Teaching with IT

Category: ICT Integration

  • Piktochart Y5 Government Infographics

    The project

    Instead of just doing a prezi.com presentation or a presentation in general I thought it would be a good idea to have the students create infographics about governments. Their unit focused on the different forms of government (democracy, monarchy, etc.). At first when we I met with the teachers to propose this project we had decided the students would just do a simple infographic that would describe on type of government. The students would have worked in pairs and found out statistical information about their selected form of government.

    After the first few weeks we decided to take the project in another direction. We talked about their summative assessment for the unit and their third line of inquiry (what is life like in each form of government). We decided that the students should research statistics that related to standard of living in two countries that had different forms of governments. The would look at the following statistics: Population (male/female), Life expectancy (total/male/female), Average years in school (total/male/female), Unemployment (total/male/female), Labor force by occupation, Population below the poverty line, Internet users and Mobile Telephones. They would then have to compare the two countries in their infographics.

    The process

    • I did an introductory lesson on Infographics and gave the students and opportunity to explore the piktochart.com website.
    • We gave the students specific information to search for and directed them to three websites where they could find the information:
      • The CIA World Handbook,
      • The UN Database
      • Countrymaster.com.
    • We discussed the expectations with the students for the visual presentations.
      • They needed represent their data in a clear and understandable way
      • They needed to keep the images and graphics on topic.
      • They needed to cite their sources
    • When the students had finished collecting their information they began inserting the information into their infographic.
    • When the students finished they needed to download their infographic and email it to all the teachers involved and post it to their blogs.

    Examples of student work

    Assessment

    To assess we are using observational notes and a rubric.

    Reflection

    I really enjoyed this project. The students seemed to enjoy it as well, the process of creating the infographics. I liked how the students were really enthusiastic about their work. When you can create that enthusiasm in the students it is always a great satisfaction. If I would do this project again I would make sure to spend more time working with the students on how to organize and present their information. I would also like to give them time to reflect on their findings. I would ask them which country’s system was better for the people who lived there and to explain why using the data in the infographic as a reference.

  • Any Place, Any device, Any time

    Last weekend I attended the Google Apps for Education European Summit in Prague. It was definitely an eye opening experience. Even though I feel that I do a good job of integrating ICT into the lessons all over my school, It was nice to see some new and innovating ideas floating around. Obviously they all centered around using Google Apps in schools, which in a way was refreshing to see how many different ways different schools are using them. There were educators from all European countries except Norway, and many other parts of the world; coordinators, teachers and admin, it was just a very eclectic group of individuals with a common goal. Will Florance, the head of Enterprise EDU for Google EMEA, put it best when he said their focus was “making learning magical” to all students.
    One of the concepts that I liked the most was the fact that, even though they were allowing us to play with chrome books during the event, they were not trying to tell us that we had to buy their products. Their platform was “Any Place, Any device, Any time”. I really feel that that is where the future is heading. You cannot expect schools, especially smaller ones like mine, to ever be able to buy every student a tablet or an portable computer. Nor can you expect the families to purchase a specific device because a school told them to.
    The fact that you can create, edit and do almost anything with Google Apps on almost any computer or tablet would allow for this to happen.
    Now, don’t get me wrong, Google Apps work better and more fluidly on an Android device or a Chromebook. Just a few days after the event one of the presenters tweeted the she was “giving up her iPhone to get more out of Google Apps on an Android device”. That also doesn’t mean that it is a mediocre product on iOS or other devices. In my opinion there would be an advantage in keeping the iPhone and maybe getting an Android tablet. Which is what I may do down the line.

  • SYSK Podcasts in Y4

    The project

    After following the Stuff You Should Know podcast for years I thought it would be  a good idea of having the students listen to a few podcasts and then create their own. They followed a similar model to that used by Josh and Chuck. The main difference was that our students worked individually and not in pairs. Each student had to select and research an article on the howstuffworks.com website. They then had to condense what they learned into an informative 2-3 minute podcast. This was good practice for the students to learn how to put their research into their own words. I had set up the structure of the podcast for the students to follow in a shared Google Document where the students would collect their research and write their podcasts.

    The process

    • Introduce Podcasts
    • Select a topic or article on the howstuffworks.com website
    • Read the article, taking notes of important information and facts
    • Organize the information in their own words
    • Record their podcasts
    • Edit the podcasts

    Introduce Podcasts

    Played a few clips from some of my favorite SYSK podcasts, and some other podcasts. Talk about the general organization of a podcast and show them the layout they will be using for this project. Let the students know that they would be creating something similar in our class.

    Select topic or article

    The students will have half of a class period to research the howstuffworks.com website to read through the articles and select an idea or article. They were asked to select a topic that really interested them and not just to pick the first one they read.

    Read the article while taking notes

    The students needed to read their selected articles trying to find the important facts and ideas that were present in the articles. This is something that I really had to keep an eye on to make sure that the students were not just copying what they were reading.

    Organize the information in their own words

    The students will then look over their notes and start to organize the information into the Podcast layout that they were given.

    Record their podcasts

    The students used GarageBand to record their podcasts.

    Editing and uploading podcasts

    Due to the lack of time to complete this project I edited the students podcasts (just adding a jingle and cutting out the outtakes). After they were finished I uploaded them to Soundcloud.com so the students could embed them into their digital portfolios.

    Example of student work

    [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48693350″ iframe=”true” /]

    Assessment

    I used a checklist to make sure the students met all of the criteria for their podcast (time, information, own words, etc.).

    Reflection

    I definitely would do this project again with the students next year. I would change only the timing of the project. It took to long just trying to complete the project during the one hour a week dedicated to ICT lab time in our school.

  • Magnetic Poetry

    A colleague of mine bought a magnetic word kit this past weekend. The play area of their website would be great for group work and would be a cool tool to use with the Promethean boards. You could have the students work together to make poems, write sentences etc.
    The online sets have words separated by categories: Artist, Genius, Poet, Office and Romance.
    Play with magnetic poetry
    Visit the site an make an original poem. http://play.magpogames.com/
    They even have word kits in other languages which would be great for second language learners.

  • Storybird.com

    What is it?

    I came across this website while planning for a unit on stories and story writing. This web 2.0 website allows you to create illustrated books online.  After you sign up (they offer a separate sign up for children with a parent/teacher email address) you can create your story by either selecting an artist or theme. There is a great selection of artist work, varying greatly in styles.

    How did I use it in class?

    I used this website with a Year 2 class. They were looking at stories that have a beginning, middle, and end. I had asked them to create a Storybird that told a story in three pages.  They first selected an artist that they liked. Then they selected the artwork, they wanted to use for the beginning, middle and end of the story. They wrote their story using were encouraged to search for an artist that inspired them to be able to create their stories.

    Examples of student work:

    Here are some examples of the stories that they wrote.

    ALICE AND THE POIZENT STROBERY! on Storybird

     

    THE MONSTER OF THE CARS on Storybird

    Lilli little bunny and the party on Storybird

    Final Thoughts

    In the end this was definitely a successful project. The students really enjoyed this software and many created their own accounts at home. They were truly inspired by the artwork that was available and after they finished their first stories, and had learned how the website works. They could not wait to create another story. Many students were so excited they created their own accounts at home and couldn’t wait to have me read them. Which, in the end, is probably the best sign of success of any project.
    My main concern with the usage of this web 2.0 site in schools is that i does not allow you to print your students work. They say they will have the possibility to print the published stories as bound books. Which I am sure would be a great final product, but it may not be the best option for a large number of students books. To print the books I used print screen then put the images together as a pdf file for each of the students.

  • Online Stories Websites

    There are quite a few websites that are great for online stories. These can be used at a  circle reading time if you have an interactive board.

    http://www.storylineonline.net/

    This is my favorite website with screen actors reading children’s book aloud online. There is a nice selection of stories for all ages and some really good titles. (22 stories in total + PDF activities to go with each story and some information about the famous reader)

    http://www.speakaboos.com/

    This is another good website with a variety of stories ranging from fables to folktales. Each story plays a video as a famous person reads the story aloud (the reader is announced at the beginning of the story). You can record your own stories and get the class to participate in making a read aloud too! (Book Week Idea!)

    http://storynory.com/

    This is a handy website since it is also linked to iTunes and you can have the stories automatically download to your iPods or mp3 players. These are only audio stories, but there are 31 stories in total and more are added every once in awhile. The reader “Natasha” has a very clear voice and reads at a good listening speed.  The stories range from famous poems, classic authors, junior stories to educational stories.