SMART Response System: This was a marvelous way to check for understanding. One feature of the SMART Quizzes that I really like is the different options in question types. I preferred having multiple choice questions with more than one answer to make students’ thinking more complex. Another feature that I discovered to be so useful is the analysis after each question: you could see where there was particular confusion on certain concepts, and this allowed me to take a minute to explain an answer.
http://www.xtranormal.com/: Cartoon Movie Creator: This is a very unique website resource to use, but it definitely requires its share of time. I love the idea of having students create their own cartoon movies about the 13 colonies because being required to write their own script will creatively allow them to express what they’ve learned and process that knowledge once again. Through this technology, I learned how to create a detailed script with pauses, gestures, and accents. I learned how to choose different characters and publish the movie onto the site’s archives when completed. However, I did have some issues that are noted below, along with several significant concerns for this technology being used in the classroom. The introductory Jamestown movie that I created a sample for the students may be accessed here.
Teacher Website: I integrated my Weebly teacher website for students to access the SMART Board lesson later, as well as additional resources such as a YouTube video which delves into a Google Map of how the current USA overlaps the 13 Colonies. Please access that page here.
SMART Board Lesson: This was by far the most practical learning experience. I thought it would be very simple to create my own SMART Board lesson from scratch, but it took me much, much longer than anticipated. I’ll explain that in the issues below. The SMART Board Presentation may be accessed through the file uploaded onto my website: Mrs. Sem's Lesson. The features that I learned and used in the SMART Board notebook file were:
- Creating a title page
- Utilizing the Screen shade to cover up and reveal information at my own pace during presentation.
- Creating personalized charts on a slide
- Inserting pictures
- Personalizing color backgrounds
- Creating and using a SMART Response Quiz
Issues Encountered & Solved:
SMART Response System: Having participated in a SMART Response quiz once before Northwest and then having watched this feature being used in Tech in Ed, I was eager to figure it out on my own. However, I did not anticipate that it would take me nearly an hour to fully get a hang of this system before my actual presentation. I struggled for the first half hour, trying to figure out why I could not sign a clicker in and begin the assessment, only to realize that I had to plug in the main device for the system to work. Once I did this, the SMART Software guided me through the next steps: creating a class, starting assessment, checking results, and so on.
- Because of the generous time I had spent practicing using this system, I am grateful that I did not run into any significant issues during the actual lesson. One thing that I still need to work on is keeping track of students who have finished answering the questions in order to keep the quiz going.
- If you click on a different language accent (like “French woman” for instance), sometimes you can hardly understand what the character is saying from your script. This defeats the purpose of having a script with important concepts and terms from the lesson. I really wanted this feature though, because it made the cartoon movie fun and also integrated different nationalities that were relevant to the different types of settlers in the 13 Colonies lesson.
- Another key issue was the time consumption of this technology. Although it’s marvelous because it can be tailored to fit your own lesson and include any information (script) you’d like because essentially, you are the narrator – it requires that you sit down and spend a good hour for just a minimal bare movie. The time I spent creating the story, adding pauses and gestures to make it flow doesn’t seem evident when you watch the video because it’s cheesy regardless. I think the reason why I would still use this technology over a video that is already prepared by someone else – is because there is a much greater opportunity for enhancing the learning process, both for me as a teacher and for the students. Because I wanted to keep the video concise and yet educational, it made me analyze which most important concepts ought to be emphasized in my lesson. For students, it would also require that they digest everything they know in order to express that knowledge through a video. With this note on time concern, I would also be worried that my students would be spending too much time on the petty features like choosing the character’s voice than actually putting together a script that reflects their knowledge.
- The third issue is that although this resource is free, the free version is limited which hinders the creativity and fun aspect of learning because you have less options for characters and settings which would be extremely beneficial to specific projects like this one.
- Spending a large chunk of time simply creating my own slide layout. Unlike PowerPoint, which makes it so easy to insert text and pictures into the different layouts available – SMART notebook isn’t as user-friendly in centering your text the way you’d like, and have automatic templates to type into. Granted, it does have some lesson template but they were not to my taste and had either too many pages or features that only distracted me or would not seem to change colors.
- Similarly, many of the tools offered are somewhat cheesy and I prefer to go without. For elementary students, they may be wonderful because kids love bright colors, balloons, different shapes, and clip-art – but for secondary, I think that presentations need to have a more professional appearance.
What this Project Means to Me:
This project meant very much to me because it helped me get past that first tough stage in creating and using a SMART Board presentation. Going into a school that has SMART Wednesdays, I better have a fairly good understanding of this technology and ability to use it. To be sure, I could still use a lot more practice. But I think this was one of those big stepping stones that will make my future experiences go more smoothly.
Experimenting on the cartoon movie-maker through Xtranormal.com has given me a broader perspective on how I might integrate technology into my future classroom. Before this, I preferred the traditional way to make projects, with paper and pen. Now, I’ve realized that my students could still express their creativity and knowledge in a costless, more professional, and fun way. I also recognize that despite the issues I encountered, my students will probably get a hang of such a technology much quicker and use it much better than I did because they’re just better at technology in general.
I’ve become a huge fan of SMART Response quizzes after having created a quiz using this system and carried it out to actually see how it works in a real life lesson. I would definitely continue to use this technology in the future, for graded quizzes, simple checks for understanding, and also for reflective purposes: to get a sense of how my students feel about a particular subject while keeping their opinions anonymous.
I still do believe that technology does not always necessarily engage students better than other forms of education. For instance, I began this lesson by talking about my family’s own immigration experience to America and distributing meaningful objects from Ukraine. This was not technological, it was tangible and personal which was just as important as the technology, if not more. So I’ve learned through using all of these different technologies and the old-fashioned personal story that it’s best to mix them up for the strongest learning experience.
NETS for Students:
- “Creativity and Innovation”: Students “create original works as a means of personal or group expression.” - In their movie projects, students definitely are required to design an original work using technology in order to express their knowledge of the differences between colonial regions in the 13 Colonies.
- “Communication and Collaboration”: Students “communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.” - Xtranormal.com is a unique media format in which students must create their own scripts to communicate through different characters what they know about the 13 colonies. This is applicable to different audiences because the cartoon movies are geared more towards elementary students. Their scripts should be understandable for a younger class, and thus in their own words (not my in the teacher’s words!).
- “Research and Information Fluency”: Students must “process data and report results.” - Having students create their own scripts requires them to process what they’ve learned in class, as well as what they may have learned outside of class and translate that information into their own words and form of communication for others to understand what the 13 Colonies were about.
- “Technology Operations and Concepts”: Students must “select and use applications effectively and productively.” - Xtranormal.com, being a program that could be used for all types of movies, is taught to students in the educational context so they create movies using this software that enhance knowledge and share it with others. Using the SMART Response system to submit their quizzes is also a productive use of applications. They demonstrate their knowledge to the teacher through their personal remotes and analysis of the questions displayed on the SMART Board.
- “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity”: The teacher must “promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.” - Assigning a project in which students must design their own videos about the lesson at hand, undoubtedly encourages students to be creative and inventive. Furthermore, holding students to a specific rubric in which creativity will be graded, ensures that the students will be diligent in their innovative movies rather than careless. They will be graded on how accurate, broad, and deep the content of the scripts are, as well as how creative they are. Creativity is evident in the different features used such as accents, pauses, gestures, settings, and so forth.
- “Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments”: The teacher must “provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. - The SMART Response quiz has questions that assess both the students’ knowledge as well as reflect how well the students feel they know the content. This quiz could be graded; however, in this lesson, it serves more as a lesson review in preparation for a real summative assessment. It also provides feedback to the teacher on how well the content was delivered and grasped.
- “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility”: The teacher should “address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.” - Providing additional resources on the teacher website show that the teacher is responsible and willing to go the extra mile to make sure every student has access to the necessary information. The diverse needs may range from language to absence to different learning styles. Thus, provided resources like Lingro.com to translate the documents on the website or additional videos for students who are visual learners, will provide “equitable access” for all students.
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