6+Implementation

__Implementation:__
//6. Describe how using interactive technology will enhance student engagement or an active learning environment//.

There have been several recent articles and research that document the many benefits of creating and using digital video in the classroom with students. More than perhaps any other technology tool, video has the ability to change the teaching and learning process because it allows the content to be created and viewed differently than when projects are created or viewed traditionally. At a time when our district has considered itself to have closed the digital divide, many of the district's "at-risk" and ELL students do not have access to equipment which appeals to multiple intelligences. Students early on have mastered the use of PowerPoint, but students with access at home to video production continue to enrich their learning while others lag behind. Technology applications continue to grow while the technology usage gap continues due to limited access.

Students are able to think creatively and develop innovative video projects that allow them to construct their own knowledge of the material. The traditional student-teacher relationship ship shifts as the student becomes the driving force behind the learning and teaching, while the teacher acts as mentor and facilitator. This level of s tudent engagement typically leads to deeper learning and better retention of the content being studied. In addition, students develop life-long skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making because they are responsible for conducting the appropriate research for their project and managing the multitude of tasks and deadlines associated with bringing a project from start to finish.

F urthermore, students are able to distribute their video creations through new, and increasingly accessible and easy to use, technologies such as videoconferencing and podcasting to communicate their ideas and collaborate with their peers. Since the finished product is authentic and created for a real audience, this leads to improved effort and quality on the part of students as they know others besides their teacher will see their work. Finally, students will learn to become good digital citizens as they practice legal and ethical behavior related to copyright, fair use, and intellectual property and as they learn the concepts and operations of video related technology for their future work lives.

HANDS-ON APPLICATIONS? At the elementary level, students do not often have the opportunity to share their work with outside audiences in the greater community, making authentic-learning situations more of a challenge--that is, demonstration and application of learning is most often geared with teacher as audience...aside from this, at best, students in younger grades. Technology that allows them do publish their work outside the classroom creates a new set of opportunities for connecting these students to their community, nation, and possibly beyond. Fifth grade students in our district all participate in the "American Heroes" program, where, among other learning activities, students research one great historic American hero, author a monologue for that person, then present it to their class. Two students from each building are then selected to present their monologues--in costume with background--at the district level where it is recorded and published. With this technology available at the building level, all students--not just two--could benefit from the additional in-depth analysis needed to effectively prepare such a multi-model presentation. In one sixth grade Writers' Workshop, students created musical bio-poems based on a figure from world history, using Jason Robert Brown's "The Flagmaker, 1776" as a model for content, lyric structure, and musical inspiration. As the situation stands now, pragmatics and the school calendar prevent these students from sharing their work with anybody but each other; video podcasting would allow these works to be seen by the greater community and beyond--much like many students are used to doing independently with sites like YouTube. Such an end creates a more meaningful, authentic learning experience for the students.

Additionally, these tools can be used as learning devices for ends other than communication and application. Multiple learning modalities can be addressed in a constructivist manner with relatively simple applications. One example is a collaborative project between a sixth grade teacher and an art teacher. The art teacher plans to work with the students in learning the artistic elements of photography--such as contrast, framing, and positive/negative space--and how to take photographs that illustrate these concepts. The sixth grade teacher then plans to ask students to use digital cameras to take photographs--artistic ones--that illustrate examples of a millimeter, centimeter, meter, and kilometer. These photographs would then be loaded into digital photo editing software, where the millimeter photograph would be shrunk and duplicated 1000 times and the centimeter 100 times, then to be used as a mosaic border for the meter image. This composite image would then be duplicated 1000 times as a mosaic border for the kilometer image. The artistic product these students would create would provide multiple anchors for helping students learn major components of the metric system, which state assessment results have shown is a major weakness. This technology would allow math and art to blend in addressing a state-assessed indicator that, feasibly, could not be done otherwise.

//ORIGINAL MATERIAL

__Implementation:__ 6. Describe how using interactive technology will enhance student engagement or an active learning environment.

There have been several recent articles and research that documents the many benefits of creating and using digital video in the classroom with students. More than perhaps any other technology tool, video has the ability to change the teaching and learning process because it allows the content to be created and viewed differently.

Students are able to think creatively and develop innovative video projects that allow them to construct their own knowledge of the material. This level of s//// tudent engagement typically leads to deeper learning and better retention of the content being studied. In addition, students develop life-long skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making because they are responsible for conducting the appropriate research for their project and managing the multitude of tasks and deadlines associated with bringing a project from start to finish.

F urthermore, students are able to distribute their video creations through new, and increasingly accessible and easy to use, technologies such as videoconferencing and podcasting to communicate their ideas and collaborate with their peers. This is important because since the// // finished product is authentic and created for a real audience this leads to improved effort and quality on the part of students as they know others besides their teacher will see their work. Finally, students will learn to become good digital citizens as they practice legal and ethical behavior related to copyright, fair use, and intellectual property and as they learn the concepts and operations of video related technology for their future work lives.//