Over the past several weeks we’ve been asked to use our fellow cohort members as critical friends. I’ve found that my peers have been very helpful in my journey to create a 90 second video for the home page of the Learning Innovation Lab.
Input from people striving for the same goal and using similar technology is helpful and more enjoyable than doing it on my own. Feedback from cohort members helped me overcome obstacles. My initial video was far too long. I had become attached to certain ideas and to pieces of video footage. My classmates were able to give me objective, detached suggestions on what could be cut out without losing the central message. Thanks to their thoughts, I was able to edit my video down to the required length. Also, I had struggled with a functional aspect of the Adobe Spark editing platform. I wanted two different music tracks on my video and had not found a way to do it. Though I probably could have searched for a way to do it on an internet search, a couple cohort members had tips that saved me the time and ultimately ended up being successful. It occurred to me that it is also more social and enjoyable to troubleshoot an issue with friends than it is to do it as a solitary endeavor.
From my experience I glean lessons to bear in mind as I continue to help my students to use technology effectively and with positive results. Technology can become a force that isolates humans from one another, or it can be used to bring us together for collaboration and for recreation. Technology is often a huge learning curve, but once we invest a little time and wade through the frustrations, it is also a tool to save time.
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My first round of action research results showed that my students knew the importance of reading and felt that they should be reading well, but they didn't see themselves as successful readers. Further, increased reading volume didn't necessarily correspond to better reading comprehension. Put simply, if they don’t like it, they don’t do it. Increasing the amount of unsuccessful reading does not bring successful reading. My students needed their reading to bring them meaning, engagement, confidence, and yes, pleasure. For the second semester of the program I set out to develop a capstone project that would use 21st century learning innovations and technology to “hook” my students on reading. If more reading didn't lead to better reading... what is a solution? Originally my idea was that I could create a “reset” button”. Create that one positive experience with reading that might be a seed. I wanted to bring my readers enjoyment and motivation, especially those who had already experienced frustration and perceived failure. I had an idea, but I was, quite honestly, lacking some enthusiasm for it. I didn’t feel I had come up with a good solution yet. Near the beginning of the third semester, quite accidentally, the content of one of the 703 classes intrigued me. Marshall McLuhan presented the history of and the possible future of man’s communication, collaboration, “village making”, and literacy. I began to see that throughout mankind’s history and evolution, reading has not always existed. Technology brought about reading as we know it now. And technology could also do away with reading as we know it. Certainly, at the very least, the digital age will change reading. Somewhere in the middle of his theories, I found my enthusiasm for an approach to the next step in my capstone project. It was also when I stumbled across the transliteracy theorists. Basically, they propose that we should try to foster students who are transliterate, who have the “ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.” (Thomas, S. with Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., and Pullinger, K. Transliteracy: Crossing divides, First Monday, Volume 12 Number 12 – 3 December 2007) For several weeks I viewed my ELA instruction through the lens of transliteracy. My lessons exposed the students to "reading" through text, audio, video, and multimedia. One important tool for me was the district-adopted ELA curriculum, StudySync. It has a robust digital component that incorporates visual and audio text, videos, peer modeling, peer collaboration and review, and 21st century learning tools. The results show that my students have one foot planted in each world - traditional reading and transliterate reading. A majority of my middle school students report that a real book is still their favorite way to read. At the beginning of my eight week exposure to a digital platform for reading and reading instruction, 52% of my students reported hating or disliking the multi-media, online reading program and only 14% liked or loved it. After months of exposure, the results were almost completely reversed: 10% of the students hated/dislike it and 57% like/loved it. Sixty-seven percent of the students reported that they felt they gained the best understanding of their reading when they read the text with audio and/or audio and visual highlighted tracking. Over half the students, 53%, report that the background information and skill videos are helpful or extremely helpful. One student said, "Three things that I like about the digital StudySync program are that I can listen and read to the text in the book other than just reading it wondering how to pronounce it, also it is very accessible because you have the book but if you like reading online you can sign into StudySync. The third thing I like about StudySync is that there are helpful videos that help understand the lesson." In the end, overall, 71% of the middle school prefer a digital platform for Language Arts.
The product so far for my Capstone Project video has morphed from what I first envisioned. I think my initial storyboard was a bit too ambitious! When I began planning the video filming, I realized I would need a camera person, a mic, and more time than I had to commit to the filming. I also saw that my video would exceed 90 seconds. Back to the drawing board. I scrapped my original idea, kept the bare bones of my script, and decided I would use raw footage with my students and do a voice over so I wouldn’t have to mess with a microphone. I thought I did a good job of writing a script that stayed below 90 seconds. I timed it while speaking on the slow side of normal speech. What I’ve found is that when you add the pauses between slides and transitions, the seconds add up. I’m at 2:00 minutes now. I need to edit down the script and reduce the transitions. Feedback from my critical friends in my cohort will be very necessary here. The filming day was quite a bit of fun for me and my students. I thought they would be reluctant to be filmed, but they embraced it and enjoyed it. I was pleased to see that their involvement added some humor to the resulting clips. Hopefully the intended humor will translate to the viewer. I’m also finding that I’m fond of certain clips and therefore have a harder time editing these clips out of the final cut. (Now I understand why filmmakers do “bloopers”.) Again, I would appreciate a fresh perspective from my cohort team.
Editing was time consuming. Most likely my lack of experience has added more than a few minutes to the process! It also seems like the cosmos conspired against a smooth evening of downloading and uploading. I lost internet connection multiple times and Adobe Spark would get glitchy and not save slides and videos. I’m letting Adobe rest for the evening and I’ll hit the editing again after I see what it decided to save. I like working with Adobe Spark so far. I would like to find out if it is possible to change the music track midway through the video. I want to go from one kind of music for the presentation of the problem, and then change to more uplifting music for the presentation of the solution. Overall, the process has been a realization of the growth I’ve experienced over the semesters. Not only have I gained new technological skills and tools, but my perspective on teaching reading has expanded to include more innovative ideas and tools to assist a wider range of students. A good critical friend shows up at your door on a Sunday afternoon with a chocolate, caramel coffee in one hand and her laptop in another hand. She plops down next to you at your kitchen table and checks out your website and offers compliments, tips, and suggestions. She shares her own journey with you and listens to your ideas. You both laugh at yourselves over the mistakes you’ve made. You help each other understand the next task at hand and even knock out a couple of the ‘to-do’ list items. You hold each other accountable. And then you sit back, drain your cup of coffee, and acknowledge how proud you both are of all the hard work and growth. When I think about what I expect in a critical friend, my first reaction is to the word “critical”. Although the word “criticize” means to analyze the faults and merits of a thing, a rather subjective and even innocuous exercise; it has a negative connotation. Many people cringe when they hear that they will have to face criticism. I’m no different. I am more motivated by success than by failure. I’m motivated to work harder and longer when I know I’ve found a bit of success. I’ve learned that most people - especially students - respond better to praise than to negative feedback. Tell a student or a colleague what he’s done well and to continue doing it. Do not tell a student all her mistakes and what NOT to do. It isn’t an actionable directive to tell someone what not to do. Even when editing a piece of writing, there is a way to suggest edits that is suggesting “what to do” as opposed to “what not to do”. Putting criticism in a positive directive is helpful when being a critical friend. My understanding and expectation of a critical friend is closer to the definition for “critical thinking” - to help one another with “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence”. In our case in this cohort, we are all experiencing what it is like to get a little lost inside your own head and overwhelmed by sorting through three semesters of research, reading, design process, changes in driving questions, and data. Effective critical friends can provide an outsider’s perspective. I find myself getting lost in the twists and turns of my capstone project and wondering if my presentation of my project is accurately being represented by what I’m including on my LIL site. Good critical friends can provide clarity by repeating back to you what they take away from your website. They can help bridge the gap between the author and the audience. |
Nancy JaminetArchives
December 2017
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