Food for thought...

An interesting news article that pertains to what we're doing: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/touch/story.html?id=9628826

Two steps forward...

We were reminded why we chose to do our project when we found some questionable photos on a student's phone before March break. It's disappointing and frustrating when we've been spending this time on the topic and yet students still don't quite get the message about how some of these things are not only morally questionable but borderline illegal. Hopefully in completing the project some long lasting lessons will be learned.

Artifacts and web restrictions

We're finding it very difficult to have the kids find and upload artifacts when there are restrictions on YouTube and other media sharing sites. The students have great ideas but can't always access the media to support it. As much as I'd like to say that they are following up at home and posting things from their home internet where they don't have filters, they really don't, which I'm sure is surprising to no one.

Intermediates and iPads

We've been finding it difficult to keep the intermediates on task and using their time and tech effectively. We will definitely try the contract/code of conduct idea posted by Carolyn L.  We've started tracking their work by breaking the task of creating a presentation in D2L down into small chunks. This has been much more effective as it provides manageable pieces and a visual checklist and it's helping the students by making the task seem less daunting. Students seem to be finding D2L hard to work with so we're hoping that by breaking the task down they'll feel more successful.

Getting started

Since October we've been having regular lessons in the library about being a good online citizen. This has formed the basis of our IIT project.
Tina Franzen came in before Christmas and gave the teachers who are involved in the project some training on D2L e-Portfolios. We were then able to co-plan a model presentation in D2L,  create some success criteria and insert some artifacts.  With our goal being increased digital citizenship, we created a presentation with sidebar topics (tabs) that included Digital Footprint, Safe Online Messaging, Cyber Bullying, Media Collection, and Hot Topics.  These tabs will act as an outline for students to gather their own artifacts so that they can create and share a presentation with others in our school.
We have run into some hiccups with the D2L e-Portfolio in that it's not as accessible and as functional as we would like. Having You-Tube blocked for students is also inconvenient when we're asking them to search out their own artifacts, but at least they can watch the video we've embedded.
Our next step was to show the students the model presentation and walk them through how to create their own.  We provided them with step by step instructions and a rubric with success criteria for them to follow as they create their portfolios.

Managing apps and Acceptable Use Guidelines

I have spent a lot of time on set-up. As mentioned in an earlier post I found an awesome website offering suggestions about how to manage iPads in an intermediate classroom. Using this resource and a couple of others along with some collaboaration with the students I generated an Acceptable Use Policy - Rules and Guidlines. With it, I feel good about the students accessing the technology...even without protective covers!

I abbreviated the policy and made it the image for my lock screen.









 

I also grouped a lot of the apps into different folders including the ones I don't want students accessing for any reason and those that students should be asking for permission before using.

(I labelled the picture using Ink Flow)

To group apps into a folder press and hold the app icon until it starts to wiggle, drag one on top of another you want grouped with it...voila!  To add or remove icons from the quick access bar at the bottom make the app icon wiggle and move to the bar or away from the bar.

 

 

Rules for iPad Use in an Intermediate Classroom

Found this awesome website that identifies, from experience, some essential rules for effectively using iPads in middle school classrooms.

http://isource.com/2013/03/12/essential-rules-for-effectively-using-ipads-in-middle-school-classrooms/

I particularly like the suggestion to group apps like settings, messaging, FaceTime and game centre into a folder labelled not for use.