Sorting and Judging Information

Sorting and Judging Information

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When designing for information using, I learned that we have to consider the following question:  How can we take information and use it for SSCCS (search, sort, create, communicate, synthesis)?  We have to teach students how to be good users of information, how to be good commenters, and how to take information and turn it into knowledge.  It's important to consider where the information came from and what it's doing to us.  As educators, we want to communicate a strong message to our students, and we must not get sucked into information overload.  It may get to the point (if it hasn't already), where it dominates our lives and it puts us in a bubble where the only information we consume is information that affirms what we already know.  I learned that we need to grab our information from as close to the source as possible and not always consume what "tastes the best".  


In class, we were asked to create a wearable technology that shares what kids need to know to be good users of information.  I now know from reading the book, The Information Diet, and listening to other groups' presentations, what these skills should look like in the real world.  Since there's so much information out there, it's important to be able to understand the benefit of narrowing down your searches or filtering through the fake stuff.  Students also need to understand how to synthesize and create/communicate their own perspective while also remaining active, managing their time/friendships, or eliminating unnecessary sources of information.  We can always improve upon our information using, and, since the internet/social media is not going away any time soon, we must learn to adjust the way we take in information so it does not control our lives.  


Moving forward, I want to teach my students how to manage their time on the computer/internet so they can complete assignments or projects without feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of sources of information out there.  I want to teach them how to search, sort, create, communicate, and synthesize while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  Our county does a good job of narrowing down some of these resources into the LCPS Go app, but even then it can be overwhelming to students.  I want to teach students how and when to use this information for their own thinking.  Students can then use the tools to create their own source of content and it will be more meaningful to them than staring aimlessly at info that won't stimulate any cognitive growth or improvement.   

Students As Designers Principle

Students As Designers Principle

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The students as designers principle is significant because it gives students the chance to develop their own creative spirit of design.  As the teacher, it's important to help students understand the thinking/design process and to be able to take a content and express it in a specific format.  As the article ("The Creative Spirit of Design") mentioned, "Everything depends on the situation, and the skills available." Based on what we had learned so far in class, and Dr. Norton's end goal in the lesson design, it was best for her to put us in a situation where we had to design a video to share out and advertise the DOODLES program.  Not only was it an authentic activity, but it gave us a chance to build upon our background knowledge, it allowed us to construct our own, specific plan together, and then share it out with the public.  I learned that for this to take place, the teacher has to scaffold students' ability to design.  The tools presented to us, along with the modeling of the thinking skills, were necessary elements of the scaffolding process because we had to be given the opportunity to work collaboratively outside of class. The discussion board fit the goal of getting us to brainstorm our own, meaningful creation.


Prior to starting the activity, Dr. Norton played a video which taught the basics of the video creation process and the video techniques that we needed to consider.  If you're creating a lesson design, you have to evaluate the specific positive and negative affordances, and, for this specific activity, it was best to use the video (vs. a lecture) to get these points across.  Another part of the article that got my attention is that the creative spirit of design is supposed to highlight three characteristics---imagination, creation-oriented, and inter-disciplinary action.  I can now relate these characteristics to the students as designers principle because we experienced all 3 of these as we went through the design process of creating our own video.  We collaborated together to creatively use our own imaginations to design something meaningful, but that we hadn't experienced in class before.  This forced us to be innovative. 


I will continue to put students in positions to be designers so that they can develop their own creative spirit of design.  Whether they're designing their own blog, video, or solution to a STEM activity, I want students to build upon the elements of the PICKLE.  I also want them to "meaningfully shape their understanding of problems and opportunities", as Jason McDonald stated.  Lately, I have been meeting with groups of students (gr. 3-5) and I have been providing specific ed. tech tools that will give them the opportunity to design their own video as well.  Of course, I teach them the basic software skills, but then I ask that they use their background knowledge to create and share their own video that teaches and solves a real-world problem.  Their video is supposed to incorporate specific skills they're learning in class but they're not restricted to any one skill.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

Technology: Part 2 - Topic 5

Technology: Part 2 - Topic 5

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This week, I learned that it's very important to utilize affordance analysis as an educator, especially during the early stages of your lesson design process.  I learned that you have to consider the features of the tool(s) you're using, along with your ultimate goal(s).  Ultimately, if there's a fit between the features of the tool(s) that you're thinking about using and your end goal(s), that's a good thing!  A positive affordance means that the features support and fit your goal(s), whereas a negative affordance means that the features aren't consistent with your goal(s).  Therefore, it's not a good fit.  I also learned that you have to ask yourself a couple important questions as you analyze the affordances:  First, how might that tool lead to you reaching your design goal(s)?  Second, how can I use these tools to fit my goal(s)?  I thought Dr. Norton's example involving the chair really helped me understand this notion.  Basically, certain chairs have certain features that fit better with certain goals.  One type of chair may be more effective for one person than it would be for another, especially if that person has a bad hip.  

Knowing this, I now know how this relates to technology because Google docs is great for some things but not so great for others.  If your goal was to teach students how to use publication tools for collaborative purposes, then this would be a positive affordance because the features of Google docs support and fit this end goal.  As a teacher, I have to carefully consider the benefits and weaknesses of a given tool so that I can choose the best tool for my lesson design goal.  In class, we completed an affordance analysis organizer for two different types of technology-based tools and I know that, in the end, one was far better than the other in terms of the pros outweighing the cons.  If your goal was to teach students to creatively use technology in a flexible fashion (especially for coding), the Ozbots would be far more effective than the Osmos.  Also, when matching the learning goals and tools on the chart activity, I found that although multiple tools may seem to fit a given goal, there's usually going to be one that stands out.  If you consider the affordances carefully, and you weigh the pros and cons, there will typically be one type of tool that will best allow your students to get the most out of the lesson design activity. 

This applies to me because I facilitate the use of technology throughout my school building.  It's important that I understand the tools that I'm dealing with because I want to be able to suggest options that will fit the goals of all the teachers in my building.  I also want to do this as I am designing projects for the enrichment groups that I meet with each week because certain lesson designs will require certain tools.  Looking at the big picture, I want students to experience a variety of technology tools, but I want them to experience the tools in the right situations so they get the most out of the lessons.  There's no sense in having students use technology if it's not going to be meaningful for them.