4a.+Workshop+Journal

= Workshop Journal = = Day 1: Monday June 28, 2010 = Today, I worked only with Group 1. The children were a young group of nine individuals, ranging in grades K - 2. Each student had his/her own computer. This technology class is meant as a beginner course for these students, introducing them to the very basics of technology. They had only been attending this course for one month, and only once a week. They are learning to manipulate the mouse, the keyboard, how to log onto the internet, and so on. What I had planned originally is too complex for them, so adjustments had to be made.

First, in order to introduce them to some "content" first, I taught the children a "Greetings" song in both English and Spanish. Subsequently, I orally quizzed them on their pronunciation, and recorded them introducing themselves with a video camera. Second, we discussed "recycling," and reviewed vocab such as plastic, paper, cans, bottles, cardboard, Earth, recycle. I created two "Recycling Avatars" and presented the physical objects to the students. They named them "Bele Bottle" & "Cardboard Carlos." I planned to work with these items later.

Finally, the coordinators and I set the students up on [|www.starfall.com], where they completed a "Recycling" activity that included reading, listening, an interactive game, and an interactive video. The Starfall activities were in English, and with the teachers' help, students were able to manipulate the webpages located here: []. Some finished early, and were re-directed to other simple activities on Starfall, such as "Ten Little Snowmen" and "Zac the Rat."

We concluded our technology session by going outside and playing a game called "Gears." As the teacher calls out the commands (Gear, Motor, Magnet, and Power Down) in English, students react and act it out. It is a game of action and then "elimination" of members, until only one remains. Students absolutely loved it, and asked promptly to play "Gears" again, in English! Prizes were awarded to the last 2 children remaining; they went crazy over the //LIGA// (silly band bracelet) they received as a prize.

= Day 2: Tuesday June 29, 2010 = Today, I worked only with Group 2. The nine children were slightly older than the first group, ranging in grades 3 - 5, and computer distribution again was 1-1. This technology class is meant as a technology skills development course for these students. The students displayed good computer manipulation skills, as I observed from their use of videogame websites, such as Club Penguin.com. I had planned originally to conduct a short lecture section, and then practice on the computers. The students were already sitting at their computers and were very excited to use the computers, so adjustments were made to shorten the lecture to about 3-5 minutes, and then to get to work with the technology.

First, in order to introduce them to "content" first, I taught the children the same (as the previous day) "Greetings" song in both English and Spanish. Subsequently, I orally quizzed them on their pronunciation, and took some snapshots of the children. (Due to time constraints and full memory card on the camera, I did not record them with a video camera.) Second, we discussed "recycling:" we reviewed vocabulary such as plastic, paper, cans, bottles, cardboard, Earth, recycle; and then they viewed a Spanish recycling video on [|www.YouTube.com] that I had embedded on our Workshop website at http://pensemosverde.wikispaces.com/Reciclaje. . Third, the students listened to a short explanantion of Wikis, and then we set out to manipulate the class Wiki (created by me on the class website.) They learned how to sign up to be a member of the Wiki, using the pre-assigned "community email address" I created for the group (estudiantecrear@gmail.com.) Then they each created their own page, and learned to manipulate the editing toolbar. They embedded an image (from a selection previously uploaded by me.) Then they wrote at least a one-sentence introduction in English. This first part of class took about 45 minutes.

During the last 15 minutes of class, the coordinators and I set the students up on [|www.starfall.com], where they completed a "Recycling" activity that included reading, listening, an interactive game, and an interactive video. The Starfall activities were in English, and the students were able to manipulate the webpages without help from the instructors. Again, some finished early, and were re-directed to other simple activities on Starfall, such as "Ten Little Snowmen" and "Zac the Rat."

We concluded our technology session by going outside and playing "Gears." [As the teacher calls out the commands (Gear, Motor, Magnet, and Power Down) in English, students react and act it out. It is a game of action and then "elimination" of members, until only one remains.] Again, students were thrilled with the game, and asked promptly to play "Gears" again, in English! Subsequently, prizes were awarded to the last 2 children remaining; they ltoo oved the //LIGA// (silly band bracelet) they received as a prize.

= Day 3: Wednesday June 30, 2010 = Today, I worked during Session 1 with Group 1; and then at a separate internet cafe, with Group 2 during Session 2. We reviewed the "Greetings" song with both groups first, and then I proceeded to teach body parts, using the "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the students knew the song, and the English body parts names too. This made the transition to the Technology Activity slightly easier from the teacher's standpoint. We instructed them to open the webpage, [|www.sumopaint.com], a free-drawing Web 2.0 tool. Students were asked to play with all the colors and the options in the toolbox. After about 15 minutes, students were instructed by the teacher speaking English (and some Spanish) to construct an "avatar" using this technology. I directed them saying, "Draw an avatar who has a square face; one large eye and one small eye; a nose, a mouth, and two ears placed in weird spots; and a body, two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, fingers and toes. Then, they were asked to name their avatar and write the name on the picture. They they needed to save the file.

Group 1 upon finishing called upon an instructor to help them save their drawing as a JPG file, onto the desktop. Group 2 were instructed how to save their file, and later post to their individual pages on the Wiki. Almost all of the students required assistance with the embedding of their artifact. Here are some examples: = Day 4: Thursday July 1, 2010 =

I began Session 2 with the game "Simon Says," or ¡Simón dice…! in Spanish. Today, I worked with both groups with [|www.voki.com]. Additionally, the second group was able to embed their Vokis on their personal Wiki page. I ran into difficulties with the second computer lab, because they do not have enough microphones for each student to use. During the first session, only 2 out of the 9 microphones functioned correctly. During both sessions, it was challenging to convince the students to take the time to draft their script (on Microsoft Word); it was not even an option in some of their student's minds. What makes it quite difficult is the seating arrangement of three rows of three computers. Students sometimes could not focus on content when they were already sitting at their computer and logged in to begin. They were just very excited.

= Day 5: Friday July 2, 2010 = Today, I worked with both groups and we used Glogster. For the younger group, they were impressed with the capacity to take and post video. It was difficult for the youngest girls to understand it. During session two with the older group, I taught them how to first find and then copy/paste images from Google images. I plan to speak on Monday about the Fair Use Guidelines & Proper Attribution methods.

Monday, they will be finishing their glogs, and later should embed them on their wiki personal page. Here is an example: [].

= Day 6: Monday July 5, 2010 = Today, I worked with four youngsters during Session 1. The computer lab manager was unavailable for the first 15 minuttes, and because of the children's ages, they were very impatient and it was difficult for me to settle them down. I decided to show them an example of an //Animoto// video, but again due to immaturity, room distractions and the absence of the other Coordinators, the video example did not keep their interest. I put them to work again on [|www.sumopaint.com], which only occupied them for about 10-15 minutes. I then attempted to work with only one or two of them individually, but it was challenging to keep their focus. I decided I had better find some even more new and interesting Web 2.0 tools for tomorrow's session.

During Session 2, I introduced [|www.GoAnimate.com], which they really enjoyed. I asked them to write/create the beginning of their "recycling" story. The students were so busy exploring all the character actions and sequences that they barely had time to thoughfully come up with a script. We decided we would stretch the assignment out to the following class.

= Day 7: Tuesday July 6, 2010 = Today during Session 1, we experimented with Blabberize. This tool was wonderful for language learning. As a pre-set up on the wikisite, I uploaded pictures of about 10 different animals (from which they would eventually choose one to represent themselves). As a class, we reviewed the names of all the animals in both English and Spanish. Then I quickly showed them what to do, and then I circulated the room, assiting them all. They were delighted with the comedic factor of this Web 2.0 tool.

During Session 2, the first half hour was spent utilizing Blabberize. Please see the talking kangaroo at []. Upon finishing, I noticed that the students are becoming more proficient with copying & pasting; uploading to the wiki; using the Widget tools and embedding; among other steps. During the last half of class, they worked on their animations on [|www.GoAnimate.com]. Here are two finished examples utilizing the "recycling" theme in an interesting way: []and []. Students today were a little distracted and wanted to play non-educational video games. They informed me that Andrea, the CREAR coordinator, usually lets them play their video games during the last 10 minutes of their sessions. I relented and let them finish up class with that 10-minute recreational time. At least they all played on English-language sites.

= Day 8: Wednesday July 7, 2010 = Today during Session 1, only one student, Moises, showed up. This presented advantages and disadvantages. Advantages included one-on-one time with him. I showed him how to use a digital camera, how to download pictures, and then upload to the computer. From there, with a little assistance, he uploaded the picture to his personal page on the workshop wiki at http://pensemosverde.wikispaces.com/moisesjimenezramirez. This activity was not exciting enough for him, and he wanted to play a game. The disadvantage of having just one participant was that the workshop lost its social/collaborative aspect. Because of his request, I put him and my son to work and play games manipulating the [|www.webkinz.com] site. Moises very much enjoyed that!

= Day 9: Thursday July 8, 2010 = Today during Session 1, only one student, Suillyn, showed up. Unlike Moises, she was more focused on completing work. Second, as we lost her original Voki that she created, she attempted to redo it. She was able to re-build her avatar. But because the computer lab glitches kept us from recording her voice on the Voki, we instead created the Voki's voice with text (and the program even adds a Spanish female accent to the audio file.) It became frustrating for me and for Suillyn that the microphones in the lab constantly do not work. We attempted with my laptop and my personal microphone to record and upload her audio recording on the VoiceThread. Please see bottom of this Wiki page: http://pensemosverde.wikispaces.com/SUILLYN

Session 2 proceeded better than expected. I decided to have the students work in pairs on a "Recycling" Poster using Glogster. I forced them to collaborate with their partner: one would set up the Glog and concentrate on writing text, and the other would seek out images on Google images, for example. Because students were working on separate computers alongside one another, the one person received lots of practice uploading and downloading images for use on the glog. Students were positive about the experience and stayed on task. Having them work as pairs also made it easier, as there were less "projects" to get around to, from the instructor's perspective. They were also introduced to the Voicthread program, and I walked around the room with my personal microphone to have them add their opinions (by voice recordings) on the Voicethread. Please see the following link: http://pensemosverde.wikispaces.com/VoiceThread

= Day 10: Friday, July 9, 2010 = Today during Session 1, only one student came, and that was Moises. This was fine, as it gave us a chance to review what he had accomplished during the whole workshop, and reflect on it. I decided to show him VoiceThread, and also use it to record his workshop evaluation.

During Session 2, I had 8 students in attendance, and they completed their final project on Glogster, and were asked to embed them on their personal Wiki page. Please see: [] and []. It was not as grand as I had planned, but with limited time, resources and committment, I believe they accomplished a lot. They spoke about their accomplishment and enjoyment of the workshop, as I recorded them by FlipCam video recorder for purposes of a final oral survey/evaluation.