Though I spent all of Friday
thinking it must be Saturday as I clearly was not in a high school, our daytrip
to Grand Rapids for the 2014 MACUL Conference was a pleasant way to spend some
time. I made it to two sessions on Friday morning. The first was an energetic
rundown of all the infographic creation tools you could ever want while the
second gave us a look at the idea of giving your students an authentic audience
for whom to perform.
I have been developing this problem
(compulsion? ailment? talent?) whereby I walk away from everything thinking
about how I can use everything I do and see in my classroom (or in an RWT) and
MACUL was of course no exception.
 | ||
| Created on Easel.ly I think students could do better. |
As Dr. Julia VanderMolen ran
through her list
of inforgraphic websites, I was thinking about where I could incorporate them
into my lessons. With infographics, you have the ability to present statistics,
data, and information visually for those learners who might otherwise be trying
to recall information by picturing what the slide looked like or where a fact
was on the page. While this could be a wonderful way for teachers to present
some information, websites like easel.ly could be simple enough to use that the
students themselves could be the creators, something Dr. VanderMolen points out
can help your class span Bloom’s taxonomy.
Later I was stuck thinking through
how I can add a level of authenticity to my assessments thanks to the very warm
David Theune.
The authentic audience motivates students to do more than just earn the grade.
They are given the chance to perform for others—their peers, their community,
their families, maybe even the world. David has used an authentic audience to
make learning more meaningful. He tells of one project where he convinced a
community organization to donate money to his class, not for the students, but
for them to give to the nonprofit organizations about which they wrote.
So I walk away from MACUL thinking
about how I can put these elements into my classroom. I wonder if I might have
the students create infographics to show their classmates how economic
indicators are used to measure the economies of various countries. I need to
lesson plan…
I feel you, Captain. I feel you. I get so excited and then reality sets in and I think, are there enough hours in the year to try it all?!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I see an opportunity for you to combine what both presenters covered and have students develop info-graphics for an authentic audience. Perhaps there could be a classroom wiki or blog page where students could post these and you could invite other classes, teachers, parents, etc. to view them. In fact, if you have your students make them, will you share with me? I'm really curious to see how they can fit into the high school classroom and what the final product might look like.
p.s. I love your fancy dance moves info-graphic.
"Ignore Haters"
Thanks Ms. B! I worked hard on it.
DeleteI think they could be combined too. I think I could work it to be an authentic audience even within our own classroom if the assignment was more than just making the infographic, but also using it to teach your classmates about the economy you researched.
If I come up with a strong way to work this in, I would happily share the final product with you! I too am curious to see what comes out of it.
I have been trying to be more precise about what technology accomplishes, that non-technology can't. What if students drew the info-graphics and presented them just to each other, or technology was just used to post pictures of the info-graphics online?
ReplyDeleteThis would cut down on the time you'd need to teach them how to create the info-graphics, and you wouldn't have to worry about students who don't have access to technology. Of course, the computer-created graphics look sleeker, can maybe inspire more creativity, and cuts down on paper use.
Do you think it would be useful if presenters at the conference all included in their presentations reasons why using the tech tools was better than any alternatives? Do you think there was a level of bias in the presentations?
Thanks for your thoughts and good luck with lesson planning!
This was definitely something I was thinking about during the presentations. As helpful as all the information about websites to create infographics was, I was left wondering about the added benefit of the technology. I think there is definitely something to say for the feeling of having a professional-looking product to present to others. Still, I would have liked to hear more about how the technology itself helps with learning.
DeleteI think something I have forgotten with all this technology talk is that it can be used for students to express themselves in something other than words. Like the infographics (YOURS IS AWESOME)- my students could read an article or a cultural piece and make one to express their thoughts. Typically the only way I can do this in my class so far is by having students draw a picture or something creative in that sense. When I tell them they're going to draw- oh the moans and grumbling I get! Using ideas like this is a way for non-artistic students to collage or be artistic in a technological way.
ReplyDeleteOne of the ways that technology makes things better is that it makes it easier to create drawings. While some people will always have an aesthetic advantage, technology can help to level the playing field. As someone who has terrible penmanship and is generally a lousy writing, being able to type things on the computer helps immensely. Not only is what I write more legible, but it is also easier to edit. So, in a similar way, making infographics "with technology" helps students create more presentable material. Students can quickly make sometime that is pretty enough that they feel confident in sharing it. Small changes are easier to make without having to start over again. I think that is one of the benefits among digital media. It is not that it is better, but that it is an easy path to make 'good' work.
ReplyDeleteI agree that infographics are beautiful and can definitely level the artistic playing field. I also agree with Miss Dinh in that there will be a learning curve. I always think that technology instructions in class will go fast, but there's always a learning curve. There are those kids who are really comfortable on technology and others who just haven't had that exposure and practice.
ReplyDeleteThe benefits of motivation as well as gaining pride in work that they will present can be a really great advantage to using this tool. If it's something you might want to use a couple of times, putting in that extra effort to make it smooth in the beginning might very well pay off!
As a visual learner, infographics sounds like a great idea to me. I always benefit if I can see something represented visually as well as hear it spoken about, and I have several students in my class who are similar in that sense. I try to create visually appealing models and scaffolding activities to accompany written and/or verbal explanations of things I want students to be able to do. It would be interesting to hear more about what she had to say.
ReplyDeleteThinking about Catherine’s comments, I don’t know if I would necessarily say there was bias in the presentations, but being a technology conference, more of an assumption that everyone in the audience intended to use technology in some way in their classroom, or at least learn how to do so. I don’t know if there was an overall assumption that all attending participants worked in schools that had full access to technology, I’m assuming they are aware of the equity issues that many of us face, but perhaps this wasn’t the particular time to address that… Some of the presentations on the other hand, such as David Theune’s look at the power of having an authentic audience, could be adapted to any classroom. We don’t necessarily need technology to broaden students’ audience choices; parents can be invited into any classroom, and simple letters could be written to gain financial support for a local nonprofit.
So, this is my second attempt to post a comment here. Sorry if the other one actually came through and I'm being redundant, but here goes anyways!
ReplyDeleteI think you're onto something when you talk about presenting to the greater community. I particularly like Theune's thoughts of having students raise funds for a community project. With all of the temptations of posting things online and organizing everything to the wider audience that is internet, it's valuable to reflect on students' own community around them.
This also gets back to a theme I've seen in several of the comments to this post...what about equity. If we're expecting students to present their content online, it assumes either that 1) we have internet as a classroom or 2) that students have access at home. You make a good point about the conference not really addressing this issue, thought I agree with Jeanine's comments on assuming that the presenters are aware. The cynic in me wants to believe that these for-profit companies are simply out to make money, rather than to actually help in the classroom. Properly vetting the organization and it's actual interests should come first. Perhaps addressing the local community would be a way to teach a civics lesson and skirt this issue.