Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Concept of Digital Nativism

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Ask a Westside student what happens what color a stop sign is, what someone might answer when you say “knock, knock”, or what the MacDonald’s logo is an you will get consistent responses from just about everyone. This is a result of the culture we live in.

Growing up within a culture, that culture is essentially invisible. For people that weren’t raised in a culture, some things might seem confusing. How does every driver know to keep their car on the right side of the street? Why do people say “bless you” when someone sneezes? Why do people like Elmo?

Another cultural consistency for Westside students is the prevalence and reliance on technology as part of our everyday lives. For those who grow up around cell phones, televisions, instant access to free information and boxes that cook food in 2 minutes, technology just is. These students are referred to as “digital natives”, because they have known no other life.

The founder of the term digital native is Marc Prensky. He recently defended his theory and clarified some misconceptions around the idea in the latest issue of Learning & Leading. Click below to read the point/counterpoint.

Look inside >
6
Is the Digital Native a Myth?

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AppleTV experiments & technological responsibility

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6th grade students had a chance to experience iOS 5′s Airplay in class as we demonstrated a few of the operating system’s multi-gesture commands. We realized that as a community we value the ability to all stream wirelessly to projectors. We also recognized that giving anyone the ability to display anything could mean that someone shows something that other people don’t want see.

Students talked about times when adults haven’t been around and yet they, as a class, have stayed on task and demonstrated responsibility. Last year they class was trusted to buy their own lunches in downtown Seattle on a field trip. A week ago they showed up for PE but the teacher wasn’t there – students ran through all of their warmup exercises without being instructed to do so. This tied in with a larger conversation that has been going on for a week now about appropriate technology use and professional communication.

As part of our new 1-to-1 deployment, students received school email addresses that can be used to contact teachers and other students. Email conversations between students start related to an assignment but often drift into silliness.

As a middle school, students spent Thursday morning discussing ways that they could help each other, and ourselves stay focused on learning. We came up with a list of suggestions:

  • By silencing the email alert sound, we won’t get distracted if someone else sends us a message in class.
  • Before pressing send on an email, ask yourself “what class is this for?”
  • Talk with people face-to-face whenever possible. It is faster and easier to understand one another.
  • If someone is sending non-academic email, ask them to stop. Share your personal email address with them if you are comfortable and have parent permission.

 

5th grade independent projects

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5th grade students reflected today on their recent video documentation of all things great about being a student at Westside. We also talked about whether iPad use has helped us learn and any obstacles to success.

Students decided that we are need of a Dictionary App so that we don’t need to disrupt our work to go and look up a spelling or definition. 5th graders outlined requirements for the App:

  • should work offline
  • should display suggestions if a word is spelled incorrectly
  • should have a thesaurus included
  • should be virus-free
  • ideally ad-free

The next step is to research possible solutions. Some students recommended that we look at Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster, but noted that we should also search the App Store and look at ratings.

For the last 15 minutes of class, students broke up into groups. There were three choices today based on personal interest:

  1. use the interview footage to learn about editing, titling and audio in iMovie
  2. research the various dictionary Apps
  3. a super secret project that was begun last week with teacher Glyn
As a teacher, I got pretty excited about all the projects but ultimately decided to play with iMovie.

D’BOM – Database of the Month: Introduction

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What is a database?

A database is a collection of information that is highly organized and is typically brought to you in a digital format.  Entries compiled in a database are regularly updated so that information is fresh and current.  Some databases are free to the public and available via the internet, while others are only accessible to registered users. There are a wide range of databases out there from online encyclopedias to bibliographies, from online articles and journals to biographical databases!

Why use a database?

You may be asking yourself…why databases, I can just search the web?  Continue reading →

iPads venture home for the weekend

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Middle school families -

As we move into October, students are beginning to fill the middle school halls with a sense of belonging. New friendships are starting to form and classroom expectations are taking shape. For the last 3 weeks, middle schoolers have been using the iPads in classes with success. We’ve already used a visual brainstorming tool, composed essay responses, done some weather research, recorded student interviews and read from e-books.

5th and 6th grade students have treated the iPads with respect and have patiently worked through any technical difficulties that arose.  Teachers agree that it is time for students to share what they are learning with family members and practice caring for the devices at home.  iPads will come home this Friday, October 7th and will be expected to return fully charged on Monday, October 10th.

Your family’s technology rules should govern iPad use while at home. If your guidelines aren’t clear yet, this first weekend is the best time to set them.  Some things to consider:

  • Does the iPad have a special place where it goes to charge overnight, ready for the next day of school?
  • Does your family have a clear policy about devices in bedrooms?
  • How much screen time does your family agree is appropriate in one day? Be sure to count TV, other computer use, and cellphones/smartphones.
  • The iPads are provided for academic purposes. They should be fun AND educational.

This first weekend home is also a time to begin a conversation and learn something yourself. Ask your child what their favorite app is, make a home-movie together in iMovie, or find your neighborhood in Google Earth. Students have just received their official school email addresses (restricted to inter-school mail only) and have been introduced to Pages, a word-processing app.

You might want to ask about our first major tech project, which began this week – you can read about it on the new tech blog: http://www.westsideschool.org/tech/2011/10/first-project-of-the-year-video-interviews/. Students are learning more than just how to operate a device, they are learning about the citizenship, teamwork and responsibility required to make a successful contribution to the school community.

Finally, whether at home or at school, every family has signed a Responsible Use Agreement. Please make sure that you are familiar with the agreement guidelines and help students honor them.

Thanks for being involved in your child’s education,

Jo Ann, Don, Sarah, Glyn, Preston, Jac

First project of the year: video interviews

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NEWS BULLETIN: The communications department has tasked the middle school with capturing all the footage for a 3-5 minute film that represents the entire school, includes student interviews, and focuses on what makes Westside School a great place to learn.

Step 1: Students started by analyzing the audience and purpose of the film:

Audience: family and friends, students thinking about coming to Westside

Purpose: We want people that watch the video to think that Westside students are

  • happy
  • smart
  • thoughtful
  • creative
  • have friends
  • like their school
  • challenged with cool projects

Step 2: Next we did a little math and realized that:

5 minutes = 300 seconds
300 seconds/200 kids = 1.5 seconds per child
There is no way we can interview each student individually and still meet the time requirement. Some solutions include:
  • Interview groups of students
  • Use group shots along with individual interviews
  • Make sure that the questions we ask can be answered quickly
  • Make more than one video

Step 3: We brainstormed all the technical requirements and skills required to be successful:

  1. Make list of questions to ask students during interview
  2. Take video – requires an understanding of using the iPad video capture function
  3. Get ALL video onto a single computer: Teacher note: because this is our first project and we are also getting used to our new email system, we’ll use email to get all files into a server file. This isn’t the simplest solution that students came up with, but it does reinforce other lessons. 
  4. Hand off folder of clips to the communications department for final edits.

Step 4: Generate list of questions and practice:

Students brainstormed questions and talked about how younger students (Pre-K) might need simpler questions than the older students. We also talked about the difference betweeen open and closed questions:

closed questions: can be answered with a yes or no. Not very exciting for our video

open questions: questions that require the interviewee to respond with opinion or fact. These questions may begin with “Why” or “How”.

Once we had our list of questions, students paired off and interviewed each other. We then came back together and discussed the experience.

Step 5: Reflecting on interview & communication skills

Things we learned from our test run interviewing each other:

  • Some people get nervous or uncomfortable when in front of the camera. Solution: always ask permission to interview before starting the camera. Respect the decision not to be filmed.
  • Light is important. Solution: try and have the sun or lighting over your shoulder when filming, this lets you see the face of the person on film.
  • Background is important. Solution: be sure to check everything on the screen beyond the interviewee. Is the background nice? Does it represent the message we are trying to capture?
  • Background noise is important. Solution: we may need to set up an area for interviews, or ask the interviewee to step into the hall or move somewhere that is quieter than the classroom.
  • Some iPad cases partially block the camera. Solution: make sure the camera cut-out is aligned correctly before recording.
  • Check your footage after recording. Show the person you interviewed and make sure you both agree that the quality is good enough, that they like the way they look and sound, and that the background is appropriate. If there is a problem, re-do the interview.
Next week students will be grouped and will be tasked wtih contacting teachers to set up a time to interview students in other classes!

What is Web 2.0?

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The definition of Web 2.0 depends on who you ask.

In general, web 2.0 refers to interactive websites. This is in comparison to the websites of 1994-1999, which were mostly just words and pictures that you looked at and read.

Web 2.0 is any of the stuff that creates an experience based on how you interact with it: examples are sites where you can participate in conversations, vote on things, take quizzes, etc.