Modeling Blog Reflection 2

Directions

Take notes during the modeling lab session.
List, describe, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of technology use
List, describe, and discuss the strategies used for teaching and learning.

Response

Technology:
~Flash drives: Each student had his or her own flash drive where all work was suppose to be saved. As mentioned before, the flash drives were nice because all students were able to have a location to save their work but also a bit sketchy since the students were not practicing the correct way to remove the flashdrives from the computer. It is also the case that not all students were using the flash drives as their saving location. Perhaps providing the students more than 1 location to save their work is making things more complicated than they need to be. Also, I discovered this week that some students do not seem to understand how a flash drive works. I had two students approach me about the flash drive not working. After inspecting the situation, the green light of the flash drive was not lit. It seems like the students should know that the green light needs to be illuminated for the flash drive to function.
~Projector: The projector was used at the beginning of the lesson so the instructor could show the students an example of the check list. There did not appear to be any problems with the projector this time except that the image was not displayed on the provided white screen. As a result, there was a little bit of difficulty in seeing the projector image from some locations in the room. The projector was useful though in introducing some students to the checklist, reminding the rest of the students what had been happened during the previous session, and reinforcing the concept of the goals.
~Internet Explorer/Internet: Internet Explorer was used in many situations including accessing the check list, downloading sounds, and downloading pictures. This form of technology was necessary to provide the students with the wide array of options available from the Internet. The students would otherwise not have been able to gather sounds, distributing the check lists would have taken much longer (or required paper), and gathering pictures would have taken much longer and possibly required scanning. However, the use of the Internet also opened up the vast array of problems involving students misuse of the Internet. One of our "safe" pages of sounds had some inappropriate words that that student I was working with pointed out. I left my student alone to explore one of the sound pages and some how she ended up off of the page and I had to direct her back to the correct location. Having the students browse the Internet was a risky lesson but since there were so many adults present I feel the decision was acceptable. I believe most students used Internet Explorer though I see no benefit for using Internet Explorer over other web browsing software.
~Windows Media Player: The students played sound bits from the Internet opening most of them in Windows Media Player. It was nice for the students to have a program open where they could adjust the sound and replay the sound. I did not see problems with this technology except for the fact that it left one more program open and one more window to close.
~Microsoft Word: The students used Microsoft Word for various aspects of the activity. Some students used the Story Template in Word to help write their story while others accessed their checklist in Word. The story template was great because it gave students an outline to help them form a beginning, middle, and ending to their stories. However, it did drastically decrease the creative capabilities of some students and upset some students that we had provided this template. The checklist was an excellent idea because it provided the students a visual list of goals for the day. However, I am not convinced students are using the checklist as a tool. I think the adults might be pushing the students through the checklist without the students actually being confident that the necessary step is accomplished.
~Sound Recorder/Microphone - External Microphones hooked up to computers allowed students to record their narration using Sound Recorder. I believe the external microphones probably helped minimize background noises and possibly helped make students more excited about recording their stories. The problem with this technology is that the number of computers where students could record was limited. There was also initially a problem with whether Sound Recorder could record for more than 60 seconds at a time.

Teaching:
~Experts/Assistants: The instructor introduced the idea that students who finished early could become experts of that topic. She also mentioned to one student who was particularly helpful that they should discuss the student becoming an assistant. The students seemed excited about the idea of potentially becoming an expert or an assistant. Allowing students to become experts and assistants might actually help those few students learn better. It has been shown that students who help other students are actually gaining knowledge and understanding by having to explain the material. Perhaps having a few assistants or experts could help every student learn and help things rum smoother.
~Repetition: The instructor had students verbally repeat the necessary tasks to complete many times. I failed to count the number of times "story, pictures, sound" (and sometimes "recording") was repeated but it was more than the three times I would have attempted. The students did not seem to be annoyed by the repetition but instead seemed to be louder and participate more each time the list was covered. I was surprised that the students repeted the list each time because I'm not sure high school or college aged students would normally do that. I was also shocked because I have always heard that repeating something three times is enough but it seemed the instructor went far past saying the list three times. Perhaps with elementary aged children three is not enough.
~Special Buddies: The instructor assigned one student who was behind a special buddy adult to help him catch up. The special buddy was able to help the student get a story written and begin searching for sounds. This was a great idea since the student otherwise would have probably been causing problems and completely unproductive. It was also nice to provide this assistance to the student since in most cases one on one assitance is not available. However, at this point there was a small discrepancy regarding the appropriate language to use in an elementary school setting by both the instructor and the student. Hopefully this topic will be clarified at a later time.
~Work Stations: The instructor labled computers as either "Sound Station" or left blank. The blank computers were intended for those students who were working on their story or collection of pictures while the sound station station was meant for those students downloading sounds. Last, the computers in a separate location were meant for recording. The stations were meant to help the instructors focus on the station task where they were stationed along with helping minimize distractions. I like the idea of the stations but the implementation of the concept was not great due to the technology in the room. The computers were sporadically labled due to the capabilies of each computer. Furthermore, changing from one location to another takes longer for those students who are not familiar with quickly accessing the flash drives and some students had trouble finding open computers so could not move. I also saw students just forgetting to move without any adult enforcing the concept of the stations.

Notes:
In general, this day of activities went well. There were many possible situations where things could have gone horribly wrong but things held together because of the desire to finish from the students. The adults also seem to have a general idea of what is going on now which is helping the students. I have a slight fear that some students may not finish making the movie in the next few weeks. Some students need to understand that the movie will not be perfect. The perfect picture may not be found and the best story may not be written but that some pictures are needed and a story is necessary too even if there are flaws. I do not want to encourage students to produce work that they are not satisfied with but I do not want to see the students not complete even their story either. Is there a way to nicely hurry these students along?