Project prototype is well underway!

For this week’s blog post, we were asked to provide an updated description regarding our course prototype project as well as elaborate on any progress we have made. Within the past few weeks, my group and I have made a great deal of progress, establishing many important details/elements that will be included within our prototype project. Therefore, allow me to share the details about what my group and I have accomplished thus far, starting with the details listed within our course profile.

Jayme-Lee, Andres and I decided the course format for our prototype project will be based on the blended-learning concept, simply because all three of us appreciate the combination of face-to-face instruction and the use of online digital tools. As for the course subject and grade level, we chose to focus on English Language Arts at the Grade 6 level. But most importantly, the purpose of our course prototype project is to provide students with the opportunity to create digital content. Within Andres blog post for this week, he thoroughly describes the goals outlined for our project as well as provides a detailed portrayal of what our project will resemble, from start to finish.

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“Students will learn how to use various online and digital tools to help them find new ways of representing their written work. The final project: the summary of learning, will be an amalgamation of everything the students learned throughout the unit. The unit will focus on scaffolding and providing students with the skills necessary to create a final product. The unit has been designed with student collaboration in mind, meaning students will work, interact and collaborate with other students in various ways. The final project will require students to pair up with their reading buddies to create a narrated digital story”.

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Due to the stresses technology can sometimes bring, Jayme-Lee explains the purpose for the Grade 6 students actively working alongside with a reading buddy in Grade 1. She states,

“We have all been in situations where technology has been a challenge, especially those teachers in the younger grades. Students are unable to log on; internet access is low etc. So what better way to get our students using technology then to buddy them up with an older student who perhaps more experience using these tools, apps, resources etc. We have decided that our buddies will be a big part of our project, involved, commenting, providing feedback, learning etc”.

Therefore, our group decided that working with technology and online tools is possible for the younger grades and may work to the students’ advantage, if they are presented with the opportunity to work with a student in an older grade. By doing this, student interaction and collaboration will occur and may also promote digital citizenship, along with respect for the various online tools the younger grades have not yet been exposed to.

We have decided to use Google Classroom as our LMS platform and for a collaborative space where we may upload various Google documents, our course profile, modules and our artifact videos. Furthermore, Google Classroom provides an environment where our students have access to the information they will need for our prototype project but also have access to numerous resources and tools if they require additional support. Within our project, we designed Google Classroom to be the primary source for teacher and student interaction as the Grade 6 students already have access to and have experience working with Google Classroom and creating Google documents. Google Classroom also allows the students to work at their own pace and is beneficial for all types of learners.

As outlined in Andres blog post, our course prototype project will be set up in the form of “how-to tutorials”, paired up with assignments as well as assessments for each module. The modules of our project are listed as follows:

– How to use Read&Write for Google Chrome (for assisted learning and when students are brainstorming ideas for their narrative stories with their reading buddies).
– How to use Google Docs, Google Drive and other cloud-based software.
– How to use animation tools such as Videoscribe, Powtoon, Telegami and Puppet Pals.
– How to film using your device. Students will learn the basics to simple screenwriting and script writing; they will be given tips on what makes for good and captivating cinematography; and how to capture good footage for your project.
– How to edit videos and raw footage using Windows Movie Maker, iMovie or other video editors.
– How to create podcasts (learning how to use audio recording software such as GarageBand and Audacity for podcasts and narratives for our stories).
– How to narrate and add life to your videos and digital artifacts.
– How to create a time-lapse video.
– Final project. Summary of learning: a narrated digital storybook that combines everything we learned in the unit.

Overall, our prototype project is progressing smoothly and my group and I are enjoying working together! We are determined to provide our students with a variety of digital tools to work with so they may experiment and find new ways to represent their work as well as actively collaborate with other students. I am eager to see how our final product turns out and I am excited to share it with all of you!

Thanks again for stopping by!