About Me:
I teach middle school students (grades 6-8) in a variety of subjects, including Digital Safety, Citizenship & Literacy, Introduction to Engineering, Multimedia, and Coding. I’ve developed this Google Site to infuse new media text & tools (NMTT) within a mini-unit that I teach on digital footprints to my Digital Safety, Citizenship & Literacy classes.
Standards:
Common Core State Standards:
ISTE:
Purpose:
While I teach and use forms of digital technology in all of my classes, the emphasis through lessons provided on this site is not to simply replace traditional teaching methods with digital technology, but rather offer educators with supplemental activities that will enhance instruction and further student learning. Of note, the design of these lessons has been influenced by new media reading strategies, cognitive load theory, multimedia learning theory and TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge). Lastly, although these lessons are presented in a digital format, they are intended to be instructed and facilitated within a classroom setting.
Design Rationale of Tools Utilized:
Google Sites: I decided to use Google Sites as the platform to display my lessons because of its user-friendly interface, flexibility, seamless integration with Google Apps for Education (GAFE), and organization features. Google Sites is a free, intuitive platform and its simple creation tools aid in designing clutter-free, effective websites. Despite this site not acting as a traditional website, but rather a resource as a collection of lessons, the tool was helpful in delineating each lesson with plenty of interactive features. The ability to embed widgets from the NMTT I used throughout the mini-unit helps students stay focused and limits their need to visit external pages/resources.
EdPuzzle: EdPuzzle is a tool that allows users to take a video from a variety of different platforms — e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc. — and disperse questions throughout for the end-user to answer. I decided to use EdPuzzle as a means to increase student engagement and check for understanding as they are introduced to the topic of digital footprints. Additionally, EdPuzzle allows users to crop videos, helping avoid cognitive overload and creating more succinct and strategic videos.
Padlet: Padlet is a platform that allows users to create digital bulletin boards. For lesson one and three, I chose to use Padlet as a means for students to answer and discuss several questions as they relate to the subject-matter. The questions are posed in columns, making it easy for students to participate in a meaningful, collaborative discussion.
Garageband & Soundcloud: While these two platforms are distinct from one another, I used both to create and share my voicemail recording introduction to the Trillion Dollar Footprint activity. I used Garageband — a music production software — to originally record the voiceover and then Soundcloud — an audio distribution and streaming platform — to publish and embed the clip.
Quicktime & Screencastify (Screencasting): Again, these two platforms are distinct, but I used them both to help enhance the design of my lessons. I decided to use screencasting from an instructional and student creation standpoint. First, I used Quicktime to create my screencast video tutorial on how to add and use the Google Keep Chrome Extension, helping model to students how to use Google Keep to track their findings as they review each TDF candidate’s profile. Next, I decided to task students with creating their own screencast as a means for producing their selection for the host of TDF. By doing such, students have to plan more effectively than simply providing written responses to questions regarding their findings. Instead, they must gather their notes, write and practice a voiceover script, producing a clear and concise video that expresses their ideas.
Google Keep: Google Keep is part of the suite of free apps offered via Google accounts and allows users to take notes with checklists, drawings and images attached. Additionally, the Chrome Extension offers the ability to take notes tied to specific websites. The reason I chose this as the platform for students to track their note taking while studying the TDF candidate profiles is that it is user-friendly and has collaborative features — users can share notes with others. Given that one of the core components of this course is digital literacy, utilizing Google Keep within this mini-unit demonstrates to students its potential usefulness in their core academic courses and personal lives.
Popplet: Popplet is a digital graphic tool that allows users to create and visualize ideas via timelines, graphic organizers, etc. It is a simple tool with basic features; however, my intention to use it for this mini-unit was for it to serve as a collaborative discussion tool. One of the benefits of Popplet is its flexibility in how users can post — users can create a web of ideas, posting additions however they see fit instead of merely in a linear, stream fashion.
Google Slides: While Google Slides is typically used as a slideshow creation tool, I chose to use it for students’ digital vision board activity given its Google Drawing integration and collaborative features. Although I originally planned on having students create their vision boards using Google Drawings, Google Slides made more sense given that students can still use drawing tools and have the opportunity to analyze classmates’ creations without having to visit any external folders or files.
Google Drive: My district has had GAFE integration for the past six years. Not only is Google Drive an incredible organizational tool, but its included creation tools make it extremely useful to educators. My entire mini-lesson is organized in Drive and most of the media used are are shared using its collaborative features.
Choice and Rationale of Activities:
A multitude of design principles informed my decision making when analyzing the activities and tools utilized for this mini-lesson. Upon designing each lesson, I outlined the learning objectives and evaluated the effectiveness of the tools and activities in helping students achieve such. The original mini-unit began with me showing students a dense, fast-paced introduction video on digital footprints; it was difficult to follow and fell short in helping students understand the nature and importance of digital footprints. To reduce cognitive load and check for students’ understanding, I searched for a more succinct video and decided to utilize EdPuzzle to disperse questions throughout. Not only did this slow down the pace of the video, but more importantly, it helped students obtain the necessary prior-knowledge that they’d need to progress through the activities that would follow. This initial activity was also designed to reduce students’ intrinsic load, beginning with a simple task and then moving into more complex activities later in the mini-unit.
Trillion Dollar Footprint (TDF) — one of the major activities in this lesson — was adapted from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that offers a wealth of free educational resources on digital safety and citizenship. Although TDF is a wonderful activity, I observed room for improvement and decided to make a few key changes. First, the original activity begins with written instructions that are meant to be read by the teacher or student. Given its text-heavy instructions and dry introduction, it falls short in exciting and motivating students to get started. Instead, I decided to utilize the modality principle and replaced the written instructions with an audio recording of me pretending to be students’ boss and giving them verbal instructions. The act of playing a recording versus having to read instructions keeps students more engaged and adds a fun, challenging element that didn’t exist prior. The original assessment in TDF was to have students answer several questions in written form based on their findings from the candidate profiles. To increase the complexity of the task and further motivate students, I implemented a screencasting activity which would assess the same key knowledge, however would do so in a more creative manner. The screencasting component requires students to self-explain their thought-process, while providing vivid examples that supported their decision making.
From an emotional design standpoint, the subject-matter — digital footprints — needed to make a personal connection to pique students’ interest and motivation. For this reason, I decided to take this mini-unit one step further by implemented a culminating activity, tasking students with creating a vision board of their desired digital footprint upon graduating from high school. This activity engages students on a deeper level as it individualizes the content and provides them with the opportunity to foster metacognition as it relates to decisions they’ve made and will make in the future to maintain a positive digital footprint.