Assignment Task 3: Teacher Resource Living & Learning with Technology EDN

English & Technology in Action! Evan Jones Lily Salem Megan Salmon Trish Anderson

Our authentic learning task is based on English and technology and has been designed for students in Year 6. Our task involves groups of students creating a short story, then rewriting it as a script, followed by the creation of storyboard designs and finally adapting it to a short film. This presentation will discuss how we created our authentic learning task as a group, what challenges we faced and how we worked together as a team to overcome these challenges.

English & Technology English is an essential skill required by students in order for them to be fully functioning members of society. Students must be equipped with the necessary skills in order to communicate ideas and opinions effectively through both oral and written communication. Technology is a valuable commodity in today’s modern society. Technology changes at such a rapid pace that it is vital that we equip our students with the necessary knowledge in order for them to effectively use these new technologies in a meaningful way.

English & Technology Combining both English and technology together is an excellent example of an authentic learning task. Our students will have the opportunity to use their English skills to complete a number of writing tasks. Once this is complete our students will then get to apply their writing and adapt it to new forms of technology. This gives our students the opportunity to identify why English is so important in their lives and how it can relate to a modern technological landscape.

The Tasks Our lesson plan incorporates a number of tasks that are required by our student’s to complete. Each task links to the next forming a hypothetical bridge that allows our students to see the meaning behind the previous task in proceeding forward: The tasks consist of: 1.Blogging - throughout our seven week project the students are required to blog about their experiences. 2.Creating a short narrative. 3.Transferring their narrative into a script format. 4.Transferring their script into storyboards. 5.Creating a short film from their storyboards.

Our Wiki Page English & Technology in the Classroom Our wikispaces page can be found by clicking the link above. Our page features an easy to navigate layout and features links to: the home page, lesson plans, teacher resources, student resources and our references.

Our Wiki Page The home page features an introduction to our topic. It discusses authentic tasks and also contains relevant associations to the curriculum. The lesson plan page contains our entire 7 week lesson plan as well as all relevant links to the curriculum. You can also download a fully editable copy of our lesson outline which can be modified to suit your classes needs. The teacher resource page contains heaps of useful links to assist teachers in implementing our lesson plan in their classroom. The student resource page contains heaps of useful links to assist students in comprehending and completing the tasks. The references page contains all of the references we used in completing this wikispace

How Did We Accomplish Our Task? To complete this task we had to work in groups. We began by discussing the topic face to face and agreeing on a lesson idea. Then we set up a Facebook group in order for us to communicate with the ability to transcend time and space. This enabled us to discuss the topic further without having to meet up in person. We discussed the curriculum scope and sequence and locked in the relevant strands and sub-strands of the curriculum we wanted to tackle all via Facebook. We then created our Wikispaces page. This allowed us to work on the assignment whenever we desired. This also enabled us to work on the assignment simultaneously.

How Did We Accomplish Our Task? We decided to split the task up between the four of us as follows: Home Page – Trish Anderson Lesson Plan Page – Evan Jones Detailed Lesson Plan – Evan Jones, Lily Salem, Megan Salmon Teacher Resources – Lily Salem Student Resource – Megan Salmon References – Everyone PowerPoint – Evan Jones This enabled us to utilise each others strengths in particular areas. We also decided that if anyone finished their section early that they would chip in a little extra to help on other areas of the wiki.

Difficulties & Over Coming Our Problems As we progressed through the task we encountered a number of difficulties which through good research and effective communication we were able to rise above the challenges faced to us. At the very beginning of the assignment we were all very confused as to what had to be accomplished. By attending the lectures, our workshops and communicating with other students in our class we were soon up to speed with what was required of us. As none of us had used Wikispaces before that proved to be a major challenge but through researching via Google and the Wikispaces help function we managed to overcome this problem and the solution was communicated to the rest of the team.

What Did We Learn? In completion of this task it is important that we reflect on all the things we have accomplished and ask ourselves: What have we learned? Firstly we have expanded our knowledge of working in a group environment and coming to a collaborative agreement on how to approach our task. Secondly we have learned how to utilise social media technology to assist in the group collaborative process. Thirdly we have discovered the power of a wiki. None of us had previously used a wiki before and this task gave us first hand knowledge in how to harness this form of new media in the classroom.

fin.