilitate this unit.I feel the students were more engaged in the research for the wiki project than I have seen in traditional research projects.  The students understood that their work could be viewed by anyone on the Internet.  At first the students did not conceptualize the final product.  Once we realized that we were having an issue with the conceptualization, we relied on the students’ knowledge of Wikipedia to give them a visual image of what we were expecting as a final product.  The next time we use the wiki unit, we will include a better mini-lesson in the pedagogy and creation of a wiki entry.  Students needed to see multiple examples to transfer informational writing skills into production of the wiki entry.

One goal we had was for the students to integrate primary documents and videos into the entries and to use the documents to directly support information in the entry.  The inclusion of primary documents in the project gives the students a wider experience with accessing, locating, and using digital resources.  Visual learners benefit from the use of primary documents.  The pictures help to tell the story.

The language arts teacher and I wanted the students to collaborate through peer editing of their work.  The editing of other entries not only improved the entries but also allowed for discussion among the students.  The students became engaged in editing their peers’ pages.  The language arts teacher commented that he had not seen the students so animated and involved in peer editing.

Online collaborative work is the future of information literacy and research.  I will continue to revise and refine the concept of a school encyclopedia wiki.  The students’ attitudes toward research and writing changed as a result of the online writing environment.  They were excited to create the entries.  The basic format of the unit is transferable to any content area.  I plan to incorporate the wiki into other projects to add entries.  I included an alphabetical index in the wiki.  As other classes participate in creation of entries, our school online encyclopedia will grow with the prior entries serving as needed examples I described.  The entries are available for further editing.  As the wiki grows, grammar assignments could include editing wiki entries.  When a student edits an entry, the changes are kept in the wiki history.  A teacher can check the history to see what changes a student made.  Peer editing of entries will lead to internalization of writing conventions as the students will have an authentic purpose to the editing.  Building a collaborative school encyclopedia will influence future instruction in a profound way.

I am aligning and mapping the seventh grade curriculum to the new AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Using the Understanding by Design model, I am first examining the standards, determining enduring understandings, and formulating essential questions to develop an integrated curriculum map of information literacy skills and the content curriculum.  I have decided to use the nine common beliefs of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner as my enduring understandings.  I believe these nine beliefs encompass the goals of the four standards and the numerous elements relating to skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies under each standard.

Enduring Understandings [Common Beliefs (AASL)]

Reading is a window to the world.
Inquiry provides a framework for learning.
Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught.
Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs. 
Equitable access is a key component for education.
The definition of information literacy has become more complex as resources and technologies have changed.
The continuing expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.
Learning has a social context.
School libraries are essential to the development of learning skills.

I am currently working with this version of essential questions for my media program and information literacy instruction for the seventh grade:

Essential Questions

What information do I need?
Where can I find the information I need?
What do I need to do with the information I find?
How is the information I found useful to me?
How do I critically evaluate information?
How do I research efficiently and effectively?
How do I evaluate the end result of my information search?
How do I give credit to my sources?
How will I record the information that I find?
How do I chose books for my own interests and growth?
How do I use technology to communicate my new knowledge?

Of course, this design necessitates the collaboration with teachers with their own essential questions for students to answer for just-in-time learning of the skills, dispositions, responsibilities, and self-assessment of the 21st century learner. This mapping project is consuming my thoughts lately and the implications it may have in my school and the resulting impact to student achievement.  My district is currently involved in a 21st century learner professional development program called TeAch 21 with media specialists participating in MediA 21 (the “A” referring to Academics).  I believe technology should be integrated throughout the curriculum and not taught or used in isolation.  Information literacy goes hand-in-hand with using technology efficiently and effectively in the 21st century.

While reading Dangerously Irrelevant, I came across a series of posts. (Birth of a question and paradigm shift and Curriculum 2.0 - Building buy-in and shared understanding) by Justin Medved and Dennis Harter.  They ask questions about curriculum design and technology:

What if this same “best practice” [UbD] approach could be applied to the way technology was used and talked about in the classroom?  If this was good curricular design practice, why should technology and thinking curriculum be any different?  What if that same approach was used in the way we looked at connecting technology and learning across the curriculum? What if there were only a few manageable questions that even the most tech-resistant teacher could see value in?

They go on to formulate five essential questions for a curriculum focused on “the thinking that was needed for the 21st century learner, rather than the technology.”

How do you know information is true?
How do you communicate effectively?       
What does it mean to be a global citizen?       
How do I learn best?       
How can we be safe?

I think Medved and Harter are really media specialists at heart.  Their formula of essential questions is the essence of what an effective media program should be.  Technology and Information Literacy go hand-in-hand in the 21st century.

In the words of Medved and Harter, “who is going to teach these skills?…Everyone is.”

 Cross-posted at GLMA

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). ALA/AASL standards for the 21st century learner. Retrieved February 13, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/standards.cfm

Each nine weeks I collaborate with our Computer Applications teacher on a website evaluation unit with our seventh graders.  I have a PowerPoint that I made into a webpage.  The students follow along on the laptops while we work on answering the essential question: How do I critically evaluate a website?

This week we tried something new and I am happy with the result.  I had been using The Dog Island website as the model for working through the Five W’s of Website Evaluation.  This is a great hoax site to show the value of critically evaluating a website and being a cautious consumer of information.  However, I wanted to emphasize the questioning aspect of the lesson more so than is possible with Dog Island.

This time, we used the DHMO website.  A colleague pointed me toward a DHMO video on TeacherTube that is a teen talking about the website and how upset she is with the state of contamination by this chemical, DHMO.  The video is a great hook for the students as I explained that I wanted us to examine this website to see if we should join this girl in her crusade against DHMO contamination.  After we worked through the Five W’s of the website ( Who, What, Where, When,  Why) we determined that the chemical must be a hazard.  I then had the students discover and realize what compound DHMO is by working through the chemical formula.

They were blown away by the result.  I think the lesson shook them up a bit about Internet research.  The point I made was that all the information on the website is accurate, but the premise behind the information is completely misleading.  A great teachable moment for information literacy.

I began wokring on the Teasleypedia wiki for our Civil War project coming up.  I have decided to take some of the elements of the jigsaw pathfinder project I developed for TeAch 21 and apply the strategies to the wiki project.

I created a Big6 page for the pre-research strategizing that the students will do before they begin work.  They will copy the template and then create their own entry page.  We have decided that the students will complete the organizer as a part of their page, including annotations of the websites they choose to use.

I read an article quite a while ago about the changing literacy that students will need to read online.  Online reading requires different techniques than print reading.  One strategy is to have students annotate any links they use to ensure that they have made an analysis of the material and that the source will be an effective source for their information needs.

My next step is to collaborate with the teacher further to create an outline we want the students to follow for their entries.  I suspect there will be an inquiry written section and the sources.  I would like to have the students incorporate primary documents and reflection in their entry outlines as well.  I want to incorporate del.icio.us too.  Perhaps we can also do podcasts.  The students could “interview” soldiers, nurses, abolitionists, etc.  We could expand the project to Social Studies even more by working in that class on interview scripts while the class works in Language arts on the wiki entry. Hmmm, that’s some food for thought.

This week there has been a discussion on the GeorgiaMedia listserv about how to present the debate between using databases and search engines in “teen-speak.”  This is a perennial problem.  Students seem to naturally gravitate to the search engines or world-wide connected wiki for their research information.  This is after instruction in use of the databases.  Brian Collier devised an apt analogy:

• Google is like flipping the stations on your car radio and hoping a good song is playing.
• A database is like cueing up the song you want on your iPod.

At the county media meeting this week, Rebecca Amerson (WHS) and Patricia Gilman (EHS) presented on information search strategies, specifically using search engines.  They emphasized three search strategies:

1. Narrowing a search focus by use site:domain (e.g. site:edu)
2. Use phrase searching (e.g. “Great Depression”)
3. Use + - in search

These strategies can be practiced while playing the “The Google Game” (I found this link using the strategies: site:slj google game - it was the first hit).

I created a flyer for teachers to post in their rooms concerning this debate along with some advice to include database searching in inquiry-based projects.  This has sparked some conversations, which is the hoped for outcome.

Today two teachers and I discussed some upcoming projects.  In one class, we are collaborating on a research project using a wiki.  The basis of the collaboration is for the students to work together on entries in a “Teasleypedia” wiki to write to a wider audience.  I recently discovered the video, “42″ by Barry Bachenheimer.  The premise of the video is that during thirteen years of education, students write for 42 people: their teachers.  Students will participate in an inquiry-based exploration of the the Civil War creating entries on topics from the war.  We are beginning to design the unit; however, the gist of the project is the students will use a research template on a wiki to record their sources, notes, research process, and writing. We will create an encyclopedia with the entries.  Once students write the draft for their entry on the wiki, we will then open the wiki for collaborative, peer editing.  Students will work in groups to edit each other’s entries online working on specific, grammatical constructions for each student.  Students will be responsible for leaving feedback to each other in the discussion section of the wiki ( I made this change because…).  After the peer collaboration, each student will then compare their original version of the entry with the collaboratively edited entry and reflect on the differences and what the student learned from the experience.  Since the wiki is online, the students will not be writing solely for their teacher.  They will be writing for each other and for anyone else who discovers the wiki.  I cannot wait to get started on this piece!

The other teacher and I are collaborating on two blogs for novel studies.  One blog is for Basher-52.  The other is for Crossing the Wire. I have only just begun building the blogs and we still need to take some time to plan.  I have begun incorporporating RSS feeds from my del.icio.us account to create a pathfinder within the blogs for resources the students will use during the novel study.

Student Engagement, Visual Learning and Technology:  Can Interactive Whiteboards Help?
William D. Beeland, Jr.
Retrieved April 18, 2003, from the University of New Castle website: http://plato75.ncl.ac.uk/beeland.pdf

Whiteboards, student response devices, projectors, laptops, creation stations, digital cameras, fire wire…

Podcasting, blogging, authentic learning, project-based learning, social bookmarking, wikis, MUVEs like Second Life…

Everyday I can check my RSS reader and skim through the blog postings from my favorites to see the current news in education, library media, student learning, Web 2.0 and so much more.  The equipment and the tools mentioned above are the tip of the iceberg when dealing with 21st century learning and student engagement.  The final reading for the Engaged Learning class is an action research article on the effects on electronic whiteboard (EWB) use on the motivation and engagement of students in a middle school classroom.  Breeland emphasized three modalities: visual, tactile, and auditory learning in order to test the efficacy of electronic whiteboards in the classroom.  The report elucidates a positive response to EWB.  The consensus of the discussion focused on why wouldn’t there be a positive response?  Students today are engaged in learning through the same modalities as they always have been engaged.  The difference can be the tools, but the bottom line is the instructional pedagogy used in the classroom to engage the learners.  As we discussed in class, the tools will not “fix” a “broken” classroom.  21st century tools will enhance the already successful classroom. 

There is a dearth of studies concerning the efficacy of 21st century tools and Web 2.0 implementation in the classroom.  Correction: there is a dearth of academic, peer-reviewed studies.  There is bountiful information about 21st century learning all over the web.  As we begin using these tools in the classroom through a shift in pedagogy, we also have to change our professional development sources.  Through blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and podcasts we can have access to a plethora of information about Web 2.0, 21st century learning and the changing pedagogy. Will Richardson in his book Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms mentions how he has learned more in the few years he has been involved in the “Read/Write Web” than in his 20 previous years in education (Richardson, p. vii).  Dr. Scott McCleod discusses Scholarship 2.0 and the need for higher education to accept online publishing as a scholarly pursuit.  Not only must we engage our students in learning, but also engage our own learning through use of the same avenues to information as we expect of our students.

A perfect quote for the engaging learners class comes from a presentation by Lucy Gray.

Almost a year ago, Christian Long proposed a “Future of Learning Manifesto” for educators and students provoking some critical thoughts about what it is we should be doing in our schools and how do students learn. According to his blog post, the shortened version looks like this:

1.  “Playing Small Does Not Serve the World.”
2.  What Would Socrates Do?
3.  Nobody Cares if You Walked Up Hill Both Ways Barefoot in the Snow.
4.  Got Passion?  If Not, I’ll Tell You What To Care About. 
5.  My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart.  Otherwise, I’ll Stick with Google
6.  Look it Up or Die.
7.  Collaboration Ain’t About Holding Hands. It’s about Going Cool Places Fast.
8.  This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record.
9.  It Ain’t About the Technology.  It’s About Being Inside the Story.
10.  Nobody Knows the Answer.  Get Comfy with the Questions.

The School of the Future seems to be the embodiment of this manifesto.  Collaborative learning through a project-based learning curriculum related to real-world problems is truly a paradigm shift for the educators of that school.  Philadelphia has been struggling with restructuring and the Microsoft school is only one model being implemented.  The Science Leadership Academy, led by Chris Lehmann, is another model of technology integration for 21st century learning called School 2.0.  SLA also uses a collaborative approach using Open Source software and innovative teaching pedagogy.

How does this impact instruction in our schools?  During the discussion of the School of the Future we considered the viewpoints of different stakeholders in the community: business partners, taxpayers, administrators, teachers, students, and parents.  Many points were brought up concerning student motivation, equitable distribution, time/work committments, logistics of administering the program, etc.  While these items are important in the whole scheme of consideration of such a program, the main idea is that there is a paradigm shift in instuctional pedagogy when it comes to a 21st century classroom.  There has been discussion in the blogosphere that today’s student does not necessarily need to know all the facts.  Today’s student needs to know how to find the facts and be able to process the information in an efficient and effective way using higher order thinking skills such as analyzing, applying, evaluating, and creating (the upper levels of the “New Bloom” taxonomy).  Real-world project-based learning allows for higher level thinking of our students.  Being able to regurgitate facts is no longer an adequate measure of educational achievement.  Students need to know and be able to do the standards for 21st century learning.

Buffy Hamilton wrote about a wonderful collaborative tool she used with a teacher on an inquiry-based project: using del.icio.us to bookmark research resources for students as a pathfinder.

This week I also worked with a teacher on creating a del.icio.us pathfinder for a project on African societies’ influence on climate, land resources, and physical features. The classes will be using the pathfinder next week, so we will see how it goes. In my pathfinder, I not only tagged the resource with subject headings, but also annotated the links as to what the student can find in the resource and I added links to netTrekker, Grolier, and GALILEO into the del.icio.us tag I used to link directly to this collection of links.

The teacher created a WebQuest which I added to the del.icio.us links then she added the link to the del.icio.us pathfinder on her WebQuest.  I then added a link to my media center page.  Now the students have multiple points of entry to the information we feel would be an efficient use of their research time.