Student Created Content

September 20, 2015
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iPads, Schoology, and BookCreator, Oh My!

Posted by | iPad, PYP, Schoology, Student Created Content, Technology | No Comments

Toward the end of last year my husband and I took the somewhat crazy step and bought iPads for my classroom… I know, I know… what? As a dear friend once told me, “I know what I want, and I want it now!”

Impatient much? Yes I am and just a tiny bit stubborn (I will deny I ever said it).

Four iPads, plus my older sons who was in the class made five. A very nice number for 10 students. This year however my class has increased to 14 so instead of one between two we have one iPad per table (3 or 4 students). It isn’t ideal but certainly better than nothing.

I also put my hand up to pilot Schoology eportfolios. As I said in a previous post this hasn’t been the joyous experience I was hoping it could be yet I am still glad I said it and we are powering on!

Having only four iPads makes Schoology an impractical vehicle for recording content straight in the platform. To record something in the app or through Safari would require students to login and out every time they want to use it. This might be achievable for older grades but for Grade 1 students this uses up too much precious learning time. So… to make this work we have had to make a little modification: instead of students posting directly into Schoology they will make their portfolio in BookCreator and then post it to Schoology at the end of the unit as a complete book. Here are the first three pages we have made cover, unit overview and author info, and our first double page of student work. Notice the little audio sign in the third image? BookCreator allows you to create and insert audio annotations right in the app.

      

This means that multiple students can create and curate content on the one device without logging in and out. It doesn’t have that ‘live learning broadcast‘ or direct feedback as you learn that a blog would have but issues of student protection are currently being discussed at our school so this is what we have. That said, Schoology portfolios is only in its first year and knowing Schoology, they will be making improvements before too long.

September 20, 2015
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Creating Math Tutorials

Posted by | Big6, iPad, Mathematics, Student Created Content, Super3, Technology | No Comments

One of the best ways to show you know how to do something is to teach that skill to another. In Grade 1 we like to record our learning and exhibit our understanding by making short video tutorials. In our classroom we have an iPad for each table (3-4 students) with Explain Everything installed. This amazing app is very versatile and can be used in Math and all across the curriculum. Students follow our research/process model called the Super3: Plan, Do, Review.

Plan
After learning and practicing this skill we come to a point of assessment of learning. I break the class into pairs and give them each a question. They know the strategies to answer the question and create a picture board showing each step.

Do
The first part of making their tutorial is creating the title and ending page. Student can do this digitally using DrawPad or Paper53, or with regular art materials and then photograph it.

With teacher support, students then recreate their plan in Explain Everything: combining pictures, narration, and live recorded gestures which in this case is writing.

We the export the video and include it in our digital portfolio. These videos can also be shared and commented on by others. In the 2015-16 year students will be sharing their tutorials with other students around the world and commenting on videos they have made.

Review
The last part of the process is review. Stduents have a generic review template that they are familiar with that is based on Peter Pappas’ Taxonomy of Reflection. The questions and terms have been modified for Grade 1 but the principles are the same.

Here is an example from last year:

August 22, 2015
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Student-created animal documentary

Posted by | Action, iPad, PYP, Student Created Content, Technology | No Comments

 “I don’t really like writing,” said one of my particularly uninhibited students towards the end of last year, “no one ever sees it… it doesn’t seem very important.” At the ripe old age of 6 this student constantly surprises me and today she really hit the nail of the head. We are constantly giving our students work and tasks that have a acutely limited audience and little real world significance. For our second last unit of 14-15 school year we made an iBook of student created documentaries on animals they were interested in an attempt to combat this early elementary apathy.

Students worked with me in pairs or independently on their documentary. The first assessment of the project was to draw a picture of their animal making sure to include as many details as they could. Then after a short group discussion the students searched for information to answer a short list of generic questions the class had agreed on. The first few questions required simple responses while as the last two were more open ended, allowing for differentiation according to student ability. Students search for information within books from our school Learning Commons (collated by our Teacher Librarian) and also from a few websites with age appropriate content curated on a Pinterest Board I put together.

Students wrote answers to the questions and this became the second assessment of the project. Student then participated in a teacher conference about their ‘script’ and how they would divide it up for each group member when necessary etc.

Students then search Creative Commons images from Flickr.com to illustrate their script. We used the Typic app to brand each image with the Creative Commons logo and link to the image on Flickr.com.
Even though this took longer than I would of liked – the discussion around academic honesty and digital integrity was fantastic.

It is a little late but it is now published on the iTunes store, for free. We hope you like it and if you would like to leave any comments we would be very excited to receive them.

April 27, 2015
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Academic Honesty and Creative Commons

Posted by | Big6, Inquiry, PD, Student Created Content, Super3 | No Comments

A few years ago in connection to a presentation Samuel was giving, we made a digital booklet of how to find media teachers/students can use without infringing copyright. As I have started working with my students to create media products this year I have wondered how this might look in a lower elementary classroom and what apps/sites can help students use other people’s work honestly.

Academic Honesty is a big deal in the IB. Most particularly in the DP program yet what are the lower grades if not a preparation for the higher? This presentation from the IB site covers the topic very well.
This week, the students and I have been finishing there 3 part summative assessment for their 5th UOI. It was a long term project that included researching their animal, creating an artwork of their animal, and combining all their work into an illustrated, narrated documentary using the iPad app Explain Everything.

We use the Super3 (modified Big6) Information Seeking Process (ISP) so I broke the assessment into three stages.

Plan: Define the task, research the animal starting with generic questions, and write the script.

Do: Record the documentary and find pictures (Creative Commons images from Flickr).

Review: Reflect on the experience of making the documentary.

Here is one example, stored on Dropbox

March 15, 2015
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What do you already know?

Posted by | PYP, Sharing the Planet, Student Created Content | No Comments

At the beginning of a unit we pre-assess students of content knowledge. In our new unit based on the transdisciplinary theme of “Sharing the Planet”, I got the students to watch this short clip of many different animals in their natural habitats. The student and I created a very rough mind map of what they already know, or at least think they already know, and what they would like to know. As time became short this second half of the discussion will have to wait for tomorrow but I was actually really impressed with their poor knowledge of the topic. Here is our very rough mind map.

December 21, 2013
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Happy Prince iBook

Posted by | Student Created Content, Wrightstuff Interactive | No Comments

The next three post are really one great long single post so here is the first instalment: the back story…

Last year we worked with students at the International Grammar School to create a iBook. The students were apart of an extension group identified as gifted in music composition that Samuel, as Composer in Residence, was working with. He worked with the student to write music inspired by Oscar Wilde’s story of the Happy Prince. I created the images, narrated the story and then pulled it all together into an iBook. Samuel then published to iTunes.

We were overwhelmed by the response of parents and others that we though, “maybe there is something in this…”

November 02, 2013
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Happy Prince iBook

Posted by | iBooks, Projects, Student Created Content | No Comments

Reading through this blog I realise there isn’t anything written about the project that inspired us to get into this work – The Happy Prince Project.

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Two years ago we worked with students at the International Grammar School to create a iBook. The students were apart of an extension group identified as gifted in music composition that Samuel, as Composer in Residence, was working with. He worked with the student to write music inspired by Oscar Wilde’s story of the Happy Prince. I created the images, narrated the story and then pulled it all together into an iBook. Samuel then published to iTunes.

There were a few hiccups along the way – problems with font and uploading mainly – but these only helped us refine our process of consultation. I sentimentally love this book and how I was shown through it a passion I didn’t know I had.

September 26, 2013
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Classroom Bookshelf

Posted by | Projects, Student Created Content, Web App | No Comments

One aspect of school work I remember as a child is that it was only done so that the teacher could mark it. Mum and Dad would see my work when it was sent home at the end of the week and maybe Grandma and Pa would look at it when they visited but that was it. It was collected in a crumpled up cardboard folder for a very small audience. Read More

February 14, 2013
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Podcasting with Year 2

Posted by | Student Created Content | No Comments

For my second last practical placement I was very blessed to work with a veteran teacher of 30 years. Totally comfortable in her own skin she gave me relative free reign over a science and technology unit on Endangered Animals.

We read books together and investigated the term ‘endangered’. Each child then chose an endangered animal and found out a bit about them. Students used this information to create a short script which they then recorded as a podcast. This being my first project integrating technology there are things I would do differently next time but the students where really happy with their work and were able to share it with their parents through the class blog I also set up.

This project is also on our Wrightstuff Interactive website.

Click here to hear a sample podcast, see the student work sheet and assessment rubric over at issue.com The assessment was for the script not the podcast.