Spreadsheet: HERE.
Despite being very large, my interactivity group authentically collaborated as much as possible. Girard and Lizz set up a Google spreadsheet and contacted the rest of us with it promptly. We replied back to their emails with the address we employed when first creating our blogs. From then on, it was a matter of adding appropriate info to the spreadsheet. What I especially enjoyed about the process was, I could see changes my group members made as they were making them, meaning I had that much more insight into their thought processes without being face to face with them. Meeting in that way was troublesome because we had so many members with so many varying schedules, which made the group spreadsheet's features that much better. I believe everyone worked in a timely manner and put thought into their technologies. I operated by arranging my technologies according to the stages of
pedagogical development and it seems everyone else did, too. For each
stage, about two to three technologies were added (i.e. EBSCO Host + JSTOR for content management, Google docs for collaboration).
The list we've created will, I have no doubt whatsoever, be a wonderful tool for my future student teaching, fieldwork and classroom experiences. Not only did I list technologies that helped me shape my life, I have concurrent additions by peers, so I can see what they consider important when teaching in an English classroom. For example, a technology I listed that I don't think anyone else would have added is the website Fictionpress. It's a gathering of amateur writers and poets who give one another feedback and glean from that feedback ameliorated skills. This interaction could be an innovative way to increase students' love of writing; it certainly had that effect on me. On the other hand, many of my group-mates had technologies I didn't think of. Mike Cadmus mentioned digital storytelling. Where Fictionpress is a traditional means of narrating and expressing ideas, digital storytelling creatively endorses multiple-modalities, something which was discussed in a digital rhetoric class I took last semester. Students are more likely to be riveted if they are allowed to write a story, make a movie, create an online presentation, or anything along those lines, rather than simply composing an essay. I will definitely be saving a copy of our list for further use in future lessons.
Sarin,
ReplyDeleteIt was great that your group was still able to work well and collaborate despite the conflicting time schedules. The benefit of working with others on this assignment was to see what others thought would be important technologies to include in the classroom. Having diverse opinions always opens up our minds and we start considering other possibilities that we may not have initially seen. Also, having done this on GoogleDocs, we were able to explore and teach ourselves how to arrange the spreadsheet.
I have personally never heard of Fictionpress, but I can understand why you would think this site is very beneficial to your students. One day you will be able to introduce it to your class and then, I'm sure, it will be a success.
Thank you very much, Ariel. I really did find the assignment so beneficial and will keep the list we've created for future reference. FictionPress and creative writing in general can be used to inspire students to change their set perspectives. A young man writing in the point of view of, for example, a mother of three, will learn wonderful things about himself from surprising identification with a character he may not otherwise think about. I say this as a creative/fiction writing minor. It has helped to shape my view of the world and I hope I can do something similar for my students. I certainly can't wait to try.
DeleteSarin, I am glad to see that you are gathering resources for use in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteI agree that the assignment was a great way to collaborate with peers and the flexibility of Google Spreadsheets allowed my group to meet as well despite our schedules. I really enjoyed being able to see my group members add their information in real time. It was truly effective and was a much better method than emailing back and forth a document because of the tracking tools. Like you, I am really excited to incorporate the technology tools in my classroom. It was interesting to see how different group members were able to find such a wide range of tools for the English classroom. I think writing in the classroom can be reinvented if we as teachers are able to incorporate their internet interests.
ReplyDeleteI think the lists we've all compiled will be so useful to us in the future. So many of my teammates' suggestions surprised me because of how innovative they are and I hope I've helped them in the same way. I also wish I had the time to have met with them. That would only have made this experience that much better, but alas, most of our schedules clashed. I'm still glad that we could do so much despite this.
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