Barbie's Weblog

Using Blogs and Wikis to Encourage Collaboration and Foster Critical Thinking Skills

            Weblogs and wikis are tools of the Read/Write web that both students and teachers can use to publish what they are learning in the classroom, to collaborate with other students and/or classes, and to engage in student-centered learning.  Blogs enable students to create a web site that allows online conversations around a given topic without learning HTML coding.  They generally allow individuals reading the blog to post their comments or reactions to the site.  Wikis are more open than blogs and encourage collaboration because they are web sites that anyone can edit at any time.  However, teachers can if desired password-protect wiki sites so that only certain individuals can access them for editing purposes.  These new tools enable students to share their writing or learning experiences with not just the teacher but with authentic worldwide audiences.  Therefore, students are more motivated and want to produce the best quality work possible.

            In the article, ?The Educator?s Guide to the Read/Write Web,? the author, Will Richardson, mentions several key strategies being used at the high school where he teaches to use these tools in the classroom.  At his own school, students have used blogs to communicate with students from Poland when learning about the Holocaust, to collaborate with the authors of novels they are reading, and to contact mentors in journalism classes.  These strategies use blogs for more than what most students are accustomed to, which is as a personal journal.  These strategies require them to use their critical thinking, reading and writing skills.  Therefore, when using blogs with my own students I want to try to use them in new and creative ways that encourage higher-level thinking and take full advantage of the possibilities available with this resource.  I also hope to brainstorm possible uses of blogs and wikis with co-workers and students so that we can use these tools in a variety of ways that are interesting to the students, while being applicable to what they are learning.  The author also mentions that these tools can be used for collaboration between students either within the classroom or between classes located around the world.  Therefore, I would like to use these tools to assist my students in interacting and collaborating with students from francophone countries to learn about cultural differences and similarities and francophone diversity in general. 

            In my classroom, I can envision the use of these tools to accomplish a variety of my French goals and objectives.  In all levels of French, I have students write journals using structures and vocabulary that they have learned on a regular basis.  Instead of having my students turn in journals to me, I could have them use blogs instead.  Students would be required to blog about a certain topic and then post it for the rest of their classmates to read.  Each student would then be required to post a comment or to react to a certain number of blogs written by their classmates.  As a result, students would be interacting with one another using the French language rather than just writing something for the teacher to read.  We could also take this strategy one step further by having students from my classroom blog about life in their own town and country in French for another classroom in a francophone country to read.  They could also include scanned photos to further illustrate life in their town and country.  The students from abroad could then respond in either French or English to the students blogs and then share information from their own countries. 

            Wikis would be a wonderful tool that would enable students to collaborate and write stories as a class.  Each student would be assigned a certain number of lines to contribute within a certain window of time.  Each student would have to practice their reading skills, because they would have to read and comprehend what the previous students wrote, their editing skills because they would be required to edit the work of the previous entry, and their writing skills because they would have to write a new entry.  As a teacher, I would be able to look at the history of the story and see how students edited the work of their peers so I could hold them accountable for completing this step.  In the end, we would have a story that we have published as a class for other French speakers to read.  Furthermore, I could possibly contact students learning French at the elementary level and collaborate with a teacher for their students to read the story and possibly draw pictures to illustrate their understanding to be sent back to my students or to be scanned in and included online with the storybook.  As a result, my students would be sharing their knowledge and teaching others, which would make this project more motivating and exciting for them.  

Posted at 02:08PM Nov 14, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[0]

Using WebQuests to Engage Students in the French Classroom

            A WebQuest according to the article, ?Five Rules for a Great WebQuest,? is ?an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web.?  WebQuests when well written can be an excellent tool for both teachers and students because they provide structure and make the volume of information on the web much more manageable.  With WebQuests, students are researching predetermined sites and resources given rather than just aimlessly searching and feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of information available on the Internet.  WebQuests generally include an introduction, which presents the students with a real-world problem, a task, which explains what students have to do, resources, which link to websites and worksheets students will need to reference to accomplish their task, the process, which lists the steps that students must follow to complete the task, evaluation, which explains how students will be graded, and a conclusion stating what students should have learned and accomplished by the end of the entire process.  In addition, WebQuests engage students in higher-order thinking by asking them to analyze synthesize and evaluate the information presented and then having them produce a real-world product that illustrates their understanding of this information. 

            The author of this article, Bernie Dodge, presents five guiding principles that one must consider when choosing or creating a WebQuest for their students.  He first states that teachers must ?find great sites? that are interesting to our students, current and accurate.  Therefore, when creating a WebQuest for my own students, I plan on identifying sites and archives that are unique and provide a variety of information from which students can draw.  Next, he states that teachers must, ?orchestrate their learners and resources.?  Therefore, I will make sure that all students have something to do at all times so that there is no down time in the classroom.    In addition, when writing the process, I will make sure that each student has a unique role that requires students to collaborate as a group in order to be successful.  Afterwards, he mentions that teachers need to ?challenge their learners to think.?  To accomplish this task, I will assign my students a real-world problem and assign them a task that requires them to use their higher-order thinking skills.  Finally, he recommends that teachers, ?use the medium,? and ?scaffold high expectations.?  To accomplish this task, I will take advantage of the multimedia environment that the web offers by including audio, video, and images.  Finally, I will model and provide the necessary resources to help students achieve higher expectations by including tips, guides and charts that illustrate how students are to approach various tasks.

            I see several applications of WebQuests and I intend on using both WebQuests currently available on the web and designing my own WebQuests with my French students in the future.  In my French II classroom, I teach my students house and apartment vocabulary as a part of the curriculum and a WebQuest would make this topic more interesting and give it a real-world context.  As a part of this WebQuest, I would assign students to groups to research apartments in Paris, France online.  I would give students a list of sites in French to access where they could study and learn what apartments are like in France including their location, price, size, what furniture/appliances are included, colors, etc.  Students would be given the real-world task of locating an apartment, designing the interior and marketing it to prospective clients.  Each student would be given a different role as well such as designer, apartment manager and marketer.  Each of these roles would require students to complete different tasks needed to accomplish the end product, which would be either a brochure or poster.  In addition, students would be required to interview other agencies about their apartments and to respond to interviews from prospective clients about their own apartment.  In the end, students would have to choose the apartment that is best fit for them based upon all of the information provided and justify their choice to their classmates and the teacher.

            I could also see using WebQuests in my classroom to teach students about all of the major sites and monuments in Paris.  In this type of WebQuest, students would pretend that they are a travel agency creating an all-inclusive vacation package for a family on a given budget.  Students would have to research transportation costs and times for the subway, plane and train.  They would also have to select the best sites to visit and research their cost and location.  Students would also have to consider including a variety of things to do since it is a family vacation.  In the end, students could once again create a brochure and engage in interviews with various agencies about their packages. 

Posted at 02:43PM Nov 03, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[0]

Using Hyperstudio Design Projects to Increase Higher Order Thinking Skills

            Hypermedia design projects are excellent tools that engage students in critical thinking by promoting higher levels on Bloom?s Taxonomy such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation.  When students author their own hypermedia documents and use them to teach their classmates, they display increased motivation and engagement because they are learning in a constructionist environment rather than in a traditional lecture-oriented format.  With this tool, students progress through four different cognitive phases including planning, transforming, evaluating and revising, which reflect their personal understanding of the problem or question presented.  While planning, students are asking questions and constructing timelines.  During the transforming stage, students are researching, taking notes, and deciding how to organize their information in a way that clearly communicates their message to the target audience. Students must design several cards on the computer that present their interpretation of the information with text, graphic, sound bites, video clips or through other means and then connect these cards using links so that the user can navigate smoothly throughout the document.  While evaluating, students are examining the design of their project and finally, they move to the revising stage in which they obtain feedback from their teachers and peers so they can alter their project as needed to give more clarity to the information.

            In the article, ?The Evolution of Critical Standards As Students Design Hypermedia Documents,? the authors, Erickson and Lehrer, present several important points that teachers need to consider when guiding their students in the process of hypermedia design.  First, they address the need for teachers to put forethought and planning into the fostering of students critical standards, which they define as ?consensual patterns of student beliefs.?  The teachers in their research needed to provide students with assistance to help improve their standards for questioning during interviews and questionnaires.  Therefore, when teaching my own students I plan on asking them to share their questions in advance and to discuss as a class why their questions were good or not.  The students could then create their own standards for the types of questions they will ask when doing their research.  Another key finding by researchers was the need for skill and activity templates to provide students with appropriate modeling and practice for each stage of their project design.  For example, teachers in the study designed a ?question posing template? that illustrated the steps students needed to take when creating and selecting appropriate questions.  By breaking this task into several subskills, it made the process clearer and more manageable for students.  Finally, the authors discussed the importance of teachers guiding whole-group discussions of the students? work.  During this time students critiqued their classmates? work and openly discussed both the design and questioning aspects of their projects.  This time allowed students to discover the importance of message clarity and audience consideration when designing their projects.  Therefore, when working with my own students I intend on creating templates in advance to provide them with the necessary structure while giving them independence and on setting aside sufficient time during the entire process for students to discuss and revise their projects.

            I see several possible applications of hypermedia design within my own French classroom.  During French I, students complete a family unit and learn vocabulary related to this topic.  Normally, I have students create a family tree poster and do an oral presentation in front of the class.  However, this project could be altered so that students are presenting themselves and their family members and interests using a hyperstudio stack instead of a poster.  This project could be used to introduce first-year students to the hyperstudio design process. 

In a second project, students could work in groups on researching a specific francophone country or culture.  During this project, students could engage in a discussion about which questions they should research and what type of information would be interesting about this culture to their classmates.  Students could incorporate sound bites with authentic music and speakers from the chosen country, which students could use to launch discussion questions comparing and contrasting American and French cultures.  Students could also import graphics depicting traditional dress and foods, which could assist in diffusing various stereotypes.  In addition, students could interview their classmates or other students to discover their general impressions about various French cultures, which they could then use to guide their research.  In the end, their presentations could be used not only to teach their classmates, but could be displayed during National French Week at a display table for students? to interact with and learn from on a school-wide level. 

Students in upper-level French classes learn extensively about French history and typically read the novel, Le Petit Prince.  To make the novel more manageable, students could be assigned different chapters to teach the class.  Each group could be asked to create a tutorial hypermedia stack that students could access as a review of the novel.  In the end, all of the stacks could be linked together into one large document that the class could use as a study tool for tests and exams.  Students could also do the same type of project for different periods of French history such as the French Revolution.  Each team could research one aspect of this period of history, which could be combined to create a larger document giving a detailed overview of this entire period.

Posted at 06:34PM Oct 22, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[0]

Concept Mapping in the Second Language Classroom

            Concept mapping is an excellent educational tool that can be used by students to illustrate their understanding of the relationships between concepts they are learning in any given subject area.  With concept mapping, students are creating a visual representation of what they are learning and the depth of their understanding.  Various programs such as Inspiration, PiCoMap, and MindMapper are available to teachers and students to create these maps on both desktops and handheld computers.  Ultimately, as stated by Jonassen in the article, ?Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking,? concept mapping ?enables learners to interrelate the ideas that they are studying in multidimensional networks of concepts, to label the relationships between those concepts, and to describe the nature of relationships between all of the ideas in the network.?  In the article, ?Leading and Learning with Technology,? by Royer the software application PiCoMap is discussed and analyzed.  This program, which is available as a free software application on the Internet, enables students to create concepts maps and manipulate them on handhelds rather than traditional desktop computers.

            Jeff, the teacher in the article illustrated several key points when concept mapping with students.  He began his lessons by modeling concept mapping by putting the beginning of a map on the board for students to copy.  Later, he graduated to providing students with a list of key concepts and the beginning of a map which students used to create their own maps.  As a result, I plan on completing a concept map on the overhead with my students as a class so they understand how to approach the entire process and can feel successful.  I feel that this step will give students the guidance they need before they create their own maps. 

            Second, Jeff found that students benefited from sharing their maps in small groups or during whole-class discussions and that students should revise their maps to illustrate their improved understanding of the relationships between concepts.  Therefore, when concept mapping with my own students, I plan to require students to discuss their maps and justify the choices they made in linking concepts with proposition statements.  I believe that this step will lead to interactive engagement amongst my students and a deeper understanding than I could provide by simply telling them whether they are right or wrong and moving forward with the next topic.

            In my French classroom, I see several possible applications of this software.  Many of my students find reading in the target language to be challenging and concept mapping could be a tool to help them identify and understand the main ideas.  By giving students a list of concepts to map, students will know where to focus their attention while reading.  For example, my upper-level students often have to read short stories or excerpts from literature.  With concept mapping, students would be able to better visualize the relationships between characters and main events.  Furthermore, all students have to read short descriptions about various cultures and concept mapping would help them to understand the relationships between francophone cultures and their customs, food, language, etc.  To make concept mapping a more collaborative project, students could be assigned different countries and cultures in small groups.  Each student could then focus on concept mapping certain elements of their assigned country and culture.  Students could then use their handhelds and PiCoMap software to beam their files to their group members to read and revise.  Students could then combine their maps and present their overall concept map to the class and use it as a visual aid during a presentation on their country and culture.  These concept maps could then be displayed around the room as a reference of what students have learned.  In addition, as a final step, the students could engage in a class discussion and create one large map examining the relationships between all of the cultures and countries studied.

            Concept mapping would also be useful in helping students to break down and see relationships between various grammar concepts in the French language.  Mapping would be a helpful assignment towards the end of the semester or for students to complete throughout the semester to review and illustrate all of the structures they have learned and give them a deeper understanding of how they are dependent upon and affect one another when speaking and writing within the language.

Posted at 12:10PM Oct 12, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[0]

Using Tablet PCs in the Second Language Classroom

            Tablet PCs are a type of laptop that can be loaded both with the same software programs as regular laptops and with a more specialized type of software known as ink-enabled applications.  Many of these more specialized programs can be downloaded for free from Microsoft and vary by both grade and subject area.  A key difference between Tablet PCs and traditional laptops is that the tablets can be manipulated with a stylus or pen input device directly on the screen.  The uniquely hinged screen can also be adjusted so that it is held like a clipboard on which notations can be made by both students and teachers. 

            In the Godsall article, several ink-enabled applications are mentioned and their use in the classroom is discussed.  For example, the author mentions Windows Journal, which allows teachers to write directly on documents, and One Note, which gives teachers the ability to organize and reuse their notes.  This knowledge of what types of applications are available to be downloaded from Microsoft is critical to integrating this type of technology into the classroom as fully a possible.  Instead of merely using Tablet PCs for note taking, students and teachers can take advantage of a wide range of opportunities where the Tablet PC will enhance student learning. 

Teachers using the Tablet PC also mentioned several key findings.  One middle school teacher discovered that Tablet PCs enabled her to better keep her students? attention because she could highlight or emphasize what she was discussing and where students needed to focus their attention.  Therefore, when I apply Tablet PCs to my own teaching, I plan to use this function during my instruction.  Knowing that many of my students are visual learners who struggle with auditory notes and learning make me realize that this application will most likely lead to an increase in student achievement with this group of learners and is therefore worth pursuing.

Finally, the article mentions that tablet users at one school met and discussed different strategies for using tablets in their classroom.  I feel that this step of teacher collaboration and discussion is the most critical element to remember when using this technology because it will lead to greater and deeper integration rather than individuals merely ?using? the item.  As a result, I would want to set aside time during our monthly department meetings during which we collaborate on lesson planning to brainstorm and share possible uses of Tablet PCs within the second language classroom.

When considering how I would apply this platform to my own teaching, I was interested in how French teachers in the article used Tablet PCs to complement students? writing assignments.  In my own classroom, I currently require my level 3 and level 4 students to complete weekly writing journals in a composition notebook.  However, I now see how I could modify my instruction with tablets to make my feedback clearer and my students? writing more personalized.  With tablets, I can access my students? work, correct it using the stylus pen and then return it electronically.  With this system, students would not be wasting paper or losing their work.  In addition, students would be able to revise their own work without the frustration of rewriting it.  They would be able to simply resubmit their work to me electronically.

I would further have students use their tablets to engage in peer editing.  With tablets, students could save their work electronically under their individual accounts in the shared folder at the school.  Afterwards, classmates could access the original document and then make comments and corrections with the stylus pen and then save the document under a new name for the writer to review and consider.  The article also makes a wonderful suggestion when if mentions the possibility of students using tablets to individualize their assignments and express themselves creatively with photos, fonts, music, etc.  This extra step would allow students to personalize their written work and would give their journals an added dimension.

I can also see many possibilities available to my students on an interdisciplinary level.  For example, the article mentions a graphic arts teacher that was able to show students new drawing techniques with the stylus pen and Adobe Photoshop.  With my own students, I would like to collaborate with the graphic arts teacher so that my French 2 students could use the Tablet PC to design their own apartment or home when we are learning the relevant vocabulary.  I currently have students conduct a Webquest when we learn this unit, but the design element with the stylus pen would enhance the current project and make it more real world to my students.

Posted at 04:29PM Sep 25, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[0]

Using GPS Units in the French Classroom

            Geocaching is a type of treasure hunt for a cache that can be found in one of more than 180 countries.  To successfully complete their mission, students must locate a cache, which is a container filled with an assortment of small items or trinkets using a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit.  Students must enter the longitude and latitude coordinates of the cache that they want to find into their GPS unit and with the aid of a series of clues requiring problem-solving and higher-order thinking skills determine the cache?s location or the next set of coordinates depending on the type of cache being located.  With geocaching, there are several different types of classroom applications including multi-site caches, which include a series of clues or problems that lead students through a series of coordinates, interdisciplinary caches, locationless caching, which does not require a GPS and the use of Travel Bugs.

            Teachers in the Lary article mentioned that they used several initial lessons that incorporated higher-order thinking skills and provided students with training on how to use the GPS before the students actually worked on their first geocaching activity.  As a result, the entire series of lessons seemed to run very smoothly and students were very successful and excited about the entire unit in the end.  Therefore, with my own students I want to make sure to provide them with the appropriate training so they will understand how to use the equipment rather than rushing through this step as often do as teachers to ?save? time since we feel pressured by our curriculum and tight timelines.  However, appropriate instruction will most likely save time in the end since students will need less teacher guidance when locating their cache.  I also believe that asking students to brainstorm uses of the GPS as one teacher did in the article is a great suggestion and plan on asking my students to do the same thing.  I will most likely discover that my students have many ideas on applications of the GPS in our classroom that I have not even considered.  Teachers in the Lary article also mention the possibilities available to teachers who do not own a GPS with a variation called locationless caching.  One instructional technology specialist had students basically create their own virtual museum on Native American history by creating a cache in search of information on this topic.  I found this use of GPS technology to be very helpful because this variation is one that I could use with my students almost immediately without purchasing any software or hardware.  This variation will be very useful since there are several possible applications to my French classroom.

            In this article, I was very interested in the possibilities available to students with the various types of caches.  In one of the examples, the students were grouped into teams and given hints on where to find each of a set of three caches.  I would like to do something similar with my students except have the clues to their scavenger hunt written in French.  I feel that a scavenger hunt would be an excellent compliment to when I teach location words and school vocabulary to my students.  Instead of students simply learning this list of vocabulary words by more traditional means, I think that it would be interesting if they had to complete a scavenger hunt around the school campus in order to locate and identify hidden caches of school items.  As a further step, I would like to have my students actually create the scavenger hunt themselves in teams and write their own clues, which they in turn give to another team to complete.  With this step added, students are taking more ownership in the lesson and it becomes even more student-centered. 

I also found the Travel Bugs application to be of particular interest.  The article suggested using them more at the elementary level.  However, I feel that this form of geocaching would fit very well into my second language classroom.  Since it is difficult for many of my students to travel abroad, I feel that having a Travel Bug would be an excellent way for all of my students to learn about another country and culture and to practice their writing skills.  In the past, my students have communicated with other classes and students and abroad using e-pals.  However, Travel Bugs would provide a new and innovative approach to this exchange.  With this application, I would assign each student in the class a day to take the travel bug to somewhere in our community and to take a photo with the travel bug.  This student would be responsible for describing this location or locations in French to the students in France or another francophone country.  When they were done, I would have students log his movements and journey here in French and to post the pictures of his travels.  Then, I would have my students release the Travel Bug into a cache in a francophone country and have my students request photos of sites they want to see and things they want to learn about during their Travel Bug?s journey.  In the end, students would have a much interactive way of learning about the French language and culture and they would have more control over what they were learning and a stronger motivation to communicate in the target language.  

Posted at 10:08PM Sep 22, 2006 by bdbook in General  |  Comments[1]