Week 6: Digital Media: Making Learning Visible

Skill Training: WeVideo Browser-Based Editing

WeVideo is an easy-to-use video creation tool used by millions of students across grade levels and subjects. Whether students are learning in person at school, from a distance or in a blended setting, WeVideo empowers them to create, collaborate and express themselves with authenticity.

Make videos on any device, including Chromebook, Windows, Mac, and mobile. Edit on the go with mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Cloud-based flexibility means you get unlimited storage for your media and there’s no download or software to install.

WeVideo Online Academy-Tutorials https://www.wevideo.com/academy

Making Learning Visible with Student Video:

Margaret Burns, Weston Middle School arts and technology teacher, demonstrates how videos recorded on smartphones are uploaded for editing into WeVideo.

Student teams can record video using their smartphones, upload the raw files to their Google Drive accounts, and collaboratively edit them into a finished video on their Chromebooks using WeVideo, a browser-based video editor, adding voiceovers and reflections.

Our students live in a world in which communicating with video has become both a basic literacy skill, and a way of sharing what students are doing in school with a wider world.

Within the WeVideo dashboard, the teacher can review the works-in-progress, and make suggestions for further revisions.

The final versions are then uploaded to the assignments folder on Google Classroom.

The 3-minute documentary video is the “5-paragraph essay” of our time.

Example 1: Guide to Making a Video about a Grade 7 robotics project- Margaret Burns, Weston Middle School:

VIDEO 1: SILLY WALKER

Video checklist:

Title your Movie: "Silly Walker" by_________________________________(names)

Challenge: Build a robot that walks without wheels:

Iteration1 Show First design and the problem(s) encountered.

Iteration 2: Show second design and tell the problem(s) encountered. If you did more, go on to

Iteration 3: Our Final Design Our Program Include picture of EV3 program. You might want to have a final video of your robot walking off screen.

VIDEO 2: BATTLE BOT

Video Checklist:

Names:_________________________

Opening :

_____Name: "Battle Bot" ______By: ____________(Your Name)

1. Challenge 1 - Program the Bot to move about the battle ring with a winning strategy.

____ State the above challenge in your video.

_____Show your Program including Ranges: Darks, Lights, Threshold.

_____Explain what the threshold means (The threshold is a reflected light reading by the color sensor, half way between the dark and light readings above which, the bot is triggered to change its behavior.)

_____Show your Bot traversing the ring.

2. Challenge 2 - Build the Weapon

_____State the above challenge.

_____Show the steps in building your weapon.

_____Show "Gear train" moving with generator.

_____Show attaching weapon to bot

_____Show the Program with the weapon code added.

_____Show testing Bot in ring.

3. Challenge 3- Fight!

_____State the above challenge

_____Show actual battle footage

_____Tell about problems you solved and how you solved them

_____Show any modifications to your design

4. Challenge 4 - Reflection on what I Learned

_____ State the above challenge.

_____By working with gears, I learned about MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE. "Gears provide Mechanical Advantage." With gears, you must make a choice: SPEED OR POWER. (You can't have both!)

I chose ____(Speeding Up = Gearing Up. Slowing Down = Gearing Down, but with more power. Use these definitions in your video.)

____What I learned about being a problem-solver.- Probably that it takes many versions of a design to get the best one. This is the "Engineering Model." Also, was gearing the weapon worth it? Maybe - maybe not. (It depends on your design.)

_____What else is worth telling? Was it hard but still fun? (This is up to you.)

PLEASE KEEP THIS VIDEO AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!! EDIT YOUR WORK DOWN SO THAT IT SAYS JUST ENOUGH TO KEEP IT INTERESTING!!!!!!!

Example 2: NuVu Slideshow:

• Portfolio Tab

• Portfolio Storyboard

• Portfolio Checklist

Grades 6 to 8: Digital Tools and Collaboration [DTC]

Digital Tools [6-8.DTC.a]

1. Identify and explain the strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities of a variety of digital tools.

2. Identify the kinds of content associated with different file types and why different file types exist (e.g., formats for word processing, images, music, three-dimensional drawings.).

3. Integrate information from multiple file formats into a single artifact.

4. Individually and collaboratively, use advanced tools to design and create online content (e.g., digital portfolio, multimedia, blog, webpage).

5. Individually and collaboratively, develop and conduct an online survey.

Collaboration and Communication [6-8.DTC.b]

1. Communicate and publish key ideas and details individually or collaboratively in a way that informs, persuades, and/or entertains using a variety of digital tools and media-rich resources.

2. Collaborate synchronously and asynchronously through online digital tools.

3. Demonstrate ability to communicate appropriately through various online tools (e.g., e-mail, social media, texting, blog comments).

Research [6-8.DTC.c]

1. Perform advanced searches to locate information using a variety of digital sources (e.g., Boolean Operators, limiters like reading level, subject, media type).

2. Evaluate quality of digital sources for reliability, including currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose of digital information.

3. Gather, organize, and analyze information from digital sources by quoting, paraphrasing, and/or summarizing.

4. Create an artifact, individually and collaboratively, that answers a research question and communicates results and conclusions.

5. Use digital citation tools to cite sources using a school- or district-adopted format [e.g., Modern Language Association (MLA)], including proper citation for all text and non-text sources (e.g., images, audio, video).

Modeling and Simulation [6-8.CT.e]

1. Create a model of a real-world system and explain why some details, features and behaviors were required in the model and why some could be ignored.

2. Use and modify simulations to analyze and illustrate a concept in depth (e.g., light rays/mechanical waves interaction with materials, genetic variation).

3. Select and use computer simulations, individually and collaboratively, to gather, view, analyze, and report results for content-related problems (e.g., migration, trade, cellular function).

Guiding Principles

The vision of the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Digital Literacy and Computer Science is to engage students in digital literacy and computer science skills and concepts through the integration of practices, while making connections to what they know and the world they live in. The goal of the Guiding Principles is to help educators create relevant, rigorous, and coherent digital literacy and computer science programs that support student engagement, curiosity, computational thinking, and excitement for learning over time.

The following five Guiding Principles are intended to inform the development of programs that effectively engage students in learning the standards. They should guide the development and evaluation of programs in the schools and the broader community. Strong digital literacy and computer science programs effectively support student learning, so students are prepared for a dynamic world.

Learning

Digital literacy and computer science ideas should be explored in ways that stimulate curiosity, create enjoyment, and develop depth of understanding.

Students need to understand digital literacy and computer science concepts and use them effectively. The standards for digital literacy and computer science practice describe ways in which students increasingly engage with the subject matter as they grow in digital literacy and computer science maturity and expertise through the elementary, middle, and high school years.

Students should be actively engaged in designing, creating and inventing, discussing ideas, and applying their skills in interesting, thought-provoking situations. As students develop technology skills, it is important they apply these skills in their classroom, school, and life so that they will understand why these skills are important. For example, a student who needs to gather data in a science experiment and organize and manipulate the data in order to analyze the results will see a reason for learning about the features and function of a data collection tool and database. This is context-sensitive learning in which technology skills instruction is centered on the students’ needs. Student understanding is further developed through ongoing reflection about cognitively demanding and worthwhile tasks.

Tasks should be designed to challenge students in multiple ways. Activities should build upon curiosity and prior knowledge and enable students to solve progressively deeper, broader, and more sophisticated problems. Digital literacy and computer science tasks reflecting sound and significant concepts should generate active classroom talk, promote the development of conjectures, and lead to an understanding of the necessity for digital literacy and computer science reasoning.

Teaching

An effective program is based on a carefully designed set of content standards that are clear and specific, focused, and articulated over time as a coherent sequence.

The sequence of topics and performances should be based on what is known about how students’ knowledge, skill, and understanding develop over time. What and how students are taught should reflect not only the topics, but also the key ideas that determine how knowledge is organized and generated. Students should be asked to apply their learning and to show their thinking and understanding.

Creating and problem solving are the hallmark of computational thinking and an effective program. Skills in computational thinking require practice with a variety of problems, as well as a firm grasp of devices, tools, services, and techniques, and their underlying principles. Armed with this deeper knowledge, the student can then use digital literacy and computer science skills in a flexible way to create new products, attack various problems, and devise different ways of solving any particular problem. Problem solving calls for reflective thinking, persistence, learning from the ideas of others, and going back over one's own work with a critical eye. Students should be able to communicate their ideas and work collaboratively. They should analyze situations and justify their solutions.

As digital tools, computing devices, and services become an integral part of the learning environment, and as students gain the knowledge and skills to use, modify and create with them appropriately, new opportunities for learning open up. Dynamic geometric applets, for example, can help students visualize and understand complex mathematics concepts. Simulation software enables students to investigate models of real-world problems, such as climate change and population growth.

Success in creating and solving problems helps to create an abiding interest. Students learn to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.For a program to be effective, it must also be taught by knowledgeable teachers.

Literacy Across the Content Areas

An effective digital literacy and computer science program builds upon and develops students’ literacy skills and knowledge.

Reading, writing, and communication skills are necessary elements of learning and engaging in digital literacy and computer science, as well as in other content areas. Supporting the development of students’ literacy skills will allow them to deepen their understanding of digital literacy and computer science concepts and help them to determine the meanings of symbols, key terms and phrases, as well as develop reasoning skills that apply across the disciplines. In reading, teachers should consistently support students’ ability to gain and deepen understanding of concepts from written material by helping them acquire comprehension skills and strategies, as well as specialized vocabulary and symbols. Digital literacy and computer science classrooms should make use of a variety of text materials and formats, including textbooks, notebook/journals, contextual problems, -Internet, and data presented in a variety of media.

In communicating, teachers should consistently support students’ ability to reason and achieve deeper understanding of concepts, and to express their understanding in a focused, precise, and convincing manner.

In collaborating, teachers should facilitate opportunities for digital literacy and computer science discourse using precise language to convey ideas, communicate solutions, and support arguments.

Assessment

Assessment of student learning in digital literacy and computer science should take many forms to inform instruction and learning.

Assessment reflects classroom expectations and shows outcomes of student learning based on established knowledge and performance goals. The learning standards in this Framework are a key resource for setting such knowledge and performance objectives. Assessment assists teachers in improving classroom practice, planning curricula, developing self-directed learners, reporting student progress, and evaluating programs. It provides students with feedback about how their knowledge and skills are developing and what can be done to improve them. It lets parents know how well their children are doing and what needs to be done to help them do better.

Diagnostic information gained from different types of assessment enables teachers to adjust their day-to-day and week-to-week practices to foster greater student achievement. There are many types of assessment, such as paper-and-pencil testing, performance assessments, interviews, and portfolios, as well as less formal inventories, such as regular observation of student responses to instruction.

Given the emphasis on practices in the standards, performance-based assessments should be developed that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned in the context of real-world problems and applications.

Examples of Student Work:

• ​ Tur6o6ix Blog: https://tur6o6ix.home.blog/

• The Auspicious Black Bears' Blog: https://theauspiciousblackbears.blogspot.com/

• BurtsBots https://burtsbotsedw.blogspot.com

• NuVu 2014: https://vimeo.com/112508556