Writing Project Status

I just returned from visiting my daughter, Stephanie, in Prague over Thanksgiving break.  It was a great trip and it made me rethink my project.  I am now going to make my project about my trip to Prague.  I am planning on using imovie or movie maker.  I borrowed the schools Flipcamera to take on my trip.  I have a lot of footage and also still photos. I have downloaded the pictures and video on to my computer--which took me several hours since it was all new to me and I had to finally get help from the media people yesterday.  I am not very far along.  I will now try to imbed an image or video into this blog.  It worked!   

This fall has been my first introduction to posting blogs.  I have not taken full advantage of the possibilities mainly because I just feel too busy to take the time to do much reflection. My blogs are pretty much the same--a comment and a link.  I don't think anyone of them stands out from the others in any of the categories: professionalism, design, or creativity. I hate to be so noncommittal, but I really think they are all pretty much the same in quality. Here is a website that I should read that  may help me when trying to blog.  

I have never set up a Wiki, but after reading these two chapters I feel like I should.  I think that a Wiki could be very beneficial for my environmental studies class.  We do not have a text and I like the idea of creating a Wiki text.  Two of the topics that we cover would lend themselves very well to a class Wiki text.  The two topics are biodiversity and energy resources.  These are two topics where a multimedia text could add so much to the students understanding of the topics.  The other advantage to a class Wiki is that these are two moving target topics with new developments constantly making the news.  

In my biology class I would like to set up a Wiki on bioethics.  This is a topic with lots of new developments.  I think students could become very engaged in discussing these controversial topics.  I found this site that allows free Wikis for educators.  The Beech chapter on Wikis suggesed this site.  I may start here and try to set one up.  

Some of the challenges to having students engage in collaborative writing is to get them comfortable with the idea of sharing ideas and doing revisions of their work. I really like the Bledsoe article.  I especially like the way she explained how she modeled the collaborative process with the whole class.  

Digital Storytelling

I enjoyed the multimedia assignment that we did in class last week.  It was fun to collaborate on the assignment.  I feel that I am more creative when I interact and work on a project in a group.  I also enjoyed seeing the other groups contributions to the final product.  

After having read Lisa Miller's chapter on Digital Storytelling, I am feeling better about my daughter's major in visual media and communication.  Stephanie is studying film making in Prague this semester and is learning many of the skills that Miller talks about in the chapter.  I can see now how valuable these skills can be in the work place.  I am excited to think about making my own digital story.  I am just worried that I lack the technical skills to pull off a good product.  I am going to put a link here to the site I  read about on Mary's blog.  Daniel Meadow's site has some great examples of digital storytelling.         

I did not do a story board for my 9 Mile Creek voice thread, but I should have.  I just ad-lib ed as I put the pictures up.  I took these pictures last year and could not remember all the names so I made them on the spot.  Obviously if I wanted to show this to students or parents I would make sure that I had the names right.  I think it would be great to have students add their own commentary.  I am sure that they could make the slide show more fun.  I definitely could see having students create the voice thread as a culminating project for our water quality unit.  

I just worked on my Voice Thread about Nine Mile Creek Macroinvertebrate Sampling.   

It was much easier to do than I thought.  I will probably go back and make some changes, but I wanted to make sure I had something up tonight.  The rest of the week looks very busy. 

The learning potentials that I see for this medium are in exploring the ethical issues involved in biological research.  The list of  topics with ethical issues that could be explored in this medium are endless. Some of the topics are stem cell research, cloning, genetically modified foods, biodiversity, and climate change.  A role playing exercise could be set up to explore these issues from different points of view.  I think students would enjoy and benefit from this type of exploration of the topic.  A  good source for issues and discussion is the site Access Excellence.

Role playing on the internet

I am a little confused about how to do this role playing.  I am playing a brain researcher.  Since I am not actually a brain researcher, do I make up studies?  I am trying to find relevant articles, but I have not looked for real scientific papers.  I am just using articles I have found on the internet.  I do not have time to wade through real research.  Here is an example of an article that I just found and put in the role playing forum.  That is pretty light weight reading.  Is anybody else confused about how "real" this role playing is suppose to be?

I must admit that I had to force myself to do my first postings on the role playing but I am now becoming more comfortable.  I am not completely sure if I am suppose to comment or add forums or do both.  

 

In my environmental science class I have students take a side about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.  They need to debate their side and then write a paper supported by research to convince the reader that their side is the correct side.  I think that the students might have more fun if they all took on the different roles of the stake holders.  It would probably end with a more dynamic discussion of the topic.  Here is a link to my role playing  simulation

http://edinaroleplay.ning.com/profile/DrSynapse.  I am not sure how to post a longer profile.  

Networking

I like to start my research by reading recent articles in newspapers such as the NYT.  I go to their web sites and find relevant articles.  After reading the articles I have a larger set of terms to search with.  I also like to go to databases such as ProQuest or other relevant databases. I determine the validity of the sites by looking at the authors credentials and looking at the bibliography.  I look for respected sources and authors.  If I do not find them, I will not use the source. If I am starting research on a topic I know nothing about I may start by looking at a Wiki site, in order to get some background.  The only RSS feeds that I have are for science related podcasts.  I would use these the same as NYT articles.  They would be a spring board to find more in depth articles.  

I help my students engage in effective search strategies by giving them links on my edline page to good web sites.  I would also have them brainstorm search words and related topics.  I would also talk to them about checking the bibliographies for respected authors and journals.

The only experience I have with blogging is reading a friends blog. I first read her blog this summer. I have very little experience with this type of communication so I don't know how blogging will affect my communication. I think blogging in the classroom will be another tool that I can use to get students to write and think. I am glad I have a chance to learn about this tool through this class. I am not quite done with the reading so I may add more to this later, but I wanted to make sure I entered a blog today.

My friend's blog Ellen Meets India is a well written blog because she is funny and includes pictures. It is a great way for her many friends to find out how her first year of teaching in India is going.

What to do with digital writing?

I would like to have my environmental science class create blogs to discuss current environmental issues. I would also like to have students create shared workspace for doing research on environmental topics. I also like the idea of the role playing that was mentioned in the reading. I could assign a controversial topic and then assign roles for students to play.  I especially like the participatory nature of digital writing.  I would like my students to become participating citizens concerning environmental issues.

I would like to have students listen to and create their own podcasts concerning environmental issues.

Science podcast