Conclusion
We want to put in your hands great ways to use technology across a curriculum. We have written about how we avoid technology abuse in our classrooms. We offer lessons structured around communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, with higher-level thinking and problem solving connected to the learning outcome for every lesson.
We made it our goal to create a practical, reader-friendly book, blog, Twitter hashtag, and website (http://nowclassrooms.com) for the teacher using technology in the classroom. We created our own personal learning network (PLN) as we collaborated on this book, helping each other keep the focus on teaching and learning first and then matching the right technology to the goals. Visit our blog at http://nowclassrooms.com/blog, where we will provide images of student work and continue to add new project ideas, or join our PLN on Twitter at #NOWClassrooms, where we will also post these. We invite you to take a moment to use the hashtag #NOWClassrooms to post about your experiences implementing lessons from this book in your classroom. We love to see and hear what classrooms around the world are doing!
UNDERSTANDING HASHTAGS
Hashtags can organize groups around topics of interest. They begin with what you may know as a pound sign. For example, our writing team’s hashtag is #NOWClassrooms. We know that the tools and apps will change, so we will provide updates to our readers using our blog and website using the #NOWClassrooms hashtag. If you want to keep up with our research and activities, you should follow the hashtag on Facebook and Twitter.
CONNECT WITH US ON TWITTER
Meg Ormiston:
@megormi
Sheri DeCarlo:
@d60MaerckerTech and
@sdecarlo20
Sonya Raymond:
@sonray10
Grace Kowalski:
@TeamKowalski
Justin Gonzalez:
@Mr_JGonzalez
We don’t know specifically what jobs we are preparing our students for, but we know they need the four Cs we have woven throughout the book. We are excited to see the projects your students create, and your success is our success. Have fun on your journey!
CHAPTER
1
Embracing Creativity
Preparing students for jobs that have not yet been created, let alone thought about, stands as a monstrous task for any educator. ISTE (2016) Standards for Students encourage all learners to be creative communicators, innovative designers, and computational thinkers. Throughout this chapter, these standards guide the lessons to assist students to create and publish projects in a variety of different ways. This involves creating a classroom in which problem solving and critical thinking remain at the forefront. Throughout the book, you will hear us talk about student voice and choice that allows student decision making throughout the creative process.
Lessons in this chapter focus on deepening students’ creativity and innovation skills through a range of tasks—from simply recording their voices to developing skills in multimedia creation, regardless of device. According to Michael Hernandez (2015):
Multimedia stories are fun challenges for your students and empower them to share their ideas and concerns with the wider world. We owe them the opportunity to become multimedia literate and to develop the courage it takes to have an impact on society.
This chapter will provide teachers with tools to give students the power to create their ideas for others to see. We share lessons that combine student interest and creativity that will engage and excite teachers and students alike. The lessons in this chapter cover the tasks of working with digital images, creating video projects, working with audio, and creating meaningful multimedia projects. For information about the tools we mention in these lessons, and for clarity on technology terms you may encounter in this chapter, see the appendix on page 133. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology to download a free reproducible version of this appendix and to access live links to the tools mentioned in this book.
Working With Digital Images
Teachers will have students work individually and in small groups to create projects using digital images to demonstrate what they have learned. Students will then share projects with an authentic audience beyond the walls of the classroom. Working with images is a nonlinguistic representation that often leads to deeper understanding of a topic. So much of the work we do in schools is focused on developing language skills, but it is important that students also learn how to create a message using images. Students will learn that they can use digital images to better understand concepts and ideas and demonstrate what they have learned.
Learning goal:
I can search for digital images, save them, and use the images in a project.
Novice: Searching for Digital Images
This lesson covers searching for digital images, saving them, and using the images in a project. Students will use voice and choice to select the best resource to create a project. The purpose of searching for digital images, saving them, and using the images in a chosen project is to provide students with an authentic opportunity to share their voice through digitally enhanced projects. Students can use these skills in all types of multimedia projects in all content areas. We encourage students to collaborate in groups as they learn a new app, website, or program.
Process: Searching Online for Images
To complete the following six lesson steps, we recommend you use a search engine; our favorite is Google (www.google.com). If you prefer, you can adapt this process for use with a variety of other options including Microsoft Bing (www.bing.com) or Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com). In the tech tips, we have included other student-friendly search engines.
Use a search engine to complete the following six steps for this lesson.
1. Tell students to open the search engine and search for a curriculum-related topic.
2. From the results screen, have them select Images to display only images.
3. Students can narrow the search if needed using more specific terms or filter features, and then they can select an image.
4. Tell students they should not save by right-clicking the image from this screen. This could result in a low-resolution image that may look pixelated or fuzzy when placed in a project.
