I NTEGRATING L ATIN A MERICAN S TUDIES AND T ECHNOLOGY THROUGH BLENDED LEARNING Mary Risner University of Florida SITE 2010-San Diego, CA

C ARIBBEAN WORDLE

D ISCOVERING C ARIBBEAN DIVERSITY WORKSHOP USDOE Title VI Professional Development University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies workshop College of Education Graduate Research Project

P ROJECT P ARTNERS University of Florida (CLAS) Florida International University (CLAS) Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) Duval, St. Johns, Clay County Schools

NEED FOR INSTRUCTION Improve student understanding of the world from local and global perspectives. Integrate technology and content standards into the curriculum Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration Improve integration of 21 st century skills in the classroom

R EGIONAL CONTEXT Florida and the Caribbean have strong historical and political ties that continue today. Large Caribbean population in Florida schools

GOALS FOR PARTICIPANTS Gain confidence and skills in the use of technology, Learn to create engaging activities with interactive technology tools, Acquire introductory knowledge of the Caribbean as it relates to Florida and the U.S.

STRATEGIES Reflection of current practices and needs Application of material in Florida context Application of subject and technology standards to international content Application of technology tools using content

T HEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS Authentic learningBlended learningCollaborative learningInterdisciplinary teaming

T HE LITERATURE Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler (2002), professional development has the most impact on student learning when its design is long term, tied to the curriculum of the teachers involved, and collaborative.

T HE LITERATURE The design component of experiential learning for teachers in professional development serves as a model for them to implement in their own classrooms after they have felt how it has enhanced their own personal learning experience (Loucks-Horsley, Love, Stiles, Mundry & Hewson, 2003).

T HE LITERATURE The formation of teams of teachers that gather to create standards based lessons while integrating technology allows for the emergence of professionals with a higher comfort and skill level for the application of new tools and is an example of “a best way” to learn to use technology (MacKenzie, 2001).

P ROJECT QUESTIONS Is blended learning a viable format for k-12 teacher professional development? What is the right “mix” of online and face-to-face time to make the blended format most effective?

D ATA COLLECTION Pre-workshop Technology Use survey Open-ended True/false Anonymous

D ATA COLLECTION Post-workshop Participant Feedback survey Likert scale Anonymous

D ATA COLLECTION Post-workshop Lesson Implementation survey (to do in May) Open-ended questions on lesson use/student reactions to lessons

W ORKSHOP FORMAT Pre- Online Saturday 1 Between Workshop Saturday 2 Post- Online

W ORKSHOP B REAKDOWN 6 hours pre- and post online activities on Blackboard Two 8-hour face-to- face sessions

P RE -W ORKSHOP A CTIVITIES Intro Readings Reflection/posts on standards Reflection/posts on connecting Caribbean “Getting to know you” Forum

B ETWEEN - WORKSHOP A CTIVITIES Experiment with Web 2.0 tools Access to workshop presentations/ resources

P OST - WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES Share lesson plans Peer review and feedback

F ACE - TO -F ACE M ORNINGS Caribbean overview, history, literature, religion (by UF/FIU faculty)

F ACE - TO -F ACE AFTERNOONS Intro to and Work with Wordle, Timelines, Wikis, Etherpad, Google Earth, Voice thread

A BOUT THE PARTICIPANTS Number of Teachers: 23 French: 4 Spanish: 15 Social Studies: 4

P ARTICIPANTS ( CONT.) Middle school: 3 High school: 20 Age Range: (primarily over 40) Years teaching: 1-36 years

P ARTICIPANT TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE Technology experience: Weak- 2 Average- 13 Very Good- 3 Technology currently used: Power point, smartboard, youtube, photoshop, webquests, computer lab.

P ARTICIPATION AND RETENTION F2F participation: 23 Submitted lessons: 15 *Some teachers did not have time to do lessons or did not need the in-service points.*

P ARTICIPATION AND RETENTION Online participation: 18 Forum Interaction Getting to Know You: 17 Standards : 18 Theme/Texts: 18 Lesson Plan ideas: 13 Lesson feedback: 2

P ARTICIPANT REACTIONS TO WORKSHOP All enjoyed faculty lectures with multimedia powerpoint presentations All enjoyed the hands-on technology tied to content All responded agree/strongly on attending future blended style workshops *18 feedback responses

S AMPLE LESSON PLANS Virtual tours with Google Earth Forts in the Caribbean with Timelines/Google Earth/Voice Thread Family trees with concept mapping Comparison of Haitian and U.S. Independence with Timerime.com

L ESSONS LEARNED Need to create sample lesson together on first day Give more time for present ers to speak on content Need more hands-on time for technolog y introducti on Teachers hesitant to give FB to others

P ROJECT QUESTIONS Is blended learning a viable format for k-12 teacher professional development? YES What is the right “mix” of online and face-to-face time? STILL DETERMINING

RESOURCES Workshop materials are under construction at : Resources on Latin America at:

C ONTACT For more information, contact: Mary at