May/June

My visits to Peninsula continue to be frequent. We are now assembling i-Movies of the students' reports. I have given another tutorial using the computer and projector in a whole group setting to explain how to access images and sound files and drop them into an i-Movie file. Linda has asked students to use three transitions as well as beginning and ending captions, and at least ten images to accompany their narration.

We have set up a computer station in the back of the classroom where I meet with two students at a time. One student is working on his/her report, while the other is observing the process. Once students demonstrate competence with the software program, they will be available as "experts" to teach others. This system is working nicely and one-by-one, i-Movies are being completed. The students handle the mouse and do the work on the computer; I am just there to trouble-shoot and answer questions as they come up. I like the idea of working with buddies. Two heads are much quicker to solve problems, like how to extend the time of an image so that it corresponds to a particular sound track, or how to edit the sound track, or how to add a particular transition, or caption. Overall, the students are learning the software quickly and seem to be enjoying the work. Linda is happy with the final products.

The last day of school, Linda and I met so that she could set up a blog to post the i-Movies over the summer. We used the Blogger platform. She found a template to start with, named her blog and downloaded one i-Movie report. The report that she posted was that of a student named Angel. Angel is a special education student who has struggled in Language Arts her entire student career. She is reluctant to complete assignments, yet she was highly motivated to complete this assignment. Angel's first draft of the writing assignment had to be completely rewritten because she had directly copied and pasted information downloaded from the web. Once her written work was accepted by her teacher, she had to practice reading her report over and over in order to pronounce words correctly. She worked hard to find images that represented the concepts she explained in her report. She was very proud of her final product and produced more than she would have had this been a paper/pencil report. In her case, the use of technology motivated her to do more.

Linda's goal is to continue downloading the i-Movies over the summer and then link the blog to Friends of the Dunes as an example of their work with students. Though not there at this time, it should appear by the beginning of the next school year. The blog, Peninsula Restoration, can be viewed now, in its very early stages. We will have to wait to see what kinds of comments, if any, the blog elicits once more posts have been made.

Working as an inservice provider/coach made this project different for me than last year's project, where I helped my own students create an i-Movie. I needed to adjust to the context of another teacher's classroom. I had the luxury of working with two students at a time without needing to juggle other demands of classroom management. This made the "teaching technology" aspect of the project much easier than it would have been otherwise. Linda was very happy with the outcome and feels confident she could work on her own now after having collaborated closely with me this year. I imagine she will be in a position to help other teachers at the school who express interest in implementing an i-Movie project or in creating a blog. It will take time to know how this plays out in the future at Peninsula School.

April

I am making very regular visits to Peninsula School now. I carry my camera to take photos of student drawings, and my flash mic to record student voices. The students all have completed a draft of a report of information about a plant. We sit down together, student and I, and I listen to the student read his/her report. I'm helping Linda, their teacher, respond to the writing. This has been an interesting experience for me because she used a structured format that included an "introduction" and a "conclusion" for each report. This structure has created a cookie-cutter feel to the writing. I had to giggle to myself (or sigh in frustration and exasperation) after the third, "In conclusion, _____________ is a very interesting plant." This problem required diplomacy on my part in dealing with both students and their teacher. I'm not sure how successful I was in trying to improve the conclusions, as some student grew weary of revisions. I also had the usual opportunity to talk about paraphrasing and the dangers of plagiarism.

I was surprised how much difficulty some students had in reading their reports aloud, and I realized I needed to spend time with them practicing if we were going to get a good recording. Students had different responses to the recording process. Some were highly motivated by the mic and by the prospect of hearing their voice. Others had the exact opposite response. One girl in particular couldn't "stand" the sound of her voice and wanted to be sure her project wouldn't be downloaded to the web.

At this stage, we are assembling the components--sound and images, and organizing files, clearly labeled, on one computer so that students may access them when the time comes to make an i-Movie.

February

I had the very unexpected opportunity to take a trip to Hawaii for a week with my two cousins. I brought along my digital camera and took over 300 shots. This gave me practice using Aperture, the program I bought to organize and edit images. I am still learning how to use my digital camera--refining my skill, reading and re-reading the manual and practicing new settings. I'm also now learning how to adjust levels, contrast, crop, and use layers in Photoshop. Photoshop is a limitless world that goes on forever. I feel like the more I know, the more I don't know, despite all the practice. I've downloaded some of my favorite Hawaii photos on Facebook so I can share them with friends and family. I'm struggling to get caught up on the sessions I missed at C.R. while away. My MTP is on hold until next month, but I am finding plenty of time to learn and practice technology.

January

I've met with Linda and her students to talk about generating ideas for a report of information and to describe the process we will use to publish student work. Linda has a projector linked to her computer which allows us to demonstrate the process of searching for, downloading, and saving images from the internet in a whole-group setting. In addition, we can demonstrate the features of i-Movie using this format. We watched student i-Movie projects completed last year by younger children at the school (my previous MTP), to provide an understanding of the capabilities of the software program we'd be using. The students are also working with a consultant from Friends of the Dunes, who comes each Friday and takes them into the field, where they learn about the plants found in the dune environment around the school.

I have begun my own course of study at College of the Redwoods to advance my tech knowledge. I'm taking a digital imaging class, as well as a digital art class. The first course makes use of Photoshop, and the second relies primarily on Illlustrator, but will include Photoshop and In-Design. I have some experience with Adobe CS3 from a five-session Extended Ed course at HSU, but these courses will last an entire semester and will be far more comprehensive. Not only will I be learning about digital art and imaging, I'll be learning how to teach technology from two teachers who have very different styles and approaches. Each course lasts three hours and is held in a Mac Computer Lab. I have assignments and due dates!

December

Peninsula School has contracted with RWP to provide inservice for the year. I am serving as the "coordinator" of the series. Linda Stewart, the 5th-8th grade teacher, is interested in helping her students create digital reports of information related to an exploration of plants in the dune environment. This study is being done in conjunction with Friends of the Dunes, a conservation/education nonprofit organization devoted to preserving dune habitat. Linda would like to post these digital reports on a blog that would be featured on the Friends of the Dunes website.

I will help Linda and her students accomplish this goal for my 2008-09 Modest Tech Project. This course alters from my original MTP plan which was to use Google Apps for Educators to help students set up e-mail accounts and Google Docs accounts to encourage digital exchange and response to writing. Linda was concerned about internet security and safety issues using this platform, and felt she was accomplishing the goal of sharing student writing by using a Shared Network folder on each of her classroom's computers.

Linda envisions each student writing a report of information about a native plant. Students will illustrate their reports with images from the web, scientific drawings, and photographs taken on site. Then, each student will record his/her report using a digital mic and assemble the narration and images in i-Movie. Finally, the individual i-Movies will be published on a blog and linked to the Friends of the Dunes web site. In addition, Stewart would like to create a podcast of the reports that could be used as an educational tool on a nature walk that features the plants on a trail at the school.