1st Project For Implementing Technology Into The Classroom

It is difficult to incorporate new technologies into a content area where purism is valued and new technology is viewed as a disloyal. As I considered how to incorporate new technologies into a lit class, I asked myself....what can I do to get students excited about reading? Conversely, I also had to ask myself.....what makes me excited about reading? My conclusion was that discussing the novels I read is something I enjoy almost as much as reading them. Is there a way I can use technology to open-up discourse among my students and get them thinking about the texts we read in class?

At the end of every unit students are presented with the arduous task of writing an essay. The purpose is for educators to check for understanding and progress, but generally it functions as a way of assessment.

In my first application of technology for educational purposes. I have decided to scratch the final essay and instead have students create an account through the on-line reading community, GoodReads.

Attachment to GoodReads website: http://www.goodreads.com/book

For the assignment, students will set-up accounts on the site GoodReads. Students will then be asked to do the following things:

1) Write a review of the book discussed in class.

2) Post at least three comments to an existing review.

3) Post at least three comments to a peer’s review.

Requirements for reviews and posts:

I want to push student’s thinking beyond “I liked it,” or “I hated it.” Because this project is taking the place of an essay students will have to meet certain criteria within their review.

Students will be required to:

1) Form an argument and support their argument in the review.

2) Cite two specific passages from the book to support their argument.

3) Foresee potential criticism that fellow members may have with their review.

Students will receive a rubric outlining what their reviews and posts must contain.

I believe that this is an appropriate project for my content area for the following reasons. Students will be actively engaging with content by writing reviews. Students will reflect on the similarities between a review and a formal essay, hopefully seeing the practical application of thinking about a text. The process of writing is tiresome, by incorporating a reading community, like GoodReads, students will hopefully get excited to think about a text and to share their ideas regarding that text.

I can validate this project because it meets many of the learning requirements both in a practical and theoretical sense. This project meets ISTE Teacher Standard I. Students will create a virtual profile in a virtual environment to discuss books we have been working with in class. Students will also be using appropriate content area knowledge in a virtual space. Standard II is met because I can easily go into the virtual space and assess student understanding. Standard IV is met because students will create a profile, their views and comments will be evaluated by an entire digital community of readers. ISTE Student Standard I is met. Students will be synthesizing and analyzing information to create reviews and post comments. Standard II is met because students are collaborating and commenting on data inside a digital community. Critical thinking is a requirement for most of the activities we will do inside and outside of class, so Standard IV is met. Accountability is met, students reviews and comments will be subject to evaluation by peers and the entire digital community. This assignment will also require students to use higher orders of thinking. Students must synthesize information and use data to analyze a text. Students will also be evaluating the reviews of the peers and other member of the community.

Research exists supporting this type of activity. David Reinking and Janet Watkins discuss how not only does having students write digital reviews support critical thinking but also meets numerous pedagogical goals.

Link to article A Formative Experiment Investigating the Use of Multimedia Book Reviews to Increase Elementary Students' Independent Reading : http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/journals/rrq/v35/i3/abstracts/rrq-35-3-reinking.html&mode=redirect

This project is a simple way to implement new technology. Students are, in essence, doing the same thing they would be doing in class but inside a digital community. I do not think that students will struggle with this new technology as an application. The trade-offs of incorporating a project like this are, you lose the face to face communicating and discussing that would happen if we discussed the book as a group. Students may be less passionate about their ideas when putting them on paper versus discussing them in class. The linear, building on each others ideas that happen in discussion also might not happen in this type of digital forum.  A foreseeable problem could be accountability and assessment. Because this project is taking the place of an essay, students will need to meet specific requirements to receive a passing grade. I would have to create a formal rubric to evaluate an informal kind of activity which could be difficult. How do I get students to take these reviews and posts as serious as they would an essay? An inherent bias of this assignment could exist between intrinsic and extrinsic value. The ultimate goal of educator is to instill intrinsic value for a content area. Potential bias could be this assignment promotes extrinsic value because most of the critique will take place in external comments and criticisms by other people inside the community. Because no student will have nothing but positive feedback, students will hopefully realize that they must put an intrinsic value to their ideas and have faith in the these ideas.