I’m sure for most of us in the COETAIL programme, finding the right project to work on is not as easy as one might think, especially when you’re working across 8 year levels. There are so many things that we have learned and covered over the past 5 courses that I would love to implement everything into one awesome unit. For me, I have tried to balance what I enjoyed most from the programme with what I believe may become an improved Year 5 unit going forward.
To give you a better picture about myself and my job, I am the Digital & Information Literacy Leader at the Hong Lok Yuen Primary campus of International College Hong Kong. Our school teaches the Primary Years Programme and I am the only person at my school working in this position. We do have a Secondary campus, and the Director of Technology, Ross Parker, works between the 2 schools each week. Here is a promotional video that was created this year to demonstrate the use of ICT @ ICHK…
I work with all year levels at our school, from Nursery to Year 6. Sometimes I’m in the class leading or supporting a session, other times I’m planning with teachers, offering PD or doing administrative work (Parent SignUps, Website Maintenance, Parent and Staff Bulletins, etc.) for the school. To be honest, I feel like I wear many hats in this position and I love that. Although it is my first year in the position, I feel like I have accomplished a lot. But having said that, I know there are miles of road ahead of me to improve not only my own practice, but to the integration of technology throughout the school.
INTRODUCTION TO FINAL PROJECT
I was approached by the Year 5 teachers prior to the Easter holidays about incorporating technology into their upcoming unit:
Image may be NSFW.
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We sat down and discussed their thoughts about the unit, reflected on last years planner and what went well and what didn’t. I reminded them of the SAMR model and how we should strive to reach the redefinition level of technology use in education as defined by Ruben R. Puentedura in Transformation, Technology and Education.
The SAMR model is still relatively new at my school. I have introduced it to staff members through Wednesday collaborative planning meetings, but it hasn’t yet caught on. Maybe that’s due to my presentation of the model, or just the timing of the delivery in a very packed schedule. It is one area that I hope to address again before the end of the year so that we can plans units accordingly for the new school year which is quickly approaching. I want staff to understand it’s importance, so I’m hopeful that this unit will provide them with a platform to implement it into their own teaching and learning moving forward.
For this unit we plan to use the content learned from the Unit of Inquiry to meet the learning outcomes from our Language Scope and Sequence. The summative assessment task will be one and the same.
What do you plan to do and why? How do you think you might get there?
With this final project I aim for the Year 5 students to have an experience where they will learn how to use technology in a much more meaningful way than they are used to. As a summative assessment task, students will research where civilizations have developed in a country, recognising the geographical features that have influenced their development. There will be a group option for research, but students are to independently create, write and record a digital explanation from their research that includes:
- Chosen country
- Identify where major civilizations exist
- Identify the geographical features that are the reasons for development in this area.
- List how this changed over time
How do you plan to implement your COETAIL learning with your students?
Throughout the unit, I will communicate and teach the Y5 students some of the learning that I have done in COETAIL. Since students will be researching about geographical features and their relation to the key concepts of Form, Connection and Change, they will need to locate a variety of resources, both online and off. Collaboration will be key if they are to make progress as a year group. I plan to illustrate that through their new, individual WordPress sites. They will need to be reminded of copyright issues and how to word things in their own way so as to avoid plagiarism. Online safety will also be an issue, especially when signing into any new accounts. Towards the end of the unit we will discuss presentation design and how can we make our work more presentable.
What are you hoping to see in your students learning as you conduct the project?
I hope to see students learn a variety of things during the unit. First and foremost, I want the teach the students things that they haven’t tried before and for them to enjoy using technology to enhance their learning. I want them to see the laptops and iPads merely as tools that enable them to further their learning and their ability to collaborate and present. I think by making the summative task open to choice will make it more personal for the students. By publishing their research and understandings to the web (via their WordPress sites) and beginning to comment on others, I’m hoping that they will enjoy this new process of learning and sharing.
Lots of work ahead…but I’m really looking forward to beginning the journey together.